30/04/2015 09:29
Ronda Rousey News: Rowdy Pays Respects In Armenia For 100th Anniversary Of Genocide
Kim Kardashian and the White House weren't the only prominent Americans to speak about the one-hundredth anniversary of the Armenian Genocide last week.
Ronda Rousey, the undefeated women's bantamweight champion of the UFC, also traveled overseas to pay her respects to the occasion firsthand.
The Armenian Genocide was the systemic and forcible massacre of over 1.5 million Armenians during World War I, at the hands of the Ottoman Empire. Turkey, the geographical and historical successors to the Ottomans, have frequently denied that a genocide occurred, and have pressured the Obama White House to refrain from using that terminology.
Rowdy Ronda, however, displayed no such hesitancy in referring to the genocide for what it was on Instagram.
“I know there was a terrible genocide in 1915 and I’m here to support the effort to get it recognized because I believe the only way for us to learn from our past is to recognize that it happened,” Rousey said upon arrival, via the Washington Post.
“[Armenians] have been very kind to me growing up. They accepted me into their culture and I wanted to do something special to help out for the 100-year anniversary and I thought there was no better effort to show than to come and be here in person,” Rousey said.