Vermont legislature unanimously adopts Armenian Genocide Centennial resolution

On March 31, the Vermont Legislature for first time officially recognized the 1915 Armenian Genocide. The House and Senate unanimously passed resolutions recognizing the systematic killing of about 1.5 million Armenians in the former Ottoman Empire and commemorating the 100th anniversary this year. The Turkish government continues to deny the Genocide, Burlington Free Press reports.

Two Vermonters, Chris Bohjalian, an author and columnist for the Burlington Free Press and Jessica Oski, a lobbyist who are descendants of Armenian Genocide survivors, suggested the resolution to Rep. Joan Lenes, D-Shelburne, to coincide with the centennial of the Genocide. The official Armenian Remembrance Day is April 24.

“I want us to remember so we don’t repeat, and we are still repeating,” Lenes said. “Being an Assyrian I feel camaraderie with Armenians.”
After passage of the resolution, Bohjalian and Armenian-American Dana Walrath, a medical anthropologist at the University of Vermont, gave a talk about their personal journeys discovering their family history against the haunting backdrop of the Genocide. Both of the speakers have written historical novels about the Genocide.

Bohjalian recalled visiting Turkey’s Dudan Crevasse, where 10,000 Armenians were marched to a ravine, shot or bayoneted to death and thrown into the crevasse at the bottom of a ravine.

Walrath said there are eight stages of Genocide, and the eighth stage is denial.” This Genocide is still ongoing because there is still denial,” she said.