WASHINGTON: HON. ADAM B. SCHIFF OF CALIFORNIA IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES WEDNESDAY, MAY 21, 2014
US Official News
May 22, 2014 Thursday
Washington
The Library of Congress, The Government of USA has issued the
following Speech:
Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Hagop Jack Manjikian and
Knar Rita Manjikian for the books they have published on the Armenian
Genocide. An estimated 1.5 million Armenians perished between 1915
and 1923, but the statistics only tell part of the story. The first
person accounts of the Genocide, which the Manjikians had translated
to English in order to reach a broad audience, put a human face on
the violence and suffering experience by the Armenians, as well as
their unflagging will to survive.
"The Fatal Night"--(Volume 2) Mikayel Shamtanchian was among the
hundreds of Armenian intellectuals rounded up on the night of April
24, 1915, and deported to the interior of Turkey, where the Turkish
genocide of Armenians began. The author beat the odds and survived the
first genocide of the 20th century. His memoir, The Fatal Night, is
a detailed account of the extermination of Turkey's Armenian cultural
and civic leadership in 1915. Shamtanchian recorded the fates of the
innocent Armenian luminaries who perished in Anatolia--the echoes of
"Lord, Have Mercy," the last hymn sung by the Armenian priest and
music ethnologist Komitas and a throng of exiles held in a Turkish
military fort, and the pangs of authors Daniel Varuzhan and Sevak as
they were slaughtered in the field of death called Ayash. The book
provides a partial list of the Armenian intellectuals, civic leaders
and priests who were martyred during the Genocide.
"Death March" (Volume 3)--Shahen Derderian was barely eight years
old when the Ottoman Turkish government deported his family, along
with the entire Armenian community of his native Sebastia (now Sivas).
The uprooting was part of an elaborate Turkish plan to exterminate
the Armenian population of Anatolia. In the ensuing forced marches,
the Sebastia caravan--one among countless others--was subjected by the
Turkish police and hired criminals to a systematic spree of murder,
robbery, rape, and death by starvation and disease. Young Shahen
Derderian survived the carnage through sheer miracle. In Death March,
he tells a harrowing story of dehumanization and loss, whose enormity
would eventually be matched only by the Armenian survivors' spirit
of renewal.
"The Crime of the Ages" (Volume 4)--In 1919 Sebuh Aguni chronicled
the large-scale plunder, deportations, and massacres that were
systematically perpetrated by the Turkish government in its effort
to exterminate the Armenian population of Turkey. The Crime of
the Ages--the first English translation of Aguni's study--is
an invaluable work of historiography as it encompasses not only
firsthand victim accounts of the Turkish atrocities, but a wealth of
evidential information culled from Turkish, European, and American
official sources. Brimming with the eloquent, vivid narrative of a
journalist and survivor, The Crime of the Ages portrays, in prodigious
documentary detail, one of history's most heinous crimes, the Genocide
of the Armenians.
"Defying Fate" (Volume 5)--For the fifth volume of the Genocide
Library, we chose the memoirs of Mr. and Mrs. Aram and Dirouhi Avedian,
both of whom were survivors of the Genocide of Armenians by the
Turks. Aram Avedian's writing consisted of a small book of handwritten
notes titled "The dark days I've lived." Dirouhi Avedian's memoirs
comprised a relatively longer, though still compact, handwritten diary
titled "My life." Originally written in Armenian and translated to
English, their memoirs reveal a childhood of sorrow and anguish as
they relate how they lost their families and how they survived thanks
to the kindness of strangers. Their infrangible faithfulness toward
their cultural identity leads them to risk their lives and escape
their circumstances. Amidst the tragedy, a happy ending emerges.
[Page: E799] GPO's PDF
"Our Cross" (Volume 6)--Our Cross is a collection of autobiographical
short stories about survivors of Mets Yeghern, the 1915 Genocide of
the Armenians. M. Salpi (Aram Sahakian) was a medical officer in
the Turkish army during the First World War. In the course of his
service, he met many Armenian soldiers and officers who recounted
to him the plight of their families following the deportations and
massacres of their communities by the Turkish government. After his
capture by the British, Sahakian was appointed resident doctor at an
Armenian refugee camp in Port Said, Egypt. Here, as well as during
his sojourns in Syria and Lebanon, he met numerous Genocide survivors
who struggled to rebuild their lives. Sahakian found their experiences
at turns heartbreaking and inspiring, and went on to portray them in
his writings. Complementing the laser-sharp observations of a man of
science with the compassion and sensitivity of someone who himself
had walked the path of devastation, Sahakian's stories pulsate with
unforgettable images and characters, each a microcosm of a nation's
cataclysm but also its irrepressible will to endure.
I hereby ask all Members to join me in honoring Hagop Jack Manjikian
and Knar Rita Manjikian for their efforts to keep the memories of
those who experienced the Armenian Genocide alive.
For more information please visit: http://thomas.loc.gov/
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
US Official News
May 22, 2014 Thursday
Washington
The Library of Congress, The Government of USA has issued the
following Speech:
Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Hagop Jack Manjikian and
Knar Rita Manjikian for the books they have published on the Armenian
Genocide. An estimated 1.5 million Armenians perished between 1915
and 1923, but the statistics only tell part of the story. The first
person accounts of the Genocide, which the Manjikians had translated
to English in order to reach a broad audience, put a human face on
the violence and suffering experience by the Armenians, as well as
their unflagging will to survive.
"The Fatal Night"--(Volume 2) Mikayel Shamtanchian was among the
hundreds of Armenian intellectuals rounded up on the night of April
24, 1915, and deported to the interior of Turkey, where the Turkish
genocide of Armenians began. The author beat the odds and survived the
first genocide of the 20th century. His memoir, The Fatal Night, is
a detailed account of the extermination of Turkey's Armenian cultural
and civic leadership in 1915. Shamtanchian recorded the fates of the
innocent Armenian luminaries who perished in Anatolia--the echoes of
"Lord, Have Mercy," the last hymn sung by the Armenian priest and
music ethnologist Komitas and a throng of exiles held in a Turkish
military fort, and the pangs of authors Daniel Varuzhan and Sevak as
they were slaughtered in the field of death called Ayash. The book
provides a partial list of the Armenian intellectuals, civic leaders
and priests who were martyred during the Genocide.
"Death March" (Volume 3)--Shahen Derderian was barely eight years
old when the Ottoman Turkish government deported his family, along
with the entire Armenian community of his native Sebastia (now Sivas).
The uprooting was part of an elaborate Turkish plan to exterminate
the Armenian population of Anatolia. In the ensuing forced marches,
the Sebastia caravan--one among countless others--was subjected by the
Turkish police and hired criminals to a systematic spree of murder,
robbery, rape, and death by starvation and disease. Young Shahen
Derderian survived the carnage through sheer miracle. In Death March,
he tells a harrowing story of dehumanization and loss, whose enormity
would eventually be matched only by the Armenian survivors' spirit
of renewal.
"The Crime of the Ages" (Volume 4)--In 1919 Sebuh Aguni chronicled
the large-scale plunder, deportations, and massacres that were
systematically perpetrated by the Turkish government in its effort
to exterminate the Armenian population of Turkey. The Crime of
the Ages--the first English translation of Aguni's study--is
an invaluable work of historiography as it encompasses not only
firsthand victim accounts of the Turkish atrocities, but a wealth of
evidential information culled from Turkish, European, and American
official sources. Brimming with the eloquent, vivid narrative of a
journalist and survivor, The Crime of the Ages portrays, in prodigious
documentary detail, one of history's most heinous crimes, the Genocide
of the Armenians.
"Defying Fate" (Volume 5)--For the fifth volume of the Genocide
Library, we chose the memoirs of Mr. and Mrs. Aram and Dirouhi Avedian,
both of whom were survivors of the Genocide of Armenians by the
Turks. Aram Avedian's writing consisted of a small book of handwritten
notes titled "The dark days I've lived." Dirouhi Avedian's memoirs
comprised a relatively longer, though still compact, handwritten diary
titled "My life." Originally written in Armenian and translated to
English, their memoirs reveal a childhood of sorrow and anguish as
they relate how they lost their families and how they survived thanks
to the kindness of strangers. Their infrangible faithfulness toward
their cultural identity leads them to risk their lives and escape
their circumstances. Amidst the tragedy, a happy ending emerges.
[Page: E799] GPO's PDF
"Our Cross" (Volume 6)--Our Cross is a collection of autobiographical
short stories about survivors of Mets Yeghern, the 1915 Genocide of
the Armenians. M. Salpi (Aram Sahakian) was a medical officer in
the Turkish army during the First World War. In the course of his
service, he met many Armenian soldiers and officers who recounted
to him the plight of their families following the deportations and
massacres of their communities by the Turkish government. After his
capture by the British, Sahakian was appointed resident doctor at an
Armenian refugee camp in Port Said, Egypt. Here, as well as during
his sojourns in Syria and Lebanon, he met numerous Genocide survivors
who struggled to rebuild their lives. Sahakian found their experiences
at turns heartbreaking and inspiring, and went on to portray them in
his writings. Complementing the laser-sharp observations of a man of
science with the compassion and sensitivity of someone who himself
had walked the path of devastation, Sahakian's stories pulsate with
unforgettable images and characters, each a microcosm of a nation's
cataclysm but also its irrepressible will to endure.
I hereby ask all Members to join me in honoring Hagop Jack Manjikian
and Knar Rita Manjikian for their efforts to keep the memories of
those who experienced the Armenian Genocide alive.
For more information please visit: http://thomas.loc.gov/
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress