Marchers Seek Recognition of Armenian Genocide

KXTV, CA
April 22 2005

Walkers concluded a 215-mile march from Fresno to the State Capitol
Thursday to bring attention to the genocide of 1.5 million Armenians,
a event that went mostly unrecognized when it occurred 90 years ago.

>>From 1915 to 1923, the Turkish Ottoman Empire was responsible for
the deaths of approximately 1.5 million Armenians. In a fervor of
nationalism, first the Young Turks political party and then the Turkish
Nationalists systematically exterminated or deported Armenians. When
the genocide began, 2.5 million Armenians were living within the
borders of the Ottoman Empire.

The “March for Humanity” began April 2 in Fresno, home to one of
the largest populations of Armenian-Americans in the United States.
Participants in the march and State Capitol rally said they wanted
to thank the California state legislature and 36 other states for
recognizing the atrocities that occurred. Thursday afternoon Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a proclamation designating April 24 as a
“Day of Remembrance of the Armenian Genocide.” On April 24, 1915 some
200 Armenian community leaders were rounded up by Turkish forces and
sent to prison to be executed.

Descendants recounted the years of abduction, torture, and slaughter
of men, women and children. Many Armenians were sent to the desert
of Syria to starve to death. One of them was the relative of Father
Yeghia Hairabedian. “My Great Aunt was one of them,” he said. “When
she was two years old she died on the death march, starving and
begging for food.”

The genocide escaped world-wide attention and action in part because
most of the killing occurred during World War I. Turkey was allied with
Germany at the time. Some have accused the United States government
of ignoring the genocide because of close ties forged with Turkey
after World War I.

Armenian-Americans want the U.S. to formally recognize the genocide
of Armenians. Turkey has consistently refused to acknowledge its
responsibility for the mass killings.

An estimated one million plus Armenians live in the United States.
California is home to about half of them, with large populations
in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Glendale and Fresno. Many of them
arrived in California in the late 1800s and later to escape Turkish
domination and atrocities. The area around Fresno provided a climate
and landscape similar to that of their native land in Western Asia.