Obama Mania Hits Culver City

In the hours before President Obama arrives in Culver City, the town seems as if it is inhaling, bracing itself for the storm. The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department is in a briefing getting its marching orders, the Armenian Genocide Community Task Force is organizing outside of Sony Pictures Studios on Madison Avenue, meter parking on Culver and Washington boulevards is restricted between 2 and 10 p.m., and the media is flocking around town like eager locusts before leafy greens (myself included). Momentarily, I will be posting an exclusive interview with Nora Hovsepian, one of the protestors calling for President Obama to acknowledge what is known as the Armenian genocide, which took place in the early 20th century.

Ottoman Turks swept through eastern Anatolia between 1915 and 1923, killing upward of 1.5 million Armenians during World War I; however, the current Turkish government objects to the killings being called a “genocide.” In a 2008 campaign stop, Obama said the genocide "is not an allegation, a personal opinion or a point of view, but rather a widely documented fact supported by an overwhelming body of historical evidence.'' Since his election, however, he has not used the term "genocide.''

At a remembrance ceremony of the massacre last year, he called it "one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century.

"In that dark moment of history, 1.5 million Armenians were massacred or marched to their death in the final days of the Ottoman Empire,'' he said.

This Sunday marks the 96th anniversary of the event.

Stay tuned for more Patch news from the ground here in Culver City. 

City News Service contributed to this report.