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ARMENIANS GATHER, DELIVER MESSAGE
BY ASHLEY KINDERGAN
The Record
http://www.northjersey.com/community/920786 39_Armenians_gather__deliver_message.html
April 26 2010
NJ
NEW YORK - Hundreds of Armenians from North Jersey and beyond gathered
at St. Vartan Cathedral in Manhattan on Sunday to commemorate the
95th anniversary of the Armenian genocide.
Rain forced organizers to move the annual ceremony from its usual
Times Square location, making it more difficult for the community to
draw public attention to their efforts to get the U.S. Congress and
Turkish governments to formally recognize as genocide the events that
began on April 24, 1915, with the killing of more than 200 Armenian
community leaders
"We always want the outside experience, because we have thousands
of people passing by who are non-Armenians," said Hirant Gulian,
a Cliffside Park resident and chairman of a coalition of Armenian
groups that planned Sunday's commemoration.
Still, Armenians from New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Boston and
as far away as California showed up.
Buses brought North Jerseyans from the St. Leon Armenian Church in
Fair Lawn to the church on 34th Street and Second Avenue.
Senators and U.S. Representatives from New York and New Jersey also
showed up, vowing to fight in Congress to pass a resolution formally
recognizing the forced expulsions and killings of an estimated 1.5
million Armenians as genocide.
"To overlook human suffering is not who we are as a people, and it is
not what we stand for as a nation," said Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez,
D-N.J. "What happened from 1915 to 1923 was genocide."
A number of speakers and audience members said recognizing the genocide
is not enough.
They called on the Turkish government to pay reparations to Armenians
for the land and property seized during the forced expulsions of
that era.
"Wrongs should be righted, the fruits of crimes restored," said Ani
Tchaghlasian, a Mahwah resident and board member of the Armenian
National Committee of America's Eastern Region. "We ask for nothing
more and will accept nothing less."
Mark Geragos, a Los Angeles-based criminal defense attorney, urged the
audience to vote non-supportive politicians out of office and support
legal action against the Turkish government to demand reparations.
Geragos was involved in winning a $37.5 million settlement from New
York Life Insurance and Axa Corp. for life insurance policies held
by Armenians killed in the genocide.
Geragos is part of a team of lawyers now suing Deutsche Bank in a
class-action lawsuit, charging that the bank held Armenian deposits
made before 1915 and held assets seized from Armenians for the
Turkish government.
For many local Armenian-Americans, the events of World War I are
still personal.
Donna Donelian Hortian, a preschool teacher from Paramus, came to the
event wearing photographs of her great-grandparents around her neck.
Vannessa Hortian, her daughter, wore a placard with a 1985 New York
Times article that showed Hortian's father wearing the same photographs
around his neck at the Times Square rally.
"I'm wearing this to represent five generations of the family,"
Hortian said. "How many more generations will have to march before
Turkey accepts responsibility?"
The Turkish government does not acknowledge the Armenian deaths as
genocide, and referring to them as such is a crime under Turkish law.
The border between the two countries is closed.
Hortian said she got a $325 check out of the class action lawsuit
settlement, but that it didn't make up for the 28 members of her
father's family who she said died during the genocide.
"If reparations were to come down the path, that would be wonderful,"
Hortian said. "But personally, I am more toward having history righted
and having Turkey own up to it."
BY ASHLEY KINDERGAN
The Record
http://www.northjersey.com/community/920786 39_Armenians_gather__deliver_message.html
April 26 2010
NJ
NEW YORK - Hundreds of Armenians from North Jersey and beyond gathered
at St. Vartan Cathedral in Manhattan on Sunday to commemorate the
95th anniversary of the Armenian genocide.
Rain forced organizers to move the annual ceremony from its usual
Times Square location, making it more difficult for the community to
draw public attention to their efforts to get the U.S. Congress and
Turkish governments to formally recognize as genocide the events that
began on April 24, 1915, with the killing of more than 200 Armenian
community leaders
"We always want the outside experience, because we have thousands
of people passing by who are non-Armenians," said Hirant Gulian,
a Cliffside Park resident and chairman of a coalition of Armenian
groups that planned Sunday's commemoration.
Still, Armenians from New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Boston and
as far away as California showed up.
Buses brought North Jerseyans from the St. Leon Armenian Church in
Fair Lawn to the church on 34th Street and Second Avenue.
Senators and U.S. Representatives from New York and New Jersey also
showed up, vowing to fight in Congress to pass a resolution formally
recognizing the forced expulsions and killings of an estimated 1.5
million Armenians as genocide.
"To overlook human suffering is not who we are as a people, and it is
not what we stand for as a nation," said Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez,
D-N.J. "What happened from 1915 to 1923 was genocide."
A number of speakers and audience members said recognizing the genocide
is not enough.
They called on the Turkish government to pay reparations to Armenians
for the land and property seized during the forced expulsions of
that era.
"Wrongs should be righted, the fruits of crimes restored," said Ani
Tchaghlasian, a Mahwah resident and board member of the Armenian
National Committee of America's Eastern Region. "We ask for nothing
more and will accept nothing less."
Mark Geragos, a Los Angeles-based criminal defense attorney, urged the
audience to vote non-supportive politicians out of office and support
legal action against the Turkish government to demand reparations.
Geragos was involved in winning a $37.5 million settlement from New
York Life Insurance and Axa Corp. for life insurance policies held
by Armenians killed in the genocide.
Geragos is part of a team of lawyers now suing Deutsche Bank in a
class-action lawsuit, charging that the bank held Armenian deposits
made before 1915 and held assets seized from Armenians for the
Turkish government.
For many local Armenian-Americans, the events of World War I are
still personal.
Donna Donelian Hortian, a preschool teacher from Paramus, came to the
event wearing photographs of her great-grandparents around her neck.
Vannessa Hortian, her daughter, wore a placard with a 1985 New York
Times article that showed Hortian's father wearing the same photographs
around his neck at the Times Square rally.
"I'm wearing this to represent five generations of the family,"
Hortian said. "How many more generations will have to march before
Turkey accepts responsibility?"
The Turkish government does not acknowledge the Armenian deaths as
genocide, and referring to them as such is a crime under Turkish law.
The border between the two countries is closed.
Hortian said she got a $325 check out of the class action lawsuit
settlement, but that it didn't make up for the 28 members of her
father's family who she said died during the genocide.
"If reparations were to come down the path, that would be wonderful,"
Hortian said. "But personally, I am more toward having history righted
and having Turkey own up to it."