The epitaph on my grandfather’s gravestone at the Ararat Cemetery in Fresno includes the following admonition of a famous Armenian statesman and writer:
Ayskan charik te moranan mer vortik, togh vogch ashkharh hayin garta nakhadink…
If such great wrongs our sons forget, may the world’s curses the Armenians beget…
For nearly 100 years after the Genocide, Armenians around the world and across all walks of life have triumphed over and trumped Avedis Aharonian’s lamented forgetfulness. The fight against forgetfulness, however, is won and done. Now we must move away from the common Armenian characteristic of gratuitously accommodating others and, instead, demand that others accommodate us.
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