On February 7, 2025, the California State Historical Resources Commission unanimously voted to officially recognize the Armenian Genocide Martyrs Monument in Montebello as a state landmark, marking a watershed moment for the Armenian-American community. This assuring achievement honors the sacrifices and enduring spirit of the Armenian people. The official designation ceremony took place on February 21, 2025, at Bicknell Park, the site of the monument, with the presence of state and local officials as well as Armenian community organizations. Armenian Bar Board Member and Past Chairman, Armen Hovannisian, delivered remarks during the ceremony.
February 21, 2025
Armen K. Hovannisian
At 3:00 o’clock in the afternoon on Sunday April 21st, 1968, I was a five-year-old boy among the many thousands of people gathered here to witness the opening of this now officially historic landmark. My 35-year-old father, a young Professor Richard Hovannisian who was the Chairman of the Board of the Armenian Monument Council, took his familiar place behind the mike and explained the importance of this permanent testament to the past and promise to the future.
It was a grand pageant of epic proportions.
This entire place was packed, not a patch of empty grass could be seen below our feet. It was almost a festive feeling even though it was the most somber of occasions. The program started with an honor guard from the local American Legion Post and the national anthem played by the Marine Band up from Camp Pendleton, the booming sounds of their tubas, trombones and trumpets stretching to the hills above down to the canyon below.
Then came an all-star lineup of those who are in the Who’s Who of this community’s leaders, moving tributes made by Vasken Minasian, President of the Monument Council, Michael Mkho Minassian, Vice President of the Council and Door-Opener Extraordinaire, a youthful State Senator George Deukmejian, an even younger Assemblyman Walter Karabian, and George Mandossian, Chairman of the Construction Committee. All of them in their 30s, not one of them yet 40 years old.
And then something incredible happened.
In a scene you usually only see in the movies, a big military helicopter landed on the grass flats, long blades turning, powerful rotors spinning, the wind gusts bending the branches on those trees and washing through the crowd. The hatch opens and downs comes Ronald Reagan, the super popular governor of California. He took the stage, spoke into the microphone and as if on a director’s cue, looked into our eyes and filled our hearts with spoken warmth, empathy, and solidarity. For a moment, it felt like our stars had aligned, our prayers had been answered.
I have mentioned several names and will mention a few more because without these pioneering men and women, we wouldn’t be here today, there would be no Mesrobian School, there would be no Ferrahian School, there would be no Pilibos School, no Manougian School, no Holy Martyrs, no Holy Cross, no St. Peter’s and no St. Gregory’s.
Without that generation of giants, this Hushartsan would not be reaching high into the sky, and for nearly 60 years these sacred grounds wouldn’t have been our safe, shared place of collective memory and continuing inspiration. Among that great generation were Osheen Keshishian, Missak Sevacherian, Archie Dickranian, Kerop Arakelian, the Manjikians, the Arshagounis and the Fundukians, and other unsung heros.
They made this Monument happen. They insisted that it happen. Similar to a lot of other things they did—like building schools, churches and community organizations and influence–it wasn’t easy but it had to be done. Turkey, then like now with its chronic illness of denialism, tried to rob this community of its right to remembrance.
It did so by pressuring and threatening the then Montebello City Council, first by trying to have the Council kill the project and when that failed, Turkey’s “diplomats” tried to sanitize the Monument’s inscription so that it conveniently leaves out who it was that committed the Genocide of the Armenian people. Montebello didn’t buckle then, the Monument went up, the inscription called out the name of the perpetrator of the crime, the Turks scurried away to deny another day.
This is a moment when we recall the depths to which humanity can sink when evil is allowed to flourish, ignored for too long by the world. That evil has unfortunately flourished the last five years as Azerbaijan continues to do with Artsakh what Ottoman Turkey tried to accomplish more than 100 years ago in Western Armenia. The complete annihilation and displacement of the Armenian people on and from their native lands.
In a world that remains full of turmoil, strife and double standards, in which there has been a dangerous reemergence of Armenophobia, there can be no more important message. We all, those who built this Monument, those who continue to honor it, and the Diaspora as a whole, are ready, willing and able to take on complete and exclusive responsibility for righting the wrongs of the past. That begins with the proper measure of remembrance, and then moving on to being made whole as much as possible.
This monument truly blossomed from the bud of an idea into an essential hub for the community. Thank you, Senator Archuleta and our public official partners, for helping make sure it remains eternal.