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ARMENIAN GENOCIDE REMEMBERED
The Lafayette: Lafayette College
April 10, 2015 Friday
Last Wednesday, the college held a Divine Liturgy of the Armenian
Church in commemoration of 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide
at Colton Chapel.
The church service, sponsored by the Acopian family and the Office
of Religious and Spiritual Life was led by His Eminence Archbishop
Vicken Aykazian, Legate of the Eastern Diocese of the Armenian Church
with Rev. Fr. Hakob Gevorgyan and members of the choir of Holy Trinity
Armenian Church.
When asked about the choice to have liturgy as a commemoration,
Assistant Professor of History Rachel Goshgarian said, "I thought that
introducing the community, or giving the community an opportunity...to
observe [an] Armenian church service would be really interesting for
some students, because it's unique and it's a really old service."
Despite extensive documents about the atrocities inflicted on Armenian
population in Turkey, the Turkish government and those allied with
them, such as the United States, still refuses the acknowledge the
genocide.
"The Armenian Genocide for a 100 years now have been vehemently denied
by Turkey," member of the Acopian family Alex Karapetian '04 said.
"United States until this day still doesn't recognize it as
the Armenian genocide because Turkey puts so much pressure on
US. They'll call it everything that is synonym of the word genocide
like massacre and atrocities, but the word genocide is not used,
which is unfortunate."
"The political debate about whether or not the word genocide should
be used to describe what happened, the massacre and deportations
that befell the Armenian populations living in Ottoman Empire is a
political debate that has been going on for a really long time,"
Goshgarian said. "When a state makes a huge decision like this,
they decide that it's not genocide, it's very hard to switch back."
There were several student attendees at the commemoration.
"I think it's amazing that Lafayette offered this and put it together,"
Gabby Minassian '17 said."I'm a little disappointed, because it
was shortened liturgy.There was a lot that everyone didn't get to
experience, but the students that came did get a handful of what it
is like."
The Lafayette: Lafayette College
April 10, 2015 Friday
Last Wednesday, the college held a Divine Liturgy of the Armenian
Church in commemoration of 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide
at Colton Chapel.
The church service, sponsored by the Acopian family and the Office
of Religious and Spiritual Life was led by His Eminence Archbishop
Vicken Aykazian, Legate of the Eastern Diocese of the Armenian Church
with Rev. Fr. Hakob Gevorgyan and members of the choir of Holy Trinity
Armenian Church.
When asked about the choice to have liturgy as a commemoration,
Assistant Professor of History Rachel Goshgarian said, "I thought that
introducing the community, or giving the community an opportunity...to
observe [an] Armenian church service would be really interesting for
some students, because it's unique and it's a really old service."
Despite extensive documents about the atrocities inflicted on Armenian
population in Turkey, the Turkish government and those allied with
them, such as the United States, still refuses the acknowledge the
genocide.
"The Armenian Genocide for a 100 years now have been vehemently denied
by Turkey," member of the Acopian family Alex Karapetian '04 said.
"United States until this day still doesn't recognize it as
the Armenian genocide because Turkey puts so much pressure on
US. They'll call it everything that is synonym of the word genocide
like massacre and atrocities, but the word genocide is not used,
which is unfortunate."
"The political debate about whether or not the word genocide should
be used to describe what happened, the massacre and deportations
that befell the Armenian populations living in Ottoman Empire is a
political debate that has been going on for a really long time,"
Goshgarian said. "When a state makes a huge decision like this,
they decide that it's not genocide, it's very hard to switch back."
There were several student attendees at the commemoration.
"I think it's amazing that Lafayette offered this and put it together,"
Gabby Minassian '17 said."I'm a little disappointed, because it
was shortened liturgy.There was a lot that everyone didn't get to
experience, but the students that came did get a handful of what it
is like."