South Chicagoland Young Democrats: The Blog

Controversy and anger surrounds a bill recently passed by France making it a crime to deny that the Armenian Genocide of 1915 was, in fact, a genocide. Most of the world’s political figures refer to it as a merely a massacre or just a “tragedy” that happened to occur.

Before I begin, let me explain for those who have never heard of this genocide. Between 1915 and 1918, the Ottoman Empire in Turkey methodically killed 1.5 million Armenians. For a population of around 2 million, it’s a bit more than a tragedy. A relocation program was set up by the Ottoman Empire for the unknowing Armenians, whose destination was a more primitive version of Hilter’s comcentration camps. They walked there, with no food, no water, no protection from the elements, and with armed Turkish soldiers. Any of this sound familiar? Yeah, guess where Hitler got his idea.

Turkey claims to this day that all 1.5 million people were killed during the times of civil unrest as the empire collapsed under stress from World War I.

France passes this bill as Turkey is attempting to enter the European Union. Until Turkey acknowledges the “tragedy” as what is really is, France refuses to back their entry.

Have we learned nothing from the Holocaust, from Rwanda, or from the current genocide in Sudan? How many many more millions of people must die before we take action? America is such a powerful voice, yet we never speak up. We say “That’s horrible, you should stop,” but why should anyone stop when they face no consequences? Staying silent and allowing Turkey, or anyone, to keep getting away with a genocide will help this murderous train rolling. We cannot stop genocide until we recognize and ackowledge genocide. We can do it with one sentence. This was not just a massacre, this tragedy was genocide.

Americans have a stereotype about France. The French are weak, they are cowards, they would rather sit in cafes eating croissants than go fight for what’s right. But France had the courage to stand up for what’s right, and are facing the consequences. How can we call them cowards when we will not stand up for those 1.5 million people who cannot speak for themselves? It makes me proud to say that I am 2 percent French. C’est le temps pour se lever.

Cait Phipps, 1st Vice President

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 15th, 2006 at 5:46 pm and is filed under General, International Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.