THE GEORGE MOURADIAN INTERVIEW
Michael Shelton
Spinal Column Online
i-2009-07-01-70028.113117_The_George_Mouradian_Int erview.html
July 1, 2009
July 01, 2009 – George Mouradian, 82, is a Commerce Township
resident of Armenian descent working through his writing to spread
awareness of Armenia’s history, which dates back more than 10,000
years, and the issues the country is currently facing. Mouradian
has written five books, including three about Armenia. One is
geared toward adults and is entitled "Never To Die: A Historical
Novel About Armenia and The Quest for Noah’s Ark," while "Armenian
InfoText: A Mini-Encyclopedia," provides a retrospective of Armenia’s
history. His most recent book, entitled "Your Journey Into Armenia,"
is geared toward children. Mouradian, a retired engineer, has
not only visited his homeland, but has also taught engineering at
the American University of Armenia, which is also where he started
research for his books. He developed a curiosity about his ethnicity
in high school and is now looking to educate fellow Armenians and
others about issues such as the massacre of 1 million Armenians at
the hands of the Ottoman Turks during World War I, which Turkey has
yet to recognize. Mouradian has been married for 58 years and has
three children and four grandchildren.
The George Mouradian Interview
SCN: We understand that you’re an American-born Armenian. When did
you first become interested in your Armenian heritage and what did
you do to further that interest?
GM: I think it probably started in high school when there was some
questions and differences between people and I did more reading on
it and I found out that we had quite a bit of history, and I just
got more interested in it.
Later on in life, in college, I wrote papers on the genocide and what
happened to our ancestors and then I got into writing books on it,
so that’s pretty much the way it went.
SCN: How did you become involved in engineering and what were your
proudest accomplishments in your career?
GM: I guess I was always interested in putting stuff together. At
first I started out being a school teacher, a mathematics teacher,
but I got a job at Cadillac and I found out, "Gee, I like this, too,"
so I went on and got my engineering degree.
I guess the most interesting job I had was the one at Aero General in
California. We were making the Minuteman Missile at the time and I was
working with people from all over the United States. We were able to
deter a nuclear war that was potentially damaging at the time and the
Minuteman was a highly deterred missile that the Soviets respected –
it kept the Cold War down to nothing.
I taught at the Detroit high schools for awhile and I also taught at
the American University of Armenia in Yerevan. I taught reliability
engineering and quality management there in 1997, and I also have done
a lot of teaching, instruction work, ISO 9000, quality engineering
and reliability engineering and quality auditing.
At Cadillac I was a quality analyst and we did work on the production
lines to make sure that the parts that are made met the tolerances
that they were supposed to meet.
SCN: You taught engineering at the American University of Armenia. Was
that your first trip to your homeland, and how did the experience of
actually living in the country compare to what you had learned about
Armenia previously through studying?
GM: I visited Armenia in 1972, during the Soviet period, and we went
in as tourists. I went there as an instructor in ’97.
It more or less verified what I was reading, and of course I had the
chance to talk to all the people there, the inhabitants and the natives
and … talking to the young people was even more exciting, I think.
Basically, it verified pretty much what I was putting together.
SCN: What are some similarities and differences that you can tell us
about modern Armenian life as compared to life in America?
GM: There’s a big difference now. There’s still a little bit of the
Soviet mentality there, where they’re waiting for the government or
somebody to come in and straighten things out. One of the things I
couldn’t fathom is that the people didn’t know how to take care of
things themselves, as we do in America. When we see something wrong
here, we get together and take care of the problem. In Armenia,
I didn’t see that too much and I was a little disappointed in that
regard.
The other thing is that in the quality management part of things,
the students would say "This is how we do it in Armenia," and I said
‘Well, you young people will be the leaders of Armenia in another
10 years and this is the way you should be doing it," and I tried to
teach them the way we do things in America as far as quality management
and reliability goes.
SCN: When people think of Armenia, they think about the genocide at
the hands of the Ottoman Turks during World War I. Why do you think
that tragedy doesn’t receive more attention. What other hardships
are Armenians and Armenian-Americans currently facing?
GM: Armenian-Americans are all U.S. citizens here and we live just
like all the other citizens. We have problems with unemployment and
the economy just like everybody else, so there’s no problem there.
We have, what I feel, is an obligation. We should get Turkey to
recognize what they did and they still deny it. The reason they deny
it is because they’re afraid of the retribution that’s going to come
from it. Just like Hitler did to the Jews, present-day Germany is
civilized enough that they recognize what Hitler did and they have
helped the Jews and the Jewish state quite a bit, and I think Turkey
is a little bit afraid of that and this is why they’re denying what
really was a genocide.
SCN: Have you ever thought about involving yourself in the political
process in order to raise awareness of Armenians?
GM: I think I do that quite a bit, not from a political point where
I’m a candidate for office or anything like that, but I think the
books I’ve written bring that out.
Of course, I’m always writing letters to the editor whenever I see
something that should be done. Also, whenever there’s any campaigns
or movements to get Turkey to recognize the genocide, I’m involved
in that quite a bit also.
I haven’t gone to Washington, but I’ve certainly talked to
(U.S. Rep.) John Dingle when I lived in Allen Park and got him to
recognize pretty much what’s going on, and I’ve talked to (Former
U.S. Rep.) Joe Knollenberg quite a bit and he has been a very big
factor in helping us out. Our current (U.S.) representative is
Thaddeus McCotter and he has been very supportive of us. So I get
involved when I can.
SCN: Tell us about your book "Your Journey Into Armenia," what it
entails and how people can pick up a copy. Also, what other resources
can people that are of Armenian descent or are just interested in
Armenia turn to for information?
GM: The reason I wrote the book is because I wrote a previous book for
adults, "Never To Die." It’s supposed to be a novel about historic
Armenia and the quest for Noah’s Ark. I was giving a presentation
in Watertown, Massachusetts and there was a woman in audience who
said "This is a wonderful book, but there isn’t anything like it
for children."
Right away the mind started working as to what can I do with this thing
and I put seven years into "Never To Die," gathering information and
research and so forth and so on, and it was just a matter of doing
something for the children, which is "Your Journey Into Armenia."
I tried to keep it at the children’s level, anywhere from the
fifth-grade on up. I put in color illustrations and photographs and
real short paragraphs on what it’s all about. I want to educate our
American-born to recognize what has happened in our long history,
and that’s what I’ve tried to do with writing these books.
I never thought of myself as an author in high school and certainly
not in college, either, but I was reading a lot about Armenians and
Armenian history and saying to myself "Gee, I’m absorbing all this
information, why can’t I put something together and help other people
to do it in one book?"
And that’s pretty much what I did. It was pretty much late in my
career, but I’m still going and still doing things like this whenever
I can. So it wasn’t like a reawakening, I just kind of flowed into
it. When I was working on "Never To Die" – this was several years ago
– my wife came up with the idea that I should write something more
like an encyclopedia and that’s the first book that I wrote. There’s
nothing like it in America. The Soviet Union had a 29-volume book that
was very much slanted and it was in Armenian, but for a short 500,
600 page encyclopedia, it turned out to be a really nice thing that
got me started on this thing.
The library is full of stuff. The University of Michigan-Dearborn
Armenian Research Center has a big library where anything you want to
know about the Armenians is there, the people there are very helpful,
and any kind of research you want to do, it’s there.
Of course, we’ve got books galore on it and my books are available
just by calling me up on the telephone and asking me about it. I’d
be glad to send them a copy.
They can call me at my home at 248-684-5651.