TIMELINE OF YHE GENOCIDE RESOLUTION
By Carla Hall, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
Los Angeles Times, CA
Oct 26 2007
Mixed reactions from Glendale
Some react with frustration, others with resignation, at yet another
delay in getting a genocide resolution.
In the thriving Armenian metropolis of Glendale, reports Thursday
that House sponsors had delayed action on a resolution recognizing
the Armenian genocide prompted reactions as varied as the Armenian
population itself. Some were resigned: If not today, then one
day. Others were frustrated. "I’ve been here 30 years. We’ve been
trying and trying," said 50-year-old Gary Markarian as he stood
behind the counter of his liquor store. "Of course, we are eager to
pass this resolution, but at the same time we understand it’s not
possible for America because of foreign policy," said Rita Demirjian,
manager of Sardarabad, a bookstore filled with Armenian books and
art wares. "We are Americans too. We live here." Demirjian, 50,
an Armenian who was born in Lebanon but has lived in the U.S. for
18 years, spoke in a calm yet determined voice. She served a visitor
coffee and cookies from a nearby Armenian bakery and talked of a goal
that she and fellow Armenians vow never to abandon: securing a formal
acknowledgment by the U.S. government that the systematic killing
of as many as 1.5 million Armenians by Turks, starting in 1915,
is recognized by historians and experts as genocide. "It will not
go away. It happened," Demirjian said. By some estimates, Glendale
is home to as many as 80,000 Armenians and dozens of Armenian-owned
businesses. Not all of them shared the bookstore manager’s temperate
view. Other Armenians voiced greater disappointment and frustration
with this latest development. "It just shows that justice is a game,"
said Vazken Movsesian, an Armenian American priest from St. Peter
Armenian Church and the director of In His Shoes, a youth ministry
that is outspoken on genocide issues. Movsesian mentioned how
President Bush recently bestowed the Congressional Gold Medal upon
the Dalai Lama and did "not care one minute if he offends the whole
country of China. And then you have one word that offends Turkey and
they pull back. It’s all politics. Turkey is essentially holding the
U.S. hostage." Movsesian said that as an Armenian he was not hopeful
that the U.S. would proceed, yet as an American he hoped that it
would. "I want to believe my country can step up to the plate and say,
‘Yes, this happened.’ . . . What credibility do we have if we can’t
say, ‘Yes, this happened’?" The priest was not the only one unmoved
by the U.S. government’s concern about relations with Turkey.
"I think the biggest problem is that Turkey has been allowed to
saber-rattle time after time," said Vicken Papazian, an attorney and
activist with the Armenian National Committee here. Taking a smoke
break at a table outside his Tonir Bakery on Glendale Avenue, Narek
Avetyan was equally disappointed by this latest action. "They’re
not doing the right thing," said Avetyan, 24, who has lived in the
U.S. since 1988. "It doesn’t matter what culture you are, where you
come from: If you don’t recognize it, it will happen again someday,"
Avetyan said of the genocide. Avetyan, who was born in Armenia, had
a great-grandfather who died in the genocide. "They took him and he
never came back," said Avetyan. The weariness was evident in some
voices Thursday. "I don’t know how long it will take before someone
steps up and says that’s it," Markarian said. But the Armenian National
Committee’s Papazian was more confident that one day this resolution
would be a reality. "We’re resilient people," Papazian said. "The fact
that the timetable has been adjusted is not a devastating blow. Whether
the full House votes on this later this year or next year, we’ll be
here. There’s no statute of limitations on discussing genocide."