The Power of Memory: the Armenian Genocide
By GABE PRESSMAN

Updated 9:16 AM EDT, Sat, Apr 24, 2010

It began on April 24, 1915, and went on until 1923 — the systematic
slaughter of about 1,500,000 Armenians by the Ottoman Turks. It’s
called: the Armenian Genocide.

Throughout the world this week, Armenians are lighting candles in
their churches. Here, in New York City, many candles are being lighted
at St. Vartan’s Cathedral on Second Avenue, the largest Armenian
Church in America.

It’s a sad anniversary for the thousands of Armenians in the New York
area, and for Armenians everywhere. They are linked by history to that
horrible day in April, 1915 when the extermination began. For nearly
every Armenian family that was their Kristillnacht. Though they did
not witness the massacres, every family mourns grandfathers and
grandmothers, aunts and uncles, the victims who died then.

It began on that fateful day in April 95 years ago when the Ottoman
Turks rounded up 300 Armenian leaders in Constantinople [now known as
Istanbul]. These writers, philosophers and professionals were
executed. And 5,000 of the poorest Armenians were butchered in the
streets.

Then the brutal executions spread to the whole Armenian community in
Anatolia [present day Turkey]. Deportations and killings were carried
out. There were death marches through the desert and a mass killing of
people condemned by representatives of the British, French, Russian,
German and Austrian governments stationed in Turkey.

Through the years, Turkish governments have denied that any genocide
took place.

It seems almost pathetic that the Armenians scattered around the world
want just one thing: for the world and Turkey itself to recognize that
a genocide did take place. These descendants of the victims don’t want
reparations. They just want to close the book on a horrible event and
have the world acknowledge that it took place.

I spoke to Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, primate of the Armenian Church
of North America. He said: "It’s a sad moment for the entire
world. Our goal is to move forward, to get closure and bring peace and
understanding to both peoples, the Turks and the Armenians."

The archbishop’s own personal history goes back to the dark days. He
lost his grandfather and his grandfather’s brothers in the blood
bath. "My father," he said, "had no father."

Barack Obama, when he was a senator, used the word genocide as he
expressed empathy for the Armenians.

But, as President, he has toned down his words. When Obama met
recently with his Turkish counterpart, Abdullah Gul, in Ankara, Obama
ducked the genocide question and said he had not changed his views but
wanted the Armenian and Turkish people to move forward "and deal with
a difficult and tragic history."

The needs of international diplomacy have clearly affected Obama’s
views. But the Congress of the United States has not pulled its
punches. The House Foreign Affairs Committee voted to condemn the
genocide — despite the efforts by Turkish officials and the White
House to keep the resolution bottled up.

An Armenian church official, Chris Zakian, told me: "We take it for
granted that we live in a constitutional country. In 1915, in Ottoman
Turkey, whole communities were uprooted and annihilated. It was an act
of savagery as state policy, creating a shock wave that we still feel
a century later."

On the other hand, Zakian declares, not all the Turks or followers of
what was then called the Young Turk political party took part in the
genocide. "There were Turkish people who helped to shelter Armenians
and made it possible for many of us to survive."

Zakian added: "We have to be grateful to God and remember."

Back in 1939, Adolph Hitler, to justify his attack on Poland, said, to
ward off any criticism: "Who, after all, speaks today of the
annihilation of the Armenians?"

Well, we’re still speaking of it, long after the leader of Nazi
Germany killed himself in his bunker in Berlin. We remember it.

Memory is a powerful force. As Elie Wiesel said in his Nobel Prize
lecture "it is memory that will save humanity. For me, hope without
memory is like memory without hope."

Our Armenian neighbors and friends can cherish their survival — and
hope for a better world for their children and children’s children.

First Published: Apr 23, 2010 4:20 PM EDT