The Office of Senate Republican Leader Dave Cogdill
MaryAlice Kaloostian, District Director
4974 East Clinton Way, Suite 100
Fresno, CA 93727
Tel: 559.253.7122
Fax: 559.253.7127
Email: maryalice.kaloostian@sen.ca.gov
Ninety-Three Years of Waiting
By Senator Dave Cogdill
Senate Republican Leader
District 14
In a few days, Armenians all over the world will once again come
together in observance of April 24th. This year marks the 93rd
anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, which was perpetrated by the
rulers of the Ottoman Turkish Empire. It is a melancholy commemoration
that is made even more painful by the ongoing denial of history by the
Republic of Turkey and those who are complicit in its revisionism.
The Armenian people lived in their 3,000-year historic homeland in Asia
Minor. They became the first Christian nation-state in 301 A.D.
Throughout their rich history, including a period with a thriving
empire, Armenians were subjects of successive conquerors. Yet they
prospered as a people – adding abundantly to the economic, political,
academic, religious and cultural life of the governments under which
they lived and successfully survived. That all changed under the
oppression of state-sponsored atrocities by the Ottomans in the late
1890s and into the turn of the 20th Century. The culmination of the
Ottoman’s plan of ethnic cleansing began a few years later.
On hideous orders from the "Young Turk" regime, as the rulers of the
Ottoman government were known, the entire Armenian population of
Anatolia was at risk and came under systematic, brutal assault. On
April 24, 1915, hundreds of Armenian intellectual, political, religious
and business leaders were rousted from their homes at dawn and arrested,
exiled, and murdered. Thus began what would become known to historians
around the world as the "First Genocide of the Twentieth Century."
Armenians were subjected to torture, starvation, death marches in the
Syrian Desert and other unspeakable atrocities that resulted in the
murder of 1,500,000 Armenian men, women and children over a period of
eight long years ending in 1923. Hundreds of thousands of young
Armenian orphans spent the remainder of their lives haunted by the
memory of the torture and mayhem inflicted on their loved ones before
their eyes.
Adolph Hitler, in persuading his army commanders on the eve of World War
II that the merciless persecution and killing of Poles, Jews, and other
peoples would bring no retribution, asked, "Who, after all, speaks today
of the annihilation of the Armenians?"
I hope that we will soon reach the point where the denials of
revisionists will be universally repudiated. I look forward to a time
of reconciliation that can only occur when the Republic of Turkey finds
it futile to spend millions of dollars scheming to distort history and
threatening American political, military and business leaders with
reprisals. As stated by John Evans, who served as U.S. Ambassador to
Armenia a few years ago: "…When an official policy diverges wildly
from what the broad public believes is self-evident, that policy ceases
to command respect." These words express a challenge to all who would
cede ideals to the wretched whims of a foreign power.
Public service offers wonderful opportunities to forge positive
relationships, work on issues of importance to constituents, and gain
knowledge. I am so honored to have become well-acquainted with so many
Californians of Armenian heritage (as well as Assyrians, Greeks and
others whose forebears were also victims of massacres) who make such a
great contribution to our state’s economic and cultural vitality and
civic leadership. I strongly align myself with the cause of justice for
the memory of the victims of the Armenian Genocide. I stand with them
because it is simply the right thing to do.
Contact: MaryAlice Kaloostian – (559) 253-7122