CBC News, Canada
April 24, 2010 Saturday 7:59 PM GMT
Armenian Canadians rally to remember killings
Hundreds of Armenian Canadians rallied in Ottawa Saturday for Turkey
to recognize the killing of 1.5 million Armenians nearly a century ago
as a genocide.
The mass killings by Ottoman Turks began in 1915 and continued for a decade.
"We are not able to forget that, so we’re going to repeat that each
year," said Robert Kouyoumdjian, executive director of the Armenian
National Committee of Canada, about the rally. Beginning at noon on
Parliament Hill, the rally lead into a march to the Turkish Embassy.
Similar events will be held annually until Turkey stops claiming that
the deaths took place during a civil conflict, Kouyoumdjian said.
"We didn’t fight any war against Turkey. We were part of Turkey," said
Kouyoumdijian, whose grandfather fought in the Turkish army. He added
that Turkey had created its own version of history â?¬’ "To make [us]
forget the truth and anything else."
Turkey has long said the estimated death toll of 1.5 million people
around the time of the First World War is an inflated figure. It also
maintains that those killed were victims of civil war and unrest, not
genocide.
Canada recognized genocide in 2004
Nevertheless, Canada’s House of Commons voted in 2004 to recognize the
killings as genocide. The U.S. foreign affairs committee endorsed a
similar resolution this past March, even though the Obama
administration had urged Congress not to offend Turkey by approving
it.
Ottawa police had expected about 1,000 people to turn out for
Saturday’s rally. Speakers included Ottawa-Orleans MP Royal Galipeau
and Scarborough-Agincourt MP Jim Karygiannis, who brought forward the
2004 private member’s bill leading to Canada’s recognition of the
genocide.
The crowd sang and chanted while waving the red, blue and orange Armenian flag.
Demonstrators placed flowers around the Eternal Flame before marching
to the Turkish Embassy.
Some of the demonstrators said Armenians today are still strongly
affected by the deaths and by Turkey’s refusal to recognize them as a
genocide.
"We need to fight," said CÃ?©cile Kozadjian, who described herself as a
member of the fourth Armenian generation after the war. "We need to
say that it really did happen and they shouldn’t be in denial ’cause
it’s the truth."
"We need to remember," agreed Raffi Sarkissian. "That’s the only way
we can end the cycle of genocide and prevent future cases of genocide
anywhere else."