Armenian Genocide memorial to be installed in Las Vegas

Armenian Genocide memorial to be installed in Las Vegas

PanARMENIAN.Net - Clark County accepted a donated memorial to the 1915 Armenian Genocide, which will be built in Sunset Park, KNPR News reports.

Design, construction and installation costs put the entire project at about $120,000, and all of it will be paid by the Armenian American Society.

County Commissioner Mary Beth Scow said the monument will not open the door to dozens of other privately funded memorials.

“We had probably fifty people representing the Armenian community that came to several of our commission meetings requesting this,” Clark County Commissioner Mary Beth Scow said, “We felt that this did rise to the level of something that would dignify the monument, but we did want to be careful that we are not opening the doors to everything and anything.”

This proposal rose to that level for the commission because it serves as an important reminder of historic events no one wants repeated.

“2015 marks the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, where a million and a half Armenians were killed during World War I,” said Andy Armenian, a board member of an Armenian American Society of Las Vegas.

Every year on April 24 thousands of Armenian Americans gather to commemorate the horrific time, which was carried out by leaders of the Ottoman Empire. Besides those who were killed, thousands of people were deported and put into concentration camps.

“The monument will serve as a destination to reflect and place some memorial flowers,” Armenian said.

The Armenian American Society hopes to have the project completed in about a year.

The Armenian Genocide

The Armenian Genocide (1915-23) was the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I. It was characterized by massacres and deportations, involving forced marches under conditions designed to lead to the death of the deportees, with the total number of deaths reaching 1.5 million.

The majority of Armenian Diaspora communities were formed by the Genocide survivors.

Present-day Turkey denies the fact of the Armenian Genocide, justifying the atrocities as “deportation to secure Armenians”. Only a few Turkish intellectuals, including Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk and scholar Taner Akcam, speak openly about the necessity to recognize this crime against humanity.

The Armenian Genocide was recognized by Uruguay, Russia, France, Lithuania, Italy, 45 U.S. states, Greece, Cyprus, Lebanon, Argentina, Belgium, Austria, Wales, Switzerland, Canada, Poland, Venezuela, Chile, Bolivia, the Vatican, Luxembourg, Brazil, Germany, the Netherlands, Paraguay, Sweden, Venezuela, Slovakia, Syria, Vatican, as well as the European Parliament and the World Council of Churches.

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