Geagea on Armenian Genocide Anniversary: Massacres of Past Remind us of Ones Committed Today

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea remarked on Friday that massacres of the 21st century would not have been committed had the Armenian genocide been recognized.

He said during an LF ceremony marking the genocide: “The massacres of the past remind us of the ones being committed today and the international community must intervene to thwart them.”

“The East is not being slaughtered by the butchers alone, but also by those who remain silent over injustice,” he added.

“We are living in a time when the butcher is allowed to commit his massacres and get away with murder,” he said in an indirect reference to the Syrian regime and the war in neighboring Syria.

“If the Armenian genocide was unacceptable at the turn of the century then it is even more unacceptable now almost a hundred years since the genocide was first committed,” Geagea said.

He noted that at the beginning of the 20th century, the United Nations, International Criminal Court, and human rights charter did not exist to defend people.

“Now despite their existence, they have not stopped massacres from being committed,” lamented the F chief.

What took place in the past against the Armenian people is happening again today and will recur in the future, he warned.

“Achieving justice to the Armenian people will pave the way for justice for people in the region.

“We must combat this evil with courage through remembrance and confronting current genocides.

“Do we surrender to barbarism? Never. The genocide pushes us to never surrender and our future is bound to be bright and prosperous,” stressed Geagea.

It is 101 years on Sunday since Turkey's Ottoman government began arresting minority community leaders and setting in motion a campaign of systematic slaughter that had left 1.5 million Christian Armenians dead by the early 1920s.

Some 20 countries have recognized it as genocide as well as the European Parliament.

But Turkey rejects the claims, arguing that 300,000 to 500,000 Armenians and as many Turks died in civil strife when Armenians rose up against their Ottoman rulers and sided with invading Russian troops.

M.T.