With the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide on the horizon, the Armenian Youth Federation (AYF) Eastern USA started a project to bring awareness to those atrocities. The plan involves passing an “eternal flame” torch from Armenia through the U.S. and Canada and then Western Armenia.
The eternal flame symbolizes an everlasting faith, an everlasting will, and an everlasting nation: a faith to prosper after our hardships, and a will to continuously strive for the common cause of recognition, restoration, and reparation of the injustices of the Armenian Genocide. The eternal flame represents the united diaspora, whose efforts strive for a free, independent, and united Armenia.
The eternal flame will bring awareness to the injustices committed by the Ottoman Turkish Empire while commemorating the lives and lands we have lost. The flame also represents a nation that will one day see its children back in the lands of Mush and Van, a nation that will one day reclaim Ararat as its own, and a nation that will one day see Karabagh secure and at peace.
The eternal flame was lit in Armenia on April 23, 2014, by the AYF in Yerevan. The torch was passed to the Eastern Region and has already made its way to Lowell, Mass.; Watertown, Mass.; the AYF Junior Seminar in Prospect, Pa.; to Providence, R.I.; and AYF Camp Haiastan in Franklin, Mass.
Below is the upcoming schedule for the torch. We hope you can come and support us and our cause.
July 2014: New York (Homenetmen Games). New Jersey.
August 2014: Philadelphia
September 2014: Detroit (AYF-YOARF Olympics). West Coast Convention.
October-December 2014: At the discretion of the Western Region.
January-February 2015: At the discretion of the Canadian Region.
March 2015: New York (ARS Youth Connect)
April 2015: Washington, D.C. or Turkey (in coordination with the ARF Bureau either in April or on a trip to Western Armenia that summer). In Western Armenia, the group will take the torch to our historic lands, leaving it to burn brightly where we belong.
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