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 ‘A Century-Long Genocide. Black January of Baku’ documentary was screened in Richmond, Virginia. Dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the Armenian massacres in Azerbaijani capital of Baku, the film was made by the Public Relations and Information Center of the Armenian Presidential Staff, under “The Ordinary Genocide” project.

The screening was part of the annual Armenian festival held by the local St. Hakob Armenian Church. The event was attended by Armenian community members of Virginia and neighboring states and many US guests, including John Baliles of Richmond City Council who initiated the recognition of the Armenian Genocide by the City Council in April 2015.

Following the screening, project group member Haykaram Nahapetyan answered questions of those present.

“History repeats itself: what happened to my ancestors in historical Armenia later repeated itself in Baku,” Mary Ann Kerneklian of Richmond said.

‘A Century-Lomg Genocide. Black January of Baku’ documentary is the sixth film of ‘The Ordinary Genocide” project. A series of documentaries was made since November 2009 about the events in Sumgait, Baku and Maraga and during the Ring Operation. Besides, the website Karabakhrecords was launched, and a number of books released. Brochures in Armenian, Russian and English were also released as part of the project to provide detailed information about the events presented by “The Ordinary Genocide” project.

The head of the Ordinary Genocide project, the film’s co-author and director Marina Grigoryan earlier said the Armenian Genocide in Baku remains one of the darkest pages in the region’s history. According to her, few documents and photos about those events have been preserved, and there is no video, “So the film is extremely important from this point of view as it contains memories of Baku refugees,” she noted. The film crew of “Ordinary Genocide” conducted interviews with Baku refugees in the U.S. and the interviews form the basis of the film. All the memoirs will be published as a collection in the summer 2015.

M. Grigoryan stressed that the memoirs of refugees who fled Western Armenia at the beginning of the 20th century prove that Azerbaijan continues Turkey’s policy – they show the continuity of the genocide committed against the Armenian people for a whole century. “Almost all the refugees say that their ancestors were from Western Armenia and Artsakh. In other words, their ancestors survived genocide and became refugees,” M. Grigoryan said.

In her words, both the screened film and the soon-to-be-released collection will also become a powerful tool for Armenian diplomacy, especially amid Azerbaijan’s attempts to distort the regional history.