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ACTIVISTS MEET WITH REP. SCHIFF OVER ARMENIAN GENOCIDE LIBRARY SERIES
http://asbarez.com/121988/activists-meet-with-rep-schiff-over-armenian-genocide-library-series/
Thursday, April 17th, 2014
Hagop and Knar Manjikian meet with Representative Adam Schiff
LOS ANGELES--Hagop and Knar Manjikian, Armenian authors and activists,
met with Congressman Adam Schiff at his district office in Burbank on
April 5 to introduce him to the Armenian Genocide Library Collection
of books they have been publishing since 2005 and to speak to him
about the tragic attack on Kessab, Syria, on March 21.
The congressman said he would be proud to introduce the Armenian
Genocide Library Collection into the Congressional Record. The
collection consists of 5 memoirs of Genocide survivors written in
the years immediately after the events of 1915, in which the Turks
ordered the deportation and massacre of the Armenian population
within the borders of the Ottoman Empire. The Manjikians had the
memoirs translated to English and self-published them.
The fifth and latest book in the series, "Defying Fate," contains the
memoirs of Knar Manjikian's parents, who as orphaned children during
the Genocide were taken in by Arabs in the Syrian desert. After 13
years they broke out on their and went to Aleppo, where they got
married. Schiff said it was very important to preserve these stories
for future generations, saying that with a crime of the magnitude
of the Genocide it's more effective to talk about a single family
and how the Genocide affected that family. "It brings it home in a
personal way," he said.
Schiff spoke about his own family lineage from Lithuania and trying
to help a cousin track down ancestors that had been lost during
the Holocaust.
The Manjikians' appointment with Schiff had been made before the
Turkish-aided bombing of Kessab, Syria, that forced the population
of Kessab and surrounding towns and villages to flee their homes and
live as refugees in the Syrian city of Lattakia. Coincidentally,
Hagop Manjikian is from Kessab, and Knar Avedian Manjikian from
Aleppo, Syria.
The congressman listened with compassion as Hagop Manjikian told him,
"Among the 1,600 plus Armenians who were moved from their homes
by ferocious gunfire from Turkey are my own brother, his son and
wife with their children, and many close relatives. We respectfully
request that you continue the noble task you have taken very recently,
bringing this sad situation to the attention of the U.S. Ambassador
to the United Nations, Samantha Power, and finding a humane solution."
Schiff said he would address the Kessab situation at a joint press
conference in Washington, D.C., with Congressman Brad Sherman on
Tuesday, April 8, which he did. He told the Manjikians that Congress
would be in recess the weeks of April 14 and 21 and that he would
not be able to introduce the Armenian Genocide Library Collection
into the Congressional Record until after April 28.
http://asbarez.com/121988/activists-meet-with-rep-schiff-over-armenian-genocide-library-series/
Thursday, April 17th, 2014
Hagop and Knar Manjikian meet with Representative Adam Schiff
LOS ANGELES--Hagop and Knar Manjikian, Armenian authors and activists,
met with Congressman Adam Schiff at his district office in Burbank on
April 5 to introduce him to the Armenian Genocide Library Collection
of books they have been publishing since 2005 and to speak to him
about the tragic attack on Kessab, Syria, on March 21.
The congressman said he would be proud to introduce the Armenian
Genocide Library Collection into the Congressional Record. The
collection consists of 5 memoirs of Genocide survivors written in
the years immediately after the events of 1915, in which the Turks
ordered the deportation and massacre of the Armenian population
within the borders of the Ottoman Empire. The Manjikians had the
memoirs translated to English and self-published them.
The fifth and latest book in the series, "Defying Fate," contains the
memoirs of Knar Manjikian's parents, who as orphaned children during
the Genocide were taken in by Arabs in the Syrian desert. After 13
years they broke out on their and went to Aleppo, where they got
married. Schiff said it was very important to preserve these stories
for future generations, saying that with a crime of the magnitude
of the Genocide it's more effective to talk about a single family
and how the Genocide affected that family. "It brings it home in a
personal way," he said.
Schiff spoke about his own family lineage from Lithuania and trying
to help a cousin track down ancestors that had been lost during
the Holocaust.
The Manjikians' appointment with Schiff had been made before the
Turkish-aided bombing of Kessab, Syria, that forced the population
of Kessab and surrounding towns and villages to flee their homes and
live as refugees in the Syrian city of Lattakia. Coincidentally,
Hagop Manjikian is from Kessab, and Knar Avedian Manjikian from
Aleppo, Syria.
The congressman listened with compassion as Hagop Manjikian told him,
"Among the 1,600 plus Armenians who were moved from their homes
by ferocious gunfire from Turkey are my own brother, his son and
wife with their children, and many close relatives. We respectfully
request that you continue the noble task you have taken very recently,
bringing this sad situation to the attention of the U.S. Ambassador
to the United Nations, Samantha Power, and finding a humane solution."
Schiff said he would address the Kessab situation at a joint press
conference in Washington, D.C., with Congressman Brad Sherman on
Tuesday, April 8, which he did. He told the Manjikians that Congress
would be in recess the weeks of April 14 and 21 and that he would
not be able to introduce the Armenian Genocide Library Collection
into the Congressional Record until after April 28.