April is Armenian Heritage Month and Armenian Genocide Remembrance Month. 

By Mary O’KEEFE

On Monday the City of Glendale hosted the Annual Armenian Genocide Commemoration event at the Alex Theatre. The Glendale City Council opened the event with a video recognizing the importance of the night’s commemoration. It was followed by a chamber choir presentation, poetry readings and a little jazz to lighten the evening. The final event on the program was a performance by the Lernazang Ensemble.

  The two-hour program ended with closing remarks by Glendale Mayor Ara Najarian. He reminded his audience that this year’s event honored the memory of the more than the 1.5 million lives lost during the Armenian Genocide. Najarian also said that the event celebrated the resilience of the Armenian people through the evening’s performances and reflections.   

  As the audience exited the Alex, groups formed to share their experiences of the commemoration.  

   “The performances were outstanding,” said Burbank resident Nune Dilanyan. “It was a beautiful event. I’m proud of Armenia. I’m proud to be an Armenian woman.”

  Dilanyan’s friend Anahit Karapetyan, a Glendale resident and Haikian Chamber Choir singer, performed at the commemoration. 

“I want my voice to be heard,” said Karapetyan.

The month of April is set aside as a time to honor those who were murdered during the Armenian Genocide, and those who survived to tell the story. From 1915 to 1918, a campaign of deportation and mass killing was conducted against the Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire by the Young Turk government during WWI. It has been deemed by many as an act of genocide. 

At Monte Vista Elementary School throughout the week students learned about the Armenian culture. 

Alena Betcheri is the Armenian Cultural community chair at the school. The week provided numerous aspects of the Armenian community including Armenian food, music and art. 

Suzi Reil is the school’s art teacher. Her students learned about Armenian artists and then created art reflecting the Armenian culture. Among the things the children did was paint a likeness of Mount Ararat. 

“They [created] pomegranates and used different mediums that were important to Armenians,” Reil said. 

The kids used a variety of mediums including cloth and wool. This is Reil’s first year as an art teacher at the school but one visit to her classroom and the talent of the budding artists was obvious. 

“I think art teaches self-confidence and they are learning that it’s okay to make mistakes,” she said. 

Armenian art and creativity was found everywhere on Monte Vista’s campus. Author Narine Minasyan shared her book, “The Adventures of Andre and Noyemi: Barev!” the first in her series involving characters Andre and Noyemi. The book is about a brother and sister, Andre and Noyemi, and a walk through their neighborhood. They share what they are learning about the Armenian language and then learn other languages from their multi-cultural neighbors. 

She started writing a few years ago when she noticed there were not children’s books reflecting her Armenian culture.

“[I started writing] after I became a mom,” she said. She was born and raised in America and wanted her children to see the joys of the Armenian culture. 

Her first book, the one she read to the students at Monte Vista, was about language. As she read to the students, many of whom were not Armenian, they learned an Armenian word from the book’s title – Berev, which means hello. She has written another book that celebrates Armenian food, and one that focuses on music and dance. The last in the series is when Andre and Noyemi travel to Armenia. 

She told the students she will be writing other books that follow other cultures. 

“My main focus is celebration, not tolerance,” she said. “I wanted kids to learn the positive side of Armenia.”

Minasyan added she did not like the word tolerance; she would rather have people celebrate other cultures rather than simply tolerate them. 

Minasyan told the students the main characters of her books, Andre and Noyemi, are in fact her children and their walk around their neighborhood inspired the books. 

Annabelle Kyurkchyan, a Monte Vista student, said she liked learning about Armenian art and liked the different languages in the story. The brother and sister spoke to neighbors who spoke Spanish, Japanese, English and Hindi. 

Another student, Gregory Hopalian, said he liked the book because he learned about different cultures.

During Armenian Cultural Week the Monte Vista Elementary family will learn some of what their students learned, which includes an art show displaying landscapes of Mount Ararat and pictures of colorful pomegranates adorning the walls.