Current News Story

The news story from the BBC News is telling about people of Syria that have to run away from their homes to escape the genocide. The news story was written for English speaking people that are curious about what is happening in this part of the world. It gives many facts about things that are currently happening, such as people fleeing their homes to escape persecution. It was written to inform people about the problems faced by many Syrians. The article claims that the genocide is having horrible emotional effects on the people, especially the children. It mentions a quote from a mother, saying "Psychologically it's affected them really badly. They wouldn't leave my side because they were so scared and they were afraid of any noise - asking me, is that a sniper? Is that a gunman?"


This event relates to Forgotten Fire because the genocides mentioned in both are being run by the government of each country. In the book, the genocide is being run by the Turkish government, and in the news article, the genocide was orchestrated by the Syrian government. In both pieces of writing, people are forced to leave their homes and cower in fear because their government is attempting to kill them all. In Forgotten Fire, Vahan was forced out of his home by gendarmes, and his former governor killed nearly all of his family. The article mentions many people that ran from their homes to Jordan to escape the government. Another similarity is the effect that it has on the children. The article mentions that children stay close to their mothers and fear that every sound is someone there to hurt them. In the book, Vahan is suspicious of most people because he fears they will hurt him or steal his things, and he always stayed with his family before they were killed. There are many comparisons between the genocide mentioned in the news article, and the genocide in the book. Through both of them, you learn that a government is killing the people of it's own country. 


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-17151364

Letter to a Character in Forgotten Fire

Dear Selim,

       What you are doing is so horrible. Words cannot even describe my feelings towards you. You are a soulless human being full of unwarranted hatred towards innocent victims. Saving one child from living the life of a prisoner is no consolation to the fact that you are the cause of the deaths of so many more.
       You are a living lie. You caused many Armenians to be killed. You are allowing Vahan Kendarian to stay in your stable because you "respected his father." But you cannot possibly have that much respect for him if you allowed him to be killed. Along with this, you cannot be so cruel to the other Armenians simply because they don't have your respect.
       What you did to the little girl, Saranoush, was the act of a demon. No girl should ever have to live through that. Luckily, she didn't have to. She died after only 8 days of going through the torture. Why men find raping a child pleasing, I will never know. I do however know that no one should ever be subjected to that. You should have killed her if rape was the only thing she was used for. Armenians, and all people, are not simply belongings that you can do what you please with. She was forced out of her home, forced to watch  her family be killed, and forced to be raped for seven nights by older men much like the ones that killed her family.
       The fact that you are willing to save one Armenian but kill so many others is beyond comprehension to me. No Armenians ever caused you any harm, yet you are causing so much to them. The children that aren't even capable of hurting you are going through monstrosities that are unimaginable. You may have think that you saved Vahan, but he was forced into loneliness because of you. When he finally had someone that he thought could be a friend, he had to watch her slowly die, not able to provide any help.
       My animosity towards you is so extreme that I cannot even describe it. You are a despicable man, obviously incapable of normal human feelings such as guilt or sadness. I would say that I hope you get what's coming to you and you feel the pain and heartbreak that you caused all those Armenians, but that would make me nearly as bad as you. I only hope that one day you become a human and see the sadness and feel the guilt that was caused by you.

Sincerely,
        Olivia Hampton

Forgotten Fire- Eight Stages of Genocide

The predominant stage of genocide mentioned in Forgotten Fire is extermination. One example is from page 27. The gendarmes go to Vahan's house to search for hiding Armenians. After they finish searching the house, they tell the family they can reenter. Before everyone goes in, they take Tavel and Darin to the garden wall and shoot them both. Another example of extermination is from after Vahan's family was put into the inn, and the gendarmes were marching all the prisoners out of the city. They stopped everyone at a river for the prisoners to take a drink, but it was a plot to kill more of them. Vahan said "[he] heard gunfire, saw the soldiers firing on the prisoners by the river, saw the bodies flatten out or lurch forward" (Bagdasarian, 2000. p. 48). Vahan's friend's family, the Altoonian's, also experienced losing loved ones. While Vahan stayed with Pattoo, they were talking late one night. Pattoo told Vahan that the gendarmes had come and killed his older brother, Vartan, by taking him to the back yard and shooting him. Extermination is the process of eliminating people that you don't want around. The Armenians were targeted by the Turks. All of the examples mentioned above illustrate the Turkish soldiers killing off the Armenian citizens.