William Bradley: “each April we pause to remember the first great crime of the 20th century, the massacre of 1\1/2\ million Armenians by…”

“each April we pause to remember the first great crime of the 20th century, the massacre of 1\1/2\ million Armenians by the Ottoman empire and its successor state between 1915 and 1923. It is particularly appropriate that in this year, a year in which "Schindler's List" won the Oscar for best motion picture, and a year in which we are shamed by the continued ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, that we take a moment to think back to the first European genocide of this tragic century. The international community did not act in 1915. the international community was slow to act in the 1930's and 1940's. The international community is just now acting in the 1990's. Every time we soberly intone, "never again." And every time the murderers catch us napping. We do not get involved and stop the horror until tens of thousands or even millions have died. The American Armenian community has done much to enrich this country. Armenia itself has now emerged as an independent state in which Armenians can control their own destiny. This is, tragically, a state forced to devote its resources to war rather than to building a peaceful, prosperous life for its people.”