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The Providence Journal
01:00 AM EDT on Thursday, July 3, 2008
An Armenian memorial
The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, which loosely (some would say
very loosely) oversaw the Big Dig, has deserved few accolades for the
last 20 years or more. But once in a while its board gets something
right.
On June 20, the board voted to approve an agreement with the Armenian
Heritage Foundation to build a memorial on the Rose Kennedy Greenway
to the millions of Christian Armenian victims of Turkish governments
and Muslim fanatics between 1915 and 1923.
The Greenway is a linear park being created along the route of the now
underground Central Artery. The Big Dig has reunited Boston with its
historic waterfront and created a new and potentially beautiful urban
space. Assuming that the right artist is chosen, a memorial to the
Armenians in the park could be a very moving sight.
The idea has been controversial for two reasons.
First was the argument about whether the slaughter of more than a
million Armenians was a genocide in the true sense, or (as the current
Turkish government argues) a tragic consequence of a brutal war. We
think it was both genocide and war. Those planning the Greenway didn’t
want what might be regarded as a political statement there. But this
memorial, as envisioned, won’t make a political statement.
Second, planners feared that an Armenian memorial would lead to
demands for monuments of the same type by other ethnic groups. This
thinking was narrow. There is currently no such memorial in Greater
Boston to the Armenians, rather surprising given the enormity of their
sufferings and the large number of Armenian-Americans in the area.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
