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86th anniversary prompts Armenian Genocide march
COMMUNITY: Group hopes to increase awareness of other human rights violations, too
Daily Bruin Contributor
Thousands will converge on Hollywood's "Little Armenia" district at 11 a.m. today to march in honor of the 86th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, which the Turkish government still denies ever took place.
"We want recognition for human rights violations throughout the world," said Benjamin Charchian, president of the Armenian Student Association at UCLA, who also acknowledged the atrocities of the Holocaust and genocides in Rwanda and Bosnia.
"Through education we will be able to stop future perpetration of genocide," he said.
The Armenian Genocide occurred from 1915-16 when the "Young Turk" government of the Ottoman Empire executed 1.5 million Armenians 60 percent of that population.
But members of the Turkish Student Association said the genocide never happened.
"It wasn't a genocide, it was just a war," said Ersin Sivrican, a '00 alumnus who earned his bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering.
Nevertheless, students from 19 Southern California colleges and universities, who recently formed the United Armenian Students, organized today's march to commemorate the lives of genocide victims and to warn humanity against future crimes.
The march will close down five miles of Hollywood. UAS is anticipating 50,000 people to join the 1.5-mile march which will end on the corner of Sunset and Hobart Blvds., where two speakers will address the crowd.
ASA, a founder of UAS, also held a candlelight vigil Monday night in Westwood Plaza, which included poetry readings, a skit, song, dances and videotaped interviews of genocide survivors.
According to the Knights of Vartan Armenian Research Center at the University of Michigan, Armenians remember the massacre on April 24 because on that day in 1915, death squads rounded up and killed 300 Armenian leaders and slaughtered 5,000 others in the streets and in their homes.
Helen Mardirosian, a fourth-year English and psychology student, said genocide survivors tell stories of Turkish soldiers slashing pregnant women's wombs with knifes, removing the premature babies on the tip of swords and throwing them for target practice. The soldiers would then leave the women to die, Charchian added.
Meanwhile, the Turkish government's denial of the Armenian Genocide has left the Armenian Diaspora searching for justice and peace. Several countries, like France and Israel, have officially recognized the genocide, but many others, including the United States and Turkey, have not.
"Armenians are in a state of unrest, we need a sense of closure," Charchian said. "I see a cry for acknowledgement. We need a sense (that) it happened, they apologized, the world acknowledged it, and we can move on now."
When House Resolution 596: The Armenian Genocide Education and Commemoration Act which would have proclaimed the U.S. government's official recognition of the atrocity reached the U.S. House of Representatives last October, members of ASA wrote letters to Congress and traveled to Washington, D.C. to voice their support for the proposed legislation.
According to the Los Angeles Times, on Oct. 19, 2000, House Republican leaders tabled voting for the resolution for a year, after threats from the Turkish government caused the U.S. administration to fear for U.S.-Turkish relations.
Working on the march for three months, UAS invited groups like Greeks and Assyrians, whose ancestors they said were also massacred in the 1915 genocide.
MEChA and the Jewish Student Union were among UCLA student groups invited to the march.
"It started in a little room where 36 of us got together and decided to talk," Mardirosian said.
The L.A.-area Armenian community, the largest Armenian population outside of Armenia, helped the UAS's effort by placing signs in windows advertising the march, hosting UAS meetings at their restaurants, businesses and homes, and agreeing to close businesses to join the march in Hollywood today.
"We have the support and backing of the entire Armenian American community in the area," said Harout Semerdjian, a '00 alumnus who graduated with a bachelor's degree in history.
Three hair salons in Westwood, including Sigal Gevojanyan, have pledged to give all profits earned today to Armenia. In addition, upon the request of customers from April 25 to May 25, their proceeds will be donated to Armenia.
Organizers hope the UCLA community will be inspired by the candlelight vigil and march to stop horrific events in history from repeating.
"Students are tomorrow's leaders, tomorrow's politicians and tomorrow's
historians," Semerdjian said. "It is important that they know the past so
that they can positively influence the future and help heal old wounds."
Armenian, Assyrian and Hellenic Genocide News Archives