On the morning of April 23, 2024, a commemorative event dedicated to the 109th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide took place in the courtyard of the Armenian Catholic Mesrobian High School which was attended by all the students as well as the teaching staff and the superintendents led by the school's Principal, Mr. Gregoire Kaloust. The students were holding the flags of the kingdoms of Armenia, Artsakh and Cilicia. They also held up banners bearing the names of Armenian writers who were victims of the Genocide and indicating their demands. Reverend Father Raffi Hovhannessian, Mesrobian’s chaplain, was present too.
The opening speech of the ceremony was delivered by Vana Haroutiounian, a student of Mesrobian's graduating class. She observed that Turkey and its ally Azerbaijan continue their policy of annihilating the Armenians and want to implement pan-turanism. Vana emphasized that the young Armenian generation should know the history of its people well, analyze and understand it, learn lessons from it and, armed with knowledge relevant to the 21st century, advance in our legitimate struggle.
The artistic part of the ceremony was presented by Nayiri Arnelian (duduk), a group of grade 3 students (recitation), Armen Caro Terzian (dehol), Karen Yekheyan (recitation), the student’s band (Varty Tchalian, Joe Haroutiounian, Hrag Tarayan, Michael Raslan, Vana Rita Hallajian, Nayiri Arnelian, Anthony Ghazal, Hagop Andonian, Maria Jessica Khasholian), the KG3 students (theatrical image) and the Dzidzernag choir.
In his speech addressed to the participants of the commemoration ceremony, Mesrobian’s Principal, Mr. Gregoire Kaloust, appealed to always keep the torch of demand burning until the complete re-establishment of justice, the fair compensation of the damages suffered by the Armenian people and the realization of all our unfulfilled desires. He especially appealed to the secondary school students to become diplomatic ambassadors of the Armenian cause as adults and to devote their intellectual strength to the struggle of the Armenian nation. Mr. Kaloust expressed his conviction that one day every Armenian will return to his lost ancestral land, restore the destroyed churches and from there raise a prayer of thanksgiving to God for the triumph of justice.
In his speech, Rev. Father Raffi Hovhannessian urged the students of the graduating class, who will soon be admitted to universities, to commemorate the memory of the victims of the Genocide in a dignified way every April 24 in their new educational environments and to introduce the Armenian Cause to their non-Armenian friends. After the benediction prayer, Father Raffi performed the blessing of roses with the Lord's prayer, after which the participants of the ceremony placed flowers in front of the replica of the Dzidzernagapert monument raised in Mesrobian’s courtyard. Later, the children of the kindergarten and the nursery did the same act of respect in front of the monument.
After the ceremony, the students of Mesrobian's KG3 students visited the Armenian Catholic Patriarchate and paid tribute to our 1.5 million martyrs with a patriotic song in front of the Armenian Genocide monument, in the presence of the Catholicos Patriarch of the Armenian Catholics of Cilicia, His Beatitude Raphaël Bedros XXI Minassian.