This litany of remembrance and confession arises from an Armenian Genocide Remembrance Service in Dublin, Ireland. Each year, sadly, current cases of ethnic or racial cleansing and other atrocities are added.
In our Modern Time…is it forgotten?
Will the horrors of human devastation ever lead to peace?
We persist in remembering, lest we forget. We must never loose faith, never loose heart.
God, forgive us. Teach us peace. We will not loose heart.
1915-1923 Armenian Genocide — Ottoman Empire
Armenians, as well as Greeks, Assyrian-Chaldeans, Syriacs, Arameans, Maronites, and other Christians were subject to torture, starvation, mass murder, lethal human medical experimentation, and exile from their historic homeland, and over 1.5 million lost their lives. ‘The Armenian Genocide represented a deliberate attempt by the Ottoman Empire to eliminate all traces of an ancient, thriving, and noble civilization that had lived in these regions for millennia.’
God, forgive us. Teach us peace. We will not loose heart.
1939-1945 The Holocaust — Europe
‘The Holocaust was a period when millions of Jews were gruesomely starved and murdered because of who they were. The killings were organised by Germany’s Nazi party, led by Adolf Hitler. Jews were the main target of the Nazis, and the greatest number of victims were Jewish.’ Those slaughtered in their homes, on the streets and in concentration camps included homosexuals and Romani people. Nearly seven out of every 10 Jews in Europe were murdered because of their identity.
God, forgive us. Teach us peace. We will not loose heart.
1976-1978 Cambodia Genocide
‘The systematic murder of up to three million people in Cambodia that was carried out by the Khmer Rouge government under Pol Pot.’
God, forgive us. Teach us peace. We will not loose heart.
1988 Sumgait Massacre – Azerbaijan
A forgotten massacre. Sumgait is 26 kilometres from Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, and was home to some 18,000 Armenians in 1988. On 26 and 27 February 1988, demonstrations were organised in Sumgait under the slogan ‘Death to Armenians!’ The ethnic cleansing of the Armenian population which took place on the streets of Azerbaijan during the following three days has been referred to ever since with the horrific name of ‘Sumgait’.
God, forgive us. Teach us peace. We will not loose heart.
1994 Rwanda Genocide
7 April is the anniversary of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. The images of hundreds of thousands of people being hacked to death in fields are still vivid. The world stood by and watched as neighbour turned on neighbour, relative turned on relative, student turned on teacher and priest turned on congregation. The perpetrators were not monsters or aliens, but ordinary people like us who committed heinous crimes.
It seems, the world has forgotten what happened in Rwanda during 1994.’
God, forgive us. Teach us peace. We will not loose heart.
2023 Gaza Genocide
‘Israel faces a wave of condemnation in the United Nations, the International Court of Justice, and from dozens of countries over its military operation in Gaza, which has killed an estimated 29,000 Palestinians, many of them women and children, and left much of the territory in ruins.’ ….’South Africa likened Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians to an “extreme form of apartheid.” The South African government has brought a separate case at the court accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza.’
God, forgive us. Teach us peace. We will not loose heart.
God, in your mercy, let us never forget.
Photo: Berlin Memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe – taken by Tod Gobledale
Sources:
Armenia Genocide:- statement by the government of the State of Michigan USA)
Cambodia Genocide – Britannica
Rwanda – Armenian Genocide Remembrance Service, Dublin, Ireland, 2019
Sumgait 1988 Massacre Note: photographs were removed due to their ‘gruesome nature’.
