Albany Times Union, NY
April 21 2007

On April 24, the world must remember victims of Armenian genocide

First published: Saturday, April 21, 2007

As all Armenian-Americans are aware, April 24 will mark the 92nd
anniversary of the Armenian genocide that was perpetrated by the
Ottoman Turks on April 24, 1915.

To this day, the Turkish government continues to deny that a genocide
ever took place, and has taken great steps to threaten any body of
people who would dare assert otherwise.

As a matter of fact, within the past two weeks, the United Nations was
forced to dismantle an exhibit on the Rwandan genocide and postponed
its scheduled opening by Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon, after the
Turkish mission objected to references to the Armenian genocide in
Turkey at the time of World War I.

Even after Armen Martirosyan, the Armenian ambassador, agreed to
allow the words "in Turkey" to be deleted, the Turkish government
was adamant in its position.

The Turkish government, and the world in general, need to be reminded
that in the years 1919-1920, the Turks themselves initiated a series
of court-martials in Constantinople, aimed at bringing the perpetrators
of the Armenian genocide to justice.

According to noted Armenian historian Peter Balakian, "The trials
represent a milestone in the history of war-crimes tribunals."

Although they were truncated in the end by political pressures,
and directed by Turkey’s domestic laws rather than an international
tribunal, the Constantinople trials were an antecedent to the Nuremberg
Trials following World War II.

The leaders of the Armenian genocide — Mehmet Talaat, Ismail Enver,
and Ahmed Jemal — were found guilty of first-degree murder by the
court and sentenced to death in absentia, since they had fled the
country.

Hopefully, one day in the near future, the Turkish government will
confess to the crimes against humanity that were perpetrated by the
Ottoman leaders on April 24, 1915, leading to the massacres of 1
1/2 million Armenians. Those massacres left my parents’ generation
a generation of orphans, and my generation one without grandparents.

Hopefully, the European Union will remain steadfast in its position
that acceptance of Turkey into that body must be preceded by a public
admission that a genocide did, in fact, take place.

In the meantime, the Armenian genocide, which Balakian referred to as
the "template" for future genocides of the 20th century, must never
be forgotten.

RALPH ENOKIAN Albany