ic Wales, UK
April 23 2005
Armenian concert to thank Wales Apr 23 2005
Karen Price, Western Mail
WHEN Wales became one of the first nations in the world to recognise
the Armenian genocide, one man wanted to say thanks.
Arnaud Amat did not even know where Cardiff was when the National
Assembly made the decision just over two years ago.
But he sought the city out, came over on an exchange as a charity
worker and has now organised the first ever concert of Armenian music
on Welsh soil, which takes place tonight.
More than a million people died in a series of massacres carried out
by Turkish members of the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1923. The
Turkish government denies the killings constituted genocide but has
come under increasing pressure over the last few years to recognise
the crime.
In December 2002, a cross-party group of AMs got together to declare
the genocide “one of the sad chapters in the annals of contemporary
history”.
Cardiff Council then became the first British city to recognise the
genocide, incorporating it into its Holocaust Memorial Day
commemorations in January.
“The Welsh Assembly members’ meeting came about when Europe was still
not recognising the genocide as it should,” said Mr Amat, who is
French but of Armenia origin. “I wanted to see Cardiff and pay
tribute to the people because of that.”
Mr Amat is now working in Cardiff for a year with the young people’s
charity ProMo-Cymru and has organised for Keram, a band playing
traditional Armenian music, to perform in the city.
The concert takes place in the Reardon Smith Theatre at the National
Museum and Gallery in Cardiff tonight at 8pm.