Armenian Genocide: Speaking Out Against Human Suffering

By Gita Saraydarian

If we don’t acknowledge the mistakes of the past, we will not notice the present until it is too late. If we don’t come to the aid of others; the life will not send us aid when we ourselves need it. These are the laws of nature; what goes around comes around.

I was appalled when I heard on national TV discussions how the Armenian Genocide happened “so long ago,” “Turkey is our friend,” and “it is a disaster if we support the move…” from “expert political commentators”. How sad when these so called intelligent and educated people are appalled, surprised, indignant, and so “righteous” when their favorite issue is discussed and how vacant and how sad these people’s values are when it comes to political expediency.

See for example the Washington Post article regarding the Genocide: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/18/AR2007101801579.html

When will world leaders do the right thing from the human perspective and stop worrying about academic or political dictates or their re-election campaigns?

My grandparents experienced the genocide directly under Ottoman Turkish rule. My father’s entire family was killed, lands confiscated, homes taken over. They lost everything, all of it. My father and his sisters and grandparents lived in a tent for many years, waiting for a place to live, terrified of what could happen to them, until they finally settled in Istanbul. Two aunts, then little 8-year old girls, swam across the river that was filled with dead bodies, and were picked up by Arab nomads. They were taken into the Arab homes, nurtured back to health, eventually married and raised large families. The scars of the genocide were all over them, and they lived to tell the story. One aunt eventually moved to Los Angeles. She visited our home frequently and spoke about her experiences, crying and shaking as she remembered the sadness and devastation. My mother visited the other aunt in a small village in Northern Syria and stayed up all night and all day, recording the stories that she told, crying, sobbing, and telling of the death and devastation that she witnessed with her own eyes.

Despite all this, survivors have gone on and have accomplished great things. My grandparents raised families and educated their children. My grandfather served the sick and helped anyone who came to his pharmacy, Turk, Kurd, Armenian, Arab; Moslem, Jew, or Christian, it did not matter. His work was dedicated to God. My mother raised five children and made sure we all went to college and became professionals. My father became a great spiritual leader, wrote 150 books and helped thousands of people across the world. He opened his heart and healed his wounds and asked forgiveness for all those who committed these atrocities.

My mother’s family lost all their lands, home, and most of the family. Some survived the death marches and ended up in Aleppo, Syria. Others were not so lucky. My grandfather lived to tell the stories and barely escaped from his home. They also raised families and created a life for themselves in Syria and in Jordan.

These stories are not isolated incidents or some past history without relevance. They did not just happen to my family. One and one-half million Armenians were killed by Turks and Kurds. Their first-hand narratives are a national treasure and in our national archives. They have been documented and recorded. We are not just making up stories to make others feel sorry for us. These events did occur and there are plenty of non-Armenian documentations to show the truth. But whether the world remembers or not, in each Armenian home, these stories are alive and told over and over again. As a nation, we remember our dead, our tortured, and our losses. The hearts of our mothers and grandmothers are heavy with sadness. Our fathers and grandfathers suffered the humiliation of not being able to secure the safety of their families. The pain and sorrow fills every part of our life as a nation and as individuals.

When an atrocity is committed against a nation, that nation needs to be affirmed. The atrocity must be admitted and understood. Forgiveness must be sought. Enough with silly political wordings and worries that Turkey will not let us “play” with them! Shame on all those so called leaders who lack the courage to call something by its rightful name rather than play games with the lives and turmoil and agony of human beings.

When the Iranian leaders suggest that the Holocaust did not occur, what do we Americans say? We call them “nuts” and show the evidence to the contrary. We are insulted, incensed, and wonder how a sane person can say such a thing? Why are the feelings of the German people not taken into consideration when we speak about the Holocaust? Is it the number of people who are killed that makes it worth our attention or the fact that human beings suffered and innocent lives were lost by evildoers? We are not condemning every German person living now in Germany, nor are we condemning every Turkish person living now in Turkey.

We cannot deny all the millions of people who were killed and eliminated by the regimes of governments, whether they are still in power or not in power. The Ottoman Turks, the Japanese massacres of the Chinese and peoples of South East Asian countries, the massacres in Africa — Darfur comes to mind right now — the Pol Pot massacres in Cambodia, the Holocaust against the Jews of Europe, the innocent children and women who are starving right now in many parts of the world, and on and on and on. How many dead people does it take to call it an atrocity and admit it? If we are going to worry that Turkey will not “play” with us, then we will not be able to talk about any government that commits acts against humanity because we need the benevolence of that government for our troops, for our trade, for our religion and so on. Americans are supposed to stand for human rights? Well, let us stand up for them in truth and courage and not be looking out only for ourselves.

Whether it was Genocide, Holocaust, or “Casualties of War” it does not matter. When one human being suffers, we all suffer and bear the consequences. From time immemorial, people have been conquering others and massacring them and no one cared to speak out.

No matter what political names we give to atrocities, every Armenian, every Jew, every Chinese, every person living now who himself suffered or had family members who lost family and property, suffered the death marches and death camps, killed or maimed under any totalitarian leaders must stand up and speak up. Every African who is starving and dying now, every innocent person killed and maimed by religious fanatics and fanatics of all kinds, we need to acknowledge them, no matter how far it was in history or how far it is in the other parts of the world, or how different they are from us. This is not just political expediency, but the healing of the acknowledgement of the humanity of all those who suffer.

It is really pathetic for me to hear that a group of people will not speak out against atrocities for fear of what can happen to them. These are simple games that “Leaders” use to threaten people with fear. Fear is a potent tool, but it is empty. Nazi Germany was famous for using fear tactics and it cowed an entire continent to not speak out sufficiently against atrocities. It shut off debate and disagreement. Are we doing the same thing now? It is especially incumbent now for all those who suffered in the past and are suffering now, not to turn a blind eye to what is happening to others. How do you think your parents and grandparents felt when no one came to their defense? Why would you not speak out now when someone else is being killed and denied basic human rights? If we stand up for each other, we will see how much we are the same human beings on earth. When the time comes, others will stand up for us also. It is so pathetic to think that only “our kind” of people deserve to be acknowledged for their sufferings. Just being a living being on earth should be enough to make us speak out, regardless of color, religion, ethnicity, or geographical location.

In affirming an atrocity against humanity, we do very important spiritual acts:

1. We give the tortured spirits of those who died the opportunity to rest in peace and have the chance to release themselves from earthly attachment. Religious and Esoteric Teachings give us plenty of information why this is important. Those who die in atrocities are souls who are tortured and attached to the pains of the earthly life; they do not have the freedom to leave the earthly life. Their suffering has to be stopped and they need to be set free. As long as they continue to suffer, their collective pain will continue to impress those living and not living on earth and beyond. This is the reason why every religious tradition has memorial services for the dead; they recognize the need to heal and release the dead.

2. We give those who committed the wrongs to come to terms with the mistakes and make amends. Atonement is a practice that exists in every religious and spiritual discipline. Asking for forgiveness is an act of kindness to yourself and to others. When we are forgiven, we are released from guilt. Best of all, karma has a chance to be healed. Any person or nation that commits atrocities against others has deep karma that will come back to it some time or another. There is no escape. What goes around comes around. We all should know this. When a nation admits wrongs and asks for forgiveness, it is the greater and not the lesser.

3. Those survivors who are acknowledged now have the chance to move on. Being a victim is a terrible thing. Identifying yourself as a victim is a terrible loss to self-esteem and self-image. Once you are a victim and see yourself as such, every decision you make will be based on that image. Witness the pain and suffering in the hearts of Jewish and Armenian women and how that suffering and pain plays out in the cultural context of all their families. Watch the starving and half-dead bodies on TV from Somalia or Darfur and ask yourself: How do their mothers and fathers feel? What will be their life narrative? How will their suffering souls see the lack of human response to their plight? How will their souls suffer in this world and in the world after? Who will stand up for these children and for these women and for these child soldiers? Who will remember them and acknowledge the pain caused to them? How will their physical and spiritual DNA be impressed by these atrocities and how humanity forgot them? What is the collective world karma going to be? What do we say to our Maker when we face Him in the Higher Worlds?

4. We provide true LEADERSHIP. This is the kind of human being who stands up for righteousness, for freedom, for fair play in all walks of life. This is a human being who not only cares for his wife and children but the wives, sisters, children of all others on earth. Wow! What a world that would be? What an example this kind of man or woman will provide for others who are still killing and maiming and brutalizing human beings.

5. We will stop closing our eyes and ears to the cry of human suffering. When we see a wrong being committed, we will not wait until it reaches 100,000 or half a million before we say, “wow, that is a lot of people, we better do something”!

6. We will start to value human life. One life lost in such tragedy is one life too many.

7. We will have the space in our minds and emotions to see the other kinds of “killings” that are happening every day, in every nation, across the globe. I am talking about terminal illnesses, mass starvations, children lacking in basic care, child abuse and child prostitution, child labor, slave trade, lack of health and education and lack of nurturing and parenting. What about the continuous killings of people due to religious and cultural intolerance and economic and environmental insensitiveness? Why are so many poor farmers led to commit suicide in India? How can we make room in our minds and hearts to care about these “secondary” atrocities if we are not first able to deal with the worst of them? Can we even think of a day when we have the space in our hearts and minds to care about animals and animal abuse? Can we dare to seriously care for the environment the same way? O boy, I know it may not happen in my lifetime!

World Leaders: stop counting your votes, your money and bank accounts, the needs of your military bases and such nonsense and call the truth as it is.

I am ashamed of our “leaders” in congress and in the media; I am ashamed to see how unrighteous they are.

Let us, the spiritual community and religious communities of all world religions, stand up for what is right. If you do not stand up for others, no one will stand up for you.

Gita

References and organizations you can support:

- For work on other worldly existence, see the book Other Worlds by Torkom Saraydarian. Our organization, TSG Foundation works to uplift human consciousness through publications, training, and spiritual services. We are non-sectarian and dedicated for human upliftment of all cultures and religious faiths. You can support our work in a number of ways. See our website for details.

- For reference about forgiveness, see Dr. Eileen Borris’s book on Forgiveness.

- For work done by Armenian Minister Der. Vaz on Forgiveness and true Christian values — He is an awesome priest of true Godliness and service to mankind — see his website In His Shoes, and support his work.

- For narratives on Armenian history and documentation on the Genocide, see Zoryan Institute.

For typical American Media responses, see:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/18/AR2007101801579.html