VALLEY ARMENIANS SET UP CHURCH: SMALL BUT TIGHT-KNIT COMMUNITY SEES RELIGION AS KEY TO THEIR BITTER HISTORY. REMEMBERING HISTORY.
Bill Roberts, The Idaho Statesman, Boise
The Idaho Statesman (Boise)
October 20, 2007 Saturday
Oct. 20–A small Armenian community in the Treasure Valley is growing
an orthodox church for members to gather and worship.
The fledgling congregation of about 30 people is taking root just as
Congress is embroiled in a controversy over whether to acknowledge
that the death of 1.5 million Armenians at the hands of the Turks in
the early part of this century was a genocide.
The two events may seem far apart, but they aren’t.
Attending an Armenian church is not just an act of worship for people
like Boisean Mark Abajian and Kuna resident Johnny Kazian. It also
is a recognition that the million-plus Armenians lost their lives
over their refusal to deny their Christian religion in the face of
tyranny from the long-gone Islam-based Ottoman Empire, which once
ruled what is now Turkey.
Those Armenian mass murders became the prototype for Nazis when
they unleashed their Holocaust on Europe’s Jews during World War II,
the local church leaders said.
"Christianity is so important to Armenians," Kazian said. "You must
go to church."
The Armenian Apostolic Church of Idaho, which received its nonprofit
status from the state last spring, meets once a month at St.
Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church in Boise.
Abajian estimates about 60 Armenian families live in the Treasure
Valley and maybe up to 80 throughout the state.
Without an Armenian church in Idaho, many have already found a home
with other religious groups, he said.
"We won’t be getting them to come to church services," Abajian said.
Church is an integral part of the community for many Armenian
families. Besides worship, there are picnics and other times to gather.
"You can’t have a community without a church," said Kazian, who grew
up in Philadelphia near three Armenian churches — two Protestant
and one Catholic.
The tragic history of Armenian mass murder at the hands of Turks,
roughly between 1915 and 1923, is never far from their thoughts.
Jo-Ann Kachigian of Boise lost 40 members of her family in forced
death marches and killings. Her mother survived. So did the cross
her mother held onto, which Kachigian now wears around her neck.
"I didn’t know she hid this," Kachigian said.
Idaho issued a proclamation in 2004 recognizing the Armenian
genocide. Now Abajian, Kazian and Kachigian say it is past time for
Congress to do so.
Congressional support is waning under pressure not to spotlight the
deaths at a time when Turkey is considered an important ally to the
United States.
By Friday, only 211 members of the House of Representatives were
co-sponsoring the non-binding resolution, down from a high of 226.
President Bush is pressuring Congress to work on its legislative
agenda and not get involved in a resolution about Armenian genocide.
But without an acknowledgement from the Congress, many Armenians feel
they don’t have closure to one of the darkest periods of their history.
Kazian is one.
His father was the only family survivor of the killings in 1915. But
for the rest of his life, he always wondered whether people who shared
his name may have been kin, Kazian said.
"He never stopped looking for his family," Kazian said.
A congressional resolution labeling the killings as a genocide would
give his father’s life meaning, Kazian said.
"Did my father die for nothing?" he asked.