By Zeina ElHalabi and Rana Siblini ---

The commemoration of two aggressive acts against innocent human beings distinguished the week of April 24 at AUB. In an attempt to increase student awareness of specific bloody episodes, two exhibitions on campus targeted the Armenian genocide, which started on April 24, 1915, and the Qana massacre of April 18, 1996. The Armenian genocide was centrally planned and carried out between 1915 and 1918 by the Turkish government against the entire Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire. The Armenians were subjected to deportation, abduction, expropriation, torture and starvation, resulting in the death of 1.5 million victims by 1922. The great bulk of the Armenian population was forced out of Armenia into the desert where they were left to die of thirst and hunger. The Armenian massacres were renewed between 1920 and 1923. Today, Armenia is an independent entity and still seeks worldwide recognition of the inhuman crimes committed against its people. After 81 years, acts of aggression continued to be committed. In 1996, during the operation ÒGrapes of WrathÓ launched by the Israelis against Lebanon, some 100 civilians, who took refuge at the headquarters of the Figi UN battalion, were bombarded. Today, the Lebanese people still commemorate this massacre as an evidence of the cruelty and brutality of their Israeli enemy