Armenian Students Organization Marks 107th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide with Vigil

Students at the Genocide Vigil, Friday, April 22, 2022.

Staff Report

The Armenian Students Organization (ASO) held a vigil on Friday, April 22, at the Armenian Genocide Monument on the Fresno State campus. The vigil was to honor the memories of the martyrs lost in the Armenian Genocide of 1915.

Somber duduk music greeted students and guests as they gathered by the Monument. ASO President Michael Mazman and executive officers Christian Tufenkjian, Sevana Wassilian, Jonathan Chardukian, and Sara Beberian organized the event.

The vigil was opened with comments by Prof. Barlow Der Mugrdechian of the Armenian Studies Program. He then introduced ASO Secretary Sevana Wassilian, who read Hovhannes Toumanian’s poem “Hayots Vishde” (The Sorrow of the Armenians), in Armenian.

Left to right: Rev. Fr. Gomidas Zohrabian and Prof. Barlow Der Mugrdechian at the ASO Vigil.

Prof. Der Mugrdechian then spoke about the significance of collective events such as the vigil. He called for students to use the past to motivate themselves to take action in the future.

Those who died in the Armenian Genocide were canonized by the Church in 2015. Rev. Fr. Gomidas Zohrabian, Pastor of St. Gregory Armenian Church of Fowler, led a service dedicated to the Martyrs of 1915. The service concluded with the singing of Der Voghormia and the placing of flowers at the center of the Monument.