The Armenian Genocide

-This post is about the genocide of 1.5 million Armenians. If you don’t want your holiday mood ruined, you know what to do.-

Today’s the 96th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. In 1915, the Ottoman Turks exiled and killed 1.5 million Armenians. But why I’m bitter about it is because Turkey and the US don’t recognize it, and people ignore that it happened. Heck, you probably haven’t even heard of Armenia, let alone the Armenian Genocide. Here’s some personal experiences I’ve had with the Genocide.

- Last year in English, we were going to read a book about the Armenian Genocide, because to quote my teacher, ‘nobody ever talks about the Armenian Genocide’. The book itself was called Forgotten Fire! But the next week she decided that we had to read a book about the Holocaust because ‘it was much shorter than Forgotten Fire’. But after we read that other book (Night), we had to read it’s sequel because it was too short.

- At lunch one day, somehow the Armenian Genocide came up at our table, and a Jewish boy (I’m not trying to be racist, just pointing out the irony that someone who was indirectly affected from the Holocaust would say this) said the Armenian Genocide as ‘A million ‘Ethan’s(Turkish kid) beating up a million 'Dylan’s(Another Armenian kid). The whole table laughed. I felt so repulsed. If I said the Holocaust was a million Heidi Klums or whatever beating up a million Fran Dreschers, I’d be exiled from the school and I’d be on the front page of Yahoo or something, not applauded.

And during the ‘08 election, Barack Obama said he’d recognize the Armenian Genocide. 3 years have gone by, but he hasn't used the word ‘Genocide’ yet. All the Armenians I know are angry about it, but I’m not that upset. It’s annoying, but I’d rather have the economy fixed or whatever before having the Genocide recognized. Not to mention, every president since 1915 has denied it. What makes Obama the chosen one?

And sadly, not recognizing the Armenian Genocide will make history repeat itself. As cliché as it sounds, other ethnic massacres have been ‘inspired’ by the Armenian Genocide. Here’s a quote by Hitler about it.

Our strength is our quickness and our brutality. Genghis Khan had millions of women and children hunted down and killed, deliberately and with a gay heart. History sees in him only the great founder of States. What the weak Western European civilization alleges about me, does not matter. I have given the order—and will have everyone shot who utters but one word of criticism—that the aim of this war does not consist in reaching certain geographical lines, but in the enemies' physical elimination. Thus, for the time being only in the east, I put ready my Death's Head units, with the order to kill without pity or mercy all men, women, and children of the Polish race or language. Only thus will we gain the living space that we need. Who still talks nowadays of the extermination of the Armenians?

Yeah. And then there’s the Rwandan genocide. And Libya can become like Armenia if we don’t do anything. History has already repeated itself 3 times (And these are only the ones I, a spoiled teenager, know about. What am I forgetting?). Let’s not continue the cycle.

I know I can’t do anything about it besides spread awareness. That’s the goal of this blog post: To spread awareness.  It’s not like there are that many Armenian celebrities to spread awareness about it, because there are the Kardashians, who don’t sound like the type to talk about the Armenian Genocide, Kim has this post on her blog. The only other Armenian celebrity I can think of is Jack Kevorkian… but he’s a doctor in trouble with the government, so yeah, no.

And Turkey denies it. They say that it was a civil war, not a Genocide. That’s just messed up. If it was a civil war, why wouldn’t they want it to be recognized? Why isn’t there Turkish literature or stories about the genocide? Why do they still have all their land? Why do they get rid of journalists who report the Genocide? Why are there pictures of Armenian refugees scattered across the Middle East?

Yeah, I’m extremely emotional on this topic, but who wouldn’t be?