THOUSANDS TO DEMAND END TO CYCLE OF GENOCIDE AT TURKISH CONSULATE ON APRIL 24
Asbarez
/2009_1
Thursday, April 23, 2009
As Obama Seeks To Stop Genocide in Darfur, Calls Intensify for
Affirmation of Turkey’s Genocide of Armenians
LOS ANGELES – The United States has the best chance in a generation to
help end the cycle of genocide and recommit the world to the noble and
necessary cause of a future without genocide. Inspired by this fierce
urgency of now, thousands across the state of California will rally
at the Turkish Consulate in Los Angeles (6300 Wilshire Boulevard) on
Friday April 24 at 4pm to call for an end to over a century of race
murder, fueled by Turkey’s ongoing denial of its genocide against
the Armenian people.
Last year, nearly 15,000 activists converged on the Turkish Consulate
amid intensified activity by the Turkish government to prevent the
U.S. House of Representatives from recognizing the Genocide.
"We as Armenian-Americans know that our nation should properly
recognize and condemn the Armenian Genocide, and all subsequent
genocides," said Vache Thomassian, the chairman of the AYF. "Now,
more than ever, we have to rise above political expedience and take
a moral stance against genocide ‘s and I firmly believe Barack Obama
has the integrity to be the leader that does so."
This year’s demonstration converges with global expectations pertaining
to President Obama’s numerous campaign pledges to reaffirm the
U.S. record on the Armenian Genocide. Earlier this month, President
Obama traveled to Turkey and stated, "My views are on the record and
I have not changed views," when asked in a press conference about
his promise to recognize the Armenian Genocide.
The President also referenced the Armenian Genocide in his speech
to the Turkish Parliament where he stated, "History, unresolved,
can be a heavy weight. Each country must work through its past. And
reckoning with the past can help us seize a better future."
As a Senator and as a presidential candidate, President Obama was
a strong advocate of proper Armenian Genocide recognition and swift
action to stop the Darfur Genocide. During his 2008 campaign for the
White House, Obama repeatedly pledged to "respond forcefully to all
genocides," including the one currently raging in Darfur.
"Genocide, sadly, persists to this day, and threatens our common
security and common humanity. Tragically, we are witnessing in
Sudan many of the same brutal tactics’sdisplacement, starvation,
and mass slaughter’sthat were used by the Ottoman authorities
against defenseless Armenians back in 1915," Obama said in the
statement. "America deserves a leader who speaks truthfully about the
Armenian Genocide and responds forcefully to all genocides. I intend
to be that President."
Previous Presidents have wavered in their commitments to accurately
recognize the genocide in their annual statements on April 24.
This year, activists across the U.S. are expecting the President
to break that trend and bring a long overdue change to U.S. policy
on genocide.
Two weeks ahead of the annual commemoration of the Armenian Genocide
on April 24, President Obama commemorated the 15th anniversary of
the genocide in Rwanda by urging the United States and its world
partners to deepen their commitment to ending the cycle of genocide
begun in 1915.
Activists will draw attention to Turkey’s expanding multimillion dollar
campaign to erase all memory and culpability of its crime against the
Armenian people and how it has spawned a string of genocides, from
the Nazi Holocaust to the worsening humanitarian situation in Darfur.
Organized by the Armenian Youth Federation, this year’s protest comes
a month after U.S. legislators introduced a resolution calling on
the U.S. president to properly recognize the Armenian Genocide.
The demonstration will also take place against the backdrop of a
series of anti-genocide events organized throughout the U.S. and
around the world during Genocide Prevention Month.
In Washington DC, human rights activists will be participating in
three full days of Congressional visits to demand U.S. action against
the genocide in Darfur and support for the adoption of the Armenian
Genocide Resolution. The annual grassroots advocacy campaign, from
April 22-24th, is being organized by the Armenian National Committee
of America and the Genocide Intervention Network.
Earlier this month the ANCA launched a nationwide effort to urge
concrete action by the U.S. government in fully recognizing the
Armenian Genocide end finally ending the genocide in Darfur.
Echoing Martin Luther King’s famous remarks at the Lincoln Memorial
in August, 1963, the ANCA’s "Fierce Urgency of NOW" campaign has
been mobilizing anti-genocide activists across the country to visit
to learn how the atrocities in Darfur fit into the
cycle of genocide that started with the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923.
The website provides simple ways for citizens to call on President
Obama to show "unstinting resolve" in the effort to stop the Darfur
Genocide and end U.S. complicity in Turkey’s international campaign
of genocide denial.
In 1915 the Ottoman Turkish government set out to annihilate the
indigenous Armenian population inhabiting the lands under its
dominion. Between 1915-1923, the government executed a systematic
campaign to exterminate the Armenian people and remove them from
their historic homeland. The Armenian Genocide, recognized as the
first genocide of the 20th century by historians the world over,
resulted in the death of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians and the
loss of millions of dollars in property and land now under occupation
by the Republic of Turkey.