Author: Vicken Chmshkian

The New Armenia – a Russia-Turkey wedge, an East-West buffer

Vicken Chmshkian
Greek City Times
by GUEST CONTRIBUTOR

Recent developments around Armenia, the bitter defeat in 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) war, Russia’s feckless behavior as Armenia’s ally as well as the recognition of the Armenian Genocide by Biden administration on April 24, 2021 posit a question:

Where should the new Armenia head to?

It is already clear that the country’s foreign policy needs a profound change to
face the challenges of the post-war period which indeed threaten the very sovereignty and even de jure independence of Armenia.

For centuries and even millennia the Armenian people in the Armenian Highlands and beyond have played a key role as a buffer nation between the Eastern and the Western civilizations, between the Northern and Southern nations (eg. Armenia between the Roman and Parthian Empires, between the Arabs and Byzantines, etc).

Armenian people have also undertaken that buffer role outside of the Armenian Highlands, such as the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia between the Crusaders, Byzantine Empire and Muslims, as well as huge Armenian colonies in Eastern Poland and Ukraine in the Middle Ages, Armenian merchants in Persia and even India who were successful enough to smoothly establish ties between the Europeans and the people of the East
in Late Middle Ages.

And even now with a globally dispersed Armenian diaspora heavily present in the areas where again the East meets the West, such as Krasnodar, Sochi areas in Russia’s south-west, Los Angeles in the west coast of the U.S. and so forth.

This exclusive know-how of the Armenian civilization to connect the West with the East and that role of the buffer nation urgently needs to take shape in and around the new Armenia as the nation fights to restore its geopolitical factor in the South Caucasus and the broader Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region after the defeat in 2020’s Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh) war.

The 1920 Treaty of Sevres delegated the aforesaid buffer role to the first Armenian Republic (1918-1920) alongside another, more implicit civilizational and political undertaking – a powerful wedge between then collapsing Russian and Ottoman empires.

It has always been clear that Armenian civilization has been a wedge within the Turkish world but quite a few have seen Armenia as a wedge between Russia and Turkey partly because the Treaty of Sevres stayed on paper and the first Armenian Republic collapsed, thus giving away those roles of East-West buffer and Russia-Turkey wedge by the 1921 illegal treaties of Moscow and Kars.

After independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, the third Armenian Republic had an excellent chance of positioning itself as a civilizational and political buffer between the East and the West, and a powerful wedge between Russia and Turkey, after the 1994 victory in the first Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) war, but missed it because of its one-sided foreign policy and myopic policy of dependence on Russia.

The defeat in 2020’s Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) war has woken up Armenians in the country and in the Diaspora to save Armenia from further collapse and find its path to development.

The institutionalization of the world’s Armenians has already taken place through network state concepts and structures.

There are scopes of people in those structures who apparently understand that the strategic location of Armenia and Armenian Diaspora’s efforts to help the
homeland may revive Armenia’s immediate capability of rediscovering its role as a buffer state between the East and the West, of hammering itself as a wedge between Russia and Turkey and within the Turkish world.

This will restore the geopolitical balance in the region and contain belligerent regional powers, thus building peace and grounds for prosperity in the MENA.

The more Turkey, Azerbaijan and other states try to destroy Armenia as a sovereign nation, the more the Armenian civilization maximizes its chances of recovering its role as a buffer and wedge, between the East and the West, between Russia and Turkey.

And since it is clear that the Armenian civilization is already heading to a network state structure uniting the world Armenians, the international community has got a unique opportunity of exercising that exclusively civilizational Armenian buffer-wedge power by working with the Armenians globally.

Armenia, a nation of several millennia, has contributed to human civilization by connecting the East and the West, the North and the South.

Armenia suffered a genocide 100 years ago and the Armenian ethnos was deprived of its cradle of civilization – the Armenian Highlands, in consequence of the Armenian Genocide.

And most recently, Armenia was shaken by the major loss of Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh) war in 2020.

The elimination of the Armenian factor in the MENA region will be a geopolitical disaster for many great and regional powers.

Armenians globally unite into a network state structure ready to work towards the restoration of Armenia’s buffer-wedge power and invite partner nations for dialogue.

Vahram Ayvazyan is the founder of the Network State movement. He is an International
Relations and Genocide scholar, startup founder and a Climate Reality Leader, personally
trained by former US vice president Al Gore.

 

COVID-19: Armenia to add vaccination sites in public areas

Vicken Chmshkian

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 12:08, 4 May, 2021

YEREVAN, MAY 4, ARMENPRESS. COVID-19 vaccination sites will soon be available in public locations across Armenia in order to increase accessibility for citizens willing to get the shot, Shant Shekherdimian – an Armenian-American surgeon who is now carrying out an exchange of experience for the vaccination campaign with the Armenian healthcare ministry told a news conference.

“Practical steps are already being taken in this direction. Be it a plaza, a large shopping center or a street, soon the sites will be opened,” he said. “All necessary processes related to the vaccination which are carried out at the polyclinics will also be carried out in these sites.”

Shekherdimian mentioned the slow pace of the vaccination process in Armenia, noting that it is lagging behind from international trends. He said that 7% of the global population has already been vaccinated, and there are countries for example Israel where the vaccination indicator of the population is reaching around 60%.

“4500 people have been vaccinated as of today in Armenia, and this is a low figure. Although, I have to say that the recent active awareness campaigns are showing results, and activeness is observed in the vaccination process,” he said.  The doctor noted that studies show that the benefits of vaccination are several hundred times more than the risks.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

Avarayr: A Short History of Armenia’s Great Battle

Vicken Chmshkian
April 16 2021

By Van Der Megerdichian on April 16, 2021

In 301, Armenia became the first nation to adopt Christianity as a state religion. Despite Christianity playing a pivotal role in the emergence and maintenance of the Armenian people’s national identity going forward, it created many challenges for the fledgling nation. In 387, Byzantium and Persia partitioned Armenia, which historically found itself caught between conflicting interests of both the East and West, and most of Armenia proper fell under Sasanian dominion. At the time, political loyalty was inseparable from religious conformity, so the Christians in Iran were perceived as a subversive element threatening the safety of the Sasanian state. Since Armenians’ religious traditions were similar to Christian Rome, Persian authorities attempted to disrupt the close relationship between the Armenian and Greek churches. The situation intensified following the collapse of the Armenian Arsacid dynasty in 428 and the rise of the Sasanian monarch Yazdegerd II. A fervent Zoroastrian, he ordered his subjects to abandon their Christian confession and convert to Zoroastrianism. The Armenians bravely refused, and for the next half-century they mobilized in self-defense to restore their right to practice Christianity.

Before the battle, in 447, the Armenian nakharars—or nobles—and ecclesia gathered in the Armenian city of Artashat to proclaim to the Persian king that, although they were faithful to Persia, they were also faithful to their church. The pro-Persian faction led by Vasak Siwni, the frontier deputy or marzpan, preferred to remain loyal to their Persian overlords and facilitated dialogue to reach a compromise. Vartan Mamikonian led other Armenians who remained committed to their church and religion, and under his leadership, this group carried out minor acts of resistance.

Although the Georgians aided them, the Armenians sought a stronger ally to guarantee victory. With no Byzantine reinforcements coming, Vasak Siwni and his retinue saw another reason to remain faithful to their Persian suzerain. But the rebellion gained momentum and soon culminated in the Battle of Avarayr in 451, where the army of Vartan Mamikonian suffered an overwhelming defeat at the hands of the Persians. Yet this result was a Pyrrhic victory for the Sasanians and a moral triumph for the Armenians.

Numerous accounts exist describing the undying faith of the Christian Armenian warriors as they prepared for battle, including the recitation of the Psalms as St. Ghevont Yeretz, a notable church figure, held communion. On the battlefield, Vartan Mamikonian addressed his soldiers:

He who supposes that we put on Christianity like a garment, now realizes that as he cannot change the color of his skin, so he will perhaps never be able to accomplish his designs. For the foundations of our faith are set on the unshakeable rock, not on Earth, but above in Heaven, yet by faith we are established in Heaven where no one can reach the building of Christ not made by human hands.

During the battle, Vartan fell along with many other warriors who all became martyrs, but Armenia rose. In the years that followed, his nephew, Vahan Mamikonian, impelled the Armenians to remain staunch adherents to Christianity. As a result, Yazdegerd II and the Persians administered a much more lenient policy toward Christians and the Armenian Church, leading to the implementation of the Nvarsak Treaty in 484 that gave Armenians religious freedom. This history canonized Vartan, not only as a saint but also as a symbol of Armenian purity and resolve, helping to establish an Armenian identity that persists to this day. Even now, Armenians commemorate the Feast of Vartanantz on the Thursday preceding Great Lent. It is a symbol of the conscience, the faith, and the general rebellion of Armenians against tyranny to preserve their national and religious identity.

The Battle of Avarayr serves as the crux of what it means to be Armenian. Renowned Armenian writer Yeghishe recounts this event in his work the History of Vartan and the War, which is one of the quintessential works of the Armenian literary canon. This text outlines a root paradigm that has become the prism through which Armenians cast their struggles to survive and preserve their identity. This episode preserved and cemented Armenia’s place as a Christian nation, venerated and beyond reproach. The event also imparts a polysemic lesson describing an embattled community attempting to defend its autonomy, culture, fatherland, language, religion, history, and existence. Vartanank—the event named after the sparapet Vartan’s actions and the lore associated with his heroics, as a struggle and a cause—has been engrained in the Armenian psyche in the name of preserving and protecting the ancestral traditions and liberties of Christian Armenia. This is precisely why the battle is considered a moral victory despite a military defeat. According to Peter Cowe, the Narekatsi Chair of Armenian Studies at UCLA, the Battle of Avarayr has become the root paradigm for interpreting the Armenian Genocide of 1915 and the widespread representation of its victims as martyrs.

For the Armenian nation, St. Vartan Mamikonian is among the most sacred and beloved figures, embodying and typifying the national spirit. Vartanank has become an event that applies to each Armenian generation that endures and struggles for its sacred cause of preserving their identity. Root paradigms are part and parcel of every people’s history and existence, and the Battle of Avarayr serves as the script for a distinct Armenian identity rooted in collective ideals that determine a unique Armenian culture. Highlighting the ideals of vasn Hayrenyats, vasn gronki (for fatherland, for religion—as in, for Armenia, for Christianity), this thread can be applied to later historical events, including the national liberation movements of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, the Armenian Genocide, the battles that led to the First Republic of Armenia in 1918, and the Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) Wars. Concurrently, while a historically significant event for the Armenian people, the Battle of Avarayr represents a symbolic epitome of the spirit of Christian resolve when facing adversity, no matter how dire. Irrespective of the odds, the Christian faith has persevered, as it did and will continue to do for the Armenian people. In its own fundamental way, Vartanank laid the foundation for other subsequent battles in defense of Christianity on a global scale.


Armenpress: Armenia court sentences two Syrian mercenaries to life in prison

Vicken Chmshkian

Armenia court sentences two Syrian mercenaries to life in prison

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 18:58, 4 May, 2021

KAPAN, MAY 4, ARMENPRESS. A court of general jurisdiction in Armenia’s Syunik province sentenced the two Syrian mercenaries, who were fighting for Azerbaijan against Artsakh during the 2020 war, to life in prison, PR department head at the Office of the Prosecutor General of Armenia Arevik Khachatryan told Armenpress.

Syrian citizens Muhrab Muhammad al-Shkher and Yusef Alabet al-Hajji were charged with international terrorism and crimes committed during the conflict. They were fighting as mercenary-terrorists during the military operations launched by Azerbaijan against Artsakh in autumn 2020. The actions of the mercenaries were aimed at killing civilians in Armenia and Artsakh, with the purpose of terrorizing the peaceful population and destabilizing the domestic situation of Armenia and Artsakh.

Yusuf Alabet al-Hajji is the Syrian terrorist who had testified that they ‘were ordered to slaughter every Armenian in the village’.

Muhrab Muhammad al-Shkher, also a Syrian citizen, had testified that he, along with many others, were recruited by the leader of the Suleyman Shah Brigade in Syria and taken to Azerbaijan via Turkey.





Asbarez: ATP Expands its Environmental Education Reach

Vicken Chmshkian

April 28, 2021



Students who participated in ATP’s first lesson in Rostov-on-Don, Russia

Armenia Tree Project continues to expand its reach through its environmental education programs in different parts of the world. Most recently, ATP held its first lesson in Rostov-on-Don in Russia, and is collaborating with the Armenia Academy at Blair High School in California.

In Rostov-on-Don, the third largest Armenian community in Russia, an Environmental Education lesson was held for schoolchildren at the youth center of the Armenian community, The Armenian Sunday School of the Armenian Youth Community on Don. In attendance were board representatives of the youth organization, including Gevork Grigoryan, who is also an ATP Ambassador in the community.

The lesson was conducted by local teachers and designed by ATP Environmental Education trainers. It featured demonstrations on tree planting, and important information about ecology. The children were delighted to receive ATP t-shirts, Building Bridges newsletters, gifts, as well as seeds to grow at home and later plant at the Armenian Church of Bolshiye Saly.

“Within decades, the kids will grow up, and so will the trees that they’ll plant. This beautiful tradition will be a part of their lives,” said Tsovinar Sargsyan, a teacher at the youth center.

The community will host another lesson soon. The lesson will focus on the incredible lives of bees, and the ATP Environmental Educational team in Yerevan plans to send honey and educational posters made by “Eco-Club” students!

Meanwhile, in California, the Armenian Academy at Blair High School is celebrating and memorializing their establishment as the first Armenian Academy in the United States by planting 50 trees in Armenia through ATP- one for each student in the inaugural class. The trees will be planted at Ashtarak park in Armenia, which is a special park planted by children of the Environmental Educational program.

The Armenian Academy at Blair High School in Pasadena was created in response to community interest in August 2020 for the district to offer an Armenian bilingual high school option. The program provides a unique opportunity to expand Pasadena Unified School District’s bilingual and biliteracy academic options, and Blair High School is the district’s first high school Armenian Dual Language Immersion Program

ATP weaves education and awareness through all of its programs, fostering the next generation of empowered environmental stewards. Whether they are taught inside Armenia or in schools around the world, ATP’s interactive programs aim to raise the environmental consciousness of each and every student in the hopes that responsible behavior and sustainable practices will become an integral part of their lives. The goal is to continue expanding the reach of Environmental Education lessons across different communities around the world.

Armenia Tree Project, established in 1994, is a non-profit organization that revitalizes Armenia’s and Artsakh’s most vulnerable communities through tree-planting initiatives, and provides socio-economic support and growth. It is based in Yerevan, Armenia and has an office in Woburn, Massachusetts. For more information, please visit the website.

Economy Minister willing to resign if double-digit growth isn’t secured by yearend

Vicken Chmshkian

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 12:33,

YEREVAN, APRIL 29, ARMENPRESS. If Armenia fails to record a double-digit economic growth by yearend, the Minister of Economy Vahan Kerobyan says he’d resign.

Asked by reporters what he’ll do in the event of failing to secure the double-digit growth he’s been vowing to ensure since taking office, he answered : “I will resign.”

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

Turkish President Erdogan Calls for History Commission After Biden ‘Genocide’ Statement

Vicken Chmshkian
Newsweek

Turkish President Erdogan Calls for History Commission After Biden 'Genocide' Statement

By Benjamin Fearnow On 4/25/21 at 9:40 AM EDT

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for the opening of the country's national archives and for a "joint historical committee" to investigate whether U.S. President Joe Biden's Saturday "genocide" remarks have documented validity.

Biden recognized the mass killings that began in 1915 and resulted in the deaths of an estimated 1.5 million Ottoman Armenians. He declared "we affirm the history," but noted the move was not intended to "cast blame" on modern Turkey, "but to ensure that what happened is never repeated."

Armenian leaders commended Biden's remarks, but Turkey put out statements blasting it as factually inaccurate and disputing the historical evidence of said "genocide."

"President Erdogan opened Turkey's national archives & called for a joint historical committee to investigate the events of 1915, to which Armenia never responded. It is a pity @POTUS has ignored, among others, this simple fact and taken an irresponsible and unprincipled position," tweeted Ibrahim Kalin, Erdogan's primary spokesperson, Sunday.

"We reject and denounce in the strongest terms the statement of the president of the U.S. regarding the events of 1915 made under the pressure of radical Armenian circles and anti-Turkey groups," the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Turkey has long held that both Turks and Armenians were killed in the World War I-era fighting in which they outright reject the term "genocide"; Armenians call the early 20th-century events Meds Yeghern, or "the Great Crime." Turkish government officials on Saturday called for an immediate and thorough investigation of historical records in order to determine if the events can truly be labeled "genocide" by Armenian or Western leaders.

Turkish Foreign Minister Sedat Onal met with U.S. Ambassador to Turkey, David Satterfield, to discuss Ankara's condemnation of Biden's remarks. "The statement does not have legal ground in terms of international law and has hurt the Turkish people, opening a wound that's hard to fix in our relations," Onal said.

Meanwhile, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan praised Biden's remarks as a "powerful step" Saturday, as Armenians marked the anniversary of the 1915 roundup of 250 intellectuals viewed as the first act in what became eight years of systematic murders.

Biden's announcement and the pushback from Ankara comes amid a low point in American and Turkish political relations. Turkish government officials have for years been angered at Washington's support of Syrian Kurdish fighters that Turkey has long fought back against.

The Associated Press reported Sunday that Erdogan and Biden spoke on the phone Friday for the first time since the latter was elected last November.

Newsweek reached out to Turkish envoy officials in Washington Sunday morning for additional remarks.

Biden Must Recognize the Armenian Genocide Once and For All

Vicken Chmshkian
The National Interest


Recognizing the Armenian genocide would end one highly visible instance of capitulation and moral compromise by U.S. presidential administrations to authoritarian governments for the sake of strategic convenience.  

by Hugo Dante

When World War I started, there were approximately two million Armenians in the Ottoman empire. Less than a decade later, only a few hundred thousand remained.

More than 1.5 million Armenians had perished following systematic killings, beatings, rape, and mass starvation, at the hands of the Ottoman empire and later the dissident Young Turks, in what is broadly recognized by historians and by major governmental powers around the world, as first major genocide of the twentieth century.

The turn of the twentieth century brought about the dramatic collapse of the dominant empires of central and eastern Europe. For most with a basic education in history, the resulting tragedies following the collapse of the Russian and German empires are familiar. The rise of the Soviet Union and subsequent famines; the ascension of Nazi Germany; and the tragic events of the Holocaust are well studied in most public schools. But only about one-in-three Americans are even aware of the Armenian genocide, whose events preceded and in many ways closely paralleled the Holocaust that followed in Europe.

For Armenians, these events have a very personal connection. Most Armenians today are likely direct descendants of the survivors of the genocide. Armenian families are able to recount the lived experiences of only a few generations prior, carrying on memories of mass graves, public hangings, and a time of great tragedy in which a culture with more than two millennia of history came dangerously close to extermination.

Despite this, the United States has historically remained ambivalent on recognizing the Armenian genocide. Although Washington did recognize the genocide in a written statement to the International Court of Justice regarding the UN Genocide Convention, and later in proclamations by Ronald Reagan, it was seemingly outright denied later by the U.S. State Department and then cynically avoided by every following president, all in an attempt to appease Turkey, a strategic NATO ally.

For Turkey, recognition of the Armenian genocide is an affront to its national identity: a damning portrayal of its national founders and an attack on the very concept of Turkism. For the authoritarian leader of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, admitting it would deal a blow to the fierce sense of national pride among Turks that has proven critical to Erdogan and the AKP’s fragile hold on power amid unrest and economic crisis. As a result, the Turkish government has lobbied aggressively against recognition of the genocide both in the United States and in Europe, threatening bilateral relations, and banning and cracking down internally on activists who recognize the genocide. Turkey has long used every bit of its influence to prevent the United States from recognizing the genocide, leading to cynical ambivalence by presidential administrations in the United States who have thus far adopted Turkish talking points on the Armenian genocide for the sake of preserving interests abroad.

However, the alliance with Turkey is coming at a growing cost to the United States. Erdogan has consistently broken promises and antagonized its fellow NATO allies; escalating tensions with Greece; refusing to allow U.S. troops to pass through Turkey during the Iraq war, undoubtedly costing American lives and prolonging the conflict; using American-made weapons to attack the Kurds, U.S. allies that have been critical to the war against ISIS in Syria; and most cynically, in a dark irony to its past, backing Azerbaijan in its war against Armenia in Nagorno-Karabakh, sending in Syrian jihadist mercenaries, providing drones, and backing a devastating conflict that indiscriminately targeted civilian infrastructure, residential areas, and even churches.

Furthermore, Turkey’s own bargaining position relative to the United States is weakening. The lira has been devastated as the country has been plagued by an ineffective central bank, a crippled banking system, and poor economic policy. Erdogan’s consistently poor and misguided economic choices have caused significant and lasting harm for the Turkish people. On the global front, Turkey’s aggressive posturing has alienated its regional neighbors and Europe; and its unsavory relationships with Russia and China have severely crippled its ties with the United States. Given these developments, Turkey’s credibility and ability to dictate terms to the United States is undoubtedly in question.

President Joe Biden has promised explicitly to recognize the Armenian genocide, with White House sources indicating that recognition will go forward as planned in advance of Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day on April 24.

Recognition would be welcome—albeit long overdue—and would signal the administration’s dedication to pursuing justice. Most importantly, the act would end one highly visible instance of capitulation and moral compromise by U.S. presidential administrations to authoritarian governments for the sake of strategic convenience.

Hugo Dante is a Young Voices associate contributor and a D.C.-based analyst. Follow him on Twitter @hugodantejr.

Novi author keeps family’s experiences during the Armenian genocide alive with new book

Vicken Chmshkian

Novi author keeps family's experiences during the Armenian genocide alive with new book

Ariana Kabodian holds her book she has written titled Forget Me Not: Armenian Genocide Recollections about her relatives' recollections during the Armenian genocide in 1915-1923 while sitting at Novi Coffee & Tea in Novi on .

RYAN GARZA, DETROIT FREE PRESS
NOUR RAHAL | DETROIT FREE PRESS
   

Ariana Kabodian learned a lot about the Holocaust while growing up but not much about her own ancestors' genocide.

In commemoration of the 106th anniversary of the Armenian genocide and in honor of her family's history, the 28-year-old Armenian author interviewed her relatives and wrote a book called "Forget Me Not: Armenian Genocide Recollections."

The book was published this month by Chapbook Press Schuler Books. Printed on the cover is the official symbol of the Armenian genocide — the forget-me-not flower.

"I knew that the Holocaust was very well known in our community as well as nationally and internationally but unfortunately, the Armenian genocide did not have the same 'well-known factor,'" Kabodian said.

It was when her sister handed her a book about the Holocaust, to read last summer, that she felt inspired enough to share her family's history as well.

Kabodian's mother is first-generation Armenian American, while her father is second generation. She was born in Royal Oak and raised in Novi.

Being Catholic and Armenian Orthodox, Kabodian attended Mercy High School in Farmington Hills and Sunday school at St. John's Armenian Church in Southfield.

"I think it is important to my family to have an understanding of religion," she said. "And to have it be a focus throughout my life and education has kind of just helped me to stay informed with my faith, and with the community as well."

Armenia is located near the Mediterranean Sea in west Asia. Nearly 3 million Armenians currently reside there. The nation was the first to declare Christianity as its official religion in the year 301.

Between 1915 and 1923, 1.5 million Armenians were annihilated or exiled by the Ottoman Empire — known as modern-day Turkey. This led to Armenians being dispersed throughout the world, according to Kabodian's book. Many migrated to the United States — especially Los Angeles, Detroit, Boston and Philadelphia.

In this 1915 file photo, Armenians marched long distances and said to have been massacred in Turkey. The Nazi genocide of European Jews is widely commemorated in Israel and etched deeply into the psyche of a country founded in its aftermath. But when it comes to the mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War I, which historians have called the "first genocide of the 20th century," Israel has largely stayed silent. Fearing repercussions from its former ally Turkey and wary of breaking ranks with American policy, Israel has refrained from calling the mass killings a genocide.
ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE

Michigan is home to about 50,000 residents of Armenian descent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Alex and Marie Manoogian were some of the most influential Armenians in Michigan. Alex Manoogian patented the first washerless single-handle faucet, the Delta faucet, and founded Masco Corp., a manufacturer for the home improvement and new home construction markets. The couple donated the Manoogian Mansion to the city of Detroit, which uses it as the official mayoral residence.

Former Michigan Gov. George W. Romney first recognized the Armenian genocide in the state on April 24, 1967, according to the Armenian National Committee of America. Since then, several governors and state legislators have formally recognized the Armenian genocide as well.

Most recently,  the cities of Novi, Livonia and Southfield issued proclamations this month recognizing the Armenian genocide in commemoration of the upcoming anniversary.

More: Local Indigenous author's debut novel receives national attention, Netflix series

"The proclamations are a result of the work of the (Armenian National Committee) of Michigan and its activists’ grassroots efforts to reaffirm and recognize the Armenian Genocide especially in light of the Azerbaijani and Turkish attacks on Artsakh last year," stated the news release.

Turkey has historically denied any responsibility for the Armenian genocide, but in 2019 the U.S. Congress voted to officially recognize the genocide and formally reject all forms of denial accusations, according to "Armenian Genocide Recollections."

Kabodian's book features about 20 of her family members, she said. Each section is devoted to one particular family member's experience during the Armenian genocide and the Istanbul pogrom.

Originally, the book was intended to stay within the family, but Kabodian said she "realized that it's really important to educate people about things in history, and this would be a great way to do that."

"I really wanted to just try to preserve my family's history," Kabodian said. "I wasn't really sure what exactly the book would turn into but I quickly realized that there are a lot more stories in my family that I wasn't aware of. And so as I was beginning to develop the book and move along in the process of it, I realized that it'd be important for people outside of my family to know about the book as well."

All profits from Kabodian's book will be donated to help children in Armenia through her partnership with the nonprofit Paros Foundation.

Forget Me Not: Armenian Genocide Recollections written by Ariana Kabodian about her relatives' recollections during the Armenian genocide in 1915-1923.

RYAN GARZA, DETROIT FREE PRESS

Kabodian received her undergraduate degree in sustainable business from Aquinas College in Grand Rapids and is currently obtaining her Master of Business Administration at Wayne State University.

She also works in higher education sales as a digital account manager at XanEDU in Ann Arbor. Balancing work, school and the book took a lot of time management and effort, she said.

"This was a 'pandemic project' she has been working on over the past year," said Kabodian's father, Armen Kabodian. He is "proud and touched" that his daughter would take the time to do this for their family.

"The stories are disappearing. The people are dying," said Armen Kabodian. "And for her to think about how important it is to remember, and not forget what happened, and then to take the action and the time to capture all that information … I'm really quite impressed."

Armen Kabodian's grandparents came to the United States around the early 1920s, he said.

"My grandparents came here through Ellis Island with pretty much nothing, and to think about all that we are blessed with now — that is really a result of their sacrifice and their endurance and having to go through what they had to," he said. "I feel so fortunate and so blessed that they decided to fight and that they survived. God bless them for that."

Contact Nour Rahal: and follow her on Twitter @nrahal1.