April 26, 2008

Armenian Genocide

April 24 was the Armenia Genocide Memorial Day. 93 years ago approximately 1.5 million Armenians were brutally killed in Ottoman Turkey in this first genocide of the twentieth century.

From a post in Global Voices by Onnik Krikorian we note the ever present hatred of Aremnians against Turks:
Every year on 24 April, a date marking the roundup of Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in what is now Istanbul, Armenians commemorate the massacres and deportations worldwide. In Yerevan, this is particularly the case with hundreds of thousands marching up to the Tsitsernakaberd memorial overlooking the capital to lay flowers and pay their respects.

In fact, the Genocide is one of the most contentious and defining aspects of the present-day identity of most Armenians, especially in the Diaspora. Nevertheless, remembers Hrag Vartanian, who posts a photograph of Armenian-American artist, Kardash Onnig, holding up a sign reading “Un-Hate a Turk This Day,” there are some who believe in the importance of recognizing the Genocide, but also consider that blind hatred towards Turkey is unfortunate.
Bangladesh also suffered a major genocide in the hands of Pakistan Army in 1971. Bangladeshis don't have blind hatred against Pakistanis now but there is a notion of forgetting everything. Quoting words from Onnik Krikorian - remembering man's inhumanity towards man can prevent such tragedies from ever happening again.

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