My reflections on the significance of recognizing the #ArmenianGenocide - not just for Armenians but for all humanity. Here in ⁦ @GlobeOpinion⁩ - https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/04/22/opinion/mr-president-recognize-armenian-genocide/

“Why, you might ask, have global Armenian communities invested so much time and effort, and so many resources, to persuade others to recognize the wrong done to our people?”

“What difference does it make to our forebears, whose scattered bones have long settled in the banks of the Euphrates, or calcified in the mass graves of Syria’s Deir Zor desert, where the deportation caravans terminated?”

“We still raise our children with the memory not just of the wrong done to our people, but also the wrong that continues with each year that the Turkish government denies it ever happened.”

“Scholars learn more each year about the science behind generational trauma; we and our children continue to live it, with a deep, ingrained sense of injustice and an almost unexplainable, collective drive to resist the erasure the genocide intended.

“The need for recognition by intl community is a quest for at least a fraction of accountability: affirming truth of what happened. One hundred six years later, that quest has only gotten stronger, no doubt fueled by Turkey’s own stubborn refusal to come to terms with its past.

“I’d like to think the Armenian people’s dedication to accountability, against political odds that favor acquiescing to power, wealth, &influence of Turkish govt, is an important contribution to the noble mission of global justice &what comes with it: preservation of our humanity

Coming to terms with the past is no less a favor for the people of Turkey, stuck as they are with a government whose denials give them no quarter to learn about or resolve all that transpired at the hands of their own forebears, and entangles them in perplexing global scorn.

. @JoeBiden must, however, remove the issue of the Armenian genocide from the negotiating table, because the recognition of our collective human history should never be used as a bargaining chip.”