The Armenian Genocide memorial mural at the University of Massachusetts Amherst was desecrated with a Turkish flag and a slogan associated with the founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, days after Armenians around the world marked the 111th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, reports Zartonk Media.
The original mural, painted by the Armenian Students’ Association (ASA) on the wall between Wheeler and Brett residence halls on campus as part of their annual tradition honoring Armenian Genocide Remembrance Month, displayed the Armenian tricolor alongside the words “1915 Never Again” and “End the Cycle of Genocide,” with “Artsakh Is Armenia” beside it.
Between the evening of April 23 and the morning of April 25, the memorial was painted over with the red and white of the Turkish flag and the phrase “Peace at Home, Peace in the World,” the foundational slogan of the same state that, to this day, denies the genocide it inherited from the Ottoman Empire.
In a public statement, the Armenian Students’ Association at UMass Amherst confirmed that an unknown party had sprayed a Turkish flag over the Armenian flag in their mural, erased the phrase “End the Cycle of Genocide,” and written “Peace at Home, Peace in the World” directly over their “Artsakh Is Armenia” text. “These were not acts of casual mischief,” the ASA wrote. “They were deliberate, calculated, and deeply hurtful. The use of that particular phrase, in that particular context, is not a neutral political statement, it is a well-understood provocation rooted in a history of anti-Armenian hatred and genocide denial.”
Armenian students at UMass Amherst restored the mural shortly after, repainting the tricolor, “1915 Never Again,” and “End the Cycle of Genocide” in full. On either side, in fresh paint, they added two new declarations: “We Will Not Be Silenced” and “1.5 Million Armenians Killed.”
“We will not be silenced. We will not forget,” the ASA said in its statement. “We will show up for our ancestors, for our community, and for the truth.”
For Armenian students at UMass Amherst, and for a diaspora that has spent more than a century pressing the world to recognize what was done, the message is unambiguous. Genocide does not end with the killing. It continues every time the memory of the dead is covered over.
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