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DON'T TURN YOUR BACK!
by Rosario Teixeira
Noyan Tapan
2012-04-10
Watertown, MA - During the month of April, 2012, Peace of Art, Inc.,
will display the commemorative billboards of Armenian Genocide
on Mount Auburn and Arsenal Streets in Watertown, MA, with the
message "Mr. President, Don't Turn your Back! Recognize the Armenian
Genocide." This year, Peace of Art will display a second message on
a digital billboard in Foxboro, MA, on Route 1 near Gillette Stadium
and Patriot Place, with the message "Honoring the Memory of 1.5 million
Lives. Recognize the Armenian Genocide." This simple message is written
against an image of Der Zor, covered with 1.5 million lights, one for
each life lost. The desert witnessed the remaining Armenians who were
forced to their death march by the Ottoman Turks, and became the last
resting place for many of the refugees. This digital billboard went
up on Easter Monday, April 9, 2012, the day of Remembrance of the Dead
"Merelotc".
The message on the Watertown billboards "Mr. President, Don't Turn
Your Back! Recognize the Armenian Genocide," is a message to President
Obama urging him to honor his 2008 campaign promise to recognize the
Armenian Genocide. While on the campaign trail, Mr. Obama declared
that "The facts are undeniable. An official policy that calls on
diplomats to distort the historical facts is an untenable policy... as
president I will recognize the Armenian Genocide." However, on April
24, 2010, President Obama explicitly used the expression Meds Yeghern,
a term used by Armenians to reference the Great Calamity, rather than
'genocide,' a term coined by Rafael Lemkin in 1944, and formally
adopted by the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the
Crime of Genocide in 1948. The President stated in part "... The Meds
Yeghern is a devastating chapter in the history of the Armenian people,
and we must keep its memory alive in honor of those who were murdered
and so that we do not repeat the grave mistakes of the past."
Daniel Varoujan Hejinian, president of Peace of Art, Inc., said that
"It is morally wrong for the president to turn his back on his promise
to acknowledge the mass murder of 1.5 million Armenians as genocide."
2012 marks the 97th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. Much has
changed in the last decades. However, the denial continues, despite
overwhelming evidence of its existence in the national archives of
Austria, France, Germany, Great Britain, Russia, the United States, the
Vatican and many other countries. This vast body of evidence attests
to the same facts, the same events, and the same consequences, and
all confirm the organized efforts by the Ottoman Turks to exterminate
the Armenians.
Hejinian further stated that "doubting and denying the Armenian
Genocide is to repeat the crime against humanity, and debating it is
an insult to the memory of 1.5 million Armenians who were slaughtered."
The Armenian Genocide Commemoration and Recognition Campaign began
in 1996 by Hejinian. Since 2004 Peace of Art www.PeaceofArt.org has
sponsored the billboards peaceful message calling for recognition of
the Armenian Genocide.
by Rosario Teixeira
Noyan Tapan
2012-04-10
Watertown, MA - During the month of April, 2012, Peace of Art, Inc.,
will display the commemorative billboards of Armenian Genocide
on Mount Auburn and Arsenal Streets in Watertown, MA, with the
message "Mr. President, Don't Turn your Back! Recognize the Armenian
Genocide." This year, Peace of Art will display a second message on
a digital billboard in Foxboro, MA, on Route 1 near Gillette Stadium
and Patriot Place, with the message "Honoring the Memory of 1.5 million
Lives. Recognize the Armenian Genocide." This simple message is written
against an image of Der Zor, covered with 1.5 million lights, one for
each life lost. The desert witnessed the remaining Armenians who were
forced to their death march by the Ottoman Turks, and became the last
resting place for many of the refugees. This digital billboard went
up on Easter Monday, April 9, 2012, the day of Remembrance of the Dead
"Merelotc".
The message on the Watertown billboards "Mr. President, Don't Turn
Your Back! Recognize the Armenian Genocide," is a message to President
Obama urging him to honor his 2008 campaign promise to recognize the
Armenian Genocide. While on the campaign trail, Mr. Obama declared
that "The facts are undeniable. An official policy that calls on
diplomats to distort the historical facts is an untenable policy... as
president I will recognize the Armenian Genocide." However, on April
24, 2010, President Obama explicitly used the expression Meds Yeghern,
a term used by Armenians to reference the Great Calamity, rather than
'genocide,' a term coined by Rafael Lemkin in 1944, and formally
adopted by the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the
Crime of Genocide in 1948. The President stated in part "... The Meds
Yeghern is a devastating chapter in the history of the Armenian people,
and we must keep its memory alive in honor of those who were murdered
and so that we do not repeat the grave mistakes of the past."
Daniel Varoujan Hejinian, president of Peace of Art, Inc., said that
"It is morally wrong for the president to turn his back on his promise
to acknowledge the mass murder of 1.5 million Armenians as genocide."
2012 marks the 97th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. Much has
changed in the last decades. However, the denial continues, despite
overwhelming evidence of its existence in the national archives of
Austria, France, Germany, Great Britain, Russia, the United States, the
Vatican and many other countries. This vast body of evidence attests
to the same facts, the same events, and the same consequences, and
all confirm the organized efforts by the Ottoman Turks to exterminate
the Armenians.
Hejinian further stated that "doubting and denying the Armenian
Genocide is to repeat the crime against humanity, and debating it is
an insult to the memory of 1.5 million Armenians who were slaughtered."
The Armenian Genocide Commemoration and Recognition Campaign began
in 1996 by Hejinian. Since 2004 Peace of Art www.PeaceofArt.org has
sponsored the billboards peaceful message calling for recognition of
the Armenian Genocide.