When Adolf Hitler was planning the extermination of the Jews, his generals asked him what the world would think of them carrying out his 1939 blitzkrieg order of killing every man women and child? Hitler answered – who remembers the Armenians? Though few might be aware of it, this past April 24 was the 93rd anniversary of the remembrance of the Armenian genocide. In 1915, the Ottoman Empire led by Kemal Attaturk began the systematic deportation and extermination of a million and one half of the Armenians, one third of the total population. The Armenians were Christian. The Turks were Muslims. The Turks claim killings were a result of civil unrest and did the killings under the cloak of World War I. The U.S. Ambassador to Turkey at the time, Henry Morgenthau, tried to get the attention of the United States and the world powers. He saw what was going on first hand. But the world turned its back. Would the Jewish holocaust not have happened if the world powers intervened? Would Hitler have thought twice if he knew the wrath of the world powers would come down on him? Today there is genocide in Tibet, Rwanda and the Sudan – the world has still not rid itself of this inhumanity to man. Is it too utopian to believe that the superpowers could agree that on this planet there would be no genocide? Have we not evolved over the centuries except to have more powerful means for mass extermination? With the right world leadership we could have a better future.
