VALLEJO ARMENIAN WILL JOIN IN GENOCIDE REMEMBRANCE
By Robert Mccockran/Times-Herald Staff Writer
Vallejo Times-Herald, CA
April 16 2007
During World War I, hundreds of Armenian community leaders were rounded
up and killed by Ottoman Turks seeking to expand their territory.
Mass deportations into the Syrian desert followed. The teenage and
adult men were killed; the women were raped and tortured. Hundreds
of thousands died en route to the desert. An estimated 1.5 million
Armenians were killed.
On April 24, the 92nd anniversary of the genocide, Ashken Mouradian
of Vallejo will join fellow Armenians in remembering the tragedy.
"We are going to have a very big memorial program in San Francisco,"
said Mouradian, a member of the Armenian General Benevolent Union.
The event features the 70-piece Oakland Youth Orchestra and speakers
from Amnesty International, Save Darfur and the Genocide Education
Project. The victims of Darfur, Sudan will also be honored.
On April 22, youths will go up to Mount Davidson. The 103-feet high
Mount Davidson Cross at Dalewood and Myra ways in San Francisco is
dedicated to the genocide victims.
"The youth will be camping there – and they will have chants, liturgy,"
she said.
The Armenian General Benevolent Union was formed in 1906, said
Mouradian, by a group of oil-wealthy Armenians in Egypt led by Bughos
Noubar Pasha to help orphans and the needy after "the first genocide"
in 1906.
"We do not only work for Armenian causes or charities, but we are
very involved helping the soup kitchens around the Bay Area," she said.
Mouradian said she is a grandchild of a genocide survivor.
"My grandparents ended up in Ethiopia – East Africa," she said. "And
that’s where my mother was born and my father was only 6 years old
when he re-located to Ethiopia because his parents were survivors of
the genocide. I was born in Ethiopia."
She said Armenians are "scattered" all over the world, but "most of
us now are in Canada, Australia and the USA."
There is a "small" Armenian community in Solano County. "Mostly,
Armenians are around their Armenian Apostolic Church."
Mouradian recently visited Armenia and attended the AGBU Centennial
along with representatives from Argentina, England, France, Austria,
Greece, Syria, Lebanon, Ethiopia – and other countries with AGBU
branches.
photo: ASHKEN MOURADIAN, left, of Vallejo is a member of the Armenian
General Bene-volent Union, based in New York. At right is her husband,
Anton. (J.L. Sousa/Times-Herald)
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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
