Students commemorate Genocide
By Van-Anh Tran
April 21, 2004 9:00 p.m.
Correction Appended
About 50 students marched in silence around the UCLA campus
Wednesday in commemoration of the 89th anniversary of the Armenian
Genocide by the Turkish government ““ which some countries,
including the United States, do not officially recognize.
Starting on April 24,1915, the Turkish government of the Ottoman
Empire started an ethnic cleansing policy by relocating its
Armenian population to Syria.
Between 600,000 and 1.5 million Armenians are believed to have
been killed, and no consensus number is agreed upon by
historians.
There is also debate on whether the killing of Armenians during
World War I by the Turkish government can be called a genocide, but
most Armenian students on campus don’t see it as a debatable
issue.
“The Armenian genocide is not a political issue, but a
historical fact,” said Raffi Kassabian, treasurer of the
Armenian Student Association and a third-year political science
student. “As a great civilization, we must learn from the
past so we will not repeat what happened in the future.”
Participants in the silent march were dressed in black and
carried posters with slogans like “Recognition ends
repetition” and “We seek justice.”
One poster bore an American eagle with the message “United
We Stand,” despite the fact the U.S. government has not
officially acknowledged the genocide. The silent march ended with a
presentation, including speeches, poetry readings and music
performances at Bruin Plaza.
“We do these events to increase the awareness about the
genocide, because there have been denial in the past on campus
about it,” said Christina Ohanian, cultural director of the
Armenian Student Association and a second-year political science
student.
The association sponsored the event with the help of Alpha
Epsilon Omega and Alpha Omega Alpha, UCLA’s Armenian
fraternity and sorority, respectively.
“It is important that Armenian students organize such
events, because one unrecognized genocide tells us it’s OK
that it happened and that we do not need to recognize it,”
said Lory Bedikian, a 1994 alumna who read poetry at the
presentation.
Sion Abajian, Bedikian’s grandmother, is an Armenian
genocide survivor who still has nightmares about her experiences
crossing the Syrian desert, Bedikian said. Abajian used to talk a
lot about her experiences and has burning sensations on her feet
that doctors speculate are caused psychologically from her
memories, Bedikian said.
Posters and information were displayed on Bruin Plaza throughout
the day to attract students and offer more information about the
genocide.
“I believe that if we would have recognized the genocide
of 1915, then it wouldn’t have been repeated in Rwanda and
Bosnia,” said Tamar Nazerin, member of Alpha Omega Alpha and
a third-year physical science student.
The only U.S. president to recognize the killings as a genocide
was Ronald Reagan.
Concerns for U.S.-Turkish relations have often been cited as the
main reason for the United States not formally acknowledging the
genocide. Many nations, including France, Israel, Russia and
Canada, have recognized that the genocide was a crime against
humanity.
UCLA’s Undergraduate Students Association Council passed a
resolution Tuesday night acknowledging all the atrocities
perpetuated against humanity, including the Armenian killings.
Correction: April 23. 2004
In “Students commemorate Genocide”, the story
should have said that the USAC resolution formally recognized the
Armenian Genocide. Also, it should not have included Israel as one
of the countries that officially recognized the Armenian
Genocide.
