WE WILL NEVER FORGET: IN REMEMBRANCE OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
Arek Horozyan
Los Angeles Loyolan, CA
per803/news/2008/04/24/Opinion/We.Will.Never.Forge t-3346472.shtml
April 24 2008
To an Armenian, the words "Armenian Genocide" evoke many horrific
memories of the early 1900s. To many others, these two words have
either never been heard of or have been heard in passing and have
gone in one ear and out the other. But what should these two words
mean to everyone? To answer this question, one must know some the
early history of the 20th century.
There were many Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire in the 20th
century.
The Ottoman Empire was a multiethnic empire which included areas of
historic Armenia. However, by the beginning of the 20th century it
had become a shrunken state, mostly made up of the territories in
the Middle East. Even though it was still multinational, the Ottoman
Empire tended to favor the Muslims — after all, its official religion
was Islam. The Ottoman Empire thus treated the Christians and Jews
that lived in its empire as second class citizens.
The government was overthrown in 1908 by a group of reformists who
called themselves the Young Turks. Seeing that a multiethnic empire
was one cause of its downfall, the Young Turks decided to convert
all of its inhabitants to Islam, especially the Armenians who were
the largest of the Christian minorities living in the empire.
Since the Armenians wouldn’t easily convert to Islam, the Young
Turks decided that genocide was the best way to get rid of the
Armenians. After WWI began, the Young Turks took this as an apropos
moment to get rid of its Armenian population. The fact that they did
this systematically constitutes this event as genocide. First, the
Armenians in the army were disarmed and killed. Then, on April 24,
1915, the Armenian political leaders and intellectuals were rounded
up and mysteriously vanished – never to be heard from again.
All of the remaining Armenians were forced to march through the deserts
of Syria with no food or water, most of them dying in the process.
Although the Young Turk government took precautions not to have
eyewitnesses, there were still many who reported to their native
countries about the atrocities they witnessed in the Ottoman
Empire. One such witness was Henry Morgenthau, the U.S. Ambassador to
the Ottoman Empire. Morgenthau wrote, "When the Turkish authorities
gave the orders for these deportations, they were merely giving
the death warrant to a whole race; they understood this well, and,
in their conversations with me, they made no particular attempt
to conceal the fact." Another historical example is Adolf Hitler,
who in justifying his invasion of Poland, referred to the Armenian
Genocide by saying to his generals, "Who, after all, speaks today of
the annihilation of the Armenians?"
Armenians all over the world commemorate the genocide on April 24 of
each year. Thousands of Armenians march down streets, pass out fliers,
lobby in Washington D.C. and so forth, all to being more attention
to the genocide in order to have the US recognize it as an official
Genocide. Many college students do their part as well. Julia Balian,
one of the Armenians at LMU says, "My family is directly affected by
the genocide. Because of the Turks’ actions I never knew my uncles and
aunts on my father’s side." Sedda Antekelian, another LMU student,
says, "The Armenian Genocide was a tragic event that should be
recognized by everyone. If we don’t recognize it, what prevents it
from happening again?"
Today LMU will have activities on campus to to make the LMU community
more aware of the Armenian genocide that occurred from 1915-1923. They
will also be having a candlelight vigil at 8:30 pm at Foley Pond to
commemorate the 1.5 million Armenians killed.
This is the opinion of Arek Horozyan, a senior biology major from
Playa del Rey, Calif. Please send comments to [email protected].