By Edmond Y. Azadian
The Armenian Genocide centennial is around the corner and we are still unprepared as to how to organize or commemorate it worldwide and, more importantly, realize what impact we can expect or anticipate.
The fact that Armenians are scattered around the world and consequently cannot join together and present a unified force was the intended outcome of the perpetrators of the Genocide. One million and half Armenians were exterminated from their lands and thus, they have also been eliminated as claimants, as have the generations the martyrs would have begotten.
Talaat Pasha boasted that his plan was to keep only one Armenian alive for the museums. The primitive methods that the Turks employed did not have the discipline and perverse perfection that the Germans used 30 years later and that is why Armenians were left to populate more than museums. Actually, they have come out of the museums to haunt the Ottoman rulers and their descendants who have been enjoying the loot from their great crime.
A full century later, after all the losses and assimilations, Armenian survivors and the younger generations are at Turkey’s doorstep with their demands. They have amplified their voices with those of the martyrs, who were silenced brutally.
Most of the plans and deliberations about the centennial are focused on the ceremonial and commemorative aspects. At best, they aspire for Genocide recognition.