Thursday, April 24, 2008

April 24: Day of Commemoration for "Armenian" genocide

It is quite obvious that I have a tremendous passion for exposing Armenian propaganda. Those of you that know me, know it is because I lived in their midst in Glendale, California for seven teen years and have thusly witnessed a horrendous amount of negative Armenian public opinion.

Ever since I was a child I've had to submit to their very tactical, uninformative, and sneaky recital of history. Every year we were all herded into the assembly hall like the unwitting sheep we were, for some of us, starting from the naive age of six, to hear how the Turks obliterated so many innocent Armenians. No one remembered to mention that with those Armenians Greeks and Assyrians were also killed. In this massacre, Assyrians were the most affected because more were killed per capita, leaving the Assyrian population exponentially decreased more than it had ever been in any other mass- killing, and more victimized than the Armenians and Greeks.

Seventeen years of hearing how only the Armenians, and no one else, were brutally slain. The assemblies were usually very solemn, with speeches, dance dramatizations, plays, and personal accounts. You know, emotionally- drive n propaganda is the most powerful kind.

A few years ago, around 2001, the Armenians of Los Angeles County planned a rally and for the first time, invited Assyrians to join. An Assyrian friend of mine who had just moved here from the east coast was really antsy to go. When I told her I refused to she was shocked: " What?! Rita, YOU of all people would badly want to go . . .and you should!" I predicted that there was probably an ulterior motive in the Armenians' seemingly well- intended invitation . I guessed that since on- lookers wouldn't be able to tell the difference between Armenians and Assyrians, that we were just invited to create the appearance of a larger Armenian turnout.

A couple of days later I got a call from that friend of mine. "Eh. .you were right about the rally . Assyrians were there and Fr. George was too but. . .the Armenians did most of the talking. . .and it just kinda felt like it was Armenian- dominated" . Which is fine since statistically speaking it's only logic al that they would dominate just because of their numbers. But it's not fine that because as I mentioned earlier, a higher percentage of Assyrians were killed. At least a little bit more emphasis should have been placed where it is due.

Now, for as long as I remember, every time Assyrians publicly speak about the massacre we always mention "our Armenian and Greek brothers and sisters" who were slain along with us. For a long time I disagreed with this but now I've come to the realization that instead of spiting the living Armenians we should have respect for the dead. ..at least only for their sake.

The Armenians criticize Turkey for not recognizing the genocide. By not bringing up the Assyrians and Greeks when speaking of the massacre then they become like the Turks themselves. They are condemning Turkey for something they are also doing.

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