BY ROSARIO TEIXEIRA
From the Armenian Weekly
BOSTON, Mass.—About one week before the 99th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, Peace of Art, Inc. was notified by Clear Channel that the Armenian Genocide commemorative billboard, which had been on display at Lechmere Station in Cambridge, Mass., had to be removed. It seems that this year, an anonymous entity had deemed the message on the billboard—“Recognize the Crime of the Century, the Armenian Genocide”—to be of a political nature. The 2013 message, which read “Honoring the memory of 1.5 million lives lost, Armenian Genocide. Recognition and condemnation,” was displayed in the same location and without incident.
Peace of Art, Inc., is a non-profit educational organization registered with the Massachusetts Secretary of State, and tax exempt under section 501 (C) 3. Its projects involve bringing awareness to the human condition, such as hunger, homelessness, and deportation. One of its projects is to sponsor billboards to bring awareness to genocide. Since 2003, Peace of Art has sponsored the Armenian Genocide commemorative billboards that call for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide. Peace of Art maintains that it is not a political organization, is not associated with any political organization, and does not issue political opinions, beyond stating that genocide is a crime against humanity.
Clear Channel has classified the billboard as a political awareness message—”one of two sides of an issue”—and removed the billboard located at Lechmere Station, while offering to place the billboard in one of two unsold locations in Cambridge. Therefore, for the remaining of the month of April, the Armenian Genocide commemorative billboard can be seen on Massachusetts Avenue and Walden Street in Cambridge.
Daniel Varoujan Hejinian, the president of Peace of Art, Inc., said the removal is unjust and unjustified. “It doesn’t matter how many sides an issue has, the truth has only one side. The Armenian Genocide is recognized by 21 countries and 42 states of the Union including Massachusetts,” he explained.
For more information, visit www.PeaceofArt.org.
Rosario Teixeira is the executive director of Peace of Art, Inc.
What’s done is done, no sense is whining, instead it would be of great interest to Armenians across the U.S. who or what this “anonymous” entity was, how much they paid Clear Channel to remove the billboard, and what their motives were.
This should be investigated, and the story should be splashed across every major Armenian website so that we can reveal who are enemies are in the US of A. No more of this cloak and dagger BS. Hound and investigate that matter until everything is revealed. Then we can deal with them . ..
1926, August 1: In an interview with the Los Angeles Examiner, Atatürk stated that the remainders of the Young Turk government should be held accountable for the Armenian Genocide. “These left-overs from the former Young Turk Party, who should have been made to account for the millions of our Christian subjects who were ruthlessly driven en masse, from their homes and massacred, have been restive under the Republican rule”, he said.[4][5]
True American “democracy” and “freedom of the press” in its purest form: for sale to the highest bidder. There is no shortage of Turkish “ads” in major American controlled media, nor does the “home of the brave” have any problems with Turkish billboards and posters on buses and subways calling into question the facts of the Armenian Genocide… But billboards which may upset their precious allies in Ankara or Tel Aviv (they don’t want any “competition” in the genocide category) get pulled down ASAP. America’s bought and paid-for media is no different than its bought and paid-for politicians.
If something like this had occurred in Russia, which btw fully recognizes and commemorates the Armenian Genocide, there would be a dozen western-funded NGO’s organizing protests in front of the Russian embassy in Yerevan. But whether its outright denial of the Armenian Genocide, or sponsoring the terrorists which carried out the massacre at Kessab, or making Turkey a partner in their F-35 fighter jet program, or upgrading their nuclear arsenal in Turkey, it seems the US can get away with hurling whatever insults and attacks against Armenia and Armenians that it wants. The “democracy now(!)” activist Armenians will continue to regard the US as the “leader of the free world” and a shining example of a “free press”.