Armenian Assembly meets with Massachussets Legislators and Staff
ArmRadio.am
09.06.2006 12:46
In a major push to further educate Massachusetts legislators about the
Armenian Genocide, Armenian Assembly representatives met with nearly
200 State lawmakers or their assistants at the historic Massachusetts
State House. During those meetings, the Assembly distributed Peter
Balakian’s bestseller The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and
America’s Response, as well as a DVD on the subject of the Armenian
Genocide.
The Armenian Assembly and its affiliate organization, the KNOW
GENOCIDE Coalition, have been at the forefront of generating awareness
on the Armenian Genocide and combating genocide denial in the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts and beyond. These efforts have proven
critical given the recent attempts by the Assembly of Turkish American
Associations (ATAA) to deny and rewrite history with respect to the
genocide. Last year the ATAA along with two Massachusetts high school
teachers and a student brought a lawsuit in US District Court against
the Massachusetts Board of Education and its Commissioner, David P.
Driscoll, to insert materials in the State Curriculum Guide that deny
the Armenian Genocide.
The Burning Tigris, a New York Times bestseller published by
HarperCollins, explores America’s attempts to save Armenians from
extinction by the Ottoman Turks. Balakian, using eyewitness accounts,
survivor narratives and documents from the U.S. State Department,
chronicles how Americans responded to the first modern genocide of the
20th Century.
The DVD, entitled 1915 Turkish Genocide of the Armenians, was launched
this year by the Genocide Archive Project and its Executive Producer
David Davidian, specifically to educate students, teachers, and
lawmakers. It contains a powerful documentary segment on the genocide
as well as important survivor testimonies that forcefully document the
tragedy that befell the Armenian nation beginning in 1915.
The materials will allow State Representatives and Senators to better
understand and identify with this great tragedy that befell humanity
nearly a century ago.