PRESS RELEASE
Armenian National Committee
San Francisco – Bay Area
51 Commonwealth Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94118
Tel: (415) 387-3433
Fax: (415) 751-0617
[email protected]_ (mailto:[email protected])
_www.ancsf.org_ ()
_www.teachgenocide.org_ ()
Contact: Roxanne Makasdjian (415) 641-0525
ARMENIAN-AMERICANS JOIN “SUDAN: DAY OF CONSCIENCE” IN SAN FRANCISCO
San Francisco, CA August 25, 2004 â^À^Ó Armenian-American community members
joined hands with others at San Franciscoâ^À^Ùs Civic Center to raise public
awareness about continuing massacres in Sudan. The event, called â^À^ÜSudan:
Day of
Conscienceâ^À^à 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
levelsâ^À^Ôregionally, statewide, nationwide, and globally. Referring to the
recent past, they illustrated the destructiveness 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 â^À^Ó 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 itâ^À^Ùs 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 groupsâ^À^Ù histories can
unite
them in trying to prevent genocide from becoming a dark chapter in the lives
and history of another people.
#####