92 Years Too Late

The House of Representatives has finally turned up the light on the hill from off to dim. The House Committee on Foreign Affairs passed 27-21 a non-binding resolution calling the 1915 killing of 1.5 million Armenians a Genocide. Although it comes 92 years too late, I feel celebration is in order. Although President Bush and his cadre are fighting this tooth and nail, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-California said there are already 226 co-sponsors waiting for a full House vote. He also said this is the most support an Armenian Genocide resolution has ever had. Hooray for America! Or at least half of it! One arm of the sleeping giant has finally awoken to join the fray. If only Raphael Lemkin were here today. He wouldn't be cheering, though. He'd be at the door of every last Representative, before he even slept or ate, to urge them to keep fighting to "change the world."
The sad part of the story, or at least one of the many, is that the campaign of international secrecy and misinformation perpetuated by Turkey's architect of the Armenian Genocide in 1915 is still felt today. I read about this news on CNN.com, and was completely disheartened by the lack of balanced journalism. Here is what I wrote to them:
"I was shocked to find that your article provided almost no information about the subject of the resolution in question--the Armenian Genocide. The little information provided gave only the diluted version of the story: the version which Turkey has been promoting since it committed the crimes a century ago. The deaths caused by Turkey's systematic campaign were not only due to deportations and its aftereffects. Like Hitler's campaign, the killings were widespread and well planned. As Minister of the Interior, Mehmet Talaat, orchestrated the entire genocide, making sure to minimize international awareness. The US Ambassador to Turkey at the time eventually resigned in protest. This was the first genocide of the 20th Century, and we cannot assume that Turkish-Armenian relations will be destabilized by the world's greatest power finally admitting the truth. We should have passed this resolution when Armenia was truly being destabilized, 92 years ago. Perhaps it would have changed the world's pitiful reaction to the Holocaust, Bosnia, Rwanda, Cambodia, and Darfur."
When will "Never again!" finally be spoken in truth?
I know that many of us, including myself 3 years ago, had never heard of the Armenian Genocide. It makes me sick inside to think that over a million voices cried out for help only 92 years ago and we have already buried it in the history books to be glazed over by indifferent high school students. And even if some contend that its significance is less than that of other human tragedies, speaking in terms of numbers, I must disagree. Even if you only look at 1.5 million as a small statistic, you must also look at the other numbers of this travesty: 1915. This genocide, especially the way it was carried out with little direct interference from the international community, was a stepping stone for the ambitions of one Adolf Hitler. He was aware of the ease with which Talaat carried out the genocide and used it to his advantage. According to one source, Hitler said in a speech to his troops "I have placed my death-head formation in readiness ...with orders to them to send to death mercilessly and without compassion, men, women, and children of Polish derivation and language. Only thus shall we gain the living space which we need. Who, after all, speaks to-day of the annihilation of the Armenians?"