Murphy in Hot Seat Before She’s Seated in Office

One week before being sworn into office, a Burbank city councilwoman-elect has found herself in the hot seat for comments she made about a mayoral proclamation declaring today “Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day.”

While expressing some support for Mayor Bill Wiggins’ proclamation, Councilwoman-elect Stacey Murphy on Wednesday said she also had “very mixed feelings” about setting a precedent for other aggrieved groups that might expect a similar declaration--”and I don’t really want to turn anybody away.”

Wiggins’ proclamation, similar to those issued by the Glendale and Los Angeles city councils, marks the killing of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians by Turks over an eight-year period during and after World War I, beginning April 24, 1915. Turkey denies responsibility.

Murphy, who is to be sworn into office May 1, was reported to have criticized the proclamation. In an interview Wednesday, she said she was misquoted. But she raised questions about the proclamation.

“In order for us to not repeat history, we really need to recognize how many different groups of people had similar things done to them,” Murphy said.

“If another group comes up to us and says what happened to [them] is bad, too, then what are you going to do? Are you going to declare a day for each group of people?”

Yes, said Prelate Moushegh Mardirossian of the Western Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church, the largest congregation of Armenian worshipers in the United States.

“There’s nothing wrong in respecting our martyrs and our victims who sacrificed their lives for justice and peace,” Mardirossian said in Los Angeles.

Wiggins, while declining to criticize Murphy’s comments, said he had no qualms about encouraging other groups to seek a similar proclamation. He said the local Armenian community--estimated at 10,000 to 15,000 in Burbank and more than 45,000 in Glendale--is unlike any other.

“When you look at the number of people who were almost annihilated this century, the [Armenian genocide] has to be second only to the Holocaust,” he said.

Murphy encouraged study of the Holocaust in schools, “as opposed to a five-minute proclamation at City Hall.”

In agreement was Vicken Papazian, executive director of the Amenian National Committee-Western Region in Glendale, who said, “I don’t think it’s asking too much for legislative bodies to take a short time out from their duties to remember such historic events.”

“If other [groups that) experienced [such tragedies] want such a resolution, then we should do it,” Papazian said.