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PRESS OFFICE
Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern)
630 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Contact: Karine Abalyan
Tel: (212) 686-0710; Fax: (212) 779-3558
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.armenianchurch-ed.net
December 30, 2014
___________________
A Book presentation on A Story of Exile
By Florence Avakian
The Eastern Diocese's Krikor and Clara Zohrab Information Center was the
venue to hear a riveting account of childhood dreams crushed, the daily fear
of violence, and escape from country to country in search of a safe home.
On Thursday evening, November 13, Anna Astvatsaturian Turcotte related the
harrowing story of her family's life in Baku during the ethnic cleansing of
Armenians by Azeri Muslims. The story recounted in Nowhere: A Story of Exile
includes their flight to Armenia-at a time when it was teetering on the edge
after the disastrous 1988 earthquake-and their eventual emigration to
America.
The Zohrab Information Center sponsored the lecture. Its director, the Very
Rev. Fr. Daniel Findikyan, called the book, "an extraordinary memoir
documenting the heartbreaking story of the 1988 pogroms against the
Armenians in Baku." The Azeri terrorists who went from door to door with
prepared addresses of their Armenian victims also committed the atrocities
against the Armenians in Sumgait and Kirovabad.
The speaker has traveled to several locales presenting her book to both
Armenian and non-Armenian audiences. She began her talk by pointing out that
in Azerbaijan it was dangerous to name Armenian children with Armenian
names, and so she was called Anna: "a safer version of Anoush." She was 10
when the brutalities began in Baku, and kept a diary from ages 14 to 16 of
her family's struggles in Azerbaijan, Armenia, and America.
Her family's graves and the graves of all Armenians were destroyed. Three
hundred thousand Armenians fled Baku and went to Armenia.
Escaping with her family (and nothing else) to Yerevan in 1989, she found a
country on the brink after the disastrous 1988 earthquake, the Turkish
blockade, and the Artsakh crisis.
"The people were in no condition to receive us, including our own family
members," she related. "Anger, fear, and darkness had overtaken everyone."
Shunned by teachers and resident Armenians, with no prospects for work, and
no decent place to live, her family decided that there was no future for
them in Yerevan.
"As a child, the resentment that drenched my little heart from this
treatment in Yerevan stayed with me for years. And it's not isolated. It
stays with many Baku Armenians in Russia, Western Europe, and the United
States. It often overshadows other reasons why conditions were so bad,
because we saw humans at their worst in Baku, and then were seen as
traitors, or un-Armenian, by many in Yerevan."
A Refugee Fate
She and her family came to America with $180 and four suitcases, and
"eventually built a successful life." She called the 22 years in the U.S.
"not easy either financially or emotionally. I worked hard to become a
normal teenager, a normal young adult, a normal American, hoping to blend in
and forget. But I never really fitted in, not in Armenia, not with
Americans, and not with diasporan Armenians"-whom she said did not help her
family.
"Mine was a refugee fate. Two decades were lived avoiding the news from my
homeland Azerbaijan, my ancestral home Armenia, and the heartache in
Nagorno-Karabagh."
But her years of avoiding everything Armenian and her outrage at her
childhood memories diminished as she read the diaries she had written in her
teenage years. As a mother of two children, her "maternal instincts kicked
in," and she decided that her childhood memories had to be printed and read.
Following a two-year U.S. tour of her book, she was ready to return to her
ancestral home. "Coming back to Armenia was a freeing experience. There
cannot be a better way to return to your ancestral home than with love and
forgiveness, surrounded by the proud but quiet humming of your ethnicity in
every aspect of your life," she said with obvious emotion.
This time she was warmly welcomed as an Armenian. Strolling through the busy
streets of Yerevan with her father, and seeing the thousands of people in
Republic Square enjoying the musical fountains, the lights, and the many
children dancing with flowers and balloons, she realized with pride the
inspiring achievements of these people who have survived Genocide,
earthquake, ethnic cleansing, war, and blockade: "a people who cannot be
exterminated."
During her stay there, she also visited Artsakh and saw the dramatic
achievements of the brave people of that ancient Armenian land.
A lawyer and a human rights advocate, Anna Astvatsaturian Turcotte currently
lives in Maine with her husband and two children, and works in banking
regulatory reform. In April 2013, she successfully spearheaded the
Nagorno-Karabagh recognition efforts at the Maine House of Representatives.
She has been honored with the "Mkhitar Gosh Medal" by President Serge
Sargsyan, and a "Gratitude Medal" from Artsakh President Bako Sahakyan.
###
Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern)
630 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Contact: Karine Abalyan
Tel: (212) 686-0710; Fax: (212) 779-3558
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.armenianchurch-ed.net
December 30, 2014
___________________
A Book presentation on A Story of Exile
By Florence Avakian
The Eastern Diocese's Krikor and Clara Zohrab Information Center was the
venue to hear a riveting account of childhood dreams crushed, the daily fear
of violence, and escape from country to country in search of a safe home.
On Thursday evening, November 13, Anna Astvatsaturian Turcotte related the
harrowing story of her family's life in Baku during the ethnic cleansing of
Armenians by Azeri Muslims. The story recounted in Nowhere: A Story of Exile
includes their flight to Armenia-at a time when it was teetering on the edge
after the disastrous 1988 earthquake-and their eventual emigration to
America.
The Zohrab Information Center sponsored the lecture. Its director, the Very
Rev. Fr. Daniel Findikyan, called the book, "an extraordinary memoir
documenting the heartbreaking story of the 1988 pogroms against the
Armenians in Baku." The Azeri terrorists who went from door to door with
prepared addresses of their Armenian victims also committed the atrocities
against the Armenians in Sumgait and Kirovabad.
The speaker has traveled to several locales presenting her book to both
Armenian and non-Armenian audiences. She began her talk by pointing out that
in Azerbaijan it was dangerous to name Armenian children with Armenian
names, and so she was called Anna: "a safer version of Anoush." She was 10
when the brutalities began in Baku, and kept a diary from ages 14 to 16 of
her family's struggles in Azerbaijan, Armenia, and America.
Her family's graves and the graves of all Armenians were destroyed. Three
hundred thousand Armenians fled Baku and went to Armenia.
Escaping with her family (and nothing else) to Yerevan in 1989, she found a
country on the brink after the disastrous 1988 earthquake, the Turkish
blockade, and the Artsakh crisis.
"The people were in no condition to receive us, including our own family
members," she related. "Anger, fear, and darkness had overtaken everyone."
Shunned by teachers and resident Armenians, with no prospects for work, and
no decent place to live, her family decided that there was no future for
them in Yerevan.
"As a child, the resentment that drenched my little heart from this
treatment in Yerevan stayed with me for years. And it's not isolated. It
stays with many Baku Armenians in Russia, Western Europe, and the United
States. It often overshadows other reasons why conditions were so bad,
because we saw humans at their worst in Baku, and then were seen as
traitors, or un-Armenian, by many in Yerevan."
A Refugee Fate
She and her family came to America with $180 and four suitcases, and
"eventually built a successful life." She called the 22 years in the U.S.
"not easy either financially or emotionally. I worked hard to become a
normal teenager, a normal young adult, a normal American, hoping to blend in
and forget. But I never really fitted in, not in Armenia, not with
Americans, and not with diasporan Armenians"-whom she said did not help her
family.
"Mine was a refugee fate. Two decades were lived avoiding the news from my
homeland Azerbaijan, my ancestral home Armenia, and the heartache in
Nagorno-Karabagh."
But her years of avoiding everything Armenian and her outrage at her
childhood memories diminished as she read the diaries she had written in her
teenage years. As a mother of two children, her "maternal instincts kicked
in," and she decided that her childhood memories had to be printed and read.
Following a two-year U.S. tour of her book, she was ready to return to her
ancestral home. "Coming back to Armenia was a freeing experience. There
cannot be a better way to return to your ancestral home than with love and
forgiveness, surrounded by the proud but quiet humming of your ethnicity in
every aspect of your life," she said with obvious emotion.
This time she was warmly welcomed as an Armenian. Strolling through the busy
streets of Yerevan with her father, and seeing the thousands of people in
Republic Square enjoying the musical fountains, the lights, and the many
children dancing with flowers and balloons, she realized with pride the
inspiring achievements of these people who have survived Genocide,
earthquake, ethnic cleansing, war, and blockade: "a people who cannot be
exterminated."
During her stay there, she also visited Artsakh and saw the dramatic
achievements of the brave people of that ancient Armenian land.
A lawyer and a human rights advocate, Anna Astvatsaturian Turcotte currently
lives in Maine with her husband and two children, and works in banking
regulatory reform. In April 2013, she successfully spearheaded the
Nagorno-Karabagh recognition efforts at the Maine House of Representatives.
She has been honored with the "Mkhitar Gosh Medal" by President Serge
Sargsyan, and a "Gratitude Medal" from Artsakh President Bako Sahakyan.
###