PRESS RELEASE
The Greater Boston Committee to Commemorate the Armenian Genocide
P.O. Box 35538
Boston, MA 02135
Contact: David Davidian
Tel: 857-373-9059
E-mail: [email protected]
Web:
April 26, 2005
OVER 750 ATTEND PROGRAM AT BOSTON UNIVERSITY’S MORSE AUDITORIUM GIVEN
BY THE GREATER BOSTON COMMITTEE TO COMMEMORATE THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE,
IN COOPERATION WITH THE BOSTON UNIVERSITY ARMENIAN STUDENTS
ASSOCIATION ON APRIL 21, 2005
BOSTON – They came from the cities and suburbs, from France and Iran
and Armenia — students, survivors, descendants, and friends of all
persuasions — to Boston University’s Morse Auditorium, the venue for
Greater Boston’s commemoration of the 90th anniversary of the Turkish
genocide of the Armenians, held on April 21.
This was an unprecedented event for the Boston community. Boston
University’s President Dr. Aram Chobanian greeted the gathering and
shared with the audience his and his wife Jasmin’s own family survival
stories. He then lit a single candle as the room went dark to the
strains of Kim Kashkashian’s Kroonk filling the somber
night. Quotations from Samantha Power ‘s “A Problem from Hell: America
and the Age of Genocide” and New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof
provided contemporary transitions between sections of the 75 minute
program.
An original documentary created for this event explained the social,
economic, and political conditions in Ottoman Turkey preceding the
extermination of the Armenians, explaining how the savage murder of
the Armenian people was part of a premeditated plan to ethnically
cleanse any non-Turkifiable minority in Anatolia. It showed painfully
and clearly how today’s Republic of Turkey was built on the bones of
millions of Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians.
The core of the program centered on three video taped survivor stories
from Van, Bandirma, and Marash. John Kasparian of Worcester, Armineh
Dedekian of Watertown, and Peter Bilezikian of Newton, gave
compelling, personal accounts of their expulsion, death march,
survival, and escape to freedom. Interspersed among their testimonies
were four deeply moving live accounts from descendants between the
ages of 10 to 45, sharing their family survival stories. They took the
audience from Moush to Van then Tiflis and Soviet Plant 31, from
Adapazar to Der Zor, Bandirma to Aleppo, Kharpert to Constantinople,
as Arthur Martirosyan of Watertown, Taline Bilazarian of Andover,
Katrina Menzigian of Arlington, and George and Kathryn Margaret
Aghjayan of West Boylston related their histories.
Just as emotions reached a crescendo, an up-beat clip projected the
enthusiastic sights and sounds of Armenians world-wide proclaiming, “I
am Armenian” from 5 continents from Australia to Canada. Christopher
Babayan of Tufts University led the audience to declare, “tonight,
everyone who stands for human rights and against genocide is an
Armenian.” The audience joined in singing Sardarabad as scenes from
Yerevan together with interactive shots of the audience itself flashed
across the screen. Cambridge poet Diana Der Hovanessian wrote a
poignant poem for the occasion, which concludes with the words,
By now they thought the last survivors and their children would be in
graves. They didn’t count on our children’s children being even
angrier and more outraged.
Interviewed as the audience exited Morse Auditorium, David Davidian,
creator of the event and director of the Genocide Archive Project in
Belmont, said, “The enormity of this crime against humanity is very
personal for each Armenian. We worked together to make this evening
something more than a standard set of speeches or an academic
exercise. We wanted to bring these stories to a new generation of well
educated and creative people to carry on down the Road to Redemption
until we are no longer faced with denial.”
The evening concluded with a candlelight march across Commonwealth
Avenue to a symbolic sharing of bread and wine at Boston University’s
School of Management, where two video booths were provided to those
who wished to relate their own family stories. A recording of the
event is available for sale on DVD at