ON APRIL 24, THOUSANDS TO DEMAND END TO CYCLE OF GENOCIDE AT TURKISH CONSULATE

Asbarez
article=41670_4/20/2009_1
Monday, April 20, 2009

As Obama Seeks Stop To Genocide in Darfur, Calls Intensify for
Affirmation of Turkey’s Genocide of Armenians

LOS ANGELES–The United States has the best chance in a generation to
help end the cycle of genocide and recommit the world to the noble
and necessary cause of a future without genocide. Inspired by this
fierce urgency of now, thousands across the state of California will
rally at the Turkish Consulate in Los Angeles on Friday April 24 at
4pm to call for an end to over a century of race murder, fueled by
Turkey’s ongoing denial of its genocide against the Armenian people.

Last year, nearly 15,000 activists converged on the Turkish Consulate
amid intensified activity by the Turkish government to prevent the
US House of Representatives from recognizing the Genocide.

This year’s demonstration, at 6300 Wilshire Blvd., will draw attention
to Turkey’s expanding multimillion dollar campaign to erase all memory
and culpability of its crime against the Armenian people and how it
has spawned a string of genocides, from the Nazi Holocaust to the
worsening humanitarian situation in Darfur.

In 1915 the Ottoman Turkish government set out to annihilate the
indigenous population inhabiting the lands under its dominion. Between
1915-1923, the government executed a systematic campaign to exterminate
the Armenian people and remove it from its historic homeland. The
Armenian Genocide, recognized as the first genocide of the 20th
century by historians the world over, resulted in the death of an
estimated 1.5 million Armenians and the loss of millions of dollars
in property and land now under occupation by the Republic of Turkey.

Organized by the Armenian Youth Federation, this year’s protest comes
a month after US legislators introduced a resolution calling on the
U.S. president to properly recognize the Armenian Genocide.

"We as Armenian-Americans know that our nation should properly
recognize and condemn the Armenian Genocide, and all subsequent
genocides," said Vache Thomassian, the chairman of the AYF. "Now,
more than ever, we have to rise above political expedience and take
a moral stance against genocide ‘s and I firmly believe Barack Obama
has the integrity to be the leader that does so."

The demonstration will also take place against the backdrop of a
series of anti-genocide events organized throughout the US and around
the world during Genocide Prevention Month.

In Washington DC, human rights activists will be participating in
three full days of Congressional visits to demand U.S. action against
the genocide in Darfur and support for the adoption of the Armenian
Genocide Resolution. The annual grassroots advocacy campaign, from
April 22-24th, is being organized by the Armenian National Committee
of America and the Genocide Intervention Network.

Earlier this month the ANCA launched a nationwide effort to urge
concrete action by the US government in fully recognizing the Armenian
Genocide end finally ending the genocide in Darfur.

Echoing Martin Luther King’s famous remarks at the Lincoln Memorial
in August, 1963, the ANCA’s "Fierce Urgency of NOW" campaign has
been mobilizing anti-genocide activists across the US to visit
to learn how the atrocities in Darfur fit into the
cycle of genocide that started with the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923.

The website provides simple ways for citizens to call on President
Obama to show "unstinting resolve" in the effort to stop the Darfur
Genocide and end U.S. complicity in Turkey’s international campaign
of genocide denial.

As a Senator and as a presidential candidate, President Obama was
a strong advocate of proper Armenian Genocide recognition and swift
action to stop the Darfur Genocide. During his 2008 campaign for the
White House, Obama repeatedly pledged to "respond forcefully to all
genocides," including the one currently ranging in Darfur.

"Genocide, sadly, persists to this day, and threatens our common
security and common humanity. Tragically, we are witnessing in
Sudan many of the same brutal tactics’sdisplacement, starvation,
and mass slaughter’sthat were used by the Ottoman authorities against
defenseless Armenians back in 1915," Obama said in the statement.

"America deserves a leader who speaks truthfully about the Armenian
Genocide and responds forcefully to all genocides. I intend to be
that President."

Previous president’s have wavered in their commitments to accurately
recognize the genocide in their annual statements on April 24. This
year, activists across the US are expecting the President to break
that trend and bring a long overdue change to US policy on genocide.

Two weeks ahead of the annual commemoration of the Armenian Genocide
on April 24, President Obama commemorated the 15th anniversary of
the genocide in Rwanda by urging the United States and its world
partners to deepen their commitment to ending the cycle of genocide
begun in 1915.