Queens College The Knight News , NY
March 31 2007
NYC Commemorates 92nd Anniversary of Armenian Genocide
Cesar Bustamante
Issue date: 3/29/07 Section: News
Annie Karakaian, 95, is an Armenian immigrant who graduated cum laude
from Queens College many years ago. She has been many things in her
life: QC student, a painter, a sculptor and a mother, but she will
always count as one of the lucky ones to survive the Armenian
Genocide in Turkey from 1917-1923, which is considered by some as the
first major genocide of the 20th century.
In the wake of World War I, the Young Turks who had significant
political power in the Ottoman Empire at the time made a premeditated
and systematic operation to kill and deport Armenians from the land
in order to create a purely Turkish empire according to the Armenian
National Institute (ANI).
Today, the Republic of Turkey does not recognize having taken part in
any act of genocide against the Armenians despite the ANI and others
arguing that there is ample documented evidence and eyewitness
testimony to prove otherwise. The U.S. has not passed a resolution
recognizing it as genocide while nations like France and Argentina
have officially recognized it as exactly that.
Some of the survivors are still alive to talk about it today. With
the advent of the 92nd Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide on
April 22 in Times Square, The Knight News was invited to the New York
Home for the Armenian Aged in Flushing to hear several of the stories
of the survivors.
"The men use to hide in the house because [the Turks] wanted to take
them into the army," Karakaian said. "My father didn’t talk about his
military experience."
Her father was placed into the Ottoman military as a member of a
labor battalion with other drafted Armenians. These battalions were
assigned to do the dirty work of the military and were placed in
horrid conditions equal to slavery. It was a systematic way to reduce
the males in the Armenian population and marked the early stages of
the genocide.
The Armenian women also became endangered. Helen Hajinian, a
98-year-old survivor, said the Armenians began hiding their women
because it was known that the Turkish soldiers would take their young
girls to the mountains. There they would strip, beat or rape them
before throwing some of them over.
"You can’t tell words of the thing they did to me," Kristine
Naldjian, 99, said. "They did disgraceful things to children,
including me." Naldjian did not give details of what the soldiers did
to her.
In light of all this, Karakaian’s father, a carpenter by profession,
was able to the remove the top of their stairway and hide young men
and women there before the entire family left for the U.S. in 1920.
They came by boat during a time when immigrants still had to go
through Ellis Island.
Not everyone was able to leave their country by boat. Mini Arabian,
daughter-in-law and translator for 92-year-old Israel Arabian, said
that her grandmother, Hagi Synanian, moved by foot. While walking
away she was forced to stop every so often and dig graves for her
children who died during the trek. Out of five children, only Mini’s
father survived.
Israel Arabian said he still has panic attacks from the memory of his
youth. He hardly remembers his parents who were killed by the Turks
and his being placed in an orphanage. Inevitably, a group of
Armenians helped hide him in a basement but for three days he was
without food.
His sister was forced to marry a Turk and the siblings afterwards
were separated but were able to reconnect with each other through the
Red Cross. They only spoke through letters and never reunited face to
face before her death.
Sam Azardian, founder of the Armenian Genocide Commemoration, said
his father and mother were separated as a result of the genocide. His
father had been drafted into a labor battalion but sensed his life
was endangered after he fought back an Armenian officer who had
assaulted him. He left immediately and came to the U.S. but was not
able to get in contact with his family and did not even know the
extent the government operations against the Armenians were. Members
of his family walked in the death marches to the desert of Der Zor
(the killing fields), where four of Sam’s siblings died.
"I lost brother and sisters that I’ve never even saw and met,"
Azardian said. Sam’s parents only reunited after his father saw a
newsletter which mentioned what was happening to the Armenians and
had his wife directly ask for him.
The 92nd Annual Armenian Genocide Commemoration, which is open to the
public, will take place April 22 in Times Square between 2 p.m. and 4
p.m. to pay tribute to the victims of the Armenian Genocide and the
late Turkish-Armenian journalist, Hrant Dink, who was assassinated in
January in Turkey for writing about the genocide. This year’s theme
is "We Cannot Forget, We Will Not Forget."
"Turkey’s denial of the Armenian Genocide sets a dangerous precedent
that makes future genocides more likely. Many of the tactics – and
denials – used by Turkey against defenseless Armenians are being used
again today in Darfur," the Armenian National Committee of America
writes.
Adolf Hitler was quoted as saying before his attack on Poland, "Go,
kill without mercy … who today remembers the annihilation of the
Armenians."
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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
