Denise Monookian Hagopian will talk about the Armenian Genocide at the East Los Angeles-Montebello Business and Professional Women’s dinner meeting Tuesday, April 23, 2024 at the Library Room, Marie Callender’s Restaurant, 220 S. Atlantic Blvd., Monterey Park (Networking starts at 4:30 p.m. with dinner at 5:00 p.m.). Attendees will be able to order off the menu. The program and dinner is open to all interested people. Call or E-mail Linda Wilson (626) 307-5650 or lindalwilson@juno.com to make a reservation or for questions.

April 24th is Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day or Armenian Genocide Memorial Day, which is a public holiday in Armenia and is observed by the Armenian Diaspora. It is held annually to commemorate the victims of the Armenian genocide of 1915. It was a series of massacres and starvation of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottomans.                 

Armenians mark the date April 24, 1915, when several hundred Armenian intellectuals were rounded up, arrested and later executed as the start of the Armenian genocide, and it is generally said to have extended to 1917. However, there were also massacres of Armenians in 1894, 1895, 1896, 1909, and a reprise between 1920 and 1923. There were approximately 1.5 million Armenians living in the multi-ethnic Ottoman Empire in 1915. At least 664,000 and possibly as many as 1.2 million died during the genocide, either in massacres and individual killings or from systematic ill treatment, exposure and starvation.

Hagopian’s ancestors were caught in this genocide. Some were able to flee to safety. Hagopian is a graduate of Montebello High School and is the owner of Heavenly Choice, 534 N. Montebello Blvd., Montebello.

East Los Angeles-Montebello BPW is a member of the California Federation of Business and Professional Women (CFBPW) and also a member of the National Federation of Business and Professional Women’s Clubs, inc. (NFBPWC) and BPW International. NFBPWC is 105-years-old this year and is the oldest organization of its kind in the world; devoted entirely and actively to the interests and needs of all women irrespective of their occupations and of their status. Our mission is to achieve equity for all women in the workplace through advocacy, education and information. Today, we continue the fight for passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, the ratification of the CEDAW treaty and equal pay for women. Membership is open to anyone who supports this and other items on our Public Policy Statement. For more information about BPW, contact Linda Wilson, East Los Angeles-Montebello BPW, at (626) 307-5650 or lindalwilson@juno.com.