Letters to the Editor: Finally, an end to a century of U.S. complicity in Armenian genocide denial

To the editor: There is no greater legacy to the lives of the more than 1 million Armenians who were killed from 1915-17 than President Biden recognizing the genocide committed by the Ottoman Empire during World War I.

In my joy and sorrow, I reread the Jan. 6, 1937, article printed in the Los Angeles Times, “Armenians Mourn Hero: Kerekin Manoukian, Idolized Leader Against Turkey, Dies Here.” Kerekin was my great-uncle who died before I was born, but his legacy and legend were passed down to me by my grandmother and mother, both immigrants from Van, Armenia.

The article chronicles the unbelievable courage my uncle faced as a revolutionary leader against the Turkish oppression beginning in the early 1900s: “For years he was a thorn in the side of the Turkish Empire and had a price on his head.”

At last, when I say my family survived the Armenian genocide, the words take on a much greater meaning.

Alice Lynn, Pacific Palisades

..

To the editor: The Turkish government’s denial of the Armenian genocide compounds the tragedy. This policy kills the victims twice — first the actual murders, then the murder of their memory.

Adolf Hitler is reported to have justified his genocidal intent by asking just before World War II, “Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?”

Biden has displayed courage by taking this moral stand. The Holocaust was the next genocide. Perhaps if the free world had spoken out against the Armenian genocide, millions of lives could have been saved.

Steven Ludsin, East Hampton, N.Y.

The writer was a member of the first U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, which created the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.

..

To the editor: On April 24, Armenians worldwide commemorated the Armenian genocide, while Turkey tried to coerce yet another U.S. president to avoid using the word “genocide.” Last year, then-President Trump said that 1.5 million Armenians “were deported, massacred, or marched to their deaths in the final years of the Ottoman Empire,” but he stopped short of saying it was a genocide.

Many Turks acknowledge the Armenian genocide, including prominent Turkish historian Taner Akcam.

My father, who survived the genocide and was imprisoned seven times, was brutally tortured and lost vision in his right eye, fondly remembered his Turkish friends who warned him of impending arrests and helped him escape. Yes, there are decent Turks in Turkey and elsewhere.

Bedros Kojian, Orange

..

To the editor: For anyone of Armenian descent, there is only one big lie that we are reminded of every time our minds drift to thoughts of our families — the refusal to acknowledge that extermination of our people that began on April 24, 1915, in Turkey, was genocide.

Now, after 106 years, Biden has the courage to tell the world the truth so that decades of denial can finally come to an end, and the process of healing our open wounds can finally begin through dialogue and diplomacy.

Donna Tarzian, Los Angeles