I’d bet that 90% of the people reading this know no more about the Armenian Genocide than I did a week ago: Armenians lived in Turkey, then they were killed. A mass slaughter—not the first, and sadly not the last, in human history. Now Turks refuse to recognize it as genocide, while Armenians around the world push for laws acknowledging it. The dispute is understandable, but this kind of campaign a hundred years later seems strange.
But once you start reading the testimonies and looking at the documents and photographs, your blood runs cold—and it becomes clear why this campaign exists.
A very worthwhile investment in humanity’s future—one that each of us can make today—is to spend a little time reading about the Armenian Genocide.
A lot of good articles came out today. I highly recommend this issue of The New Times devoted to the subject (all materials are freely available), especially the article “The Great Crime.”
Kommersant also has a good piece: “The History of the Armenian Genocide, Told by Its Organizers and Witnesses.”
And it wouldn’t hurt to read the Wikipedia article as well.
The more we know, the more we remember, the fewer mistakes we will make in the future.