as the state representative for the twenty ninth middlesex district a district that is centered on water tower and home through a vibrant and proud of our media and community and on behalf of the other legislators who are hosting this event senator william brown representative john my representative here miss ellie and representative of rogers i thank you for joining us for the commemoration of the ninety nin anniversary of the armenian genocide every year for nearly three decades the legislature and state leaders in massachusetts have convened this event to honor the victims and survivors of the armenian genocide to recognize the genocide and crimes committed by the ottoman turks to celebrate the remarkable resilience and spirit of the armenian people and to dedicate ourselves to preventing the recurrence of genocide anywhere in the world you know this event was first held under the leadership of a great speaker of the house and a great armenian american george very and we're very pleased to have his brother and other members of the very a family with us here today it is now my great privilege to introduce the current speaker of the house no speaker since george to various has been more supportive of this event and the cause of the armenian people than speaker dil during the genocide they also celebrated the wider immigrant experience the importance of immigrating to our national identity and the contributions that immigrants of all backgrounds made to american culture and society as we reflect today by your trip to consider that symbolism in the gratitude that we owe to the armenian community thank you for allowing me to be part of that decision here today thank you very much d i was thinking about spending a moment with you this morning i was struck by how poignant it is at least for me to have a patient on this my left here you remember but i will never forget it was a moment in the campaign when my own human rights bona fides had been called into public life having spent market higher professional career on these very issues of affirming film and t v and it was in this chamber sitting in the bath as a first time handed and feeling frankly overwhelmed by that experience and by an attack that went right through not just what i feel but while that this community open there's other speakers will say made our commonwealth better but i'm here to tell you that you have made this med better and it's been my honor to work with you and alongside of  on a whole host of issues including i'm proud to say the armenian heritage part which i think is frankly a triumph for all this is the first time that i've had the privilege to be here since being elected in two thousand and twelve and since being elected it's been my great and good fortune to get to know wonderful warm people in the armenian community  if you would now please remain standing while children from st stephens and the armenian sisters academy saying america the beautiful and the armenian national  extraordinary collaboration with my colleagues on the design concepts committee the armenian heritage foundation organizations and individuals within the armenian american community its public location suggested a design solution reflecting a spirit of universal if we would work toward an urban setting that might resonate with us  except for the native americans from your armpits all our forebears fall for some cases we're away from family and community coming to this great country today my title is spelled with an h y e of those of you that think we just cannot call titian's we as a people and everywhere political elected leaders are people seeking office go should always be remembered for taking the time out of their day they have busy days they have long days and the i'm going to be naming a number of the human rights groups and we've been we've been blessed to be joined by a number of human rights groups to be here today and what i would ask is there's a number of them that i named each of you that you please stand but we hold our applause till the end community relations council emily writing jewish community relations council rabbi ronnie friedman temple israel in brookline shared her with legislators director of the massachusetts immigrant and refugee advocacy coalition a once again as they have come to support us we should always remember that when they need our friendship and our support as well i'd also like to name a few counsels general in their fishing capacity that are here and again if you can hold our applause but if they could stand so that we know who they are community we thank them deeply for their support of the community and for honoring our margins as well so thank you very much for the metropolitan it today as we remember commemorate the ninety ninth anniversary of your meaning genocide we also remember those who suffered and died in other genocides and dedicate ourselves to preventing future genocide this year marks the twentieth anniversary of the genocide against the tutsis and rwanda in which nearly a million pretty and moderate hutu men and women and children were slain please join me in recognizing four special guests of our commemoration this year who are leaders from the rwandan survivor unity and if i can have them stand as i know it's their names and holder applause until there are four of them and these names or even for an armenian are difficult so i apologize if they're there to present a challenge to me so before i begin this i apologize in advance news were really covering bogus thank you terry  importantly will begin at armenian heritage part in the air at the new england holocaust memorial in a short distance i think it's a very touching tribute to our investment in our community as well it will feature reflections on genocide rwanda and armenian jewish and other community leaders and so please if you have a moment please join us on the thirteenth on sunday and i mean you've heard of far too speak about genocide that is still going on today and will go in the representatives of the di archdiocese for our union genocide commemoration we received the following note from dr p tony kushner the associate director of the office for ecumenical and into religious affairs of the archdiocese and i would like to read it to you because it is very powerful with the steam in the lord we bring the solidarity of the archdiocese to the armenian community at the commemoration of the ninety nine cent tannery of the armenian genocide the holy father pope francis has affirmed clearly that the armenian genocide nine hundred fifteen from one nine hundred twenty two is the first genocide of the twentieth century it is an act of justice to recognize this and the archdiocese does so today with you following the holy see for example sadly we are not only referring to history in the suffering of the armenian people as many of them are forced from their homes in syria even today this is why we stand together more than ever with our brothers and sisters of armenia the first nation to become christian in three hundred and one eighty councilman mr driscoll thank you so much for bringing this message to us it is one that is extremely powerful aside from the walk on sunday the thirteenth we've got a couple of vents that i do want to mention to you as well we've got a vigil genocide of the democratic republic of congo in watertown massachusetts again that's april twenty seventh at two p m and once again please join us as we recognize those other genocides that have occurred as we know they do with us and lastly on this wednesday next wednesday april sixteenth at tufts university at the garter chapel we will be featuring the high sheriff of middlesex county as a speaker that e and i hope that you will join us there i've only been to that event once or twice before it's not something many of us go to but i will be speaking about something very different and i'm honestly i'm not used to stressed out about speaking but this is something a little bit different more personal i will be speaking about so i'll be speaking about the awakening i will be speaking about my own rebirth my own awakening my own personal s knows last year this ceremony was canceled it was a terrible terrible day we're offering skill and there was an occupation by law enforcement of watertown in a way that was set to protect us and to protect us in the wake of the boston marathon bombing in the murder of mit police officer sean collier during a long and grueling hours that police officers state trooper sheriff's deputies and federal agents and i was out saw my own deputies out there walking from house to house walking by seeing steve in school clearing the school not knowing what was around each corner a terrible long day there were many individuals and businesses who step forward supporter of food and drinks for conducting the search and i still remember getting a call because my deputy says we need some food we need some food we need something and i think i remember thinking well it's just around the corner to lunch what's the big deal with get some lunch and then i look at my watch and it was nine thirty in the morning they've been out for so many hours by that point so those people that did gave them food and drink are here with us today hoping of genesee and the owner  catering in watertown and like the syrian the chair of the organizing committee for this annual commemoration early in the day they brought food destined for this canceled state house ceremony to the command post in watertown where deputies from my office in the members of the northeastern law enforcement council were staged and also set up a can see and order a set of cafe made sure the food was delivered to first responders during that day these gestures and many others made the residents across the region were greatly appreciated by law enforcement and again reflected so well upon great man anyway i want to tell you a little bit about the other things that make him a great man because we should feel proud about people that have done well in our community not just because they have done well and they are mean because of all the things they have done to achieve that great of the year in both criminal and civil arenas california law businesses magazine named him one of the one hundred most influential attorneys in california three years in a row and he's repeatedly been voted by his peers as one of los angeles's super lawyers fifty nine million dollars jury verdict in the trade secrets case against from a suitable jury five corporation was voted top ten verdicts in two thousand and eight in california by the daily journal as well as top fifty virtually united states by the national journal and despite all the professional successes markets remain deeply loyal to our community to the arm community over the years he was one of the lead lawyer in a pair groundbreaking federal class action lawsuits against new york life insurance and access a corporation for insurance policies issued in the early twentieth century during the genocide of one point five million armenians by the ottoman turks regime eventually setting settling these two cases for more than thirty seven point five million dollars he is currently suing the government of turkey for reparations arising out of the armenian genocide mark also serves on the board of birthright armenia as the chairman of the armenian bone marrow donor registry and has been a member of the army of fine international board of trustees since two when many odds were against us during that period of time and he spoke of that moment when he sat in one of those chairs i believe was right back there as i recall as i remember joining him at some point when he spoke about the powerful effect it had on him that day i remember because i saw him back there with tears welling in his eyes this is the effect that our community had a government packed and we're going to miss governor patrick in his leadership and also want to say one other thing that person that i think we're going to miss because each year we have so many wonderful clergy and thank you all for being here today but we're going to miss father raphael and on will be laid to rest tonight genocide in giving us religious guides please remember father raphael and your thoughts and your prayers and just lastly to this committee when i left the state house as anyone will  they don't have the blessing of being born armenian they have chosen to become armenian and we think that all of you  club at about two hundred mark geragos had to come and get like five hundred people there so i don't think i'll ever break that record again but when he was up there speaking he spoke about a little bit about the sort of tone which gave you this idea of the tone and he spoke about getting people elected into office if they can make the changes not relying on others to make the changes for us as a community and not relying on the courts not relying on pings that are out of our control but to take control and one thing he said was elect armenians and when i decided to run for congress i reached out to mark geragos in los angeles and i asked him if he would be supportive and mark your ghost did not hesitate for even a moment  absolutely and we put together an event and i flew down to los angeles and i had a couple of other places and i joined me and his wife paula at their beautiful home and we had a wonderful event it was a celebration of our people by closely and he doesn't hesitate for a moment so when we talk about a person stepping up for our community that mark geragos what but what many people will not understand is if any of you have read the book mistrial that mark has written it is a great book it is a wonderful book and i have about the burden that we all bear in recognizing the genocide about the thought that he was thinking about the priesthood versus becoming a lawyer and his priest which was a sort of watch i said what are you kidding me i' seen you you do not want to go become a priest go become a lawyer and help our community he's so personally intimately in this forward about being armenian and why he felt strongly that that was why people long as a defense attorney to stop the oppression by government on individuals and people that is armenian ism broke him to do what he does today he speaks of our genocide silence for those who are no longer with us and i would ask you to particularly hold in your thoughts at this time all of the victims of the ethnic violence  we approach the end of our ceremony i want to make a few announcements first of all we have been joined in the course of the morning by a number of other elected officials and law for sure recognize them so that you're aware of their support  by my good friend a state representative and soon to be state senator jason lewis from winchester we've been joined by joe heavy he's the mayor of leicester and also by the charm city in responding to that attack and the students who conceived and organize that ceremony they truly reflected the diversity of our community the next year will be the one hundredth anniversary of the armenian genocide for armenians there will be poignancy and no doubt a great deal of pain as that milestone approaches for even after a hundred year there are truths that remain unrecognized wounds that remain and heal and there are losses that can never be made whole it's my hope that the unity that was demonstrated in boston and in watertown last year and again in watertown yesterday will help to very well we who represent the people of massachusetts armenians and