Apr 23 2005
Karen Price, Western Mail
WHEN Wales became one of the first nations in the world to recognise the Armenian genocide, one man wanted to say thanks.
Arnaud Amat did not even know where Cardiff was when the National Assembly made the decision just over two years ago.
But he sought the city out, came over on an exchange as a charity worker and has now organised the first ever concert of Armenian music on Welsh soil, which takes place tonight.
More than a million people died in a series of massacres carried out by Turkish members of the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1923. The Turkish government denies the killings constituted genocide but has come under increasing pressure over the last few years to recognise the crime.
In December 2002, a cross-party group of AMs got together to declare the genocide “one of the sad chapters in the annals of contemporary history”.
Cardiff Council then became the first British city to recognise the genocide, incorporating it into its Holocaust Memorial Day commemorations in January.
“The Welsh Assembly members’ meeting came about when Europe was still not recognising the genocide as it should,” said Mr Amat, who is French but of Armenia origin. “I wanted to see Cardiff and pay tribute to the people because of that.”
Mr Amat is now working in Cardiff for a year with the young people’s charity ProMo-Cymru and has organised for Keram, a band playing traditional Armenian music, to perform in the city.
The concert takes place in the Reardon Smith Theatre at the National Museum and Gallery in Cardiff tonight at 8pm.
Yorumlar kapatıldı.