Turkish genocide must be recalled

I read with interest how Congress is planning, through a non-binding resolution, to finally label an atrocity for what it truly was -- genocide.

It was during the First World War that the first holocaust of modern times was to take place. Armenians were a Christian minority within the polyglot Ottoman Empire, largely what is today modern Turkey.

Under the guise of wartime necessity, Armenians were taken from their homes to die in the desert from starvation. Of the two million Armenians within the Ottoman Empire in 1914, an estimated 700,000 to nearly 1.5 million had been killed by 1916.

Turkey's angry response to this label and threats of future possible action against the Kurds, another minority within its boundaries, seems to only confirm a history of aggression.

And what is the importance of remembering past historical events?

That answer is best given by none other than Adolf Hitler in a speech on Aug. 22, 1939: "I have given orders to my Death Units to exterminate without mercy or pity men, women and children belonging to the Polish-speaking race. It is only in this manner that we can acquire the vital territory which we need. After all, who remembers today the extermination of the Armenians?"

Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

John T. Lees

Elgin