Next April will mark the 100th anniversary of one of the great atrocities of the 20th Century: the genocide of up to a million and half Armenians by the Ottoman Empire.
Scholars have acknowledged this to be one of the first modern genocides.
The beginning of the genocide is considered to be April 24, 1915, the day 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Istanbul were arrested.
Men were conscripted or killed. Women, children and elderly went on the death march toward deserts in Syria.
Kathryn Babyan is a professor and director of the Armenian Studies Program at the University of Michigan. She says history repeats itself but never in the same manner, and there are genocides going on in front of eyes in the present day.
The University of Michigan's Armenian Studies Program is launching a yearlong series of events reflecting on the Armenian massacre and how the actions of 100 years ago are being felt in 2014.
The commemoration begins tomorrow. Actor, playwright and novelist Eric Bogosian will speak about his life as an Armenian American and an artist.
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