SOCAL TURKISH GROUP CALLS OFF PLANS FOR 'MILITARY' PARADE NEAR

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SOCAL TURKISH GROUP CALLS OFF PLANS FOR 'MILITARY' PARADE NEAR LITTLE ARMENIA

By Richie Duchon City News Service

 

Daily Breeze

Sept 29 2011

CA

 

Los Angeles City Council members Paul Krekorian and Eric Garcetti

applauded the decision by a Turkish group to call off a scheduled

parade in Hollywood near Little Armenia featuring an Ottoman military

marching band.

 

The march scheduled for Oct. 3 offended many in the Armenian community

which recently celebrated the 20th anniversary of Armenian independence

Sept. 21.

 

"The parade's planning and execution, in a heavily Armenian-populated

community, leaves no question that the Ottoman Military Marching Band

is brazenly taunting the Armenian American community in a blatant

example of hate speech," the Armenian National Committee of America

said in a statement.

 

Ottoman Turks perpetrated the Armenian Genocide, in which an estimated

1.5 million Armenians were killed beginning in 1915. Turkey officially

denies that a genocide took place.

 

The Pacifica Institute, a Turkish-American cultural advocacy

organization applied for a permit to hold a parade in Hollywood

Monday evening centered around the military marching band Mehter. A

representative from the group requested the police department cancel

its permit this morning.

 

Spokeswoman Hafsa Rai said the group never intended to offend the

Armenian community. "We never wanted to offend anyone. The reaction

by the Armenian community was really a surprise to us," Rai said.

 

She said the group cancelled the parade because the band is unlikely to

make it to Los Angeles from Turkey because of logistical difficulties,

including trouble with their contract, insurance and challenges

booking plane tickets.

 

Rai said the parade was simply to promote the third annual Anatolian

Cultures Festival in Costa Mesa Oct. 6-9. She said the festival

recognizes Armenian heritage, including a scale model of the Akhtamar

Church, an early Armenian church. She said the festival is intended

to celebrate all ethnicities that have lived in the land that is

now Turkey.

 

Krekorian, the first Armenian to serve on the Los Angeles City

Council, and Garcetti called the parade blatant provocation. "This

planned performance, supposedly to celebrate an event taking place in

Orange County, is a provocation of the Armenian community at a time

when the community celebrates 20 years of Armenian independence,"

the councilmen said in a joint statement.

 

"While we as council members, support and defend freedom of speech as

guaranteed by the First Amendment, we could not stand idly by as this

planned march was designed to incite and inflame the Armenian community

at a time when it is celebrating a historical milestone," they said.

 

Rai said the Ottoman marching band was chosen for the parade because

Turks created the first marching band in history. "The military aspect

was not something we were focusing on," she said.

 

http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/ci_19003226

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