Lowell Sun (Massachusetts)
April 24, 2019 Wednesday
Another, off-base theory on divine intervention
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
As a compliment to Matthew Rowley's interesting reflection, "A Convenient Explanation: Was Notre Dame fire God's judgement?" (The Sun, April 21), let me share another recently proposed divine theory.
According to the conservative Turkish newspaper, Yeni Akit, whose recent headline boasts "The Famous Cathedral of France up in Flames. The Curse of Turkey is Fulfilled," the paper's editor associates the Notre Dame fire as (divine) revenge for France's recognition of the Armenian Genocide. The editor is referring to the 1915-23 Armenian Genocide, which was the systematic, state-sponsored extermination of 1.5 million Armenian men, women, and children by the Ottoman Turkish government, a genocide that the current Turkish government still denies to this very day.
Contrast this with the recent comment by former U.S. ambassador to Armenia, John Evans: "Today, as France and the entire world mourn the destruction by fire of Notre Dame de Paris, I am thinking of what the Armenians lost in terms of churches, some filled with priests and people, in the Armenian Genocide. Horrific!"
In 2004, John Evans was fired from his ambassadorial position because he unequivocably declared that the mass murder of the Armenians in Turkey during World War I was a genocide. This action was taken by the U.S. State Department to satisfy Turkey's protest that Evans insulted the reputation of the Turkish government.
ARA JEKNAVORIAN
Armenian National Committee, Merrimack Valley