PRESS RELEASE
Armenian Youth Federation
104 N. Belmont St.
#206 Glendale, CA 91206
Contact: Vic Sosikian
Tel: 818-507-1933
For more information, contact:
Ani Garibyan
(818) 618-3058 (cellular)
December 28, 2006
Fast For Remembrance: Hunger for Justice
End The Cycle Of Genocide: Youth Activists Start Their New Year With a
Five Day Fast to Raise Awareness About the Denial of the Armenian
Genocide and the Ongoing Genocide in Darfur.
WHAT: A five-day "water only fast" portraying various phases
of the Armenian Genocide, its denial and subsequent acts of genocides.
Highlighted themes will include events leading up to the Armenian
Genocide, massacres of intellectuals, disarming of Armenians, trails of
deportation, the fight against denial, and the cycle of genocide. With
the death toll rising every day in Darfur, there is a call to put an end
to the cycle of genocide once and for all. The fasters will camp out for
an entire 120 hour period on the sidewalk.
WHO: 25 College students and young professionals (ages
18-24) who are members of the Armenian Youth Federation and the United
Human Rights Council. (Possible visits by Armenian Genocide and Darfur
Genocide survivors.)
WHEN: January 2nd 9:00 AM – January 6th 6:00 PM, 2007
Press Conference: January 6 at 10:00 AM
WHERE: Turkish Consulate General
6300 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90048
BACKGROUND INFORMATION: 1915-1923 marked the years of the Armenian
Genocide in which over 1.5 Million innocent lives were taken. Despite
overwhelming evidence, the Republic of Turkey to this day wages a
multi-million dollar campaign to deny the Armenian Genocide. Following
this first genocide of the 20th century, came the Jewish Holocaust, the
Cambodian Genocide, the Bosnian Genocide, the Rwandan Genocide, and the
genocide currently taking place in Darfur, Sudan. The UN has not taken
substantial measures to end the genocide in Darfur, hence allowing the
death toll to rise daily. Fasting for five days with only water will
give the participating youth a very minor taste of victimization and
will show the citizens of the world that while we peacefully lay our
heads to rest every night, there are people being slaughtered by the
masses in a systematic genocide.
EDITOR’S NOTE: To speak live to fasters contact Ani Garibyan at (818)
618-3058.
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