The California Aggie Online
April 25 2005

Students remember Armenians at vigil

Apr. 24 marks official day for genocide observance

By JOANNA TUNG / Aggie News Writer

Joanna Tung/Aggie

With a new bill signed into law by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on
Thursday, Apr. 24 now marks the official anniversary of the Armenian
Genocide that took place between 1915 and 1923.

In remembrance of the genocide, which resulted in the deaths of 1.5
million Armenians, the Armenian Student Association at UC Davis held
a candlelight vigil Friday evening on the Quad.

Michael Armstrong, an executive member of ASA, was one of the
speakers at the event who reviewed the atrocities of the genocide and
conveyed an urgency to prevent such an event from being repeated in
the future.

“I stand here as a UC Davis student, but in the context of this
day, I am here as representative of one person in my family who was
able to survive,” Armstrong said. “In my heart and in my veins runs
the blood of a nation martyred.”

Other speakers at the vigil included Associate Executive Vice
Chancellor Rahim Reed, ASUCD President Caliph Assagai, ASA President
Aileen Babajanian and ASA executive member Garo Manjikian.

Friday’s event marked the conclusion of the annual Genocide
Awareness Week, which included documentary and movie screenings, a
genocide forum and a March for Humanity to the Capitol in support of
the state bill.

In previous years, the ASA focused its efforts solely on the
Armenian Genocide, but this year’s events also touched on mass
persecutions that affected other groups, according to Manjikian.

While the Armenian Genocide devastated the Armenian nation, the
systematic elimination of particular groups of people is not limited
to one culture alone, as history has shown in the Holocaust and the
Tutsi genocide in Rwanda, to name a few.

For this reason, the ASA emphasized cultural awareness and respect,
stressing the importance of understanding these historical crimes
against humanity to prevent future intolerance and destruction,
Manjikian said.

Although 90 years have passed since the genocide, ASA students
believe much more can be done to educate the public about the
Armenian Genocide to attain future peace and harmony among various
cultures.

After the ceremony, vigil participant and former Turkish missionary
Melissa McKeand addressed the lack of both religious and cultural
tolerance that contributes to the ongoing cruelty facing Armenians
today.

“People desperately need to develop a greater tolerance for each
other, not only for culture, but for religion too,” McKeand said.

ASA members announced that for the first time, the week’s
participants included scholars from outside the Davis community, thus
creating a greater sense of unity among several universities and
their diverse student bodies.

As the week came to a close, Manjikian said the ASA hoped to spark
a spirit of open-mindedness, universal acceptance and harmony among
people.

“I’m definitely happy the bill passed …. It’s going to raise more
awareness about the genocide,” he said. “We’re still waiting for
federal government to recognize the genocide.”

The Republican, MA
April 25 2005

Armenians recall 1915 genocide
Monday, April 25, 2005
By PATRICIA NORRIS

SPRINGFIELD – While Nevart Simmon’s mother rocked in her rocking
chair, stories of the Armenian genocide tumbled from her lips.

“My mother would cry. She would take me and my sister under her arm
and rock and cry. The stories would come out, the horror,” said
Simmons, of Springfield.

Simmons was one of several people who gathered at St. Gregory
Armenian Church in Indian Orchard to remember survivors and those
that perished in what has often been called the first genocide of the
20th century – the Armenian Genocide of 1915.

Yesterday marked the 90th anniversary of the mass killings. It is
estimated that 1.5 million Armenians died at the hands of the Ottoman
Turks during World War I and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. But
Turkey has never acknowledged the events as a genocide, instead
saying the deaths were caused by a civil war.

At St. Gregory, most in attendance could point to ancestors who were
directly affected by the tragedy. Stories of starvation, torture and
killings were commonplace in many family histories.

Two survivors, Mari Holasian, 93 and the Rev. Sahag Vartanessian, 85
were present at the ceremony, with Vartanessian officiating over the
ceremony.

“I feel truly grateful to this country,” said Vartanessian, who fled
to several countries before finally settling in the United States
where he raised a family.

PRAVDA, Russia
April 25 2005

Ottoman Empire: Turkey is to admit genocide

10:11 2005-04-25
Hundreds of thousands gathered in Yerevan yesterday to mark 90 years
since the murder of up to 1.5 million Armenians in the Ottoman empire
and to add their voices to an international campaign to press Turkey
to admit genocide.

Authorities led by President Robert Kocharyan hoped for 1.5 million
people to visit a giant hilltop memorial in the capital of Armenia as
the former Soviet republic seeks international recognition of the
genocide of its people under Turkish rule.

Many members of the Armenian diaspora worldwide converged on Yerevan
for remembrance ceremonies and to join the Christian republic’s 3.8
million inhabitants in a minute of silence at 7pm.

While Turkey acknowledges the tragedy of hundreds of thousands of
deaths, it denies that there was a state-sponsored extermination
plan, a stance that has complicated its hopes of joining the European
Union. Accession talks are due to start this year, tells the
Trelegraph.
Turkey acknowledges that large numbers of Armenians died, but says
the figures cited today are inflated and that the deaths occurred in
the civil unrest during the disintegration of the troubled Ottoman
Empire during the First World War.

Canada, France, Russia and many other countries have already declared
the killings were genocide.

Armenians say that no country stood up to protect their citizens as
the slaughter continued until 1923.

However, today France is suggesting it will block Turkey’s entry into
the European Union until the genocide is recognized.

Armenia and Turkey have no diplomatic relations. Turkey shut the
border in 1993 out of solidarity with Azerbaijan, when it was
fighting a territorial war with Armenia.

A Canadian parliamentary delegation is in Armenia this weekend to
take part in events. The delegation, including MPs Madeleine
Dalphond-Guiral and Jim Karygiannis, met with Armenian Foreign
Minister Vartan Oskanian Saturdaym, publishes CTV.

Daily Illini, IL
April 25 2005

Campus remembers Armenian genocide

Candlelight vigil on Quad honors 1.5 million killed in genocide 90
years ago

By Gina Siemplenski

The Armenian Association (ArmA) held a candlelight vigil on the Quad
Sunday night to remember the 90th anniversary of the Armenian
genocide by the Turkish military.
About 20 attendants remembered the annihilation of 1.5 million
Armenians in Ottoman Turkey and the deportation of almost the entire
Armenian population from its ancestral lands in the Asia Minor that
began on April 24, 1915.
Selected readings, poetry and prayers were read in addition to a
90-second moment of silence. A song called “Krunk” was also played on
a violin by ArmA treasurer and business major Lauren Buchakjian. The
song was composed by a victim of the genocide.
Zaruhi Sahakyan, president of ArmA, said there were two purposes for
the ceremony.
“First, we want to remember those innocent victims in 1915 and the
years after. Second, if we do not learn from the past then we are
doomed to repeat it,” Sahakyan said.
Controversy continues to surround the mass killings. While virtually
everyone acknowledges that the massacre happened, Turkey disputes
that it was planned and carried out by the state – thus the label
“genocide” does not apply, it says.
“The evidence is absolutely overwhelming and not just in the American
archives,” said Robert Krikorian, professor at George Washington
University in Washington, D.C.
However, more and more countries, regions and cities recognize the
Armenian genocide, Sahakyan said.
“This is an important development since a greater acknowledgement of
genocide by the community of nations will serve the purpose of
preventing and condemning a genocide in the future and will
ultimately promote the understanding of the issue in Turkey itself,”
Sahakyan said.
Sahakyan asked that the world community heed the lessons of the
Armenian Genocide.
“First to recognize the early ‘seeds’ of genocide and act speedily to
prevent a full-blown genocide and secondly, to resist and rebuke the
deniers of genocide because denial will only encourage rogue states
to attempt genocide in the future,” Sahakyan said.

Many people believe that because the international community did
nothing to punish Turkey for its crimes in Armenia, Hitler became
more confident that he could successfully carry out the massacre of
six million Jews in the Nazi Holocaust, Sahakyan said.
“Hopefully one day humankind will be freed of the scourge of genocide
once and for all,” he said.
The vigil drew many people of Armenian heritage, including Jacob
Portukalian, freshman at Vincennes University in Vincennes, Ind., to
attend the ceremony.
“I would like to think of this as an opportunity to remember what
happened to my people and reflect on their tragedies,” Portukalian
said.
The vigil’s goal was to offer prayers for the soul, but today a more
academic approach will be taken to understanding the historic event,
Sahakyan said.
Students who want to know more about the Armenian killings are
encouraged to attend the seminar “American Genocide and Historical
Memory,” delivered by Krikorian. It is at 2:00 p.m. at the Illini
Union, room 210.

Providence Journal , RI
April 25 2005

Armenians will never, ever forget

The common theme of the annual commemoration of the Armenian genocide
is that the world remembers what happened in 1915.

BY FELICE J. FREYER
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE — Julia Dadekian’s father was a toddler in 1915 when his
entire family was murdered by the Ottoman Turks in Mardin, Turkey. To
this day, Dadekian doesn’t know how many aunts and uncles she may
have had, nor what they endured.

Others have told of rape, mutilation, the killing of infants before
their parents’ eyes. Dadekian’s story has a happy ending. A woman who
ran an orphanage found her father wandering the streets alone, sick
and starving. She took him in, adopted him, and brought him to
America.

Still, Dadekian shed quiet tears at the annual commemoration of the
Armenian genocide, which started 90 years ago yesterday, thinking of
what her father, Samuel Boyajian, and his adoptive mother, Juhar
Boyajian, had gone through, about the relatives she never knew, about
all the losses. Some 1.5 million are said to have been killed.

“What is the proper note to strike? How ought we to remember events
of the past?” asked the Rev. Peter John in the invocation at the Sts.
Sahag and Mesrob Armenian Church.

His questions were answered in various ways by the speakers who
followed, including Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch, Providence
Mayor David N. Cicilline, Lt. Gov. Charles J. Fogarty, Secretary of
State Matthew A. Brown and leaders of the Armenian community. The
common theme: It’s imperative not to let the world forget.

When the former Ottoman empire turned on the Armenian minority living
within its borders, with the apparent goal of exterminating them, it
was the first genocide of the 20th century. The horrors of 1915, said
Arthur Ventrone, a member of the Armenian Martyrs’ Memorial
Committee, “opened new and dark alleys” for humanity.

Hitler is said to have remarked, when he began killing the Jews, that
no one remembers the Armenians. So there followed the Holocaust, the
killing fields of Cambodia, and the massacres in Rwanda and, today,
Sudan.

Aram Garabedian, president of the Cranston City Council, spoke of his
efforts to ensure that school curriculums teach about genocide.

“History matters,” said Adam Strom, director of research and
development of Facing History and Ourselves, a Brookline, Mass.,
organization. “It matters for Armenians. It matters for Turks.”

No Turks have faced an international tribunal for the crimes of 1915.
And modern-day Turkey denies that the genocide ever took place,
calling the deaths the result of war. This combination of impunity
and denial allows such atrocities to be repeated in the future, Strom
said.

“You teach about history so it doesn’t happen again,” Strom said.
“It’s a naive hope, but it’s our only hope.”

Cicilline identified another source of hope: the way Rhode Island’s
Armenian community of roughly 15,000, which he described as the
eighth largest in the country, has contributed to the state and the
country.

“The crimes against the people of Armenia failed completely,”
Cicilline said, “because the people of Armenia thrive today, in
Providence, in America and throughout the world.”

Julia Dadekian, who lives in Cranston, exemplifies what they were
talking about. Juhar Boyajian, the woman who saved her father from
starvation, married another Armenian in Indianapolis, where they ran
a bakery. Her father moved to Providence, working as carpet layer and
raising his family here.

Dadekian says that survivors of the Armenian genocide often didn’t
talk about it; the horror was too great. But she made sure to tell
her two sons what happened to their grandfather and his family. She
says she doesn’t want them to be angry — just to know the facts.

Daily Targum , NJ
April 25 2005

Signs, posters remember Armenian Genocide

By Mike New / Associate News Editor

One poster depicted an elderly man with hands buried in his face,
reading “Break the Chains of Grief.”

Beneath that visage was a hand lying limp in the sand.

Another read “Still Waiting For the Fair Trial.”

The banner overhead proclaimed “Still Not Recognized – 1.5 Million
Killed R.I.P.”

These were just a few of the signs lining the steps of Brower Commons
on the College Avenue campus Thursday, as students remembered the
90th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

In 1915, the Ottoman Turks tried to systematically purge their
country of the Armenian people – who had existed since the sixth
century B.C. – in hopes of creating a Turkic state, said Jonathan
Blackenberg, a Rutgers College first-year student.

The day of rememberance is on April 22 because it’s the day when a
large group of dignitaries and educated Armenian men were mass
murdered, said Christina Nazy, a Rutgers College senior.

One reason why the event is held is to oppose the long-standing
policy of the Turkish government denying that the genocide ever
occurred, organizers said.

But Kevork Massoyan, a Rutgers College junior, said there is very
specific evidence, which doesn’t come from survivors of the genocide
or from the English, French and Russians, who were Turkey’s enemies
at the time.

Instead, proof is drawn from Turkey’s allies in World War I, Germany
and Austria, and from Turkey’s own archives.

“The German and Austrian evidence is explicit,” Massoyan said. “It’s
inconceivable to believe allies will record false information to
incriminate their ally.”

Massoyan said the word “extermination” appeared again and again in
the documents. “Archives in Turkey show one document in 1915
specifically ordering the deportation of Armenians,” he said.

Several speakers described just some of the horrors the Armenians
faced.

“Men were forced into the army and forced to dig their own graves at
gunpoint,” Blackenberg said. “The idea was not just kill them, but to
physically demoralize them.”

Livingston College senior Amy Parrish said Armenians had their hair
pulled out and their flesh torn off, with boiled butter poured into
the open wounds.

“Turks were stationed around the camps, beating drums to drown out
the screams,” Parrish said.

“1.2 million people started out on a journey saying ‘pray for us,’ as
they left homes their ancestors had lived in for 2,500 years,” she
said.

In a clip from his recap of the century in 1999 – one of several
audio clips played during the event – Peter Jennings, the host of
ABC’s “World News Tonight,” called it the “forgotten genocide,”
drawing parallels to the situation in Kosovo at the time.

So why would non-Armenians want to hear what I have to say?

That’s a question Eric Ashbahian, a Rutgers College sophomore, asked
the crowd.

“[Then] I realized what the day is about – it’s about a feeling of
belonging you have to your nationality,” Ashbahian said. “It’s a day
of remembrance of what our ancestors went through. We are able to
speak about injustice, to do something about it and to make sure it
never happens again.”

Insurance Journal
April 25 2005

Armenian Genocide, Concentration Camp Liberation, Gallipoli Campaign
Remembered
April 25, 2005

World leaders and ordinary citizens paused over the weekend to
commemorate three tragic events that marked the 20th century. While
they now seem remote in time, and have little direct connection with
the insurance industry, they form a part of our mutual past and
should be remembered.

Armenians gathered in Yerevan, the country’s capital, to honor the
estimated 1.5 million of their countrymen who died during mass
deportations launched by the Ottoman Empire in April 1915. They were
joined by the many thousands of Armenian descent around the world in
observing the anniversary, which is still surrounded by controversy.
Despite strong evidence and the demands of Armenian leaders, the
Turkish government has never acknowledged the extent of the genocide,
nor the role played by the Turkish army in carrying it out.

Aged survivors of the Nazi death camps joined local communities to
commemorate the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Ravensbrück and
Bergen-Belsen, in April 1945. The ceremonies and news reports across
Europe were particularly poignant, as newsreel footage of the haunted
and skeletal survivors evoked the terrible ferocity of the Holocaust
that swept through Europe during the Second World War, killing over
12 million innocent civilians – including 6 million Jews.

At Anzac Cove on the Gallipoli Peninsula, south of Istanbul, Turkey,
Australian Prime Minister John Howard, his New Zealand counterpart
Helen Clark and Britain’s Prince Charles attended ceremonies marking
the beginning of the battle that began there 90 years ago. They were
joined by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The BBC
reported that he underscored how the nations that fought each other
at Gallipoli had since developed “friendship and co-operation”.

In the battle, which raged for more than 18 months, over 9000 men
from the then newly formed nations of Australia and new Zealand lost
their lives, in what has since been recognized as a costly, bloody
and ultimately useless debacle.

Nearly 9,000 French, 21,000 British and Irish and 86,000 Turkish
troops died died attacking and defending a small portion of the
Turkish Coastline. The battle, however, has a special meaning for
Australians and New Zealanders, who have always considered it a
turning point in their establishment of national identities separate
from their mutual status as former British Colonies.

Editor’s Note:
While the commemoration of these tragic events may have no direct
impact on the insurance industry, they serve to remind all of us
that, as the industry becomes increasing globalized, it is
particularly vulnerable to wars and other social upheavals. Policies
can’t be written, claims can’t be paid and business can’t be done
while people are killing one another. The industry requires a stable
– and above all a peaceful – environment in order to thrive and
survive.

It is only recently, as we enter the 21st century, that the
globalized business model, destroyed by the war that began in 1914
and the events that came after – the depression, World War II, the
Cold War, decolonization – has been somewhat reestablished.

However, as the commemoration of these not so long ago events shows,
the world is a fragile and volatile place. There’s no guarantee that
similar tragedies won’t happen again. Therefore it’s incumbent upon
all of us to try and see that they don’t. It’s not enough to sit back
and enjoy the fruits of the past. One has to try and secure the
well-being of future generations as well. As Edmund Burke, the 18th
Century Irish conservative philosopher, is said to have observed:
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to
do nothing.”

Kathimerini, Greece
April 25 2005

Armenian genocide

Speaking at a remembrance ceremony yesterday marking 90 years since
some 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks, Interior
Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos said a similar disaster could be
prevented through tolerance. `It is not certain we will not see a
similar phenomenon unless we decide to tolerate those who truly
caused it, since they have not assumed their responsibilities,’ said
Pavlopoulos.

A1plus

| 15:54:18 | 25-04-2005 | Politics |

THE TURKS APOLOGIZED TO THE ARMENIANS

We apologize to the Armenians for us and our ancestors not having been able
to prevent the Genocide», these are the words of Jashar Arif, representative
of the International Exchange Confederation, who is a Turk. He has arrived
in Armenia together with several other Turks to take part in the events of
the 90th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

Taking it for granted that the Armenian Genocide was realized by the Turks
and the Kurds, the Turks in Armenia insist: Turkey must not only recognize
the fact of the Genocide but also apologize and compensate – the Armenians
of the Diaspora must return and live in their historical country. By way of
this, further Genocides will be prevented in the world.

«A country who does not recognize its historical past cannot build its
future», announced Ozgyur Jan, representative of the Turk Workers European
Confederation. By the way, the Turks who have arrived in Armenia do not
represent their opinions only. They speak on behalf of more than 5000 Turks
and Kurds who are members of international structures. The latters, on their
turn, carry out a democratic struggle in the international field against the
anti-democratic position of Turkey.

Nevertheless, the Turkish European structures are not in close cooperation
with the Turkish parties. «In Turkey they carry out a policy of chauvinism
and they are not yet ready to recognize the Armenian Genocide», says Ozgyur
Jan. In spite of this, the Turkish political bodies are sure that under the
pressure of the outer forces Turkey finally will recognize the Armenian
Genocide. By the way, although the Turks who have arrived in Armenia live in
Germany, the relatives of some of them live in Turkey.

Today the Turks in Armenia announced that there are many young Turks who are
for democracy and if the Armenians allow them, a cooperation bridge can be
built between the young people.

Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, NY
April 25 2005

Somber ceremony recalls horrific genocide

Enid Arbelo
Staff writer

(April 25, 2005) – With lit candles in hand, about 50 people recited
the Lord’s Prayer in Armenian.

They listened in silence as the names of relatives, friends and loved
ones who died during the Armenian genocide in 1915 were read and
remembered.

Members of the Armenian Church of Rochester hosted a prayer service
and special ceremony Sunday at St. Thomas Episcopal Church to
commemorate the 90th anniversary of the massacre of 1.5 million
Armenians in Turkey.

Although April 1915 was a cruel time for the Armenian people, the
world soon forgot about the first major genocide of the 20th century,
said Max Boudakian, the keynote speaker after the prayer service.

That’s why the group thought it was important to gather and be
assured their voices would be heard.

“The world had turned a deaf ear to the Armenians. That is why the
1915 Armenian genocide is often referred to as ‘The Forgotten
Genocide,'” said Boudakian, of Pittsford.

He also shared stories about a recent trip to the Armenian Genocide
Memorial in Yerevan and his mother Gadarine Boudakian, Rochester’s
last genocide-era survivor. She died in 2000 at the age of 94.

“The genocide curtain of silence is slowly being opened,” he said,
noting that recognition of the tragic events seems hopeful and
attainable. The Turkish government has never officially recognized
the Armenian genocide.

At Sunday’s event, Armenian-born Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra
violinist Tigran Vardanyan performed, and others read poetry and sang
songs about loved ones lost to the genocide.

Wearing pins symbolizing the Armenian flag made from orange, blue and
red ribbons, the group sat quietly as a brief program documenting the
genocide was given. The slides depicted a horrific truth for many in
the room.

“All Armenians have been touched,” said Berdjouhi Esmerian,
chairperson of the Armenian Church of Rochester.

The frustration, she said, is that despite the catastrophic history,
Armenians still have not gotten the recognition or compensation they
deserve.

So people, such as Cathy Salibian of Fairport, came to remember the
tragic events, but also look to the future.

“People say, ‘It’s over. Why don’t we just move on?’ It’s not over,
and denial is one way to allow it to happen over and over again,” she
said.