ARMENIAN AMERICANS WILL NEVER FORGET GENOCIDE

CBS2 Chicago, IL
April 25 2007

(CBS) NEW YORK Somber commemorations were held on Tuesday to mark
the beginning of a dark time in history. It’s been more than 90 years
since the organized extermination of Armenians began at the hands of
Turkish nationalists.

It’s something Armenian Americans are refusing to let the world forget.

They hold the rally every year, and every year there are fewer and
fewer actual survivors from the first genocide of the 20th century.

Armenians were driven from land in what is now modern day Turkey. A
million and a half victims vanished in the horror of forced relocation
marches and ethnic cleansings.

"They took them in a group, took them in the desert," said 96-year-old
genocide survivor Annie Karakian said. "If they fell they were shot,
they exterminated them."

Added fellow survivor Ononk Eminean, 94: "They took the gun and shot
my mother right in the chest. My mother was 22 years old."

A handful of the survivors live at the Armenian Home in Queens,
growing old and living with the memory of what happened "on the other
side." It’s a reality the modern Turkish government is trying to deny.

"They’re liars! How could they say something like that?" said
98-year-old Adrian Bagcujian.

These days, the Turks insist it wasn’t genocide but collateral war
damage and the U.S. government, anxious to curry favor with a regional
ally, complies with that view despite extensive documentation to
the contrary.

The U.S. ambassador to Armenia was even fired recently for even using
the g-word.

"I came to a point where it became an ethical issue to support our
policy which did not recognize the facts or to break with it," said
John Marshall Evans, former Ambassador to Armenia.

The aging survivors appreciate the gesture.

"The Turks don’t want to talk about it," Karakian said. "I know
they’re lying."

Sometimes it is too easy, too convenient to forget. Adolf Hitler knew
that. During World War II he said, "Who, after all, remembers the
annihilation of the Armenians?" The people here seem to be saying,
"We remember, even after all this time."

Democrats in Congress now vow to fight the appointment of Ambassador
Evans’ replacement — and point to the president’s annual message
on Armenian Remembrance Day that talks about "forced exile," and
"mass killings" but avoids the word genocide.