History being rewritten, again!

Have you ever realized that your family history can be taken apart and changed at the whim of politics? Today is the day Armenians celebrate as a Memorial Day to those 1.5 million Armenians who died at the hands of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. It was the first genocide of the 20th Century.

Today, rather than celebrating the lives of people who fought to keep their religion, culture, art and language, we are having to fight against politicians who are stating that the genocide never really happened.

The European Union has not accepted Turkey into the Union b/c the Turkish government still denies having any part of the massacres. Europeans don't believe this, but the US, b/c of needing military bases in Turkey, is rather wishy-washy on the subject. In fact, PBS aired a panel debate over my history. It's no wonder that when I was in undergraduate school, the Native American club sponsored an Armenian Memorial Day Educational program. Sadly, Native Americans can certainly relate to having their history rewritten time and time again.

Here's some Armenian history:

World War One gave the Young Turk government the cover and the excuse to carry out their plan. The plan was simple and its goal was clear. On April 24th 1915, commemorated worldwide by Armenians as Genocide Memorial Day, hundreds of Armenian leaders were murdered in Istanbul after being summoned and gathered. The now leaderless Armenian people were to follow. Across the Ottoman Empire (with the exception of Constantinople, presumably due to a large foreign presence), the same events transpired from village to village, from province to province.

The remarkable thing about the following events is the virtually complete cooperation of the Armenians. For a number of reasons they did not know what was planned for them and went along with "their" government's plan to "relocate them for their own good." First, the Armenians were asked to turn in hunting weapons for the war effort. Communities were often given quotas and would have to buy additional weapons from Turks to meet their quota. Later, the government would claim these weapons were proof that Armenians were about to rebel. The able bodied men were then "drafted" to help in the wartime effort. These men were either immediately killed or were worked to death. (My grandfather was able to escape this fate after being "drafted.") Now the villages and towns, with only women, children, and elderly left were systematically emptied. The remaining residents would be told to gather for a temporary relocation and to only bring what they could carry. The Armenians again obediently followed instructions and were "escorted" by Turkish Gendarmes in death marches.

The death marches led across Anatolia, and the purpose was clear. The Armenians were raped, starved, dehydrated, murdered, and kidnapped along the way. The Turkish Gendarmes either led these atrocities or turned a blind eye. Their eventual destination for resettlement was just as telling in revealing the Turkish governments goal: the Syrian Desert, Der Zor. Those who miraculously survived the march would arrive to this bleak desert only to be killed upon arrival or to somehow survive until a way to escape the empire was found. Usually those that survived and escaped received assistance from those who have come to be known as "good Turks," from foreign missionaries who recorded much of these events and from Arabs.

Hitler referred to the massacre of the Armenians when he plotted to kill Jews. He is quoted as saying: "After all, who today speaks of the Armenians."

Armenia was the first nation to adopt Christianity as a national religion. Unfortunately, the US once again didn't recall this history and after 9/11 asked that some of my fellow Armenians "register" as they were insisting of Muslims. I guess someone in office didn't look closely enough at the map to realize that yes, while we are a small country in between larger Muslim nations, we ourselves are not Muslim. And even if we were, I seem to recall historical documents stating that the US offers freedom of religion, or does that only apply to what the President considers religion?

It's very sad to see that after so many years, people can have a memory lapse and begin to believe just what they're told. I wonder in 20-30 years, when we look back on this particular administration if we'll be convinced/marketed into believing that the war in Iraq was worth all the death, pain, and suffering.