On April 24, Armenians around the world will commemorate the
darkest period in their history. Through organized deportations and
massacres of 1.5 million people, over half of the Armenian
population was forcibly removed from its home of 3,000 years.
The crimes began on April 24, 1915 and were continued by
successive Turkish governments until 1923, when the ethnic
cleansing of Armenians in the region was virtually complete.
Today, the Armenian Student Association will join in the
commemoration of these crimes with a silent march across the campus
to Bruin Plaza. There, the group will open an hour-long ceremony,
including poetry, music, recitations and addresses to spread
awareness of the first genocide of the 20th century.
For most participants, the day will be filled with memories of
ancestors and relatives who either died or miraculously survived
but remained scarred for life. Yet the dominant emotion will be a
deep resentment toward the Turkish government and others that
continue to deny the reality of the Armenian Genocide.
The commemoration today and this column are not meant to garner
pity for the suffering of the Armenian people. Even the most
sinister of historic tragedies lose much of their poignancy and
impact over time. What is crucial is that people understand the
magnitude and historic legacy of this precedent-setting event
““ especially when their own government does not.
Like most cases of deliberate violence against members of a
society, the Armenian Genocide was executed by the government
itself.
On April 24, 1915, several hundred Armenian civic leaders and
intellectuals were arrested in Istanbul, and subsequently exiled
and murdered. While the world was preoccupied with the Great War,
the so-called Young Turk government created its own blueprint of
genocide.
First, the young men were drafted and placed into unarmed labor
battalions, where most would be killed. Then, the populations of
all Armenian towns and villages were forced to relinquish any
weapons in brutal arms searches. After the religious and political
leaders had been led away to meet a bloody end, the remaining
population ““ largely women and children ““ were placed
in caravans of death leading to the desert wasteland of inner
Syria. En route, the caravans practically melted away under the
scorching sun. As women were raped and tormented, children were
kidnapped and forcibly converted as the elderly died of starvation
and dehydration.
The relatively few people who somehow made it to the final
destination, the desert of Deir-el-Zor, were murdered there or
burned alive in their cave-shelters.
In the end, the Armenian nation lost its homeland to a
xenophobic regime that used genocide to achieve its vision of a new
regional order based on one people, one religion, one language and
one identity.
To this day, the Turkish government denies an Armenian Genocide
ever happened. Other governments, including the United States, are
complicit in the cover-up for economic, political and military
reasons. These deniers dismiss a historic happening that stripped
an entire people of its rights, properties and homeland.
They fail to acknowledge the need to face history and engage in
acts of redemption that may lead to reconciliation, or at least
conciliation. They spurn the eminent importance of truth.
What does this mean for you and me in the contemporary world? It
means mass murder has been carried out without repercussions. It
means that even now, our right to life ““ the most basic of
rights ““ is vulnerable and should never be taken for
granted.
The events of 1915 are not antiquated occurrences of a bygone
era. They were repeated throughout the 20th century by Hitler, by
the Khmer Rouge to the Cambodian people, and through slaughters in
Burundi and Rwanda, among others. The 20th century began and ended
with genocide. All of these mass killings shared important aspects
in a historic pattern scholars and human rights activists are
trying to decode and prevent.
The passionate commitment of individuals and the integrity of
governments is required. Only through recognition can this history
be understood and made meaningful to prevent future crimes against
humanity.
Recognizing, understanding and learning from the Armenian
Genocide is not an end in itself. It is only a means through which
we can craft a free, just and prosperous new century.
On April 24, take a moment to remember the lost Armenians — if
not for the memory of their lives, then for the longevity of our
own.
Hovannisian is a first-year history and philosophy student.
E-mail him at ghovannisian@media.ucla.edu. Send general comments to
viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.