Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) participated in the commemoration of the 99th anniversary of the Armenian genocide in Glendale. The Turkish government’s denial was the subject of a speech by as he addressed the hundreds of people who attended the commemoration Monday night, the Glendale News-Press reports.
He said he recently delivered “An open letter to the Turkish people” to recognize the genocide this year, and sent it to prominent Turkish newspapers.
“Have you ever wondered what happened to the Armenians?” Schiff asks in the letter. “Do you know why your government goes to such lengths to conceal this part of your history?”
He went on to say that the massacre was the first universally acknowledged genocide of the last century, and urged for a new national conversation in Turkey on the genocide.
“Yours is the moral responsibility to acknowledge the truth and seek reconciliation with the Armenian people that your parents and their parents could or would not,” he wrote in the letter, in which he aims to reach young Turkish people. “It is an obligation you have inherited…you will be the ones to shape Turkey’s future.”
During the event, Glendale students performed songs and dances as well as read poems during the 13th annual commemoration of the Armenian Genocide Monday night that brought hundreds of people to Glendale High.
