WHY ARE 100 PEOPLE STARVING THEMSELVES FOR FOUR DAYS?

12:30 21 April 2015

Lara Akinnawo

People waving Armenian flags at an earlier march in London on Saturday
April 18 [Photograph by Cevanne Horrocks-Hopayian]

This afternoon, 100 people will go on hunger strike on Downing Street
to commemorate the Armenian genocide.

Children and teenagers at an earlier march in London on Saturday
April 18 [Photograph by Cevanne Horrocks-Hopayian]

The hunger strike is also a vigil for the million or more people who
were killed in the Armenian genocide 100 years ago – and a protest
against Turkey’s continued insistence that the deaths never happened.

In 1915, Ottoman forces in Turkey began systematically slaughtering
the Armenian Christian minority.

Turkey has never accepted that the murder of half of the Armenian
population was genocide.

Now, a century later, Turkey has moved the annual commemorations
of the battle of Gallipoli – which are usually held on March 17 and
April 25 – to April 24, which clashes with the annual commemoration
of the Armenian genocide.

Vigil organiser Bernard Nazarin believes that this change is
deliberate, and is condemning the UK’s decision to take part in the
Turkish celebrations:

“We believe the British government should know better. Other European
leaders are ignoring the Turkish invitation.”

Mr Nazarian, who helped to organise the vigil and hunger strike said
it is ‘outrageously insensitive’ that “the British Government is
sending Prince Charles to Istanbul without question”.

World leaders who have rejected Turkey’s invitation include Russia’s
President, French President Hollande of France, and the Pope. Instead
they are commemorating the centenary of the genocide in Armenia’s
capital today.

The ethnic cleansing of between one million and a million and a half
Armenian people by Turkish forces in WWI is often compared to the
Jewish Holocaust in WWII, and Mr Nazarian said the two tragedies stir
up similar emotions.

“When people speak about it there is nothing but pain and sorrow. I
as a human being and Armenian feel the pain as I do for the Jewish
Holocaust in Germany – but at least the perpetrators of that Holocaust
have been punished.”

‘I know many people, close relatives who were affected. My uncle’s
family escaped from Van in the east of Turkey,’ Mr Nazarian said.

The vigil and hunger strike is taking place today opposite 10 Downing
Street until 4pm on Saturday April 25. There will also be a vigil
outside the Turkish Embassy on Friday April 24 from 1pm to 7pm.

From: Baghdasarian