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Councilmen Applaud Calling Off Ottoman Band Parade March

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  • Councilmen Applaud Calling Off Ottoman Band Parade March

    COUNCILMEN APPLAUD CALLING OFF OTTOMAN BAND PARADE MARCH
    By Richie Duchon

    City News Service
    September 28, 2011 Wednesday 7:28 PM PST

    City Council members Paul Krekorian and Eric Garcetti applauded the
    decision by a Turkish group to call off a scheduled parade in Hollywood
    near Little Armenia featuring an Ottoman military marching band.

    The march scheduled for Oct. 3 offended many in the Armenian community
    which recently celebrated the 20th anniversary of Armenian independence
    Sept. 21.

    "The parade's planning and execution, in a heavily Armenian-populated
    community, leaves no question that the Ottoman Military Marching Band
    is brazenly taunting the Armenian American community in a blatant
    example of hate speech," the Armenian National Committee of America
    said in a statement.

    Ottoman Turks perpetrated the Armenian Genocide, in which an estimated
    1.5 million Armenians were killed beginning in 1915. Turkey officially
    denies that a genocide took place.

    The Pacifica Institute, a Turkish-American cultural advocacy
    organization applied for a permit to hold a parade in Hollywood
    Monday evening centered around the military marching band Mehter. A
    representative from the group requested the police department cancel
    its permit this morning.

    Spokeswoman Hafsa Rai said the group never intended to offend the
    Armenian community. "We never wanted to offend anyone. The reaction
    by the Armenian community was really a surprise to us," Rai said.

    She said the group cancelled the parade because the band is unlikely to
    make it to Los Angeles from Turkey because of logistical difficulties,
    including trouble with their contract, insurance and challenges
    booking plane tickets.

    Rai said the parade was simply to promote the third annual Anatolian
    Cultures Festival in Costa Mesa Oct. 6-9. She said the festival
    recognizes Armenian heritage, including a scale model of the Akhtamar
    Church, an early Armenian church. She said the festival is intended
    to celebrate all ethnicities that have lived in the land that is
    now Turkey.

    Krekorian, the first Armenian to serve on the Los Angeles City
    Council, and Garcetti called the parade blatant provocation. "This
    planned performance, supposedly to celebrate an event taking place in
    Orange County, is a provocation of the Armenian community at a time
    when the community celebrates 20 years of Armenian independence,"
    the councilmen said in a joint statement.

    "While we as council members, support and defend freedom of speech as
    guaranteed by the First Amendment, we could not stand idly by as this
    planned march was designed to incite and inflame the Armenian community
    at a time when it is celebrating a historical milestone," they said.

    Rai said the Ottoman marching band was chosen for the parade because
    Turks created the first marching band in history. "The military aspect
    was not something we were focusing on," she said.

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