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Assembly Panel Discussion in California on `Islamized Armenians'

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  • Assembly Panel Discussion in California on `Islamized Armenians'

    ARMENIAN ASSEMBLY OF AMERICA
    Contact: Taniel Koushakjian
    Telephone: (202) 393-3434
    Email: [email protected]
    Web: www.aaainc.org

    PRESS RELEASE
    Date: December 13, 2013

    ARMENIAN ASSEMBLY OF AMERICA HOSTS PANEL DISCUSSION ON `ISLAMIZED
    ARMENIANS' IN CALIFORNIA

    Hrant Dink & MalatyaHye Foundation Conference Participants Update
    Community

    PASADENA, CA - Last week, the Armenian Assembly of America's
    (Assembly) Western Region Office held a special panel discussion entitled
    `Islamized Armenians,' reported the Assembly. Moderated by Armenian
    Observer Editor, Professor Osheen Keshishian, panelists Doris Melkonian,
    Arda Melkonian and Anoush Suni addressed a standing room only crowd at the
    University Club of Pasadena.

    `It was a pleasure and honor hearing these three scholars recount their
    experiences and present their papers to our community and members,' stated
    Assembly Western Region Manager Aline Maksoudian. `The overwhelming amount
    of interest in this presentation shows the importance and value of their
    work and we look forward to learning more about the progress of their
    research in the future,' Maksoudian said.

    All three panelists recently returned from Istanbul, Turkey, where they
    presented papers at a conference under the same title last month. The
    Assembly program began with opening remarks by Assembly Board member Lisa
    Kalustian, who thanked everyone for their interest and participation that
    evening. Kalustian then introduced an early participant during the
    Assembly's founding, Osheen Keshishian, who gave introductory remarks about
    the Assembly panelists.

    First to take the podium was Doris Melkonian, an alumnus of the Armenian
    Assembly's summer internship program in Washington, D.C. (class of 1994).
    She shared her paper on `Taken into Muslim Households - Experiences of
    Armenian Children during the Genocide' as presented at the Istanbul
    conference and spoke about the other Istanbul conference panelists, their
    backgrounds and presentations.

    Next was Arda Melkonian, also an alumnus of the Armenian Assembly's summer
    internship program in Washington, D.C. (class of 1990). She shared with the
    California audience her paper on `Gender and Survival Options during the
    Armenian Genocide' as presented at the Istanbul conference, retelling the
    tales of the Armenian Genocide survivors whose memory is preserved in the
    Armenian Genocide oral history survivor memoirs at the University of
    California Los Angeles (UCLA).

    Finally, Anoush Suni summarized her paper on `The Production of Difference:
    the Case of Islamized Armenians.' She also remarked on her experience in
    Turkey, and what others shared with her, delving deep into her emotional
    state at the time, and spoke at length about her experience living with a
    Kurdish family in Turkey, as well as her time in neighboring Armenia.

    The Melkonian sisters also showed a slide presentation complete with
    pictures from the Istanbul conference, sponsored by the Hrant Dink
    Foundation and the MalatyaHye Foundation. Together, this gave the audience
    a sense of what it was like to be in Turkey, as a descendant of Armenian
    Genocide survivors, talking openly about the Armenian Genocide. A robust
    question and answer session with the audience concluded the evening's
    program.

    The growing discussion of the Armenian Genocide in Turkey is part of a
    pattern of breaking taboos, especially over the last eight years, as the
    first academic conference on the 1915 Armenian Genocide in Turkey took
    place in 2005. Since then, more and more scholarship on the Armenian
    Genocide has emerged within Turkey, which has brought with it another
    dimension: the discovery of hidden or `Islamized Armenians.'

    Biographies for Arda Melkonian, Doris Melkonian and Anoush Suni can be
    found here:
    http://www.aaainc.org/fileadmin/aaainc/pdf/2013_Q1/Assembly_Melkonian_and_Suni_Bios.pdf

    Photos from the event can be found on the Assembly Facebook page here:
    https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151745749731898.1073741840.51331471897&ty pe=1&l=301e93192a

    Established in 1972, the Armenian Assembly of America is the largest
    Washington-based nationwide organization promoting public understanding and
    awareness of Armenian issues. The Assembly is a non-partisan, 501(c)(3)
    tax-exempt membership organization.

    ###

    NR# 2013-029

    Photo Caption 1: Southern California Armenians pack the room to hear a
    panel on `Islamized Armenians.'

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