A COMMEMORATION OF THE ADANA MASSACRES WAS HELD AT GLENDALE PUBLIC LIBRARY
PanARMENIAN.Net
26.10.2009 19:33 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ A centennial commemoration of the Adana massacres
was held at Glendale Public Library on 11 October 2009. It was a
somber and moving event that held a full house audience for three
hours. Present were many descendants of Armenians from Adana, as
well as intellectuals and academics. The event was sponsored by Abril
Books, Gomidas Institute and Glendale Public Library. The master of
ceremonies was Arno Yeretzian.
Garo Moumjian and Ara Sarafian were the main speakers. The audience
included other academics, such as Drs. J. Michael Hagopian, Kay
Muradian, and Richard Hovannisian and Levon Marashlian.
Both of the main speakers spoke about the horrors of 1909 and the
culpability of Ottoman authorities in the killings. In his talk
Garo Moumjian discussed the untenable position of Turkish official
historiography denying the facts of the 1909 massacres. According to
Moumjian, official Turkish historians are weak in their assessment
of basic sources related to the 1909 events. According to Moumjian,
the Turkish position will have to change.
The event finished with the release of Hagop Terzian’s "Cilicia 1909:
the Massacre of Armenians" (Gomidas Institute, 2009) and the opening
of a special month-long photographic exhibition on Adana 1909 from the
Ernst Jackh collection, Columbia University Rare Book and Manuscript
Library.