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PASADENA ARMENIAN GENOCIDE COMMEMORATION: 'THE SCARS ARE NOT HEALED'
Pasadena Sun, CA
April 24 2013
Hundreds gathered under cloudy skies on Wednesday morning in Pasadena
for a pair of solemn outdoor ceremonies commemorating the Armenian
genocide and calling for official recognition of the tragedy around
the world.
A crowd of about 400 at Pasadena City Hall assembled for the event
organized by the local chapter of the Armenian National Committee of
America, where Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca was among those
officials who spoke at the event.
At the same time, nearly 200 others convened at Memorial Park for a
ceremony sponsored by the Pasadena Armenian Community Coalition.
At Memorial Park, participants laid white carnations at the proposed
site of a genocide memorial and offered song and prayer in Armenian
after performances the Marshall Fundamental School orchestra and choir.
"We all know the story of this crime against humanity," said Kevork
Halladjian, an adjunct Armenian language and culture professor at
Pasadena City College, "but we must also work to stop others from
committing genocide."
Both groups are proposing designs for a city Armenian genocide memorial
to be erected in 2015. The occasion will mark the 100th anniversary of
massacres that claimed the lives of some 1.5 million people between
1915 and 1918 at the hands of the Ottoman government in what is now
modern-day Turkey.
"The scars are not healed," former Pasadena Mayor Bill Paparian said
during the event at City Hall. "We are still haunted by the emptiness
that comes from losing entire families. When a loved one disappears,
the disappearance lasts forever."
Paparian was critical that the Armenian and American governments have
failed to press the Turkish government for official recognition of
the genocide, saying "the struggle for justice falls on the shoulders
of Armenians in the [post-genocide] Diaspora - us."
He also called for solidarity with all victims of terrorism, genocide
and intolerance.
"If [Armenians] ever, even for a moment, close our eyes to the
suffering and persecution of any minority anywhere on this globe,
we dishonor our own martyred families," Paparian said.
Sandra Siraganian, a real estate agent who attended the ceremony,
recalled speaking with her grandparents and great grandmother about
how they witnessed family members being slaughtered during the genocide
before arriving in Pasadena in the 1930s.
"This was always a very difficult day for my grandparents," Siraganian
said. "I'm a very American Armenian. I don't speak the language,
but it's in my heart."
http://www.pasadenasun.com/the626now/tn-626-0424-pasadena-armenian-genocide-commemoration-the-scars-are-not-healed,0,1263796.story
Pasadena Sun, CA
April 24 2013
Hundreds gathered under cloudy skies on Wednesday morning in Pasadena
for a pair of solemn outdoor ceremonies commemorating the Armenian
genocide and calling for official recognition of the tragedy around
the world.
A crowd of about 400 at Pasadena City Hall assembled for the event
organized by the local chapter of the Armenian National Committee of
America, where Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca was among those
officials who spoke at the event.
At the same time, nearly 200 others convened at Memorial Park for a
ceremony sponsored by the Pasadena Armenian Community Coalition.
At Memorial Park, participants laid white carnations at the proposed
site of a genocide memorial and offered song and prayer in Armenian
after performances the Marshall Fundamental School orchestra and choir.
"We all know the story of this crime against humanity," said Kevork
Halladjian, an adjunct Armenian language and culture professor at
Pasadena City College, "but we must also work to stop others from
committing genocide."
Both groups are proposing designs for a city Armenian genocide memorial
to be erected in 2015. The occasion will mark the 100th anniversary of
massacres that claimed the lives of some 1.5 million people between
1915 and 1918 at the hands of the Ottoman government in what is now
modern-day Turkey.
"The scars are not healed," former Pasadena Mayor Bill Paparian said
during the event at City Hall. "We are still haunted by the emptiness
that comes from losing entire families. When a loved one disappears,
the disappearance lasts forever."
Paparian was critical that the Armenian and American governments have
failed to press the Turkish government for official recognition of
the genocide, saying "the struggle for justice falls on the shoulders
of Armenians in the [post-genocide] Diaspora - us."
He also called for solidarity with all victims of terrorism, genocide
and intolerance.
"If [Armenians] ever, even for a moment, close our eyes to the
suffering and persecution of any minority anywhere on this globe,
we dishonor our own martyred families," Paparian said.
Sandra Siraganian, a real estate agent who attended the ceremony,
recalled speaking with her grandparents and great grandmother about
how they witnessed family members being slaughtered during the genocide
before arriving in Pasadena in the 1930s.
"This was always a very difficult day for my grandparents," Siraganian
said. "I'm a very American Armenian. I don't speak the language,
but it's in my heart."
http://www.pasadenasun.com/the626now/tn-626-0424-pasadena-armenian-genocide-commemoration-the-scars-are-not-healed,0,1263796.story