Side Note:
In truth and fact, it should be the commemoration of the attempted Armenian genocide as there has never been a successful genocide that we know of with certainty.
END SIDE NOTE
On April 24, 1915, the Turkish government rounded up the first group of Armenian intellectual and religious leaders. This date however is not when it began, it is only the date chosen to be the commemorative moment marking the genocide.
In 1895, the Turks began the process that would later expand in to full genocidal actions. Between 80,000 and 300,000 Armenians were killed in the Hamidian massacre.
1895 marked the beginning, with several other attempts in the intervening years (including 1909) and by 1915, the process was much more refined and defined - to be rid of the Armenians and their claim to land. With Russia about to join the war effort, the Turks saw their only chance to forestall Russian advances (Russia had acquired land the Ottoman had claimed in a previous conflict 1877-78), as requiring them to side with Germany and Austria-Hungary against Russia.
Armenians sat in the middle and became the scapegoats.
Between 1 million and 1.5 million people were dead by the end of the genocidal efforts on the part of the Turks. Only war stopped the attempted genocide.
The million plus human beings killed included a large number of Assyrian and Greeks, in addition to the Armenians.
Never again is a tired refrain, but it is necessary to remember this event. In Turkey, it is illegal to discuss the genocide. It is illegal to teach that the Turks committed genocide. Turkey refuses to acknowledge its role in the attempted genocide. THAT is the ONGOING crime. The original act - attempted genocide, was stopped by the allies. The ONGOING crime is denial.
Until we acknowledge, we will repeat, until we say the words NEVER AGAIN and mean it without claiming personal victimhood, until we can say NEVER AGAIN ANYWHERE - Not in Rwanda, Congo, Uganda, Sudan ... the words ring hollow and the deniers escape justice. The innocent will die. And we will never be at peace.
Until we say those words with conviction - the dead will never let us sleep. We will always see the eyes of the millions of men , women and children who have been the victim of genocide in the 20th century. It is greater than any one person or any one genocide. It is about humanity.
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