I'm sorry for your loss, I know loss, did I mention my parents are dead?
George Clooney was presenting an Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity which was established on behalf of the survivors of the Armenian genocide.
It has been 101 years since the genocide in the Ottoman Empire which was in 1915. It is thought that 1.5 million Armenians died but Turkey has said it was more like 300,000 - 500,000 and as many Turks died during the civil strife when the Armenians rose up in support of invading Russians so get off their backs and stop exaggerating.
During the 1800's Great Britain, France and Russia had been at the Ottoman Empire to reform how it treated its minorities. Christians and Jews were second class citizens and weren't even allowed a say when in court.
After the The Hamidian massacres which killed 100,00 - 300,000, a Young Turk revolution in 1908 which was over thrown in 1909 and then the Adana massacre which followed that killed 20,000 - 30,000 Armenians there were the Balkan wars of 1912.
This was the Ottoman Empire against Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece and Montenegro. Many Muslim refugees fled to areas traditionally known to have Armenians living there. This increased tensions and the need to get rid of the Armenians.
Why this talk about Armenia? Sure it's one of the forgotten genocides because our ally Turkey doesn't like it to be mentioned.
I don't know if you've noticed but the west doesn't like to upset Turkey as they are a key nation in the fight against ISIS and maybe Assad but are strategically important to launch attacks from and to intimidate Russia.
Turkey plays both sides and gets a free pass to kill Kurds and buy ISIS oil as long as it doesn't go full
The Belfast Telegraph had Clooney's speech at the awards, "We honour the million and a half lives that were lost 101 years ago. And we honour those lives by calling their tragedy by its true name. Genocide. The Armenian Genocide."
He talked about how his family the Clooneys fled the potato famine and only survived because of the kindness of others and how refugees who are just people like us need that help too.
The Aurora award went to Marguerite Barankitse who cared for children and orphans during the Burundi civil war.
The comments on the Bel Tel page kinda pissed me off. Smug arm chair warriors telling Clooney to butt out and fix American problems and real smooth talking about your own family during an Armenian commemoration.
ARE THESE PEOPLE FUCKING STUPID? Yeah I suppose they are. The award show just wasn't about Armenians it was also about helping others too and celebrating those that do. Yeah shame on him for highlighting an atrocity. Ach I told them off and said he was Batman and to suck on it ... yeah I'm a fucken werdsmith.
You can't talk about the Armenian genocide in Turkey, it's illegal so I'll talk about it for them. In 1915 the Ottoman government set about getting rid of the 2 million Armenians living there through execution and deportation.
As with many massacres to do with ethnic cleansing, first hundreds of intellectuals were rounded up and killed. Then ordinary families where rounded up and forced on death marches through the Syrian desert where they were systematically robbed, raped and shot.
Any Armenians in the Ottoman military were transferred to slave labour camps then ultimately executed by gangs of Turks. These Turks would also roam the countryside killing any Armenian they came across.
Armenian children kidnapped, converted to Islam and given to Turkish families. Armenian women were forced to join harems and Turks moved into the homes of deported or murdered Armenians.
In 1922 there were only 388,000 Armenians left in the Ottoman Empire.
In 1918 when the Ottoman Empire surrendered the Turks that committed the Genocide fled to Germany. Armenians tracked down the leaders to kill them in Operation Nemesis.
While Turkey denies there was genocide and that it was just war, the US government did recognize the slaughter as a genocide in 2010.
So well done George on being a decent human being and fuck the rest cos they are just jelly that they are not and never will be Batman!
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