good evening my name is you're our hopes up and i'm a town meeting member from precinct four and a member of the boston armenian genocide commemoration committee board of selectmen friends and g this april is the one hundred third anniversary of the armenian genocide i would like to thank the thank our board of selectmen for this proclamation and for honoring the memories of the one and a half million armenians who were killed during the armenian genocide of nine hundred fifteen to nine hundred twenty three men women and children were killed in unspeakable and inhuman ways by the ottoman turkish government in order to annihilate all armenians living on their ancestral homeland for thousands of years many of you have heard or read about the first genocide of the twentieth century we are here today to remember and honor those martyrs we also commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of the february one thousand nine hundred eighty eight soon guy program in azerbaijan when the armenian communities against the beginning of the current got off conflict where it's predominantly armenian population is fighting for its independence rather than be doomed to genocide again on april twenty three  one hundredth anniversary on april twenty three twenty fifteen at the one hundredth anniversary the armenian church in armenia come for sainthood for the one and a half  victims killed during the genocide this was the largest canonization service in history the repercussions and effects of a genocide is immense and it lasts longer than the survivors lives and their descendants continuing for decades and perhaps centuries for armenians it has already been affecting for power past a century denial is the last stage of genocide and as long as the perpetrator the inheritors of the ottoman turkish government the republic of turkey denies the genocide then the wound is left open the genocide continues and there is no si of the healing process in one nine hundred forty eight the united nations in article two of the convention defined the crime of genocide as follows any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy  whole or in part a national ethnic racial or religious group as such killing members of the group causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group deliberately in fl inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group forcibly transferring children of the group to another group humanity is the most beautiful picture that anyone can imagine in myriads of collars and shades this picture is made up of trillions and trillions of dots as in a printed gray scale photo or the cells on a digitized photo when you look at this picture you don't see the dots or the white background in a tabloid the picture of humanity will be lost by allowing genocide to continue we will be losing our humanity by not remembering those dots those lost dot selves we will not be able to reconstruct that beautiful unique picture let us remember those killed in the armenian genocide and the subsequent holocaust and genocides to the present day happening in the middle east and africa let us remember that individually as dots and cells we cannot be a beautiful picture but only with other dots and cells o different colors and shades we can become the most spectacular picture in the universe belmont has a vibrant armenian community many of whom are descendants of the armenian genocide survivors we live alongside of at least thirty six other nationalities with different backgrounds and religions we together make belmont what is and other small towns and cities across america make what america is today let's keep this that humanity picture in mind when we look at our neighbors and keep belmont the welcoming town it is on friday april twenty eighth ten thirty am the one hundred third anniversary commemoration of the armenian genocide will be at the massachusetts state house in the house of representatives chamber with keynote speaker rafi bedrosian this will be followed by a reception and everyone is welcome to attend thank you for listening and with your permission i was going them here it is just real quick to put this in perspective the seventy three bus which ones from waverly to harvard square has about three thousand inbound boardings every morning most of which are from belmont so if you think about it something like you know ten to fifteen twenty percent of the people who commute in belmont ride this bus so macon this bus better which we have the opportunity to do in a couple of ways going getting on the bus going in about another you know the same three thousand coming back out every day every day six thousand trips but you know if you think of the number of people who are commuting from belmont how many is that you know fifteen thousand maybe and they know you guys you've got kids and people are staying home and space intersections it has to be for we have to work together for a bus and to be fast to be reliable so we're still we're we're trying to think through the process even better with all the different towns and years in towns and cities throughout the region the process of even thinking through i