Community Asks Obama to Lay Wreath at Montebello Monument
asbarez
Tuesday, April 19th, 2011
LOS ANGELES-On Thursday, April 21 at 3 p.m., Armenian Americans from
throughout Southern California and across the American and Armenian
political spectrums will join together for a public protest calling
upon President Obama to honor his broken campaign pledge to recognize
the Armenian Genocide, reported the Armenian National Committee
of America.
The demonstration, organized by the Armenian Genocide Community Task
Force, will be held outside the President’s first major fundraiser in
Southern California for the “Obama Victory Fund 2012,” at the Sony
Studios located at 10202 W. Washington Boulevard in Culver City,
California. Buses will transport protestors starting at 1:30 p.m.
from St. Mary’s Church in Glendale, Rose & Alex Pilibos School in
Hollywood, Ferrahian High School in Encino and the North Hollywood
Armenian Apostolic Church: 13050 Vanowen St. North Hollywood.
“California’s Armenian American community is eager to see President
Obama in Los Angeles,” stated ANCA Western Region Chairman Andrew
Kzirian, Esq. “With the President’s 2012 reelection effort now under
way, the Armenian American community will remind him of the profound
moral and serious geopolitical costs of his decision to break his
promise to clearly and unequivocally recognize the Armenian Genocide,”
added Kzirian. “In these days leading up to the President’s third April
24th commemoration of this crime, we ask nothing more than that he live
up to his own commitments to bring an end to his Administration’s
complicity in Turkey’s denials. There is no better way to begin
this process than for President Obama to visit the Armenian Genocide
Memorial in Montebello and pay tribute to the victims and survivors
of this still unpunished crime.”
President Obama’s trip to Southern California comes on the eve of
April 24th, the international day of commemoration of the Armenian
Genocide. Armenian Americans have urged the President to visit
the Armenian Genocide Memorial in Bicknell Park in Montebello. The
Genocide memorial, constructed in 1965, has been the site of annual
commemorative programs, attracting tens of thousands to mark this
crime against humanity. In 1969, California Governor Ronald Reagan
gave a rousing 15-minute speech at the memorial, stating “Today, I
humbly bow in memory of the Armenian martyrs, who died in the name of
freedom at the hands of Turkish perpetrators of Genocide.” On April
22, 1981, President Reagan recognized the Genocide in Proclamation
4838, which proclaimed April 26-May 3 as “Days of Remembrance of
Victims of Holocaust.” The proclamation stated, “Like the genocide
of the Armenians before it, and the genocide of the Cambodians which
followed it and like too many other such persecutions of too many
other peoples-the lessons of the Holocaust must never be forgotten.”
In a series of letters and statements issued as Senator and candidate,
President Obama pledged clearly and unequivocally that he would end
U.S. complicity in Turkey’s genocide denial and properly recognize
this crime against humanity. In a January 18, 2008, statement, in the
days leading up to the Super Tuesday Primary in California, he stated
“As President, I will recognize the Armenian Genocide.”
The complete set of Senator Obama’s statements on the Armenian Genocide
can be found here.
Despite repeated opportunities to honor his pledge, President Obama
instead chose to promote the ill-fated Turkey-Armenia Protocols, an
effort which has emerged as the latest tactic in Turkey’s campaign
to undermine international affirmation of this crime. The Obama
Administration then went on to oppose Armenian Genocide legislation,
H.Res.252, which was adopted by the House Foreign Affairs Committee
over the President’s objections. The measure was ultimately not brought
to a vote on the House floor by the Democratic leadership, despite the
support for its passage by a bipartisan majority of Representatives.
From: A. Papazian