Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2019 | 2 a.m.
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As a third-generation Armenian-American, whose ancestors fled their ancient homeland in the 1890s during the Ottoman Empire, I fear and tremble at the removal of U.S. troops from Syria as protection for the Kurds, whose religion bridges Judaism and Christianity.
The persecution the Armenians felt before 1915 caused many to flee, but in 1915 the Turks decided to cleanse their land, which meant destroy my people. They came into villages saying they needed the men for war, then took them and mass murdered them. They returned to rape and murder the women and children. If a woman was pregnant, they would disembowel her.
Has the world learned nothing? One hundred years have passed and the Turks are at it again. When Adolf Hitler was asked, “How can you annihilate a whole people?” he replied, “Who remembers the Armenians.”
If there were sane people in the White House, the Kurds would have been guaranteed nationhood for their hard work and dedication helping America quash al-Qaida. Now, I fear they will reap the same fate as my people. Al-Qaida will rise again and America will be its target.
I call for the Joint Chiefs of Staff to do their job in defending America from terrorists — foreign and domestic!
