PRESS RELEASE
MARCH FOR HUMANITY
104 N. Belmont St. Suite 206
Glendale, CA 91206
Contact: Serouj Aprahamian, Vicken Sosikian
Tel: 818.507.1933
Fax: 818.240.3442
E-mail: [email protected]
Web:
215 Mile Walk Will Honor Victims of Forgotten Genocide
March for Humanity Campaign Marks 90th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide
Los Angeles, CA March 7, 2005 ~W California youth will walk from Fresno
Calif. to the State Capitol starting on April 2, 2005. The 215-mile 19-day
journey, titled March for Humanity, aims to raise awareness about the
unpunished crime of genocide committed against the Armenian people between
1915 and 1921.
“Ninety years ago innocent Armenians also marched, but not willingly, not
just 215 miles, and not just 19 days,” said Serouj Aprahamian, March for
Humanity Coordinator. “They were forced to death marches across deserts –
hundreds of miles for months with no food or water, left to starve and die
in a premeditated act of genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Turks. This
April we will pay tribute to the 1.5 million lives lost during the Armenian
Genocide by marching in their memory and the memory of all those who have
been victims of genocides. From the Armenian Genocide to the Holocaust, from
the Cambodian genocide to the hell of the Rwandan Genocide, our generation
has an obligation to stand against genocide and its denial.”
Upon arriving in Sacramento, March participants, human rights activists, and
Armenian American community members will gather at the State Capitol for a
rally organized to thank the California State Legislature and 36 other
states~R legislatures for officially recognizing the Genocide. The rally will
also promote public involvement in securing justice not only for the
Armenian Genocide, but also for all unpunished crimes against humanity.
“To avoid accountability for the murder of 1.5 million Armenians, the
Turkish government denies that the systematic annihilation of the Armenians
was genocide,” said Vicken Sosikian, director of the March for Humanity. “We
turn to our nation~Rs leaders, President Bush and the U.S. Congress, in the
name of truth, righteousness, and justice, ask him to condemn the genocide
of 1.5 million Armenians by holding the government of Turkey accountable for
this crime against humanity.”
Organizers are expecting hundreds of supporters and activists from across
the country and Canada to join the March for Humanity. Participants will
sleep in community centers, churches, schools and in tents on the road side.
They will walk, rain or shine, for about 15 miles each day.
Raffi Maronian, a participant who will walk the entire 215 mile distance, is
confident that the march will open people~Rs eyes up to the threat genocide
poses for all of humanity. “Those of us who are familiar with the genocide
carried out against the Armenians bear a special responsibility to make sure
the lessons of such crimes are never again repeated. The recent events in
Sudan serve to demonstrate that we have not done an adequate job. It~Rs time
to raise our level of activism and put an end to the cycle of genocide,”
said Maronian.
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For more information about the March for Humanity, visit
or call (818) 507-1933.
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