GLENDALE—Residents of Glendale Burbank, Crescenta Valley, Hollywood, Pasadena and surrounding areas will hold a candlelight vigil at the Krikor and Mariam Karamanoukian Glendale Youth Center on Monday evening to urge their U.S. Senators and House of Representatives to vote against bombing Syria. The event in Glendale is part of a national day of action being organized by the progressive organizations MoveOn.org Civic Action, CREDO Action, Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC), and Win Without War. Similar vigils will take place in nearly one hundred cities across the country on Monday.
At the vigil, local residents will urge Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer as well as Representatives Adam Schiff, Howard McKeon, Judy Chu, Karen Bass, Xavier Becerra and others to avoid another unnecessary and costly war and vote against the Authorization for Use of Military Force resolution expected to be debated soon in Congress.
The local organizer for the event, the Armenian National Committee of America – Glendale (ANCA-Glendale), spokesperson Berdj Karapetian, said, “We are opposed to military intervention in Syria because it will not save the lives of innocent civilians caught in the crossfire between the supporters of Syria’s ruling faction and armed opponents trying to topple the Syrian President.”
WHO: ANCA-Glendale and local residents opposed to military intervention in Syria
WHAT: Candlelight vigil to urge Members of Congress to vote against military action in Syria.
WHERE: Glendale Youth Center, 211 West Chestnut Street, Glendale, 91204.
WHEN: Monday, September 9, at 7 p.m.
The ANCA-Glendale and its parent organization the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) issued action alerts last week calling on Armenian-Americans to communicate their opposition to US Military Action. The letter sent by the ANCA and its supporters to members of Congress states it is taking into account the horrific human suffering that armed conflict has already visited across Syria, including the death and destruction being endured, to this day, by Armenians and other Christian communities. The ANCA letter goes on to state, “An escalation in aggression can neither save lives nor help bring about peace.” Read the ANCA action alert.
Syria is home to more than 100,000 Syrian’s of Armenian ancestry. Armenians were marched into the deserts of Syria during the 1915 Genocide perpetrated by the Turkish government of the time. Survivors settled in Aleppo, Damascus, Kessab and other cities and help rebuild Syria after the fall of the Ottoman Turkish Empire.
The Armenian-American Community has raised several million dollars in relief aid for residents of Syria. Learn more about the Syrian Armenian Relief Fund based in California.
Find the event details on the ANCA Glendale Facebook page.
The Armenian National Committee of America-Glendale advocates for the social, economic, cultural, and civil rights of the city’s Armenian-American community and promotes increased civic participation and awareness at the grassroots and public policy levels.
Syria must be left alone. These Americano-Israely instigated wars are the bane of our civilization. These two states are conducting wars of aggression. They do not seem aware or are oblivious to their criminal inclinations. Any disasters in Syria will have undesirable repercussions in Armenia.
What about the 4 decade disaster brought upon Lebanon by your dictator Assad et al. I suggest you read history beyond what you have been fed by the communists.
Armenians must stop being so emotional and naive. Do you see American Jews protesting and bringing unnecessary attention to themselves, even though they have a much higher presence in the region? Just because 50,000 Armenians live in a country with a population of 22,000,000 does not mean we should be on the wrong side of history. Even if argued that the regime did not use chemical weapons or foreign terrorists are behind all the mess, it still does not absolve the Assad regime. After all, their initial response to the protestors was business as usual…brute force! Little did they know that this time things would be different. They let the genie out and now want to blame others. We as Armenians should stand for justice and democracy whether in Armenia or our host countries. We can not afford to be on the wrong side of history for petty reasons. Otherwise, we will destroy our communities in the Arab world and beyond if we continue to express our irrelevant views.
I attended last night’s Vigil, and I was deeply moved. Let me – respectfully – make two points in response to Hratch, (1) Last night’s Vigil was not, in any way, an “Armenian” or partisan ANCA event. To say that the Armenian-Americans who participated in the Vigil were “attempting to call attention to themselves” is simply not factual. (2) President Obama’s policy – whatever it is (and it seems to change from nanosecond to nanosecond) – of threatening some kind of unilateral U.S. military intervention in another country’s civil war is what’s on the wrong side of history – not sincere private citizens exercising – in the best American tradition – their First Amendment rights to peacefully assemble and petition government for redress of their grievances.
Just as expected, the saber-rattling by the US scared Assad into agreeing to give up its chemical weapons stock pile. It was conceived and executed perfectly by the White House. All this delay and talk final paid off.
But since we Armenians could not keep our mouth shut, we are now seen as sympathizers with the Assad regime. Our endless faux pas when it come to foreign affairs. We continuously fail to think ahead. We react to circumstance with emotions and naivete. We have no sense of right and wrong when it comes to international issues. This has been the cause of our downfall from the beginning.