LOS ANGELES—On Thursday, January 26 California universities will be hosting simultaneous silent protests on their respective campuses. Demonstrations, coordinated by The Confederation of All-Armenian Students Associations, will take place at UCLA, USC, UCSD, UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, UC Riverside, UC Berkeley, Loyola Marymount University, Occidental College, Cal State Northridge, Cal State Los Angeles, and Glendale Community College. Members of the Armenian Youth Federation and ARF Shant Student Association will also participate.
The Stain of Denial, as the events is titled, aims at educating the greater campus community about the Armenian Genocide and the ensuing denial campaign by the government of Turkey. The ASA’s have partnered with various on-campus organizations to protest the continuous repression of justice. On the heels of the passage of legislation criminalizing Armenian Genocide denial in the French Senate, we demand that the government of the United States, like France, can stand up to empty political bullying from Turkey and properly condemn the Armenian Genocide. The United States, following the French example, should continue the fight against genocide denial and reject Turkey’s gag rule.
Students, faculty, and community members are invited to commemorate the memories of the millions killed in the Armenian Genocide and to take action for recognition of the atrocities. Please contact the Armenian Student Association nearest you or visit the Web site for information.
Classified as the first genocide of the 20th century, the Armenian Genocide claimed the lives of 1.5 million people and forced the dispersion of Armenians throughout the world. The Republic of Turkey, descendants of the Ottoman Empire, have led a denial campaign in an attempt to stave off responsibility, setting a cyclical precedent for the repression of justice.The United States, under political pressure from Turkey, has refused to acknowledge the events by its rightful classification. As Armenian-Americans, we believe that politics and humanity need to be held in separate realms. Genocide is a punishable crime and ignorance on the part of other countries further encourages the tactics of denialists.
The Confederation of All- Armenian Student Associations is a league of Armenian college student organizations that promote communication and collaboration amongst the constituent organizations. All-ASA provides a forum through which organizations can announce events, publicize activities, and share ideas regarding the Armenian college community. The formulation of All-ASA events and programs are run through a series of committees, hosted by individual constituent organizations.
Bravo Sarkozy, shame on Obama!!!!!!!!!!!
Shame on the Armenian mothers and fathers for brain washing their children with lies. Are they so ashamed of their own past to live and teach lies. Why aret the Armenian public at home and abroad so scared to have an independent panel access on historical facts as to whom committed what. This is not the path for peace, it is obvious that they do not wish it..
Yes, shame on them for not telling their children the truth: the reason their ancestors did not continue to live in the Armenian HIghlands is because they all decided to desintegrate in 1915, only afterwards the few who were to dumb to manage to do that realized it was a bad idea to begin with and decided to blame it on the most peaceloving of all people, the Turks (for the luls).
I was not aware of insulting and attacking is an invitation for peace… I think you should be shameful of yourself… You don’t have nothing but denying what is the truth and fact…
I’m sorry but in my 21 years of existence my parents have not told me what to believe in or how to conduct myself. Who said we are scared? The facts are out there, please educate yourself. Peace is our main goal, the constant denial of genocide and justice oppression only lead to more human rights violations, as seen in history. Acceptance is a hard task, but it must be done for progress to commence.
Speaking not only of parents brainwashing children, how about adding to that the mosques and schools, as in Arabia and Palestine? We don’t need a “commission” to study history, nor an “independent panel”, either. Let all who have any interest read the historical accounts and judge for themselves. The pictures, too, speak for themselves. How’s that for “independence”?
Above all, let’s make it independent of the U.S. State Department, which seems so oblivious of its own authority on the subject: Ambassador Henry Morgenthau, not Condi or Hilary!
Bottom line is, whereas Turkey had over 10% non-Islamic minority population a century ago, today its non-Islamic population is but 1 in 500 (and they live in terror every day of their lives). Just how did that change happen? How is it that this is typical of most Islamic countries?
I commend the Armenian Student Associations and members of the AYF and ARF Shant Student association for their initiative on this human rights issue.
HEY SEDAT & BASIL , read history , not the history that they teach you in your school, check in the same era of 1915 & before check what jamal pasha had done in middle east & what they call the turk’s over there. & thier time . they call it the black time & they call jamal pasha killer . you are telling me that your people know peace ? never the history showed us that you people are killers & your grand perants are killers & we will revenge for our people one day . & do not forget we are smarter than you guys we never had independence for years because we got weak but we never lost hope to become great again , we never left the highland we were forced to do so but we are going to build our land yes it is locked land but we are going to take our lands back . our historical lands our 7 states .
you got Basil all wrong: he is being sarcastic towards Denialist Sedat.
read his post again.