Demonstrators remember Armenian genocide

“Armenians and their supporters gathered on the streets of Hollywood today to commemorate the 92nd anniversary of one of the first acts of genocide in the 20th century. ‘We are recalling the attack on the night of April 24, 1915, when, in Istanbul, the leaders of the Armenian community were executed,’ Haig Hovsepian, community relations director for Armenian National Committee of America Western Region, said this afternoon. Hovsepian described the act as the beginning of years of violence against the Armenian community by Turks. An estimated 1.2 million were killed between 1915 and 1918, the last days of the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Turkey maintains that the deaths were not sanctioned by the government and disputes that a genocide took place. Even though the violence took place early in the past century, its commemoration has continued to be laden with political overtones. Los Angeles police estimated that the crowd along Fairfax Avenue at about 1,000 protesters, but Hovsepian said he thought it was double or triple that number this afternoon and growing as the demonstration neared the Turkish Consulate in Hollywood. Thousands also marched earlier in the day. The demonstrations were peaceful with no arrests or traffic disruption, said LAPD spokeswoman Officer Karen Smith.”