The world about the Armenian Genocide. celebrity statements on the 109th anniversary of the tragedy
Today, April 24, marks the 109th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide that took place in 1915 in the Ottoman Empire, in connection with which we have selected the statements of famous people about that tragic reality.
Arnold Toynbee
"All these violences are committed against the Armenians, even if they do nothing to provoke them" (Arnold Toynbee, 1915, English historian, gave a speech in defense of Armenian independence and against the crimes of the Ottoman Empire).
"When the Turkish authorities ordered these evictions, they effectively executed an entire people. they understood it perfectly and did not make special attempts to hide that fact in their conversations with me. I am sure that there is no such terrible episode in the entire history of mankind. In 1915, orders to deport Armenian families were a simple death sentence for the entire people" (Henry Morgenthau, 1919, US Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire: From "Memoirs of Henry Morgenthau, American Ambassador to Turkey").
Henry Morgenthau
"Neither our representatives, nor the American embassy, nor the delegations of the Pope, nor the threats of the allies can stop the Turkish government's steps to destroy the Armenian nation in order to finally solve the Armenian issue. (Count Wolf Metternich, 1916, German Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire)
"...The massacre of the Armenians is the greatest crime of this war, and if we fail to act against Turkey, then we forgive them... The failure of a radical struggle against Turkish terror means that all talk of a future world around the world is nonsense. (Theodore Roosevelt, 1918, 26th President of the United States, from a letter to Cleveland Goodley Dodge, May 11, 1918).
"The massacre that started in 1915 is unprecedented in the history of mankind. The massacres against Abdul Hamid are a small part of what the Turks are doing today" (Fritjof Nansen, 1915, Norwegian scholar)
"I am familiar with this topic not only from history. My maternal grandmother, Shushan Tigranovna Kruni, survived death at the age of 13. He was saved by Russian believers who also fled from Turkey to Russia. Unfortunately, my grandmother died before I was born. But, according to my mother, my grandmother spent her whole life looking for her relatives, not knowing anything about them, whether they were alive or dead" (Dima Bilan, Russian singer).
"Armenians have been persecuted for centuries, they were the first fortress of Christianity and they are the only stronghold of Christianity in the Middle East" (Dean Kane, American actor and producer).
"What happened in Armenia is terrible. That was a mistake. Let's promise never to forget and promote human rights wherever we are" (Elton John, musician).
"Both in the case of Darfur and the Armenian Genocide, the term massacre is sometimes used. There was a long and difficult struggle to actually call what happened a genocide. It is impossible to deny what happened. If someone tries to destroy the culture of an entire ethnic group and you can't get it back, that's genocide. There is no other option" (George Clooney, American actor).
"30 thousand Kurds and one million Armenians were killed in Turkey. Nobody talks about it and people hate me for talking about it. What happened to the Armenians in Turkey in 1915 was a taboo subject. But now we have to talk about the past" (Orhan Pamuk, Turkish writer, Nobel laureate).
"To deny the Armenian Genocide is to be complicit in that crime against humanity" (Hasan Jemal, journalist, grandson of one of the main organizers of the Armenian Genocide, Ahmed Jemal Pasha).
"I wrote about national minorities and wanted to reflect on the unspeakable tragedy of the last century, talk about the Armenian Genocide, share this pain with the people and try to build bridges" (Elif Shafak, Turkish writer who was persecuted for his book "The Founding of Istanbul")
