Panel at Harvard on ‘Armenia 1915-Auschwitz 1945’

BELMONT, Mass.—A special program commemorating the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide and the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, entitled “Armenia 1915-Auschwitz 1945: Small Nations and Great Powers,” will take place on March 25 at 7 p.m., at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, Starr Auditorium (Belfer B-200, 79 John F. Kennedy St., Cambridge). The event is co-sponsored by the Harvard Kennedy School European Club, the Harvard College Armenian Students Association, the Mashtots Chair in Armenian Studies at Harvard, and the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR). It is free and open to the public.

Participating in the program will be Dr. Simon Payaslian, Charles K. and Elisabeth M. Kenosian Professor of Modern Armenian History and Literature, Department of History, Boston University; Marc A. Mamigonian, director of Academic Affairs, NAASR; and Dr. James R. Russell, Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University. Hovhannes Ghazaryan, a graduate student in the Mid-Career Master in Public Administration at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, will serve as the moderator. Fr. Arsen Barsamian of St. James Armenian Church of Watertown will offer an opening prayer in Armenian, and Russell will give a concluding prayer in Hebrew.

The panelists will explore interrelationships between the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust, with particular attention paid to the direct ties between the two genocides, some of the similarities and differences in the genocidal processes as well as the denial of both genocides, the role of self-defense on the part of Armenians and Jews against the Ottomans and Nazis, respectively, and the role of the Great Powers in the genocides and their aftermath. Following the panelists’ presentations, there will be a discussion period followed by a reception.

For more information about this event, contact NAASR at (617) 489-1610 or hq@naasr.org.