The 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide in 2015 can be seen as a turning point in our collective struggle for recognition and justice for the crime planned, perpetrated, executed and so vehemently denied by Turkey.
It was Pope Francis who, during a special Mass at the Vatican marking the centennial of the Genocide, reaffirmed the need for the international recognition of that crime, essentially making it a clarion call to the world that the injustice that has stemmed from the systematic denial has prevented humanity to advance and prevent such mass atrocities.
Pope Francis, who died on Monday, shortly after his Easter message in which he also prayed for peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan, reaffirmed this position when he visited Armenia in 2016, making the same powerful declaration with Mount Ararat as a backdrop and during his visit to the Dzidzernagapert Armenian Genocide Memorial Complex.
The centennial also served as an opportunity for Armenians around the world to coalesce and unify around the need for recognition and justice for the Armenian Genocide and to demonstrate the Armenian Nation’s unwavering will to survive, against all odds.
Nowhere was that more apparent than in Los Angeles, where 166,000 Armenians from all walks of life came together and took part in a 6.5 March for Justice through some of the busiest streets of our already crowded city—raising our collective voices and fists to not only commemorate, but demand justice.
It is time for a long-overdue assessment—in inventory—of the events of the past 10 years and the lessons that were not taken, which have led us to a present that is marred by yet another genocide and ethnic cleansing of Armenians, this time in Artsakh.
It would be safe to say that the groundswell of calls for justice, and the much-delayed and eventual recognition of the Armenian Genocide by the United States in 2021, propelled our enemies—Turkey and Azerbaijan—to boldly carry out yet another genocide of Armenians, as the world, once again, sat back and watched and gave way to a new campaign of denial, complicity and complacency.
Yet, what is more disturbing is how this campaign of complicity, complacency and denial has become a policy point for the Armenian authorities, who, in the name of nebulous prospects for peace, have diminished the collective history of the Armenian people.
As recently as last week, Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said while he respected and honored our ancestors, Armenia was looking to “move forward.” His remarks echo the statements made by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who all but questioned the veracity of the Genocide when he repeated his destructive belief that there was a need to revisit the history of what happened in 1915.
Almost a year after the centennial, Azerbaijan sparked the 2016 April War—an omen of things to come. In 2020, Azerbaijan and Turkey began to realize their long-festering plans with the brutal war in Artsakh, then the eventual and complete displacement of Armenians of Artsakh.
When the people of Artsakh were enduring the horrors inflicted upon them by Azerbaijan, and living through a chokehold that was the blockade, the government of Armenia, headed by its prime minister, was vocally recognizing Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity that included Baku’s sovereignty over Artsakh, effectively providing Aliyev and his regime an opportunity to fulfill its policy of ethnic cleansing.
Today, Artsakh is not even in the vernacular of the Armenian government, which says that it cannot negotiate for the rights of Artsakh Armenians because no one lives there, and blames the leadership of Artsakh for having to endure the horrors of war, a blockade and an attempt at complete annihilation.
Let it be clear, peace cannot be achieved when war, destruction and the ultimate goal of erasing Armenians is still a part of the policies and agendas of Turkey and Azerbaijan. By calling for an assessment of the history, Pashinyan and his allies are merely clearing the way for our enemies to not only continue to deny the past but also carve out a future for our nation that is devoid of justice and any claims to inalienable rights as guaranteed by international law and treaties.
At the same, Armenian communities around the world—including here in Western United States—also must honestly assess whether they lived up to and harnessed the opportunities to collectively fight for our common cause(s) that were presented—and cemented—during the centennial of the Armenian Genocide.
While it has become the norm to selectively point our fingers at this or that individual or group as culprits for our current realities, we must also reflect on our own actions (or lack thereof) that have led the lessons of history to fall to the wayside.
Now, more than ever, history and historical justice must become the anchors on which we, as Armenians, must rest. It is OUR history that is going to shape OUR future. It is OUR collective experience as victims and survivors of the Armenian Genocide that is going shape how we collectively pursue justice for the unresolved crime of genocide against our people, both in 1915 and in 2023.
As we honor the 1,500,000 martyrs of the Armenian Genocide, we also remember the thousands of men and women who sacrificed their lives at the altar of freedom in Artsakh and steadfastly express our solidarity with our more than 150,000 forcibly displaced sisters and brothers of Artsakh who have experienced a modern-day genocide.
