In Constantinople, on this day in 1915, the crumbling Ottoman empire rounded up hundreds of intellectuals, poets, religious figures, and other leading members of the Armenian community.
It was the beginning of the Armenian Genocide, which is memorialized annually on April 24.
It was the beginning of the Armenian Genocide, which is memorialized annually on April 24.
Many of the Armenian community leaders were tortured and killed by the empire in the following months, along with about a million and a half of their kin, part of a broad program of extermination.
The empire had many women and children 'deported' — a wholly insufficient word to describe what were in fact death marches into the desert. Men were killed, their bodies disappeared into mass graves or floated down rivers into oblivion.
The historical facts are well established. Despite denialism — akin to Holocaust denialism — there is no debate to be had about the history. Yet the fight for recognition is ongoing, especially here in the U.S.
For Armenians everywhere, the burden of history is heavy today. For Armenian Americans, it is especially so.
Armenians in America must relive their trauma, contending with the fact that their government does not recognize what happened to their people.
Armenians in America must relive their trauma, contending with the fact that their government does not recognize what happened to their people.
Insult is added to injury, weight added to the trauma and its burden, with the winking acknowledgement that, amid this lack of recognition, the government knows it's lying to its Armenian American citizens, denying their history out of expediency.
Read @danielleiat on this burden, on the way the gaslighting makes it worse. It is a moving account of what it's like to live with such a historical weight unacknowledged, even disparaged, what its like to be told to stop asking for even recognition. newsweek.com/us-needs-stop-…
Bear in mind amid all this that remembrance is its own acknowledgement. Try to think today of our Armenian brothers and sisters, about what you can do to help bring them peace and justice.
Today, Biden took an important step in a statement:
"Each year on this day, we remember the lives of all those who died in the Ottoman-era Armenian genocide." whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/…
"Each year on this day, we remember the lives of all those who died in the Ottoman-era Armenian genocide." whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/…
As others have noted, this sort of one-off recognition in the past has been fleeting. Let's hope this time it sticks. Congress should, as other legislatures have, recognize this as a memorial day for the Armenian genocide. Here's hoping for more progress.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
