The Month of April has arrived today. April 1st is a day where fooling and pranking people is upon us. It can be fun, but silly at the same time. There are far more important things to remember about this month.
I want to address the importance to remind everyone that the month of April is The Armenian Genocide Awareness month. Recognition, Acknowledgement, Justice and spreading awareness is absolutely imperative. The Armenian Genocide was something that was absolutely horrible, a crime that was so terrible. The Turkish Ottoman Empire and government tried to wipe and exterminate all Armenians off the face of the earth and tried to steal all our lands, but could not succeed.
April 24, 1915 was a dark day. Armenians were slaughtered, stabbed, shot, beat up, raped, displaced from their homes, taken out with full force, sent out to the desert to walk for miles and miles with no food and water, they were beat up and killed when they got tired all from the hands of the Turkish Army. 1.5 Million Armenians were massacred.
As April 2017 has arrived. This year is the 102nd year commemoration of the Armenian Genocide. Please check in with your local Armenian communities to see when demonstrations, protests and other Armenian Genocide event happenings and please participate in them all, or whichever event you can attend to. It is very important. We cannot stay silent. We need to get out there and show the world.
A lot of coverage has taken place in the last few years with prominent figures of our society have visited and documented their time in Armenia with spreading awareness about the Armenian Genocide. We need to keep going and we need to get the world to recognize not only the Armenian Genocide, but all Genocides of the world. So that history will never repeat itself. It all starts with the power to unite people of the world together and to take a stand.
If all of us in the world get along and work together for our world to recognize and acknowledge important issues, then everything will fall into place, everything we do will get the justice and peace that we all need in our lives. Be the change you want to see in the world. We cannot just speak about it. We must act on it.
Talin Orfali Ghazarian 