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PRESS RELEASE
Armenian Heritage Foundation, to:
Charles P. Guleserian, Vice President
Armenian Heritage Foundation
25 Flanders Road
Belmont, MA 02478
Email: [email protected]
Armenian Heritage Park
on the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, Boston
IN THE NEWS!
Marching for Rwandan genocide victims
About 40 discuss, condemn killings
By Zachary T. Sampson | GLOBE CORRESPONDENT APRIL 14, 2014
Marie Carine Boggis, who survived the Rwandan genocide, addressed the
crowd at Armenian Heritage Park.
Lane Turner/Globe Staff
During a recent moment of introspection, Marie Carine Boggis searched
the Web for a definition of the word "survivor." For most of her 27
years, she had been characterized as such.
She was a young girl when an estimated 800,000 people, including her
parents and siblings, died in the Rwandan genocide. On Sunday, she
discussed her experience with about 40 people who gathered for a walk
in downtown Boston to discuss and condemn genocide on the 20th
anniversary of the killings in Rwanda.
"Remaining alive after an event in which other people died," Boggis
recalled as the official definition of the word survivor, which has
described her for so long.
"And that was the most underwhelming definition that I have ever come
across."
The term, she said, did not fit her identity.It did not account for
the years immediately after the killings when she fantasized about her
parents picking her up at school.
It failed to acknowledge the extreme guilt she felt a few years
later. She had settled in with a new family and said she wondered if
she would even want to live with her birth parents if they were still
alive. It did not answer the questions she has now about how she will
one day explain genocide to her own children. "There's no proper way
to be a survivor," Boggis said. Each person, she continued, is left to
navigate the world in his or her own way.
The marchers in Boston on Sunday represented several communities that
have experienced genocide in the past century, including Armenians,
Bosnians, and Jews. Their prevailing message was that survivors should
unite through shared suffering to ensure genocide is never forgotten
or denied.
"Whether or not we're a member of the community that was victimized in
the genocide, we should all take it personally because genocide is a
crime against all of humanity," said Eric Cohen, an organizer of the
march and chairman of the Massachusetts Coalition to Save Darfur.
Fred Manasse, who said he was 3½ years old when he fled Germany during
the Holocaust in the late 1930s, told the crowd Boggis's story touched
him deeply. He said he lost both parents and a sister at Auschwitz,
and he spent several years in denial about their deaths. "My story is
a bit different than hers," Manasse said. "But it's not totally
different." Representatives of the local Armenian community said they
also connected with Boggis's story.
"Today, as always, the Armenians stand as one with our Rwandan
brothers and sisters," said James Kalustian, president of the Armenian
Heritage Foundation. Several people in the crowd Sunday pointed to
mass killings in Armenia as evidence of the harm that denial of
genocide causes. Academics and historians estimate that 1 million to
1.5 million Armenians were killed in 1915 by Turkish soldiers, but
Turkish leaders maintain that fewer people died and the violence did
not constitute genocide. Armenian-Americans still push the US Congress
to officially recognize the killings as genocide nearly 100 years
later. Denial or forgetfulness is what allows genocide to continue
happening, the marchers said. In Rwanda, the international community
largely looked on as the mass killings occurred. "Really, nobody
cared," said Jean Bosco Rutagengwa, Boggis's adoptive father, who was
30 and living in Kigali when he survived the genocide there. "But if
you have social pressure on organizations and government, I am certain
that things will happen" to stop genocide.
Pressure, he said, begins with remembrance.
"When people forget," he said. "Things like this genocide happen
again."
_________________________________________
Walk Against Genocide in observance of the 20th Anniversary
Commemoration of Rwanda is a program of the Friends of Rwandan
Genocide Survivors, Massachusetts Coalition to Save Darfur, JCRC of
Greater Boston and the Armenian Assembly of America.
Armenian Heritage Foundation, to:
Charles P. Guleserian, Vice President
Armenian Heritage Foundation
25 Flanders Road
Belmont, MA 02478
Email: [email protected]
Armenian Heritage Park
on the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, Boston
IN THE NEWS!
Marching for Rwandan genocide victims
About 40 discuss, condemn killings
By Zachary T. Sampson | GLOBE CORRESPONDENT APRIL 14, 2014
Marie Carine Boggis, who survived the Rwandan genocide, addressed the
crowd at Armenian Heritage Park.
Lane Turner/Globe Staff
During a recent moment of introspection, Marie Carine Boggis searched
the Web for a definition of the word "survivor." For most of her 27
years, she had been characterized as such.
She was a young girl when an estimated 800,000 people, including her
parents and siblings, died in the Rwandan genocide. On Sunday, she
discussed her experience with about 40 people who gathered for a walk
in downtown Boston to discuss and condemn genocide on the 20th
anniversary of the killings in Rwanda.
"Remaining alive after an event in which other people died," Boggis
recalled as the official definition of the word survivor, which has
described her for so long.
"And that was the most underwhelming definition that I have ever come
across."
The term, she said, did not fit her identity.It did not account for
the years immediately after the killings when she fantasized about her
parents picking her up at school.
It failed to acknowledge the extreme guilt she felt a few years
later. She had settled in with a new family and said she wondered if
she would even want to live with her birth parents if they were still
alive. It did not answer the questions she has now about how she will
one day explain genocide to her own children. "There's no proper way
to be a survivor," Boggis said. Each person, she continued, is left to
navigate the world in his or her own way.
The marchers in Boston on Sunday represented several communities that
have experienced genocide in the past century, including Armenians,
Bosnians, and Jews. Their prevailing message was that survivors should
unite through shared suffering to ensure genocide is never forgotten
or denied.
"Whether or not we're a member of the community that was victimized in
the genocide, we should all take it personally because genocide is a
crime against all of humanity," said Eric Cohen, an organizer of the
march and chairman of the Massachusetts Coalition to Save Darfur.
Fred Manasse, who said he was 3½ years old when he fled Germany during
the Holocaust in the late 1930s, told the crowd Boggis's story touched
him deeply. He said he lost both parents and a sister at Auschwitz,
and he spent several years in denial about their deaths. "My story is
a bit different than hers," Manasse said. "But it's not totally
different." Representatives of the local Armenian community said they
also connected with Boggis's story.
"Today, as always, the Armenians stand as one with our Rwandan
brothers and sisters," said James Kalustian, president of the Armenian
Heritage Foundation. Several people in the crowd Sunday pointed to
mass killings in Armenia as evidence of the harm that denial of
genocide causes. Academics and historians estimate that 1 million to
1.5 million Armenians were killed in 1915 by Turkish soldiers, but
Turkish leaders maintain that fewer people died and the violence did
not constitute genocide. Armenian-Americans still push the US Congress
to officially recognize the killings as genocide nearly 100 years
later. Denial or forgetfulness is what allows genocide to continue
happening, the marchers said. In Rwanda, the international community
largely looked on as the mass killings occurred. "Really, nobody
cared," said Jean Bosco Rutagengwa, Boggis's adoptive father, who was
30 and living in Kigali when he survived the genocide there. "But if
you have social pressure on organizations and government, I am certain
that things will happen" to stop genocide.
Pressure, he said, begins with remembrance.
"When people forget," he said. "Things like this genocide happen
again."
_________________________________________
Walk Against Genocide in observance of the 20th Anniversary
Commemoration of Rwanda is a program of the Friends of Rwandan
Genocide Survivors, Massachusetts Coalition to Save Darfur, JCRC of
Greater Boston and the Armenian Assembly of America.