PANEL AT HARVARD ON ‘ARMENIA 1915-AUSCHWITZ 1945′

11:52, 18 Mar 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

A special program commemorating the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide
and the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, entitled
“Armenia 1915-Auschwitz 1945: Small Nations and Great Powers,” will
take place on March 25 at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of
Government, the Armenian Weeklyreports.

The event is co-sponsored by the Harvard Kennedy School European
Club, the Harvard College Armenian Students Association, the Mashtots
Chair in Armenian Studies at Harvard, and the National Association
for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR). It is free and open to
the public.

Participating in the program will be Dr. Simon Payaslian, Charles K.

and Elisabeth M. Kenosian Professor of Modern Armenian History and
Literature, Department of History, Boston University; Marc A.

Mamigonian, director of Academic Affairs, NAASR; and Dr. James R.

Russell, Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies, Department of Near
Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University. Hovhannes
Ghazaryan, a graduate student in the Mid-Career Master in Public
Administration at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, will serve
as the moderator. Fr. Arsen Barsamian of St. James Armenian Church
of Watertown will offer an opening prayer in Armenian, and Russell
will give a concluding prayer in Hebrew.

The panelists will explore interrelationships between the Armenian
Genocide and the Holocaust, with particular attention paid to the
direct ties between the two genocides, some of the similarities and
differences in the genocidal processes as well as the denial of both
genocides, the role of self-defense on the part of Armenians and
Jews against the Ottomans and Nazis, respectively, and the role of
the Great Powers in the genocides and their aftermath. Following the
panelists’ presentations, there will be a discussion period followed
by a reception.