April 24, 1915, a day of remembrance for all Armenians. A day when Christian Armenians peacefully living in Turkey and Turkish provinces would face the Ottman Empire's wrath - an ethnic cleansing, a barbaric, systematic extermination of gentle souls.
To this day, April 24, 2012, the United States of America has not sought justice, reparations, or acknowledged the Armenian Massacre as Genocide where an estimated 1.5 million human beings were slaughtered. Assyrians, Syrians, Anatolian and Pontic Greeks were also targeted by the Ottoman Empire.
God spared my grandmother as she trudged through the death march upon the Deir ez-Zor desert, burying her only baby beneath the sand; she lived with unwavering faith, to give witness to the inhumane horrors and atrocities that befell women and children on that desert march. Those atrocities, forever seared into her eyes, would reflect a pain that no human being should ever carry. Her visions were of Ottoman soldiers raping young girls and women; torturing, then murdering them. Infants were tossed into the air and bayoneted for "fun." This was the finale to what my grandmother witnessed in her village where age afforded no boundaries; there would be no males that survived.
My grandfather was working the Panama Canal when the Genocide took place. He mourned the loss of his entire family, until reading a notice placed in the Armenian newspaper (10) years later; it was from his beloved bride. She was alive in France. They would raise a family in the United States.
My generation knew our grandparents, if we were fortunate. I never got to meet my
aunt who perished in that desert. As those of Armenian heritage, I carry her memory inside me. A memory given by my grandmother. I know that God has brought them together now, in peace, where they began their journey with unwavering faith.
To this day, April 24, 2012, the United States of America has not sought justice, reparations, or acknowledged the Armenian Massacre as Genocide where an estimated 1.5 million human beings were slaughtered. Assyrians, Syrians, Anatolian and Pontic Greeks were also targeted by the Ottoman Empire.
God spared my grandmother as she trudged through the death march upon the Deir ez-Zor desert, burying her only baby beneath the sand; she lived with unwavering faith, to give witness to the inhumane horrors and atrocities that befell women and children on that desert march. Those atrocities, forever seared into her eyes, would reflect a pain that no human being should ever carry. Her visions were of Ottoman soldiers raping young girls and women; torturing, then murdering them. Infants were tossed into the air and bayoneted for "fun." This was the finale to what my grandmother witnessed in her village where age afforded no boundaries; there would be no males that survived.
My grandfather was working the Panama Canal when the Genocide took place. He mourned the loss of his entire family, until reading a notice placed in the Armenian newspaper (10) years later; it was from his beloved bride. She was alive in France. They would raise a family in the United States.
My generation knew our grandparents, if we were fortunate. I never got to meet my
aunt who perished in that desert. As those of Armenian heritage, I carry her memory inside me. A memory given by my grandmother. I know that God has brought them together now, in peace, where they began their journey with unwavering faith.
William Saroyan Poem about the Armenian Genocide...by albi450