UC Davis chapter students stage ‘die-in’ to commemorate Genocide

PanARMENIAN.Net - Nearly 50 people joined a “die-in” staged by the UC Davis chapter of the Armenian Students’ Association (ASA) last week on the Quad to commemorate the centennial anniversary of the Armenian Genocide of 1915, the California Aggie reports.

ASA members covered the cement plaza north of the Quad with posters and books conspicuously attesting to the genocide.

ASA’s commemoration was just one of many that took place across the world this past week. ASA President Tamar Tatoian said that similar commemorations will reappear on campus until Armenians are vindicated by the Turkish government.

“It’s extremely emotional for all of us,” Tatoian said. “We all grew up with this in our hearts. We’ve been going to these genocide commemorations since we were babies—before we could consciously understand what was going on.”

Fatih Tatari, a sociocultural anthropology Ph.D student, attended the campus commemoration. He is also Turkish.

“You feel sorry for all the things that happened 100 years ago,” Tatari said. “It’s kind of a feeling of responsibility, I guess, for me, as a citizen of the Turkish Republic.”

Tatari has attended several genocide commemorations in Turkey’s capital of Istanbul. Although fully acknowledging the many Turks who will not refer to the deaths as a genocide, Tatari expressed concern about strangers to the issue labeling all Turks as genocide deniers.

“There are many Turkish historians and activists, and many people in Turkey, who really care about this issue and who try to make the commemorations, although the official state discourse is against it,” Tatari said.

To follow-up the commemoration, on April 30, ASUCD senator Sevan Nahabedian will introduce Senate Resolution #15 (SR15), which calls upon the UC Regents to divest over $74 million from the Republic of Turkey.

Nahabedian said that the Republic of Turkey’s attempts to deny and falsely refute the genocide affect the education of all UC Davis students and increase the likelihood of future genocides.

“[Divestment is] a way to address the institutional wrongs that the Republic of Turkey has been taking,” Nahabedian said. “It’s not meant to ostracize a certain community.”

The student governments of UCLA and UC Berkeley passed similar resolutions earlier this year.