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RALLY COMMEMORATES ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
Newsday (New York)
April 22, 2013 Monday
ALL EDITIONS
BY EMILY NGO
A 16-year-old sign, weathered and held together with tape, helped
Anahid Ugurlayan yesterday honor her grandfather at a Manhattan rally
that commemorated the massacre of 1.5 million Armenians nearly a
century ago.
"If we don't acknowledge the genocide, if we don't learn from the
mistakes of the past," said Ugurlayan, 37, of Jackson Heights, Queens,
"we're bound to repeat them."
Her grandfather was a genocide survivor, she said.
"I will never forget," reads the sign that she said she brings every
year to the annual rally, which attracted hundreds to Times Square
yesterday to mark the 98th anniversary of the massacre under the
Young Turk government of the Ottoman Empire.
Attendees demanded that the United States and Turkish governments
formally recognize the genocide and urged younger generations to
never forget the atrocity. Turkey has rejected the term "genocide"
and regards the killings as a consequence of war.
Speakers yesterday acknowledged the large Armenian population in
Watertown, Mass., the site of firefights last week that led to the
death of one Boston Marathon bombing suspect and the arrest of another.
Armenian-Americans at the rally, which took place in a pedestrian plaza
ringed with NYPD barricades and guarded by dozens of police officers,
said the violence in Boston had not deterred them from attending.
"I always feel safe in New York," said Aret Kartalyan, 53, of
Ridgewood, N.J., who brought his father and daughter to the event.
Yesterday was his 20th year at the rally, he said. "It has to change,"
he said of the lack of formal recognition of the genocide. "It's been
almost a century, and, if Turkey continues to deny it, it's never
going to end."
Newsday (New York)
April 22, 2013 Monday
ALL EDITIONS
BY EMILY NGO
A 16-year-old sign, weathered and held together with tape, helped
Anahid Ugurlayan yesterday honor her grandfather at a Manhattan rally
that commemorated the massacre of 1.5 million Armenians nearly a
century ago.
"If we don't acknowledge the genocide, if we don't learn from the
mistakes of the past," said Ugurlayan, 37, of Jackson Heights, Queens,
"we're bound to repeat them."
Her grandfather was a genocide survivor, she said.
"I will never forget," reads the sign that she said she brings every
year to the annual rally, which attracted hundreds to Times Square
yesterday to mark the 98th anniversary of the massacre under the
Young Turk government of the Ottoman Empire.
Attendees demanded that the United States and Turkish governments
formally recognize the genocide and urged younger generations to
never forget the atrocity. Turkey has rejected the term "genocide"
and regards the killings as a consequence of war.
Speakers yesterday acknowledged the large Armenian population in
Watertown, Mass., the site of firefights last week that led to the
death of one Boston Marathon bombing suspect and the arrest of another.
Armenian-Americans at the rally, which took place in a pedestrian plaza
ringed with NYPD barricades and guarded by dozens of police officers,
said the violence in Boston had not deterred them from attending.
"I always feel safe in New York," said Aret Kartalyan, 53, of
Ridgewood, N.J., who brought his father and daughter to the event.
Yesterday was his 20th year at the rally, he said. "It has to change,"
he said of the lack of formal recognition of the genocide. "It's been
almost a century, and, if Turkey continues to deny it, it's never
going to end."