Recognizing the Trauma of the Armenian Genocide Doesn’t Diminish the Holocaust

Haaretz, Israel
Opinion 
     

When our Yad Vashem guide asked, rhetorically, if we’d ever heard of 'any other Holocausts,' I immediately replied: The Armenian genocide. It took me years to unpack why she dismissed my answer so brusquely 

   

An Armenian refugee from genocide in Syria mourns her dead child. Photo taken by the aid organization Near East Relief (for Armenian refugees)Library of Congress, Bain Collection 


Emil Lazarian

“I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS