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Dallas Morning News, TX
April 27 2013
Armenians meet in Carrollton to commemorate their darkest days
By DIANNE SOLIS
Published: 26 April 2013 10:45 PM
Though the massacre of 1.5 million Armenians happened generations ago,
in the years around 1915, a Sunday memorial in Carrollton will
undoubtedly spark a chain of ancestral memory.
In her final days some 52 years ago, Maryam Kouserian's horrors from
1915 unreeled with cinematic force. She would tell her young
granddaughter Seta, `Don't go outside. The Turks will come and get
you. Don't go outside!'
The granddaughter had never heard her grandmother even speak. Seta
Barsamian believes trauma suffocated her grandmother's voice.
`Many genocide survivors didn't speak of it,' said Barsamian, who
moved from Lebanon to Texas and is now 67. `They were in shock.'
By 1965, Barsamian said, books and proclamations and memorials began
to place literary, scholarly and emotional markers on what happened to
a Christian tribe of people known as Armenians who lived in what is
now Turkey and Armenia.
Those of Armenian ancestry outside Armenia and Turkey now outnumber
those inside its borders. They immigrated to France, Lebanon, Syria
and Argentina and the U.S., where they are rooted in Fresno, Calif.,
Los Angeles, Boston and North Texas.
For some 20 years, a commemoration has been held in late April on a
date that roughly coincides with a roundup of Armenian leaders and
intellectuals for persecution. Activities in Carrollton begin this
Sunday shortly after noon at St. Sarkis Armenian Church, 1805 Random
Road.
Deacon Justin Ajamian of St. Sarkis called the Armenian genocide the
first of the 20th century. To remember it might have prevented others.
Memorial events `raise awareness that genocide affects people in a
traumatic way and we should not forget it,' Ajamian said.
Among the activities will be music, dance and a recognition of memories.
Carrollton Mayor Pro Tem Jeff Andonian said he will attend. His two
Armenian grandfathers fled Turkey. His two Armenian grandmothers fled
what were known as `death camps' where Armenians were marched into
Syria to die, he said.
He videotaped his grandmother's stories so others would remember.
Andonian, 56, can densely pack a conversation with detail about
Armenian roots, poetry and scholarship relating to the genocide.
Author Peter Balakian, for example, calls the U.S. response to the
Armenian crisis `the first international human rights movement in
American history.'
`There needs to be a voice of conscience that this should not happen
again,' Andonian said. `It is our duty and obligation, whether
Armenians, Jews, or you are from Rwanda or Darfur. This is a terrible
plague.'
The brochure for the event borrows from a ferocious passage from one
of the best-known writers of Armenian descent, the late Pulitzer Prize
winner William Saroyan.
`Go ahead, destroy Armenia. See if you can do it. Send them into the
desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches.
`Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of
them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New
Armenia.'
http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/carrollton-farmers-branch/headlines/20130426-armenians-meet-in-carrollton-to-commemorate-their-darkest-days.ece
April 27 2013
Armenians meet in Carrollton to commemorate their darkest days
By DIANNE SOLIS
Published: 26 April 2013 10:45 PM
Though the massacre of 1.5 million Armenians happened generations ago,
in the years around 1915, a Sunday memorial in Carrollton will
undoubtedly spark a chain of ancestral memory.
In her final days some 52 years ago, Maryam Kouserian's horrors from
1915 unreeled with cinematic force. She would tell her young
granddaughter Seta, `Don't go outside. The Turks will come and get
you. Don't go outside!'
The granddaughter had never heard her grandmother even speak. Seta
Barsamian believes trauma suffocated her grandmother's voice.
`Many genocide survivors didn't speak of it,' said Barsamian, who
moved from Lebanon to Texas and is now 67. `They were in shock.'
By 1965, Barsamian said, books and proclamations and memorials began
to place literary, scholarly and emotional markers on what happened to
a Christian tribe of people known as Armenians who lived in what is
now Turkey and Armenia.
Those of Armenian ancestry outside Armenia and Turkey now outnumber
those inside its borders. They immigrated to France, Lebanon, Syria
and Argentina and the U.S., where they are rooted in Fresno, Calif.,
Los Angeles, Boston and North Texas.
For some 20 years, a commemoration has been held in late April on a
date that roughly coincides with a roundup of Armenian leaders and
intellectuals for persecution. Activities in Carrollton begin this
Sunday shortly after noon at St. Sarkis Armenian Church, 1805 Random
Road.
Deacon Justin Ajamian of St. Sarkis called the Armenian genocide the
first of the 20th century. To remember it might have prevented others.
Memorial events `raise awareness that genocide affects people in a
traumatic way and we should not forget it,' Ajamian said.
Among the activities will be music, dance and a recognition of memories.
Carrollton Mayor Pro Tem Jeff Andonian said he will attend. His two
Armenian grandfathers fled Turkey. His two Armenian grandmothers fled
what were known as `death camps' where Armenians were marched into
Syria to die, he said.
He videotaped his grandmother's stories so others would remember.
Andonian, 56, can densely pack a conversation with detail about
Armenian roots, poetry and scholarship relating to the genocide.
Author Peter Balakian, for example, calls the U.S. response to the
Armenian crisis `the first international human rights movement in
American history.'
`There needs to be a voice of conscience that this should not happen
again,' Andonian said. `It is our duty and obligation, whether
Armenians, Jews, or you are from Rwanda or Darfur. This is a terrible
plague.'
The brochure for the event borrows from a ferocious passage from one
of the best-known writers of Armenian descent, the late Pulitzer Prize
winner William Saroyan.
`Go ahead, destroy Armenia. See if you can do it. Send them into the
desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches.
`Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of
them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New
Armenia.'
http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/carrollton-farmers-branch/headlines/20130426-armenians-meet-in-carrollton-to-commemorate-their-darkest-days.ece