South Florida Community Commemorates Armenian Genocide

City of Boca Raton Proclaims April 24, 2014, Armenian Martyrs’ Day

BOCA RATON, Fla. – Hundreds of members, friends and human rights activists from the South Florida Armenian American community will gather at St. David Armenian Church this week to commemorate the 99th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

Armenians around the world commemorate the genocide on April 24, when in 1915 Turkish authorities arrested some 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople. Thereafter, Armenians were uprooted from their homes and forced to march for hundreds of miles, depriving them of food and water, to the desert of what is now Syria. Over 1.5 million Armenian men, women and children perished from 1915-1923 in what historians recognize as the Armenian Genocide. While 23 countries have officially recognized the events of the period as genocide, Turkey denies the word genocide as an accurate description of the events. In recent years, it has faced repeated calls to accept the events as genocide, but has refused to do so.

Last week, Susan Haynie, Mayor of Boca Raton, issued a proclamation naming April 24, 2014, as Armenian Martyrs’ Day and calling upon the citizens of Boca Raton “to join all Armenians worldwide to observe the 99^th commemoration of Martyr’s Day in the hope that these days of infamy will never be forgotten.”

This year’s commemoration follows on the heels of the April 12^th Walk Against Genocide in Mizner Park, a walkathon organized to raise funds for genocide awareness, community outreach and advocacy for more comprehensive genocide education in Florida public schools.

David Silvers, Candidate for Florida House District 89, addressed the crowd of over 250 walkathon participants: “The actions of the Ottoman Empire perpetrated on the Armenian people was and is an affront to all of humanity. I strongly believe that politics shouldn’t get in the way of facts. It’s a fact 1.5 million Armenians died as a result of this genocide. It’s a fact that national, state, and local governments all over the world have recognized this genocide. It’s a fact that all of the lives lost mattered and refusing acknowledgment of this genocide is the type of political gamesmanship that’s beneath the American people.”

The commemorative service and program will take place at St. David Armenian Church in Boca Raton on Thursday, April 24, beginning promptly at 7:00 p.m. All are welcome.