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   f o r    t h e    s a k e    o f    a r g u m e n t

--- G R E G O R Y   D J A N I K I A N


                For a whole month corpses were observed floating down
		the River Euphrates nearly every day, often in batches.
				--from the account of a German missionary

Say that nothing happened in 1915

no massacres in Zeitoun no Van or Kharpert

no wild dogs lapping at the throats of the dead

say there were no eyewitnesses no missionaries in the mountains of Kars

no death caravans winding through the streets

say there were no consuls at the window hearing the cries

say nothing occurred none of it a matter of public record

no million dead or million more scarred into silence

say nothing happened no one heard

and say the hunger deserts were empty of all the voices

and the rivers of thirst were flowing like other rivers

without memory now of any of it

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published in association with the |
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