EXPERTS, SURVIVOR EXPLORE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
By Peter Reuell, Daily News staff
Milford Daily News, MA
Oct 21 2007
ARLINGTON – Even today, more than 90 years after the mass killings, the
forced relocation, the years spent in squalor in what was essentially
a refugee camp in the desert, the memories are sharp, like a fresh
wound, to Kevork Norian.
When he talks about surviving the Armenian genocide, the 89-year-old
Arlington resident closes his eyes, as though wanting not to remember,
but being unable to forget, and matter-of-factly describes the horrors
his family only narrowly avoided.
"My name is Kervork Norian and I am a survivor of two genocides,"
he says. "How did I survive? My father was in manufacturing clothing.
When the Turks entered the war (World War I) they drafted two million
soldiers, and they need clothing, so they took my father … and the
families of those draftees were exempt from deportation. So that’s
why we survived."
Norian, born at the end of WWI, became one of thousands of Armenians
caught up in what would later become known as the Armenian genocide –
the organized killing, beginning in 1915, of more than 1.5 million
Armenians and forced deportation of thousands more.
Though recognized by most scholars and historians as meeting the
traditional definition of genocide, the killings have returned to
the headlines in recent months.
Earlier this year, Watertown officials pulled out of an Anti-Defamation
League program because of the organization’s refusal to recognize
the killings as genocide. Watertown has a large Armenian population.
The question of whether to recognize the genocide has in recent weeks
erupted into an international controversy, as Democrats in Congress
push ahead with a bill to recognize the genocide, while Turkish
officials threaten to withdraw their support for the U.S. military
in the region if the bill passes.
Though it now appears a vote on the resolution is unlikely, among
Bay State lawmakers, the question isn’t up for debate – the genocide
should be recognized.
All Massachusetts representatives co-sponsored the House resolution,
while U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy co-sponsored a similar bill in the
Senate.
Even newly elected Rep. Niki Tsongas believes the genocide should
be recognized.
"Other countries have acknowledged dark chapters in their past, and
it’s time for Turkey to do the same," she said in a statement. "The
Armenians and the descendants of those who were victimized deserve
justice."
For local Armenians, though, the issue of whether to recognize the
killings as genocide is simply a question of human rights.
"This has been a continuous struggle by Armenians," said David
Boyajian, a community activist in Newton who lost several family
members in the genocide. "It did not just come up now. The Turks have
been stonewalling. You can’t just reward them for stonewalling and
say 90 years have passed.
"This is a human rights issue. It’s not just about the Armenians. The
ADL issue and the resolution are human rights issues that create more
awareness of genocide."
"I think it’s more important today than it has ever been," said
Sharistan Melkonian, chairwoman of the Armenian National Committee
of Eastern Massachusetts. "The U.S. Congress and the administration
has stood firm in its mission to end the genocide in Darfur, but at
the same time, they are denying the Armenian genocide."