I have always been drawn to the themes of uprooting, displacement, border-crossing, and the ongoing connections between old and new homes.
Perhaps because I carry some degree of transmitted trauma associated with forced displacement, I’ve been propelled into wanting to understand how humans experience persecution, how they flee from it, and how their lives unfold following traumatic uprooting. After all, it is what we knew growing up, having genocide survivors as grandparents. And today, on
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BRAVO
Enjoyed reading your article about your grandfather in Montreal. In 2002, there was an Armenian documentary that won first place for foreign documentary and music at the Moondance Film Festival in Colorado. The CD is entitled, “The Handjian Story”.It is about the lives of two survivors of the Genocide, Kourken from Erzinga and Malvine from Izmir (Smyrna) relating what they experienced. Kourken as an orphan and Malvine witnessing the burning of Izmir in 1922 lead them eventually to Greece, later to France and then in 1957 to the United States. A compelling CD, a must for all to see and hear, especially with the upcoming Genocide Centennial. This CD would be an excellent tool for teaching about the “inhumanities” committed by the Ottoman Turkish Empire. The CD has English sub-titled so that all can follow it well. The composer and producer of the Handjian Story is Denise Gentilini, the grand-daughter of the Handjians. To get a copy of this CD, you can contact her in Colorado, her phone number is 1 818 517- 7749
Such a beautiful essay. Thank you for sharing you family memories and history.
Thank you Lalai! Beautifully captured, and speaks to all our hearts. What a gift you have given the memories of your family by capturing their stories and survival.
I was touched very much with this article because I have experienced the same things with my orphan father who was born in the famous Armenian city of Van and later he was found in the Syrian desert by the Arab Beduins. Every year he had twice or three time nightmares and he cried saying ” do not kill me please do not kill me “and that was the effect of the genocide.
This is what I wrote to the director of ITS
Message: Hello , There is something that your treasurer dr. Edward Erickson stated on February 5th lecture at Georgetown university that I could not get out of my mind. In response to his thoughts of the Armenian genocide , he stated some mornings he believes it occurred and other mornings not so much. How can he make such a callous response to something that has been clearly documented even in turkey let alone by many governments globally. This matter is no longer even considered to be debatable let alone having someone like dr.erickson representing Turkey with such infallible comments. I was very surprised that he dared try to remove mrs. nahapetian from the room. I personally would be very embarrassed to have someone like dr.erickson representing the great country of Turkey with such insipid comments and behavior. P
thank you so much Lalai. so well written.
Thank you for your comments and for sharing information relevant to survivor narratives.