PRESS RELEASE

Armenian National Committee
San Francisco – Bay Area
51 Commonwealth Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94118
Tel: (415) 387-3433
Fax: (415) 751-0617
mail@ancsf.org

Contact: Roxanne Makasdjian (415) 641-0525

Armenian-Americans Join “Sudan: Day of Conscience” in San Francisco

San Francisco, August 25, 2004 – Armenian-American community members
joined hands with others at San Francisco’s Civic Center to raise public
awareness about continuing massacres in Sudan. The event, called
“Sudan: Day of Conscience” was organized by the Save Darfur Coalition in
tandem with several other organizations, including the Bay Area Armenian
National Committee, the Interfaith Council, Human Rights Watch, the
Jewish Community Relations, and the United Muslims of America. Local
Armenian priests from the St. Gregory and St. John churches also
participated it the rally.

In light of the escalating violence and the looming threat of genocide
in Sudan, representatives spoke about the desperate need for united
action on all levels–regionally, statewide, nationwide, and globally.
Referring to the recent past, they illustrated the destructivenss of
international blindness to gross violations of human rights. It was
only ten years ago that the genocide in Rwanda took the lives of 800,000
victims as the world stood idly by despite the many warning signs of the
atrocities. In Sudan, government-backed Arab militias, known as the
Janjaweed, have been engaging in campaigns to displace and wipe out
entire communities of African tribal farmers. Witnesses report that
villages have been razed, women and girls are systematically raped and
branded, men and boys murdered, and food and water supplies specifically
targeted and destroyed. There have also been reports of government
aerial bombardments of explosives as well as barrels of nails, car
chassis and old appliances hurled from planes to crush people and
property. Over fifty thousand have died and over a million have been
driven from their homes. Only in the past few weeks have humanitarian
agencies had limited access to a portion of the affected region.

Representing the ANC, Haig Baghdassarian spoke to the several hundred
people gathered about the Armenian Genocide and traced the bloody
history of the 20th century, pointing to the genocides which followed
and condemning international reluctance to take action. “When will we
learn that we cannot tolerate this to happen time and time again?
Perhaps not until, we as Americans, can tell our Turkish allies, that
although we may be friends, we will not allow them to deny history and
escape with impunity for the murder of a nation. And perhaps, not
until, we as Americans can come to terms with our own bloody past – and
the destruction of the indigenous peoples of America.”

“But these noble goals may take years or even decades to achieve, and we
cannot stand by and watch yet another genocide occur, whether it’s in
central Europe or in the heart of Africa, or on the very periphery of
human civilization,” said Bagdassarian

Reverend Father Avedis Torossian, pastor of St. Gregory Armenian
Apostolic Church, and Reverend Father Sarkis Petoyan, pastor of St. John
Armenian Apostolic Church were also present to express their solidarity
with the “Sudan: Day of Conscience”. The peaceful collaboration of the
representatives of the Armenian community with those of the Jewish,
Cambodian, and Rwandan communities demonstrated how the one common
aspect of these groups’ histories can unite them in trying to prevent
genocide from becoming a dark chapter in the lives and history of
another people.

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