Profile in courage

Posted 10/17/13

Last week, Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian, along with chief judge of the Rhode Island Family Court Haiganush Bedrosian and the Armenian National Committee of Rhode Island, hosted a reception at City …

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Profile in courage

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Last week, Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian, along with chief judge of the Rhode Island Family Court Haiganush Bedrosian and the Armenian National Committee of Rhode Island, hosted a reception at City Hall for Mayor Abdullah Demibras, mayor of the Sur municipality in Diyarbakir, Turkey. Pictured above is School Committee Chairwoman Beth Furtado, who attended the reception, with Demibras, Avedisian and Bedrosian. City Council President Donna Travis, Council members Steven Colantuono, Camille Vella-Wilkinson and Joseph Solomon, and School Committee members Karen Bachus and Gene Nadeau also attended. Demibras, who is of Kurdish ancestry, was put in jail for providing health prevention information in Armenian and Kurdish. After his release, he campaigned to restore and re-open the St. Giragos Armenian Apostolic Church in Diyarbakir. “Having Abdullah here in the city of Warwick is like having a profile in courage among us,” said Avedisian, who attended the re-opening of St. Giragos. “Having the courage of his convictions led him to be jailed but yet he persevered and was even more popular in his municipality.”

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