Armenian Genocide

A friend of mine sent me something today that I feel compelled to post on here:

I feel a little weird writing this, I don't think I've ever sent out a mass email before and those who know me probably think of me more of a reactionary than an activist. With that said, Turkey's recent decision to pull it's ambassadors from Canada and France has pissed me off enough to write this. Some of you know a great deal of the Armenian Genocide, others probably only have a rudimentary grasp of what happened to 1.5 million Armenians in the early part of the 20th century. In a nutshell the Ottoman Empire organized a hugely successful ethnic cleansing of their Armenian population. I won't go into detail here but I would urge you to read up on the subject and learn about it. Turkey never acknowledged what happened and is active to this day in covering up the facts. Recently, when Stephen Harper's government recognized the Genocide, Turkey promptly removed its ambassador to protest the decision. Last year Turkey's best known novelist, Orhan Pamuk, stood trial for treason. His crime was daring to mentioning the genocide in a article he had written. Thankfully the charges were dropped in January. This is not an uncommon occurence as many writers and publishers have been imprisoned for writing on the subject.

Imagine graduating high school or even University with little or no knowledge of the Jewish holocaust; the idea is unthinkable but that is exactly what has happened to the Armenians. I urge you to learn more about the subject, consider boycotting Turkish products and vacations. If you agree with the sentiment of my letter, I would also urge you to forward it to as many people as possible.

Thanks and sorry for the lenghty rant.

Joseph Sevan Stewart


I must confess that I was completely unaware of this horrendous event. You can read more about it here.