ARMENIAN GENOCIDE IS REAL, AUTHOR SAYS
By Kristen Stimola – News Writer
Lehigh University The Brown and White, PA
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
"The Armenian genocide is to World War I as the Holocaust is to World
War II," Peter Balakian, author of the critically acclaimed book,
"Black Dog of Fate," said Thursday.
During World War I, the Turkish government allegedly massacred
Armenians. The facts of the masacre and the use of the term "genocide"
are still being disputed among some countries and organizations.
Balakian’s talk was spurred from a letter written to the Lehigh Patriot
last year, which was previously called The Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy.
The letter was from an Armenian student who was telling his story,
the following week the letter was contradicted by the Turkish Student
Union.
More than 30 students were protesting outside Whitaker Lab and police
were on guard. A hundred students, faculty, and community members
attended the lecture.
"Genocides are crimes against humanity," Balakian said.
The Turkish Student Union was handing out pamphlets denying the
Armenian genocide.
Balakian said some writers are facing jail sentences from publishing
information about the Armenian genocide.
"Turkey doesn’t allow intellectual freedom," Balakian said. "You are
being denied access to your own history."
Turkey leads the world with the number of writers and reporters on
trial for reporting on this issue.
"What’s controversial inside Turkey isn’t controversial in the rest
of the world," Balakian said.
The movement for Armenia began in Boston’s Faneuil Hall in November
of 1894.
The President of the United Friends of Armenia was Julia Ward Howe,
a speaker against the Turkish massacres of Armenians.
Balakian said Armenians were drafted into amele taburlari, labor
battalions of the Ottoman army.
Stripped of weapons, they were massacred while on labor
assignments. The plan was to get rid of all able-bodied men first.
"People say, ‘denial of genocide is the final stage of genocide,’"
Balakian said.
Clara Barton was the first person to take the Red Cross out of the
United States to aid Armenian survivors in 1896. This was the first
movement of its kind.
Previously, the United States had sent money, but this was the first
time they went to the country in person.
Balakian said he thought the Armenian genocide should be taught in
history as a part of World War I.
He said it was the first modern example of genocide and a landmark
event that changed history.
Balakian said the history of the 21st century cannot be explained
properly without understanding the Armenian genocide.
Balakian’s award-winning book, "Black Dog of Fate," recounts the
experiences of his ancestors during the Armenian genocide.
It was selected as a Notable Book of 1997 by the New York Times and was
described as "at once a family memoir, a history of the extermination
of the Armenians in Turkey, and the story of a young man’s passage
into adulthood."
"Black Dog of Fate" earned the 1998 PEN Martha Albrand Prize for Memoir
and the 1998 New Jersey Council for the Humanities Book Award. It
was also a best book of the year selection for the Los Angeles Times,
Publisher’s Weekly and Library Journal.