I am convinced there are two types of people in this world, human beings and the others; those who carry compassion, empathy and mercy in their hearts and those who have no heart to begin with.
The Armenian genocide is testament to that, 100 years in the making.
How is it that the world’s major super powers -those who preach civil and human rights, freedom for all and democracy- choose till date to ignore facts and stand against truths, all in a bid to maintain political ties to a country now under the rule of a neo-dictatorship.
How is it that Turkey’s arrogance has come to define its role throughout the years with no evolution in sight? Could it be that time had stopped at past "glories?" Whereby all that had followed the decline of the empire is deemed futile or without merit?
How is the mass deportation, slaughter, and murder of 1.5 million people not recognized as genocide?
Turkey, the dark ages have long passed.
A “gentle” reminder:
This film shot in 1919 known as “Ravished Armenia” or “Auction of Souls” is based on the accounts of Aurora (Arshaluys) Mardiginian, a survivor of the Armenian genocide.
Aurora like many others victims witnessed the murder of her father, mother, brothers and sisters but lived to tell the tale. She was taken to a harem but remained attached to her Christian faith despite being raped and tortured repeatedly at the hands of her captors.
She recalls the crucifixion of young Armenian girls among many other atrocities committed against unarmed civilians.
“Each girl had been nailed alive upon her cross, spikes through her feet and hands, only their hair blown by the wind, covered their bodies.”
A still frame from the 1919 documentary film Auction of Souls
In actuality, the women were never crucified “gracefully”. Almost 70 years following the publication of her memoir, Aurora revealed to film historian Anthony Slide that the scene was inaccurate and “toned down” and went on to describe what was actually an impalement.
“Americans have made it more civilized... They can't show such terrible things…
"The Turks didn't make their crosses like that. The Turks made little pointed crosses. They took the clothes off the girls. They made them bend down, and after raping them, they made them sit on the pointed wood, through the vagina. That's the way they killed - the Turks."
Aurora escaped to the United States and was the first to testify of the carnage that had befallen her countrymen and the despondency that ensued.
Starved Armenian woman with her son in Syrian desert, 1916
Turkish official teasing starved Armenian children with bread, 1915
Execution of Armenians in the Constantinople, 1915
Armenians burnt alive in Sheykhalan by Turkish soldiers, 1915
Winston Churchill once described the massacres as an “administrative holocaust”, one committed when “the opportunity [WWI] presented itself for clearing Turkish soil of a Christian race.”
It is also said that Adolf Hitler had drawn inspiration from the Ottomans saying, “Turkey is taking advantage of the war in order to thoroughly liquidate its internal foes, i.e., the indigenous Christians, without being thereby disturbed by foreign intervention.”
Indigenous Christians they say, but that’s only half the truth. Almost one third of the land that now Turkey so proudly boasts is historically part of Greater Armenia. It was and will always be Armenian land and a hundred years of sorrow stand witness to that.
So when will Turkey become human and recognize the Armenian genocide for what it is even if it costs financial compensation? A question only the Turkish people, and not Edogan aficionados can answer. Only you hold the power to recognizing oppression from experience, from the rule of a neo-dicatorship.
And while I do feel for you since the word “genocide” is in fact illegal, denying truth in the age of information is a lot more embarrassing than declaring it. In fact running an article of the likes of this may get its writer jail time.
But aren't a hundred years of silence enough?
As for the US -the land of the free, the beacon of human rights- when will you recognize the Armenian genocide as promised by President Barack Obama during his 2008 presidential campaign?
Does the failure to follow through on that promise have something to do with Washington’s military ties to Turkey and the latter's military assistance in delivering supplies to US troops in the Middle East?
One can surely say so.
But rest assured, Armenians have made an example of themselves around the world in their personification of the word persistence. If 100 years aren't enough to get Turkey or the US to recognize the genocide for what it is, Armenians can wait an eternity.
Bottom line? They'll never let go.