Armenians from India to urge Obama to recognize Armenian Genocide

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenians of Kolkata (India) are going to write to US President Barack Obama, urging him to recognize the massacre of Armenians in Turkey on April 24, 1915, as genocide', freelance French journalist Jean Eckian told PanARMENIAN.Net .



Students of the city's Armenian College have collected photographs and historical data about Armenian Genocide after a year-long research. The data they have gathered has been collated in the form of a film, which too will be presented for President Obama's consideration. Senior members of the city's Armenian community, like Peter Hyrapiet, Suzanne Reuben and Gulnaar Gilhooly have worked with the students to help them with data collection and film-making.



"About a fortnight ago, even Australia accepted the massacre as genocide. We just hope that the US also follows suit. Recent comments by President Obama have encouraged the community across the world. We hope that this year on April 24, he actually declares his country's acceptance of the darkest episode in the history of the community as genocide," said head of the Armenian Church in India, Oshagan Gulgulian, who has also spent a sizable part of his clerical life in the US.



"Since the largest concentration of Armenians in India is in Kolkata, we have taken the initiative here. We want the people of Kolkata, who have always been very receptive to our community, to share our pain. On that fateful day, 250 of our intellectuals were murdered by the Ottoman Empire in Constantinople. Throughout that year, there were more than a million murders. The genocide can be compared to the Jewish holocaust," Gulgulian said.



The Armenian community wants Turkey to cease being the only major country in the world to deny the Armenian Genocide.