The horrors of the Armenian Genocide are commemorated each year on April 24, the date in 1915 that marked the first of countless massacres perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire that killed an estimated 1.5 million Armenians.
This year, the University of Rhode Island is observing the anniversary of the tragedy with an art show entitled The Armenian Genocide — 95 Years Later, In Remembrance.
Curated by Gallery Z founder and curator Bérge Ara Zobian, the exhibit features work by over 40 artists, including artwork in a variety of mediums, as well as film, museum artifacts, and an educational display on the genocide.
In her curatorial statement, Zobian explains the importance of such an exhibit. “Following the numerous other genocides of the 20th century, acknowledging and examining past episodes of violence becomes all the more crucial. As the first genocide of the 20th century, the Armenian Genocide is a critical event to affirm, and the surviving culture is essential to celebrate and spread with as large an audience as possible. This show promises to accomplish both of these tasks with your submissions and support.”
The collection will be displayed at the University of Rhode Island Feinstein Providence Campus gallery from April 1–30, 2010. For more information, visit armeniangenocide95years.com.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I present the following excepts just to tell you about the other side of the picture seen from the Turkish side, which are presented by our grandmothers and grandfathers but denied by the Armenians:
Massacres inflicted upon Turks/Muslims by the Armenians during the WWI.
-In Van, Çarikser Village, a child was bayoneted and was cooked on fire as if he were a lamb by the Armenians.
-In Van, Ahtucu Village, the six-month old baby of a woman Zeliha, was thrown into the oven (tandir) by the Armenians while she was baking bread.
Then the woman was ordered to eat her baby! When she rejected, her right leg was forced into the oven and burned [Telegram of Van Gendarme Troop Commander Ali Vasif (May 11 1916)].
- In Trabzon, the massacred Muslim folk were filled into wells and the bodies of people whose arms and legs had been plucked were thrown into the gardens. The mosques were defacated and even the fruit trees were violated (Telegram of Captain Ahmet Refik, May 1, 1918).
In the Eastern Anatolia, it had become usual to see dead Muslims of all ages whose bodies had been destroyed, with heaps of cut up legs, arms, heads, noses around. The bodies of women displayed overt signs of violation by force. Russian Lieutenant Colonel Griyaznof reported that gun rockets were installed into the vaginas of women bodies.
-The Turks who had been slaughtered like animals were buried in large holes in the Eastern Anatolia (Lieutenant Colonel Twerdo-Khlebof. I wittnessed and I Lived Through Erzurum, 1917-1918.http://www.tsk.mil.tr/ermeni_sorunu/arsiv_belgeleriyle_e...
(Ahmet Refik Altinay. Iki Komite ve Iki Kital. Istanbul, 1919;p.71-72).
Alive children were also filled in these holes (Ermeni Komitelerinin Amal ve harekat-i Ihtilaliyesi, p 321-23).
-The Turkish History Association is continuing to open up these amss graves to bring out the bodies, as verified in eye witness accounts.
-The Armenians blinded 15 000 Turkish soldiers and burned their skin by forcing them into so-called ‘disinfection pools’ with excessive crizole, in 1918, in the prisoner camp of Alexandropol, Egypt, in cooperation with the English soldiers (Altinay Ahmet, Bir Turk Subayinin Ingiliz Esir Kampinda Uc Yili, 2004)’
-They murdered 40% of the Muslim population in Van, Bitlis, Erzurum (Ozdemir Hikmet. Salgin Hastaliklardan Olumler 1914-18. 2005).
Were the tragedies the Turks/Ottoman Muslims suffered, less than those of the Armenians?
Strikingly, the Armenians were the very responsibles of all the above events, which are only a few of all.
2
It is apparent that each one of the above event is a subject of a novel, a cinema or a documentary film or an essay. However, why are they not the Turks but the Armenians who prefer to mourn for the events of 90 years ago continually, through novels, films, memories etc and spend extreme effort to keep these memories alive, as if they have rehappened every new day’s morning?
It is not surprising that the Armenians fiercefully reject suggestions of Turkey to discuss these events in Joint Commissions made up of Armenian, Turkish historians and historians from other countries. Because they fear even of having a look at these events from other perspectives and therefore losing the freedom of their imagination to consider them. They seem to have liked the label of ‘a victim’ and do not want to lose it; or do not want to realize that the Turks were also victims; victims of the Armenians!
Is it just a coincidence that while Armenian population is continually decreasing due to external migration of the workless countrymen, the diaspora Armenians are living in high standarts in Europe and USA and wealthy? And is it not interesting that instead of providing financial help for their countrymen, they spend huge amounts of money to keep Turkish hatred alive and aggravate enmity against Turkey and every kind of thing that has even any little relationship with a Turk?
Is it not amusing that it is this enemy Turkey and the Turks who provided work for more than 100 000 illegal workers of Armenia who entered Turkey up till now, unlike the wealthy diaspora Armenians who are in deep love with their country and countrymen?
Therefore, it is inevitable to remember Churchill’s saying: ‘If a dispute arises between ‘today’ and ‘yesterday’, we lose ‘tomorrow’. The Armenians and the Armenian diaspora, unfortunately are not aware that they are losing their ‘tomorrow’.
In a novel of a Turkish novelist Selim İleri, a character says: ‘I killed you, while I was trying to present you my endless love’. The Armenians and Armenia are slowly killing themselves, while they are trying to express their endless love towards themselves and their grandparents….
Moreover, those who support the Armenians in their inability to move forward from 1915 are in close cooperation with them to lose their tomorrow and share the crime of this ordinary murder stemming from a confusion of love and hatred.
P.C. Dr. Armen Gavakian from the Macquarie University in Sydney, who is also co-chair of the Turkish-Armenian Dialogue Group prepared a petition campaign which would read "I apologize to the Ottomans and Turks for murders committed in the name of the Armenian people and I empathize with the feelings and pain of the Ottomans and Turks’ However just a few days later we learned that ‘Oath of Asala' which is a branch of Armenian terrorist organization Asala declared that they would spare GAKAVYAN's life in case he abandoned this apology project and disclosed the names of the people who urged him to do so, according to the Armenian newspaper "Azg",http://www.radikal.com.tr/Radikal.aspx?aType=RadikalHaberDetay&ArticleID=921474&Date=14.02.2009&CategoryID=98.