Yanely Lopez: America should acknowledge the Armenian genocide

I am working on a research paper on the Armenian genocide and the U.S. Denial. The U.S. and Turkey have a relationship: the U.S. provides them with weapons while Turkey allows the U.S. to use their air bases. In keeping this relationship, the U.S. cannot acknowledge the Armenian genocide, thereby denying the event ever occurred. There is so much information being overlooked, such as personal testimonies, leaked forms about the plans, and even the fact that so many Armenians “disappeared.”

According to R. Hrair Dekmejian in Spectrum of Terror, “to the estimates of a large number of scholars and governments, up to 1.5 million Armenians perished and another 300,000, mostly women and children, were Turkified by forceful conversion to Islam” The number of survivors is said, “to be less than 20 percent of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire.”

Do we, as Americans, care more about being in power than being right? We have a responsibility to help bring global awareness of the Armenian Genocide. Let’s stop being passive observers. Together we can bring justice. We cannot change the past, but it is never too late to begin the healing process. As Gandhi once said, “the future depends on what you do today.”

This story was originally published April 28, 2015 at 11:58 AM with the headline "Yanely Lopez: America should acknowledge the Armenian genocide."