ELIE WIESEL: WHAT HAPPENED TO ARMENIANS DURING WWI WAS GENOCIDE

PanARMENIAN.Net
30.10.2007 16:18 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "I have been fighting for the right of the Armenian
people to remember for years and years. How could I, who has fought
all my life for Jewish remembrance, tell the Armenians they have
no right to remember? But I understand the Bush administration’s
view. Fortunately, as a private citizen I don’t have to worry about
Turkey’s response.

But I do feel that had there been the word ‘genocide’ in those
days, what happened to the Armenians would have been called
Genocide. Everyone agrees there was mass murder, but the word
came later. I believe the Armenians are the victims and, as a Jew,
I should be on their side," said Elie Wiesel, Nobel Laureate and
Holocaust survivor.

"No one is asking for the Turks to take responsibility. All the
Armenians want is the right to remember. Seven generations separate
us from the events that happened in World War I and nobody in his
right mind would say that today’s Turks are responsible for what
happened. The Armenians don’t want reparations; they don’t even want
an apology.

They want the right to remember. I have spoken with Turkish leaders
at the highest level and their attitude about this issue is totally
irrational except for one thing, which I do understand. They don’t
want to be compared to Hitler. But of course, nobody does," he said
in an interview with The Philadelphia Jewish Voice.