Armenian Genocide Service Calls for Acknowledgement by Turkish Government
Friday evening’s ceremony at St. Gregory the Enlightener Armenian Church, White Plains, in recognition of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide and canonization of the martyrs who perished, was a particularly moving and emotional event. It was attended by the Westchester interfaith community as well as by politicians from local government all the way up to the Congressional level.
The service was punctuated with solemn prayer, haunting hymns and strong statements about the need for acknowledgement by the Turkish government that the Armenian Genocide was organized by the Ottoman Turkish government to ethnically cleanse its territory of the indigenous Armenian population.
A theme of the event was that without acknowledgement there could not be true reconciliation. The descriptions of the atrocities committed then bringing to mind recent atrocities and murders committed in the same part of the world today and reported by news media globally.
Forget-Me-Not flowers hand made by children of the St. Gregory congregation were given to attendees. The Forget-Me-Not flower is the official emblem of the Armenian Genocide centennial celebration.
According to Armenian-genocide.org on April 24, 1915, the leaders and intellectuals of the Armenian communities in Ottoman Turkey were rounded up and massacred. From 1915 to 1923 more than 1.5 million Armenians were killed; two out of three Armenians living in Ottoman Turkey perished. The rest were banished from their homeland.
The Armenian population had inhabited this land for over 3,000 years. And, according to V. Rev. Archimandrite Eugene Pappas from Three Hierarchs Greek Orthodox Church, who as the primary speaker gave the homily, the Armenian nation was the first Christian nation.
Rev. Pappas emphasized the importance of Armenians in the diaspora to remember the genocide and like their Jewish brethren who suffered through the Holocaust to in-tone “Never again. Never again.”
“The Armenians were killed because they were Christian,” Rev. Pappas said. The Armenian Genocide set the tone for other brutalities and genocides of the 20th century.
“But they did not win,” Rev. Pappas explained, speaking directly to the children in the gathering. “They did not win because we are here. You are here. We are celebrating you, not the death of the martyrs.”
Congresswoman Nita Lowey presented a proclamation acknowledging the Armenian Genocide and stating that: “She is a co-sponsor of legislation to acknowledge the atrocity in full, calling for the United States to work toward equitable, constructive, stable, and durable Armenian/Turkish relations based on the Republic of Turkey’s full acknowledgement of the facts and ongoing consequences of the Armenian Genocide and a fair, just and comprehensive international resolution of this crime against humanity.”
Lowey emphasized that: “All good people must be vigilant to prevent hatred and dogma from destroying civilizations across the world.”
White Plains Mayor Thomas Roach also had a proclamation that he read in full.
“The Armenian Genocide represents a government slaughtering people that it should be there to protect. Unfortunately that is something we have seen too much of,” Roach said. He congratulated the Armenian people for keeping the memory alive for 100 years “so that we should never forget.”
Roach’s proclamation acknowledged the many Armenians who left their homeland and settled in the United States, some now residing in White Plains.
Members of the White Plains Common Council who were present at the ceremony included Milagros Lecuona, Beth Smayda, Nadine Hunt-Robinson, and Dennis Krolian, a member of the St. Gregory congregation who was visibly moved by the support he received from his colleagues.
In comments, Krolian explained that he had lost his grandparents during the genocide.
Earlier in the day, at an ecumenical service in Greenwich, CT, red carnations that were handed to all attendees were provided by Creative Flowers by Amodio’s of White Plains.
