ARARAT-ESKIJIAN MUSEUM: A TREASURE OF THE ARMENIAN DIASPORA IN LOS ANGELES

Huffington Post
March 23 2015

by Robert David Jaffee , Author, journalist and mental health activist

A hidden gem in Mission Hills, the Ararat-Eskijian Museum is tucked
away in the San Fernando Valley, almost 20 miles from Glendale,
which reportedly has the highest concentration of people of Armenian
descent outside of Yerevan, the capital of Armenia.

The museum lies even further from the enclave known as Little Armenia
in Hollywood.

If it is a bit out of the way, it is well worth a visit.

Located on a sprawling campus, which includes the Ararat Home, a
retirement community, an assisted living facility, a church and even a
banquet hall, the museum has a fine collection of artifacts not only of
the Armenian genocide but also of the history of the Armenian people.

When you approach the entrance of the museum, the first thing you see
is a bronze sculpture of a mother, her hair tousled and rippling in
the wind, as she clasps her son, while they flee the genocide.

The sculpture evokes the harrowing and tragic history of the Armenians,
an ancient people who go back at least 5,000 years, according to a
timeline engraved on a sidewalk outside of the museum.

When you walk inside the museum, you are greeted by an inspirational
quote from William Saroyan, a playwright who lived in Fresno and who
wrote eloquently about the resilience of Armenians:

I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this
small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought
and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music
is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy that
race. Destroy Armenia, see if you can do it. Send them into the desert
without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if
they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet
anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.

April 24 marks the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the Armenian
genocide. From 1915 to 1923, roughly 1.5 million Armenians were
murdered by the Ottoman Turks.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Ca.) has introduced a bipartisan resolution,
which calls upon President Obama to “work toward constructive, stable,
and durable Armenian-Turkish relations” and to seek Turkey’s “full
acknowledgment of the facts and ongoing consequences of the Armenian
genocide, and a fair, just and comprehensive international resolution
of this crime against humanity.”

The Obama administration has been reluctant to take up this issue,
dear to anyone who cares about justice, for strategic reasons, most
notably because Turkey is a nominal ally in the fight against ISIS.

And the resolution, which is nonbinding, has reportedly been held up
by Speaker John Boehner.

President Obama and Speaker Boehner, who have failed the test of
leadership here, would benefit from visiting the Ararat-Eskijian
Museum, where they would learn that in some respects this is not the
100th anniversary at all. Armenians had been massacred by the Turks
many times before 1915, including in Hadjin, a town located in what
was then part of Armenia, in 1909.

“You can find everything in Wikipedia,” said Edouard Selian, 77,
the curator, when I checked out the museum on Sunday, March 22.

Selian, who has a shock of white hair, wore corduroy pants; a white,
buttoned-down shirt, open at the collar; and a patchwork sweater on
March 22. It was a day or so after Nowruz, which marks the Persian
New Year but also has significance to Armenians.

Selian was sweeping the grounds outside the museum when I first
arrived.

An extremely modest man, Selian is a linguist who speaks at least five
languages and understands many more. He is a distinguished scholar of
the Armenian Diaspora. Like any true scholar, he carefully documents
his research with extensive footnotes on sources.

His son, Sahak, a structural engineer, recently sent me one of his
father’s articles on the linguistic history of the Paulicians and
Pomaks, people who migrated from Armenia to the Balkans, and whose
language still contains many words that have roots in Armenian.

Selian, who has a PhD from Yerevan State University, was raised in
Bulgaria. At the time that he studied in Yerevan, he was the “first
foreign student” to do so, according to Sahak, who on the day of
my visit spoke occasionally in Armenian with his father, for whom
English is not always the easiest language.

As we strolled around the museum, a one-room space, which occupies
the basement of a church and includes two small libraries, Selian
pointed out various artifacts, including maps of the genocide and
of historic Armenia, which for thousands of years ranged far beyond
the boundaries of the modern-day country; images of gods in Armenian
mythology, which hung from the ceiling and on the walls; glass cases of
Armenian dresses, some of which looked like kimonos; books compiling
all of the newspaper articles on the genocide, which was known to
Americans in 1915; and a replica of the Cathedral of Etchmiadzin,
built in the 5th century and still standing in Vagharshapat, Armenia.

Armenians, as is well-known, became some of the first Christians and
built the first churches.

When you look at the replica of the cathedral, you can see that
the domes are not really domes. As is typical of Armenian churches,
the spires are conical, not circular, which means that the acoustics
inside are unusual. When the choir plays music, the sounds “bounce off
many more walls” than they do in other houses of worship, said Sahak,
who, as a structural engineer, is fascinated with architecture. He
noted the intricate details in the cathedral’s design, which had to
be chiseled and carved by a crew of men over many years.

Selian, whose wife, Vartouhi (Rose in English), works at the retirement
home and joined us on the tour, said that his best friends in Bulgaria
were Jews. That included the best man at his wedding, Azaria Polikarov,
a Bulgarian philosopher.

Although he is not young, Selian remains active. He hopes to write
about the lost city of Atlantis, which he believes is not far from
Israel. He also said that he is working on a paper on the name of
God in Armenian.

While Selian did not want to reveal the holy name to me, he did
indicate that the name of his son, Sahak, derives from the Hebrew
word, Yitzhak.

The connection between Armenians and Jews extends far beyond personal
anecdotes.

Selian pointed out that the Turks, who were allies with the Germans
in World War I, employed many of the same sinister techniques in
carrying out the genocide, the first one of the 20th century, that
were later used by the Nazis during the Holocaust.

For instance, the Turks separated the Armenian men from the women and
children, just as the Nazis split up families. Selian’s grandfather
and grandmother were separated from each other.

The Turks also forced Armenians to trek for days on death marches,
just as the Nazis did to the Jews and others in the Holocaust.

According to Selian, some Turkish doctors conducted experiments on
Armenians, injecting them with viruses, just as the Nazis did to the
Jewish prisoners in the concentration camps. The Turks, like the Nazis,
also used gas chambers.

The similar history of the Jews and Armenians goes even deeper.

>From 1948 until 1967, Jews were typically barred from visiting Mount
Moriah, the site where Abraham was prepared to sacrifice his son,
Isaac. It was only after Israel defeated the Arabs in the Six-Day War
that Jews were once again able to visit the Old City of Jerusalem,
including the Western Wall, which is beneath Mount Moriah, where the
First and Second Temple stood.

Similarly, Mt. Ararat, the cradle of Armenian civilization, and,
according to legend, the home of Noah’s Ark, is visible from Yerevan,
but it has been part of Turkish territory for years.

The two peaks of Mt. Ararat have become a symbol not only of Armenia’s
ancient heritage but also of the painful ironies of its more recent
history.

When you step outside of the Ararat-Eskijian Museum, you can see two
mountain ranges, the Verdugos and the Santa Monicas. These two ranges
should not be confused with the two peaks of Mt. Ararat, but they do
provide hope that one day Ararat will again be within reach for an
ancient people, who have never given up and who will always create
a New Armenia wherever they live.

The Ararat-Eskijian Museum is located at 15105 Mission Hills Rd.,
Mission Hills, Calif. It is open on Saturdays and Sundays from 1 p.m.

to 5 p.m., except holidays. For more information, call (818) 838-4862.

Admission is free, and donations are encouraged.