Lowell Sun, MA
Updated: April 03, 2005 1:31 AM MST
Healing the scars
Exhibit at Patrick J. Mogan Cultural Center reveals wounds left behind from
the 1915 Armenian Genocide
By STEPHANIE COYNE, Sun Correspondent
Tom
Magarian, of Tyngsboro, a 91-year-old survivor of the 1915 genocide of
Armenian’s by the Turks, stands in front of an exhibit depicting the
horrors his people endured during what is considered the first mass
execution of the 20th century. SUN PHOTO/ BILL BRIDGEFORD
LOWELL — Scars run so deep that nearly a century has passed but the
occurrence still remains fresh in their minds.
The Armenian Genocide of 1915 — the first mass execution of the 20th
century.
Grandparents, parents, siblings, children, all dead — drowned, beaten,
starved, slaughtered by the Turks.
The death toll: 1.5 million men, women, children, babies — it didn’t
matter. The killers weren’t picky.
What hurts the survivors most, the thought that lingers on everyone’s mind:
Why won’t anyone recognize this event and stop pretending it never happened?
This perplexing question
and many others were discussed during the opening ceremony for the 90th
Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide Exhibit at the Patrick J. Mogan
Cultural Center yesterday.
“I don’t understand why they deny it,” said Rose Narzakian, a lifelong
Lowell resident. “It will stop further destruction of other countries.
“It brought on the other genocides.”
Narzakian’s mother was a survivor of the genocide. Her grandmother was
killed along the side of a road as the two walked for months to the Syrian
border.
“They shot my grandmother as she stopped and was washing a few things
along the river,” Narzakian said.
George Simonia experienced loss in his family as well.
One grandfather was taken off on a death march, while his other grandparents
were drowned.
“My mother witnessed the whole thing,” said Simonia, a Chelmsford resident.
“It was very difficult to interpret the word ‘alleged’ to my mother about
the genocide.”
Tom Magarian had a similar story.
Magarian is the last known Armenian Genocide survivor living in the Greater
Lowell area.
He was a toddler when his parents and four siblings were killed. He survived
along with one brother and two sisters.
After marrying, his older sister brought her three siblings to the United
States to live and escape the cruel fate that six members of their immediate
family endured.
Aram Jeknavorian, of Pelham, was a teenager when he first began to hear the
horrific stories about what happened to members of his family.
“Growing up they didn’t talk about the genocide,” he said. “It was
repressed.”
His father was a teenager when the family made arrangements for him to hide
in the basement of a home of a Greek family.
“This family was at great risk doing this for him,” said Jeknavorian.
His grandmother was one of the victims of the genocide and died at the hands
of the Turks.
Jeknavorian, also, wants to hear the Turkish government recognize the
genocide as an official event to begin the healing for the families who lost
so much.
“This is turning into more than just ethnic pride,” he said. “This is still
unresolved.”
Special exhibits and a series of event commemorating the 90th anniversary of
the Armenian Genocide will take place through June 17.
The exhibit is open Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, 9 a.m. to 5
p.m., Tuesdays, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Sundays,
1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Patrick J. Mogan Cultural Center, 40 French St.,
Lowell.