By William Paparian, Former Mayor of Pasadena
Every year on this day Armenians the world over honor the memory of our 1.5 million martyrs of the Armenian Genocide.
But, we also know that the Genocide is not over. It continues silently, relentlessly, insidiously.
The scars are not healed. The wounds are still festering, and the suffering is real. Today, the trauma, the pain continues.. We are still haunted by the emptiness that comes from losing entire families. When a loved one disappears, the disappearance lasts forever.
People who don’t know Armenians very well think that 8,000 miles and 107 years away from the killing fields in Western Armenian, it might be easy for us to forget. It would indeed by easy for us to teach our children only the more pleasant lessons of Armenian history. Others might think it natural for us to spend this day at work, at school, or at recreation, enjoying life, like millions of other ordinary families. But Armenians are not ordinary people. History has imposed special tasks on us.
Alongside the painful lessons of a 3,000-year old history, we have a national obligation to live every day of our lives in remembrance of those who perished. Our every action, our very way of life must adamantly and unflinchingly proclaim: Never again shall the Armenian people be subjected to Genocide! Never again will we allow men, women, and children to be torn away from their home, their schools, and their churches, to be massacred in deserts, rivers, and empty fields! Never again will we permit Armenians to suffer under the yoke of oppressors, such as the Turks, or Azeris. And . . . not only Armenians.
Yes, we may live in the computer age of global communication – but the barbarities in today’s headlines seem lifted from man’s darkest past. Look at Bosnia, or Rwanda. See how easily helpless minorities are rounded up and put to the death by the thousand – in their homeland – while the entire world watches . . . sheds few tears, sends a few dollars to a UN humanitarian agency, and then changes the channel. Sure, a picture may be worth a 1000 words. But what a numbing effect 1000 pictures of suffering has on us.
The Genocide of the Armenians in Ottoman Turkey in 1915 needs to be addressed and justice rendered to the victims, their survivors, and the Armenian nation. Those are the clear and simple demands of the Armenian people. What can we do today to bring that Judgement Day closer to reality? Well, I have a couple of suggestions.
First of all, we have to convince ourselves that we cannot rely on anyone else to help us in our fight for justice. We have to be self-reliant. No one can do for us what we must do for ourselves!
Without a just and final resolution to the 1915 Genocide, the Armenian people cannot rest. Unless Turkey accepts its guilty responsibility in the Genocide of Armenians, no real peace can exist between the Armenian people and the Turkish government. Until justice is done, the Armenian people cannot trust Turkey to be a peaceful neighbor. It will always be a threat to the Armenian Republic. It is up to the 5 million of us who live outside Armenia, to gain recognition, reparations, and return of the lands where our grandfathers, and their grandfathers before them, lived, worked and died.
Our battle has not been easy.
For a number of years, Armenian-Americans have fought to have the Armenian Genocide recognized by the President of the United States.
Time and time again, we came up against a barrage of propaganda, and misinformation put up by the Turkish government, defense industry contractors, who profit by trafficking arms to our executioners, and other hired lobbyists.
Weak elected officials caved in to Turkish money, and threats, and your know the rest, no recognition of the Armenian Genocide by the President of the United States. Until last year when President Biden recognized the Armenian Genocide?
No other word can be used to describe what happened to the Armenian people. And this is no semantic quibble. The usage of the word “Genocide” mandates no statute of limitations and demand legal redress, restitution, and punishment of the perpetrators.
While the Turkish government depends on hand-outs from the American taxpayers, the Armenian-American community does not barter the blood of its martyrs. We will not, we cannot, and we must not accept anything less than the full truth!
For too long now we have politely played the political game. But no longer!
Armenians will not be appeased by meek, useless statements from pandering politicians that cater to the Turks and insults the memory of the Armenian martyrs. We will no longer be taken for granted.
We must be uncompromising in dealings with Turkey and Azerbaijan. We can no longer remain quietly on the sidelines while cold-blooded bureaucrats sell off our past and our children’s future. Speaking with a single voice, Armenians everywhere must reject any further attempt to water down our nation’s just demands on Turkey. I believe the Armenian people have been more than patient over the last 106 years. Any other people would have long ago resorted to the kind of violence that marks the struggle for freedom for the Palestinians and the Irish.
I don’t know how much longer our people can wait. But I do know it won’t be forever. Let’s hope our patience is not tested too much more. .
My second suggestion is this: solidarity with and compassion for the suffering of others is a true measure of greatness of any people. Armenians carry this lesson in their very bones.
On April 24, it is only proper and just for Armenians to reiterate their solidarity with all other victims of intolerance. To do any less would diminish the righteousness and strength of our case. Our place can never be with those voices of hatred and racism, or those who are ready and willing to victimize helpless minorities. No responsible Armenian can condone the kind of institutionalized violence witnessed recently against legal or illegal immigrants. Who better than we know what it means to be branded as the outsider, the intruder, the trespasser? We also cannot, and should not remain silent when intolerance is preached from the steps of the State Capitol, the floor of the U.S. Senate, or the political campaign trail.
We must reject all forms of racism and fight against intolerant political voices. In so doing, not only will we create a better community for ourselves, we will help in the building of a healthier society for all. If we ever, even for a moment, close our eyes to the suffering and persecution of any minority anywhere on this globe, we dishonor our own martyred families. When we side with the powerful and the arrogant, when we applaud or ignore their abuses, then we betray our own history.
This, my friends, is our ultimate responsibility to our survivors, and the individuals of all races, ages, and creeds, who have fallen victims to the greatest crimes of the 20th Century.
Former Mayor of Pasadena William Paparian
