Armenian genocide commemoration event held at Pasadena Memorial Park

A solemn ceremony in Pasadena on Sunday marked the anniversary of the Armenian genocide.

The theme of this year's commemorative event, hosted by the Pasadena Armenian Coalition, was "Resilience in the Face of Genocide -- Then and Now."

Attendees gathered at Memorial Park's Armenian Genocide Memorial Monument for the remembrance, which organizers said was "intended to draw the public's attention to the Armenian community's continued demands that its perpetrator, the Republic of Turkey, properly acknowledge its crimes against their civilian, Armenian population."

The event also highlighted "how the failure to acknowledge and punish genocide may result in its perpetuation, as demonstrated by the Republic of Azerbaijan's recent ethnic cleansing and genocidal campaign against the majority Armenian enclave of the Republic of Artsakh," according to organizers.

Southern California is home to some 200,000 Armenian Americans, the largest such population in the U.S.

Many have expressed concern about the ongoing conflict affecting thousands in their homeland, where more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians have been displaced from the Artsakh region.

"It breaks my heart to see that all those Armenians had to flee," Rep. Judy Chu said in an interview at Sunday's event. "I want to make sure that those refugees are taken care of, but also that Azerbaijan is made not to do such horrific acts of aggression."

Tamar Poladian-Perron, of the Pasadena Armenian Coalition, said the commemoration was "a time for reflection, it's a time of -- we don't want to say 'mourning' anymore, because mourning gets you nowhere. It's a time of looking at your inner strength and try to find the courage to move forward in the face of adversity."