PASADENA, Calif.—On Sunday, April 27, Hundreds of Armenian Americans gathered at Memorial Park in the City of Pasadena to witness the Armenian Genocide Memorial Consecration which had been in the works for the better part of a year. As dusk was setting in, the crowds, which included Armenian clergy from various church denominations, local and state officials, various Armenian American organizations, community leaders, guests and more than 700 community members made their way to the site where the consecration took place.

 

The Genocide Memorial will be unveiled by the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. The atrocities by the Turkish Government began by systematically killing and slaughtering 1.5 million Armenians beginning on April 24, 2015, where today it is officially recognized and documented as the Armenian Genocide.

Earlier in the week on Tuesday, April 22, 2014, the City of Sierra Madre City Council, while welcoming several of its newly elected council members presented a Certificate of Recognition to the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) – Pasadena Chapter, commemorating the 99th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. This is the second consecutive year that the City of Sierra Madre City Council has issued a proclamation acknowledging the April 24, 1915 atrocities perpetrated by the Turkish Government against the Armenian people. As a community the City of Sierra Madre stands together and joins the Armenian community to memorialise their fallen ancestors, and ensures that such horrible acts are not repeated ever again. Councilmember John Harabedian, who moments earlier was appointed as the city’s Mayor, presented the proclamation to Shoghig Yepremian, the Chairperson of the ANCA – Pasadena Chapter, after she had conveyed a message condemning the atrocities of 1915. A powerful message was preceded by a poignant and deeply affecting message by ANCA Western U.S. Regional Committee Member, Raffi Kassabian, who said, “This crime of genocide committed against the Armenians has gone unpunished for far too long and the time has come to put things right.”

The Pasadena Unified School District (PUSD) Board, on April 24th, 2014, also acknowledged the Armenian Genocide by adopting Resolution 2,283, in part the resolution reads as follows, the Pasadena Unified School District, in partnership with the Armenian National Committee of America and Senator Carol Liu, sponsored additional training presented by the Genocide Education Project for high school Social Studies teachers to incorporate the study of Armenian Genocide and other genocides into their curriculum as required by California State Standards.

The City of Pasadena City Council, a day after the Consecration of the Genocide Memorial site, on April 28, 2014, issued its Genocide Commemoration Proclamation, an act that the city has duly followed for 32 years. The Proclamation was received by ANCA – Pasadena Chapter Board Member Aida Dimejian shortly after she delivered a passionate and powerful speech castigating the Turkish Government, the perpetrators of the crime of the century 99 years ago.