On Sunday, April 26, at 1 p.m., the San Diego Armenian community will feature renowned professor and scholar Dr. Taner Akçam as the keynote speaker at its 2026 Armenian Genocide Commemoration, to be held at St. Sarkis Armenian Church in Carmel Valley.

Akçam is the inaugural director of the Armenian Genocide Research Program of the Promise Armenian Institute at UCLA. Previously he was the Kaloosdian and Mugar chair in Modern Armenian History and Genocide in the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Clark University, according to a news release.

Akçam is widely recognized as one of the first Turkish scholars to write extensively on the Ottoman-Turkish Genocide of the Armenians in the early 20th century. His latest book is Killing Orders: Talat Pasha’s Telegrams and the Armenian Genocide (Palgrave 2018). He last spoke in San Diego in 2018.

The cultural program will feature musical performances by youth and adults of the San Diego Armenian community, and a Q&A with Akçam after his remarks. Refreshments will be served after the event. The church is located at 13925 El Camino Real, San Diego, 92130.

The commemoration committee is co-chaired by Hygan Nalbandian and Sarah Baghdasarian and is comprised of representatives from all San Diego Armenian organizations, including St. Sarkis Armenian Church, and Very Rev. Fr. Pakrad Berjekian, Parish Priest; all St. Sarkis Church organizations, and the San Diego chapters ANCA, ARF, ARS, ASA, Homenetmen, Knights and Daughters of Vartan, and Trex Fraternity.

For more information, contact info@stsarkischurchsd.com.