Every year on April 24th, the day when the attacks against Armenians in the Ottoman Empire began, Armenians remember the Medz Yeghern, the ‘great catastrophe’. A stone cenotaph on a hill in the Armenian capital Yerevan, featuring an eternal flame, is a centre point of the commemorations.
The Armenian genocide is a contentious historical event not universally recognized.
Historians estimate that 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks and today Armenians are one of the world’s most dispersed people. It is estimated that more than half of Armenians live outside of Armenia.
Speaking at the second Global Forum Against the Crime of Genocide in Yerevan on Saturday, actor and humanitarian George Clooney, called the genocide a part of world history, not just Armenian history. “What we are doing today has two objectives. First, we have to look back into the past and remember that it’s not the pain of a particular country or people, it’s part of world history,” he said. “Second, we need to move forward.”
Many nations have recognized the mass killings as genocide. Others, including the United States, resist such an acknowledgement. Turkey denies that the killings constituted genocide and says that the figures are exaggerated and estimates the total killed to be 300,000.
More than 20 countries have formally recognized the genocide including Canada, Russia, Italy, and Uruguay. In addition, the European Parliament and the UN Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, and Turkey’s pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) have also recognized the genocide. Last year, Pope Francis called it “the first genocide of the 20th century.”
Global leaders have been making statements in the days leading up to Sunday’s anniversary. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau offered his government’s respect to Armenian-Canadians, “In solemnly acknowledging this event, let us use this moment as an opportunity to look forward and strengthen our collective resolve to ensure such acts are never again repeated.”
In a statement released by the White House Friday honouring the victims, President Obama refrained from using the word genocide, to the disappointment of Armenian-Americans. “Today we solemnly reflect on the first mass atrocity of the 20th century—the Armenian Meds Yeghern—when one and a half million Armenian people were deported, massacred, and marched to their deaths in the final days of the Ottoman empire.”
Turkey’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement calling Obama’s declaration a “one-sided interpretation of history.”
Obama had promised during his presidential campaign in 2008 to formally acknowledge the genocide. In the final year of his presidency he failed to act on that promise, calling it an atrocity rather than genocide.
This has outraged the Armenian-American population, numbering about 1.5 million, who blame Turkey for the US’ continued denial. “It’s a Turkish government veto over U.S. policy on the Armenian genocide,” said Aram Hamparian, head of the Armenian National Committee of America, in an interview with the New York Times. “It’s like [Turkish president] Erdogan imposing a gag rule very publicly and an American president enforcing that gag rule.”
from Rudaw http://ift.tt/23R2Iv1
via Defense News
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