Turkey’s Century of Denial About an Armenian Genocide

NY Times ^ | 04-16-2015 | TIM ARANGO

[NRx]

CUNGUS, Turkey — The crumbling stone monastery, built into the hillside, stands as a forlorn monument to an awful past. So, too, does the decaying church on the other side of this mountain village. Farther out, a crevice is sliced into the earth, so deep that peering into it, one sees only blackness. Haunting for its history, it was there that a century ago, an untold number of Armenians were tossed to their deaths.

“They threw them in that hole, all the men,” said Vahit Sahin, 78, sitting at a cafe in the center of the village, reciting the stories that have passed through generations.

[navyguy]

I wish more people understood that the Armenians were killed by Muslims in large part BECAUSE they were Christians. Often that was the only reason.

[afraidfortherepublic]

2 recent books on the Armenian genocide: Black Dog of Fate by Peter Balakian (based on his grandfather) and The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bojhalian, a novel based on the life of E. Endicott, a Bostonian who tried to save many of the refugees.

[afraidfortherepublic]

What’s to understand? Death and torture is death and torture, no matter the reason.