Recently, four Armenian-American high school students, Ema Bandazian, Jacqueline Fales, Gaby Bedrosian, and Kristina Bedrosian, brought attention to the Armenian Genocide, in the current year of the Centennial of the crime, by discussing their family histories with a local New Jersey newspaper, “The Record.”
The girls, who are students at the Northern Valley Regional High School at Old Tappan (NV/Old Tappan), are involved in the school’s tennis program.
Tennis players Fales (third singles), Bandazian (second doubles), and sisters Gaby Bedrosian (second singles) and Kristina Bedrosian (team manager) spoke about how they carry on the memory of the Armenian Genocide.
Written by Bob Shwalb, the article focused on how the high school tennis players are all connected to the Armenian Genocide, and highlighted the story of Parantzem, Fales’s great-grandmother, who survived the genocide and made her way to the United States. Her story was passed down through the generations, and today it remains with Fales.
“I’ve heard the story a lot,” Fales told the paper. “My grandmother and my mother have been telling it since I was little. They tell it at family gatherings because it’s a huge part of our history. They want to make sure we don’t forget,” she said.
Fales and Bandazian are members of the Armenian Youth Federation (AYF) Eastern Region.
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