ARMENIAN ORPHANS’ LEGACY – CANADA’S AID TO VICTIMS REMEMBERED
By Ian Robertson, Sun Media
Toronto Sun, Canada
April 23 2007
Lorne Shirinian always knew something dreadful lay in the past of the
"Georgetown Boys" who visited his East York family home as adults.
The author of several books about the 1915-23 killings of 1.5 million
Armenians by Ottoman-Turks heard whispers and saw visitors’ tears.
It wasn’t until years later that Shirinian realized his dad, Mapre, a
realtor who died in 1988 at about 82, was one of 109 orphans brought
to a farm in Georgetown for a new life, Shirinian told more than
600 members of the Armenian community at their Scarborough centre
yesterday.
Many became farmers, others had trades, and all became "good Canadian
citizens," Shirinian said. "It was a hard life … many of them could
never forget the murders of their entire families."
Each year, and until the last died about two years ago, many
"Georgetown Boys" he met through his parents attended a Sunday service
ahead of April 24, the date recognized by Canada as the anniversary
of the genocide.
This year’s 92nd memorial event focused on the children rescued by
Ottawa. Numerous speakers and politicians urged young Armenians to
keep alive the memory of the genocide and lobby for Turkey to stop
denying that their Ottoman ancestors tried to destroy their culture,
language and Christian faith.
Shirinian, 62, an English professor at the Royal Military College,
learned from his parents and their visitors that "all of us were
victims of some great wrong. It was a history I could have lost."
Keynote speaker Isabel Kaprielian-Churchill, an historian specializing
in Armenian history, said the aid given to orphans by Canada "played
a key role" shaping this country’s attitude towards humanitarian aid
and peacekeeping.
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