Pasadena to host Armenian Genocide commemoration event

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Pasadena Armenian Coalition has announced that it will host its community-wide Armenian Genocide Commemorative Event (“, on Sunday, April 21, 2024, at 3:00 PM, at thePasadena Armenian Genocide MemorialMonumentlocated atThe City ofPasadena’s Memorial Park– 85 E. Holly St. Pasadena, CA andwill pay tribute to the enduring strength and resiliency of survivors of the 1915 Armenian Genocide while honoring the memory of the over 1. 5 Million innocent victims who mercilessly lost their lives 109 years ago, Massis Post reports.

This year’s theme is “Resilience in the Face of Genocide — Then and Now.” The Event is intended to draw the public’s attention to the Armenian community’s continued demands that its perpetrator, the Republic of Turkey, properly acknowledge its crimes against their civilian, Armenian population. The Event also highlights how the failure to acknowledge and punish genocide may result in its perpetuation, as demonstrated by the Republic of Azerbaijan’s recent ethnic cleansing and genocidal campaign against the majority Armenian enclave of the Republic of Artsakh.

The Event will begin with a solemn commemoration of the Armenian Genocide of 1915. It will be followed by the broadcast of testimonials of Armenian Genocide survivors by the day’s keynote speaker — Sedda Antekelian of the Shoah Foundation of the University of Southern California — as well as remarks from Congresswoman Judy Chu. The Event will conclude with recitations of poems and songs by students of local Armenian schools and programs to demonstrate the community’s resiliency in the face of genocides of the past and the education of a new generation of Armenian youth to preserve the future.

“The Armenian-American residents of Pasadena has a long, storied and proud presence and history here in the City of Pasadena, and throughout the San Gabriel Valley and beyond” statedBoghos Patatian,ofThePasadena Armenian Coalition, “today we are out en-masse to properly pay tribute and honor the lives and memories of over 1.5 million innocent victims of the Armenian Genocide, to raise awareness of the continued current atrocities being perpetrated on our compatriots in the Republic of Artsakh, but to also speak truth to power, that despite such perilous odds, recognize the resiliency and highlight the immeasurable positive contributions of our proud people” saidPatatian. “We invite and encourage Armenian-Americans and the Pasadena community at large to join us in this effort and attend this important public commemoration event.”