WHO SPEAKS TODAY?: WITH SURVIVORS DWINDLING, CONGRESS MUST TAKE A STAND ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF HISTORY AND DECLARE THE 1915 SLAUGHTER OF ARMENIANS GENOCIDE
By John C. Geragosian
Hartford Courant, CT
hc-commentaryarmenia1021.artoct21,0,2527425.story
Oct 21 2007
Imagine half the population of Connecticut murdered over seven years,
and hundreds of thousands more raped, beaten and driven from their
homes. How long would you fight for justice for your family, friends
and neighbors?
The Turkish government’s stubborn denial has forced the Armenian
people of the world to wait for 92 years.
I urge Congress to do the right thing and finally pass the resolution
declaring the 1915 massacres of Armenians by Ottoman Turks genocide.
Why now? Because the last eyewitnesses of this barbaric genocide are
almost all gone. Without these survivors, the Turkish government and
its powerful and sleazy lobbyists who profit from 1.5 million dead
souls will be even more emboldened. No witnesses, no genocide.
We must not allow the truth to go with the survivors.
Two Connecticut survivors died in the past year: Maritza Ohanesian,
born in 1905, and Yegsa Mazadoorian, born in 1912, both of New
Britain. These women, pillars of the region’s Armenian American
community, were small children who witnessed mass rape, deportation
and murder at the hands of soldiers of the Ottoman Empire.
Mrs. Ohanesian, the eldest of five children, was the only survivor in
her family. Mrs. Mazadoorian’s obituary said: "She personally witnessed
the most barbaric treatment of fellow Armenians and actually started
out with her mother and two uncles in the horrible death marches in
which her mother and uncles were put to death.
Before her death, her mother literally gave her young daughter Yegsa
away in order to save her daughter’s life."
There are believed to be fewer than 10 genocide survivors left in
our state. Who will tell their stories when they are all gone?
Armenians were slaughtered for no reason other than their ethnicity.
For us and the rest of the Armenian diaspora, justice delayed is
justice denied.
In a civilized world, neither ally nor foe should be given a free
pass for crimes against humanity in the name of political expedience.
Denial is the final act perpetuating the genocide, far more painful
for the survivors and their families than the fleeting moment of
embarrassment for an honest Turkish government would be.
Turkey claims to be a great ally of the United States, yet would
threaten sanctions for passing a nonbinding resolution stating what
genocide scholar Elie Weisel and others know to be the truth: The
Armenian genocide happened.
If Turkey is indeed our friend, why should the truth threaten the
security of our troops? Twenty-three other countries have passed
similar resolutions. It is time for Turkey to live up to its billing
as a modern democracy and allow open discussion of its history instead
of punishing academics and journalists for such attempts.
After Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a notorious Holocaust
denier, visited the United States last month, President Bush was
invited to speak at an Iranian university. A National Security
Council spokesman said, "President Bush looks forward to traveling to
a democratic Iran, an Iran where its leaders allow freedom of speech
and assembly for all of its people, and an Iran where the leaders mourn
the victims of the Holocaust, not call for the destruction of Israel."
Sadly, the Bush administration protects a Turkish government that
squelches free speech and denies the slaughter of Armenians rather
than mourning the victims.
Acknowledging the genocide would only benefit Turkey. It would
enhance Turkey’s prospects for much-desired membership in the European
Union. Modern Germany fares better today for having recognized the
atrocities of the Holocaust.
Adolf Hitler used the Armenian genocide as the model for his mass
killings. He pointed out: "Who, after all, speaks today of the
annihilation of the Armenians?"
I speak for them, and so did Mrs. Mazadoorian and Mrs. Ohanesian.
John C. Geragosian, D-New Britain, is chairman of the Democratic
caucus in the state House of Representatives. He is the only Armenian
American member of the General Assembly and is an organizer of the
annual Armenian genocide commemoration at the state Capitol.