Every year, on the 24th of April, we celebrate one of the biggest holocausts in the 20th century, the Genocide of the Armenians, perpetraded by the Young Turks with the aim of annihilating an entire race by the sword and the fire.
Every year, on the 24th of April, we sorrowfully listen to cliche speeches, shed silent tears over emotional poems, childishly congratulate ourselves and each other on the phony recognition of the Armenian Genocide by two or three Countries out of the United Nations hord and keep on clinging to the fading hope of retreiving our ancestors' usurpated lands and properties.
Then, on the 25th of April, we go back to the fuss of our daily life and put our hopes and dreams back on the shelf until the 24th of April of the coming year…
91 years have gone by…another 9 years and the shelf's doors will be locked on these hopes and dreams forever, except somewhere deep in our hearts where they will linger until, just for one day a year, the 24th of every April will keep on bringing back sad memories, cliche speeches, emotional poems and that absurd self-satisfaction of our Genocide being recognized by two or three Nations…
Two generations have passed since the 24th of April 1915… How many more will go on carrying the flame before it gets blown off by the winds of time?…
Dele Yaman …..
Joseph Nahabedian
You can reach Joseph Nahabedian at: [email protected]
