Author: Kajoyan Gevork

US URGES ‘FULL’ ADMISSION OF FACTS IN ARMENIAN MASSACRE

GlobalPost
April 14 2015

Agence France-Presse

The United States Tuesday called for a “full, frank” acknowledgement
of the facts surrounding the mass killing of Armenians in World War I,
but shied away from calling it “a genocide.”

Turkey has drawn a defiant red line in refusing to recognize the
mass killings of Armenians in World War I as “genocide” on the 100th
anniversary year of the tragedy.

And Ankara has hit out at Pope Francis for his use of the word in a
weekend address, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan saying
“I condemn this mistake.”

“The president and other senior administration officials have
repeatedly acknowledged as historical fact, and mourned the fact,
that 1.5 million Armenians were massacred or marched to their deaths
in the final days of the Ottoman empire,” State Department acting
spokeswoman Marie Harf said.

They had also stated “that a full, frank and just acknowledgement
of the facts is in all our interests, including Turkey’s, Armenia’s
and America’s.”

Harf added that “nations are stronger and they progress by
acknowledging and reckoning with pretty painful elements of their
past.”

Such moves were “essential to building a different, more tolerant
future,” she said.

However, she refused to term the mass killings a genocide, even
though during his 2008 campaign for the White House, then senator
Barack Obama had pledged to “recognize the Armenian genocide.”

Turkey is a key US ally and a fellow member of NATO.

Harf refused to be drawn on what candidate Obama had said, adding
reporters should check with the White House as she spoke for the
State Department.

Armenia and Armenians in the diaspora say 1.5 million of their
forefathers were killed by Ottoman forces in a targeted campaign
ordered by the military leadership of the Ottoman empire to eradicate
the Armenian people from Anatolia in what is now eastern Turkey.

Turkey takes a sharply different view, saying hundreds of thousands
of both Turks and Armenians lost their lives as Ottoman forces battled
the Russian Empire for control of eastern Anatolia during World War I.

RUSSIAN ANALYST: MOSCOW AND YEREVAN TO SERIOUSLY DISCUSS THE MATTER OF SERZH SARGSYAN’S POSSIBLE SUCCESSOR

by David Stepanyan

Wednesday, April 15, 12:29

The matter of Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan’s successor will
become a topic for serious discussion of Moscow and Yerevan, Russian
political expert Sergey Markedonov has told ArmInfo.

“Naturally, the discussion will cover other issues as well. Yerevan
will immediately raise the issue of its acquisitions and expenses in
its integration with Russia and the Eurasian partners. I think Moscow
will be unable to speak in generalities this time,” he says.

The analyst thinks that the Kremlin should give serious considerations
to the forthcoming electoral cycle in Armenia in 2017-18 and should
start the preparations beforehand, both strategically and in PR
campaigns. Markedonov stresses the need to establish contacts with
all political associations, non-governmental and youth structures of
the republic.

Markedonov thinks that Russia should give up constantly declaring
the success of its alliance with Armenia given the fact that now
the situation in the Transcaucasia depends on external factors more
than ever. He says that the fate of the protracted conflicts and the
prospects of the post-Soviet integration projects are mostly hanging
in the balance in Donbass.

“So, along with removing the wrinkles in the Russia-Armenia relations,
Moscow gives high priority to a positive dynamics in Ukraine, at
least reached through long-term “freezing” of the conflict around
the Luhansk and Donetsk regions,” he says.

Cristina Kirchner expressed her “solidarity” for the Armenian Genocide
Centennial

Agencia Prensa Armenia

President of Argentina Cristina Kirchner met this afternoon with
representatives of the Armenian Community of Argentina in Olivos
residence to “express her solidarity with the hundredth anniversary of
the Armenian Genocide,”

according to presidency press

The meeting was attended by Minister of Justice and Human Rights
Office, Julio Alak, along with Archbishop Kissag Mouradian, Primate of
the Armenian Apostolic Church, Alberto Djeredjian, president of the
Administrative Institution of the Armenian Church, Bartholome
Ketchian, representative of the Armenian National Committee of South
America, businessman Eduardo Eurnekian, president of the Corporation
America, Leon Arslanian, former Minister of Justice of the Nation, and
Dr. Daniel Stamboulian, president of FUNCEI.

( Link -> )
Agencia de Noticias Prensa Armenia
Armenia 1366, Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina
Tel. (5411) 4775-7595
[email protected]
twitter.com/PrensaArmenia

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE WAS IDEOLOGICAL, NOT RELIGIOUS, SAYS ARMENIAN PRELATE

Catholic Culture
April 14 2015

Catholic World News – April 14, 2015

The Armenian genocide was motivated by ideology, not religion, the
head of the Armenian Apostolic Church in Cilicia told Vatican Insider.

But he added that today, the Turkish government is seeking to focus
on religious differences.

Catholicos Aram I said that while the Turkish regime resists the use
of the term “genocide” to describe the mass killings of 1915, “the
intent of Turkey was genocidal.” He explained that the Armenian people,
with their own ethnic culture, were an obstacle to the pan-Turkish
ideology of the secular regime. “Religion was not a factor,” he said.

Today, however, Turkey has angrily protested the reference by Pope
Francis to the Armenian genocide, saying that the Pope’s remarks
were based on prejudice–hinting at a Christian bias against an
Islamic country.

“Now they are using religion in order to create this sensitivity
between Christianity and Islam,” Catholicos Aram said. “That is
not acceptable.”

“ARMENIA” COGNAC RECIPE RECREATED AT YEREVAN BRANDY FACTORY

YEREVAN, April 15. /ARKA/. The Yerevan Brandy Factory presented on
Tuesday its famous “Armenia” cognac that was recreated using the
authentic recipe of master-blender Margar Sedrakyan.

The ten-year old “Armenia” cognac was created in 1940. Seventy-five
years later, the Yerevan Brandy Factory recreated the recipe to pay
tribute to the master and his love for his homeland, ArArAt brand
ambassador Kristina Ishkhanyan said at the presentation.

The new bottle and the label are made to be as similar to the ones of
the legendary cognac as possible. The recreated “Armenia” is one of
the vintage cognacs with extra after-coupage aging of not less than
three years. The additional after-coupage aging is about 10 years for
“Armenia”.

Margar Sedrakyan, who was born in Van and survived the 1915 genocide
of Armenians, devoted his lifetime (1932-1973) to Armenian brandy
production and created a series of vintage cognacs, including the
legendary “Dvin”, “Akhtamar” and “Nairi”. Along with the awards in
the home country, he also received the prestigious French Chevalier
du Degustation.

Yerevan Brandy Company is the exclusive producer of ARARAT Brandies is
the direct successor of Armenian brandy-making traditions, established
in 1887.

Yerevan Brandy Company is the biggest taxpayer of the field and the
biggest grape buyer. In 1999 Yerevan Brandy Company joined the Pernod
Ricard Group, the world co-leader of the Wine & Spirits industry,
which unites such brands as Chivas, Absolut, Martell, Jameson and
others. -0–

LET US COMPARE GENOCIDES

Religion News Service
April 14 2015

Jeffrey Salkin | Apr 14, 2015

This month is the one hundredth anniversary of the Armenian genocide.

That’s right — it’s a genocide. That’s exactly what Pope Francis
said recently — much to the chagrin of the Turkish regime, which
recalled its ambassador to the Vatican. Worse: Turkish Prime Minister
Ahmet Davutoglu said that calling the wholesale slaughter of Armenians
“genocide” is tantamount to “Islamophobia” — which wins this week’s
prize for “The Most Irresponsible Playing Of The Islamophobia Charge.”

Why should Jews be talking about this? Because when we look at the
Armenians, it is as if we are looking in the mirror.

The poet Joel Rosenberg writes:

I cite our landless outposts of diaspora…

I cite our neighboring quarters in the walled Jerusalem,

our holy men in black,

our past in Scripture,

and our overlapping sacred sites.

I cite our reverence for family ties,

our Middle Eastern food, our enterprise,

our immigration histories, our ironic manner, our eccentric uncles.

Our clustering in cities, our cherishing of books, our vexed and
aching homelands.”

Here’s how it happened. In the waning days of the Ottoman Empire,
the Armenians were seen as a foreign element in Turkish society –
and, in this sense, they occupied the same place as the Jews of the
Ottoman Empire. Like the Jews, the Armenian Christians challenged the
traditional hierarchy of Ottoman society. Like the Jews, they became
better educated, wealthier, and more urban. Like “the Jewish problem”
that would be frequently discussed in Germany, in Turkey they talked
about “the Armenian question.”

The Turkish army killed a million and a half Armenians. Sometimes,
Turkish soldiers would forcibly convert Armenian children and young
women to Islam. The Turks delved into the records of the Spanish
Inquisition and revived its torture methods. So many Armenian bodies
were dumped into the Euphrates that the mighty river changed its
course for a hundred yards.

in America, the newspaper headlines screamed of systematic race
extermination. Parents cajoled their children to be frugal with their
food, “for there are starving children in Armenia.” In 1915 alone,
the New York Times published 145 articles about the Armenian genocide.

Americans raised $100 million in aid for the Armenians. Activists,
politicians, religious leaders, diplomats, intellectuals and ordinary
citizens called for intervention, but nothing happened.

The Armenians call their genocide Meds Yeghern (“the Great
Catastrophe”). It was to become the model of all genocides and ethnic
cleansing. It served the Nazis well as a model. Not only the act of
genocide itself — but also, the passive amnesia about that genocide.

“Who talks about the Armenians anymore?” laughed Hitler.

One day in 1915, in the small town of Kourd Belen, the Turks ordered
eight hundred Armenian families to abandon their homes. The priest was
Khoren Hampartsoomian, age 85. As he led his people from the village,
neighboring Turks taunted the priest: “Good luck, old man. Whom are
you going to bury today?”

The old priest replied: “God. God is dead and we are rushing to
his funeral.”

Just as Elie Wiesel, writing in Night, recalled a child hanging
from a gallows in a concentration camp, his small body too light
to die immediately. “Where is God?” cries a prisoner. “Hanging on
the gallows.”

After the Shoah, Jews cried aloud to God: “O God, how could You do this
to us, the children of Your covenant?” After the genocide, Armenian
theologians cried: “O God, how could this have happened to us – for we
were the first people to adopt Christianity as a state religion?” Some
Armenian Christians referred to the story of Sodom and Gomorrah and
asked: “Were there not even fifty Armenians who could have been saved?”

After the Shoah, Jews cried: “We must have sinned. God has used the
Nazis as a club against us.” Armenians cried: “God used the Turks
as a club against us. We were a Christian nation, but we lived as
atheists.” Some Armenian Christians said: “If this is what God can
do to us, then God and Jesus Christ — you go your way, and I will
go mine. Don’t bother me anymore.”

Is it chutzpah to raise this, as Jews mark Yom Ha Shoah, and the
seventieth anniversary of the liberation of the camps? Some Jews have
wanted to hoard the concept of genocide — “What happened to the Turks
wasn’t as bad as the Holocaust!'” True, but that’s an extremely high
and ghastly bar to set. True — no genocide has approached the scale
of the Shoah. True — not every genocide is created equal.

Moreover, the very nature of the Armenian catastrophe was different.

Jews were killed wherever they lived in Europe; by contrast, Armenians
outside of Armenia were relatively safe. Anti-semitism is a deep,
pervasive moral illness; by contrast, there is no such thing as
“anti-Armenianism” in the collective psyche of the world.

But, If Jews do not allow the world to compare the Holocaust to other
genocides, then its relevance to the world will wither.

And when that happens, Jews would be inflicted by moral laryngitis,
losing their ability to speak truth to the world.

DANCING FOR ANI: YEREVAN SCHOOLCHILDREN “PLAN” FLASH MOB FOR RUINED ARMENIAN CITY IN TURKEY

GENOCIDE | 15.04.15 | 13:40

Alina Nikoghosyan
ArmeniaNow intern

Hundreds of students from Armenian schools will stage a dancing action
in Yerevan’s main Republic Square this weekend to draw attention to
the situation of Ani, a ruined medieval Armenian city-site situated in
the territory of modern-day Turkey.

The students are participants of a popular television quiz show called
Hay Aspet (Armenian Knight) where schoolchildren compete in their
knowledge of Armenian history, culture, traditions, folk dances,
music, etc.

Karin Tonoyan, the author and host of the show, told media on
Wednesday that the action planned for April 18 and expected to attract
as many as 1,500 children has been inspired by a trip to Ani, one of
the ancient capitals of Armenia that is situated only 30 kilometers
from Armenia’s second largest city of Gyumri, but is on the Turkish
side of the border today.

“We witnessed there a tour guide telling non-Armenian visitors that
the inscriptions in the city were made by an “exterminated tribe” and
should not be paid attention to. The idea [to stage an action for the
ruined city] first appeared there and reflected our anger and urge to
fight [for Ani],” she said.

According to Tonoyan, the children who are good at dancing will dance
during the “flash mob”, and the rest will take part in a
candle-lighting ceremony. Organizers say everyone is welcome to join
the action by bringing one candle along with them.

“Everybody will see the dance action, then there will be the
candle-lighting ceremony, and we will leave 15,000 candles in the
dance square. Our little children dressed as angels will spread out
poppies in the square and that will be our way to pay respects [to the
1915 Genocide victims],” she said.

On April 23, on the eve of the Armenian Genocide Centennial, the
children intend to visit the hilltop memorial to the victims of
Ottoman-era massacres at Tsitsernakaberd.

A DARK, TENSE HISTORY: BEHIND TURKEY’S PROTEST OF THE HOLY SEE

DFW Catholic
April 14 2015

Rome, Italy, Apr 14, 2015 / 12:25 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis’
comments on the extermination of Armenian Christians in early 20th
century Turkey prompted a strongly worded criticism from the Turkish
Foreign Ministry and led to the withdrawal of Turkey’s ambassador to
the Holy See. But what’s the full story?

As the April 24 centenary commemoration of the Armenian genocide
approaches, tensions between Turkey and Armenia run high. Despite
this, Pope Francis remembered the martyrdom of the Armenian people
during his April 12 Mass at the Vatican.

The Turkish government criticized the Pope and an Armenian
representative in a Sunday statement, focusing on the use of the word
“genocide.”

Most non-Turkish scholars consider the mass killings of 1915-1916 to
be a genocide in which the Ottoman Empire systematically exterminated
its minority Armenian population, who were predominantly Christian.

Roughly 1.5 million Armenians – men, women and children – lost their
lives in ways ranging from executions into mass graves to meticulous
torture.

Turkey has repeatedly denied that the slaughter was a genocide, saying
that the number of deaths was much smaller and came as a result of
conflict surrounding World War I. The country holds that many ethnic
Turks also lost their lives in the event.

Pope Francis’ comments on Sunday set off a firestorm of criticism
among Turkish leaders, prompting the removal of the country’s Vatican
ambassador.

What could be lesser known, however, is that the Pope’s introductory
remarks included a precise quote of the joint text that St. John Paul
II and Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos Karekin II of the Armenian
Apostolic Church issued on Sept. 27, 2001, during a papal visit
to Armenia.

The text said “the extermination of a million and a half Armenian
Christians, in what is generally referred to as the first genocide of
the twentieth century, and the subsequent annihilation of thousands
under the former totalitarian regime, are tragedies that still live
in the memory of the present-day generation.”

Though never read aloud by John Paul II, the words of this joint
statement were balanced and correctly stressed that the Armenian
massacre is “generally referred to as the first genocide of the 20th
century.” On the other hand, John Paul II never spoke aloud the word
“genocide” in his speeches in Armenia, though he had acknowledged the
Armenian martyrdom when he visited the genocide memorial in Armenia
on Sept. 26, 2001.

During that visit, St. John Paul II read a prayer and reminded his
audience that the early 20th century pontiff, Pope Benedict XV, “raised
his voice in defense of ‘the sorely afflicted Armenian people.'”

“We are appalled by the terrible violence done to the Armenian people,
and dismayed that the world still knows such inhumanity,” John Paul
II said.

The same spirit pervaded Pope Francis’ text. A source who works in
Vatican diplomacy told CNA April 13 that the papal text had been
sent in advance to Vatican diplomatic circles and there had been a
discussion over whether using the word genocide could lead to some
diplomatic tensions.

In the end, “a full quote from the 2001 joint text was considered
the best way to give the message and avoid any diplomatic tension.”

When Pope Francis read the text on Sunday, he did not explicitly say
he was quoting John Paul II. This led media reports to emphasize that
the Pope recognized the Armenian genocide.

However, the concluding off-the-cuff remarks by Aram I, the Armenian
Apostolic Church’s Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia, disturbed
Turkish authorities even more.

Towards the end of his Armenian-language speech, Catholicos Aram
I spoke for about 10 minutes in English. He underscored that “the
Armenian genocide is an unforgettable and undeniable fact of history,
deeply rooted in the annals of modern history and in the common
consciousness of the Armenian people. Therefore any attempt to erase
it from history and from our common history is doomed to fade.”

He also stated that “according to the international law, genocide
is a crime against humanity. International laws spells out clearly
that condemnation, recognition and reparation of the genocides are
closely interconnected. The Armenian cause is a cause of justice
and as we well know justice is not human made, it’s a gift of God;
therefore the violation of justice is a sin against God.”

In the end, these words caused the declaration from the Turkish Foreign
Ministry. The statement clearly pointed out that it concerned the
statements of both “Pope Francis and of the Armenian representatives,”
and charged that both of them “contradict historical facts.”

The Turkish Foreign Ministry’s statement focused on the legal concept
of genocide. The ministry said that “claims not fulfilling the
requirements of law, even if they are attempted to be explained on
the basis of widespread conviction, are bound to remain as slanders.”

The release also objected that Pope Francis’ prior statements referred
to the “tragic events” in Bosnia and Rwanda as “mass killings,” which
“competent international courts” have declared to be genocides.

The ministry claimed that Pope Francis called “the events of 1915”
a genocide “despite the absence of any such competent court judgment.”

These concerns were conveyed to the papal nuncio to Turkey, Archbishop
Antonio Lucibello, and are likely part of a formal diplomatic protest
forwarded to the Holy See through Mehmet Pacaci, Turkish Ambassador to
the Holy See, who has was called to Turkey for consultations on Sunday.

Turkish reaction also comes in the context of the interactions between
the Turkish and Armenian governments in view of the upcoming April
24 commemoration of the mass killings. The commemoration will take
place in the Armenian capital of Erevan. Many heads of state have
been invited, including the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Erdogan declined the invitation and organized another ceremony the
very same day to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the World War
I Gallipoli campaign, one of the most famous battles of World War
I between Ottoman troops and invading Allied forces. The Turkish
president invited U.S. President Barack Obama and the Armenian
President Serzh Sargsyan, who declined the invitation.

These splits let understand why the issue has been so strongly
addressed by the Turkish government. However, it is noteworthy that
both the Holy See newspaper L’Osservatore Romano and the Italian
Bishops Conference’s newspaper L’Avvenire referred more to the
martyrdom of Armenians than to a genocide, putting into action a
prudent – yet tough – language.

THE CONFLICT AROUND THE ‘G WORD’

Huffington Post
April 14 2015

Arzu Kaya Uranli , Independent Journalist & Lecturer

Pope Francis on last Sunday honored the 100th anniversary of the
slaughter of Armenians by calling it “the first genocide of the
20th century.”

Francis, who has close ties to the Armenian community from his days
in Argentina, defended his declaration by saying it was his duty to
honor the memory of the innocent men, women, children, priests and
bishops who were “senselessly” murdered.

A politically explosive pronouncement angered Turkey. After Pope
Francis had called the 1915 mass killings in Armenia a genocide, most
of the Turkish people are so disappointed and officials considers
the pope’s comments had caused a “problem of trust”.

Meanwhile, the reality star Kim Kardashian along with her husband,
Kanye West, and other family members are on a journey to Armenia to
mark the 100th anniversary of the “Armenian genocide” in Yerevan.

During the trip, a film crew will accompany them to shoot several
episodes of the reality series, Keeping up with the Kardashians.

Kardashian announced that she will be visiting the Tsitsernakaberd
Memorial in the capital, Yerevan, but will not attend any official
commemoration. Since her late father, Robert Kardashian, was a
third-generation Armenian-American, she has for years — and on
several occasions publicly — supported the international recognition
of the Armenian genocide, and now, for the first time, is visiting
Armenia. But Kim Kardashian is not the only one paying extra attention
to the issue this year.

Given that relations between Turkey and the U.S. have not been going
well recently, many people believe this might be the year when U.S.

President Barack Obama uses the “G word.” Forty-nine U.S. lawmakers
have already sent a letter urging President Obama to recognize the
“Armenian genocide.” They claim this move would somehow help improve
relations between Turkey and Armenia. As you might remember, during
the 2008 presidential race President Obama promised to recognize
“the mass killing of Armenians” as “genocide” and Armenian-Americans
are more hopeful that this year he will keep his promise.

The term “genocide” was first coined and defined by Polish lawyer
Raphael Lemkin in 1943 to describe the massacre of ethnic Armenians by
the Ottoman authorities in what is now Turkey. Armenians claim that
during World War I, 1.5 million Armenians were either killed or died
during forced exile in an intentional effort to completely destroy
the Armenian minority in Eastern Turkey. Nevertheless, despite Turkey
accepting that there were mass killings and forced deportations, as a
state it has argued that “genocide” is not an appropriate term. Turkey
has instead continued lobbying against the recognition of the 1915
events as genocide, arguing that the acts were a result of war and
that the number has been inflated.

I have just finished a book by Turkey’s Armenian journalist Hayko
Bagdat entitled The Snail (Salyangoz), and realized once more how
difficult it has been for the Armenian minority to be “the other”
in Turkey for centuries and that exile is only a small part of that
ongoing inequity. Recognition of this mass killing with a proper term
could be a strong starting point to heal the wounds in the hearts
of Armenians. Yet Ankara is not even close to expressing any form of
regret for what took place in history after all this time.

Ironically, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that the
100th anniversary of the Gallipoli Campaign of World War I would
be held on April 24. Choosing the same date that Armenians around
the world annually observe as Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day is
absurd. Even pro-government Turkish-Armenian author and columnist
Etyen Mahcupyan, who currently serves as a top adviser to Prime
Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, accused President Erdogan of not being
“chic” over the decision and claimed that Erdogan acted unethically
to gain nationalist votes during the June 7 election.

So far, 22 countries have formally recognized the historical event as
“genocide.” In addition, 43 American states have accepted its status
as such. Nonetheless, apparently, when it comes to the U.S., it seems
it is very important to Turkey if Obama uses the “G word.” Several
high-level Turkish officials have visited Washington since January
to convince the U.S. not to. Nowadays, Foreign Minister Mevlut
CavuÃ…~_oglu is expected to visit Washington just before Obama’s
statement for the same reason. The freshly established Turkish
Institute for Progress, a new Turkish-American lobby group that
aims to bring about reconciliation between Turkey and Armenia, has
neglected to label the 1915 killings.

Yet, it is certain that in 1915, an ‘outrageous thing’ happened in
Anatolia that had not taken place in the 1000 years before. Historians
have the task to find out what exactly happened in detail and
enlighten all related documents to create a single repository, so
that politicians on both sides can assess the findings and guide the
international community to make a decision to evaluate the situation.

Instead of fighting over whether what happened in 1915 is genocide or
not, why don’t we first consider it genoexile, a portmanteau meaning
“sending a race to exile”? Obviously, the techniques of destruction
used by the Americans against Native Americans or by the Germans
against Jews were different than what happened to the Armenians at
the moment.

While establishing Republic of Turkey to create a nation-state the
Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) pitted people against each
other. We all know today that Armenians were not the only victims of
this act, but Kurds, Alevits and all other minorities were as well.

What happened was not acceptable and the CUP was the responsible
party. Regardless, Turkey should apologize for those incidents of
its past because problems cannot be solved with announcements by
the Pope or the U.S. president. The problem can be solved only if
the Armenian nation and the Turkish nation work together. In the
twenty-first century, and within our communication age it’s about
time these two nations found a way to discuss this taboo. This is a
mutual sorrow that needs a mutual solution.

As a Turkish American, I whole-heartedly believe that rather than
lobbying the U.S. Congress at this time of year to stop using the “G
word,” we should be offering different solutions and creating a new
commemoration day. There is still profound grief over the issue and
100 years is long enough a period of denial. It is time we face it and
find a common ground to solve the conflict and heal the deep wounds.

For more Arzu Kaya-Uranli clickor follow her at @akuranli.

ARCHBISHOP TO HOST PRAYER SERVICE FOR 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Contra Costa Times, CA
April 14 2015

City News Service

LOS ANGELES – An ecumenical prayer service to commemorate the 100th
anniversary of the Armenian genocide will be held tonight at the
Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.

Leaders of Armenian and other Christian denominations from throughout
the state will gather at the altar to deliver special prayers in
memory of Armenian genocide victims and to proclaim the importance
of respecting human life and diversity.

Mayor Eric Garcetti will deliver the keynote speech at the 7:30 p.m.

service hosted by Archbishop Jose H. Gomez.

The service will also include a procession of Armenian children
carrying a lantern, symbolizing the light of Christ, into the
cathedral.