111th Anniversary of Armenian Genocide Commemorated at Mass. State House

Rep. Owens invited Kenneth Keverian to present the Honorable Speaker George Keverian Public Service Scholarships on behalf of the Keverian family. Keverian, nephew of the former speaker, noted that last month Jack Keverian, brother of the former speaker, passed away. The parents of Jack and George, Nazar and Eliza Keverian, were immigrants who worked hard to build their futures as part of the American Dream, he said. Now the family awards annually two scholarships to young people who hopefully will be leaders in the future.

The first winner, Emma Perry, is an outstanding student at Everett High School in the top 5% of her class who will be pre-law at Hofstra University and pursuing a career in public service. As she is travelling abroad, Dr. John Braga, the principal of Everett High School, and Alfred Lattanzi, a former Everett City councilman and close friend of the Keverian family, accepted the award on her behalf.

The second award was given to Aram Baghdasaryan, who was born in Stepanavan, Armenia, and now is a junior at Harvard University, majoring in statistics and government. President of the Armenian Student Association at Harvard and president of the Harvard Boxing Club, Keverian said that Baghdasaryan has worked on projects related to development of his motherland and is looking to build a career in public policy and international affairs.

Jermaine McCalpin Delivers Keynote Speech

Brownsberger introduced the keynote speaker, Dr. Jermaine O. McCalpin, who is an Associate Professor of Africana Studies at New Jersey City University and a leading scholar of genocide studies, transitional justice, and the politics of memory. For more than 20 years, his research has focused on the history, denial, and enduring global implications of the Armenian Genocide. Dr. McCalpin has shared this work in Armenia and across the Armenian diaspora in Glendale, New York City, Worcester, Boston, New Jersey, Toronto and Quebec, and has presented on Capitol Hill to advocate for national and international recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

Brownsberger said that his scholarship and public engagement continue to advance critical conversations on truth‑telling, recognition, and reparative justice, making McCalpin a respected voice in the ongoing effort to honor the victims and uphold human dignity.

McCalpin recalled that he first heard about Nagorno Karabakh as an elementary school student in Jamaica through reading a history textbook in 1986 and this childhood memory resurfaced when he began scholarly work in 2005 on reparative justice.

McCalpin called for “recognition [of the Armenian Genocide], not simply as acknowledgement, but as acceptance of a long historical wrong as the precursor to repair.” McCalpin stated that “a genocide denied is a genocide continued.” In other words, “Denial is an act of sustained violence. And so recognition is not just symbolic, it is a form of justice. You see, recognition restores dignity.” He said that his work has shown that denial rewrites documents, erases testimonies and reframes atrocities as ambiguity, so that “to confront denial, is to defend the very idea of evidence documentation and research.”

He said that reparation is about repairing the future, declaring, “Genocides destroy not only life, but livelihood. Armenians lost homes, land, businesses, churches, and entire communities. And so, I think of reparation in a three-pronged way. There is material reparation, which includes the restitution of confiscated properties, compensation for economic loss, and support for Armenian cultural and educational institutions. These are not acts of charity, they are acts of justice. The second type of reparation is cultural reparation. In my research on cultural memory, I have seen how genocides target language, ritual, and identity. Reparation culturally must therefore protect the Armenian language, Armenian religious life, Armenian historical sites, and Armenian cultural production. To safeguard culture is to safeguard survival. Third is political reparation. That means ensuring that Armenian communities in Armenia and the diaspora have the security, sovereignty, and international support needed to thrive. It also means acknowledging ongoing threats, including those faced by Armenians in Arkansas.”

He concluded, “May our pursuit of justice, whether for Armenians, or for the descendants of the enslaved, or for any people denied their humanity, … bring us closer to a world where dignity is not deferred, but dignity is delivered.”

A musical interlude was presented by the St. James Armenian Choir, directed by Deacon Asatur Baljyan accompanied by pianist Anahit Karchikyan, including the pieces Ov Hayots ashkharh [O Land of the Armenians] composed by Makar Yekmalian, and the famous Armenian folksong of longing Dle Yaman, as arranged by Aleksandr Harutyunyan.

Aspram Israyelyan’s Reflections

Rep. Muradian introduced Aspram Israyelyan, a graduate student at Harvard University specializing in political science with a focus on Russia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Born and raised in Artsakh, her work is deeply shaped by personal experience with conflict and displacement. Muradian observed that she focuses on regional security, geopolitics, and post-Soviet affairs, and has conducted research and policy analysis with institutions including the United Nations and the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard.

At the start of her clearly heartfelt and moving talk, Israyelyan declared: “For many, Artsakh is a political question. For me, it has been the place where I learned my first words, my first songs, my first sense of belonging. And that is why today, as we commemorate April 24, I do not speak about memory as something distant. I speak about memory as something I inherited, and then lived.”

She said that she initially thought that the Western Armenian poetry that she learned and recited as a child reflected loss and emotions that belonged to a different generation, but “then 2020 came. War was no longer inherited memory. It was names I knew. Classmates my age. Cousins I lost.”

This was followed by the 2022 blockade, which she followed from outside, worrying daily whether her family had enough to eat, and final ethnic cleansing of Artsakh in September 2023. Israelyan continued, “And, I believe, this is where commemoration becomes responsibility. Because genocide remembrance is about understanding what the Armenian Genocide taught us to recognize: that erasure is not only the violence itself. It is also what makes that violence possible, and what later tries to justify it.”

Denial became policy and so, she said, “That is why Artsakh belongs in this remembrance: not as a comparison, but as a continuation of the questions Armenian history has never stopped asking. What happens when a people are removed from their land, and the world debates the vocabulary? What happens when suffering is visible, but responsibility remains negotiable? What happens when survival itself is used as proof that nothing irreversible happened?”

Remembrance must become refusal to allow the erasure and denial, she emphasized. Moreover, she said, “But I believe that with truth, justice, and memory, return is never impossible. Until that day, it lives in the dialect I speak, in the memories I carry, and in the responsibility I refuse to set down. A homeland is not erased when its people are forced out. It is erased when the world agrees to forget who lived there, who prayed there, who buried their dead there, and who still carries the right to return. I refuse to forget. Հիշում ենք. We remember.”

Muradian in his closing remarks reminded those present that “remembrance is not passive. It is a responsibility – a responsibility to speak the truth, to confront denial, and to ensure that future generations understand not only what happened, but why it must never happen again.” Part of this, he said, “is getting involved. It is educating. It is having those difficult conversations. It can look completely different to each and every one of us, but we owe it to our Armenian martyrs to keep their memories eternal.”

An excellent meal was offered after the formal event by Arsen Karageozian of Noor Mediterranean Grill, while flowers were from Stapleton Florist and bus transportation to and from the State House was provided by Ararat Lodge No. 1.