I was puzzled and disappointed by the overall lower turnouts for our April 24th period events this year, especially compared to last year. This was across the board, at all events. The number of events was down, too. Even Lobby Day in Sacramento saw a decreased turnout.
Is it because it’s not a “big” year in the count from 1915? By that I mean a multiple of 5 or 10. Last year it was the 95th, this year… Conversely, this year, April 24th fell on a Sunday, so there could not have been work conflicts for those who want to attend any of our events.
Meanwhile, our foes are gearing up, becoming more sophisticated, more attuned to the American political battlefield, and getting very moneyed up. Think about Yalcin Ayasli (Yalchin Ayashli) and his $30 million Hittite Corp. stock donation to start the Turkish Coalition of America, probably millions more to the Turkish Cultural foundation, and most importantly, over a quarter million dollars of political giving by him and his family just in 2010! Make no mistake about it, all that money is aimed straight at fighting our community in the U.S. and worldwide in our efforts at securing that which the Turkish government has stolen from us.
So what are we doing while the Turks are getting their act together? Not participating, that’s what! And why aren’t we? Well, it seems some nasty stuff went down almost 2,000 years ago, and a day that floats the breadth of two months of the year is used to recognize/celebrate that 2,000-year-old stuff. This year, that day happened to fall on April 24th. Well, as a result, everyone was busy eating dyed eggs and fish and visiting friends and family. Our church, the Armenian Apostolic Church (AAC), for whatever reason, chose to inflict and impose the results of the arcane formula of when Easter is celebrated on the nation whose child it is. Disregarding the conflict, yes conflict, created by the coincidence of April 24th and Easter for the first time since the date became relevant to our nation.
Why did the church do this? Simple habit? Greed? Remember, this is the biggest church attendance day which means a lotta loot flowing into the church’s collection plates. Public relations obliviousness? Imagine if the date had been changed, say, to the old system under which we celebrated Easter much later, sometimes in May. Think of the media frenzy “Armenian church moves Easter!” the headlines would have screamed. And, immediately after, the “why” would have been answered, further generating genocide awareness among our neighbors. This mistake is unconscionable. If it is to remain our national church, then the AAC should act the part.
All the linguistic gymnastics, at all the events, tying together Easter and April 24th, the “death and rebirth” gimmick, that were on display can’t make up for the harm done to our efforts in furtherance of our just cause. Imagine, at the Unified Young Armenians event, though hyped as having huge attendance while the opposite was true, at least one speaker expended great effort to tie Easter and April 24 together. Yet the event was topsy-turvy with the rally first and the march following, almost assuring that even the crowd that had gathered would tend to dissipate. All this because of the Easter conflict.
The gathering at the Montebello Martyrs Monument was held not on the 24th, for the first time in at least 15 years that I can remember. It was moved to the 23rd. This in turn caused a dual conflict of that gathering with the AYF’s “Cycle Against Denial.” The times of both events overlapped; plus, a group of bicyclists riding from Glendale to the gathering at the monument and back resulted in two cycling events on the same day, at partially overlapping times.
The only unchanged event was the AYF-organized demonstration at the Turkish Consulate. Much credit is due the AYF for resisting pressure to change even this most politically relevant of our events.
All this happened because of a lack of foresight and proper consideration of our nation’s needs on the part of our church leadership and insufficient pressure from us, the laity, the Armenian community.
Let’s never allow this to happen again!
Garen Yegparian
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Garen, I ,like you, speculated and wondered about the reasons for poor turnout, also. But I personally think the scheduling of events on the the 23rd or 25th was not as big a deal as you do. I’m okay with giving Easter its due and don’t mind the death and resurrection metaphors employed to symbolically link the convergence of Easter and Martyrs Day. I don’t share your cynicism and contempt for the church, but I do think much more could have been done from the pulpit and church/community halls with this rare occurrence. If the crowds had come out on Saturday (23) or Monday (25), it still would have been relevant and noticed. But they didn’t and the events were duds as PR events. Why didn’t they come? Apathy? Lack of leadership? Sense of futility? Busy with the holiday? Focus on life over death? Battle fatigue in the face of unrelenting Turkish denial schemes? Perhaps if our communities had coordinated all our commemorations to take place on the same day (23, 24, or 25th) it might have had a bigger impact. But it didn’t happen. We (the Armenians in America)are having a bad year and appear almost rudderless. You are right to alert us to the ongoing battle that the denialists are waging. We really need to get our act together because I don’t think I can bear another perfunctory, passionless hokehankisd (memorial service) next year. I just wonder who or what can overcome the malaise and jumpstart our commitment to the fight for justice.
Because The Day of Resurrection of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, which this year fell on April 24th, has the greatest meaning to the Christians, and to the Christian Armenians in particular, since we believe that we Him we will also rise from the ashes of Genocide. I thought it should have been clear to the author…
Partisan politics as always.
“Much credit is due the AYF for resisting pressure to change even this most politically relevant of our events.”
versus
‘All the linguistic gymnastics, at all the events, tying together Easter and April 24th, the “death and rebirth” gimmick, that were on display can’t make up for the harm done to our efforts in furtherance of our just cause. Imagine, at the Unified Young Armenians event, though hyped as having huge attendance while the opposite was true, at least one speaker expended great effort to tie Easter and April 24 together. Yet the event was topsy-turvy with the rally first and the march following, almost assuring that even the crowd that had gathered would tend to dissipate. ‘
As a former AYF member, this “you are either with us or agaist us” attitude against the UYA is not going to take us anywhere. Not only in this article, but also in his other article regarding hte same subject, Garen indirectly attacks Unified Young Armenians. Let’s say they had 5000 people, how many people were in Montebello? 500? Sad day for our people. This animosity towards this group is just pitiful. I hope to see the party/organs/members which I am a hamakir of would have the maturity to not go with the “you against us” politics of Lebanon.