Armenian Community Center of Greater Detroit donates Armenian Genocide books to Novi Public Library

L-R: Novi Public Library collections specialist Betty Lang, Dzovinar Hamakordzian and Georgi Oshagan of the Armenian Community Center of Greater Detroit

NOVI, Mich.—The Armenian Community Center of Greater Detroit presented noteworthy books about the Armenian Genocide to the Novi Public Library in a meeting on Thursday, June 30 at the library. Dzovinar Hamakordzian and Georgi Oshagan represented the community center.

The book donation was initiated during Michigan’s observance of the Days of Remembrance of the Armenian Genocide as set forth in Michigan Act 558 of 2002, which marks the state’s week-long observation of the Armenian Genocide.

The community center’s effort was also made to support Novi middle and high school students who are required to study the Holocaust, Armenian Genocide and other genocides as part of the state’s curriculum under Public Act 451 of 2016.

The Armenian Community Center is moving from Dearborn to Novi and looks forward to having an active and positive presence in the city.

“We are pleased to receive the books on the Armenian Genocide from the Armenian Community Center of Greater Detroit,” said Novi Public Library collections specialist Betty Lang, who met with Hamakordzian and Oshagan at the library to accept the books.

“These books will be a welcome addition to the studies of our Novi students,” Lang added.

The donated books are: An Inconvenient Genocide: Who Now Remembers the Armenians? By Geoffrey Robertson; The Spirit of the Laws: The Plunder of Wealth in the Armenian Genocide by Taner Akcam and Umit Kurt; The Burning Tigris by Peter Balakian; Therefore, God Must be Armenian and Truth Held Hostage: America and the Armenian Genocide, both by John M. Evans, and 100 Years Strong: The Armenian Genocide in Posters 1915-2015 by Dicran Y. Kassouny.

“We hope that the book donation will allow Novi students and other Novi community members to learn about the history and horrors of the past in the hopes that they are not repeated by future generations,” said Hamakordzian.