UNITED STATES NEWS

LA’s big Armenian community marks genocide remembrance day

Apr 24, 2023, 12:39 PM

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The killing and deportation of Armenians by Ottoman Empire forces in the early 1900s was remembered Monday in Southern California, home to an enormous Armenian American community that only recently has been able to celebrate U.S. recognition that the systematic oppression was genocide.

Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day was marked in the Los Angeles region by big rallies and marches long before 2021, when President Joe Biden became the first U.S. president to use the word “genocide” to describe the campaign of violence.

For decades, the White House had avoided using using the term for fear of alienating Turkey, the successor to the Ottoman Empire and a NATO ally. The government of Turkey vehemently rejected Biden’s use of the word.

Biden on Monday issued a statement renewing a pledge to never forget.

“On April 24, 1915, Ottoman authorities arrested Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople — the start of a systematic campaign of violence against the Armenian community. In the years that followed, one and a half million Armenians were deported, massacred, or marched to their deaths — a tragedy that forever affected generations of Armenian families,” Biden said.

More than 200,000 people of Armenian descent are estimated to live in Los Angeles County, where April is celebrated as Armenian History Month.

The suburban city of Glendale is a center of the community, and a small section of Los Angeles is known as Little Armenia, where a crowd gathered Monday on Hollywood Boulevard.

Traditional annual remembrance activities on or around the day include protests outside the Turkish Consulate in Beverly Hills and a ceremony at the towering Armenian Genocide Martyrs Monument on a hilltop in suburban Montebello.

The Glendale and Los Angeles school districts closed schools Monday in observance of the day. Last week, the LA district Board of Education voted to support the inclusion of an Armenian check box on the U.S. Census questionnaire so that officials can better serve the population.

United States News

Associated Press

Biologists look to expand suitable habitat for North America’s largest and rarest tortoise

ENGLE, N.M. (AP) — While the average life span of North America’s largest and most rare tortoise species is unknown, biologists have said it could span upward of a century. So saving the endangered species is a long game — one that just got another nudge forward Friday as U.S. wildlife officials finalized an agreement […]

12 minutes ago

Associated Press

Surgeons perform second pig heart transplant, trying to save a dying man

WASHINGTON (AP) — Surgeons have transplanted a pig’s heart into a dying man in a bid to prolong his life – only the second patient to ever undergo such an experimental feat. Two days later, the man was cracking jokes and able to sit in a chair, Maryland doctors said Friday. The 58-year-old Navy veteran […]

2 hours ago

Associated Press

GOP candidate challenging election loss in race to lead Texas’ most populous county drops lawsuit

HOUSTON (AP) — The highest profile Republican candidate who had sued seeking to overturn election results in the nation’s third-most populous county, a Democratic stronghold in deeply red Texas, has dropped her lawsuit. Alexandra del Moral Mealer was one of 21 GOP candidates who had filed lawsuits challenging their losses in November’s election in Harris […]

3 hours ago

Associated Press

Convicted sex offender back in custody after walking away from a St. Louis hospital

SHREWSBURY, Mo. (AP) — A man convicted of child sex crimes is back in custody after walking away from a St. Louis hospital, authorities said. Tommy Wayne Boyd, 45, was transported Wednesday from the Potosi Correctional Facility to Mercy Hospital South for medical treatment. Surveillance video later showed him walking away from the hospital, St. […]

4 hours ago

Associated Press

Lawmakers author proposal to try to cut food waste in half by 2030

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A bipartisan coalition of U.S. lawmakers has introduced a proposal designed to cut food waste in half by 2030. The lawmakers submitted their legislation on Thursday and said it would improve collaboration between the U.S. Department of Agriculture and regional waste prevention and food recovery organizations. The lawmakers said the proposal […]

5 hours ago

Associated Press

Chicago man gets life in prison for role in 2016 home invasion that killed 5 people

CHICAGO (AP) — A Chicago man convicted of fatally shooting five people during a 2016 home invasion has been sentenced to life in prison. A Cook County judge on Thursday sentenced Lionel Parks, 35, who was convicted in July in the December 2016 killings at a drug dealer’s home on the city’s South Side, the […]

5 hours ago

Sponsored Articles

...

DAY & NIGHT AIR CONDITIONING, HEATING AND PLUMBING

Importance of AC maintenance after Arizona’s excruciating heat wave

An air conditioning unit in Phoenix is vital to living a comfortable life inside, away from triple-digit heat.

...

Mayo Clinic

Game on! Expert sports physicals focused on you

With tryouts quickly approaching, now is the time for parents to schedule physicals for their student-athlete. The Arizona Interscholastic Association requires that all student-athletes must have a physical exam completed before participating in team practices or competition.

...

OCD & Anxiety Treatment Center

5 mental health myths you didn’t know were made up

Helping individuals understand mental health diagnoses like obsessive compulsive spectrum disorder or generalized anxiety disorder isn’t always an easy undertaking. After all, our society tends to spread misconceptions about mental health like wildfire. This is why being mindful about how we talk about mental health is so important. We can either perpetuate misinformation about already […]

LA’s big Armenian community marks genocide remembrance day