Fresno remembers Armenian genocide with symbolic flag raising | Fresno Bee
The Armenian flag was raised outside Fresno City Hall on Thursday in remembrance of the estimated 1.5 million people killed or displaced during the Armenian genocide. The genocide was carried out against Armenian Christians living in the multiethnic Turkish Ottoman Empire. Holocaust scholars consider what occurred to Armenians starting in 1915 to be a genocide and inspiration for Nazi Germany’s mass persecution of Jews during World War II. “There were approximately 1.5 million Armenians living in the multiethnic Ottoman Empire in 1915,” says the United States Holocaust Museum. “At least 664,000 and possibly as many as 1.2 million died during the genocide, either in massacres and individual killings, or from systematic ill treatment, exposure, and starvation.” One of the places that Armenians fled to was California’s Central Valley and Fresno specifically. In 2021 then-President Joe Biden gave official U.S. recognition to the Armenian Genocide, straining relations with Turkey’s government, which has always denied such an event occurred. Pulitzer Prize-winning author William Saroyan of Fresno, himself an Armenian, once described the resilience of the Armenian people this way: “Go ahead, destroy Armenia. See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” Fresno’s Honorary Consul to Armenia Berj K. Apkarian carries the country’s flag at the annual Armenian genocide commemoration and flag-raising ceremony at Fresno City Hall on April 24, 2025. JUAN ESPARZA LOERA jesparza@fresnobee.com Fresno’s Honorary Consul to Armenia Berj K. Apkarian raises the country’s flag at the annual Armenian genocide commemoration and flag-raising ceremony at Fresno City Hall on April 24, 2025. JUAN ESPARZA LOERA jesparza@fresnobee.com A man wears an Armenian-themed cap at the annual Armenian genocide commemoration and flag-raising ceremony at Fresno City Hall on April 24, 2025. JUAN ESPARZA LOERA jesparza@fresnobee.com A member of the Homenetmen Fresno Sassoon Scout Chapter holds the Armenian flag at the annual Armenian genocide commemoration and flag-raising ceremony at Fresno City Hall on April 24, 2025. JUAN ESPARZA LOERA jesparza@fresnobee.com The Armenian flag was raised at Fresno City Hall at the annual Armenian genocide commemoration and flag-raising ceremony at Fresno City Hall on April 24, 2025. JUAN ESPARZA LOERA jesparza@fresnobee.com Rev. Fr. Ashod Khachadourian of Fresno’s Holy Trinity Armenian Apostolic Church awaits the start of the annual Armenian genocide commemoration and flag-raising ceremony at Fresno City Hall on April 24, 2025. JUAN ESPARZA LOERA jesparza@fresnobee.com Students from the Charlie Keyan Armenian Community School in Clovis sing during the annual Armenian genocide commemoration and flag-raising ceremony at Fresno City Hall on April 24, 2025. JUAN ESPARZA LOERA jesparza@fresnobee.com Students from the Charlie Keyan Armenian Community School in Clovis pose for a photo with Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer during the Armenian flag raising at the annual Armenian genocide commemoration and flag-raising ceremony at Fresno City Hall on April 24, 2025. JUAN ESPARZA LOERA jesparza@fresnobee.com
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