This Thanksgiving I watched two elderly women on TV. One was a Holocaust survivor and the other was at that time a child whose family hid the survivor from the Nazis at their own peril. The two women, one Catholic the other Jewish, were reunited for the first time at a tearful reunion celebrating the joy of human compassion. The scene made me cry with the childhood friends.
But it also made me remember the Armenian Genocide where 1.5 million were killed yet this atrocity is denied by the Turkish government today so that we don’t have these stories of humanity. Keep in mind that I don’t blame modern Turkey for what happened in 1915 but I must remind my Turkish friends that by denying the genocide they are in a way perpetuating it by causing living Armenians to anguish today over past loss and in a way the lack of justice as to the horrors. There is pain and suffering when a great atrocity is put in doubt by some as if it did not happen but as my late father would always say, “If it did not happen than where are all my uncles.”
Turks and Armenians have a long history together black marked for the most part only by the genocide. By acknowledging what happened both people can move forward out of the prison of memories of 1915 and return to their benevolent and symbiotic relationship making for peace and prosperity for all. Some may deny it, others may not believe it but it did happen and I hold no ill will towards Turks today in fact I embrace them as ancient brothers and sisters.