25.09.2007

In an effort to end the genocide currently unfolding in Darfur, the Armenian Assembly of America, in collaboration with �Olympic Dream for Darfur,� organized a symbolic Olympic-style torch relay at the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial Complex. Armenia is the third stop on an international symbolic Olympic Torch Relay that began border on August 8, 2007. International relay will travel through countries that define the terrible history of genocide: Rwanda, Armenia, Bosnia, Germany and Cambodia.
In the ceremony of the torch relay participated His Holiness Karekin II, Catholicos of All Armenians, the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the General Secretary of the World Council of Churches Sam Kobia, Archbishop Vigen Aykazian, Etchmiadzin's Ecumenical Legate in Washington, DC, as well as the President-Elect of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA, the director of the Armenian Genocide Musuem & Institute, Hayk Demoyan and others.
�The international community must join together to ensure that the world does not look away, yet again, when mass killing is taking place,� said Archbishop Williams. �We honor victims and survivors of previous genocides and must listen to their request to make the words �never again,� a reality, both for the people of Darfur and for the future.�
After Armenia, the torch will travel to various countries, including the US where on October 7 a ceremony will take place at Holy Trinity Armenian Apostolic Church in Cambridge, Mass. featuring His Holiness Garegin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, and Archbishop Vicken Aykazian, Legate of the Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America (Eastern) and president of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA (NCC). Torches from around the state will then converge at the Government Center in Boston for a culminating torch-lighting ceremony.
Dream for Darfur�s Olympic Torch Relay seeks to use the Olympic ideals of peace and international cooperation to raise awareness about Darfur and as a step toward building an international anti-genocide movement for the future. During the arrangement Omar Ismail, survivor of the presently ongoing Darfur Genocide and Anush Poghosyan, 6-year-old great granddaughter of an Armenian Genocide survivor hand in hand took the Dream for Darfur symbolic torch to the Memorial of the Armenian Genocide victims.
The ceremony of the torch relay continued in the Republic Square, where participants lit candles from the torch to pay tribute to victims and survivors of all genocides.