LOWELL, Mass.—Long a hotbed for Armenian activity, the City of Lowell will show its appreciation by honoring a special request.
A genocide memorial will soon be erected right by Municipal Hall on land donated by the city. It will be right by a flagpole that flies the Armenian Tricolor every April during a genocide commemoration and traditional flag-raising ceremony.
Mayor James L. Milinazzo gave his blessings toward the project after meeting with members of the Armenian National Committee of Merrimack Valley, which is spearheading the endeavor.
“Armenians have long been a prominent fixture in our community,” he said. “Immigrants have settled here and contributed to the overall economy in every manner possible. They are a proud ethnic race and deserve this memorial as a testament to all those who survived the genocide as well as the 1.5 million victims who perished at the hands of the Ottoman Turks during 1915-1923.”
Although the ANC is serving as the catalyst, a pan-Armenian committee will be formed to include churches, benevolent groups, and the youth. The monument will serve as an icon for all Merrimack Valley, which houses some 5,000 Armenians and three Apostolic churches.
Plans call for an aggressive fund-raising campaign to have the memorial in place for the genocide centennial in 2015. Projected cost for the stone and appropriate landscaping is between $15,000-$20,000.
Committee members feel the memorial could be erected well before the centennial date, depending on outside contributions. It occurs at a time when a Heritage Park project is taking place on Boston’s Rose Kennedy Greenway by Faneuil Hall.
Already in place at Lowell City Hall are monuments depicting the Polish and Portuguese populations. The Armenian stone will run parallel to the Portuguese by the front stairs, visible to foot traffic.
For years, Armenians have gathered here for their observances each April 24. Proclamations have been delivered and the staircase has served as a rallying point. A monument will serve as the added complement.
“We’ll get the spot reserved and have it on everybody’s radar,” said Mayor Milinazzo. “Such a memorial would be an honor for our city. What’s critical at this point is how to get the project going.”
A presentation will be made before the City Council.
During the formative stages, a sign will be erected on the spot reading: “Future site of Armenian Genocide Memorial.”
Tom Vartabedian
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I think we need to do the same in every state that recognized the Armenian genocide, thank you Lowell Armenians for the good work.
Bravo Lowell Mayor Milinazzo, Armen Jeknavorian and Stephen Dulgarian. At least since 1866 when M.J. Topalenian arrived in Lowell from Constantinople, to take lessons in Public Speaking *, Armenians have looked to Lowell for a new life.
“Then in 1999, the Lowell National Historical Park Historian, Gray Fitzsimons, conceived a project to study immigrant entrepreneurs, not just the ones who got rich but also those who were mildly successful and those who were failures. He called them penny capitalists, people starting with nothing etc.. The name of the project is Ethnicity and Enterprise. (New Business in the New World. )
Web site: < http://ecommunity.uml.edu/eth_ent/addr/Hig-124/High-_st124.htm>
I went to this site and learned much more than I had heard or was told while growing up. I learned my great uncle ran a boarding house and his wife started a dressmaking business and later a school for the same.
Sme of the pieces lying in my memory bank waiting for mating like a jig saw puzzle were gradually put together making for a clearer picture of those years almost a quarter of a century before I was born!
The site gave me answers to questions I had and also questions to ask. E.g. two generations and three members of my family ran a bakery in Avedis Torigian’s Grocery store at 125 Charles St.. Question: Is this the same Torigian family which gave Peabody their longest running Mayor?
Thanks to the Lowell Immigrant experience web site, hints my uncle gave me when I’d ask questions, two Sookikian women at the same hotel in Florida getting the others phone calls, I can safely say, “Yes, I am related to Col. Karl E. Soukikian.
* I came across Topanelian in an autograph book i bought in a used book store in Lowell. From the other entries I gleaned the school was related to Public Speaking. Also, Topanelian name came up in the recent summer lecture tour of Worcester where one of the first buildings pointed out was the auditorium where the speaker gave the first lecture in Armenian: and his name was Topanelian!!
I suspect there is more Armenian American history between 1866 and World War I when Armenians answered the call of duty. “Vahram”