Uncle Garabed’s Notebook (March 11, 2017)

Native American Proverb

Before eating, always take a little time to thank the food.

Daffy-nition

Patience is something you admire in the driver behind you, and scorn in the driver ahead.

…Mac McCleary

A History Lesson

Emmanuel Carasso or Emanuel Karasu (1862–1934 ) was a lawyer and member of the prominent Sephardic Jewish Carasso family of Ottoman Salonika (now Thessaloniki, Greece). He was a prominent member of the Young Turks. The name is also spelled Karaso, Karasso, and Karassu. The form Karasu is a Turkification of his name, meaning literally ‘black water’.
Karasu was a member, and possibly founder, and later president of the Macedonian Risorta Masonic lodge in Salonika and pioneered the masonic movement within the Ottoman Empire. Masonic lodges and other secret societies in Salonika were meeting places for sympathizers of the Young Turks, including Talaat Pasha. Karasu was one of the first non-Muslim members of the Ottoman Freedom Society, which later became part of the Committee of Union and Progress. When the CUP came to power, he became the Salonika deputy in the Ottoman parliament. He was offered various positions in the Ottoman government, but turned them down. Karasu was one of the three men who personally informed Sultan Abdül Hamid II that he had been deposed in April 1909.
He was the uncle of Isaac Carasso, who industrialized the production of yogurt. In 1919, Isaac, who was also from Ottoman Salonika, started a small yogurt business in Barcelona, Spain, and named the business Danone (“little Daniel”) after his son. The brand later expanded to the United States under an Americanized version of the name: Dannon.

What’s in a Name?

Berejiklian: Derivation undetermined, identified as a geographic location, Berejik is a town in Turkey, and Berejikli denotes a native of that town.

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CK Garabed

Weekly Columnist

C.K. Garabed (a.k.a. Charles Kasbarian) has been active in the Armenian Church and Armenian community organizations all his life. As a writer and editor, he has been a keen observer of, and outspoken commentator on, political and social matters affecting Armenian Americans. He has been a regular contributor to the Armenian Reporter and the AGBU Literary Quarterly, “ARARAT.” For the last 30 years, Garabed has been a regular contributor to the Armenian Weekly. He produces a weekly column called “Uncle Garabed's Notebook,” in which he presents an assortment of tales, anecdotes, poems, riddles, and trivia; for the past 10 years, each column has contained a deconstruction of an Armenian surname. He believes his greatest accomplishment in life, and his contribution to the Armenian nation, has been the espousing of Aghavni, and the begetting of Antranig and Lucine.

Latest posts by CK Garabed (see all)

• A Reminiscence: John Najarian - February 19, 2020
• Uncle Garabed’s Notebook (Aug. 5, 2017) - August 7, 2017
• Uncle Garabed’s Notebook (July 22, 2017) - July 22, 2017