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NorthJersey.com
April 25 2014
Hackensack service remembers victims of Armenian Genocide [video]
April 24, 2014, 5:39 PM Last updated: Thursday, April 24, 2014, 6:43 PM
By Monsy Alvarado
Armenian Genocide remembrance
NorthJersey.com
A requiem service to remember 1.5 million killed
HACKENSACK -- More than 100 people stood outside the Bergen County
Courthouse to pray, sing hymns, and lay red carnations during a
requiem service Thursday for the victims of the Armenian Genocide.
VIOREL FLORESCU /STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Members of the Armenian clergy perform a service at the Armenian
Genocide Remembrance plaque during a memorial event in Hackensack.
The county's annual Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day was held near a
stone and plaque dedicated to the estimated 1.5 million Armenians who
were killed by the Ottoman Turks from 1915 to 1923. Speakers at the
event, with strong winds swirling around them, stressed that although
99 years had passed since the massacres began they should never be
forgotten.
"Make sure your children know the story of your family, what happened
to them, and why they are here," said John Lawrence Shahdanian, past
commander of the Knights of Vartan, who organized the event and whose
paternal grandfather was among those killed. "It's very important that
we keep the story alive."
The mass killings started April 24, 1915 when nearly 300 Armenian
intellectuals and community leaders were rounded up and massacred by
the Turks. The 1.5 million count include those killed or who died of
exhaustion, starvation and sickness along the journey out of Turkey
and in desert camps.
Some historians believe that the deportations and killings of
Armenians by the Turks provided a roadmap for other atrocities that
followed, including the Holocaust.
"The Jews always tell their people to 'never forget,' and they are
right. When Hitler started the Holocaust, he said that no one
remembered the Armenians. The Armenian Genocide had happened just 20
years before and no one remembered," Shahdanian said.
This week, the Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogen offered
condolences for the first time for the mass killings saying they had
"inhumane consequences," but the Turkish government continues to deny
that a genocide took place.
Turkey maintains that many of those who perished were killed in
battles during World War I, and that ethnic Turks were also lost in
those conflicts.
The guest speaker at the county event, Khatchig Mouradian, editor of
The Armenian Weekly, told the audience that what strikes him every
year when he attends commemorations is the absence of survivors.
"Perhaps my generation is the last generation that saw survivors,
lived with grandmothers who were survivors and saw survivors at
genocide commemorations," he said.
He also talked about how many people living in Turkey are discovering
that their grandmothers, and great grandmothers were Armenian.
"This is a very powerful moment in our history, it's a powerful moment
because the Armenian Genocide is not only commemorated by Armenians
around the world and many non-Armenians around the world, but
increasingly in Turkey as well," he said.
Rosezenian Cravotta, of Englewood Cliffs, said her grandparents and
parents, when they were children, fled Turkey to Syria during the
genocide after family members had been murdered. She couldn't help but
think of the Armenians living in Syria who find themselves in another
conflict.
"Syria opened up its doors, and it's amazing to me that nobody today
mentioned anything about all the Armenians who are suffering in
Syria," she said.
The stone in front of the courthouse was dedicated in July 1990 after
the Knights of Vartan petitioned the county and raised funds for the
memorial. Since then, every year on April 24, or around that date the
Knights of Vartan organize a ceremony. This year, clergy from the
Armenian Diocese, Armenian Prelacy, and the Armenian Presbyterian
Church participated in the outdoor service.
The stone is among those in the "Ring of Honor," which is made up of a
total of five memorials that commemorate victims of not only the
Armenian Genocide, but also the Holocaust, those who perished during
the Irish Famine, African-American victims of slavery and racial
segregation, and women sexually enslaved by the Japanese Imperial Army
prior and during the World War II.
"We now have five stones behind me to commemorate five terrible things
that should never have happened, and with our hope and God's help
never happen again," said Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan.
"We will never forget; we will continue to uphold this tradition of
honoring those who cannot speak for themselves, so that we speak for
them."
http://www.northjersey.com/news/hackensack-service-remembers-victims-of-armenian-genocide-video-1.1002713
From: A. Papazian
April 25 2014
Hackensack service remembers victims of Armenian Genocide [video]
April 24, 2014, 5:39 PM Last updated: Thursday, April 24, 2014, 6:43 PM
By Monsy Alvarado
Armenian Genocide remembrance
NorthJersey.com
A requiem service to remember 1.5 million killed
HACKENSACK -- More than 100 people stood outside the Bergen County
Courthouse to pray, sing hymns, and lay red carnations during a
requiem service Thursday for the victims of the Armenian Genocide.
VIOREL FLORESCU /STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Members of the Armenian clergy perform a service at the Armenian
Genocide Remembrance plaque during a memorial event in Hackensack.
The county's annual Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day was held near a
stone and plaque dedicated to the estimated 1.5 million Armenians who
were killed by the Ottoman Turks from 1915 to 1923. Speakers at the
event, with strong winds swirling around them, stressed that although
99 years had passed since the massacres began they should never be
forgotten.
"Make sure your children know the story of your family, what happened
to them, and why they are here," said John Lawrence Shahdanian, past
commander of the Knights of Vartan, who organized the event and whose
paternal grandfather was among those killed. "It's very important that
we keep the story alive."
The mass killings started April 24, 1915 when nearly 300 Armenian
intellectuals and community leaders were rounded up and massacred by
the Turks. The 1.5 million count include those killed or who died of
exhaustion, starvation and sickness along the journey out of Turkey
and in desert camps.
Some historians believe that the deportations and killings of
Armenians by the Turks provided a roadmap for other atrocities that
followed, including the Holocaust.
"The Jews always tell their people to 'never forget,' and they are
right. When Hitler started the Holocaust, he said that no one
remembered the Armenians. The Armenian Genocide had happened just 20
years before and no one remembered," Shahdanian said.
This week, the Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogen offered
condolences for the first time for the mass killings saying they had
"inhumane consequences," but the Turkish government continues to deny
that a genocide took place.
Turkey maintains that many of those who perished were killed in
battles during World War I, and that ethnic Turks were also lost in
those conflicts.
The guest speaker at the county event, Khatchig Mouradian, editor of
The Armenian Weekly, told the audience that what strikes him every
year when he attends commemorations is the absence of survivors.
"Perhaps my generation is the last generation that saw survivors,
lived with grandmothers who were survivors and saw survivors at
genocide commemorations," he said.
He also talked about how many people living in Turkey are discovering
that their grandmothers, and great grandmothers were Armenian.
"This is a very powerful moment in our history, it's a powerful moment
because the Armenian Genocide is not only commemorated by Armenians
around the world and many non-Armenians around the world, but
increasingly in Turkey as well," he said.
Rosezenian Cravotta, of Englewood Cliffs, said her grandparents and
parents, when they were children, fled Turkey to Syria during the
genocide after family members had been murdered. She couldn't help but
think of the Armenians living in Syria who find themselves in another
conflict.
"Syria opened up its doors, and it's amazing to me that nobody today
mentioned anything about all the Armenians who are suffering in
Syria," she said.
The stone in front of the courthouse was dedicated in July 1990 after
the Knights of Vartan petitioned the county and raised funds for the
memorial. Since then, every year on April 24, or around that date the
Knights of Vartan organize a ceremony. This year, clergy from the
Armenian Diocese, Armenian Prelacy, and the Armenian Presbyterian
Church participated in the outdoor service.
The stone is among those in the "Ring of Honor," which is made up of a
total of five memorials that commemorate victims of not only the
Armenian Genocide, but also the Holocaust, those who perished during
the Irish Famine, African-American victims of slavery and racial
segregation, and women sexually enslaved by the Japanese Imperial Army
prior and during the World War II.
"We now have five stones behind me to commemorate five terrible things
that should never have happened, and with our hope and God's help
never happen again," said Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan.
"We will never forget; we will continue to uphold this tradition of
honoring those who cannot speak for themselves, so that we speak for
them."
http://www.northjersey.com/news/hackensack-service-remembers-victims-of-armenian-genocide-video-1.1002713
From: A. Papazian