April 24, 2007 - 21:13 AMT
Jack Layton: "We must acknowledge Armenian Genocide and never forget about it"
As we commemorate the Armenian Genocide, it is time to pay tribute to the long overdue recognition of this tragic episode not only in Armenian, but indeed human history, leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada, Jack Layton stated. He said, this tragic human episode is too frequently eclipsed by the First World War, but it needs its proper place in the memory of human experience. "Perhaps had we taken note at the time of the suffering occurring in Armenia; perhaps if we'd had access at the time to a label powerful enough to command the moral distress of the international community, we would have done more to develop the emerging architecture of the international community to prevent such horrors in the future. But in the wake of the Great War, the suffering of Armenians was lost, and their experience wasn't given a name. Today, we are well aware of the consequences: Armenia was not the last genocide of the 20th Century, but the first. We must always remember the Armenian people. We must acknowledge the Armenian Genocide, and we must never forget it," Jack Layton stated.