WE NEED TO BE THE VOICE OF THE VOICELESS: ARMENIAN PRIEST
news.am
March 22 2010
Armenia
The article by Elizabeth Llorente in North Jersey.com website brings
opinions of U.S. Armenians on recent approval of Genocide Resolution
by the congressional committee.
"My grandmother always wore black because of the genocide. My father’s
sister found out the Turks were on their way to where she was and she
committed suicide. What do I think will happen next? Obama is saying
‘no’," the source quotes Agnes Kazanjian.
The Reverend Berj Gulleyan from Armenian Presbyterian Church in
Paramus says that nearly all of his parishioners "were touched,
in one way or another, by the mass killings."
"We need to be the voice of the voiceless," Gulleyan said, supporting
the Genocide recognition internationally. "If the United States can’t
be that, we’ve lost something very special that this country is known
and respected for."
The author mentions that Turks keep on insisting that no genocide was
perpetrated and killings "were casualties of a civil conflict as the
Ottoman Empire collapsed."
Llorente quotes Faruk Acar — former vice president of the Federation
of Turkish American Associations as saying, "The resolution is
ridiculous, it’s purely political. U.S. congressmen and senators make
decisions on their political future, they’re selfish. The Turkish
people are very proud of our history."
The author also quotes Senator Bob Menendez who claims that actions,
not the words are necessary to avoid "another Holocaust, another
Armenian genocide, another Rwanda or Darfur."