Armenian genocide

The forgotten genocide

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The boy who was bought for a silver coin and other Armenian stories of survival

The following article appeared in The Sacramento Bee Sunday Magazine.

By J.D. Lasica

Mesrop BoyajianIn the distance, Mesrop Boyajian could see the shimmering outline of the city of Mardin. The sun was high, and it pressed down on the band of villagers as they crossed the desert the Syrians called Der-el-Zor. Soon, the Armenians would give it a new name: the Desert of Death.

Mesrop, a small boy from a small village in Armenia, had seen much in his 6 years. But the past few months — avagh!

He saw the men in his village of Khoolu rounded up and marched off; they would never return. Hidden in the home of a sympathetic Turkish neighbor, he saw Kurdish tribesmen descend on the Armenian women and children who remained behind in Khoolu. The Kurds who had guns used them; those without guns used their quick, scythelike knives. After a time, after the last cry was stilled, Khoolu lay silent. [Read more…] about The forgotten genocide

armenian-genocide

What historians say about the Armenian Genocide

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Where do historians come down on the Armenian Genocide?

Irving Horowitz, an expert in the study of genocide at Rutgers University, says scholars agree on this much: In 1915 the government of the Ottoman Empire, caught up in the Great War against Czarist Russia and the Allied powers, saw the Armenians as an untrustworthy minority that might align with their cousins across the Russian border. (Armenia was divided in 1827 between the Ottoman Empire in the west and Russia in the east.) The predominately Christian Armenians tended to be wary of their Moslem rulers, who had encouraged a wave of religious pogroms in 1894-96 that left an estimated 200,000 Armenians dead. [Read more…] about What historians say about the Armenian Genocide

The boy who was sold into slavery for a silver coin

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Mesrop Boyajian recounts his experience in the Armenian Genocide

By J.D. Lasica

mesrop boyajian
Mesrop Boyajian
Joyce Poirot is the only offspring of Mesrop Boyajian, the boy who was sold into slavery for a silver coin.

Boyajian seldom talked about his experience, so it was not until adulthood that Poirot understood her father’s place in the massacres. But she knew, from her early years in Detroit, that there was something about her heritage that set her apart.

“I knew it from the secret language we spoke at home and the way my grandmother dressed me,” she says. “I knew it when I’d open my lunch box in kindergarten. Everybody else would have bologna on Wonder Bread. I’d open mine, and a couple of kuftas (meatballs) or lahmajoun (meat pies), smelling of garlic, would roll out.”

Poirot, 51, rests on a sofa in her downtown condominium. She is a top academic administrator at the University of California, Davis, overseeing a statewide continuing-education program. [Read more…] about The boy who was sold into slavery for a silver coin

Gov. George Deukmejian on the Armenian genocide

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Gov. George Deukmejian
Photo of the governor by J.D. Lasica

California’s governor reflects on the Armenian genocide — and how it still affects his people’s spirit

This Q&A with the sitting governor of California appeared in The Sacramento Bee and was reprinted in the magazine Ararat. It was one of the few one-on-one interviews Deukmejian granted during his governorship.

By J.D. Lasica

Gov. George Deukmejian, who is looked upon as a source of pride in the nation’s Armenian community, has made public discussion of the Ottoman Empire massacres a recurring theme of his administration. The governor’s parents emigrated to this country from Armenia in 1907 and 1909, before the massacres of 1915-18. Following are excerpts from an hourlong interview conducted by J.D. Lasica:

Let’s start off with your early years. Were there some Armenian traditions that thrived in the Deukmejian household?

Oh, absolutely. My parents were very much involved in Armenian community activities. My father used to participate in some of the Armenian fraternal organizations. … My mother was actively involved with what they called the Armenian Relief Society, which is like the Armenian Red Cross. My mother used to sing at a lot of different Armenian events and functions, and my sister was a very accomplished pianist and so she had to play the piano while my mother sang. And obviously little Corky, as I was called in those days, used to have to go along to all these events.

Where was your home?

It’s in a village called Menands, New York. It’s like a suburb of Albany. [Read more…] about Gov. George Deukmejian on the Armenian genocide

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