Westbound drivers on the Bay Bridge might notice the return of an unusual sign: a banner that says "Armenian Genocide 1915" and includes the link to GenocideEducation.org. The banner, installed Monday morning, hangs above the Yerba Buena Island tunnel as part of Genocide Awareness and Prevention Month.
This is the third year that a coalition of Armenian-American organizations paid $10,500 for the coveted ad location. Roxanne Makasdjian, a representative of the Bay Area Armenian Genocide Commemorative Committee, says that the banner represents an effort to remember and to acknowledge the risk of genocide today.
She cites the strife in Syria as one example: “Some of the locations where Armenians took their last breaths, where you can still find Armenian bones very close to the surface in the sand, where a small memorial existed, was bombed in Syria recently.”
The Turkish government denies the existence of the genocide that occurred as the Ottoman Empire collapsed following World War I.
"The U.S. government has recognized [the Armenian genocide], but whenever there's been a resolution that has risen through the Congress, the State Department puts pressure on Congress to not bring it to a vote," Makasdjian told KQED.