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Lalai Manjikian
Dr. Lalai Manjikian is a humanities professor at Vanier College in Montreal. Her teaching and research interests are in the areas of immigration and refugee studies, media representations of migration, migrant narratives and diaspora studies. She is the author of Collective Memory and Home in the Diaspora: The Armenian Community in Montreal (2008). Lalai’s articles have been published in a number of newspapers and journals including The Armenian Weekly, Horizon Weekly, 100 Lives (The Aurora Prize), the Montreal Gazette, and Refuge. A former Birthright Armenia participant (2005), over the years, Lalai has been active in volunteering both within the Armenian community in Montreal and the local community at large, namely engaged in immigrant and refugee integration. She previously served as a qualitative researcher on the Armenian Diaspora Survey in Montreal. Lalai also serves as a board member for the Foundation for Genocide Education. She holds a PhD in Communication Studies from McGill University (2013).
Latest posts by Lalai Manjikian (see all)
- On the importance of teaching genocide in high school: A case study from Quebec - May 24, 2023
- Reflections on Hamazkayin’s Cultural Retreat - June 10, 2022
- Facing intergenerational wounds - October 15, 2020
Dear Lalai,
Thank you, it’s very touchy, impressive and learning subject.
God bless you, your Dear family and your mission.
You have different feeling and love towards human being.
When love is missing than the devil taking place.
Respectfully,
Bedros Zerdelian
Dear Lalai,
I was terribly touched by your expression
of love for your ‘Nene” and Kessab. You have
Described just what so many of us have
Experienced with our sheltering and encouraging families. “Nene” and you are
Living examples of our village and familial
Past, combined with our New World sensibilities. You came from a tree with deep
Loving roots. I hope Kessab will always be a
Part of you. I hope Armenians will return and
Believe in their lands, and they will never experience the slaughter house again. I pray
For peace.
Julie Barsoumian
Superbe article Lalai. Merci! J’ai hâte de lire la suite.
A few years ago I enjoyed another trip to Syria from Jordan, where I worked as an American archaeologist. I asked our guide, a professor friend of mine whether I might leave the group to visit Kessab, where my former husband’s family originated. In his 90’s Grandpa Sam Giragosian had talked about Kessab time and time again. I was wished a safe trip. and I set off in an SUV driven by the son-in-law of our Syrian guide. I searched for a church where Sam had been pastor. One churchyard was locked, so I went to the adjacent house. Two elderly women greeted me and told me a Giragosian family lived next door! I was welcomed into the Giragosian home. My host did not know Sam, but he opened a book next to his telephone and showed me the name of my former husband and the names of our three children! I was amazed that in this small village in Syria I would find the names of my children! I took photos of the Giragosians and the village to share with relatives back in the States. What a fabulous memory I have of that day in Kessab. May all the Kessab families find peaceful lives today and in the future.
I am a physician and public health practitioner from Armenia, a decent of Kessabtzis-my grandparents and parents moved to Soviet Armenia from Kessab in 1947- but hence, I feel the deep connection with Kessab from the stories of my grandparents and parents and always had been cherishing the dream that one day I will visit our home…It is so much difficult to express what I feel now- almost a feeling similar to what we all feel about 1915. Thanks for a beautiful and touching article, Lalai.
Abris Lalai
I am so proud of you.It is exceptionally well written .
Lalai you write with such eloquence. You have documented your Nene’s life so beautifully! Thank you for sharing this heartwarming story with us all.
Dear Lalai,
Part one,Part two,2 beautiful articles. Written with eloquence, love and soul. Subtle humor, sensitivity .You touched our hearts with your unique way of expression and filled us,Kessabtzis or not, with Hope and Faith.
Thank you,looking forward for your next articles!!!
Lalai,
I just wrote a poem about what is happening in Kesaab, and I want to use your childhood picture to illustrate it.
Thank you for writing this.
Poem below:
Don´t show me
the coffins of children
with that deafening
orchestral scoring
My sadness
doesn´t need a soundtrack
What do you want from me
masters of montage
and emotional chord
strikes
Don´t let me hear
the Armenian tongue
of my school days
from the mouths of children
displaced
bombed
their lives
forever raped
the familiar words
Vah
Tbrodz
A sound,
deadly,
Are you afraid of the bullets? The filmmaker says
But you still go to school
Nods from the two girls
in my tongue
in my words
that I have
forgotten
though they live inside me
Syria
my grandmother´s cradle
before she sailed on
the Atlantic
My flesh and blood
The people with the names
I do not know
The churches
that turned to rubble heaps
The prayer
we used to sing at school
it makes me cry
though I am not religious
and our god
is not mine
The prayer
Lord in Heaven
protect us
bring your kingdom to us
Our Kingdom lost
and April is coming
It will be
a hundred year soon
A hundred years
and nothing has changed
Someone´s grandmother
in Syria
has been born
and her mother
is smuggling her
right now
to save her life
and cross oceans perchance
so that I
can have
my blissful life
in a quiet place
somewhere
Syria
Syria
Syria of my heart
hurt over the scar
the pillaging
childslaughtering
the Deathland
over the Genocide
Chère Lalai
Vous m’avez tellement émue surtout de ce qu’arrive à notre cher Kessab, à ses habitants, il faut que le monde entier lise, sache qu’il y a un peuple qui ne demandait qu’à vivre avec sérénité dans son pays natal, ils sont persécutés, harrassés. Merci Lalai de votre histoire je souhaite que vous puissiez continuer à écrire, merci à vos parents de vous avoir mise au monde et de vous avoir élevée dans la norme des valeurs humaines.
Sossy Piloyan
Than you for writing this article, you make me proud as a Manjikian. I also visited kalil nene back in 2007, in kaladouran. She was in good health then. God rest her soul.