March marks Armenian genocide
By Brooke Bryant
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
Posted on Thu, Apr. 21, 2005
FLORIN – Zabel Ekmekjian will finish her 215-mile trek on the steps
of the state Capitol today, but the 90-year-old quest that inspires
her is far from over.
The 63-year-old Moraga grandmother and more than a dozen
Armenian-American youths from across the state are on the last leg
of their 20-day march from Fresno to Sacramento to draw attention
to the 90th anniversary of what they say was a campaign of genocide
against Armenians.
At 11 a.m., they plan to end up at the Capitol to join a larger rally
with a dual purpose: to thank California legislators for officially
acknowledging the mass killings that began in April 1915 as genocide,
and to urge the U.S. government to do the same.
As many as 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Turkish authorities
during World War I in a campaign that many countries, including France
and Canada, recognize as genocide, but which Turkey denies. The United
States officially refers to the killings as a massacre.
Tuesday, as the group marched past sandwich shops and gas stations
in the suburban shopping centers of Florin, just a few miles from
their Sacramento destination, Ekmekjian struggled with her limited
English to find the words to describe how important it is for the
United States to recognize what happened to her people as genocide.
She held up one finger. “It is the most important thing,” march
coordinator Serouj Aprahamian, 23, translated for her. “We need to
feel as a community that this is recognized.”
Ekmekjian’s father saw his parents taken by Turkish soldiers and
his sisters adopted by a Muslim family and forced to convert. He
watched from a hiding place as soldiers shot his brother, who had
gone searching for food.
The killings stayed with her father his whole life. He was always
serious, always grieving for his family, Ekmekjian said. But he didn’t
talk much about those years, because he didn’t want his children
to grow up with the same memories that he had. “You stay happy,”
he told Ekmekjian.
When she saw a flier for the march, she knew at once she had to
take part. “Because … inside me, I have something I need to give,”
she said.
Organizers were dubious that Ekmekjian could get the requisite doctor’s
permission, Aprahamian said.
But she did. In fact, she has stayed hale and hearty the whole trip;
she hasn’t taken so much as an aspirin to relieve aching muscles,
she said proudly. “I think God help me.”
The march was organized by the Armenian Youth Federation, under the
auspices of a coalition created to plan commemorative activities for
the 90th anniversary.
The core group of 14 marchers, joined occasionally by others, has
walked along rural roads and through Central Valley cities since
setting out April 2. At night, marchers sleep in churches and
community centers.
The marchers try to stay in a straight line. At the head, one person
carries an Armenian flag, another an American flag. Farther back,
two more marchers carry a yellow banner that reads: “Turkey Tell The
Truth. Acknowledge The Genocide.”
The Turkish denial is “in a way, a continuation of the genocide,”
said Aprahamian, a recent Cal Poly Pomona graduate who said he is
marching in solidarity with his grandfather, who survived the killings
and was forced to march through the deserts to Syria as a young child.
“I always grew up hearing those stories,” Aprahamian said. The fact
that after all this time, there is “still no justice, it impels you
to do something. … It’s a big wound in the Armenian community.”
Across most of the world, that the Armenian people were subjected
to genocide isn’t a matter of debate, said Margaret Lavinia, a UC
Berkeley history professor who has researched the period extensively.
“It definitely falls under the United Nation’s definition of genocide,”
she said.
Congress debated a resolution to recognize the genocide in 2000,
but pulled it at the request of President Clinton, who was under
pressure from the Turkish government, she said.
Turkey concedes merely that some Armenians died when they were deported
to Syria by Turkish authorities, who feared they were collaborating
with invaders. Turkey also continues to put pressure on governments
that do acknowledge the genocide, Lavinia said, perhaps out of concern
that the government could be held liable for reparations.
Across the Bay Area this weekend, ceremonies commemorating the
killings will take place at several churches, and at San Francisco’s
Mt. Davidson Cross, now a memorial to the Armenian victims.
It’s an important anniversary for the Armenian community, a chance to
both remember and remind others of the “forgotten genocide, that’s
what we call it,” said Moraga resident Ed Minasian, whose parents
met and married in the United States after they both lost their first
spouses to the killings.
“There’s just a small, infinitesimal number of survivors. That’s why
this is such a big deal,” he said of the 90th anniversary. “Some of
us know we’re not going to be around for the 100th.”
For Ekmekjian, the march has meant more than just remembering the
previous generation. She said she has been inspired by the young
people around her.
“It makes her more confident that the new generation will carry the
torch,” Aprahamian said.