Remembering The Genocide During Coronavirus

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Here's How LA's Armenian Community Is Remembering The Genocide During Coronavirus

BY AARON SCHRANK IN NEWS ON APRIL 24, 2020 6:00 AM

Demonstrators protest outside the Turkish Consulate in L.A. on April 24, 2018. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

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Friday is Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, an annual commemoration usually marked by mass gatherings here in L.A., home to the largest Armenian community in the U.S.

But this year, local Armenians are finding other ways to join as a community and remember the systematic expulsion and mass killing of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Turkish Empire more than a century ago.

Turkey refuses to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide, instead claiming the deaths were the result of World War I. Last year, both houses of U.S. Congress approved resolutions formally recognizing the Armenian Genocide for the first time.

Tens of thousands typically gather in front of L.A'.s Turkish Consulate every April 24 to honor lives lost in 1915 and call on the government of Turkey and other nations to recognize it as a genocide.

Under normal conditions, there would be another march through Little Armenia in East Hollywood and a prayer service at the Armenian Genocide Martyrs Memorial Monument in Montebello, the first Armenian Genocide memorial built outside of Armenia.

But organizers have canceled those events because of the coronavirus pandemic. Instead, on the 105th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, they're asking local Armenians to do things like donate meals to the hungry, and to tune in to livestreamed commemorations instead.

Read More:https://laist.com/2020/04/24/armenian_genocide_commemoration_virtual_events_coronavirus.php

 

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A boy looks at a mural commemorating the 1915 Armenian Genocide on Hollywood Boulevard near a rally on the 99th anniversary of the event in 2014. (David McNew/Getty Images)

Congressman Adam Schiff, who authored last year's successful House resolution to recognize the Armenian Genocide, is among the elected officials who've sent in recorded messages. The list also includes Congresswoman Judy Chu, Congressman Brad Sherman, L.A Councilmember Paul Koretz, David Ryu and Mitch O'Farrell, L.A. Deputy Mayor Nina Hachigian, and other state and local leaders, organizers said.

Speakers will be celebrating last year's unprecedented Armenian Genocide recognition by Congress, something Armenian American advocates had been working toward for decades.

"The reason that there is an Armenian community in the United States is because of the genocide and forced displacement of our people," said Galitsky. "When we see a refusal to acknowledge and recognize that historic injustice, that's an affront to our community. Moving forward, we need to understand that those resolutions are just the beginning of the struggle for justice."

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DON'T FORGET ABOUT CHURCH

The Armenian Apostolic Church has been at the core of L.A.'s Armenian diaspora community for a century and always plays a key role in Armenian Genocide commemorative events.

This year, the Western Diocese of the Armenian Church will celebrate (and stream) the divine liturgy in commemoration of of the holy martyrs of the Armenian Genocide at 10:30 a.m.

Archbishop Hovnan Derderian will be presiding from St. Leon Armenian Cathedral in Burbank.

Father Vazken Movsesian, who will deliver the homily from St. Leon, says April 24 took on new meaning on the 100th anniversary of the genocide in 2015, when the Armenian Church canonized the 1.5 million victims of the genocide.

https://laist.com/2020/04/24/armenian_genocide_commemoration_virtual_events_coronavirus.php