JOSEPH LIEBERMAN: ISSUE OF US AFFIRMATION OF GENOCIDE CUTS TO THE HEART OF OUR MORALITY AS NATION
PanARMENIAN.Net
10.02.2010 21:34 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ A longstanding Armenian Assembly trustee and
activist, Senator Joseph Lieberman stated that the issue of U.S.
affirmation of the Armenian Genocide "cuts to the heart not only of
our foreign policy, but of our morality as a nation."
Lieberman, in describing the "systematic and deliberate campaign of
mass murder perpetrated against the Armenian people," stated that
"even by the bloody standards of the 20th century, the annihilation of
1.5 million Armenians was one of the greatest crimes against humanity
committed in the last hundred years – an evil we have a solemn duty
never to forget."
"As we look to the 95th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide this
April 24, Senator Lieberman provides us with a poignant reminder of
the importance of remembering history, and the need to redouble our
efforts to end the scourge of genocide," stated AAA Executive Director
Bryan Ardouny.
The Armenian Genocide (1915-23) was the deliberate and systematic
destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during
and just after World War I. It was characterized by massacres, and
deportations involving forced marches under conditions designed to
lead to the death of the deportees, with the total number of deaths
reaching 1.5 million.
The date of the onset of the genocide is conventionally held to be
April 24, 1915, the day that Ottoman authorities arrested some 250
Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople.
Thereafter, the Ottoman military uprooted Armenians from their homes
and forced them to march for hundreds of miles, depriving them of
food and water, to the desert of what is now Syria.
To date, twenty countries and 44 U.S. states have officially recognized
the events of the period as genocide, and most genocide scholars
and historians accept this view. The Armenian Genocide has been also
recognized by influential media including The New York Times, BBC,
The Washington Post and The Associated Press.
The majority of Armenian Diaspora communities were formed by the
Genocide survivors.