Armenians in Nijmegen commemorate genocide
By our correspondents
De Gelderlander (Dutch regional paper)
April 23, 2005
NIJMEGEN – “Who remembers the Armenians?”, Adolf Hitler said shortly before
the invasion of Poland. Meaningful, because the genocide on the Armenian
people, which started exactly ninety years ago today, has become forgotten.
The Armenian youth organization VAN in Nijmegen is holding a commemoration
ceremony in community center De Driesprong at Cyclamenstraat 10 for the one
and a half million Armenian victims.
“It is my duty to organize this”, says G. Abrahamian, co-founder and
chairwoman of VAN. The primary goal of the organization, which counts fifty
members, is preservation of the Armenian culture. Abrahamian: “We do not do
this in an isolated manner. Everyone is welcome.”
Because with the commemoration ceremony VAN not only tries to attract
Armenians, but also non-Armenians. “We know what happened, but many people
do not. We therefore want to spread the message to the outside. However,
being a small community nobody writes about you in The Netherlands. It is
even difficult to have your story published in the newspapers when you are
unknown.”
Armenians from Nijmegen and from others parts of The Netherlands will go to
Assen in great numbers. In Assen there is a monument in commemoration of the
genocide on Armenians, that was unveiled in 2001 with great Turkish
protests. In Turkey, the massacres continue to be a subject that is not
talked about or published. The Turkish rulers at the time were the ones who
ordered the massacres. Officially, the murders are denied by Turkey.
“It is a sensitive issue, for both Turks and Armenians. When differences of
opinion are not settled by countries, you simply cannot deal with each
other,” says Abrahamian. She adds: “But I do have Turkish friends.”