24 aprile 2010 – Lugano, Switzerland
dedicated to the 95th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.
During the concert spiritual and folk music will be performed. The event will also reflect Swiss missionary Jakob Kunzler, who was one the witnesses during the Armenians suffering and with his humane treatment did a great and irreplaceable work for the Armenian people.
Concert
Photo exhibition
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The event will consist of musical part, where Armenian spiritual music compositions will be played and of an exhibition dedicated to the memory victims of Armenian Genocide committed by Ottoman Empire in year 1915. The work of Swiss missionary Jacob Kunzler will be reflected at the event as well. Jacob Kunzler had witnessed all those awful events, sufferings and mass slaughters of the Armenians and due to his humane activities had done a great and irreplaceable work in favor of the Armenians.
Jacob Kunzler
Jacob Kunzler became an eye-witness of the genocide aimed at the Armenians in South-Eastern Anatolia. He is one of the modern people who talked out loud about this throughout Switzerland and made many people pay attention. His call for help received no response.
Kunzler was born in Hundwil, Switzerland in 1871. He worked with the “Armenian Help” organization in Basel, and was sent to the mission in Urfa as a nurse, which became the center of his activity in helping Armenians.
Urfa was a multi national city that borders Syria, where many nationalities like Turks, Armenians, Kurds, Greeks, Syrians and other missionaries from Europe were all living together. Again the Ottoman Empire was planning the persecutions against the Armenians. In 1914 Kunzler traveled to Baghdad. While there he heard from one Young Turk leader, “We Turks must destroy the Armenians without exception and drive them out. Living with them within the borders of our Empire is not an option.”
The persecution of thousands of Armenians began during the Summer and Autumn of 1915. The men were killed, and the women, children and elderly were organized in never-ending lines and marched into the Syrian desert, where many died along the way. The total number of victims was more than one and a half million. Kunzler’s notes described the horrible conditions he recalled witnessing, seeing many dead bodies and working to help the innocent victims who came to the hospital. “It’s deplorable, I have never seen this country in such need. The horrible thing is that I felt like that of a disabled invalid, in that I was absolutely helpless and unable to do anything to help avoid the disaster,” reported Kunzler. It was clear to him that they were moving people to the 
slaughterhouse according to the plan and wish.
On January 1, 1922, Kunzler joined the Committee of Near East American Relief, which coordinated the safe transfer of 8000 Armenian orphans from Turkey to Syria and Lebanon, which were under French mandate. In 1922 Kunzler opened a orphanage in Ghazir, where 14,000 young Armenian girls found their new home and where Kunzler created a carpet making center for the girls. Later he established a hospital for Armenian widows in Beirut and a lung sanatorium in Azounieh. In April of 1924 Kunzler transferred 150 Armenians blind orphans to Ghazir and found an orphanage for them. For all this Kunzler is referred to as “Armenian’s Father.” In 1926 Kunzler was awarded with an honor of Lebanon, and in 1947 he received the honor of Doctor's rank by the University of Basel. Jacob Kunzler’s memoir expresses “In the Land of Blood and Tear” which was published in 1921, in Postdam. He died on January 15, 1949. He is buried in the Protestant's graveyard of Beirut.
