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What Happened This Year?
asbarez
Friday, May 6th, 2011|Posted by Garen Yegparian
Garen Yegparian
BY GAREN YEGPARIAN
I was puzzled and disappointed by the overall lower turnouts for our
April 24th period events this year, especially compared to last year.
This was across the board, at all events. The number of events was
down, too. Even Lobby Day in Sacramento saw a decreased turnout.
Is it because it's not a `big' year in the count from 1915? By that I
mean a multiple of five or ten. Last year it was the 95th, this year...
Conversely, this year, April 24th fell on a Sunday, so there could not
have been work conflicts for those who want to attend any of our
events.
Meanwhile, our foes are gearing up, becoming more sophisticated, more
attuned to the American political battlefield, and getting VERY
moneyed up. Think about Yalcin Ayasli (Yalchin Ayashli) and his $30
million Hittite Corp. stock donation to start the Turkish Coalition of
America, probably millions more to the Turkish Cultural foundation,
and most importantly, over a quarter million dollars of POLITICAL
giving by him and his family just in 2010! Make no mistake about it,
all that money is aimed straight at fighting our community in the U.S.
and worldwide in our efforts at securing that which the Turkish
government has stolen from us.
So what are we doing while the Turks are getting their act together?
Not participating, that's what! And why aren't we? Well, it seems some
nasty stuff went down almost 2000 years ago, and a day that floats the
breadth of two months of the year is used to recognize/celebrate that
2000 year-old stuff. This year, that day happened to fall on April
24th. Well, as a result, everyone was busy eating dyed eggs and fish
and visiting friends and family. Our church, the ARMENIAN Apostolic
Church (AAC), for whatever reason, chose to inflict and impose the
results of the arcane formula of when Easter is celebrated on the
nation whose child it is. Disregarding the conflict, yes CONFLICT,
created by the coincidence of April 24 and Easter for the first time
since the date became relevant to our nation.
Why did the church do this? Simple habit? Greed? Remember, this is the
biggest church attendance day which means a lotta-loot flowing into
the church's collection plates? Public relations obliviousness?
Imagine if the date had been changed, say, to the old system under
which we celebrated Easter much later, sometimes in May. Think of the
media frenzy `Armenian church moves Easter!' the headlines would have
screamed. And, immediately after, the `why' would have been answered,
further generating Genocide awareness among our neighbors. This
mistake is unconscionable. If it is to remain our national church,
then the AAC should act the part.
All the linguistic gymnastics, at all the events, tying together
Easter and April 24th, the `death and rebirth' gimmick, that were on
display can't make up for the harm done to our efforts in furtherance
of our just cause. Imagine, at the Unified Young Armenians event,
though hyped as having huge attendance while the opposite was true, at
least one speaker expended great effort to tie Easter and April 24
together. Yet the event was topsy-turvy with the rally first and the
march following, almost assuring that even the crowd that had gathered
would tend to dissipate. All this because of the Easter conflict.
The gathering at the Montebello Martyrs Monument was held NOT on the
24th, for the first time in at least 15 years that I can remember. It
was moved to the 23rd. This in turn caused a dual conflict of that
gathering with the AYF's `Cycle Against Denial'. The times of both
events overlapped, plus, a group of bicyclists riding from Glendale to
the gathering at the monument and back resulted in two cycling events
on the same day, at partially overlapping times.
The only unchanged event was the AYF-organized demonstration at the
Turkish consulate. MUCH credit is due the AYF for resisting pressure
to change even this most politically relevant of our events.
All this happened because of a lack of foresight and proper
consideration of our nation's needs on the part of our church
leadership and insufficient pressure from us, the laity, the Armenian
community.
Let's NEVER allow this to happen again!
http://asbarez.com/95759/what-happened-this-year/
From: A. Papazian
asbarez
Friday, May 6th, 2011|Posted by Garen Yegparian
Garen Yegparian
BY GAREN YEGPARIAN
I was puzzled and disappointed by the overall lower turnouts for our
April 24th period events this year, especially compared to last year.
This was across the board, at all events. The number of events was
down, too. Even Lobby Day in Sacramento saw a decreased turnout.
Is it because it's not a `big' year in the count from 1915? By that I
mean a multiple of five or ten. Last year it was the 95th, this year...
Conversely, this year, April 24th fell on a Sunday, so there could not
have been work conflicts for those who want to attend any of our
events.
Meanwhile, our foes are gearing up, becoming more sophisticated, more
attuned to the American political battlefield, and getting VERY
moneyed up. Think about Yalcin Ayasli (Yalchin Ayashli) and his $30
million Hittite Corp. stock donation to start the Turkish Coalition of
America, probably millions more to the Turkish Cultural foundation,
and most importantly, over a quarter million dollars of POLITICAL
giving by him and his family just in 2010! Make no mistake about it,
all that money is aimed straight at fighting our community in the U.S.
and worldwide in our efforts at securing that which the Turkish
government has stolen from us.
So what are we doing while the Turks are getting their act together?
Not participating, that's what! And why aren't we? Well, it seems some
nasty stuff went down almost 2000 years ago, and a day that floats the
breadth of two months of the year is used to recognize/celebrate that
2000 year-old stuff. This year, that day happened to fall on April
24th. Well, as a result, everyone was busy eating dyed eggs and fish
and visiting friends and family. Our church, the ARMENIAN Apostolic
Church (AAC), for whatever reason, chose to inflict and impose the
results of the arcane formula of when Easter is celebrated on the
nation whose child it is. Disregarding the conflict, yes CONFLICT,
created by the coincidence of April 24 and Easter for the first time
since the date became relevant to our nation.
Why did the church do this? Simple habit? Greed? Remember, this is the
biggest church attendance day which means a lotta-loot flowing into
the church's collection plates? Public relations obliviousness?
Imagine if the date had been changed, say, to the old system under
which we celebrated Easter much later, sometimes in May. Think of the
media frenzy `Armenian church moves Easter!' the headlines would have
screamed. And, immediately after, the `why' would have been answered,
further generating Genocide awareness among our neighbors. This
mistake is unconscionable. If it is to remain our national church,
then the AAC should act the part.
All the linguistic gymnastics, at all the events, tying together
Easter and April 24th, the `death and rebirth' gimmick, that were on
display can't make up for the harm done to our efforts in furtherance
of our just cause. Imagine, at the Unified Young Armenians event,
though hyped as having huge attendance while the opposite was true, at
least one speaker expended great effort to tie Easter and April 24
together. Yet the event was topsy-turvy with the rally first and the
march following, almost assuring that even the crowd that had gathered
would tend to dissipate. All this because of the Easter conflict.
The gathering at the Montebello Martyrs Monument was held NOT on the
24th, for the first time in at least 15 years that I can remember. It
was moved to the 23rd. This in turn caused a dual conflict of that
gathering with the AYF's `Cycle Against Denial'. The times of both
events overlapped, plus, a group of bicyclists riding from Glendale to
the gathering at the monument and back resulted in two cycling events
on the same day, at partially overlapping times.
The only unchanged event was the AYF-organized demonstration at the
Turkish consulate. MUCH credit is due the AYF for resisting pressure
to change even this most politically relevant of our events.
All this happened because of a lack of foresight and proper
consideration of our nation's needs on the part of our church
leadership and insufficient pressure from us, the laity, the Armenian
community.
Let's NEVER allow this to happen again!
http://asbarez.com/95759/what-happened-this-year/
From: A. Papazian