YUROZ

As the world debated the history of the Armenian Genocide, 100 years past, Armenian artist Yuroz, spent his day in quiet memoriam to uphold his lifelong mission to celebrate romance, edify human emotions, promote peace, and advocate tolerance.  Through the enchantment of Yuroz’ unique style, he encourages healing and growth while liberating love and compassion.  Yuroz speaks through the medium of art to illustrate our human potential to embody the calm and eternal, honoring the sacrifices of our ancestors and shunning future tragedy.

Twice commissioned by the United Nations Mural for Human Rights, Yuroz speaks quietly and powerfully to the greatest elements of humanity through his art.  On the 100^th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, at 3 pm, Yuroz hosted a candle-lit moment of silence to both grieve and rejoice for the tragedy and the endurance of the Armenian people.  Onlookers at ArtExpo New York were moved by the solemn reverence, acknowledging the pain and sorrows inflicted by the #‎Armeniangenocide.  Yuroz plead for humanity to decry genocide, mass atrocities, and hatred in favor of a celebration of life, love and creativity. Standing in solidarity on behalf of the now silent voices of the brave, passionate and unyielding believers in religious and ethnic freedom, those gathered echoed the persistent call to obtain worldwide recognition of the slaying of over 1.5 million Armenians in 1915 as genocide. Greg Bedian, Chair of The Armenian National Committee explains, “The only way to prevent future genocide is to raise awareness of what happened and how it happened.”

As the old Armenian proverb teaches, “Tears have meaning but only he who sheds them understands,” Healing requires cleansing and acknowledgement. Pope Francis urged the international community earlier this month to recognize the atrocities as “the first genocide of the 20th century.”  Yuroz issued an appeal for worldwide support for this necessary step to healing.  This appeal is non-violent, non-vengeful but a necessity for the nation and their nationals to be able to move on to celebrate creativity and life. Yuroz concluded with a final appeal to #‎endgenocide‬ and abolish mass atrocities worldwide as “no one should be persecuted for their religion, cult or creed, not now, not 100 years ago and certainly not in the future.”