CANADA’S ‘ARMENIAN GENOCIDE’ COMMENT SPARKS ROW WITH TURKEY
Agence France Presse — English
April 25, 2006 Tuesday 5:29 PM GMT
Turkey’s foreign ministry said Tuesday that a reference by Canada’s
Prime Minister Stephen Harper to the “Armenian genocide” as fact had
hurt bilateral relations.
“We are appalled by the prime minister’s comments, which give support
to Armenia’s unfounded allegations of genocide,” the ministry said
in a statement.
The statement said Harper’s reference to the “Armenian allegations” as
fact was serious, and that his position on the issue would “negatively
affect ties between Turkey and Canada”.
The ministry called in Canadian ambassador Yves Brodeur to inform
him of Turkey’s “sensitivities” regarding Harper’s declarations,
a Turkish diplomat told AFP.
“Turkey’s views were clearly transmitted to him,” said the diplomat,
who asked to remain anonymous and did not give the date of the meeting.
Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kinsmen were slaughtered in
an orchestrated genocide in the final years of the Ottoman Empire.
Turkey categorically rejects claims of genocide, arguing that
300,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife
when Armenians began fighting for independence in eastern Anatolia
and sided with Russian troops invading the crumbling Ottoman Empire.
The Canadian head of government had on Friday praised commemorations
of the massacres in Armenia during World War I.
He noted that the Canadian Senate had passed a resolution in 2002
recognizing the killings in Armenia as the first genocide of the 20th
century, and the House of Commons had followed suit two years later.
“My party and I have applied those resolutions and continue to do so,”
the prime minister said in a statement.
The Turkish foreign ministry said the two resolutions had led to the
“stagnation” of bilateral relations.
The statement also recalled that a Turkish military attache had been
killed by an Armenian militant group in Ottawa in 1982.
The Turkish newspaper Hurriyet on Tuesday quoted a diplomat as saying
the prime minister’s comments had led to Canadian companies being
excluded from a forthcoming bid to build Turkey’s first nuclear plant.
Armenians marked the 91st anniversary of the bloodbath on Sunday.

THE PEOPLE VS. BUSH
By Amy Taxin
The Orange County Register
Orange County Register, CA
April 25 2006
Carrying American flags and signs chastising the war in Iraq,
demonstrators outside the Hyatt Regency Irvine Monday sparred on U.S.
policies ranging from border control to foreign diplomacy.
IRVINE – Carrying American flags and signs chastising the war in Iraq,
demonstrators outside the Hyatt Regency Irvine on Monday sparred on
U.S. policies ranging from border control to foreign diplomacy.
But they appeared to agree that President Bush’s speech inside the
hotel was unlikely to sway their views of his administration.
“We’re both on opposite sides – they’re for open borders, we’re
for secure borders,” said Robin Hvidston of Upland, a member of the
border-watching Minuteman Project. “But we’re both here protesting
Bush.”
About 250 people from anti-war, border control, immigrant rights
and other groups rallied for more than three hours before and while
Bush spoke to the Orange County Business Council about his plans for
immigration overhauls and a temporary-worker program.
“We don’t need a guest-worker plan. We already have a lot of workers,”
said Lizbeth Antonio, a 20-year-old UC Irvine student from Chicano
group MeCHA. “We want to see legalization for those who are working
here now.”
Aside from shouting matches between immigration enforcement activists
wearing stars-and-stripes jackets and students calling for a broader
legalization for immigrants, the protests were generally peaceful.
One person, a 16-year-old demonstrator, was arrested for challenging
someone to fight and later released to a guardian’s custody, Irvine
police Lt. Jeff Love said.
The demonstrations in Irvine paled in comparison to the 500 protesters
who greeted Bush in San Jose and the 1,500 who rallied in West
Sacramento since he began his California trip last week.
For a county that is nearly half Republican – and with Bush’s visit
announced only last week – UC Irvine political science professor
Mark Petracca said he might have expected fewer people to rally on
a Monday morning.
“Given the fact it’s Monday and there was virtually no prep time,
I am surprised there were as many” people as there were, Petracca said.
Nearly 60percent of Orange County voters backed Bush in the 2004
election.
At the rally, Armenian students urged Bush to declare the killing of
their ancestors that began in 1915 a genocide. UC Irvine’s Muslim
Student Union, as well as several parents of soldiers and Marines,
criticized the president’s policies in Iraq and Iran.
Roughly half the demonstrators came to voice views on immigration –
the subject of Bush’s speech.
Angel, a 31-year-old illegal immigrant from Mexico, stopped by to
check out the protests after he saw activists carrying signs like
one that read: “Go Fix Mexico.”
“I wanted to see what the American people who didn’t want the
Latinos here were saying,” said Angel, who asked that his last name
be withheld for fear of deportation. The Register’s policy is to
honor such requests, when including an illegal immigrant’s voice is
important to a story or increases readers’ understanding of an issue.
“I love and respect this country that has given me opportunity,”
Angel said.
Liz Renteria, 68, left her house in Diamond Bar before 4 a.m. wearing
scarves and gloves to fend off the morning chill. “It’s weird because
everyone around me hates Bush,” Renteria, a Bush supporter, said of
the protests. “I wish I could have been closer, but just to see the
motorcade was awesome.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

CALL GENOCIDE BY NAME
By Armen Zenjiryan
Ventura County Star , CA
April 25 2006
Ninety-one years ago April 24, the Ottoman Turkish government commenced
a three-year campaign to decimate its empire’s ethnic Armenians. Before
it was over, 1.5 million people – men, women and children alike –
were dragged from their homes and slaughtered.
For those Armenians whose ancestors witnessed the genocide, the wound
is reopened each year on April 24, Armenian Genocide Remembrance
Day, because of the failure of the Turkish government to admit
culpability. For Armenian-Americans, the insult is worse. The United
States, Turkey’s NATO ally, characterizes this unambiguous instance
of ethnic cleansing as a mere byproduct of war, no more morally
significant than the usual carnage of battle.
But the evidence for the deliberate extermination of an ethnic minority
is clear, as is Turkey’s calculating attempts to smother it.
Dozens of eyewitness accounts describe the horrors on the Anatolian
plateau during the period when Turkey denies it committed genocide.
Protocols and telegrams exchanged between diplomats and ambassadors
describing mass deportations of Armenians and murder still exist
in Turkish and German archives. The Turkish government officially
denies photographs of Armenian women avoiding rape only by burying
themselves in the sand.
It dismisses as mirages the countless number of Armenians dragged
into the Syrian Desert without food or water.
This amnesia is not universal. Several governments, including France,
Argentina, Greece, Russia and Vatican City, formally recognize the
genocide. To their credit, hundreds of members of the U.S. Congress
call upon the president each year on the anniversary of the genocide
to change his noun of choice from “massacre” to “genocide.”
In doing so, the president would acknowledge that the actions of
the Turkish government were no mere battle against a hostile enemy,
but an atrocious, systematic and deliberate extermination of a people.
Does it matter that President Bush use the proper language to describe
what happened to 1.5 million Armenians? For this president, it should.
We are fighting a war on terrorism, and recently fought a war against
a regime that, like the Ottoman Turkish Empire before it, sought
to wipe out entire ethnic segments of a population. Part of Bush’s
justification for the current war was that tolerating genocide is
unacceptable to any enlightened democracy.
While this is true, continuing to mollify our ally Turkey by remaining
complicit in a conspiracy to mask the truth, Bush undermines his
own principle.
Principles, as the president has often reminded us, matter in war.
The practical effect of the United States’ reluctance to call the
Armenian genocide a genocide is its confinement to the footnotes of
history. This is a strange fate for a crime that international law
expert Raphael Lemkin, who himself escaped the Holocaust, uses as
the archetype for all genocides. To call the Armenian genocide an
act of war between hostile enemies not only distorts its meaning,
but also limits its usefulness when we try to identify the political
and social precursors of genocide.
Denial of genocide is a message of hate and prejudice. Some even
note that denial of genocide is the atrocity’s final act. We share a
universal responsibility to combat each instance of genocide denial; in
fact, to do less is a disservice not only to the victims of yesterday,
but also to the victims of the present and future.
After all, what better proof is there of history’s potential to
repeat itself than when Adolf Hitler himself, nearly 70 years ago,
justified the planned genocide of the Jews by asking, “Who nowadays
speaks of the extermination of the Armenians?”
– Armen Zenjiryan is a first-year law student at Pepperdine Law School
in Malibu. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in political science from
the University of Southern California in 2004 and served as executive
director of the Armenian-American Political Action Committee prior
to entering law school.

ALLARD, SYSTEM OF A DOWN GROOVE ON GENOCIDE BILL
By M.E. Sprengelmeyer, Rocky Mountain News
Rocky Mountain News, CO
April 25 2006
Wayne Allard co-sponsored a symbolic bill on Armenian genocide.
Republican Sen. Wayne Allard and members of the heavy metal band
System of a Down would seem to have little in common.
For starters, Allard has shorter hair and wears ties more often.
While Allard is quiet and conservative, the band is, um, not.
But they share concern over Armenian genocide. And on Wednesday the
band will drop in on Allard to thank him for co-sponsoring symbolic
legislation casting a spotlight on the deaths of an estimated 1.5
million ethnic Armenians under Ottoman Empire rule in the early
20th Century.
The Armenian-American band, known for political lyrics, has made
remembering the Armenian genocide a cause celebre.
Its Web site urges fans worldwide to pressure their representatives
to remember crimes against humanity.
So is the band’s music on Allard’s iPod?
“Sen. Allard does not yet own an iPod,” chief of staff Sean Conway
reports.
Even if he did, it’s doubtful it would be loaded with System of a Down.
Its song list includes “F— the System.” One song, “B.Y.O.B.,”
includes the lyrics “Why don’t presidents fight the war? Why do they
always send the poor?”
And then there are profanity- laced songs like “Cigaro,” which includes
bragging references to various male physical attributes.
“Sen. Allard is aware the band is heavy metal and has strong political
lyrics in their songs, but he admires the band members for their
standing up for what they believe in and for their strong support of
the Armenian Genocide Resolution,” Conway said.
Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Denver, also is among the 26 co-sponsors of the
bill. Salazar spokesman Drew Nannis did not know if band members
planned to visit Salazar’s office.
Band members reportedly plan to meet with numerous members of Congress
as they try to get the bill moved on the congressional agenda.
On Monday night, they were scheduled to join members of the Armenian
National Committee of America and Armenian Youth Federation for a
protest outside the Turkish Embassy.
Today, they are planning to host a congressional screening of the
documentary Screamers, which highlight’s the band’s role in the
Armenian genocide campaign, according to NewAmericaMedia.org.

SENATOR FINDS UNLIKELY SUPPORT FROM METAL BAND
By M.E. Sprengelmeyer
Scripps Howard News Service, DC
April 25 2006
WASHINGTON — Concern over Armenian genocide is bringing together
soft-spoken Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., and one of the loudest heavy
metal bands in the business this week.
The Armenian-American group System of A Down, known for an eclectic
repertoire and rapid, screaming lyrics, is scheduled to visit Allard’s
office Wednesday afternoon.
The visit is to thank Allard for co-sponsoring symbolic legislation
casting a spotlight on the deaths of an estimated 1.5 million ethnic
Armenians under Ottoman Empire rule in the early 20th Century.
The band, known for political lyrics, has made remembering the Armenian
genocide a cause celebre, and its Web site urges fans worldwide to
pressure their representatives to remember crimes against humanity.
On the surface, Allard and the band would seem to have little in
common.
While Allard is quiet and conservative, the band is, uhm, not.
Its song list includes the song “F_- the System.” One song, “B.Y.O.B.,”
includes the lyrics “Why don’t presidents fight the war?
Why do they always send the poor?”
And then there are profanity-laced songs like “Cigaro,” which includes
bragging references to various male physical attributes and repeated
lines like, “My s_- stinks much better than yours.” (That’s one of
the more family-friendly lines.)
So is the band’s music on Allard’s iPod?
“Sen. Allard does not yet own an iPod,” chief of staff Sean Conway
reports.
“Sen. Allard is aware the band is heavy metal and has strong ‘political
lyrics’ in their songs, but he admires the band members for their
standing up for what they believe in, and for their strong support
of the Armenian Genocide Resolution,” Conway said.

BUSH SEES OPTIONS ON IMMIGRATION
By James Gerstenzang, Times Staff Writer
ktla 5, CA
April 25 2006
In an Irvine speech, he says the U.S. should control its borders but
also be open to a guest-worker program.
President Bush, seeking to jump-start the congressional debate
on immigration, said Monday that “massive deportation” of illegal
immigrants would not work and that the U.S. could remain open to
immigrants while controlling its borders.
In an hourlong presentation to an Orange County business group, Bush
acknowledged the emotions on both sides of the issue. But in a message
clearly directed at the harshest critics of illegal immigration,
he said, “One thing we cannot lose sight of is that we’re talking
about human beings, decent human beings that need to be treated
with respect.”
Bush’s speech in Irvine coincided with the Senate’s return from a
two-week recess, which began the same day that large rallies supporting
immigrant rights were held across the country. More boycotts and
protests are planned for May 1.
Short of calling for all illegal immigrants to be sent to their home
countries, Bush offered something for nearly everyone concerned about
the issue. He insisted that the borders be protected. He supported
a course for some here illegally to gain citizenship. He renewed his
plea for a guest-worker program, opposed by many Republicans.
And he delivered a reminder of the desperate economic needs – to put
food on their families’ tables – that prompt people to risk their
lives and spend thousands of dollars trying to enter the United States.
“You can be a nation of law and a compassionate nation at the same
time,” Bush said.
Noting that U.S. authorities had captured 6 million people trying
to cross the border since he took office in January 2001, Bush
addressed those who want to deport the estimated 12 million people
here illegally.
“Massive deportation of the people here is unrealistic,” Bush said.
“It’s just not going to work.”
But he offered no new ideas to break the deadlock that has foiled
congressional efforts to overhaul immigration laws.
White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said the president planned
to discuss immigration today with a bipartisan group of senators –
most of whom supported legislation that would create a guest-worker
program, a path to citizenship, and allow many of those here illegally
to work toward citizenship. That bill foundered on procedural measures
this month.
A House bill passed in December concentrates solely on enforcement, an
approach backed by some Senate conservatives who think border security
must come first. Conservatives in the House, which returns from its
recess today, see any legalization program as a reward for lawbreaking.
Bush spoke here just days after the Department of Homeland Security
conducted widespread work-site raids and after Senate Republicans
announced they would seek an additional $2 billion for border security
in the supplemental spending bill being debated this week.
“When you combine this speech with the raids of last week and the
talk in the Senate of adding enforcement money to the supplemental,
they’re saying you can enforce the border and have a guest-worker
program at the same time,” said Tamar Jacoby, a senior fellow at the
Manhattan Institute, a business-friendly public policy center.
Aides said Bush came to Orange County so he could deliver the remarks
in a region where immigration was a key issue.
Costa Mesa was the first city in the nation to seek to train its police
officers in immigration law enforcement, and Orange County Sheriff
Michael S. Carona has sought such cross-training for his deputies.
It is home to Jim Gilchrist, a co-founder of the Minuteman Project,
which Bush has called a vigilante group. And it was the birthplace
of Proposition 187, the 1994 state ballot initiative that sought to
restrict public services for illegal immigrants.
Outside the event at the Hyatt Regency near John Wayne Airport,
about 250 protesters weighed in on a variety of issues – immigration,
the war in Iraq, environmental protection, even recognition of the
Armenian genocide of 1915.
Most of those protesting Bush’s immigration policy said the
president was too soft on illegal immigrants. Barbara Coe, coauthor
of Proposition 187, said Bush “betrayed our trust. He’s put America
up for sale in exchange for cheap labor.”

ARMENIAN RALLY IN TEHRAN
IRNA, Iran
April 25, 2006 Tuesday 10:17 AM EST
Tehran, April 24, IRNA On the occasion of 91st anniversary of killing
of Armenians by the Ottoman Turks in 1915, many of Tehrani Armenians
rally in the city streets in protest to the killing.

MEDIA BARRED FROM COVERING THE RETURN OF SOLDIERS REMAINS
Lloyd Robertson
CTV Television, Inc., Canada
SHOW: CTV NEWS 23:00:00 ET
April 24, 2006 Monday
LLOYD ROBERTSON: Good evening. Governments here and elsewhere are
always concerned about negative impressions and seldom more so than
when it comes to casualties in military conflict. That’s probably why
the Harper government decided on a new policy today. For the first
time, the media will be barred tomorrow from seeing the flag-draped
coffins of Canadian soldiers being brought back from Afghanistan.
This comes amid growing debate over Ottawa’s insistence that no flags
on federal buildings will be lowered to mark loss of life, except
on Remembrance Day. It’s a plan many in the military agree with,
but as CTV’s chief political correspondent Craig Oliver reports from
Parliament Hill, it stirred argument on this first day back after
a break.
CRAIG OLIVER (Reporter): Lloyd, there was a moment of silent tribute
in the commons today, but it was for the Armenian genocide, not as
in past, for fallen Canadian soldiers. Hardly a word about them. And
on the Peace Tower, the nation’s flag was flying at full mast on
the order of the Conservative government. But that’s not good enough
for the father of Corporal Matthew Dinning, one of the four soldiers
killed on the weekend.
LINCOLN DINNING (Slain Soldier’s Father): Please support your troops.
Those of who you have Canadian flags, lower them, please, as a sign
of respect to the soldiers that were killed.
OLIVER: Throughout the years of the Martin government, the flags were
flown at half-mast whenever soldiers were killed in the line of duty.
Dinning has written his member of parliament requesting that this
practice be restored.
PAUL STECKLE (Liberal-Ontario): They made it very clear what they
felt Mr. Harper should do.
OLIVER: The Defence Minister sought to justify his decision.
GORDON O’CONNOR (Minister of Defence): It has been the tradition
for 80 years to treat every casualty of war or operations, no matter
when it happened or where it happened, equally, and we will do that
by lowering the flags on November the 11th, Remembrance Day.
OLIVER: What tradition? In October 2004, a naval officer was killed
in the crisis aboard the HMCS Chicoutimi. In that case, all MPS,
presumably including O’Connor, unanimously supported a motion from
this Conservative MP.
JAMES MOORE (Conservative): That this house demand the Prime Minister
instruct all federal government buildings to immediately lower all
Canadian flags to half-mast.
OLIVER: Moreover, Canadians will no longer be permitted to see scenes
like this. The Prime Minister’s office is barring coverage of the
ceremonies when Canadians killed in action are brought home for the
last time. This is standard practice in the US.
JACK LAYTON (NDP Leader): They’re modelling their approach a little
bit on the way that George Bush and the American administration has
approached it. I don’t think that’s the right way to go.
OLIVER: The countries in the conflicts in which Canada and American
armies are engaged are in no way similar. Canada’s is not an army of
occupation, and Canada has invaded no one. Still, the Prime Minister’s
office obviously fears that as casualties mount, Canadians will begin
to see Afghanistan as Stephen Harper’s Iraq. Lloyd.
ROBERTSON: Craig, is that an overreaction, as you see it? Is that
fear justified?
OLIVER: It’s an old syndrome. If support drops, blame the media,
but Lloyd, I think that even people who support this mainly, in many
ways, a humanitarian mission are going to now debate whether this
is the way to do it. Perhaps it’s better to say here are the dead,
and these people cannot be seen to have died in vain, which they
would have done, if Canadians leave the field.
ROBERTSON: Does any of what happened today have to do with the families
themselves asking for privacy?
OLIVER: I don’t think so. I think this is the Prime Minister’s office,
the Defence Department, to some extent, concerned that the reality
of this, the grim reality of war, may turn Canadians off on the
mission. In fact, we’ve never heard any members of the public who
are related to any of these people complain to us. On the contrary,
this network and others have been told a number of times that they
appreciate the sensitivity in which we’ve handled these cases. And
in any case, Lloyd, we will be covering the funerals of these dead
Canadians.
ROBERTSON: The family funerals, right. Thanks very much, Craig.
OLIVER: Goodnight, Lloyd.

ARMENIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY: ARMENIAN PRESIDENT’S VISIT TO USA IS NOT PLANNED
Regnum, Russia
April 25 2006
“Armenian President Robert Kocharyan is not planned to visit
Washington. The assumption made on the ground of answer of Armenian
Deputy Foreign Minister Arman Kirakosyan, I think, is a result
of either wrong translation or partial distortion of his words,”
spokesman for the foreign ministry Gamlet Gasparyan says.
“In an interview to Turkish Zaman newspaper Arman Kirakosyam was
talking not about visit of our president after the visit by Azerbaijani
President Ilham Aliyev, but, pointing out our good friendly relations
with the USA, about a possibility of such visit on the whole,” Gamlet
Gasparyan is quoted as saying by press office of the Armenian foreign
ministry, reports a REGNUM correspondent.
It is worth mentioning that in an interview on April 24 to Turkish
Zaman newspaper, Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Arman Kirakosyan
informed that the Armenian president would probably visit Washington in
the next few days. According to the Armenian deputy foreign minister,
the president would probably be the guest of the US administration
within the next few days, “after Aliyev’s visit.”

STUDENTS REMEMBER ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
Kaelyn Forde Eckenrode
Media Credit: Steevens Alconcel | Daily Trojan
Daily Trojan Online, CA
University of Southern California
April 25 2006
Monday events also focused on the Holocaust and other genocides
throughout history.
Remembrance. USC students (left to right) Nazanin Yaghoobian, Sam
Yebri, Julia Levy Boeken and Raisa Shvartsman light candles Monday
night during the 24-hour vigil in honor of the victims of the Armenian
Genocide.
Believing that those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it,
the Armenian Students’ Association joined forces with USC Hillel and
the Jewish Law Students’ Association for the first time to promote
awareness, recognition and understanding of the Armenian genocide,
the Holocaust and other genocides in two ceremonies and a candlelight
vigil held at Tommy Trojan Monday and today.
The Armenian genocide claimed the lives of 1.5 million Armenians from
its beginning on April 24, 1915, to its end in 1923.
The Turkish government does not recognize these deaths as genocide.
It says that disease and famine complicated the conflict between
Christian and Muslim forces and that the Armenians’ violent political
aims rather than their race, ethnicity or religion led to their
relocation, according to the Turkish embassy’s Web site.
?”The ASA decided to collaborate with USC Hillel and the Jewish Law
Students’ Association this year to show solidarity against genocide,”
said Mercedes Aline Arslanian, a sophomore majoring in business
administration and a member of the ASA.
“Because we share a common, tragic cause, we decided to pool our
resources and broaden our scope to educate people about all crimes
against humanity – whether in Armenia, during the Holocaust or in
Darfur,” ?she said.
Sam Yebri, a third-year law student, co-organized the event on behalf
of USC Hillel and the JLSA.
“The goal of the vigil is to raise awareness about current genocides
by commemorating the tragedies of the Holocaust and the Armenian
genocide together,” Yebri said.
“By doing so, not only do we honor and pay tribute to the millions
of innocent victims who perished, but we begin to take a role as
responsible global citizens,” Yebri said. “History has taught us that
absolute evil reappears when apathy runs rampant.”
The two remembrance days fell next to each other this year, Arslanian
said. Armenian Genocide Commemoration Day is April 24, and Holocaust
Remembrance Day, which is set by the Jewish lunar calendar, fell on
April 25.
The ASA began the commemoration with its own ceremony at noon.
Two guest speakers, Archbishop Hovnan Derderian, primate of the
Western Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church, and Steven J.
Dadaian, chairman of the Armenian National Committee of America,
Western Region, addressed students.
“We should always have the undying hope, the perseverance and the
courage to give our message about fighting genocide to our youth,”
Derderian said. “We are freedom fighters who seek justice, and it
would be a failure for us to not pass on our history to our youth.
This day shows our continuity in educating students and preventing
genocides across the world.”?
The ASA also circulated petitions calling for the federal recognition
of the Armenian genocide by the U.S. government. The U.S. government
still does not recognize the mass murders of Armenians as an official
“genocide,” although more than 30 American states do. ?
“We want students to understand that recognition of the Armenian
genocide is important in recognizing future genocides,” said Nerses
Ohanyan, a senior majoring in aerospace engineering and mathematics,
and the vice president of the ASA. “Recognition of past genocides is
essential to stopping governments across the world from committing
genocide against their own people in the future.”?
Ohanyan said he believes that U.S. business and political interests
in Turkey have prevented full recognition of the genocide by the U.S.
government.
?”President (Bush) uses the word ‘massacres’ instead of genocide,”
Ohanyan said. “If he recognized the Armenian genocide, he knows Turkey
would have to be penalized. The U.S. has political and economic
interests in Turkey, and so this issue has been put on hold for 91
years. In a country dedicated to freedom, justice and human rights,
we can’t let that go.” ?
ASA members said it was important for them to share their history
with other members of the USC community. ?
“Out of my family, only my great-uncle and my grandfather made
it out of Armenia alive,” said Serje Martus, a senior majoring
in biochemistry, political science and music. “It is my duty to my
family to make people understand and recognize the genocide. I will
never stop until I accomplish that.”
Other students agreed and said that it helped unite the more than
200 Armenians on campus.
“This event brings people together,” said Shushan Barsegyan, a
sophomore majoring in business administration. “By recognizing other
cultures that are here, we also form a stronger USC community.”
Alpha Epsilon Omega, the Armenian fraternity on campus, collected
donations for its Never-Again campaign at the event. Last year,
it raised $10,000 for genocide education organizations.
“This is our second year raising funds to educate people about and
get recognition for the Armenian genocide,” said Michael Kiaman,
a junior majoring in political science and the Never-Again chairman
for the fraternity. “This year, we hope to double that amount through
donations by people here today, and our members.”
The Armenian genocide and Holocaust Candlelight Vigil began at 6 p.m.
on Monday and will end at 6 p.m. today. Organizers read the names
of victims of both genocides, and members of the ASA, JLSA and USC
Hillel held vigil for the full 24 hours.
“Reading all 6 million names is very important for me,” said Ron
Rothstain, a doctoral candidate majoring in education and member of
USC Hillel.?”My grandparents – as well as the grandparents of many of
the people here – were victims of the Holocaust, and it is important
for us to remember and respect them 60 years later.”
The Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony, which begins at noon today,
features guest speakers professor Richard Dekmejian, adjunct professor
Sharon Gillerman, USC Hillel Rabbi Jonathan Klein, ASA member Gary
Prudian and President Emily Eyerman of Students Taking Action Now:
Darfur.
ASA, JLSA and USC Hillel organizers hoped to involve all members of
the community in recognizing and taking action against genocide today,
Yebri said.
“When people look at our generation and say, ‘What did you do about
the genocide in Darfur?’ I want to be able to look back at them and
say ‘I did what I could,'” ?he said.
Arslanian agreed.
“Before beginning the Holocaust, Hitler assured his advisers that
they would get away with it, saying: ‘After all, who remembers the
annihilation of the Armenians today?’ We want people to know that we
remember, and that we are committed to ending genocide everywhere.”