Genocide victims deserve respect
by Dan O'Brien
May 05, 2004
I grew up in the small town of Watertown. Despite being nestled in-between the boarders of the large cities of Cambridge and Boston, the town is not very well-known to those who live outside the area. But there is something unique about my town that warrants inspection. Many people from my town have taught me a valuable lesson: What it means to fight for one's beliefs. It's a lesson from history that should be explained more thoroughly in the history books than it is, if it is ever explained at all.
The story comes not from my hometown, but from the people who live there, particularly my Armenian friends and neighbors. Armenians make up approximately 20 percent of the town's population. This is a considerable percentage because they represent less than one percent of the American population. Watertown has the second largest community of Armenians in the country. This community, located in Watertown's east end, is known to locals as "Little Armenia." It is surrounded by five Armenian churches and an array of Armenian specialty shops and restaurants.
Last month I returned home to Watertown for a weekend visit. Without fail, I saw the giant billboard on Mount Auburn Street that goes up around this time every year. The billboard said, "Never Forget," in bold print, followed by, "The Armenian Genocide: April 24, 1915." This year, April 24, 2004 was the 89th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. For me being a non-Armenian, seeing these billboards brought me back to my high school days when a handful of Armenian classmates would stay home from school. I remember speaking with some of these students, who complained that this event was never taught in their high school history classes. A valid point, considering that the public school system would deny the third largest ethnic group in town a chance for their children to learn about a significant part of their personal history.
The genocide began in 1915 in the Ottoman Empire - present-day republic of Turkey - with the eradication of the Christian Armenians and lasted until 1918. The Ottoman Empire, which was ruled by Muslim Turks, carried out the genocide due to a policy of eliminating the Christian minority. Countless numbers of people were savagely brutalized and women were often raped. By 1922, the Armenians had been eradicated from their historic homeland.
The genocide only began after the massacres of 1894 to 1896 under Sultan Abdul-Hamid II, nineteen years before the actual genocide would be committed by the Turkish government. The sultan was alarmed by increasing activity in a number of Armenian political groups, many of which spoke out for civil rights and autonomy. Historians guess that the massacres killed somewhere between 100,000 and 300,000 people. The sultan began the systematic brutalization as a way to undermine Armenian nationalism.
The night of April 24, 1915 was when the Armenian Genocide truly began to unfold: the Turkish government arrested over 200 Armenian community leaders in Constantinople and hundreds more were apprehended soon after. They were all sent to prison; most were executed. These acts occurred under the cover of a news blackout; a time when there was no communication between the Eastern nations and the Western world because of the ongoing World War I. The news blackout had been happening for some time before April 24, 1915, and as a result many Armenians had died at the hands of the Turks before foreign nations had time to react. It is estimated that between 1915 and 1923, over 1.5 million Armenians died in the genocide.
Today, several nations including Russia, Argentina, France and Greece have formally recognized the Armenian Genocide. However, the United States has never officially recognized the events as a genocide. President Bush in 2001 called it, "the forced exile and annihilation of approximately 1.5 million Armenians," which has angered many Armenian-American interest groups, including the lobby group the Armenian National Committee. ANC is asking 100 members of Congress to sign a letter to the President asking for the use of the word "genocide." And rightly so. I can't imagine how a descendant of a genocide victim would react if President Bush were to walk up to that person and say, "You're loved one was murdered at the hands of a government that was systematically arresting, torturing, and murdering people solely due to their racial background. But, it wasn't a genocide."
Despite not being fully recognized by our government or in our history text books, there have been several memorials built to honor the victims of the genocide. These memorials are located around the world, including several in the Boston area. Meanwhile, as the United States fails to give those who suffered through one of the worst human atrocities their proper respect, we join the ranks of countries such as Turkey, which denies all knowledge of the genocide as a matter of policy. The Turks blame the deaths as part of WWI warfare. What is even worse is that Turkey dismisses the atrocities as mere allegations. The country's leaders have also allegedly obstructed efforts for acknowledgment.
If you ever happen to be driving to Boston on the Mass Pike, take a detour. Get off the highway at exit 17, be sure to drive up Mount Auburn St. and read the billboards that say "Never Forget." The message isn't asking you to donate your money or join some sort of animal rights campaign or anything like that. The people of Watertown and Armenians around the world are simply asking our government to, at the very least, give their ancestors the proper respect they deserve. It is imperative to remember atrocities such as these in order to not repeat mistakes of the past.
Information from the Armenian Museum of America (Watertown, MA), the Armenian National Institute (www.armenian-genocide.org) and KFWB-AM (Los Angeles) was used in this column.
Dan O'Brien is a Collegian Columnist
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