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ARMENIAN YOUTH MIX ACTIVISM, REMEMBERANCE DURING COMMEMORATIONS OF 1915 GENOCIDE
89.3 KPCC
http://www.scpr.org/blogs/education/2012/04/30/5858/armenian-youth-mix-activism-and-rememberance-durin/
April 30 2012
In a recent evening inside Glendale High School's auditorium high
school student Angela Pachanian rehearsed a poem of suffering and
sadness by Paruyr Sevak, Armenia's best-known poet of the genocide.
Below her, in the auditorium's first few rows, a group of nine and
ten year old Armenian American children run through a melodious song.
Their choirmaster said it's a nationalistic Armenian song about going
to war, defending and saving the mother country.
The Armenian clubs at four Glendale high schools organized the
remembrance, with help from school district officials. The event's
title, "Our Traditions Keep Us Alive," hints at how tightly the
genocide is interwoven with Armenian identity.
"I clearly remember how when my parents would try to teach me about
what exactly happened," Crescenta Valley High junior Sevag Alexanian,
as for most of these students, the genocide is among his earliest
memories, "how my great grandparents were affected by this, how
we're lucky that we're still here today because my great grandfather
survived and just pretty much how we're the youth and we're going to
be the ones getting the word out when we grow older, as a kid that
was always embedded in us."
The Armenian Genocide has been part of the California public education
curriculum for 25 years. But Alexanian said his high school history
teacher glossed over it.
He, like many other young Armenian Americans, learned outside of
school to fervently argue for the recognition of the 1915 series
of events as "genocide." There's a consensus among historians that
the Ottomans targeted Armenians for extermination, but the current
Turkish government denies it. The U.S. government has not formally
recognized the Armenian Genocide.
Glendale Unified school board member Greg Krikorian said recognition
is one reason to hold this cultural event.
"We're sending a message that we want, not only recognition of the
Armenian genocide, we want our homeland back, our territory back. The
Turkish government today is destroying our churches, destroying
our history. The Armenians for the past 97 years have given back to
America and this is one way our students are expressing their views
and values of the Armenian Genocide," he said.
The zealous activism learned by young Armenian Americans from their
elders is justified, says Glendale Community College professor Levon
Marshalian.
"It's more painful when someone's history is not acknowledged and
denied. It's as if, how would Americans feel if someone would be
saying, no there was no attack on Pearl Harbor, in fact America
surprised, dropped a surprise bomb on Tokyo first," Marshalian said.
Many high school and college students exercised their activism last
week by taking part in Armenian Genocide protests and marches.
They're not the only ones remembering genocides. In the last few weeks,
thousands of people in Southern California have held events to remember
the Holocaust during World War II and the Cambodian genocide in the
1970s. These genocides scattered refugees in diasporas far and wide.
In a darkened auditorium at Glendale Community College, the remembrance
of the Armenian Genocide took a somber tone. The campus Armenian club
screened Suzanne Khardalian's film "Grandma's Tattoos."
The film focuses on the trauma of the genocide survivors and how that
trickled down to the filmmaker's generation.
After the film, student Chantalle Parsakhian said its portrayal of
the genocide's destruction is very different from what she learned
at home and at Armenian private school. She's worried young Armenian
Americans are losing touch with this side of the genocide.
"I feel it's just another day for them to not go to school because,
and the passion for justice has kind of dwindled, that's what really
is upsetting," she said.
Parsakhian left along a walkway where the campus Armenian club had
set up documents and photos detailing the extent of the deaths. On
the other side, on an easel, was a wreath in the shape of the Armenian
flag with "Never Again" printed on a ribbon.
89.3 KPCC
http://www.scpr.org/blogs/education/2012/04/30/5858/armenian-youth-mix-activism-and-rememberance-durin/
April 30 2012
In a recent evening inside Glendale High School's auditorium high
school student Angela Pachanian rehearsed a poem of suffering and
sadness by Paruyr Sevak, Armenia's best-known poet of the genocide.
Below her, in the auditorium's first few rows, a group of nine and
ten year old Armenian American children run through a melodious song.
Their choirmaster said it's a nationalistic Armenian song about going
to war, defending and saving the mother country.
The Armenian clubs at four Glendale high schools organized the
remembrance, with help from school district officials. The event's
title, "Our Traditions Keep Us Alive," hints at how tightly the
genocide is interwoven with Armenian identity.
"I clearly remember how when my parents would try to teach me about
what exactly happened," Crescenta Valley High junior Sevag Alexanian,
as for most of these students, the genocide is among his earliest
memories, "how my great grandparents were affected by this, how
we're lucky that we're still here today because my great grandfather
survived and just pretty much how we're the youth and we're going to
be the ones getting the word out when we grow older, as a kid that
was always embedded in us."
The Armenian Genocide has been part of the California public education
curriculum for 25 years. But Alexanian said his high school history
teacher glossed over it.
He, like many other young Armenian Americans, learned outside of
school to fervently argue for the recognition of the 1915 series
of events as "genocide." There's a consensus among historians that
the Ottomans targeted Armenians for extermination, but the current
Turkish government denies it. The U.S. government has not formally
recognized the Armenian Genocide.
Glendale Unified school board member Greg Krikorian said recognition
is one reason to hold this cultural event.
"We're sending a message that we want, not only recognition of the
Armenian genocide, we want our homeland back, our territory back. The
Turkish government today is destroying our churches, destroying
our history. The Armenians for the past 97 years have given back to
America and this is one way our students are expressing their views
and values of the Armenian Genocide," he said.
The zealous activism learned by young Armenian Americans from their
elders is justified, says Glendale Community College professor Levon
Marshalian.
"It's more painful when someone's history is not acknowledged and
denied. It's as if, how would Americans feel if someone would be
saying, no there was no attack on Pearl Harbor, in fact America
surprised, dropped a surprise bomb on Tokyo first," Marshalian said.
Many high school and college students exercised their activism last
week by taking part in Armenian Genocide protests and marches.
They're not the only ones remembering genocides. In the last few weeks,
thousands of people in Southern California have held events to remember
the Holocaust during World War II and the Cambodian genocide in the
1970s. These genocides scattered refugees in diasporas far and wide.
In a darkened auditorium at Glendale Community College, the remembrance
of the Armenian Genocide took a somber tone. The campus Armenian club
screened Suzanne Khardalian's film "Grandma's Tattoos."
The film focuses on the trauma of the genocide survivors and how that
trickled down to the filmmaker's generation.
After the film, student Chantalle Parsakhian said its portrayal of
the genocide's destruction is very different from what she learned
at home and at Armenian private school. She's worried young Armenian
Americans are losing touch with this side of the genocide.
"I feel it's just another day for them to not go to school because,
and the passion for justice has kind of dwindled, that's what really
is upsetting," she said.
Parsakhian left along a walkway where the campus Armenian club had
set up documents and photos detailing the extent of the deaths. On
the other side, on an easel, was a wreath in the shape of the Armenian
flag with "Never Again" printed on a ribbon.