COMMISSION LETS CITY COUNCIL DECIDE ON LOCATION OF MONUMENT COMMEMORATING ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
Pasadena Weekly, CA
Aug 8 2013
Monumental decision
By Andre Coleman 08/07/2013
Although the Pasadena Parks and Recreation Commission unanimously
voted to accept the design of a monument honoring victims of the
Armenian Genocide, it left the final decision of where the memorial
should be placed up to the City Council.
The commission backed off from making a decision after a handful of
local residents voiced opposition to putting the memorial – designed
by 26-year-old Art Center College of Design student Catherine Menard –
in Memorial Park, located on the northeastern edge of Old Pasadena.
Prior to the meeting, opponents of the plan met briefly with City
Manager Michael Beck to express their concerns.
The council is expected to take up the matter on Sept. 9.
“We received a couple of emails and comments,” said Beck, who appeared
not to be swayed by the arguments. “We did look at other parks.
Ultimately, from a staff perspective, we still think Memorial Park
is the best location, but we are taking one more look to see what
other locations might exist.”
In letters and during the public comment portion of last week’s
meeting, opponents said they were against using the park because it
has traditionally been used to honor American war veterans. Located on
the corner of North Raymond Avenue and Walnut Street, Memorial Park
contains tributes to local residents that lost their lives fighting
in the Civil War and Vietnam. The Vietnam War memorial was a project
started by Paparian, a former US Marine, while he was on the City
Council in the late 1990s. That memorial was first placed in Central
Park, south of Colorado Boulevard, between South Fair Oaks and Raymond
avenues, but was later reinstalled at Memorial Park.
The roughly five-acre park also contains the Levitt Pavilion
amphitheater, which attracts hundreds of people during the summer
when concerts are held there.
Paparian, who chairs of the Pasadena Genocide Memorial Committee
(PASAGMC), which commissioned Menard’s design, did not return phone
calls seeking comment for this story.
According to Parks and Recreation Commission Member Donabed Donabedian,
a quarter of the 16 people who spoke at the meeting opposed the use
of the Memorial Park. The remaining dozen speakers at the meeting
were for the idea.
One person against the plan was Old Pasadena businesswoman Debbie
Meymarian.
“My grandparents were all genocide survivors and I couldn’t be more
proud of my family or my heritage,” Meymarian wrote to the commission.
“However, I think that the placement of the proposed memorial in
Memorial Park is perhaps short-sited and misguided. All of the
commemorations in the park have to do with United States servicemen
and women. What is to keep another ethnic group in this city from
wanting a memorial to their ancestors in Memorial Park?
Where does it stop? Surely, there is a more appropriate place to
honor our ancestors.”
Emina Darakjy, a longtime resident and a member of the city’s Urban
Forestry Advisory Committee, also opposes using Memorial Park as a
location for the memorial. Darakjy’s husband’s grandparents escaped
to the United States after witnessing the murder of several family
members during the Armenian Genocide.
“I like the design,” Darakjy wrote in an email. “I think the monument
should be built. However, I do not think the monument should be
erected in a park that has become a sacred ground for memorials for
US servicemen and women who gave the ultimate sacrifice defending
our nation. Besides the Vietnam memorial and the Union soldier
commemorating the Civil War, the perimeter of the park has banners
honoring the Pasadena servicemen who lost their lives during the
Iraq War.”
Darakjy said another major concern is the size of the park, which
she said is too cramped.
“The site is too small for such a monument, which will draw thousands
of people every April 24, a day of remembrance for the Armenian
community, when stores and restaurants close,” stated Darakjy. “Are
we going to have to close down Walnut, Holly and Raymond streets
every April 24 to accommodate the crowds?”
The Armenian Genocide Memorial is expected to be unveiled April 24,
2015. The memorial’s circular design features a 16-foot-tall tripod
at its center. From the apex of the three beams will fall a single
drop of water every 21 seconds, totaling 1.5 million drops – tears –
a year for each of the victims of the government-sponsored atrocity,
considered the first genocide of the 20th century.
“We are certainly sensitive to the feeling that the park is not the
right location,” said former Pasadena Police Chief Bernard Melekian,
a member of the PASAGMC. “But it is equally important to note we have
gone through the entire city process and the memorial fits the use of
what was intended for the park. We’re comfortable with that part of it
and a number of Armenian veterans, myself and Bill Paparian included,
are going to speak to why we think it is important to put it there. We
are memorializing one of the defining events in the 20th century.”
Since the US Census does not classify Armenian as a race and many
Armenians register as white, it is difficult to estimate how many
Armenians live in Pasadena. However, according to church membership
rolls, there are about 20,000 Armenian Americans living locally.
Neighboring Glendale has the highest percentage of residents of
Armenian descent in the United States. That city commemorates the
genocide every year on April 24 in front of City Hall with a resolution
acknowledging the Great Crime, which began in 1915 and ended in 1923,
killing 1.5 million Armenians, who had been hanged, poisoned, drowned
or marched into the desert to die at the hands of soldiers from the
Turkish Ottoman Empire. The Pasadena City Council has been issuing
an annual proclamation commemorating the Armenian Genocide on April
24 for more than 30 years.
Along with the Jewish Holocaust and the enslavement of African
Americans, it remains one of the darkest episodes in human history,
and one which the Turkish government denies to this day.
Turkish Deputy Consul General Arif Celik voiced his opposition to
the project on an Aug. 9 visit to Pasadena Deputy City Manager Julie
Gutierrez.
Congressman Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) renewed his longstanding calls
this year for the United States to formally acknowledge the genocide.
During the 2008 election, then-candidate Barack Obama promised that
he would recognize the genocide if elected, but later went back on
his word.
“I urge you to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide in your statement this
year, to call genocide genocide and to stand with the ever-dwindling
number of survivors, as well as the descendants of those who were lost,
and who must otherwise continue to suffer the indignity, injury and
pain of denial,” wrote Schiff in a letter to the president.
Meanwhile, members of the Armenian Community Coalition (ACC) an
alternative group led by former City Council candidate Chris Chahanian,
which broke off from the PASAGMC, presented the city with an update
on its separate plans for a memorial.
“It was a meet and greet,” said Pasadena Public Information Officer
William Boyer. “They wanted to update us with their plans. So far,
nothing has been submitted.”
* Due to incorrect information provided by a Park and Recreation
Commissioner, the Weekly reported that the commission voted against
placing the monument in Memorial Park. The commissioners suggested
that the city look for an alternative site, but voted to allow the
City Council to make the final decision.
http://www.pasadenaweekly.com/cms/story/detail/monumental_decision/12337/