Send Page to a Friend Rally calls for genocide recognition   By Stacy Welkowitz Daily Free Press   Calling for Massachusetts residents to formally recognize genocide, approximately 175 people gathered in front of the Statehouse Friday afternoon to witness the launch of a new coalition, kNOw Genocide, following an assembly in the House Chamber for Armenian Genocide Commemoration Day in honor of those who died in the Armenian genocide of 1915. According to their website, kNOw Genocide is a group founded in opposition to those who deny cases of genocide, calling denial a crime in itself. The group also organized the support of 12 coalition members, including the Armenian Assembly of America, Irish Immigration, the Jewish Community Relations Council, Rwanda Outlook and Genocide Intervention Network. U.S. Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) said politicians today and throughout history have neglected to recognize the events of 1915, calling upon President George W. Bush to publicly acknowledge the Armenian as well as present-day genocide. Although President Woodrow Wilson's administration condemned the Armenia genocide as it was occurring, Markey said Bush has not publicly called for the Turkish government to label the 1915 atrocities as "genocide." "It is time, President Bush, for you to stand up and to say that there was a genocide that occurred in Armenia," Markey said. "It is time, President Bush, for you to stand up and to do something about the genocide in Darfur." Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey, Attorney General Thomas Reilly and Sen. Steven Tolman (D-Boston) all publicly pledged their support for the new coalition. As the grandson of Armenian genocide survivors, Rep. Peter Koutoujian (D-Newton) with Rep. Rachel Kaprielian (D-Watertown) -- the granddaughter of Armenian genocide survivors -- and Tolman will file "landmark" legislation calling for Massachusetts to divest in companies that have holdings in Sudan where the Janjaweed, a government-sponsored militia, have been massacring residents of the Darfur region since 2003. In September 2004, the State Department labeled the massacre in Darfur as "genocide." "This piece of legislation would force our divestment in business interests in Sudan and anywhere else where genocide occurs, even if it forces us to bury our heads in our hands," Koutoujian said. "It is first in the nation and I hope and believe it will become a model for every other state in this nation and for this nation itself to model itself after it." Approximately 1.5 million Armenians were killed by the Young Turk government and 500,000 more were exiled from Ottoman Turkey during the genocide, according to the Armenian Assembly of America website. The website stated men were separated from their families and killed while women, children and the elderly were marched across the Syrian Desert where they were killed by the army or died from starvation, exposure to the elements or disease. Senior vice president Beth Masterman of the public affairs organization Liberty Square Group, who helped organize the launch, explained that the state legislature recently passed a law to include the teaching of "horrible incidents of man against man" in the human rights curriculum in high schools across the state, including the Holocaust, slave trade and the Armenian genocides. Masterman said the Turkish government refuses to call the incident a genocide, instead calling it a part of war, "because they're trying to become a part of the [European Union] and they don't want to be tarred with that label of having committed genocide." Anthony Barsamian, one of the founders of kNOw Genocide and the Caption Assembly Board of Directors Chairman for the Armenian Assembly, said the Turkish Association is suing Massachusetts for teaching the genocide curriculum. According to Masterman, the Turkish Association wants the curriculum to include the other side of the argument, saying that the civilian deaths was an unfortunate incident that occurs during wartime.