by Michael Manoog Kaprielian
Times Square photo Berge Ara Zobian Caption: V.V.A. 273 flag bearers Roger DiPierro & Karl Antonevich Begin forwarded message:
The Rhode Island State Council and its three chapters—James Michael Ray Memorial Chapter 818, Washington County Chapter 325, and Providence Chapter 273—joined hundreds of others from Rhode Island traveling to New York City to commemorate the Armenian Genocide.
Twelve buses left Providence in the early morning of Sunday, April 26. One hundred years earlier one and a half million Armenians were slaughtered by the crumbling government of the Ottoman Empire. The Times Square demonstration also paid tribute to those who perished in subsequent genocides.
National Chaplain Fr. Phil Salois, State Council President John Weiss, and other Rhode Island VVA members joined six hundred demonstrators from the state representing many ethnicities. Armenian Americans were joined by Jews, Guatemalans, Cambodians, Native Americans, African Americans, Greeks, Kurds, and refugees from the Ivory Coast.
We don’t go silently into the night. VVA in Rhode Island sees its role as a leader. Twenty-five years ago VVA rallied three hundred Rhode Islanders to the State Capitol for a candlelight commemoration emceed by Chapter 325 member Tom Suprock, who was shot down nine times in Vietnam. That event paid homage to the victims of the Armenian Genocide and called for the universal recognition of human rights.
Now, a quarter century later, VVA members carrying VVA and Rhode Island flags joined many thousands at Times Square, including many other veterans of the wars in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. They committed themselves to helping those who had escaped persecution for “Hope”—Rhode Island’s one-word motto and guiding principle.
One 19-year-old refugee from the Ivory Coast was put on VVA’s bus by her mother, who witnessed the killing of her elder daughter in Sierra Leone. The surviving daughter dreams of becoming a lawyer for human rights. Rhode Island VVA members are focused on doing what they can to advance that dream.
M. Manoog Kaprielian is a founding member of Chapter 273 and the former Rhode Island State Council president. He is very active in VVA and Armenian affairs. He can be reached at: aniprov@earthlink.net