More than 100 people gathered Wednesday for a vigil outside Royce Hall to commemorate the victims of the Armenian Genocide.

The vigil – hosted at 7 p.m. by UCLA and the University of Southern California’s Armenian Student Associations – included speeches by a priest from the Western Diocese of the Armenian Church, a USC Armenian Studies archivist and other members of the Armenian community. For the duration of the ceremony, attendees gathered around a replica of the Armenian Genocide Memorial which is located in Yerevan, Armenia’s capital, and contains 12 concrete slabs representing the 12 Armenian provinces lost to Turkey.

The event coincided with the 109th anniversary of the genocide, which began April 24, 1915, and resulted in the killing of 1.5 million Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire. The vigil also recognized the September 2023 Azerbaijani military occupation of the 95% ethnically Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh region – also known as the Republic of Artsakh – which led 100,000 people to flee, according to ABC News.

“We are no longer just honoring the 1.5 million people who died from genocide and their families who have survived or their descendants,” said Lusin Yengibaryan, UCLA ASA’s internal vice president and a fourth-year psychobiology student. “You see it happening under your nose – what happened in Artsakh in September, where 100,000 people had to evacuate, leave their homes.”

[Related: UCLA, USC Armenian Students’ Associations co-host Nagorno-Karabakh vigil]

The vigil was the last of UCLA ASA’s events commemorating Armenian Heritage Month, which included a film screening, live dance performances and a speech by the former director of the Armenian National Committee of Artsakh, according to an Instagram post from UCLA ASA. These events were important both for bringing UCLA’s Armenian community together and to help non-Armenian students understand Armenian history, said Lilia Hovsepyan, UCLA ASA’s cultural chair.

Hovsepyan, who is also a third-year philosophy student, added that one of the reasons ASA continues to host the vigil and other heritage events annually is to raise awareness for the Armenian genocide in the face of denialism.

“The biggest significance of having events every single year that commemorate the genocide is because, to this day, there’s still so much genocide denial,” she said. “As the Armenian community, especially students that go to USC and UCLA that have such a large population of Armenians on campus, it’s very important that we are the ones that represent our community.”

Hovsepyan said this year’s vigil was the first time community members were given the opportunity to speak. Serrineh Khachatourians, a fourth-year design media arts student who attended the vigil, said she appreciated being able to hear the perspectives of Armenians from many generations, including several UCLA alumni.

“I just really felt a sense of community,” she said. “Sometimes, I don’t feel that way, but it was really nice to me to feel so together.”

Lucineh Kehkejian, a second-year molecular, cell, and developmental biology student, said while the event was useful in raising awareness, she feels there is more work to do in informing people about the genocide and recent events in Artsakh.

Members of both schools’ ASA chapters sold roses that were placed around the memorial, with proceeds going to the Armenian Missionary Association of America, an organization supporting refugees from Artsakh.

Hovsepyan said progress has also been made in raising awareness through the passage of a recent resolution by the Undergraduate Students Association Council. The resolution condemned the genocide of the ethnic Armenian population of Artsakh and called for the UC system’s immediate divestment from Azerbaijan and Turkey.

[Related: USAC passes resolution condemning the ethnic Armenian genocide in Artsakh]

However, Hovspeyan said she wishes UCLA was more responsive to meeting ASA’s demands, adding that they denied ASA’s request to light up Royce Hall with the colors of the Armenian flag Wednesday. UCLA Media Relations did not respond in time to comment on why UCLA denied the request.

“While we’re young and we’re worrying about classes and what’s next, we are the future, we are the next generation of successful people,” she said. “We are the ones that are going to be making these important decisions, and so we are the ones that should be aware.”