Those who planned and executed this macabre deed, did so in the belief that memory of their deeds would not live on. We are gathered here today, to disabuse them of this notion. We are here to inform those who would be tempted to abuse humanity in the misplaced belief that their crimes will pass from collective human memory, that we will not allow them to succeed. We not only talk about the massacres of the Armenians in Ottoman Turkey, we commemorate their memory, and affirm the triumph of humanity over evil. From the unimaginable horrors of Erzecum in Ottoman Turkey, to the killing fields of Murambi in Rwanda by way of the gas chambers of Auschwitz, those who planned and perpetrated the extermination of millions of our fellow human beings believed that they could create a world of their choosing, uniformly conforming to their warped political and socio-economic visions.
Genocide defines the perpetrator.
It describes the intentions of all those who, for one reason or another, would sacrifice humanity with all its imperfections, at the altar of unmitigated uniformity in spite of any saving graces it might have. Today, here and now, we celebrate the resilience and persistence of humanity. We are witness to the eternal truth that the victims of genocide will and must triumph in the arena of public discourse, if humanity is to escape the pitfalls of yester year. Hitler thought the Armenian victims would be forgotten, your presence here is testimony to the reality of his delusion. It is our duty to keep the memory of all victims of genocide alive.