Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Armenian Genocide, America&#x2019s helping hand remembered in Los An

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Armenian Genocide, America&#x2019s helping hand remembered in Los An

    Standard Bulletin
    April 18 2015

    Armenian Genocide, America&#x2019s helping hand remembered in Los
    Angeles exhibit


    The kids have been just about lost to the desert.

    They had left their villages under death threats. They saw their
    fathers killed by swords, watched mothers, grandmothers and aunties
    die of starvation on the death marches to Syria.

    But from thousands of miles away, Americans discovered them.

    Through telegrams, news articles and film reels, the story of how
    youngsters became orphans of the Armenian Genocide reached
    America&#x2019s shores in 1915. An organization known as Close to East
    Relief was founded and a national movement rose. Silent movie stars
    such as Irene Rich and Jackie Coogan held sandwich boards asking for
    donations and cans of milk. Churches and community groups raised funds
    and sent clothing when President Calvin Coolidge named for Golden Rule
    Sunday, when Americans ate modest meals to bear in mind &#x201cthe
    starving Armenians.&#x201d

    &#x201cBack then, there was a groundswell of a response,&#x201d stated
    Ani Boyadjian, research and unique collections manager at the Los
    Angeles Public Library. &#x201cThey had been hearing that persons had
    been becoming slaughtered.&#x201d

    The American reaction to the wants of the orphans and these who
    survived the Armenian Genocide is the theme of a traveling exhibit now
    on show at the Los Angeles&#x2019 Central Library. Named &#x201cThey
    Will Not Perish: The Story of Near East Relief,&#x201d the exhibit
    contains 26 panels that show photographs of orphans as nicely as
    posters utilised at the time to raise funds. But at its heart, the
    complete exhibit is meant to show America&#x2019s generosity in the
    aftermath of the Armenian Genocide, Boyadjian mentioned.

    The display is there to say &#x201cAmerica, we thank you,&#x201d she added.

    &#x201cMany of us are direct descendents of these orphans and
    survivors helped by Near East Relief,&#x201d Boyadjian mentioned.
    &#x201cTheir response is an untold story of American
    philanthropy.&#x201d

    Now referred to as Close to East Foundation, the nonsectarian, New
    York-based non-profit organization is also celebrating its centennial
    this year. It was founded following U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Henry
    Morgenthau sent telegrams about what was taking place in the Ottoman
    Empire.

    &#x201cAt that time communication had been revolutionized by the
    telegram,&#x201d mentioned Molly Sullivan, director and curator of the
    Close to East Relief Historical Society. &#x201cIt was the initially
    time that communication could move more rapidly than the quickest
    runner, quickest ship and quickest horse. It meant that the
    perpetrators of the genocide made use of the very same
    technology.&#x201d

    With the enable of President Woodrow Wilson, the smaller-scale relief
    operation went on to raise much more than $117 million &#x2014
    today&#x2019s equivalent of about $two billion &#x2014 to help
    Armenians in the aftermath of the genocide. That revenue helped save
    132,000 orphans, according to the Near East Foundation.

    Any orphan of any religion was welcomed, Sullivan mentioned. And the
    organization nonetheless operates now to enable displaced people today
    in the Middle East and Africa. With the ranks of the Islamic State
    swelling, thousands of Assyrians, Syriacs, Chaldeans and Armenians
    whose families fled to Syria and Iraq for safety through the genocide
    are now being displaced and killed. Sullivan stated the American
    response is various now, again, for the reason that of technologies.

    &#x201cTechnology has produced outstanding adjustments in the last 100
    years,&#x201d she stated. &#x201cWe have so a great deal facts about
    the news that it&#x2019s attainable that persons have come to be
    overwhelmed and they don&#x2019t know how to support. With particular
    aspects of the news, they&#x2019re extremely concerned but they are
    also fatigued.&#x201d

    On Friday, Armenians worldwide will observe the 100th anniversary of
    the begin of the genocide. They will collect at memorials to don't
    forget the 1.5 million Armenians who were killed by the Ottoman Turks
    as part of what scholars and historians say was a systematic cleansing
    of their identity. And they will march in cities to protest the
    ongoing denial by the Turkish government, which has mentioned the
    deaths and deportations of Armenians, Assyrians and Pontic Greeks have
    been element of wars and unrest in the then-collapsing Ottoman Empire.

    Many countries and states have recognized the events of 1914 to 1923
    as genocide. Last Sunday, Pope Francis even defined the slaughter of
    Armenians as the first genocide of the 20th century. But Armenians
    stay disappointed more than President Obama&#x2019s silence. Though a
    resolution was introduced by 40 congressional members which includes
    U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Burbank, to contact on the president to
    stress Turkey to completely acknowledge the genocide, the United
    States has so far resisted.

    The pope mentioned subsequent atrocities such as the Holocaust, the
    Pol Pot massacres and these in Bosnia, Rwanda and Darfur could have
    been avoided if the Ottoman Turks had been held accountable.

    Jen Portillo and Marleni Segovia, regional visitors to the exhibit,
    looked over the photographs of orphans and stated they believed they
    were photos of Holocaust victims of Globe War II.

    &#x201cI knew nothing about the Armenian Genocide,&#x201d Portillo
    stated. &#x201cWe had the very same wars, the same killings in El
    Salvador. It&#x2019s like so quite a few cultures have gone by means
    of so much.&#x201d

    &#x201cIt shows we&#x2019re all human, that we all go by way of
    struggles,&#x201d Segovia added.

    Boyadjian mentioned many non-Armenians have been able to relate to the
    photographs of the young children.

    &#x201cLos Angeles is a city of refugees,&#x201d she said.

    The exhibit, made feasible by the American National Committee of
    America, is a personal a single for Boyadjian. Her paternal
    grandparents had been two of the orphans who were saved by the perform
    of Close to East Relief. Her grandmother&#x2019s whole household
    except a sister have been killed. Her grandfather lost all of his
    loved ones members. The two orphans have been brought to Lebanon where
    they ended up in the very same orphanage, and they married as soon as
    they came of age, she stated.

    &#x201cI can nevertheless really feel their story on my skin,&#x201d she said.

    Boyadjian said she will be a single of those attending a March for
    Justice occasion on Friday that starts in Small Armenia, in east
    Hollywood. More than 200,000 individuals of Armenian descent call Los
    Angeles County dwelling. It is the biggest Armenian diaspora outside
    of the Republic of Armenia.

    Boyadjian said she knows men and women will be upset that streets will
    be closed, and other individuals will say the genocide happened 100
    years ago, that it&#x2019s time to move on. But she said she will
    march to say thank you.

    &#x201cIf it wasn&#x2019t for America&#x2019s response, my
    grandparents would not have survived,&#x201d she said. &#x201cI would
    not have been born.&#x201d

    Our editors found this article on this site using Google and
    regenerated it for our readers.


    http://www.bulletinstandard.org/us/armenian-genocide-americax2019s-helping-hand-remembered-in-los-angeles-exhibit-h9867.html

Working...
X