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Calcutta: Requiem For A Million In Armenia

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  • Calcutta: Requiem For A Million In Armenia

    REQUIEM FOR A MILLION IN ARMENIA

    The Telegraph
    http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090430/js p/calcutta/story_10897634.jsp
    April 30 2009
    India

    For many an Indian, April 24 is the Little Master's birthday. But for
    Armenians across the world, it was on this day in 1915 that around
    250 of their leaders were rounded up by Turks during World War I
    and killed.

    The day, known as the Armenian Genocide, was followed by the death
    of more than a million Armenians.

    This year, the incident was commemorated by the Armenian College
    and Philanthropic Academy at Gorky Sadan with the screening of a
    documentary on the incident.

    "The aim of the event was to remind the young generation of the
    sacrifices made by their forefathers," said Fr Oshagan Gulgulian,
    pastor of the Armenians in India and former manager of Armenian
    College.

    Reading out an address from the President of Armenian, Ashot Kocharian,
    the Armenian ambassador to India, said: "This gathering of people
    from several diasporas to pay tribute to the victims will help in
    spreading awareness."

    While students from classes VII to X put up an exhibition of
    photographs on the genocide, the school choir sang four songs
    in Armenian. "We charred the black-and-white images at the edges
    and surrounded them by red handprints to depict the horror of the
    situation," said Arez Markarian, a Class IX student of the school,
    set up in 1821.

    The school, affiliated to the ICSE board, has 80 students, including
    those from Iran, Iraq and Armenia.

    Andrew Goldberg's 2006 documentary, Armenian Genocide, depicted the
    events that led to the April 24 massacre and its fallout. Including
    accounts of survivors, it described the survivors whose mourning
    remains incomplete as their pain has not been acknowledged by Turks
    or other nations of the world.

    The programme included the recitation of the English translation of
    Armenian poet Siamanto's The Dance. Siamanto was one of those killed
    in April 1915. "It is about a German woman witnessing a group of
    20 naked brides being whipped and burnt alive outside her window,"
    explained Arez. The poem, dramatised by students, ends with the German
    woman wondering how she can gouge her eyes out after seeing something
    so cruel.

    Doel Bose BA, English St Xavier's College
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