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Reuters
Reuters
By Humeyra Pamuk WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden said on Saturday that the 1915 massacres of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire constituted genocide, a historic declaration that infuriated Turkey and further strained frayed ties between the two NATO allies. The largely symbolic move, breaking away from decades of carefully calibrated language from the White House, was welcomed by the Armenian diaspora in the United States, but comes at a time when Ankara and Washington grapple with deep policy disagreements over a host of issues. Turkey’s government and most of the opposition show…
WASHINGTON, DC — The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum welcomes the recognition of the Armenian genocide by President Biden. This follows the 2019 Congressional resolution recognizing this tragic event as genocide.
“Holocaust history teaches that an honest reckoning with the past is a prerequisite to understanding the present and building a better future,” said Museum Director Sara J. Bloomfield. “Recognizing the full magnitude of the crimes committed against the Armenian people, even a century following the events, is important not only for the victims and their descendants. We know from watching Europe deal with the Holocaust and its legacy since 1945, just how important it is for all societies to openly acknowledge difficult national history.”
Between the spring of 1915 and the end of autumn 1916, the government of the Ottoman Empire, giving direction from its capital in Istanbul, arrested, deported, conducted mass killings, and created conditions intended to cause widespread death among the country’s Armenian Christian citizens, most of whom were living in the territory of modern-day Turkey. At least 664,000 and possibly as many as 1.2 million Armenian men, women, and children died in massacres, in individual killings, or as a consequence of systematic ill-treatment, forced displacement, exposure, starvation, and disease.
The ripples of the Armenian genocide were felt during the Holocaust. Franz Werfel’s Forty Days of Musa Dagh, depicting the genocide of the Armenians, was published in 1933 the year the Nazis came to power in Germany. It circulated widely in both Jewish and non-Jewish circles. Many German Jews—who were being targeted as the enemy, driven from their homes, deprived of the ability to provide for their children, and ghettoized—identified with the Armenians’ plight. And, some of those who helped save Jews and are recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations were Armenians who were motivated by memories of their own genocide.
The origins of the term “genocide” rest, in part, in the events of 1915-16. Polish-Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin’s exposure to the history of Ottoman attacks against Armenians as well as antisemitic pogroms and other cases of group-targeted violence fundamentally shaped his work seeking international legal protection for groups. Galvanized by the murder of his own family during the Holocaust, Lemkin tirelessly championed this legal concept until it was codified in the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in 1948.
“While the general outlines of what happened to the Armenians are clear, a full and complete documentation of this history will only be possible when all public and private archives are opened to independent researchers,” continued Bloomfield. “The Museum continues to call for all relevant archives to be made available for scholarship.”
A living memorial to the Holocaust, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum inspires citizens and leaders worldwide to confront hatred, prevent genocide, and promote human dignity. Its far-reaching educational programs and global impact are made possible by generous donors. For more information, visit ushmm.org.
Congressman Adam Schiff wrote: For tens of thousands of my constituents whose families have experienced unmitigated tragedy and loss, they’ve been disappointed by politicians their entire lives, and presidents of both parties, Democrats and Republicans, have refused to recognize the truth behind their suffering, that they and their ancestors were the victims of genocide.
I am writing, of course, of the Armenian Genocide.
For more than two decades, I have had the privilege of representing the largest Armenian-American community in America. The Armenian-American community is like so many others — its members care about education and health care and opportunity for themselves and their children — but they also are a tightly knit community with a deep sense of their history. And for year after year, they have seen presidents fail to recognize the catastrophe that befell their parents, grandparents and great grandparents, and which led their families to build new lives in America.
Let me take a step back.
For those of you who don’t know about this terrible chapter in history, in its waning days, the Ottoman Empire undertook a systematic campaign in 1915 to exterminate the Armenian people.
American diplomats recorded the events in real time, yet they lacked a name for the barbaric and systematic extermination of a people. Millions of Armenians were beaten, raped, killed, and marched across deserts. And in the end, 1.5 million Armenian women, men and children lay dead.
It was not until Raphael Lemkin coined the term “genocide” in 1943 that we had a word to describe the sheer magnitude of evil of seeking to destroy an entire people and culture.
Out of the blood and rubble, the Armenian people survived, and the orphans of this society crossed the ocean to build lives in California and around the nation.
Every April 24, we commemorate the Armenian Genocide — the families torn apart, the lives lost and the culture that survived. In Los Angeles, we march, we remember, and we pledge never to forget. For tens of thousands of my constituents, recognition of the genocide has been a lifelong struggle, passed down for generations. It is a deeply personal struggle, because the denial of that crime is an ongoing injury. The wound remains fresh.
And it’s been deeply personal for me, too. I’ve sat with survivors of the Genocide, been welcomed into their homes and heard their stories of forced marches through the Syrian desert, and the murders of the parents, brothers and sisters. I’ve watched them relive the pain, with tears streaming down their faces, and it is just like it was yesterday.
With each commemoration, I’ve watched as their numbers dwindled, hoping and praying that we could achieve recognition while some remained who were witnesses. Last session, the few who remain were able to see the genocide finally recognized by the U.S. Congress. But still, not by a U.S. President, not since Reagan, and even then, not in a statement devoted to the Armenian Genocide alone.
For weeks, I’ve been on the phone with members of the White House and Cabinet to underscore what recognition of the Armenian Genocide would mean, especially now.
Last week, Congresswoman Sara Jacobs (D-CA-53) joined over 100 lawmakers in sending a letter to President Biden, urging him to officially recognize the Armenian Genocide in his statement on Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day. Today, President Biden formally recognized the Armenian Genocide, the systematic murder and ethnic cleansing of as many as 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923. In recognition of this historic occasion and Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, Congresswoman Sara Jacobs issued the following statement: “I am grateful for President Biden’s statement today and am proud to stand with him in affirming the United States government’s recognition of the Armenian Genocide — a long overdue acknowledgement of the grim and horrific loss Armenians endured and a critical step for healing and reconciliation. We honor and remember the lives lost in the Genocide and acknowledge the pain and trauma the children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren of survivors have endured, including the many who now call the United States home.”