ANGER AND REMEMBRANCE FOR ARMENIAN UCSB STUDENTS
By Ben Preston
The Santa Barbara Independent, CA
April 24 2008
Groups Angered at Opposition to Bill Acknowledging 90-Year-Old Genocide
Last night in the dimly lit auditorium of the Isla Vista Theater,
a group of about 60 people listened as members of UCSB’s Armenian
Student Association (ASA) read aloud the memories of survivors of the
Armenian Genocide –which began on April 24, 1915, and lasted until
just after World War I. Chilling tales were recounted — a father raped
by gendarmes while his family was forced to watch; a group of five-
to ten-year-old boys thrown into a pile and stabbed with bayonets;
families forced to march across the desert for days without water,
only to drink from a river filled with swollen corpses. Counts of
the number of Armenians killed by Ottoman Turks during that period
range from 650,000 to 1.5 million, although the higher number has
been disputed.
Today marks the day of Remembrance for the Armenian Genocide, and
ASA’s message is clear. Speaking out at the ceremony last night,
and staging a protest on UCSB’s campus today, students and Armenians
all over are protesting what they say is the Turkish government’s
denial of the Armenian Genocide. "For folks like me, [April 24th]
is Armenian Memorial Day," said Mourad Topalian, the event’s keynote
speaker and a member of the Armenian Cultural Foundation. "It’s a
sad day. We don’t know what we can do to make it better, but when we
think about the denial of the Genocide, we become angry."
Today in particular, ASA students are focusing their attention on
a program called No Place for Hate, which is sponsored by the Anti
Defamation League, a well known human rights organization aimed at
making sure the Holocaust is remembered and other atrocities are
not repeated. "[ADL] is a human rights organization, but when House
Resolution 106 passed in the House, they came out actively against
it," said Berj Parseghian, the All ASA Representative for UCSB. "How
can they be a human rights organization and deny the Armenian
Genocide?" Today, ASA students were urging organizations involved
in No Place for Hate to dissociate from the organization because of
it affiliation with ADL. "ADL definitely doesn’t have an excuse,"
said Dalida Arakelian, a Santa Barbara High School student. ADL was
unavailable for comment.
While a good part of last night’s ceremony was solemn, the rest was
a celebration of Armenian culture, including a dance performance,
poetry readings, and a few Armenian songs played by UCSB’s Middle East
Ensemble. As they played a popular Armenian folk song, members of the
audience could be heard singing along. Since the Kingdom of Armenia
(now the secular Republic of Armenia) was the first sovereign nation
to adopt Christianity as its official religion in 301CE, Father Hovel
Ohanyan, of the Armenian Church of Santa Barbara, delivered a message
from the Archdiocese. Topalian applauded efforts by young Armenians to
stay connected to their cultural roots. "Be good Americans, but stay
Armenian," he said, "because that defeats the genocide. They tried to
wipe us off the face of the Earth, but if you stay Armenian in your
language and your music and your culture, you defeat the genocide."
Topalian, along with others there, recalled stories told by their
parents and grandparents about the atrocities they endured at the
hands of the Ottoman Turks. "My grandmother was a little girl when
the genocide took place," said Meri Telalyan, a member of ASA. "She
escaped from a burning church when half of it collapsed. Her mother
had to leave four children [that she had taken when another mother was
killed] in the church to escape with her own children. My grandmother
said that not a single day went by when her mother wouldn’t cry
herself to sleep."
Today, a struggle still exists from the events which occurred during
that time in history, nearly a century ago. "Instead of healing
over time, the denial comes," said Topalian. "Are they saying that
my parents lied to me about their brothers and sisters who were
killed?" Many Armenians, including Topalian, are calling for an
international tribunal to discuss reparations to be paid to Armenians
by the Turkish government. "I cannot speak for the Turkish government,
but I would say that no party accused of a crime should admit to it
unless it is properly and indisputably proven in a neutral forum that
provides all of the protections of due process," said Nurten Ural,
President of the Assembly of Turkish American Associations. "Turkey
already acknowledges a great deal of what constitutes the Armenian
tragedy, but because this does not include calling it genocide,
Armenians allege that Turkey is blind to this entire history. All
nations should deal honestly with their past. Turkey is very openly
doing so." Ural also stated that the Republic of Turkey, formed after
the fall of the Ottoman Empire, is a distinct entity. "The historical
record lacks any proof of centrally planned massacres," he said.
Regardless of position, all parties agree that people generally don’t
know enough about the Genocide. "The U.S. public is not adequately
informed about the Armenian Genocide," said Arby Eivazian, a member
of ASA. "We are genuinely interested in an objective inquiry,"
said ATAA President-elect Gunay Evinch. "We support more information
and more speech on these issues. A full assessment of the facts and
events is the only way to reach a long term reconciliation [between
Turkey and Armenians]." Congresswoman Lois Capps needed no further
convincing. "I’m proud to be a cosponsor of House Resolution 106,
which recognizes the tragedy of the Armenian genocide," she said. "It’s
important to acknowledge and remember this history, and to learn from
it in order to prevent future instances of genocide and persecution. I
will continue to support U.S. recognition of the Armenian Genocide."