Rochester Community Remembers with a Map

ROCHESTER, N.Y.—The Armenian community of Rochester commemorated the Armenian Genocide with a special program on April 26. As part of the program, a map of historic Armenia was provided, and participants were asked to stick forget-me-not flowers to their families’ points of origin.

The keynote speaker was local resident Vincent Lima, the former editor-in-chief of the Armenian Reporter newspaper. Pointing to the enormous attention lavished on the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide—starting in early January with a feature story in the New Yorker—Lima said, “We are witnessing the flowering of thousands of seeds tended to over the decades” by dedicated Armenians locally and around the world.

Looking ahead, Lima said everything depended on whether a new generation of Armenians would choose to take advantage of the new openness in Turkey and “forge the future” alongside their Kurdish, Armenian, and Turkish counterparts there. Noting that in Turkey today the descendants of the victims and the descendants of the perpetrators are often the same people, Lima outlined a program of restitution that would be a win-win-win for Armenians, Kurds, and Turkey.

The program included poetry readings by Azniv Zeitounzian and Noor Lima-Boudakian, musical performances by Rochester Philharmonic violinist Tigran Vardanian, vocalists Liliana Natalie Buickians and Varduhi Pchakchyan, and pianist Suren Barry, and a personal reflection by Sara Cegelski. Nine-year-old Arev Lima Boudakian read two letters from children in Armenia who are supported by the Armenian Church in Rochester. Dr. Nancy Avakian served as emcee.