Tell that to the Kurds.
That raises another reason why this is EXTREMELY pertainant right now, and why it should be raised now more than ever.
We are dealing with a country that flat out denies any involvement in a genocide and ethnic cleansing, and is currently positioned with weapons raised against another minority that is just beginning to see its movement for independence take hold and gain real tangible international support.
For those that don’t know, that’s
precisely the recipe that kicked off the Armenian Genocide a century ago: the Ottoman Empire was crumbling and the Armenians made it clear that they intended to have their own homeland again. In short order the Armenians were almost entirely annihilated within the borders of what became Turkey, the Eastern portion of which was predominantly Armenian as was part of the traditional Armenian homeland.
When dealing with the same factors today that went into the Genocide, and facing the same nation which
still denies the Genocide occured, we need to take very seriously the threat of another ethnic cleansing. All of us standing up and saying “We remember, we will NOT forget, and we will NOT let it happen again” sends a powerful message. Backing such a statement up with the threat of sanctions and/or military action would go even further.
We can’t coddle Turkey at this point just because they are our military ally, especially when they are seemingly poised to make the same type of action they made before. They got away with it then because nobody acted or said much about it, and this time we’re actively facilitating them in some ways.
It’s not about an Armenian lobby with great powers in Congress (yeah, we’re a real world-shaking ethnic group

). It’s about the threat of a repeat Genocide that is growing more and more real every day.
Remember, “just lacking after our own concerns and the lives of our people” is precisely what allows for ethnic cleansing to occur in the first place, both on the part of the purpotrators, and on the part of those who stand by and watch the build up and do nothing.
Peace and God bless!