[27 February 1988]
American-Armenian support of Armenian and worldwide claims regarding Mountainous Karabagh
a.
Thousands of Armenian immigrants here, and children and grandchildren of immigrants, are watching the Armenian protests in the Soviet Union with anticipation, concern and frustration.
It is estimated that 200,000 Armenians or their descendants have settled in Los Angeles County, primarily in the suburban community of Glendale. Of those, about one in four arrived in the last 10 years, seeking jobs and fellow Armenians after being driven by war and revolution out of Lebanon and Iran.
[…]
Telephone calls into Soviet Armenia were for the most part cut Tuesday. A few callers to California on Thursday from Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, painted a picture of widespread but peaceful protest in the capital, with the police joining some demonstrations.
[…]
Armenian newspapers here have been flooded with phone calls from American-Armenians. Apo Boghigian, editor of the Glendale-based Armenian-language newspapers Asbarez, said one of his best news sources from Soviet Armenia this week was a telephone operator who could not connect him with friends.
“She said she wanted to join the demonstrators but had to work,” Mr. Boghigian recalled. “She said her kids were doing the demonstrating for her family.”
[The New York Times, February 27, 1988]
b.
[25-28 February 1988]
In the diaspora, rallies demonstrating support and solidarity with Armenian protesters in Armenia and Karabagh took place in Paris (3,000 people) on Thursday, Feb. 25; in New York (1,000) and Washington, D.C. on Saturday; in Montreal, Toronto, Cambridge, and Los Angeles (5,000) on Sunday; in San Francisco on Monday.
Similar gatherings were organized in Argentina, Lebanon, Greece (800 people) and elsewhere.
The Armenian communities of Egypt and Cyprus have sent petitions.
[Asbarez, March 5, 1988]
c.
[28 February 1988]
More than 5,000 Armenians – – young and old, men and women – showed a serious concern last Sunday, as they staged an organized peaceful demonstration, a march in solidarity with their brothers and sisters who were demonstrating in Yerevan and Karabagh for the return of Karabagh to Armenian rule and reunification with Armenia.
[…]
The demonstrators, led by American, California and Armenian flags and the clergy of the Prelacy as well as members of the Diocese, and some Armenian political leaders, moved south toward Los Angeles City College where the crowd of at least 5,000 gathered in front of the Little Theater, open air, in the courtyard, and attentively followed the program.
[…]
A telegram was read, which was to be sent to Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev in support of the Armenians in Yerevan and Karabagh and asking him to seriously consider the reunification of Karabagh with Soviet Armenia.
[The Armenian Observer, March 2, 1988]
d.
[12 March 1988]
Several thousand Armenians poured into the streets of downtown Los Angeles on Saturday to protest the killing of Soviet Armenians and to demand that a mountainous piece of their former homeland be returned to them.
They marched to City Hall, where teen-age boys ran along the stone steps and jumped on a fountain to see who could wave the large Armenian flags the highest. Loudspeakers, the size of filing cabinets, sent the sound of patriotic songs and an afternoon of speeches by Armenian church, political and civic leaders drifting down side streets.
”We are not going to sleep until the people of Karabagh sleep in peace,” vowed one of the speakers, the Rev. Berj Djambazian of the Armenian Congregational Church, to rousing cheers. ”We won’t smile until the people of Karabagh get their smile back.”
[Lynn O’Shaughnessy in the Los Angeles Times, March 13, 1988]
The Karabagh File, Documents and Facts, 1918-1988, First Edition, Cambridge Toronto 1988, by the ZORYAN INSTITUTE, edited by: Gerard J. LIBARIDIAN, pp. 116-117.
