Why,  92 years after the event, do we wish to commemorate the genocide?

It is a complicated question to which there are many different answers. Here is my personal view.

First: for many of us the commemoration will be a way to remember older members of our families - grandparents, great aunts and uncles, parents - who perished, or whose lives were for ever affected and who were scattered to distant parts of this world.

Secondly: the denial of genocide is a constant festering of the wound. Genocide denial should not be seen as an assault on the history of one particular group. In the case of the Holocaust, it's denial repudiated reasoned discussion, the way the Holocaust, itself, engulfed all civilization. Holocaust denial like anti-Semitism itself, was and sadly still is an attack on Jewish history and as such is an attack on the most basic values of a reasoned society.

So it is with the denial of the Armenian genocide

Thirdly:  only through recognition and the acceptance of history will come genuine reconciliation.

And fourthly:  There are sadly those (who even today perpetrate acts of genocide) and who believe that their behaviour will never be challenged criticised or even remembered. By recognising and commemorating the Armenian Genocide, we continue to remind those in Ruanda, and those in Darfur, that there acts will be ultimately judged.

MPGP

Addendum:   The desecration of the memorial was extremely sad. It was not an act of random vandalism - but a deliberate act timed to coincide with the use of the memorial to commemorate victims of the Holocaust and to remember Hrant Dink who was murdered because of his open acknowledgement in Turkey of the Armenian Genocide. The truth of the Genocide is accepted by the vast majority of thinking people - but resisted by those in governments concerned for economic and political reasons to retain cordial relationships with the Turkish Government. Those who wield a sledgehammer may damage and break a cross, but will never destroy the truth.

For those who seek confirmation of the truth of the events commemorated, and justification for the description of the events as genocide, please read the statement by 126 Holocaust Scholars, Holders of Academic Chairs, and Directors of Holocaust Research and Studies Centers

126 holocaust scholars affirm the incontestable fact of the Armenian Genocide and urge western democracies to officially recognise it as such

At the Thirtieth Anniversary of the Scholar’s Conference on the Holocaust and the Churches Convening at St. Joseph University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, March 3-7, 2000, one hundred and twenty-six Holocaust Scholars, holders of Academic Chairs and Directors of Holocaust Research and Studies Centres, participants of the Conference, signed a statement affirming that the World War I Armenian Genocide is an incontestable historical fact and accordingly urge the governments of Western democracies to likewise recognize it as such. The petitioners, among whom is Nobel Laureate for Peace Elie Wiesel, who was the keynote speaker at the conference, also asked the Western Democracies to urge the Government and Parliament of Turkey to finally come to terms with a dark chapter of Ottoman-Turkish history and to recognize the Armenian Genocide.

Below is a partial list of the signatories:
Prof. Yehuda Bauer – Distinguished Professor, Hebrew University; Director, The International Institute of Holocaust Research,Yad Vashem, Jerusalem
Prof. Israel Charny, Director – Institute of the Holocaust and Genocide, Jerusalem; Professor at the Hebrew University; Editor-in-Chief of The Encyclopedia of Genocide
Prof. Ward Churchill – Ethnic Studies, The University of Colorado, Boulder
Prof. Stephen Feinstein – Director, Centre for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, University of Minnesota
Prof. Saul Friedman – Director, Holocaust and Jewish Studies, Youngston State University, Ohio
Prof. Edward Gaffney – Valparaiso University Law School
Prof. Zev Garber – Los Angeles Valley College
Prof. Dorota Glowacka – University of King’s College, Halifax, Nova Scotia
Dr. Irving Greenberg, – President, Jewish Life Network
Prof. Herbert Hirsch – Virginia Commonwealth University
Prof. Irving L. Horowitz – Hannah Arendt Distinguished Professor, Rutgers University, NJ
Rabbi Dr. Steve Jacobs – Temple Sinai Shalom, Huntsville, Alabama; Associate Editor of The Encyclopedia of Genocide
Prof. Steven Katz – Distinguish Professor, Director, Centre for Judaic Studies, Boston University
Prof. Richard Libowitz – Temple University
Dr. Elizabeth Maxwell – Executive Director of the International Scholarly, Conference on the Holocaust, London, England
Prof. Erik Markusen – Southwest State University, MN
Prof. Saul Mendlowitz – Dag Hammerskjold Distinguished Professor of International Law, Rutgers University
Prof. Jack Needle – Director, Centre for Holocaust Studies, Brookdale Community College, Lincroft, NJ
Dr. Philip Rosen – Director, Holocaust Education Center of the Delaware Valley
Prof. Alan S, Rosenbaum – Dept. of Philosophy, Cleveland State University
William L. Shulman – President, Association of Holocaust Organizations City University of New York
Prof. Samuel Totten – The University of Arkansas; Assoc. Editor of The Encyclopedia of Genocide
Prof. Elie Wiesel – Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities, Boston University; Founding Chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council; Nobel Laureate for Peace

I hereby declare that the originals of these one hundred and twenty-six signatories are on file in my office. All affiliations supplied are for identification purposes only.

Dr. Stephen Feinstein,
Director, Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, University of Minnesota

for more detailed evidence:  please visit the website    www.rememberarmenia.co.uk