GARDEN CITY, NY (Armenian Church of the Holy Martyrs, Bayside) – Last October, Isabelle Sirounian, a sophomore at Garden City High School, submitted a sketched drawing of her great-grandmother to the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) Reflections Contest. The theme of the contest was “I Matter Because…” Feeling the emotions from the war at that time in Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh), she connected the 1915 Armenian Genocide to the war with Azerbaijan and submitted the following statement with her artwork: “I matter because I am the great-granddaughter of Zabelle, the woman in my drawing. 105 years ago, she escaped the Armenian Genocide after witnessing her entire family get killed. Today, in 2020, history is repeating itself in Armenia. The world remains silent, once again, as innocent Armenians are dying. As a descendent, I will not remain silent. I will speak out for my people. I want peace for Armenia and that is why I matter.”
Isabelle’s submission won first place at her high school and in Nassau County, and this week was awarded the New York State Award of Merit in Visual Arts.
