Ottoman Turks were taught to be “free” to forget their guilt and responsibility in the mass killing of innocent Armenians. Even in modern-day Turkey, any citizen can be sentenced to jail if they make claims that the killing of Armenians in 1915 was genocide, according to the Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code.

Their denial is exported to the entire world, and they threaten those countries that even dare pass a law recognizing genocide. The United Nations Convention on Prevention of the Crime of Genocide efines genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethical, racial, or religious group.”

In this act, the word genocide was created to describe the first genocide of the 20th century, namely the Armenian Genocide.

Raphael Lemkin, the lawyer who coined the term in the UN, was asked in an interview with CBS about how he came to be interested in this genocide. He replied, “I became interested in genocide because it happened so many times. First to the Armenians, then after the Armenians, Hitler took action.”

It is clear the Turks had every intention of committing this cruelty. Turks dismiss the evidence and consider the brutality mere allegations. Pictures, survivors and witnesses to this tragedy oddly enough aren’t sufficient evidence for worldwide formal recognition.

The United States has failed fight this tragedy with the Armenians, and no formal recognition is in place. Denial seems to be like second nature to Turks.

The 26th President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt once wrote, “the Armenian horror is an accomplished fact. Because the failure to deal radically with the Turkish horror means that all talk of guaranteeing the future peace of the world is mischievous nonsense.”

There will not be peace without acceptance, and Armenians today will live by these wise words, until mankind defeats denial.

Helen Attar, Special Ed-Learning Disabilities Junior