Glendale News Press
LATimes.com
April 23 2004
A night to never forget
Glendale Unified School District high school clubs join to
commemorate 89th anniversary of Armenian Genocide.
By Mark R. Madler, News-Press
GLENDALE – With a message to never forget and to hope for justice for
its victims, the 89th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide was
commemorated Thursday night in a student-created program at Glendale
High School attended by nearly 300 people.
Kicked off by the national anthems of both the United States and
Armenia, the program featured poetry, speeches and interpretive
dance.
“This is not a celebration, but a commemoration,” said Ani Minassian,
senior class president at Glendale High School. “We are trying to
educate the public about any type of massacre or genocide.”
The event was put together by the Armenian clubs of Glendale Unified
School District’s four high schools – Glendale, Hoover, Crescenta
Valley and Clark Magnet – with the assistance of Glendale Unified
school board President Greg Krikorian.
This was the third year the event has been held.
The Armenian Genocide began on the night of April 24, 1915. From 1915
to 1923, the Ottoman Turks and the Republic of Turkey are accused of
killing 1.5 million Armenians, in an attempt to eliminate the
Armenian people.
While many of those who performed in the event are current students,
Argishd Parsekhian, a 2003 Crescenta Valley High graduate, returned
to take part in telling the community what happened to his people.
“We want to get word out that this is what happened,” Parsekhian
said. “We want other people to recognize this is why it’s important
to us.”
Other student groups and cultures were represented in the event, as
well. For instance, the Indian Club from Clark Magnet High
participated with a student telling of a massacre in Punjab, India,
by the British in 1919.
With fewer people still living with first-hand knowledge about the
genocide, it is more important than ever for the younger generation
to know what happened, said Narbeh Sahaghian, a Glendale High senior.
“It’s like a baton being passed on from generation to generation,”
Sahaghian said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress