The Armenian Genocide Commemoration has become a powerful annual event at the State House, one that commemorates the genocide of 1.5 million Armenians between 1915 and 1923 by the Ottoman Turkish government, at the same time honoring survivors and celebrating the work of Armenian-Americans.
The annual State House event is attended by many members of the Massachusetts Armenian community, elected officials, diplomats, and human rights groups. This year’s event, commemorating the 98th anniversary of the genocide, will take place on April 19, 2013. The planning committee, led by members of the Armenian community and State Representative Jonathan Hecht’s office, has begun meeting on a biweekly basis. I have been attending these organizational meetings on behalf of Senator Brownsberger.
In a guest column in remembrance of the Armenian Genocide, published last year in the Watertown Tab and adapted from his remarks at last year’s State House Commemoration, Andrew Tarsy explained that the world was well-aware of the Armenian Genocide at the time of its occurrence, with 145 articles in the New York Times in 1915 detailing the “policies and campaigns of deportation and mass killing” perpetrated by the Ottoman Turkish regime.
You can find a permanent exhibit containing a “stunning visual narrative of the events of the 1915-1923 Genocide, and the continuing aftermath and denial by the Turkish government over generations” at the Armenian Library and Museum of America in Watertown.
If you would like to become involved in the planning of the Commemoration, please contact the Senator’s office at 617-722-1280.
Anne Johnson Landry
Committee Counsel and Policy Advisor
Office of State Senator William N. Brownsberger