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Coachella Valley's Armenians Reflect On Genocide, Thrive In Desert

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  • Coachella Valley's Armenians Reflect On Genocide, Thrive In Desert

    COACHELLA VALLEY'S ARMENIANS REFLECT ON GENOCIDE, THRIVE IN DESERT

    Desert Sun
    http://www.mydesert.com/article/20100601/NEWS01/6010313/Coachella-Valley-s-Armenians-reflect-on-genocide-thrive-in-desert
    June 1 2010
    CA

    Through the lens of history, Adolf Hitler's killing machine looks a
    lot like the Armenian Genocide during World War I.

    An estimated 1.5 million of the 2.1 million Armenians living in Turkey
    were killed or died of starvation in epidemics that swept through the
    concentration camps, according to the Armenian National Institute,
    a nonprofit "dedicated to the study, research and affirmation" of
    the genocide.

    Turkey has yet to acknowledge the 1914-1918 Armenian genocide.

    "Because it is not recognized all over the world, it is a kind of
    bleeding wound," said Father Krikor Zakaryan of the Armenian Apostolic
    Church of the Desert in Rancho Mirage, which formed in 1977.

    Never heard of the Armenian genocide?

    You're not alone.

    Hitler is purported to have said, according to reports by the
    Associated Press bureau in Berlin in 1939, that those in his command
    should "send to death mercilessly and without compassion, men, women
    and children of Polish derivation and language. Only thus shall we
    gain the living space which we need.

    "Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?"

    Only about 20 countries have officially recognized the Armenian
    holocaust. The U.S. is not among them.

    On the campaign trail, President Barack Obama promised to officially
    acknowledge the nearly century-old massacres, but since taking the
    White House has stopped short, instead calling it "one of the worst
    atrocities" of the 20th Century."

    The genocide has become a part of their cultural fabric, Coachella
    Valley Armenians say.

    "It is a cancer in every Armenian's heart," said Alice Safoyan,
    church treasurer.

    Three years ago, the Armenian Apostolic Church began holding a memorial
    service to remember genocide victims.

    This year, the Tolerance Education Center in Rancho Mirage hosted
    a 40-minute documentary called "The Armenian Genocide," narrated
    by actress Julianna Margulies, and a Q and A with a representative
    from the Armenian Assembly of America, a Washington, D.C.-based
    Armenian-American advocacy group.

    "The Turkish identity is built on the denial of the Armenian genocide,"
    said Yeghig L. Keshishian, the director of the western regional
    office of the Armenian Assembly of America in Pasadena. "It was 95
    years ago. Why remember?

    "You can't have a solid foundation for the present if you don't
    reconcile the past."

    New church on way

    Like many of the valley's settlers, the first Armenians to put down
    roots here were farmers, said Velo Herbekin, the church historian.

    Many of those farmers grew dates and grapes, bringing grape seedlings
    from Armenia.

    In the 1950s, roughly 15 Armenian families lived in the Coachella
    Valley. Today, church officials estimate, that number is about 2,500
    individuals in season.

    Armenian residents have worshipped in the parish hall on Vista Dunes
    in Rancho Mirage with visiting priests from St. Margaret's Episcopal
    Church in Palm Desert once a month.

    Church members hope this year to move into their new sanctuary next
    to the parish hall on Vista Dunes.

    Zakaryan, the valley's first full- time Armenian priest and only the
    second in Riverside County, was ordained in the fall.

    "If you have a church, then the Armenians want to move there because
    this is the center of the community," he said.




    From: A. Papazian
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