The UC Santa Barbara Armenian Student Association organized a day of rallying in light of Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day on April 24. Over 100 years after the systematic massacre of up to 1.5 million Armenians during the reign of the Ottoman Empire, the genocide has not been acknowledged by the Turkish government.
The Armenian Student Association erected a miniature version of the Tsitsernakaberd, a monument in Armenia dedicated to remembering victims of the Armenian genocide. Shengyu Zhang / Daily Nexus
“A lot of people don’t even know what the Armenian Genocide is. That’s why we’re currently trying to acknowledge and recognize the Armenian Genocide on campus,” fourth-year political science major and vice president of the Armenian Student Association (ASA) Lilian Mkrtoumian said.
From spring 1915 through autumn 1916, at least 664,000 and as many as 1.5 million people died during the genocide, either in massacres, individual killings or ill treatment, such as exposure and starvation during World War I. While many historians, governments and the Armenian people said the campaign was a deliberate effort by the Turkish government to destroy the Armenian people, the Turkish government has resisted calls to recognize it, citing that no specific policy of extermination was implemented against the Armenian people as a group.
Additionally, the ASA is trying to get Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day recognized by UCSB. On April 16, the group addressed the Associated Students Senate to request April 24 be recognized by UCSB as Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day and designate April as Armenian Heritage Month.
Other universities have acknowledged the genocide with remembrance events, including UC Los Angeles, UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz. In 2021, the United States officially recognized the Armenian Genocide under the Biden administration.
Beginning at 9 a.m., the ASA organized in front of the Student Resource Building, in front of Storke Tower and at the UCSB Library steps until noon. They held signs that read “1915 never again,” “recognize Armenian Genocide” and “Never forget 1.5 million lives,” while waving the Armenian flag. Mkrtoumian said the purpose of the demonstration is to spread awareness and educate the student body.
“I conducted an informal survey at the UCSB Library, and I just asked 66 random students if they have ever heard of the Armenian Genocide, and 44 of them had never heard of it, and 22 of them knew,” Mkrtoumian said. “Out of those 22, only 16 of them knew about it because of friends. So there were only a handful of students that actually knew about it because of being informed through an institutional setting.”
Later that evening, the ASA organized in front of Storke Tower for a vigil in remembrance of the lives lost in the genocide. They erected a miniature version of the Tsitsernakaberd, a monument in Armenia to remember the victims of the Armenian genocide, dotted with electric candles drawing out a cross. With about 40 participants each holding a rose, third-year economics and accounting major Aren Divanyan commenced the vigil with a prayer.
“As we lift our hearts in prayer and remembrance, we declare to the world that faith is stronger than fear, that love outlasts hate, and that God’s light still shines through the darkest chapters of our history,” Divanyan said.
“1.5 million of our brothers and sisters passed through fire and sword, torture and sorrow. They were driven from their homes, marched through deserts, stripped of their dignity and what they carried could never be taken. They carried the love of Christ, and they didn’t lay it down, not even at the gates of death,” he continued.
Fourth-year biology major Zhenni Stepanyan also read a poem titled “Echoes of the Past,” describing a nation’s “dream turned to ash” and that through generations, memories shall persist. She said that through the telling of their ancestors’ stories, a “hope begins to bloom.”
After the poem, the group held a moment of silence for three minutes. The attendees broke the silence by laying their roses onto the Tsitsernakaberd replica, with the Storke Tower bell ringing at 8:00 p.m.
Silva Ohanian, a Lebanese Armenian and Santa Barbara local whose grandparents were victims in the genocide, said she was happy to see young generations come together and build a community of support. She called on them to advocate against injustice to politicians. She also urged them to speak out against injustice in all forms, referencing the Holocaust, the Armenian Genocide and what she described as the ongoing genocide of Palestinians.
“Wrong is wrong. Right is right. And generations like you, if you don’t stand up, if you don’t bring it up, who cares? Who’s gonna listen?” Ohanian said.
Third-year geography major Eric Mesropian said that while there are larger Armenian diasporas in Los Angeles, Fresno and on the East Coast, there is a small community in Santa Barbara.
“This is 110 years ago, so it has been quite a while in history. It kind of feels like it happened only a second ago, in terms of history, really, if we look back at human civilization, right?” Mesropian said. “However, for me, what’s important is just that we can be as a community, united, standing together to understand what events have occurred to us as a people, and how we can use it to shape our identity now.”
Divanyan said his great-grandfather on his mother’s side went into hiding in a barn during the Armenian Genocide. His great-grandfather lost his family, and he was able to survive because a Turkish family sheltered him.
“I think the one thing that we don’t want to get twisted is that, like, we’re putting this on the people, we’re putting this on the government, the pressure that they indoctrinated people, because at the end of the day, there was a lot of Turkish people who aren’t taught in history that help as well during the genocide,” Divanyan said.
Stepanyan said she remembers her mom telling her stories about how her family had to bury their jewelry and pack as little as they could to flee from Armenia because no one knew the siege was coming. Stepanyan was born in Armenia and moved to the United States at three years old.
“To bring awareness and to bring everyone together and have this big group and have vigils and events and send money to Armenia, it just shows that no matter what, we’re gonna be together. And if we keep continuing the efforts this way, then hopefully everyone else will acknowledge it and help fight for us,” Stepanyan said.
The ASA also organized a bake sale earlier that week with homemade Armenian pastries and had a pie-throwing contest, which raised $1,200, according to the ASA philanthropic chair and fourth-year electrical engineering major Samvel Manukyan.
The funds will support Armenian refugees displaced by the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War. The war was a land dispute between Azerbaijan, Armenia and the self-declared Armenian breakaway state the Republic of Artsakh. More than 100,000 ethnic Armenians fled from Nagorno-Karabakh following Azerbaijan’s military offensive, which was preceded by a nine-month blockade.
“These refugee families are really displaced. They don’t really have many needs, and they didn’t really have the technology and all the stuff that is necessary for them, so we tried providing means for getting them on their feet,” Manukyan said.
A version of this article appeared on p. 3 of the May 1, 2025 edition of the Daily Nexus.
