Letters to the Editor: Armenian history and stories should be studied and embraced

Let’s talk about the millenniums of Armenian history, which are also the world’s history and American Armenian history. This history can be seen through American philanthropists aiding in the recovery from the Armenian Genocide, American politics carving Wilsonian Armenia and Americans fighting for Armenians.

The perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide tried everything to be forgotten and to deny their crime against humanity and civilization. Armenians have been a part of the silenced world for the past century although the genocide was very much witnessed and widely reported by the world. Now scholars, journalists, writers, truth defenders and honorable world diplomats attempt to resurface historical truth. We must bring Wilsonian Armenia on the world’s map.

Without Armenians in U.S. history, American Armenian history could unravel and lose this aspect of humanity from history and also the kindness of the American soul behind history.

Americans’ honor is now found in writing the chapters of Armenian impact in American history. After Ambassador Henry Morgenthau reported the Armenian Genocide to President Woodrow Wilson, Americans responded by bringing the massacres to light. President Wilson proceeded to create the first ever humanitarian response campaign, the Near East Relief Foundation. The American missionaries intervened and attempted to stop the genocide violence by taking care of the orphaned Armenian children and trying to be their guardians.

No history of the 20th century can ignore the deep and direct relationships with intimate interactions, involvements and historical friendship between the two nations.

Armenians are inside old American books, archives and newspapers, struggling for the dust to come off. Historic books and stories should be stocked on the bookshelves with other top-selling books.

Rachel Melikian

Glendale