ARMENIANS RECALL HORRORS OF GENOCIDE
Erica Bryant
RocNow.com
April 26 2010
Growing up in Armenia, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra violinist
Tigran Vardanyan would make a trip each April 24 to place flowers
beside a flaming memorial to victims of the Armenian genocide.
"After a few hours, you couldn’t even see the fire," he said. "The
flowers were so high."
On Sunday, Vardanyan played for those gathered at the Armenian Church
of Rochester’s commemoration of the 95th anniversary of the Armenian
genocide. He said he was touched to realize that people all over the
world remember the atrocities that his people suffered during the
final days of the Ottoman Empire.
The slaughter of 1.5 million Armenians in Turkey should not be seen
as part of the "cold and distant" past, said keynote speaker Vincent
Lima, former editor-in-chief of The Armenian Reporter.
"What we do today, 95 years after the genocide, will have consequences
for vulnerable people today and tomorrow," said Lima.
He expressed disappointment that President Barack Obama has not yet
fulfilled his campaign pledge to use the word "genocide" to describe
the slaughter of Armenians that began in 1915, but said that Obama has
gone far beyond his predecessors in pushing Turkey to come to terms
with its history. Lamenting recent breakdowns in efforts to normalize
relations between Turkey and Armenia, Lima said that Armenians and
others should do what they can to help remove obstacles to free speech
that stymie people in Turkey who want to acknowledge the genocide.
Their numbers are growing, he said.
Berdjouhi Esmerian was among the people gathered for the event,
which was held at St. Thomas Episcopal Church.
"There isn’t a single Armenian family today who can’t tell you a story
of their ancestors who were touched by the genocide," she said. "We
are all human beings and look at how many times genocide has happened.
It is not right."
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
