Armenian Youth Federation

As a young adult who participates in Armenian and non-Armenian organizations including the Commission on the Status of Women and events hosted by the Armenian Youth Federation, I feel compelled to respond to Dan Kimber’s recent column. (“Greet melting pot with open arms,” April 17) Merriam Webster defines assimilating as the absorption (of one) into the culture or mores of a population or group; to make similar. In common usage, the general perception of the term within the Armenian community is that it is the giving up of one’s own identity in order to assume another’s, a loss of cultural richness in a zero-sum system.

Alex Coolman GLENDALE -- The Glendale chapter of the Armenian Youth Federation will hold a community youth forum with the City Council Sunday. The event will address several issues, including the ongoing meetings of the Citizens' Memorial Advisory Committee, City Council politics and youth issues, said Ari Boyajian, executive chairman of the chapter. It will also include a question-and-answer period and an open forum. Boyajian said the group is still waiting for attendance confirmation from some council members, but said Councilman Rafi Manoukian would be attending.

Columnist to clarify on Zarian show Glendale News-Press columnist Dan Kimber is scheduled to appear live on ?The Larry Zarian Show? Thursday to clarify the positions he took in an April 16 column. His column, which centered on the Armenian Youth Federation and assimilation, invited strong rebukes from groups like the Armenian National Committee and has flooded the Glendale News-Press forum page as a recurring topic among letter writers. The show airs live at 7 p.m. Thursday on Channel 280. The live call-in number is (818)

On the heels of the 96th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, more than 1,000 members of the Armenian Diaspora gathered Sunday at St. Mary's Apostolic Church to commemorate their community's historic struggles, and celebrate their cultural successes. The event, titled “One Voice, One Cause,” was organized by the Armenian Youth Federation and featured Harout Pamboujkian — one of the most celebrated musicians in the Armenian community — as well as DJ Bei Ru, whose vintage vinyl sampling fused with hip-hop, funk and soul have earned him widespread recognition.

Tim Willert GLENDALE -- Vicken Sosikian will not soon forget his first visit to Nagorno-Karabagh, a battle-scarred Armenian territory east of Armenia. "It's like nothing you've seen in your life," Sosikian said Friday. "I've never seen so much destruction." The 21-year-old Glendale resident took part in a goodwill mission last summer sponsored by Armenian Youth Federation to help rebuild a region devastated by six years of fighting between Armenians and Azerbaijanis.

Ryan Carter A delegation of Armenian representatives will soon go to the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, but they might not find what they are looking for. Some Armenian officials and museum representatives seem to be at odds again over the future of a major, permanent exhibit at the center that would chronicle the Armenian Genocide, the killing of Armenians by Ottoman-Turks beginning in 1915. The U.S. government has not recognized the genocide, and Turkish officials deny it. Since the museum opened in 1993, a video describing the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust has played in a section of the museum, and the museum continues to be a hub to talk about such periods of history, officials said.

One of my students asked me to write a recommendation for a scholarship, something that I do for literally hundreds of students each year. This one, however, had terms that were different from other organizations looking to fund students’ college education. It was the Armenian Youth Federation to whom I was directing my letter, and in reading about the organization I came upon the following sentence: “The Armenian Youth Federation was founded in Boston in 1933, by General Karekin Njdeh, with the purpose of keeping the Armenian youth from assimilating.

Armenian organizations are denouncing a planned performance by an Ottoman military marching band in Hollywood. The event planned for Oct. 3 on Hollywood Boulevard between Highland and La Brea avenues has drawn widespread condemnation from Armenian groups, including the Armenian Youth Federation, which plans to protest the marching band. Opponents to the march say the presence of the band, which represents the military glory of Turkey, is an affront to the largest Armenian population outside Armenia.

Armenian organizations are denouncing a planned performance by an Ottoman military marching band in Hollywood. The event planned for Oct. 3 on Hollywood Boulevard between Highland and La Brea avenues has drawn widespread condemnation from Armenian groups, including the Armenian Youth Federation, which plans to protest the marching band. Opponents to the march say the presence of the band, which represents the military glory of Turkey, is an affront to the largest Armenian population outside Armenia.

On the heels of the 96th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, more than 1,000 members of the Armenian Diaspora gathered Sunday at St. Mary's Apostolic Church to commemorate their community's historic struggles, and celebrate their cultural successes. The event, titled “One Voice, One Cause,” was organized by the Armenian Youth Federation and featured Harout Pamboujkian — one of the most celebrated musicians in the Armenian community — as well as DJ Bei Ru, whose vintage vinyl sampling fused with hip-hop, funk and soul have earned him widespread recognition.

SOUTH GLENDALE — Nurses, union members and community activists attended a community forum Saturday to hear about the fate of Glendale Health Center, a mostly primary care facility with a staff capable of speaking six languages. The clinic is on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors list of public facilities that could be privatized in the wake of a $200-million deficit. County supervisors are not considering reductions now, but continue to evaluate the costs and benefits of ceding operational control of some facilities to private companies.

The best place to start a new column is with a little story about yourself. My father was an executive in a large U.S. corporation that moved our family around the U.S., Europe and the world. When people ask where I’m from, it’s tough to answer without giving my life history, starting with my birth city, Boston. But the longest we lived in one place was in northern Virginia, outside Washington, D.C. As we moved around internationally, I never thought about my name.

GLENDALE — As lunchtime neared Wednesday, 17-year-old Vana Aprahamian hadn’t consumed anything but water for 35 hours. Her fast would continue until Friday at midnight. “I think the first day was the most difficult day,” she said, speaking barely above a whisper to save energy. “You don’t feel hungry any more. You just feel weak.” Aprahamian is one of 32 protesters taking part in a 96-hour hunger strike on Glenoaks Boulevard across from the Armenian Consulate to protest protocols for new official talks between Armenia and Turkey.

SOUTH GLENDALE — Armenian activists insisted Wednesday that a recent federal appeals court ruling would not stop them from seeking payments from life insurance companies on the policies of those killed in the Armenian Genocide. Representatives from the Armenian National Committee and Armenian Youth Federation, among other groups, assured attendees during a town hall meeting at St. Mary’s Apostolic Church that the lawsuit’s plaintiffs, which number in the thousands, would win a favorable decision from the court as the group fights a recent legal hurdle.

A coalition of Armenian groups and attorneys are scheduled to hold a town hall meeting tonight to discuss the implications of a U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision that struck down a California law allowing insurance claim lawsuits related to the Armenian Genocide. The town hall meeting — to be held at St. Mary’s Apostolic Church, 500 S. Central Ave. — comes as Rep. Adam Schiff filed a legal brief Monday with the appellate court in support of a petition for a rehearing of the case.

BURBANK — Local members of the Armenian Youth Federation joined their fellow members across the nation Tuesday in protesting Chevron Corp.’s lobby in Washington, D.C., against a proposed resolution in the House that would formally recognize the slaughter of more than 1 million Armenians in 1915 as genocide. The protests — which took place in Burbank, Glendale La Crescenta and other cities nationwide — were in response to a Associated Press report in June that the corporation was secretly lobbying against official U.S. recognition of the Armenian Genocide.