The following is a joint message issued by His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, and His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia. It calls on the Turkey to return confiscated Armenian Churches and recognize the Armenian Genocide. 

The 25th Anniversary of the massacres in Sumgait, which became the catalyst for the war of the independence of Nagorno-Kharabagh, St. John Armenian church offered requiem prayers on March 3, 2013.  Requiem prayers were offered in the courtyard before the memorial in memory of the victims of the massacres. The names of all those known dead were read solemnly one by one. Following the requiem service, a memorial event was held in St. John Fellowship Hall, under the organization Michael Oganessian.

On April 15, 2013,His Eminence Archbishop Hovnan Derderian, Primate of the Western Diocese of the Armenian Church of North America, accompanied by Diocesan clergy Rev. Fr. Datev Harutyunian, Rev. Fr. Asoghig Jamgotchian, Rev. Fr. Hovel Ohanyan and Rev. Fr. Mesrop Ash, and community members gathered at State Capitol in Sacramento where His Eminence delivered the opening prayer before the Assembly.

On April 20th, Tigran Antonian and Carmen Kestekyan will be walking 15 miles, in silence, through the desert, to commemorate the victims of the Armenian Genocide.