ARMENIAN CULTURE, HISTORY COME TO LIFE IN CLASSROOM

Hagerstown Morning Herald, MD
April 26 2007

MONT ALTO, Pa. – Armenian history and culture came alive in full
color with sights and sounds for the students of Instructor Lucineh
Mueller as part of their Women’s Studies course Penn State Mount Alto.

Guest speakers Sevan (Moumjian) Birky and Ann Hall shared their
grandmothers’ survival stories during the Armenian Genocide of 1915.

"I’ve always been a ‘hyphenated’ person," emphatically stated Birky.

"I have always known I am 100 percent Armenian, but I always had to
quailify that fact and say, Armenian-Lebanese or Armenian-American."

She then added, "As a matter of fact, I was born in Aleppo, Syria,
and my passport will always state that fact, even though I never had
Syrian citizenship!"

"My maternal grandmother Hermineh was a toddler in Dikranagert when
the Turks took away and killed both her father and older brother,"
she said. "Quickly, the news went from bad to worse as the nightmare
of the genocide spread like wildfire from one town to the next.

Hermineh, along with her mother, a younger brother and older sister
managed to escape to Italy, where her older sister was sent to Canada
as a servant girl. Hermineh later ended up marrying and living in
Syria, where my Mom was born."

"My paternal grandmother Armenouhi was also a baby, about six months
old in 1915," Birky said. "She survived because she was left behind
with her aunt who was a talented seamstress and the Turkish family
she worked for protected them. At the age of 14, Armenouhi escaped
secretly under the cover of night to avoid marriage to a Turkish young
man. In Syria, Armenouhi was actually reunited with her biological
mother, but sadly too late, as her mom was allocated to relocate to
Armenia. As a young lady, Armenouhi married and raised a family of
five children. That’s where my Dad was born."

"The seven-day war between Israel and Syria in 1967 caused our family
to relocate to Lebanon," Birky continued. "Thankfully, we already
had Lebanese citizenship since a decade earlier my grandfather,
a long distance truck driver between Syria and Lebanon had acquired
Lebanese citizenship upon Lebanon’s independence."

"I consider myself blessed having grown up in Lebanon. Lebanon was a
piece of heaven on Earth. A Christian country and a ‘little Armenia’
for me. I went to private Armenian schools with all its richness
of three languages – Armenian, Arabic and English, along with the
Armenian history, culture and faith," said Birky, who shared her
school report cards, pictures and embroidery items with the class.

"I love to dance and that’s why you see me in one of my traditional
Armenian dance costumes," she said. If we had more time, we’d all be
dancing a "shourchbar" right now. Armenians have always been small
in numbers and survived many persecutions, that’s why we love to
celebrate life! Life is precious and dancing is one way to embrace
our loved ones and celebrate life."

As a final note, Birky shared the classic Armenian story of "Anahid."

Holding up the large colorful picture book, she enthusiastically
proclaimed, "This is my most favorite Armenian story because it
shows the wisdom and courage of Armenian women. Anahid, the heroine,
insists that the prince who wants to marry her must first learn a
craft, stating, ‘Riches, power and title can be taken away from you.

But never your craft!’ Sure enough, one day the prince is kidnapped
and thanks to his weaving abilities he inscribes a message within
the carpet and is rescued by her own wife, Queen Anahid."

Hall of Chambersburg, Pa., talked about her recent trip to Izmir,
Turkey, the hometown of her maternal roots. "I really felt like I
was home. The connection was so strong. I knew I belonged here,"
she said with conviction.

Hall, who is Armenian on her mother’s side, explained how it is only
recently that she was able to reconstruct and learn of her heritage,
her family’s history and journey of survival thanks to the acquisition
of a family trunk.

Her grandmother brought the trunk from Armenia to England. "In
the trunk were the stories of my grandmother and grandfather, as
told through documents, passports, pictures, letters, newspaper
articles and other treasures, including a book of letters, written
in a Turkish/English dialect, that covers the period of over 20 years
that my great-grandmother spent in Turkey after she had gotten her son
(my grandfather) out of the country," she explained. "I’m afraid that
the content of those letters is lost to history, as it seems there
is no one alive that can read them."

In addition to the guest speakers, Instructor Lucineh Mueller shared
PowerPoint slide pictures of traditional Armenian costumes, along
with Armenian artifacts and music.

The full class of 24 students in Mueller’s class had already viewed
"The Armenian Genocide" film by Andrew Goldberg, watched the files
provided by GenocideEvents.com Web site and BBC Front Page. In
addition, they have read and discussed works by Armenian female poets
including, "Der Zor" by Alicia Ghiragossian and "By Now" by Diana Der
Hovanessian. They are reading "Vergeen: A Survivor of the Armenian
Genocide" by Mae Derdarian.

The Women’s Studies course at Penn State Mont Alto encompasses 24
weeks, six weeks each focusing on Eurasian, African, Oriental and
Hispanic women. The Armenian-Eurasian segment is the premier offering
at Penn State, due to the talents of Mueller.

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