The Armenian Genocide: A Biblical Story?
By Michael Boyajian
My friend Harlan thinks about the Holocaust and is able to live with what happened by thinking of it in Biblical terms. Millions were killed but now the Jewish people have a homeland, Israel, for the first time since Roman times two thousand years ago. A modern day Passover story is how he describes it.
I told Harlan how upsetting it was talking to the elders of my family as I recorded the family history and their thoughts about the Armenian Genocide. My father used to say, if it did not happen than what happened to all my uncles. My Uncle Gary says when he was told about it as a child he said he did not want to grow up to be a man because then the Turks would come for him. My Uncle Leo tells how his father escaped posing as a Turkish diplomat fooling the soldiers he encountered. My mother says that her grandfather was called the mayor of his Turkish town and they came for him first, they came for the intellectuals first.
But how to think of it in Biblical terms. An ancient people the first to establish a Christian state church collide with a Muslim people. A Westernized people collide with an Eastern people. Intellectuals vs. soldiers. I cannot think of a Biblical story with this genocide only that we survived and spread around the world and our homeland outside Turkey, Armenia, is now free.
But I still cannot connect it to a Biblical story like my friend does with the Holocaust as a modern Passover. Perhaps the Armenian story is not finished yet. Perhaps we have a role in some future great story. Maybe it is a great story of forgiveness for the death of 1.5 million who were killed and today, recently, Turkey and Armenia established diplomatic relations. Perhaps it’s the frustration of how slow other nations are to recognize what happened. One person said now is not the time to upset Turkey. Well when is the right time?
For now I will go with the human forgiveness story that is a good Biblical epic for an ancient people who established the first Christian church at the crossroads of civilizations.
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