215 Mile Walk Will Honor Victims of Forgotten Genocide – March for
Humanity Campaign Marks 90th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide

03/09/05

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, (NAMC) â~@~S California youth will walk from
Fresno California to the State Capitol starting on April 2, 2005. The
215-mile 19-day journey, titled March for Humanity, aims to raise
awareness about the unpunished crime of genocide committed against
the Armenian people between 1915 and 1921.

â~@~Ninety years ago innocent Armenians also marched, but not
willingly, not just 215 miles, and not just 19 days,â~@~] said Serouj
Aprahamian, March for Humanity Coordinator. â~@~They were forced to
death marches across deserts â~@~S hundreds of miles for months with
no food or water, left to starve and die in a premeditated act of
genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Turks. This April we will pay
tribute to the 1.5 million lives lost during the Armenian Genocide by
marching in their memory and the memory of all those who have been
victims of genocides. From the Armenian Genocide to the Holocaust,
from the Cambodian genocide to the hell of the Rwandan Genocide, our
generation has an obligation to stand against genocide and its
denial.â~@~]

Upon arriving in Sacramento, March participants, human rights
activists, and Armenian American community members will gather at the
State Capitol for a rally organized to thank the California State
Legislature and 36 other statesâ~@~Y legislatures for officially
recognizing the Genocide. The rally will also promote public
involvement in securing justice not only for the Armenian Genocide,
but also for all unpunished crimes against humanity.

â~@~To avoid accountability for the murder of 1.5 million Armenians,
the Turkish government denies that the systematic annihilation of the
Armenians was genocide,â~@~] said Vicken Sosikian, director of the
March for Humanity. â~@~We turn to our nationâ~@~Ys leaders,
President Bush and the U.S. Congress, in the name of truth,
righteousness, and justice, ask him to condemn the genocide of 1.5
million Armenians by holding the government of Turkey accountable for
this crime against humanity.â~@~]

Organizers are expecting hundreds of supporters and activists from
across the country and Canada to join the March for Humanity.
Participants will sleep in community centers, churches, schools and
in tents on the road side. They will walk, rain or shine, for about
15 miles each day.

Raffi Maronian, a participant who will walk the entire 215 mile
distance, is confident that the march will open peopleâ~@~Ys eyes up
to the threat genocide poses for all of humanity. â~@~Those of us
who are familiar with the genocide carried out against the Armenians
bear a special responsibility to make sure the lessons of such crimes
are never again repeated. The recent events in Sudan serve to
demonstrate that we have not done an adequate job. Itâ~@~Ys time to
raise our level of activism and put an end to the cycle of
genocide,â~@~] said Maronian.

For more information about the March for Humanity, visit
or call (818) 507-1933.

Contact:
Serouj Aprahamian
March For Humanity
818-507-1933

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