California celebrates first ever Genocide Awareness Day, April 24

SAN DIEGO (KUSI) – This year California celebrated its first ever Genocide Awareness Day on April 24.

April 24 has been recognized as Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day for years.

The Armenian Genocide refers to the massacre and systematic killing of between 600,0000 and 1.5 million Armenian Christian people in the Ottoman Empire in the years 1915-1916. The holiday is especially significant because the Turkish government still fails to acknowledge that the genocide happened.

California’s Genocide Awareness Day draws attention to several genocides that have occurred throughout history that often go unmentioned in the historical shadow of the mass genocide of World War II.

Political Analyst John Dadian of Armenian Descent joined KUSI’s Paul Rudy to discuss the the holiday.

(Below) Former Assembly member Adrin Nazarian joined KUSI’s Rafer Weigel. Nazarian introduced the legislation to officiate the holiday when he was still a California assembly member.