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COMMEMORATIVE BILLBOARDS OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE TO BE DISPLAYED IN U.S.
PanARMENIAN.Net
April 11, 2012 - 16:26 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - 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."
According to the press release, 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."
PanARMENIAN.Net
April 11, 2012 - 16:26 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - 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."
According to the press release, 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."