On anniversary of Armenian Genocide... call for self-organization to prevent its recurrence
Armenian Social Council Adviser Imad Tataryan emphasized that any country which loses its leadership and lacks civil and military institutions to defend it is vulnerable to genocide. He called on all people to learn lessons from the Armenian Genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire.
The anniversary of the Armenian Genocide by the Ottoman Empire in 1915 arrives at a moment when the region's peoples still endure the atrocities of war and sectarian and ethnic strife. Domestic strife and identity killings persist, recalling grim images of one of the deadliest episodes of modern times.
On April 24 of every year, Armenians all over the world commemorate the painful memory of a massacre where more than 1.5 million people were murdered, and in which nearly half a million others vanished, in a systematic ethnic cleansing campaign to eliminate the Ottoman Empire's Armenian component.
In this context, Imad Tataryan, Secretary General of the Armenian Union Party and Adviser to the Armenian Social Council in North and East Syria, said, "What befell the Armenian people was not a mass killing, but an organized genocide that surpassed all humanitarian and legal norms."
He observed that the genocide had been against an entire people based on religious and ethnic identity, starting with the killing of leaders and intellectuals, displacement and torture, burning villages, and committing the most heinous crimes against women, children, and men.
Tataryan elucidated that the genocide began with the arrest of about 280 Armenian intellectuals in Istanbul on the pretext of discussion. They were subsequently killed, hence rendering the people leaderless and defenseless to protect themselves.
He emphasized that the lack of self-organization was one of the main causes for this genocide. Tataryan added, "So we have learned as Armenians that organization, consciousness, documentation of history, and self-defense are the ways to protect people and prevent genocides from happening again."
The genocide still lives on in Syria.
As the region's people mark this grim genocide, Syria's coastline is today seeing "ethnic cleansing practices that are very similar to what happened to the Armenians more than a century ago," Tataryan said.
He explained that in many villages and towns, especially those that had Alawite majorities or religious minorities, the residents were disarmed under the promise of protection. The local leaders, intellectuals, and physicians were then targeted, according to a pattern well-known to what had happened to the Armenians in 1915.
Tataryan believed that the lack of international accountability and international inaction to the massacres in Syria today is a reminder of the international complicity that accompanied the Armenian genocide when the great powers were preoccupied with World War I and turned a blind eye to the genocide.
Lessons the Past, a Present to Protect the Future
Emad Tataryan concluded by asserting that the most significant lesson to be derived from the Armenian Genocide is to promote self-organization and unity of peoples and overcome sectarian and religious divisions.
He said, "Any people that loses its leadership and lacks civil and military institutions to defend it becomes vulnerable to genocide. Therefore, it is necessary to build institutions that represent all religious, ethnic, and sectarian components."
He also called for the establishment of effective international mechanisms for accountability, documenting violations, and rewriting history from the perspective of the victims, not the perpetrators, so as not to turn the dark pages and repeat the massacres under new names.
Armenian Union Party Secretary-General and Adviser to the Armenian Social Council of North and East Syria Emad Tataryan concluded his speech by saying, "Today, as we commemorate the martyrs of the Armenian Genocide, we do not do so only in sadness, but also as a warning. History repeats itself if we do not confront it with consciousness, organization, and unity."
T/S
ANHA
On anniversary of Armenian Genocide... call for self-organization to prevent its recurrence
The anniversary of the Armenian Genocide by the Ottoman Empire in 1915 arrives at a moment when the region's peoples still endure the atrocities of war and sectarian and ethnic strife. Domestic strife and identity killings persist, recalling grim images of one of the deadliest episodes of modern times.
On April 24 of every year, Armenians all over the world commemorate the painful memory of a massacre where more than 1.5 million people were murdered, and in which nearly half a million others vanished, in a systematic ethnic cleansing campaign to eliminate the Ottoman Empire's Armenian component.
In this context, Imad Tataryan, Secretary General of the Armenian Union Party and Adviser to the Armenian Social Council in North and East Syria, said, "What befell the Armenian people was not a mass killing, but an organized genocide that surpassed all humanitarian and legal norms."
He observed that the genocide had been against an entire people based on religious and ethnic identity, starting with the killing of leaders and intellectuals, displacement and torture, burning villages, and committing the most heinous crimes against women, children, and men.
Tataryan elucidated that the genocide began with the arrest of about 280 Armenian intellectuals in Istanbul on the pretext of discussion. They were subsequently killed, hence rendering the people leaderless and defenseless to protect themselves.
He emphasized that the lack of self-organization was one of the main causes for this genocide. Tataryan added, "So we have learned as Armenians that organization, consciousness, documentation of history, and self-defense are the ways to protect people and prevent genocides from happening again."
The genocide still lives on in Syria.
As the region's people mark this grim genocide, Syria's coastline is today seeing "ethnic cleansing practices that are very similar to what happened to the Armenians more than a century ago," Tataryan said.
He explained that in many villages and towns, especially those that had Alawite majorities or religious minorities, the residents were disarmed under the promise of protection. The local leaders, intellectuals, and physicians were then targeted, according to a pattern well-known to what had happened to the Armenians in 1915.
Tataryan believed that the lack of international accountability and international inaction to the massacres in Syria today is a reminder of the international complicity that accompanied the Armenian genocide when the great powers were preoccupied with World War I and turned a blind eye to the genocide.
Lessons the Past, a Present to Protect the Future
Emad Tataryan concluded by asserting that the most significant lesson to be derived from the Armenian Genocide is to promote self-organization and unity of peoples and overcome sectarian and religious divisions.
He said, "Any people that loses its leadership and lacks civil and military institutions to defend it becomes vulnerable to genocide. Therefore, it is necessary to build institutions that represent all religious, ethnic, and sectarian components."
He also called for the establishment of effective international mechanisms for accountability, documenting violations, and rewriting history from the perspective of the victims, not the perpetrators, so as not to turn the dark pages and repeat the massacres under new names.
Armenian Union Party Secretary-General and Adviser to the Armenian Social Council of North and East Syria Emad Tataryan concluded his speech by saying, "Today, as we commemorate the martyrs of the Armenian Genocide, we do not do so only in sadness, but also as a warning. History repeats itself if we do not confront it with consciousness, organization, and unity."
T/S
ANHA
