WATERTOWN, Mass.—The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) of Boston in collaboration with the Armenian churches of eastern Massachusetts is hosting a commemorative event on the first anniversary of the atrocities committed against 150,000 inhabitants of Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh) by Azerbaijan and its ally Turkey. The event will be held at the Armenian Heritage Park (Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, Boston) on Sunday, November 7 from 2:30 to 3:30 PM. The event is open and free to the public. City of Boston COVID-19 restrictions guidelines will be followed.
The brutal and unprovoked campaign leveraged NATO troops, drones, ISIS mercenaries and chemical weapons to unleash terror in an effort to erase the Armenians living peacefully on their ancestral lands. Many of these atrocities were streamed live on social media, including the beheading of POWs and the elderly. The world, beset by the pandemic, passively witnessed this forceful display of neo-Ottoman, pan-Turkic extremism. This event will be held in memory of those who lost their lives during these attacks.
A memorial service will be held by the Armenian clergy of eastern Massachusetts, presided over by Archbishop Vicken Aykazian, the Diocesan Legate to Washington and Ecumenical Officer of the Armenian Diocese, and Very Reverend Father Sahag Yemishyan, Vicar General of the Armenian Prelacy.
His Excellency Artak Beglaryan, the State Minister of the Republic of Artsakh will deliver remarks for the occasion. A graduate of the Fletcher School of Diplomacy at Tufts University, Beglaryan has previously served as the Human Rights Ombudsman of the Republic of Artsakh, advisor to the State Minister of the Republic of Artsakh, and spokesman to the Prime Minister of the Republic of Artsakh. In 2018, he obtained his PhD in political science from the Institute for National Strategic Studies in the Republic of Armenia. Beglaryan is the embodiment of the resilience of the Armenians of Artsakh. At the age of six, he lost his eyesight due to a landmine explosion; his father was martyred during the first Artsakh war.
A memorial service will be led by the clergy of the Armenian Church of Our Savior, Worcester; Armenian Church of the Holy Translators, Framingham; Armenian Memorial Church, Watertown; First Armenian Church, Belmont; Holy Cross Armenian Catholic Church, Belmont; Holy Trinity Armenian Church, Cambridge; Holy Trinity Armenian Apostolic Church, Worcester; Soorp Asdvadzadzin Armenian Apostolic Church of Whitinsville; St. Gregory Armenian Apostolic Church, North Andover; St. Gregory Armenian Apostolic Church, Indian Orchard; St. James Armenian Church, Watertown; St. Stephen’s Armenian Apostolic Church, Watertown; Sts. Vartanantz Armenian Church, Chelmsford; and The Armenian Apostolic Church at Hye Pointe, Haverhill.
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