PAWTUCKET ??? This past Sunday, April 24th, the City of Pawtucket raised the Armenian flag in front of Pawtucket City Hall, marking the seventeenth straight year that the City has done so.
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The date holds significance due to the fact that on April 24th, 1915, three hundred Armenian doctors, lawyers, priests and community leaders were publicly executed in the center of Constantinople. The event, now on its 101st anniversary, is viewed as the beginning of systemic elimination of the Armenian people from their homeland and the precursor to 1.5 million men, women and children losing their lives during that period.
Rhode Island is currently home to over 12,000 people of Armenian descent. One of whom is State Representative Katherine Kazarian, a Senior Planner in the City of Pawtucket???s Planning Department. Kazarian recently introduced a resolution, H-8084, urging president Obama and Congress to officially recognize the genocide.
???I am so grateful to the City of Pawtucket for flying the Armenian flag on April 24th, the day in which the Armenian community remembers the 1.5 million Armenians who were massacred by the Ottoman Empire during the 1915 Genocide. It is so important that we gather to remember those that perished and do all we can to spread public awareness on the issue, so that we can work to prevent these types of atrocities from ever happening again.???
???Pawtucket is proud of the many contributions to our City and our culture, made by its residents of Armenian descent,??? said Mayor of Pawtucket Donald R. Grebien. ???We are happy to demonstrate our support to the Armenian community each year by raising the Armenian flag every year and we will continue to do so in the future,??? added the Mayor.