Newton man’s memories of Armenian Genocide to go online
By Dan Atkinson / Daily News Staff

Daily News Tribune, MA
April 21 2005

Peter Bilezikian doesn’t like to talk about the past. He used to have
nightmares of Turkish soldiers pulling out his teeth and gouging out
his eyes when he was a boy, and although the images stopped long ago,
he is visibly affected when recalling his life during the Armenian
Genocide.

But he recently gave an oral history of his trials, and someday
soon, it will be available for the whole world to hear.

On Sunday, the Armenian Library and Museum of America hosted a
presentation about putting oral histories online as part of their
commemoration of the genocide. As fewer and fewer survivors remain,
it is important to make sure their tales are accessible to as many
people as possible, according to museum spokesman Alan Manoian.

“If we can get online, then people can, at their own comfort and
leisure and pace, go deep into understanding the genocide,” he said.

The genocide refers to a period from 1915-23 in Turkey when, by
some estimates, 1 million Armenians were killed by Turks. Another
million are reported to have been deported.

Armenian Genocide survivors in general have been reluctant to
speak about their experiences, Bilezikian said, for fear of reprisals
against family members still living in Turkey. But oral histories
offer a powerful view that other sources leave out, according to
Bethel Charkoudian, Bilezikian’s daughter.

“These are eyewitness accounts interpreted through people who
experienced suffering. They’re not intellectual exercises,” she said.
“It’s like post-traumatic stress syndrome. They remember every
detail.”

Bilezikian, who is 92 years old and lives in Newton, came to
America in 1922 when he was 10 years old. He recalled watching his
mother sign a document denying his family owned any property in
Turkey, making it impossible to go back to claim the vineyards they
once owned. He described seeing children with swollen bellies keel
over in the streets, dying of hunger.

“I used to think it was a natural thing to die of starvation,”
he said. “Feeling hungry was nothing unusual.”

The children of survivors have been more interested in their
parents’ stories than the parents often are, Charkoudian said. She
took oral histories from many community members 30 years ago, but her
father refused to talk with her. Only recently did he give a history
to Roger Hagopian, a documentary filmmaker and second-generation
Armenian.

“We’re just trying to keep the story alive,” Hagopian said. “It
doesn’t hurt us as much to go back.”

But movies are hard to copy, as are the audiotapes that
Charkoudian used to record her histories. The tapes had to be
carefully stored and used infrequently to prevent wear and tear, she
said, and she was constantly worried about them breaking and a
survivor’s story being lost forever.

Columbia University is trying to make survivors’ histories more
permanent by moving them beyond physical damage — in cyberspace.
Their Armenian Oral History Archive is placing its transcriptions and
recordings on the Web, with the ultimate goal by next year of a
searchable database for its collection of more than 140 interviews,
according to archive curator Varoujan Froundjian.

“If a student is writing an essay about the genocide, just
typing into Google will bring him to the archives and help him get
the details,” Froundjian said.

Even though her father does not like to dwell on the past,
Charkoudian thinks it is important to keep his history alive. Her
children are interested in their roots, and genocide is still a
scourge today, she said.

“Every generation has its genocide,” she said. “It happened in
Rwanda, it’s happening in Sudan … people are only now just starting
to take a political stance against it.”

Dan Atkinson can be reached at datkinso@cnc.com.

Armenian Genocide commemoration events

The Greater Boston Committee for the Commemoration of the
Armenian Genocide, an umbrella organization of all area churches and
major civic groups, announces the following communitywide
commemoration events for the 90th anniversary of the Armenian
Genocide. All events are free and open to the public, unless
otherwise noted. For more information and periodic updates, log on to

“The Road to Redemption: Memories of the 1915 Armenian Genocide”
— Thursday, April 21, at 7:30 p.m., at Boston University’s Morse
Auditorium, 602 Commonwealth Ave., Boston. Presented by the Greater
Boston Committee for the Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide.

Massachusetts State House Commemoration — Friday, April 22, at
11 a.m., in the Chamber of the House of Representatives, followed by
an informal reception in the Great Hall. George Keverian, former
Speaker of the House, will be honored for his service and his respect
of the state’s Armenian community.

Ecumenical Service and Memorial Service — Saturday, April 23,
at 6:45 p.m., at Holy Trinity Armenian Apostolic Church, 145 Brattle
St., Cambridge. A service for 250 Armenian intellectuals who perished
on April 24, 1915. Presented by the Honorable Clergy of Boston
Armenian Churches.

Requiem and Memorial Concert for the 90th Anniversary of the
Armenian Genocide — Saturday, April 23, at 7:30 p.m., at Holy
Trinity Armenian Apostolic Church. Presented by Erevan Choral
Society, under the direction of the Very Rev. Oshagan Minassian.

Rally to Commemorate the Armenian Genocide in New York —
Sunday, April 24. Buses depart from St. James and St. Stephen’s
Armenian Churches in Watertown to Times Square, for those wishing to
take part in the rally to commemorate the genocide and denounce the
denials made by the Turkish government.

The Films of J. Michael Hagopian — Friday, April 29 and May 6,
various times, at Kendall Square Cinema, 1 Kendall Square, Cambridge.
Screenings of “Germany and the Secret Genocide” and “Voices from the
Lake.” Presented by the Greater Boston Committee for the
Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide, with cooperation of Kendall
Square Cinema. Tickets are $5.