OAKLAND, Calif. — Approximately 100 Armenians from the San Francisco area gathered at St. Vartan Armenian Apostolic Church at 6 p.m. on Friday, October 2 for a prayer vigil to show support for the Armenians of Artsakh during the ongoing Azerbaijani attack.
Parish priest Rev. Krikor Zakaryan presided over the outdoor vigil. Local Bay area television crews, including Fox News (KTVU) and NBC, filmed the gathering, and KTVU reported on it in its 10 p.m. broadcast that night. Social distancing and the wearing of masks were enforced.
The photographs herein are courtesy of Kim Bardakian.
Fox News broadcasted its report on the vigil, presenting the Artsakh conflict as two communities fighting over land. It also included an interview with a local member of the Azerbaijani community who argued that the perpetrators of earlier anti-Armenian acts in the area such as graffiti on the local Krouzian-Zekarian-Vasbouragan Armenian School painted this July and the fire in the Armenian church and its community complex were not Azerbaijanis and that his community felt insecure. See this link: https://www.ktvu.com/video/857110
