Armenians Join Together Again to Remember Genocide of 1915

Los Angeles Times ^ | 4/25/10 | Esmeralda Bermudez

[nickcarraway]

Across the Southland, families march, pause and pray for relatives lost 95 years ago.

There will come a day, some said, when Armenians won't need to take to the streets in protest, and they will simply honor slain ancestors with peaceful lament.

But that day didn't appear any closer Saturday, as Armenians gathered worldwide to commemorate the Armenian genocide of 1915, which claimed the lives of about 1.2 million Armenians under Ottoman-ruled Turkey.

In Yerevan, Armenia's capital, hundreds of thousands laid flowers at a monument to the victims, while across Southern California, Armenian families marched, prayed and paused to remember lost great-grandparents, great-grand-uncles and great-grand-aunts --loved ones who were deported, starved, arrested and executed almost 100 years ago.

The Turkish government does not recognize the genocide, and a long-debated resolution that would call for the United States to officially acknowledge the killings faces opposition in Congress.

But the battle did not dissuade Armenians from pushing for recognition Saturday.

In the desert outside Lancaster, a group of Armenian youths braved the afternoon heat and walked 15 miles to pay tribute to ancestors who died in the Syrian desert.

In Glendale, youths organized a 30-hour fast, while in the San Fernando Valley, a bike-a-thon was planned. An annual march in Little Armenia also took place, along with a protest outside the Turkish Consulate in Los Angeles.

Caravans of cars draped in Armenia's red, blue and orange flag could been seen outside the Armenian Martyrs Memorial Monument in Montebello, where several thousand people lined up to place red and white carnations at the foot of the stone tower.

[nickcarraway]

How long before Congress makes this illegal?

[himno hero]

I have watched three television accounting’s of this and not once was it detailed that the genocide was an act of Muslims savagery perpetrated on Christians.

[Mobilemitter]

"The decision to carry out a genocide against the Armenian people was made by the political party in power in the Ottoman Empire. This was the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) (or Ittihad ve Terakki Jemiyeti), popularly known as the Young Turks."

From http://www.armenian-genocide.org/genocidefaq.html#What

[LastNorwegian]

But it wasn’t just a political issue.

Imams urged people to join the jihad to kill and take sex-slaves and ordinary people did join in since it was justified in islam. This, btw, is quite unlike the holocaust where the national socialists had to use extermination camps since even the Wehrmacht and SS couldn’t be relied upon to do the dirty work that ordinary muslims (and not just Turks) happily did.