Clark has role in recognition of Armenian genocide

Worcester Telegram & Gazette
Sunday, April 3, 2005

Albert B. Southwick
Commentary

It was doubly fitting that the event was held in Worcester, the beacon
light for so many Armenians over the generations. The link between
Armenia and Worcester is one of the more fascinating chapters in the
immigrant saga.

A short time ago I was at Clark University for an unusual event –
the official announcement that a section of the Rose Kennedy Greenway
between Faneuil Hall Marketplace and Christopher Columbus Park in
Boston is to be designated Armenian Heritage Park in memory of the
Armenian genocide of 1915. The Rose Kennedy Greenway is to be a series
of parks and recreational spaces built above the Big Dig and featuring
an array of plantings, pedestrian walkways and memorials. It will
cover almost 30 acres and will be a striking contrast to the rusting
ironwork of the old Central Artery.

It was a festive and somber affair. Matthew J. Amorello, chairman of
the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, and Jordan Levy, authority vice
chairman, were on hand to comment on the ethnic heritage of America
and the special contributions of the Armenian communities. State
Rep. Peter J. Koutoujian, D-Waltham, and Rachel Kaprielian,
D-Watertown, expressed their appreciation to all who had worked to
bring the project to fruition, including the 14 Armenian churches
and 24 Armenian organizations who participated. The monument itself,
a dodecahedron, designed by Donald J. Tellalian, can be reconfigured
in various ways and will periodically be separated and reassembled
to symbolize the historical efforts of a fractured people to achieve
unity in their native land.

As I observed the well-dressed, attentive crowd, I reflected on
what they were thinking. These were the children, grandchildren and
possibly great-grandchildren of those who perished in the killing
fields of Turkey and Syria 90 years ago. Every one of them, I am sure,
had heard grim family stories of that bloody time. Every one of them
had a deep, deep awareness of what is meant by the term, “genocide”
– the attempted extermination of a people not because of something
they did, but because of what they were.

It was fitting that the ceremony was held at Clark, home of the
Strassler Family Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. It
originally was set up to commemorate and study the Jewish Holocaust
of 1942-45, but the Armenian genocide of 1915 is also on its
agenda, thanks to a generous donation by the Kaloostian and Mugar
families. Unfortunately, as shown by recent events in Africa and the
Balkans, genocide remains a corrosive problem for the human race.

It began when some New England missionaries arrived in Turkey about
180 years ago in the hope of converting Muslims to Christianity. That
proved not feasible, but the missionaries were astonished to find,
deep in the Caucasus, a nation that professed a form of Christianity
going back almost to the time of St. Paul. The New Englanders soon
moved to establish contact with that faraway people. According to
Martin Deranian’s evocative account, “Worcester Is America – the
Story of the Worcester Armenians,” “in 1830 two young New England
ministers, Eli Smith and Harrison Gray Otis Dwight, set out under the
auspices of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions
on a journey of over 2,000 miles into the interior of Turkey, Russia
and Persia to conduct a survey of the Armenians.” After a journey
taking more than a year, the two reported back that the Armenians
had never heard of America. A year later, a Worcester County native,
the Rev. William Goodell, arrived in Kharpert, Turkey, to organize
the initial mission to the Armenians. Rev. Goodell and members of his
family would be involved for generations in that missionary work. By
the 1850s a Protestant evangelical church and a theological seminary
had been established in Kharpert, and Armenians began to be aware of
the strange land across the sea.

The first Armenian in Worcester is thought to have arrived shortly
after the Civil War. Mr. Deranian estimates that there may have been 15
Armenians here in 1880. At least one of them was working for Washburn &
Moen, the huge wire and steel company located on Grove Street. He was
the first of many. By 1887, Armenians in Worcester numbered about 250,
most of them employed at Washburn & Moen.

Philip Moen, head of the firm, was a devout Christian and supporter
of Christian missions. He also was a shrewd businessman who valued
his Armenian workers for their loyalty, diligence and general
attitude of gratitude for the jobs they were given. They were not
trouble-makers. They did not support union-organizing efforts.

One exception was when Armenian workers struck the Whitin Co. in
Whitinsville because the company refused to fire its Turkish workers
after a report of massacres in Turkey.

We would consider Moen’s treatment of his Armenian workers as
exploitation. They were paid as little as 20 cents a day for work that
was hot, dangerous and exhausting. They lived in squalid conditions,
jammed into tenements, sometimes 15 or 20 to a room. They were often
insulted and abused by other workers.

To be called a “Turk” was a deep insult, but it was often heard in
those days. Corrupt mill bosses sometimes exacted bribes for anyone
hired. Mr. Deranian has many graphic accounts of the difficult
conditions those early Armenians faced at Washburn & Moen. Yet the
Armenians, in the main, were grateful to Philip Moen. They considered
him a fine Christian gentleman with their interests at heart. Many
attended his funeral.

One tribute to him noted that “he was always ready to sympathize with,
counsel and assist Armenians.” The large wreath that they presented
was emblazoned “Our Helper.” And largely because of Philip Moen,
by 1900 Worcester had the largest colony of Armenians in the land.

The Armenian Apostolic Church on Laurel Street, dedicated in 1891,
is said to have been the first in America.

Many of those early Armenians had never intended to become
Americans. Known as “sojourners,” they originally planned to make a
pile of money and return to their homeland. Some did return, sometimes
with tragic consequences.

But most remained, and became an important strand in the American
fabric.

As I observed the group at Clark, I could not help being impressed by
all that has been accomplished in three generations by the descendants
of those bewildered newcomers who filed into the Washburn & Moen
factory on Grove Street so long ago.

It’s the old immigrant story, of course, but the Armenian saga is
something special.