Candles are placed in front of a monument to Armenians who lost their lives in a violent clash on the country’s border. (Christine Kao/Daily Bruin team)
About 80 other people gathered outdoors at Royce Hall Monday night for a candlelight vigil honoring lives lost due to the recent violent clash on the border with Armenia.
The vigil, organized through the UCLA Armenian Student Association, included dozens of candles arranged in the shape of a cross and the flag of the Republic of Armenia, said Mher Arutyunyan, chairman of the ASA’s political affairs committee. The vigil is also a reaction to recent conflicts between Azerbaijan and Armenia, ASA President Angela Minasyan said.
The organization also displayed a flag of the Republic of Artsakh, also known as the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which is not recognized worldwide, said Arutyunyan, a fourth-year political science student. In the fall of 2020, Azerbaijan — subsidized through a key ally — Turkey — unleashed a standoff in the region that lasted 44 days, according to the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs.
According to the United Nations, more than a hundred Armenian foot soldiers were killed after the recent clash between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops over the disputed border territory, which has been ongoing since the 1980s.
The SAA unfurled the flag of the Republic of Artsakh at the vigil to illustrate how recent times are of a greater history of violence in the region, Arutyunyan added.
“As Armenian-Americans, it’s almost (like) that we have a dual identity. . . We live in two other time zones,” Arutyunyan said. It allows for an area where those two identities can rest in combination across from Royce Hall at America’s first public university, and we can reflect on our identity and communicate with each other. “
U. S. politicians and have also expressed considerations about the conflict.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi condemned Azerbaijan in September, the country had committed an illegal attack, according to Reuters. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who has helped bring stability to the region, called for peace after the violence, according to Al Jazeera.
“These Americans were 18-year-olds, 17-year-olds who, just to protect their homeland, protect their homes and not be forcibly expelled from their homes, had to preserve their land,” said Minasyan, a fourth-year psychobiology student. “This prayer service paid tribute to those who had to rise up strongly and sacrifice their lives for the well-being of generations of Armenians. “
The Lemkin Institute for the Prevention of Genocide also issued red flag alerts for Azerbaijan following continued attacks on Armenians by Azerbaijani soldiers. The alerts mean advances in places that show symptoms of genocide. A Friday alert from the institute noted that the existing violence against Armenia has parallels with the Armenian Genocide of 1915.
The ASA recently signed an open letter with other Armenian student organizations from U. S. universities, such as Harvard University, UC Santa Barbara and the University of Southern California, denouncing Azerbaijan’s Armenian sovereignty, said Mary Keushkerian, ASA’s external vice president.
The letter, signed through organizations from 15 universities made up of at least 1,000 people, calls on the U. S. education network to condemn the invasion and is part of a national motion in Armenia, Arutyunyan said.
Minasyan also said members of the Armenian diaspora in cities such as New York and Los Angeles have spoken out against violence, adding that Los Angeles has one of the largest Armenian populations in the United States. Without this collective voice, Armenians threaten to waste their culture and identity, he said.
“At the very least, I hope stopping by here will take a moment, prevent and check what’s going on,” Minasyan said. “Because at the end of the day, that small step, that little effort, taking a look to see what’s going on, can open up a whole story that other people can figure out for themselves and discover for themselves. “
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