GENOCIDE MOTION HITS HOME WITH ARMENIANS IN MONTANA
By Timothy Alex Akimoff Of The Missoulian
The Missoulian, MT
s/local/news04.txt
Oct 25 2007
Yedvart Tchakerian of Missoula, left, and Milena Oganesyan, a graduate
student at the University of Montana, spent part of Sunday in the
University Center talking about a bill pending before Congress that
would label the mass killings of millions of Armenians at the beginning
of the 20th century as a genocide.
Milena Oganesyan was in Los Angeles when she asked someone if they
knew of any Armenians in Montana.
"I’m the only one," she complained.
But soon she had the phone number of a possible contact.
Yedvart Tchakerian of Missoula smiles broadly when he recalls that
phone call.
"I called her right back," Tchakerian said. "This is my family in
Montana now; she’s like my daughter, my sister."
And that’s not so odd if you consider what William Saroyan, a famous
playwright and poet once said, "For when two of them meet anywhere
in the world, see if they will not create a new Armenia."
Currently, Tchakerian and Oganesyan have more in common than being two
of just a few Armenians in Montana, they are watching to see if the
United States government will recognize an event that happened more
than 90 years ago, an event that set their lives’ pathways in motion.
House Resolution 106, currently before the U.S. Congress, would
officially recognize the mass killings of Armenians in what is now
Turkey between 1915 and 1923 as a genocide – the first, in fact,
of the 20th century.
For much of the most recent part of its long history, the nation of
Armenia hasn’t been a nation at all, but a territory controlled by
one empire after another.
Tchakerian and Oganesyan are two of hundreds of thousands of ethnic
Armenians spread around the globe as a result of a mass deportation
from the Ottoman Empire in the early part of the 20th century.
These two call western Montana home, and though their starting point
was the same, they took very different paths to get here.
Oganesyan is Georgian, the country not the state. She’s attending
the University of Montana on a student visa.
Her great grandparents are "survivors of the genocide," she said.
They fled, with thousands of others, to neighboring countries after
hearing reports of mass killings.
Shortly after settling in Georgia, that country too fell under the
rule of another: the Soviet Union.
"I had access to some literature," Oganesyan said about her
understanding of what happened to her grandparents. "My teachers –
non-Armenian-teachers – provided literature or some people who might
have some information about this."
Her grandparents’ story reads like that of many survivors.
"They were just small kids, just running, running, running," Oganesyan
said. "They didn’t know if they would survive."
Of the nearly 2.5 million Armenians living in the eastern portion of
the Ottoman Empire, modern-day Turkey, at the beginning of the 20th
century, 1.5 million were killed between 1915 and 1923.
"You know, history taught me that there were many subjective moments
and people are mostly subjective," Oganesyan said of her search for
truth and meaning in her own history. "I’m just trying to find the
middle ground, I’m trying to be as objective as I can."
Oganesyan is pursuing a master’s degree in history from the University
of Montana. She’d like to earn a doctorate and use her education to
continue to pursue the middle ground, to cast new light on some of
the wrongs of the last century.
HR106, which was passed by the House Foreign Relations Committee on
Oct. 10, is new in name only. A similar proposal came before Congress
in 2000, before President Clinton urged Republican Speaker Dennis
Hastert to withdraw the measure.
The reason is that Turkey maintains what happened in the eastern
province of Anatolia between 1915 and 1923 was not genocide, but a
large-scale revolt by an ethnic minority in the Ottoman Empire.
If the United States joins the 22 nations that have recognized it as
genocide, critics say Turkish-American relations could be strained
to the breaking point.
Tchakerian said he doesn’t care if America’s relationship with Turkey
is strained.
"The second act of genocide is denial," he said.
Tchakerian is American as apple pie.
He says he loves the rodeo, loves when the women ride out onto the
grounds with cowboy hats and flags waving.
"It makes me emotional," he said.
But he’s also Armenian, and as such, he’s passionate about his support
of HR106.
Tchakerian’s father was the only survivor from his family.
He, like many Armenians, fled south into the Arab countries of the
Mediterranean.
"Since we populate those countries, most people think we’re Muslims,"
Tchakerian said. "The fact is that we were the first nation to adopt
Christianity – in 301 A.D."
Armenia’s Christian heritage has contributed largely to its suffering,
according to Tchakerian, who said a Christian nation in a sea of
Muslim countries means a lot of strife.
Tchakerian’s father, who was raised in an orphanage in Jerusalem
after escaping the holocaust in eastern Anatolia, settled down in
Jaffa before Israel became a state.
"It robbed my dad of his childhood," Tchakerian said. "My dad is an
angel; I love my dad."
Tchakerian never knew how old his father was when he escaped. He
estimates he must have been between 3 and 5 years old.
That’s because his father was so traumatized he couldn’t talk to his
own family about it.
"During Halloween, we’d have to hide skeletons because it would bring
back bad memories," Tchakerian said.
Some accounts of the Armenian killings indicate huge piles of white
bones, the dead scattered as far as the eye could see.
Tchakerian, 64, has lived in the United States for 51 years.
"As an American, it means a lot to me that we are able to recognize
the suffering of other people, whether it be the Armenian genocide
or Rwanda," Tchakerian said. "Now we’ve even recognized the genocide
in Darfur (Sudan)."
Both Tchakerian and Oganesyan have a strong interest in the debate
about the Armenian killings.
"I think that our background, in most cases, determines our interests
in life," Oganesyan said.
Hers is a life dedicated to understanding history, to finding balance
and truth.
His is a life of searching for peace.
If HR106 is passed by Congress, Tchakerian would wish for no more wars.
"I’m waiting for all wars to end," he said. "I know it won’t do that,
but I’m against all wars."
Oganesyan also is an advocate for peace.
"I think it’s not just the issue pertaining to Armenians and Turks,
this is everywhere," she said. "This is an example of unresolved
problems everywhere."