Allston-Brighton TAB, MA
April 21 2006

Kaprielian, Koutoujian, Tolman: We must never forget the Armenian
genocide

By Rachel Kaprielian, Peter Koutoujian, Sen. Steven Tolman/ Guest
Columnists

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For Armenian Americans, April 24th is an important day: it was on
that date in 1915 that the Ottoman Turkish Empire began its slaughter
of Armenians. Over the next several years, more than a million
Armenians were murdered in a calculated campaign to rid Turkey of all
Armenians. In other words, the so-called Young Turk government
committed genocide against the Armenian people.

Among scholars and genocide experts, there is no doubt about this
issue. The International Association of Genocide Scholars (the
definitive group of scholars on the subject), the Institute on the
Holocaust and Genocide in Jerusalem, and the Institute for the Study
of Genocide have repeatedly affirmed the historical facts of the
Armenian genocide, as have Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel and
Pulitzer Prize Winner Samantha Power.

For those who are relatives of survivors there can be no doubt
about this crime. Yet, sometime in the next several weeks, a federal
judge in Boston will hear arguments in a suit brought by the
Association of Turkish American Assemblies and others that seek to
introduce materials into Massachusetts’ classrooms denying that the
Armenian genocide occurred.

How, after all these years, can this still be open to debate?
Because the Turkish government and its American affiliate continue to
deny that the Young Turks committed this grave crime. And they
continue to seek forums to push their denialist point of view.

Now they’re bringing this campaign to Massachusetts, home to one
of the largest Armenian populations in the nation. They claim that
the Massachusetts Department of Education trampled on the First
Amendment when it decided not to teach “the other side” of the
Armenian genocide, i.e., that the slaughter was just the unfortunate
byproduct of civil war between the Turks and the Armenians.

This claim, refuted by reputable genocide scholars, is an affront
to thousands of Armenian-Americans living here in Massachusetts whose
families were victims of the Turkish government’s murderous campaign.
And it is particularly offensive for people like 99-year-old John
Kasparian of Worcester and 93-year-old Armine Dedikian of Watertown,
two survivors of the slaughter.

Anyone interested in ascertaining the truth about this genocide need
merely to hear stories like Mr. Kasparian’s, whose family left its
home the night before the Turkish attack that took 200 of their
fellow villagers and whose brother died of starvation while the
family fled. Or hear Mrs. Dedikian, whose father was killed just
before she was born and who was separated from her mother soon after.
(Mother and daughter were eventually reunited when 15-year-old Armine
arrived alone at Ellis Island to meet her mother, whom she had
tracked down in the U.S., using newspaper ads and family
connections.)

Unfortunately, the U.S. government, afraid to offend Turkey, its
military ally, has not taken a stand on this issue. But all 12
members of our state’s congressional delegation – Senators Kennedy
and Kerry and the 10 representatives in the House – have signed a
resolution calling on the president to recognize the atrocity.

Now we in Massachusetts find ourselves being pulled backwards
into this debilitating debate over whether a genocide, long confirmed
by victims and historians, ever existed. It is even more than ironic
that this court case was filed in a year when genocide has once again
reared its ugly head in Darfur, where thousands have died at the
hands of the Sudanese army, and in a year when the Iranian president
has once again put Holocaust denials on the front page. As
unfathomable as the crime of genocide is, it continues to occur in
all its savagery. And as offensive as the official denials are, they
also continue, not only when the crimes occur but for years
afterward.

In 1939, when announcing his decision to begin killing Polish
men, women, and children, Hitler infamously uttered “Who, after all,
speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?” He was counting
on the world to forget his atrocities, as he believed the world had
already forgotten the Turkish murders.

Fortunately, the world has not forgotten either the Nazi crimes or
the Turkish slaughter. But denialists continue to try to spread their
peculiar amnesia. We in Massachusetts, home to a significant Jewish
population and one of the largest Armenian-American populations in
the country, must never forget.