ARF Celebrates 117th Anniversary

Over 600 people packed the hall at the Armenian Community Centre on Saturday, Dec. the 8th to celebrate the 117th anniversary of the ARF. The evening was organized by the ARF Soghomon Tehlirian Gomidé and the Armen Karo Student’s Association. Representatives from all the organizations that operate out of the centre were on hand to celebrate the anniversary.

The evening started off with the parade of flags brought into the hall by the Homenetmen Scouts, this was followed by the singing of the national anthems by the ARF JOC "Badanegan". The Badanegan group comprised of 70 youth sang two popular revolutionary songs and received great applause from the audience. Lori Janbazian, the MC for the evening announced the guest speaker, Viken Hovesepian from Montreal who spoke about the history of the ARF and the role it has played in Armenian communities around the world. The MC next invited popular Armenian singer Harout Zenian who took to the stage and soon had everyone singing along with several revolutionary and patriotic songs.The youth waved flags and banners as Harout sang creating an emotional evening for everyone.

No birthday party wouldn’t be complete with a birthday cake and so at 12:00 midnight, three big cakes were brought into the hall,. attendees were invited to light candles and place them on the cakes.  The cake was cut by badani, Raffi Kelebozian, Genocide survivor Diran Terzian, and ARF Toronto chair Hagop Janbazian. The party went into the wee hours of the morning as the community enjoyed the evening of song and comradarie.

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