Start the Presses: Remembering the Armenian Genocide

Each year Armenians worldwide commemorate the murder of 1.5 million of their ancestors by what was then the Ottoman Empire in the time around World War I. Each year, the United States government – fearing the backlash of Turkish rulers – fails to officially recognize this atrocity as a genocide.

Sadly, this marks the 98th year of this reticence, an enduring mark of shame upon our national government. My colleague, City Editor Mark Kellam reported that Congressman Adam Schiff (D-Burbank), who represents an area that includes Burbank, Glendale and parts of Pasadena, gave a speech this morning in Armenian

In that speech, the congressman said, in part: “I speak to you in the language of those who were lost. Their voices drift across the decades – begging us to remember.”

We at the Glendale News-Press – and Times Community News as a whole – remember this solemn day, and again call upon the federal government to do the right thing.

-- Dan Evans, Times Community News

Follow Dan Evans on Twitter: @EditorDanEvans.