Epress.am News from Armenia
US lawmakers representing Burbank and Glendale (state of California) turned their focus to Armenia last week, holding meetings with representatives of the Armenian-American community and hosting events recognizing the Armenian Genocide, reports the Glendale News-Press.
On Thursday, Assembly member Mike Gatto (D-Silver Lake) led the Assembly’s annual commemoration of the genocide. Archbishop Hovnan Derderian, Primate of the Burbank-based Western Diocese of the Armenian Church of North America, offered the invocation. The state’s official recognition, Derderian said in a statement, “gives us the spiritual strength to hold firm the essence of our Christian faith and heritage and to become devoted citizens of this blessed country of the United States of America.”
Assembly member Anthony Portantino (D-La Cañada Flintridge) is co-author of this year’s measure setting aside the week of April 18-24 for the state to recognize the genocide. Gatto introduced a measure this year extending the period of time that descendants of genocide victims can use California courts to pursue insurers for unpaid policies stemming from the time of the atrocity.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank), author of legislation seeking congressional recognition of the genocide, sent a letter to US President Barack Obama last week asking him to use the word “genocide” when publicly acknowledging the history of Armenia. That is something Obama did on the campaign trail in 2008, but not since.
“I ask you to return to the clarity you so forcefully expressed in 2008, and stand with the ever-dwindling number of survivors, as well as the descendants of others, who survived the Armenian Genocide and continue to suffer the ‘double killing’ of denial, by referring to it as a genocide,” Schiff wrote.
The Turkish government strongly opposes recognition of the atrocity as genocide, and lawmakers who emphasize the United States’ reliance on Turkey as a key political and military ally in the Middle East have blocked genocide recognition efforts.
Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks) and Schiff were among the two dozen members of Congress present at Wednesday’s Capitol Hill Armenian Genocide Commemoration. Sherman, who has pressed the State Department for a commitment to police potential aggression by Azerbaijan in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, also met this week with Bryan Ardouny, executive director of the Armenian Assembly of America.
Schiff met with Ken Hachikian, chair of the Armenian National Committee of America.
The Glendale City Council has declared April as genocide recognition month, and the Burbank City Council is slated to issue a similar proclamation on Tuesday.