FEATURE – 20TH CENTURY’S FIRST GENOCIDE
by Ray Davies
Morning Star, UK
November 7, 2007 Wednesday
Despite pressure from the Foreign Office, enormous efforts from
official Turkish delegations and the day-long attempt by 150 Turkish
pro-government demonstrators to break up the event, Cardiff played
host to the successful unveiling of a monument to the 1915 Armenian
Genocide on Saturday.
The Welsh capital has become the first city in Britain to dedicate
a public space to a memorial to the estimated 1.5 million victims of
this, the first modern genocide.
Two-thirds of the Armenian population were killed or exiled and the
surviving diaspora was scattered across the world.
Hundreds of Armenians made the journey from across Britain and as
far afield as Australia to come together on this historic occasion,
to remember, mourn and celebrate their survival.
Welsh Assembly presiding officer Dafydd Elis-Thomas joined the
Armenian ambassador to Britain to unveil the monument in the Temple
of Peace gardens.
The Armenian bishop, backed by the Armenian church choir, consecrated
the carved stone or khatchkar, an ancient symbol of Armenia.
The unveiling was the culmination of years of dedicated campaigning led
by Eilian Williams, supported by the Welsh Centre for International
Affairs and the Cardiff branch of the United Nations Association to
achieve recognition for the Armenian tragedy.
Speeches and dedications were interspersed with music, dance and
poetry.
The vociferous Turkish demonstration stood in the gardens below
the meeting chanting slogans and holding large banners denying the
Armenian genocide.
But the police contained them and songs of peace inside the hall
drowned out their shouting.
It was an emotional and humbling experience to see the effect on the
Armenian audience as they joined in singing the civil rights song We
Shall Overcome.
They listened to Cor Cochion’s rendition of Gehat Hob Ikh A Haym,
written in 1944 in the Polish ghetto, and Mae Gen I Freuddwyd –
Martin Luther King’s "I have a dream" speech in Welsh.
Other entertainment was provided by the 50 members of Cor Aelwyd
Hamdden from north Wales, a group of young Armenian dancers and
traditional duduk players.
The Armenian ambassador spoke passionately about the shared historical
links between Wales and Armenia, from the father of the Eisteddfod
Iolo Morgannwg to his grandson Aneurin Williams MP, who helped build
the League of Nations, the organisation which brought the Temple of
Peace into being.
Williams was also the most passionate defender of the Armenian cause
in the House of Commons.
The angry Turkish protest has only succeeded in drawing the world’s
attention to this wrong and begun to reverse the global historic
amnesia about Armenia among those who need to maintain Turkey as an
ally in NATO wars.
There is no doubt that the unveiling of this Celtic/Armenian cross
will bring forward the day when the world accepts the reality of the
tragedy of the first genocide of the 20th century and, in remembering,
help to heal the century-old injustice.