My life has been lived in the shadow of my grandfather's experience as a survivor of the Armenian genocide. On April 24, 1915 the horror began, when the Turkish government implemented its plan to exterminate all Armenians from their 3,000-year-old homeland. Intending to create a homogenous Turkish state that would occupy Armenia, 1.5 million Armenians were killed between 1915 and 1923. The atrocities committed during the genocide were countless. The painful remembrance of these past horrors are inescapable for my grandfather, Adranik Vartanian, and all victims of the genocide.
This week marks the 85th anniversary of the Armenian genocide. The Turkish government refuses to acknowledge the genocide despite its established historical fact, which is documented in primary sources that are available in U.S. archives. The Turkish government is attempting to revise history, funding academics and politicians both in and out of Turkey in order to deny the Armenian genocide.
In denying the Armenian genocide — the first genocide of the 20th century — the Turkish government is perpetrating the ultimate act of persecution. The greatest danger of Turkish-revisionist history is the possibility for history to repeat itself. During the Holocaust, Hitler posed the question, "Who today remembers the Armenians?" This week is a time to remember the victims of the Armenian genocide.
To borrow from William Safire's essay, "Week of Miracles," in the April 20 edition of The New York Times, "it pays to recount the bloody deeds of the past — both by attackers and in our defense — if such unrelenting annual remembrance girds the world against a recurrence of evil." Safire speaks of the need to recognize the horrors of history despite our resulting discomfort. Though Safire does not specifically refer to the Armenian genocide, his call to remember is the only way to prevent history from repeating itself.
The title of Safire's essay, "Week of Miracles" captures my family's sense of renewed faith because in addition to the celebration of Easter this weekend, our family celebrated the miracle of my grandfather's 100th birthday. It was a bittersweet celebration as it was followed by the commemoration of the 85th anniversary of the death of his entire family. I am fortunate that my grandfather is alive and has an amazing mind and a clear memory to provide a testimony of the Armenian genocide. It is vital that our generation seizes knowledge from the few remaining witnesses to the inhumanity perpetrated in the beginning of the 20th century in order to prevent revision of history from being continued into the 21st century. Christina Barba is from New Vernon, N.J. She can be reached at cabarba@princeton.edu.
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