Armenian Genocide

An allotment of Armenian books and cultural artifacts linked to the country's history and diaspora following the 1915 genocide will debut at UCLA in the first permanent research program of its kind at any major American university dedicated to Armenian archaeology and ethnography. The collection was given to UCLA with a $2-million gift from Zaruhy Sara Chitjian to establish a research program that will serve as a major resource for scholars around the world on Armenia's cultural heritage, stakeholders announced this week.

Descendants of Armenian genocide victims may sue insurance companies for unpaid claims, a federal appeals court ruled Friday in a rare reversal of an earlier decision. The same three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said in August 2009 that lawsuits were barred by a federal government policy against legal reference to the Armenian genocide, despite laws in California and 41 other states officially recognizing the massacre of 1.2 million Armenians that began in 1915 amid the chaotic collapse of the Ottoman empire.

Local lawmakers are leading an effort to again have California recognize the Armenian Genocide and to push the federal government to do the same. Assemblyman Anthony Portantino (D-La Cañada Flintridge) introduced a joint Assembly and Senate resolution Tuesday designating April 24, 2011, as California Day of Remembrance for the Armenian Genocide. The state has declared April 24 a special date for several years, Portantino spokeswoman Wendy Gordon said. A new resolution must be approved by the Legislature each year.

Several events commemorating the anniversary of the Armenian genocide will be held in Glendale over the next several days. The genocide resulted in the murder of 1.5 million Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Turks from 1915 to 1918. The main local event of the week will be a city-sponsored Armenian genocide commemoration ceremony at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Alex Theatre, 216 N. Brand Blvd. The 90-minute event will feature several traditional Armenian dance and musical performances by local students.

Survivors of Armenian genocide victims can't sue German insurance companies for failing to pay claims on their ancestors because only the federal government has the power to bring foreign entities to U.S. courts, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday. The 11-0 ruling by the full court dismissing the lawsuit filed nearly a decade ago probably puts an end to efforts by the genocide victims' descendants to compel German companies to pay off on policies sold to the victims from 1875 to 1923.

Lawmakers representing Burbank and Glendale turned their focus to Armenia last week, holding meetings with representatives of the Armenian-American community and hosting events recognizing the Armenian Genocide, which took place from 1915 to 1923. April 24 is the 96th anniversary of the beginning of the atrocity that left more than 1.5 million Armenians dead at the hands of Ottoman Turks. On Thursday, Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D-Silver Lake) led the Assembly’s annual commemoration of the genocide.

Each year Armenians worldwide commemorate the murder of 1.5 million of their ancestors by what was then the Ottoman Empire in the time around World War I. Each year, the United States government - fearing the backlash of Turkish rulers - fails to officially recognize this atrocity as a genocide.            Sadly, this marks the 98 th  year of this reticence, an enduring mark of shame upon our national government. My colleague, City Editor Mark Kellam reported that Congressman Adam Schiff (D-Burbank)

A member of the Canadian parliament and a filmmaker whose latest feature focuses on a musician searching for a family heirloom lost during the Armenian Genocide are just two highlights of the upcoming Week of Remembrance. Each year, Glendale commemorates the Armenian Genocide of 1915 with a week of events in April. About 1.5 million Armenians were killed by the Ottoman Empire over the course of several years through massacres and death marches, which modern day Turkey has refused to acknowledge as genocide.

While students take a break from their studies, local history teachers are using the summer holiday to brush up on a particularly relevant chapter in history. Working in conjunction with Facing History and Ourselves , an international education organization that seeks to address modern-day moral dilemmas using lessons from the past, Glendale Unified is hosting a five-day seminar examining the historical implications of the Armenian genocide. “The fact that we are able to host this workshop is awesome,” said Nancy Witt, a teacher specialist who helped facilitate the event this week.

Glendale Community College students were given a white board, pen and a chance to send President Obama a message.  In one photo, Glendale locals answered one question: Why should the president officially recognize the Armenian genocide? Lori Boghigian, 19, answered that “accepting [genocide] today will avoid future genocides.” “If he believes in human rights, then he must recognize [the] Armenian genocide,” Hambarsom Balian said.  Glendale New-Press asks : Do you think President Barack Obama should recognize the Armenian genocide?

An allotment of Armenian books and cultural artifacts linked to the country's history and diaspora following the 1915 genocide will debut at UCLA in the first permanent research program of its kind at any major American university dedicated to Armenian archaeology and ethnography. The collection was given to UCLA with a $2-million gift from Zaruhy Sara Chitjian to establish a research program that will serve as a major resource for scholars around the world on Armenia's cultural heritage, stakeholders announced this week.

In what has become an annual exercise, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) this week introduced a House resolution calling on the U.S. to formally recognize the Armenian Genocide, in which roughly 1.5 million Armenians were massacred by Ottoman Turks from 1915 to 1918. Schiff has introduced similar resolutions in years past, all of them failing in Congress amid fears that official recognition would anger Turkey, an important military ally in the Middle East. Schiff introduced the latest resolution recognizing the genocide with Reps.

Glendale Unified students and teachers will have next April 24 off in commemoration of the Armenian Genocide, following an agreement signed by school officials and the teachers union this week. Thousands of students of Armenian descent typically skip class on April 24 to participate in commemoration events, but the high truancy rates can decrease the school district's funding, which is tied to attendance. For years, parents, teachers and school officials have been discussing making April 24 a non-work day, and finally next school year the day off will be official.

Those tending the flame of those who perished in the Armenian Genocide had a bit of a mixed bag this week. In happy news, Glendale Unified and its teachers' union agreed to make April 24 - the day that commemorates the horror - an official day off. This agreement makes a lot of sense for all involved. Students of Armenian descent have skipped going to class on that day for years, and as public school funding is significantly based on attendance, making the day a holiday of sorts is an elegant end-around of this problem.

Thank you for your factual and crisp April 26 editorial on the Armenian Genocide. I appreciate that you stated things as they are and did not try to minimize or twist facts. Indeed, “Lack of genocide recognition is a disgrace.” Hilma Balaian Glendale

On Tuesday evening, I had the chance to speak to a class at Glendale Community College run by the school's police chief, Gary Montecuollo. I have spoken to this class before, which focuses on law enforcement's interactions with the larger community, and enjoyed it each time. Why? Partly because I get to talk about journalism at length to a captive audience. However, it's also a chance to seek what issues students are interested in and concerned about. Interestingly, much of the discussion revolved around online comments, both on the newspaper's websites and elsewhere.

On a Saturday night some 98 years ago this week, more than 200 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders living in Constantinople, today's Istanbul, were rounded up by the government. The political party in power, the "Young Turks," did not want their kind in the country, breathing the same air, using the same resources, making lives for themselves and their families. They were imprisoned and most were later executed. Were it not for the prominence of the victims of that April 24, 1915 event, there might have been even further delay in word spreading across the globe that a systematic elimination of Armenians was underway.

For the first time, a Turkish scholar addressed a crowd of more than 1,400 people at the city's annual event to commemorate the genocide of about 1.5 million people in 1915 by Ottoman Turks, a tragedy still denied by modern-day Turkey 98 years later. "The principle was not giving the Armenians not even a single inch," said Umit Kurt, a Turkish scholar at Clark University, as he discussed how the Ottoman Empire deported Armenians before the genocide began and sold their property. PHOTOS: Annual Armenian genocide commemoration at Alex Theatre Although initial laws regarding the abandoned property seem to require Armenians be reimbursed at a later date, that never came to fruition, Kurt said before the sold-out crowd at the Alex Theatre Wednesday evening.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank), lead sponsor of the Armenian genocide resolution in Congress, delivered his remarks in Armenian on the House floor Wednesday as he honored the 1.5 million Armenians who were massacred in 1915 at the hands of Ottoman Turks. His remarks come the same day that President Obama once again did not use the word “genocide” in his annual statement about the tragic event. According to his office, in his Armenian address, Schiff said: “I speak to you from the floor of the House of Representatives in the language of your grandparents and your great-grandparents - the language they used to speak of their hopes, their dreams, their lives and their loves in the years before 1915...I speak to you in the language of sons who watched their fathers murdered.” On the 98th anniversary of the genocide, Schiff pointed out that not only were Armenians murdered, Armenian women were raped by the thousands.

Each year Armenians worldwide commemorate the murder of 1.5 million of their ancestors by what was then the Ottoman Empire in the time around World War I. Each year, the United States government - fearing the backlash of Turkish rulers - fails to officially recognize this atrocity as a genocide.            Sadly, this marks the 98 th  year of this reticence, an enduring mark of shame upon our national government. My colleague, City Editor Mark Kellam reported that Congressman Adam Schiff (D-Burbank)