In recent months, Kim Kardashian has become an unlikely advocate for the often-ignored Armenian genocide, which claimed the lives of nearly 1.5 million Armenians at the hands of Ottoman Turks in 1915.
While the Pope has echoed the reality star's beliefs, there is still a major power player that has yet to officially refer to the killings as a genocide: President Barack Obama. Kim has decided to use her vast star power to try and change that.
“I would like President Obama to use the word ‘genocide’,” Kardashian said a new op-ed piece for Time magazine. “It’s very disappointing he hasn’t used it as president. We thought it was going to happen this year."
Tuesday marked the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide. While the White House released a statement saying that it would use the day "to urge a full, frank and just acknowledgement of the facts," it did not officially refer to the deaths as a genocide.
"The whole point of remembering the genocide is to make sure it doesn’t happen again," Kardashian wrote in the passionate piece. "A million-and-a-half people were brutally massacred, and a country can just pretend like it never happened? I don’t think that’s right."
Kardashian recently traveled to Armenia with several members of her family including husband Kanye West, daughter North and sister Khloe. The heavily documented trip has informed millions of the genocide and raised an unprecedented amount of awareness.
"So many people have come to me and said, “I had no idea there was a genocide,'" Kardashian wrote in Time. "There aren’t that many Armenians in this business. We have this spotlight to bring attention to it, so why would we just sit back?"
Bravo, Kim.
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