By Brandon Balayan
The Armenian International Women’s Association held an ecumenical event this week at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. The event brought attention to the Armenian prisoners and hostages currently held in Azerbaijan.
In attendance was Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who brought forward a successful motion last week demanding the release of prisoners and hostages.
“The Armenian hostages and prisoners are not mere statistics…we must and we will leverage our voices to condemn these atrocities,” Barger said. This, just days after she had spearheaded a resolution passed unanimously by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to demand the prisoners’ release and impose sanctions on the Azerbaijani political leadership.
Azerbaijan released 32 prisoners of war on December 7. However, there are at least 21 prisoners being held in Azerbaijani custody, and 80 soldiers and civilians still missing. Some experts believe they are being held as bargaining chips in negotiations.
The family of an Armenian civilian held in captivity has appealed to the International Committee of the Red Cross for information about his whereabouts after Azerbaijan published his name on a list of prisoners that would be released, but was not.
The evening at the Cathedral was a show of solidarity with those being held captive, and included speeches from several leaders in the community.
Los Angeles City Council President Paul Krekorian discussed the international community’s response to the ethnic cleansing of Nagorno Karabakh.
“Nations around the world continue to assert piously the phrase ‘never again,’ but outrageously and hypocritically those empty words mean nothing without action,” Krekorian said.
Gassia Apkarian, a Superior Court Judge in Orange County, California, and cofounder of the Center for Truth and Justice spoke about this action.
“We will fight. We will make sure that unlike what happened in 1915 those who commit atrocities will be held accountable,” Apkarian said.
Apkarian explained that as long as there are Armenians who are being held captive and tortured by Azerbaijan, they will find lawyers and advocates to take them to court.
Dean of St. Mary’s Armenian Apostolic Church in Glendale Rev. Fr. Zareh Sarkissian reminded everybody why they were there.
“The main reason we are gathered here is to remind ourselves, not God, that we have the duty to act, a call to work, a communal responsibility to take measures,” Sarkissian said.
Primate of the Western Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Archbishop Hovnan Derderian, spoke of the genocidal acts during which the prisoners were detained.“The events of the 44 Day War and subsequent exodus of 120,000 Armenians from Artsakh amount to nothing less than ethnic cleansing,” Derderian said. “Speaking of the genocidal events that unfolded in the recent history of the Armenian people before the so-called civilized world is a heart wrenching experience.”
After Derderian spoke, Archbishop José H. Gómez Prelate of the Los Angeles Archdioocese of the Catholic Church hosted the event and led everyone in the final prayer.
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