Forgiveness and Transcendence

As a child of a survivor of the Ottoman-Turkish Genocide of Armenians, I have been very familiar with the atrocities planned and carried out from 1894 to 1915. During World War I, the Turkish authorities declared the Armenians to be enemies of the Ottoman Empire. Adult males, and especially those identified as potential leaders, were arrested, taken to a desolate area, and shot. This process was designed to deprive Armenians of leadership and representation, so that deportations might proceed without resistance. Ultimately, famine, thirst, torture, epidemics, pillage, and plunder resulted in the deaths of one-and-one-half million people which was two-thirds of the Armenian population in that area. My father was one of the fortunate survivors who was then able to settle with his family in Syria. My mother’s family walked through the deserts to Syria, where I was born.