Appo Jabarian Gives the Invocation; Commemorates the 1.5 Million Armenian Martyrs
The GBRA reception on Wednesday, April 27th was a successful event that featured a commemoration of the 107th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide and had a panel of Republican and Democratic candidates running for elected office in the Glendale-Burbank area.
Appo Jabarian, Managing Editor of the USA Armenian Life Magazine, gave the invocation and commemorated the 1.5 million Armenian martyrs who were massacred in the Armenian Genocide. He mentioned how some of the survivors of the Armenian Genocide migrated to the United States of America and became productive members of American society while keeping their heritage.
The event also featured Craig Missakian, a Former State and Federal Prosecutor; lawyer in Pasadena. He told the story of his grandfather who survived the Armenian Genocide and came to the United States of America. Missakian’s grandfather served the United States by joining the United States Marine Corps and became the oldest Marine alive passing away at 104 years old.
The opening remarks and the introduction of the guests were performed by Lois Lee Brand Billings, Pres. GBRA.
The event concluded with the candidates’ panel where candidates for School Board, City Council, City Clerk, CA State Assembly, and U.S. Congress were featured.
The candidates hail from both Republican and Democratic parties.
The following is Appo Jabarian’s invocation:
Dear Almighty father the Creator of this beautiful Universe and all the blessings in it, the king of all kings.
O Mighty God,
First and foremost, we thank you for everything that you gave all of us — the gift of life that we received from you.
Lord, thank you for your kindness and goodness and for showering your blessings upon us.
In spite of the challenges that we face in this turbulent world, we feel able to carry on, because you’re still with us — to empower us to continue our existence with righteousness, courage and wisdom.
Lord, we thank you for bringing us together, this evening of April 27th with the initiation of Glendale Burbank Crescenta Valley Republican Assembly to hold a commemoration of the 1915-1923 Turkish-executed Armenian Genocide and dispossession inflicted upon millions of Armenian, Greek, Assyrian and Yezidi innocent victims.
This commemoration is more than a remembrance of a tragic and formative event in the psyche of the Armenian people. It is a disquieting reminder of man’s inhumanity to man — humanity’s propensity to project its demons on others, then attempt to exorcise them by murdering the other. And furthermore, by attempting to silence the victims in order to escape unpunished and to obstruct Justice;
When Hitler saw what had been done to the Armenians and that the world did nothing to stop it, he knew that he had found the Final Solution.
Mass murder is one of the common threads that link the Ottoman Turks, Azerbaijani Turks, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Rwanda, Darfur all the way back to Cain and Abel.
This, 107th Commemoration Day of the Armenian Genocide, is a stark and timely reminder that the conditions that enable and foment this ancient evil are being recreated in our country, and other countries around the world in our times and in our schools.
Lord, empower us to urge our leaders to defend these Great United States of America’s sovereignty, independence and all the liberties bestowed upon my Fellow Americans;
Empower us to urge our leaders to hold all the perpetrator-nations like Turkey and Azerbaijan and groups accountable for their crimes against humanity; to urge our leaders to help the victims of all genocides to achieve Justice.
In closing, I would like to quote Pulitzer-Prize winning American writer William Saroyan:
“I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose history is ended, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, whose literature is unread, whose music is unheard, whose prayers are no longer uttered.
Go ahead, destroy this race. Let us say that it is again 1915. There is war in the world. Destroy Armenia. See if you can do it. Send them from their homes into the desert. Let them have neither bread nor water. Burn their houses and their churches. See if they will not live again. See if they will not laugh again. See if the race will not live again when two of them meet in a beer parlor, twenty years after, and laugh, and speak in their tongue. Go ahead, see if you can do anything about it. See if you can stop them from mocking the big ideas of the world, a couple of Armenians talking in the world, go ahead and try to destroy them.”
Lord, thank you for inspiring William Saroyan to write these passages narrating the rebirth of the genocide-stricken Armenians who rose yet again from the ashes of the 2020 unprovoked Azerbaijan-Turkey-ISIS Terrorist attack against Armenians of Armenia and Artsakh Republic.
Thank you for the noble-spirited fellow American starting with world-famous comedian Charles Chaplin all the way to all good-hearted Americans who rushed to the rescue of tens of thousands of orphaned survivors of the Turkish-execute Armenian Genocide; Helping them to rebuild their broken lives from the ashes of Armenia.
As a third-generation survivor of the genocide, O Lord, thank you for creating America and my prayers are for the preservation of righteous, courageous and humanitarian America not just for the good of my fellow Americans but for the good of humanity and our global village. Amen.