04.25.08
A Couple Events this Week in LA
Wilshire Boulevard had a bit of commotion this week. Parts of the road were blocked off in honor of Earth Day on Tuesday, and then yesterday, Thursday April 24, the Armenian Genocide was commemorated. Demonstrators gathered by the Turkish Consulate and cars with Armenian flags cruised back and forth, while LA Police lined the area. Wish I had my camera with me, but I didn’t. Perhaps next year. As with last year, the demonstration was peaceful.
I’ve only been very briefly aware of the Armenia Genocide, so yesterday I did a quick Google and found a link to the Armenian National Institute. Evidently, April 24, 1915 is the day when the Armenian Genocide is believed to have started in Constantinople. Some say that it’s the worst event of WWI and the second most studied genocide next to the Jewish Holocaust of WWII. From a little reading, it appears (as with all wars and political unrest), the events that lead to the Armenian Genocide is quite complicated. As Christians, I think the Armenian genocide is worth studying since they were believed to be persecuted because of their Christian beliefs. We need to be informed for our own good. Wikipedia says this about the number of deaths involved:
“While there is no consensus as to how many Armenians lost their lives during the Armenian Genocide, there is general agreement among western scholars that over 500,000 Armenians died between 1914 and 1918. Estimates vary between 300,000 (per the modern Turkish state) to 1,500,000 (per modern Armenia,[81] Argentina,[82] and other states). Encyclopædia Britannica references the research of Arnold J. Toynbee, an intelligence officer of the British Foreign Office, who estimated that 600,000 Armenians “died or were massacred during deportation” in the years 1915–1916.”
To this date, the Turkish government still denies that what transpired during the years of 1915 to 1918 between their government and the Armenians was genocide (similar to how the Japanese to this day also deny the extent of their involvement of the brutal mass murders in Nanking in 1938). The Armenian Genocide is one of the major events where Christians were persecuted for their beliefs.
Okay, so this is how far I got before my computer bleeped out on me and I lost the rest of my post. Grrrrr. I don’t have the time right now to retype the rest of what was running through my mind, so will just leave it here for now. Perhaps it’s just as well that I lost it because I can calm down a bit and step back to examine whether I really wanted to say what I was thinking, heheh. However, the remembrance of the Armenian Genocide is an important one, I think, and much can be learned from it, particularly for Christians.
Marlakins
