Who, after all, speaks to-day of the annihilation of the Armenians?

This quote is from a speech given by Adolf Hitler to the Wehrmacht commanders at his Obersalzberg home on August 22, 1939. (wikipedia)

On this day, we remember, we speak of the Armenian genocide, of the 1.5 million killed by the Ottoman (young) Turks.

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/lectionary/armenian-genocide-remembrance

Almighty God, our Refuge and our Rock, your loving care knows no bounds and embraces all the peoples of the earth: Defend and protect those who fall victim to the forces of evil, and as we remember this day those who endured depredation and death because of who they were, not because of what they had done or failed to do, give us the courage to stand against hatred and oppression, and to seek the dignity and well-being of all for the sake of our Savior Jesus Christ, in whom you have reconciled the world to yourself; and who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

http://www.npr.org/2015/04/22/401540456/friday-marks-centennial-of-armenian-mass-killings-during-world-war-i

An excerpt:  "I think that one could conceptualize the history of the mass killing of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as something that evolves along what the sociologist Ervin Staub calls a continuum of destruction. The Armenian massacres of the 1890s, which were putative - they were punishments for Armenian progressive reform movement. They weren't designed to exterminate the entire population or rid the Ottoman Empire of its Armenian population [as in 1915], but they begin a very important process of devaluing and dehumanizing this ethnic minority group."

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2015/04/24/401791172/a-century-after-atrocities-against-armenians-an-unresolved-wound

An excerpt: This much is known: Up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed or deported in the violence unleashed by Ottoman Turks starting on April 24, 1915. But as the 100th anniversary of these events is marked on Friday, it remains a bitter source of contention between Turks and Armenians. Armenians, along with many historians and European countries, have called it the 20th century's first genocide. Turkey suppressed accounts of the killings for decades, and to this day staunchly rejects the label of genocide.

Learn more:

http://www.ushmm.org/information/press/press-releases/museum-statement-on-the-100th-anniversary-of-the-armenian-genocide