By Kathryn Jean Lopez
The Herald

A sign with a flower outside a cathedral at what has to be one of Manhattan’s busiest intersections on 34th Street and Second Avenue stands as a subtle reminder of genocide. One wonders how many diplomats on the way to and from the United Nations headquarters, tourists and commuters have passed it this year without noticing the banner for the centennial year of the Armenian genocide outside St. Vartan Cathedral.

2015 marked the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, even as the massacre still goes unacknowledged throughout the world. As Philadelphia archbishop Charles J. Chaput put it in a speech: “Starting in 1915, Turkish officials deliberately murdered more than 1 million members of Turkey’s Armenian minority. The ethnic and religious cleansing campaign went on into the 1920s. [The victims] were overwhelmingly Christian. Turkey has never acknowledged the genocide. It’s one of the worst unrepented crimes in history.”

And there could be other such crimes on the way. By way of a brief tour, Chaput said: “Today we have our own tragedies, from church bombings in Pakistan to the beheadings of Christians in North Africa. More than 70 percent of the world now lives with some form of religious coercion. Tens of thousands of Christians are killed every year for reasons linked to their faith.”

I was heartened to see President Obama issue a statement just before Christmas recognizing “brutal atrocities” being committed against Christians in Iraq and Syria. “In some areas of the Middle East where church bells have rung for centuries on Christmas Day, this year they will be silent; this silence bears tragic witness to the brutal atrocities committed against these communities by [ISIS].”

In the weeks preceding Christmas, it was reported that the White House soon would issue a statement labeling the slaughter of the Yazidi people in Iraq genocide. While applauding that move, an ecumenical coalition urged that the administration include Middle Eastern Christians in the designation.

As the letter sent to Secretary of State John Kerry signed by pastors, scholars and activists put it: “We have extensive files supporting a finding that ISIS’ treatment of Iraqi and Syrian Christians, as well as Yazidis and other vulnerable minorities, meets this definition. They include evidence of ISIS assassinations of church leaders; mass murders; torture; kidnapping for ransom in the Christian communities of Iraq and Syria; its sexual enslavement and systematic rape of Christian girls and women; its practices of forcible conversions to Islam; its destruction of churches, monasteries, cemeteries and Christian artifacts; and its theft of lands and wealth from Christian clergy and laity alike.”

In testimony before Congress shortly thereafter, Carl Anderson, head of the Knights of Columbus, which has an emergency aid campaign supporting church efforts in the region, urged: “The United States is rightly viewed as the world’s leading defender of vulnerable minorities, and it is critically important that the State Department consider the best available evidence before issuing a statement that would exclude Christians. An official government declaration of genocide is an opportunity to bring America’s religious communities together to pursue the truth, to support victims, and to bear witness to the noble principle of ‘Never Again.’”

The White House could listen to its own ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, Rabbi David Saperstein. He was in Rome in December, where he said that the West “cannot remain silent” about what is happening to Christians, who are in danger of being “wiped out.” President Obama, not for the first time, said something beautiful about religious freedom. Acknowledging the fact of genocide against Christians in the world today would put some teeth to his words.

Kathryn Jean Lopez is senior fellow at the National Review Institute, editor-at-large of National Review Online and founding director of Catholic Voices USA.

By Paris Achen, Free Press Staff Writer,

MONTPELIER – On the same day the Vermont Legislature for first time officially recognized the 1915 Armenian genocide, the Council of Turkic American Associations held a cultural event in the Statehouse. Report burlingtonfreepress.com

Organizers of the Turkish cultural event and the Statehouse sergeant of arms said the scheduling snafu was unintentional.

“The booking was not made with any other intention than serving the public and the Vermont Legislature, as we already do,” said Janet Miller, Statehouse sergeant-of-arms.

The House and Senate unanimously passed resolutions Tuesday morning recognizing the systematic killing of about 1.5 million Armenians in the former Ottoman Empire and commemorating the 100th anniversary this year. The Turkish government continues to deny the genocide.

Vermont band Lokum played Armenian instrumental devotional songs in the House chamber Tuesday and received a standing ovation.

Two Vermonters, Chris Bohjalian and Jessica Oski, who are descendants of Armenian genocide survivors, suggested the resolution to Rep. Joan Lenes, D-Shelburne, to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the genocide. The official Armenian Remembrance Day is April 24.

Bohjalian is an author and columnist for the Burlington Free Press; Oski is a lobbyist.

Lenes descends from Assyrian immigrants from Persia, who also were persecuted by the Ottoman Empire.

“I want us to remember so we don’t repeat, and we are still repeating,” Lenes said. “Being an Assyrian I feel a camaraderie with Armenians.”

After passage of the resolution, Bohjalian and Armenian-American Dana Walrath, a medical anthropologist at the University of Vermont, gave a talk in Room 10 of the Statehouse about their personal journeys discovering their family history against the haunting backdrop of the genocide. Both of the speakers have written historical novels about the genocide.

Nicole Kennedy of Hinesburg attended a presentation on the genocide in Armenia at the Statehouse in Montpelier on Tuesday. April marks the centennial of the start of the Armenian genocide. (Photo:

GLENN RUSSELL/FREE PRESS)

Bohjalian recalled visiting Turkey’s Dudan Crevasse, where 10,000 Armenians were marched to a ravine, shot or bayoneted to death and thrown into the crevasse at the bottom of a ravine.

In the 1914 Armenian census, there were 124,000 Armenians living in the Diyarbakir Province, where the crevasse is located. By 1922, only 3,000 remained, Bohjalian said.

Walrath said there are eight stages of genocide, and the eighth stage is denial.

“This genocide is still ongoing because there is still denial,” Walrath said.

Anna Kelliher of New Zealand and her distant cousin, Nicole Kennedy of Hinesburg, attended Tuesday’s talk. They said they could relate to the authors’ personal journeys trying to piece together their past.

Kelliher and Kennedy are descendants of Holocaust survivors. They met through a Holocaust survivor resource center, which helps connect families that were split apart by the Holocaust, and found out their grandfathers were first cousins. Kelliher and Kennedy have been communicating online since 2011 but just met in person for the first time this month.

“Genocide is kind of ongoing even after the killing ends,” Kelliher said. “Look at us. We are still dealing with. Our families were pulled apart, and we have been trying to put them back together.”

Three hours after the talk, the Turkish Cultural Center Vermont — part of the Council of Turkic American Associations — welcomed lawmakers to its cultural event in the Statehouse’s Cedar Creek Room.

Yusuf Demir, vice president of the Turkish Cultural Center Vermont, said the cultural association is unaffiliated with the Turkish government and takes no stance on the Armenian genocide. He said Armenians were welcome at the event.

“We are Turkic people living in Vermont,” Demir said. “These centers are funded by Turkish-Americans. We don’t have a political agenda.”

Lenette Peterson, executive assistant at the Turkish Cultural Center Vermont, said she booked the Cedar Creek Room for the event four months ago. Tuesday was the association’s fourth annual cultural event at the Statehouse.

“Reservations are made through this office based on availability in as equitable a way as possible,” said Miller, Statehouse sergeant-of-arms. “We don’t keep track of what was booked first and don’t look to see if there is a conflict of interest.”

Asmik Bagramian, an Armenian-American from Essex, said she was oblivious of the scheduling issue.

“I primarily was there for the Armenian cause regardless of what else was going on,” Bagramian said. “I’m very happy I was part of the resolution commemorating the centennial of the Armenian genocide.”

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