The Record (Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario)
April 15, 2005 Friday Final Edition
Area’s Armenians set to mark dark date in ancestors’ history
by: LIZ MONTEIRO
WATERLOO REGION
It was a dark page in the history of Armenians, and one they can
never forget.
On Sunday, members of the Waterloo Region’s Armenian community will
be commemorating the 90th anniversary of mass killings of 1.5 million
Armenians living in Turkey.
“It’s impossible to forget,” said 68-year-old Ara Baliozian, who
wrote a book about the Armenian genocide 20 years ago. “It’s part of
our collective memories and our identities. It is one of the most
important events in our lives.”
Baliozian’s 91-year-old mother was two years old when the massacre of
the Armenians began in 1915. The murder of innocent people by the
Turkish government continued until 1923.
Baliozian’s mother survived but most of her family didn’t. Today, she
lives with Baliozian in his Kitchener home.
She was left an orphan and raised by French nuns in Lebanon.
The massacre of the Armenians was the first genocide of the 20th
century. Armenia, a former Soviet republic, became independent in
1990.
On April 24, 1915, Ottoman Turkish authorities arrested 300 prominent
leaders of the Armenian community living in Istanbul and
systematically slaughtered them.
These were the intellectual leaders of the Armenian community and
included judges, scientists and educators, said Eric Chilingarian, a
member of the southwestern Ontario chapter of the Armenian National
Committee.
The Armenians were told they were being relocated but instead were
marched into deserts and starved and tortured. Women and young girls
were raped, Chilingarian said.
The Ottoman Empire justified the slaughter by saying Armenians had:
* taken up arms against it by joining Russia when the latter crossed
the empire’s border;
* Armenian revolutionaries were planning to overthrow the empire;
* revenge
Chilingarian, who emigrated to Canada from Iran in 1960, said it’s
important to remember the atrocities against Armenians 90 years ago.
“It’s an indignity we can’t forget,” the 75-year-old Guelph man said.
Many Armenians are also human rights proponents who have helped bring
to light other genocides, including the Holocaust and the mass
killings in Rwanda.
“If one goes unrecognized then history will repeat itself,” he said.
Chilingarian said there are two kinds of non-believers — those who
don’t know about the genocide and those who deny it happened.
“They add insult to injury and denying is worse,” he said.
To date, the Turkish government has not acknowledged the genocide or
taken responsibility for it.
The House of Commons recognized the genocide last year and denounced
the Turks for committing atrocities against the Armenians.
lmonteiro@therecord.com
SUNDAY’S CEREMONY
Events Sunday starting at 3 p.m. to mark the 90th anniversary of the
Armenian genocide:
Placing of a wreath outside the Armenian Community Centre, 15
International Village Drive in Cambridge, at 3 p.m.
Lighting of 90 candles by elderly women and young people.
Attendance by dignitaries, including local MPs and MPPs, the mayor
and city councillors, who will address the gathering.
Keynote speech by Prof. Allan Whitehorn of the Royal Military College
in Kingston.
GRAPHIC: Photo: , PHILIP WALKER, RECORD STAFF; Eric Chilingarian, a
member of the area’s Armenian National Committee, stands before a
monument at the Armenian Community Centre in Cambridge. The monument
commemorates Armenians lost in the genocide 90 years ago.