On Friday, the 22nd of October 2010, at 7:00 PM, the newly created educational journalism students' group of the Armenian Catholic Mesrobian High School organized an event in memory of Armin Wegner. This event took place in the school "Farajian" auditorium, in the presence of the spiritual fathers, the representatives of concerned bodies, educational supervisors and teachers, youths, parents and students.

The opening speech of the event was made, in the name of the students' group, by Patil Marsim who mentioned that it's impossible to describe in a word the pain of a population having one and a half million martyrs and the photographs are naturally more expressive because they all represent only one second of the reality. Marsim said that the photographs taken by Wegner are not proofs for us because the Armenian Genocide is a pure reality for the Armenians and there is no need for more proofs. Patil Marsim added by saying that these pictures are proofs for all who have not seen or who don't want to see.


Marine Halladjian played "Oror" on the violin. After that, Tsoline Shahinian read the speech of Hayk Demoyan, the director of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute in Armenia, in which it is mentioned that Armin Wegner is one of the rare persons who didn't hesitate to raise his voice and to demand in anger, in order to defend the rights of the Armenian nation who was the victim of the genocide. He was also one of the devoted friends of our afflicted nation.

And Roupina Tovmassian read the speech of the historian Dr. Ara Sanjian. Sanjian has written that today the young generation in schools will play an important role in the upcoming years in the direction of realizing this aim. Therefore, it is necessary to learn well, from now on, the most tragic episode of the Armenian history, so that in the future you can narrate it in the best way to your friends.


Ara Sanjian has added by saying that when the centenary of the Armenian Genocide will be celebrated in a very significant way in 2015 in Armenia and the Diaspora, the events respecting the lasting memory of these glorious individuals must be part of the ceremonies and requiem masses. Among the persons of whom we have a good memory there will be necessarily the name of Armin Wegner about whom you will know more today.

Then, the audience watched a documentary video tape prepared by the students' group. The video tape presented Wegner's biography as well as some testimonies of Armenians in Lebanon.


After showing the video tape, Cynthia Arapgirian read the letter sent to the president of the United States Woodrow Wilson, in which Wegner describes the Genocide from a point of view of a German and demands that the Armenians obtain their rights. At the end of the letter, Wegner says "I'm hopeless that my letter will be answered, but Mr. President, if the liberation of the oppressed nations is part of your fundamental policy, then through these words you can hear a voice that speaks, the only voice that has the right to be heard at all times. It is the voice of justice".

After showing the Armenian Genocide photographs taken by Wegner, the student and the young lecturer Sako Halladjian made the speech of the day in which he appreciated Wegner's work of many years to be of help to the Armenians with regard to the Armenian Case. Halladjian said that by ignoring the dangers in which the Turks were putting the Armenians and the obstacles that they were putting in their way, Wegner was always following the steps taken by the Armenians and was execrating the human cruelty.


Sako Halladjian said that Wegner raised his voice against injustice and claimed the Armenians' rights, for there was a human being who was tortured and it was a universal case and a population was exposed to annihilation. He mentioned that Wegner wasn't Armenian but he served the Armenians for humanity's sake and through the Armenians he declared justice. He wasn't Armenian, but he supported the Armenians and the voices calling for justice. Whether he was Armenian or not, the important thing is that he was one of the defenders of the Armenian Case.

The young lecturer added by saying that the Armenian students and the youths must know very well persons like Wegner who were of help in defending the Armenian Case and they must continue following Wegner's path.


At the end of the event, the Armenian Catholic Mesrobian High School principal Gregoire Kaloust made a sincere speech by saying that as long as there are youths interested in the national affairs, the Armenian people will not die but will survive. He affirmed that he is proud of Mesrobian educational journalism students' group who is making educational speeches and is defending the Armenians' rights. At the end of his speech, Gregoire Kaloust was thankful to the students and to the teacher adviser of the group Raffi Demirdjian for it was possible to organize a high-quality event through their collective efforts.

In this way, the newly created students' group of Mesrobian presented to the Armenian community in Lebanon a high-quality event organized completely by students. Even the lecturer was a student. This event is an appreciable initiative because in addition to the study of Wegner's agenda, similar works also help greatly to prepare conscious youths in the future, in order to develop new manpower.