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Armenians' grim memory
01:00 AM EDT on Monday, April 30, 2007
By Mark Arsenault
[Providence] Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE - Several hundred Armenian-Americans gathered yesterday at
the Armenian Martyrs' Monument, in North Burial Ground, to mark the 92nd
anniversary of what is widely held to have been the start of a genocide
that claimed 1.5-million lives in the former Ottoman Empire.
The ceremony, under cloudy skies that threatened rain throughout the
program, also commemorated the 30th anniversary of the erection of the
29-foot-tall granite monument. Modern-day Turkey has never acknowledged
that the killings of Armenians constituted genocide, and has called the
deaths the results of the First World War.
The keynote speaker at yesterday's program, former Boston Globe
investigative reporter Stephen Kurkjian, told the crowd not to give up
its fight to have the Turkish government admit that the deaths of so
many Armenians was the first genocide of the 20th century.
"I realize that you have waited for years for the Turkish government to
recognize the sins of the past," Kurkjian said. "To falter now would be
to fail to live up to the legacies of our parents and grandparents ...
the responsibility is now with us to preserve that heritage."
In brief remarks, Governor Carcieri said, "As we gather today, we show
the world that we acknowledge the Armenian genocide."
Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian looked forward, he said, to the day Rhode
Islanders could gather at the Martyr's Monument to say that the genocide
had been recognized by Turkey.
Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline said "the martyrs live on in our
hearts, and we promise to keep alive the flame of remembrance . long
live the Armenian people."
The commemoration, coordinated by the Armenian Martyrs' Memorial
Committee of Rhode Island, included the laying of wreaths to remember
those killed in 1915, and the honoring of past committee members who
helped establish the monument.
On April 24, 1977, more than 700 members of the Armenian community
assembled under a cold rain to dedicate the monument, which contains the
remains of an unknown martyr.
[email protected]
Armenians' grim memory
01:00 AM EDT on Monday, April 30, 2007
By Mark Arsenault
[Providence] Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE - Several hundred Armenian-Americans gathered yesterday at
the Armenian Martyrs' Monument, in North Burial Ground, to mark the 92nd
anniversary of what is widely held to have been the start of a genocide
that claimed 1.5-million lives in the former Ottoman Empire.
The ceremony, under cloudy skies that threatened rain throughout the
program, also commemorated the 30th anniversary of the erection of the
29-foot-tall granite monument. Modern-day Turkey has never acknowledged
that the killings of Armenians constituted genocide, and has called the
deaths the results of the First World War.
The keynote speaker at yesterday's program, former Boston Globe
investigative reporter Stephen Kurkjian, told the crowd not to give up
its fight to have the Turkish government admit that the deaths of so
many Armenians was the first genocide of the 20th century.
"I realize that you have waited for years for the Turkish government to
recognize the sins of the past," Kurkjian said. "To falter now would be
to fail to live up to the legacies of our parents and grandparents ...
the responsibility is now with us to preserve that heritage."
In brief remarks, Governor Carcieri said, "As we gather today, we show
the world that we acknowledge the Armenian genocide."
Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian looked forward, he said, to the day Rhode
Islanders could gather at the Martyr's Monument to say that the genocide
had been recognized by Turkey.
Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline said "the martyrs live on in our
hearts, and we promise to keep alive the flame of remembrance . long
live the Armenian people."
The commemoration, coordinated by the Armenian Martyrs' Memorial
Committee of Rhode Island, included the laying of wreaths to remember
those killed in 1915, and the honoring of past committee members who
helped establish the monument.
On April 24, 1977, more than 700 members of the Armenian community
assembled under a cold rain to dedicate the monument, which contains the
remains of an unknown martyr.
[email protected]