The Armenian Genocide of 1915 is remembered every year on April 24. Over one million men, women and children were killed in horrible ways by the Turks. No one could make up the many stories survivors have told of the atrocities they witnessed and lived through. Why would they?
When people speak about the Holocaust, Dar fur, Rwanda, and other such killings perpetrated on innocent people, they never mention the first genocide of the 20th century, the Armenians. Why?
Think of what you have read or heard about these other people and how they were slaughtered. It happened to the Armenians first since 1896, but culminated in the largest numbers in 1915.
Fathers and sons were rounded up, separated from mothers, wives, children, and tortured, then murdered. Women and girls were raped, taken hostage, forced into harems, tattooed not to escape. Whole villages were marched into the desert with what they could carry and died of hunger, thirst, or killed. People were forced to renounce Christianity and become Muslim. Any of this sound familiar?
All to create a Turkey for the Turks. It’s a sad story to live with.
And yet, today, this act has not been recognized by most countries, least of all Turkey. News reports documented the atrocities. The Ambassador at the time, Henry Mortganthau, wrote about what was happening to the people.
We will not forget.
(Check last year’s post for more info.)
