Detroit Free Press, MI
April 19 2009
Victims of genocide to be remembered at 2 metro Detroit events
By Niraj Warikoo ¢ Free Press Staff Writer ¢ April 19, 2009
Two events are planned today in metro Detroit to remember the victims
of genocide.
Local Armenians are to recall today the 1.5 million victims of the
Armenian genocide in the early 20th Century. And members of the Jewish
community and others are to recite the names of children who were
murdered in the Holocaust at the Holocaust Memorial Center in
Farmington Hills.
After church services, Armenians plan to place 1,500 white crosses on
the lawn outside St. John Armenian Church, off Northwestern Highway in
Southfield.
Each cross represents about 1,000 Armenians who died under Turkish
rule during the Ottoman empire, organizers said.
`This is a way to help the youth and others around us remember all the
lost Armenians,’ said Jonathan Banks, a member of the Southfield
church.
This is the second year the community is planting the crosses, which
can be seen from the highway.
"If we don’t remember, the world will forget," the Rev. Garabed
Kochakian, pastor of the church, said after last year’s planting. "If
we forget, the crimes of the past will be repeated."
The genocide is remembered by Armenians every year on April 24, the
anniversary of April 24, 1915, when more than 200 Armenian leaders
were arrested in Istanbul and later killed.
Controversy over the genocide came up this month when President Barack
Obama was criticized by Armenian-Americans for not using the word
`genocide’ when he spoke to Turkish leaders about the events of 1915.
During the campaign, Obama used the term `genocide,’ but like previous
presidential candidates, changed his statements after assuming office,
Banks said.
The government of Turkey, considered an ally of the United States,
says that a genocide did not happen and asks U.S. officials not to
describe it as such, while Armenians and others say it did take place.
The Holocaust remembrance in Farmington Hills is to include five hours
of people reciting the names of children who were murdered in the
Holocaust. Called `Unto Every Person There is a Name,’ the event is
sponsored by the Great Lakes Region of B’nai B’rith International, a
165-year-old Jewish organization.
The readings are to be done by members of more than a dozen Jewish
groups and also the Archdiocese of Detroit.
`There were 1.5 million Jewish children who died in the Holocaust,’
said Don Cohen, regional director of B’nai B’rith. `And this is our
small part to memorialize them. Each child’s name speaks to a life
lost and a potential never reached. We read the names to memorialize
the innocent victims of the Nazis and their collaborators.’
0419/NEWS05/90419012/1003/NEWS/Victims+of+genocide +to+be+remembered+at+2+metro+Detroit+events
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress