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    Emil Lazarian
  • 5 years ago
    • Categories: 2020

Senator Wilk Announces Scholarship Contests to Raise Awareness of the Armenian Genocide

SCV News
Feb 3 2020
Wilk Announces Scholarship Contests to Raise Awareness of the Armenian Genocide
Press Release | Monday, Feb 3, 2020
   
Armenian people are marched to a nearby prison in Mezireh by armed Ottoman soldiers. Kharpert, Ottoman Empire, April 1915. | Photo: Public Domain.

Sacramento – The California Armenian Legislative Caucus is holding two scholarship contests for the 2020 commemoration of the Armenian Genocide, Senator Scott Wilk (R-Santa Clarita), who represents the state’s 21st Senate District, announced Monday.

California high school students in 9th through 12th grades are invited to participate in an essay contest and/or a visual arts contest to increase greater awareness of the Armenian Genocide on its anniversary.

The California Armenian Legislative Caucus will contact winners directly and announce their names to media on Friday, April 16, 2020.

In addition to the scholarships, the winners will also receive a trip to Sacramento for a press conference where they will be acknowledged by the California Armenian Legislative Caucus during the Caucus’ annual Armenian Advocacy Day on April 27, 2020.

Original artwork will be requested from visual arts applicants if they are selected as a finalist, for display in the California State Capitol.

Submission Deadline for both contests is Monday, April 6, 2020.

Criteria for each contest can be found here.

Essay Scholarship Awards:
* First Place: $1,000
* Second Place: $750
* Third Place: $500

Visual Art Scholarship Awards:
* First Place: $1,000
* Second Place: $750
* Third Place: $500

The Armenian Genocide (also known as the Armenian Holocaust) was the systematic mass murder and expulsion of 1.5 million ethnic Armenians within the Ottoman Empire (most of whom were citizens) by the Ottoman government from approximately 1914 to 1923, notes Wikipedia.

The starting date is conventionally held to be 24 April 1915, the day that Ottoman authorities rounded up, arrested, and deported from Constantinople (now Istanbul) to the region of Angora (Ankara), 235 to 270 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders, the majority of whom were eventually murdered.

The genocide was carried out during and after World War I and implemented in two phases—the wholesale killing of the able-bodied male population through massacre and subjection of army conscripts to forced labour, followed by the deportation of women, children, the elderly, and the infirm on death marches leading to the Syrian Desert.

Read more about the Armenian Genocide here.

Emil Lazarian: “I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS