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ARMENIAN GENOCIDE COMMEMORATION, AWARENESS A CROSS-GENERATIONAL AFFAIR
Los Angeles Daily News
April 24 2014
By Adam Poulisse
Yevnigue Salibian has the mental and physical scars to prove what
the country of Turkey won't acknowledge.
The 100-year-old resident of Ararat Home, a Mission Hills nursing
facility for Southern California Armenians, stayed in the Turkish
city of Aintab with her family until 1921, after six years of seeing
thousands of Armenians being forced out or killed at the end of the
Ottoman empire. The Salibians were allowed to stay because the family
was on good terms with the local mayor, but neighborhood children
were hustled out, right by their home, screaming for food and water,
Salibian recalled.
Finally the Salibians too had to leave in 1921 after the Turkish-Franco
War ended because the French were no longer going to be around to
help protect Armenians. While fleeing she was in a horse carriage
wreck that left the young girl badly bruised and killed another woman.
Today marks the 99th anniversary of the start of the Armenian Genocide,
and the Republic of Turkey still hasn't acknowledged it.
"Let them come and see the scar on my knee," Salibian said, with a
caregiver translating. "That's my reminder every day."
On Wednesday, Turkey Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan released
a statement in nine languages expressing the "shared pain" felt in
Turkey. It was seen as an unprecedented statement of condolences,
but most Armenian groups said it didn't go nearly far enough.
"It is indisputable that the last years of the Ottoman empire
were a difficult period, full of suffering for Turkish, Kurdish,
Arab, Armenian and millions of other Ottoman citizens, regardless
of their religion or ethnic origin," Erdogan statement reads. "Any
conscientious, fair and humanistic approach to these issues requires an
understanding of all the sufferings endured in this period, without
discriminating as to religion or ethnicity."
Few Armenians see that episode of history as a time of shared suffering
with the Turks. The Armenian National Committee of America said his
words were just another form of genocide denial.
"Mr. Erdogan's statement ... is a patently transparent attempt
to mute international condemnation and calls for justice for the
centrally planned and systematically executed campaign of murder and
deportation," the group said.
This year, Armenian youngsters born generations later are keeping the
spirit of their ancestors alive and maintaining the fight for Turkey
to acknowledge the tragedy with vigils, protests, memorials and art
today and Friday.
"It's 99 years later and we still don't have any form of closure or
reparation," said Alik Ourfalian, 19, the Armenian Youth Federation
Western Region public relations chairwoman. "The international
community stood by while genocide was happening, and nobody spoke
up and Turkey was able to get away with it. That opened the door for
future genocides."
The local Armenian Youth Federation is expanding its annual protest
outside the Turkish Consulate on Wilshire Boulevard into a 24-hour
demonstration beginning at 2 p.m. today. The annual protest, plus a
rally and performances, will go nonstop until 2 p.m. Friday. About
1,000 people are expected to attend some of the events, including
Los Angeles City Councilman Paul Krekorian, Ourfalian said.
"We want to show we have survived and we still have our culture,
our music and our arts," Ourfalian said.
The local Unified Young Armenians, a Glendale-based nonprofit, kicked
off its genocide commemorations Wednesday night with a candlelight
vigil in the Glendale Civic Auditorium's parking lot. At 10 a.m.
today, the group will host its 14th annual commemoration walk
at Hollywood Boulevard and Hobart Street. The walk is the largest
Armenian event hosted outside of Armenia, drawing anywhere from tens
of thousands to 100,000 people each year, according to organization
president Aroutin Hartounian, 27.
"Every year we see old and new faces, both Armenian and non-Armenian,
which is very important to us," Hartounian said. "Genocides are not
a problem for one race or another. It affects everyone."
A blessing will be held at the future site of the Genocide Remembrance
Memorial Park in Pasadena, 85 East Holly St., at 6 p.m. Sunday.
Another opportunity to honor the unacknowledged: The Armenian Film
Foundation in Thousand Oaks this week handed over digitized versions
of 400 interviews with survivors and witnesses for educational use and
preservation to the USC Shoah Foundation. The interviews were caught
on film by Emmy-nominated filmmaker J. Michael Hagopian between 1972
and 2005. Hagopian died in 2010.
"His intentions were, if the Armenian Genocide went to the
International Court of Justice one day, these testimonies could be
used," said Carla Garapedian, project director of Armenian Genocide
Testimonies Collection at the Armenian Film Foundation.
The USC Shoah Foundation was established by Steven Spielberg to
document the Holocaust but has been expanding to also look at other
historical genocides.
On Wednesday, Hagop and Knar Manjikian were honored at Los Angeles City
Hall for translating and publishing six books of genocide survivors'
memoirs. Krekorian also attended.
The sixth memoir that was translated -- documenting desert fields
littered with bloody body parts -- was Knar's mother, who, at about
7 years old, hid herself among the bloody cadavers and pretended she
was dead to survive after being forced off a train and into a desert
covered in dead bodies.
"My mother's case was a little more strong because she saw the desert,
the field covered in bloody bodies," Knar Manjikian said.
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Burbank, planned to attend several Armenian
genocide events this week.
"I've had the opportunity to sit down in the living room of my
constituents, some of them survivors of the genocide, who described
who they lost. It's very powerful," Schiff said. "It certainly gives
me a sense of urgency in recognizing the genocide. Talking to the
survivors and their family, you get a sense of how contemporary the
pain is, even how long (ago) the events are."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Los Angeles Daily News
April 24 2014
By Adam Poulisse
Yevnigue Salibian has the mental and physical scars to prove what
the country of Turkey won't acknowledge.
The 100-year-old resident of Ararat Home, a Mission Hills nursing
facility for Southern California Armenians, stayed in the Turkish
city of Aintab with her family until 1921, after six years of seeing
thousands of Armenians being forced out or killed at the end of the
Ottoman empire. The Salibians were allowed to stay because the family
was on good terms with the local mayor, but neighborhood children
were hustled out, right by their home, screaming for food and water,
Salibian recalled.
Finally the Salibians too had to leave in 1921 after the Turkish-Franco
War ended because the French were no longer going to be around to
help protect Armenians. While fleeing she was in a horse carriage
wreck that left the young girl badly bruised and killed another woman.
Today marks the 99th anniversary of the start of the Armenian Genocide,
and the Republic of Turkey still hasn't acknowledged it.
"Let them come and see the scar on my knee," Salibian said, with a
caregiver translating. "That's my reminder every day."
On Wednesday, Turkey Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan released
a statement in nine languages expressing the "shared pain" felt in
Turkey. It was seen as an unprecedented statement of condolences,
but most Armenian groups said it didn't go nearly far enough.
"It is indisputable that the last years of the Ottoman empire
were a difficult period, full of suffering for Turkish, Kurdish,
Arab, Armenian and millions of other Ottoman citizens, regardless
of their religion or ethnic origin," Erdogan statement reads. "Any
conscientious, fair and humanistic approach to these issues requires an
understanding of all the sufferings endured in this period, without
discriminating as to religion or ethnicity."
Few Armenians see that episode of history as a time of shared suffering
with the Turks. The Armenian National Committee of America said his
words were just another form of genocide denial.
"Mr. Erdogan's statement ... is a patently transparent attempt
to mute international condemnation and calls for justice for the
centrally planned and systematically executed campaign of murder and
deportation," the group said.
This year, Armenian youngsters born generations later are keeping the
spirit of their ancestors alive and maintaining the fight for Turkey
to acknowledge the tragedy with vigils, protests, memorials and art
today and Friday.
"It's 99 years later and we still don't have any form of closure or
reparation," said Alik Ourfalian, 19, the Armenian Youth Federation
Western Region public relations chairwoman. "The international
community stood by while genocide was happening, and nobody spoke
up and Turkey was able to get away with it. That opened the door for
future genocides."
The local Armenian Youth Federation is expanding its annual protest
outside the Turkish Consulate on Wilshire Boulevard into a 24-hour
demonstration beginning at 2 p.m. today. The annual protest, plus a
rally and performances, will go nonstop until 2 p.m. Friday. About
1,000 people are expected to attend some of the events, including
Los Angeles City Councilman Paul Krekorian, Ourfalian said.
"We want to show we have survived and we still have our culture,
our music and our arts," Ourfalian said.
The local Unified Young Armenians, a Glendale-based nonprofit, kicked
off its genocide commemorations Wednesday night with a candlelight
vigil in the Glendale Civic Auditorium's parking lot. At 10 a.m.
today, the group will host its 14th annual commemoration walk
at Hollywood Boulevard and Hobart Street. The walk is the largest
Armenian event hosted outside of Armenia, drawing anywhere from tens
of thousands to 100,000 people each year, according to organization
president Aroutin Hartounian, 27.
"Every year we see old and new faces, both Armenian and non-Armenian,
which is very important to us," Hartounian said. "Genocides are not
a problem for one race or another. It affects everyone."
A blessing will be held at the future site of the Genocide Remembrance
Memorial Park in Pasadena, 85 East Holly St., at 6 p.m. Sunday.
Another opportunity to honor the unacknowledged: The Armenian Film
Foundation in Thousand Oaks this week handed over digitized versions
of 400 interviews with survivors and witnesses for educational use and
preservation to the USC Shoah Foundation. The interviews were caught
on film by Emmy-nominated filmmaker J. Michael Hagopian between 1972
and 2005. Hagopian died in 2010.
"His intentions were, if the Armenian Genocide went to the
International Court of Justice one day, these testimonies could be
used," said Carla Garapedian, project director of Armenian Genocide
Testimonies Collection at the Armenian Film Foundation.
The USC Shoah Foundation was established by Steven Spielberg to
document the Holocaust but has been expanding to also look at other
historical genocides.
On Wednesday, Hagop and Knar Manjikian were honored at Los Angeles City
Hall for translating and publishing six books of genocide survivors'
memoirs. Krekorian also attended.
The sixth memoir that was translated -- documenting desert fields
littered with bloody body parts -- was Knar's mother, who, at about
7 years old, hid herself among the bloody cadavers and pretended she
was dead to survive after being forced off a train and into a desert
covered in dead bodies.
"My mother's case was a little more strong because she saw the desert,
the field covered in bloody bodies," Knar Manjikian said.
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Burbank, planned to attend several Armenian
genocide events this week.
"I've had the opportunity to sit down in the living room of my
constituents, some of them survivors of the genocide, who described
who they lost. It's very powerful," Schiff said. "It certainly gives
me a sense of urgency in recognizing the genocide. Talking to the
survivors and their family, you get a sense of how contemporary the
pain is, even how long (ago) the events are."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.