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April 22, 2005
Committed to remember
Armenian descendants plan events to spotlight genocide anniversary
By Ed Koch
<[email protected]>
LAS VEGAS SUN
WEEKEND EDITION
April 23 - 24, 2005
Commemoration activities scheduled
These are events planned for The 90th Annual Armenian Genocide
Commemoration Ceremony on Sunday, sponsored by the Armenian-American
Cultural Society of Las Vegas:
Church services: 9 a.m. at the Elks Lodge, 4100 W. Charleston Blvd.
Protest march: 11:30 a.m. from the Elks Lodge to the West Charleston
Library, 6301 W. Charleston Blvd.
Commemoration ceremony: 1:30 p.m. Sunday at the West Charleston
Library. The event will feature a keynote address by Ara Bedrosian, a
board member of the Armenian National Committee of America. Also, Las
Vegas soprano Suzanna Yozgadlian is scheduled to perform a rendition
of the 23rd Psalm composed for the occasion by Michael Canales, music
director of Opera Las Vegas.
Throughout Sunday and on Monday, the UNLV Armenian Student Association
will have at the Moyer Student Union Building a display of documents
and flags commemorating the milestone anniversary of the Armenian
genocide.
Kegham Tashjian, pastor of the Armenian Evangelical Fellowship of Las
Vegas, will be among 150 people marching Sunday to mourn the killing
of 1.5 million Armenians during the first genocide of the 20th century
and honor their fortitude.
"We will declare to Las Vegas and to the world that they will not be
forgotten and signify that there was a victory for the Armenian people
-- a victory that we did not lose our identity, our independence or
our Christian faith."
Local Armenian-Americans and others are expected at the two-mile
protest march at 11:30 a.m. Sunday starting at the Elks Lodge on West
Charleston Boulevard to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the start
of the eight-year genocide suffered at the hands of the Ottoman
Empire.
On April 24, 1915, the genocide began when about 200 Armenian
intellectual and political leaders were arrested in what is now
Istanbul and publicly executed.
An estimated 20,000 people of Armenian descent today live in Southern
Nevada. Generally, people whose last name ends in "ian," "jian" or
"yan" are of Armenian descent.
Tashjian, 62, lost the entire side of his mother's family, including
his grandfather, in the slayings at Tarsus, Turkey, birthplace of the
Apostle Paul. His parents and other family members escaped to Latakia,
which now is Syria.
"Professor James Russell of Boston University said his research found
that there were so many bodies of Armenians thrown into the Euphrates
River that it changed the river's course," Tashjian said of the extent
of the genocide.
The genocide was so widespread in Turkey it is rare to find an
Armenian-American today who did not lose an ancestor in the slayings,
many during deportation death marches in which they starved or died of
thirst.
Las Vegas attorney Ara Shirinian, 48, says he will march Sunday to
remember the deaths of his ancestors who were killed in Van in Eastern
Turkey.
"A census showed that about 100,000 Armenians lived in Van in 1914,
but after World War I there were virtually none," said Shirinian, the
grandson of a priest who escaped to Bulgaria after several other
family members were killed.
John Dadaian, coordinator of the Las Vegas march and afternoon
remembrance ceremony at the West Charleston Library and local
spokesman for the Armenian National Committee of America, knows a
witness to the genocide -- his mother-in-law Malvine Handjian.
Handjian watched the horror unfold as a 10-year-old refugee on the
streets of Izmir, Turkey, in 1922. That included witnessing Turks
drive nails through the soles of the feet of an Armenian priest and
watching Turkish soldiers burn Armenian homes and carry off teenage
girls to rape and kill them.
Handjian was the subject of the 2002 Armenian genocide documentary
film "The Handjian Story: A Road Less Traveled," which won best
feature documentary at the 2003 Moondance International Film Festival
in Denver. She is 92 and lives in Las Vegas, where she also was the
subject of an April 2004 story in the Sun.
Dadaian, noting that Handjian survived a death march, says marching is
symbolic and appropriate for this milestone commemoration.
"We are marching here and in other cities to get the U.S. government
to put pressure on the Turkish government to finally get it to
recognize and take responsibility for its actions so we can all move
on," said Dadaian, who also is a member of the Armenian-American
Cultural Society of Las Vegas.
Sunday's remembrance march will be led by three local Armenian
religious leaders -- Tashjian, Pastor Asbed Balian of the Armenian
Apostolic Church of Las Vegas and the Rev. Vrouyr Demirjian, the
Armenian Apostolic Church of America's assistant to the prelate.
They are scheduled to be joined at the front of the procession by the
Armenian Scouts of Las Vegas carrying the flags of Nevada, the United
States and Armenia and the banners of the Boy and Girl Scouts of
America.
Armenian-born U.S. citizen Rafael Oganesyan, a junior at UNLV and
president of the Armenian Student Association, says he will march
Sunday in hopes that the world finally will get the message of "never
again."
"It is important that with the survivors of the Armenian Genocide now
almost gone that we students demonstrate that we will not let them or
those who were killed be forgotten," Oganesyan, 20, said, estimating
that 30 students from the organization will march Sunday.
"It's a shame that the world has not gotten the message of never again
and that the Holocaust, Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Sudan genocides
have followed the Armenian Genocide."
Dadaian said one reason the United States has not been enthusiastic
about holding Turkey's feet to the fire on the genocide issue is
because Americans benefit from oil produced in Turkey.
Tashjian echoed that sentiment.
"Turkey is an ally of the United States and so the United States has
not made this (accountability) an issue with them," he said. "Why
admit to something if you are not being held accountable for it?
"Turkey long was a strategic point from which the United States kept
an eye on the Soviet Union. But, since the fall of the Soviet Union
and Turkey's position becoming less strategically important, it
baffles me why the United States has not taken a more reasoned
position on this issue."
Shirinian says from a legal standpoint, the Turks fear having to pay
millions of dollars in reparations to survivors and descendants,
especially for the loss of ancestral lands in Turkey. But, he said,
there is much more to it than that.
"For 90 years, Turkish students have been taught something very
different in their schools," he said. "For their government to take
responsibility will be akin to saying 'we've been lying to you all of
these years.' "
While the U.S. government has skirted the issue of the Armenian
genocide, many of its leaders from the federal government to state
officials to city mayors have recognized as fact what the Turks
continually deny.
Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn, in his proclamation for Sunday's ceremony,
calls the 1915-23 incidents a "crime against humanity. ... (a)
systematic and deliberate massacre of the Armenian people."
The Turkish government maintains that both the Armenians and Turks
suffered great loss of life during the war, but not because of a
genocide.
Supporters of Turkey's position say claims of a genocide are part of
efforts to drive a wedge between the Turks, who are Muslims, and
Armenians, who have had Christianity as their state religion since
301.
The Turkish government Web site, turkishembassy.org, says the numbers
of Armenians killed have been inflated because fewer than 1.5 million
Armenians were living in Turkey in 1915. The Web site says more than
2.5 million Muslims died during the same period, which encompasses
World War I.
But Armenian-Americans say there are volumes of proof that a genocide
occurred, including not only eyewitness accounts but also transcripts
from Ottoman court-martial proceedings held at the time to find
scapegoats for the killings -- documents that in effect admit
atrocities were committed by soldiers.
---------------------------------
Photo: John Dadaian, Ara Shirinian and Dr. Kegham Tashjian speak
Las Vegas SUN main page
Committed to remember
Armenian descendants plan events to spotlight genocide anniversary
By Ed Koch
<[email protected]>
LAS VEGAS SUN
WEEKEND EDITION
April 23 - 24, 2005
Commemoration activities scheduled
These are events planned for The 90th Annual Armenian Genocide
Commemoration Ceremony on Sunday, sponsored by the Armenian-American
Cultural Society of Las Vegas:
Church services: 9 a.m. at the Elks Lodge, 4100 W. Charleston Blvd.
Protest march: 11:30 a.m. from the Elks Lodge to the West Charleston
Library, 6301 W. Charleston Blvd.
Commemoration ceremony: 1:30 p.m. Sunday at the West Charleston
Library. The event will feature a keynote address by Ara Bedrosian, a
board member of the Armenian National Committee of America. Also, Las
Vegas soprano Suzanna Yozgadlian is scheduled to perform a rendition
of the 23rd Psalm composed for the occasion by Michael Canales, music
director of Opera Las Vegas.
Throughout Sunday and on Monday, the UNLV Armenian Student Association
will have at the Moyer Student Union Building a display of documents
and flags commemorating the milestone anniversary of the Armenian
genocide.
Kegham Tashjian, pastor of the Armenian Evangelical Fellowship of Las
Vegas, will be among 150 people marching Sunday to mourn the killing
of 1.5 million Armenians during the first genocide of the 20th century
and honor their fortitude.
"We will declare to Las Vegas and to the world that they will not be
forgotten and signify that there was a victory for the Armenian people
-- a victory that we did not lose our identity, our independence or
our Christian faith."
Local Armenian-Americans and others are expected at the two-mile
protest march at 11:30 a.m. Sunday starting at the Elks Lodge on West
Charleston Boulevard to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the start
of the eight-year genocide suffered at the hands of the Ottoman
Empire.
On April 24, 1915, the genocide began when about 200 Armenian
intellectual and political leaders were arrested in what is now
Istanbul and publicly executed.
An estimated 20,000 people of Armenian descent today live in Southern
Nevada. Generally, people whose last name ends in "ian," "jian" or
"yan" are of Armenian descent.
Tashjian, 62, lost the entire side of his mother's family, including
his grandfather, in the slayings at Tarsus, Turkey, birthplace of the
Apostle Paul. His parents and other family members escaped to Latakia,
which now is Syria.
"Professor James Russell of Boston University said his research found
that there were so many bodies of Armenians thrown into the Euphrates
River that it changed the river's course," Tashjian said of the extent
of the genocide.
The genocide was so widespread in Turkey it is rare to find an
Armenian-American today who did not lose an ancestor in the slayings,
many during deportation death marches in which they starved or died of
thirst.
Las Vegas attorney Ara Shirinian, 48, says he will march Sunday to
remember the deaths of his ancestors who were killed in Van in Eastern
Turkey.
"A census showed that about 100,000 Armenians lived in Van in 1914,
but after World War I there were virtually none," said Shirinian, the
grandson of a priest who escaped to Bulgaria after several other
family members were killed.
John Dadaian, coordinator of the Las Vegas march and afternoon
remembrance ceremony at the West Charleston Library and local
spokesman for the Armenian National Committee of America, knows a
witness to the genocide -- his mother-in-law Malvine Handjian.
Handjian watched the horror unfold as a 10-year-old refugee on the
streets of Izmir, Turkey, in 1922. That included witnessing Turks
drive nails through the soles of the feet of an Armenian priest and
watching Turkish soldiers burn Armenian homes and carry off teenage
girls to rape and kill them.
Handjian was the subject of the 2002 Armenian genocide documentary
film "The Handjian Story: A Road Less Traveled," which won best
feature documentary at the 2003 Moondance International Film Festival
in Denver. She is 92 and lives in Las Vegas, where she also was the
subject of an April 2004 story in the Sun.
Dadaian, noting that Handjian survived a death march, says marching is
symbolic and appropriate for this milestone commemoration.
"We are marching here and in other cities to get the U.S. government
to put pressure on the Turkish government to finally get it to
recognize and take responsibility for its actions so we can all move
on," said Dadaian, who also is a member of the Armenian-American
Cultural Society of Las Vegas.
Sunday's remembrance march will be led by three local Armenian
religious leaders -- Tashjian, Pastor Asbed Balian of the Armenian
Apostolic Church of Las Vegas and the Rev. Vrouyr Demirjian, the
Armenian Apostolic Church of America's assistant to the prelate.
They are scheduled to be joined at the front of the procession by the
Armenian Scouts of Las Vegas carrying the flags of Nevada, the United
States and Armenia and the banners of the Boy and Girl Scouts of
America.
Armenian-born U.S. citizen Rafael Oganesyan, a junior at UNLV and
president of the Armenian Student Association, says he will march
Sunday in hopes that the world finally will get the message of "never
again."
"It is important that with the survivors of the Armenian Genocide now
almost gone that we students demonstrate that we will not let them or
those who were killed be forgotten," Oganesyan, 20, said, estimating
that 30 students from the organization will march Sunday.
"It's a shame that the world has not gotten the message of never again
and that the Holocaust, Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Sudan genocides
have followed the Armenian Genocide."
Dadaian said one reason the United States has not been enthusiastic
about holding Turkey's feet to the fire on the genocide issue is
because Americans benefit from oil produced in Turkey.
Tashjian echoed that sentiment.
"Turkey is an ally of the United States and so the United States has
not made this (accountability) an issue with them," he said. "Why
admit to something if you are not being held accountable for it?
"Turkey long was a strategic point from which the United States kept
an eye on the Soviet Union. But, since the fall of the Soviet Union
and Turkey's position becoming less strategically important, it
baffles me why the United States has not taken a more reasoned
position on this issue."
Shirinian says from a legal standpoint, the Turks fear having to pay
millions of dollars in reparations to survivors and descendants,
especially for the loss of ancestral lands in Turkey. But, he said,
there is much more to it than that.
"For 90 years, Turkish students have been taught something very
different in their schools," he said. "For their government to take
responsibility will be akin to saying 'we've been lying to you all of
these years.' "
While the U.S. government has skirted the issue of the Armenian
genocide, many of its leaders from the federal government to state
officials to city mayors have recognized as fact what the Turks
continually deny.
Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn, in his proclamation for Sunday's ceremony,
calls the 1915-23 incidents a "crime against humanity. ... (a)
systematic and deliberate massacre of the Armenian people."
The Turkish government maintains that both the Armenians and Turks
suffered great loss of life during the war, but not because of a
genocide.
Supporters of Turkey's position say claims of a genocide are part of
efforts to drive a wedge between the Turks, who are Muslims, and
Armenians, who have had Christianity as their state religion since
301.
The Turkish government Web site, turkishembassy.org, says the numbers
of Armenians killed have been inflated because fewer than 1.5 million
Armenians were living in Turkey in 1915. The Web site says more than
2.5 million Muslims died during the same period, which encompasses
World War I.
But Armenian-Americans say there are volumes of proof that a genocide
occurred, including not only eyewitness accounts but also transcripts
from Ottoman court-martial proceedings held at the time to find
scapegoats for the killings -- documents that in effect admit
atrocities were committed by soldiers.
---------------------------------
Photo: John Dadaian, Ara Shirinian and Dr. Kegham Tashjian speak
Las Vegas SUN main page