St. Petersburg Times (Florida)
April 27, 2005 Wednesday

Armenian Christians mark a painful past, joyful future

WAVENEY ANN MOORE

A day of sadness is also a time of great expectations in Pinellas
Park.

PINELLAS PARK – Armenians throughout the Tampa Bay area crowded into
a tiny chapel Sunday to remember ancestors who were massacred,
starved to death or otherwise persecuted by the tens of thousands
early in the last century.

The gathering at St. Hagop Armenian Church, 7050 90th Ave. N, was one
of many around the country to mark the 90th anniversary of what is
referred to as the Armenian Genocide.

But the day was more than a requiem for the 1.5-million men, women
and children who perished under the weight of the Ottoman Turks, said
St. Hagop’s priest, the Rev. Nersess Jebejian.

That thriving Armenian communities and churches exist today is a
victory, he said.

“One and a half million-plus were massacred and they were sacrificed,
but we’re living today, not only for them but for our future,”
Jebejian said.

At St. Hagop’s, where more than 100 people crammed into the chapel or
stood just outside its sliding glass doors Sunday, that future is
full of hope. In a few months, the congregation of about 400 families
hopes to begin building a church and multipurpose building to carry
on the centuries-old legacy of Armenian Christianity and culture.

The new church is a long-deferred dream. It was almost 20 years ago
that founding members began talking about forming a community for
local Armenian Orthodox Christians. They held their first service in
a borrowed building. They bought the now prime property at 90th
Avenue and Belcher Road with proceeds from paper and aluminum can
drives, dinners, garage sales, festivals and individual donations.

A groundbreaking ceremony was held in 1997. Early in 2002, Archbishop
Khajag Barsamian, primate of the Eastern Diocese of the Armenian
Church of America, visited to consecrate the cornerstone and launch a
fundraising campaign for a project that would eventually include a
church, multipurpose center and cultural hall.

The church and multipurpose building are expected to begin in
September and be complete in seven to nine months, St. Hagop’s priest
said.

St. Hagop’s is part of the Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church, which
traces its origin to the first century, when the apostles Thaddeus
and Bartholomew preached in Armenia and were martyred.

For Dr. Hagop “Jack” Mashikian, a retired psychiatrist and vice
chairman of the church’s parish council, the new buildings will be a
testament to more than perseverance of a congregation that draws
worshipers from the Tampa Bay area and beyond.

“It’s a vindication of the spirit of survival of our forebears,” he
said.

Last weekend’s requiem, which followed the customary Sunday Divine
Liturgy, was offered for the 1.5-million Armenians killed between
1915 and 1923 by the Central Committee of the Young Turk Party of the
Ottoman Empire. Then, Armenians were a Christian minority in a Muslim
community.

In 1915, thousands were deported and sent to starvation and death in
the Syrian desert. Along the way, they were attacked and killed by
bands of Turks. Mashikian, the parish council member, said that many
young women were forced into harems or to marry their abductors.

“The intent of the Ottoman Empire was to annihilate the Armenians,”
Mashikian said.

Armenians lived in what is now eastern Turkey, he said. They also
were in the southeastern part of the country, which now is mostly
occupied by Kurds.

In the United States, Armenians are concentrated in the Boston area,
Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Michigan, New York and New
Jersey. Most are descendants of survivors of what is called the first
genocide of the 20th century.

“There is hardly any Armenian over the age of 60 here who does not
have an immediate member of his family as a victim of genocide,” said
Mashikian, who lost his maternal grandfather, paternal grandparents
and an uncle in the brutality.

Lani Silver, a genocide historian who worked with Steven Spielberg as
a consultant on his oral history of Holocaust survivors, said the
trauma of genocide lasts for generations.

“There’s a hole in your heart forever. You’ve been a people that have
been hated enough to be killed,” said Silver, who was in St.
Petersburg this week to give a talk, “Making the Link: The Holocaust,
Genocide and Racism,” at the University of South Florida St.
Petersburg.

“This speaks to the beauty and strength of the Armenian people that
they have continued on despite such a murderous crime,” Silver said.

What’s sad, she added, is that “very few people really remember the
Armenian genocide.”

On Sunday, though, Armenian Martyrs’ Day, St. Hagop’s tiny chapel
could not hold all who wanted to remember.

“After 90 years of crying, of lamenting, of hoping, this little
community is showing its survival,” Mashikian told those gathered.

“Our brothers and sisters perished with hope for days like today.”