On April 30, the Bay Area Armenian community held a protest at UC Berkeley in response to the university’s cancellation of the April 24 screening of My Sweet Land, a critically acclaimed documentary about an Armenian child’s experience of war and displacement in Artsakh, reports Zartonk Media.
The demonstration was organized by a group of UC Berkeley Armenian students, with support and participation from the Armenian National Committee of America, the Armenian Assembly, All-ASA, UC Berkeley Armenian Students Association, the Armenian Youth Federation “San Francisco” Rosdom Chapter, UC Berkeley alumni, and community members from across the Bay Area. The protest sent a clear message: when truth is denied, the Armenian community responds louder, prouder, and more united than ever.
“The protest was a declaration to our university that we will not be passive or accept symbolic gestures in the face of coordinated Azerbaijani erasure. The suppression of Armenian historical accounts through foreign interference has no legitimacy, let alone a foothold, in any institution that claims to uphold human rights,” said UC Berkeley senior Melody Seraydarian. “When state-affiliated Azerbaijani media proudly claimed credit for the cancellation, we organized to ensure UC Berkeley knows that our voices — and our history — are not bargaining chips to be traded for convenience or appeasement.”
In the days following the cancellation, Azerbaijani state media and government-linked accounts openly celebrated the shutdown of the film, labeling the Armenian Genocide as “fraudulent” and proudly crediting Azerbaijani students for the outcome. These public claims confirm what Armenian students and advocates had already suspected—coordinated pressure was applied, and the cancellation was claimed as a political win by those seeking to suppress Armenian voices.
Zartonk Media has reviewed these posts, which glorify silencing a marginalized community during the week of Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day. These celebrations are not just alarming—they validate the concerns raised by students and organizations who called out the censorship and foreign interference from the start.
The Human Rights Center at UC Berkeley Law has since issued an apology and announced plans to reschedule My Sweet Land for September 18. The updated statement also correctly acknowledges the 1.5 million Armenians who were killed during the genocide—a correction to their original language.
Despite this, Armenian students and organizations are calling for further accountability. Specifically, they are urging Berkeley Law and Dean Erwin Chemerinsky to publicly clarify their role in the cancellation and to affirm their commitment to protecting the rights of Armenian students to remembrance, academic freedom, and cultural expression. As many have pointed out, institutional apologies mean little without transparency and action.
“This is about more than a film screening. It’s about a pattern of ongoing attacks targeting the Armenian American community here in the Bay Area,” said ANCA NorCal Regional Coordinator Henry Agajanov. “We will not be written out of our own story.”
For Armenian students and their allies, this is not just about one screening—it is a broader fight for truth, memory, and dignity on campus. The movement continues, and the community remains organized, vigilant, and committed to ensuring that silence is never mistaken for justice.
Background: What Led to the Protest
The April 24 screening of My Sweet Land at UC Berkeley was canceled after the university received a formal email from the Azerbaijani Consulate in Los Angeles. In the message, addressed to multiple UC Berkeley departments, Consul Gasim Shirinli accused the film of promoting “a radical ideological stance held by certain Armenian groups,” claimed it omitted “mass killings and the forcible displacement of approximately 700,000 Azerbaijanis,” and urged the university to cancel or reconsider its affiliation with the event. The consulate further suggested that the film undermined peace efforts and violated “acceptable standards.”
Shortly after, the Human Rights Center at Berkeley Law informed Armenian student organizers that the event would be postponed, citing “staffing shortages” and “anticipated protests.” Internal emails referenced the consulate’s outreach and concerns over “confrontational protestors” as contributing factors. The Berkeley Armenian Students Association (Cal ASA) later revealed they had offered to coordinate with campus police to ensure security—an offer that was dismissed. The cancellation occurred on Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, adding symbolic weight to what students widely viewed as censorship driven by foreign political pressure.
Following backlash, the Human Rights Center issued a public statement on April 24. While it acknowledged the pain caused by the decision, the Center originally described the genocide as the killing of “hundreds of thousands of Armenians”—a formulation criticized for minimizing the internationally recognized death toll of 1.5 million. A revised statement later corrected that language and confirmed plans to reschedule the screening for September 18.
