Saramelkonian

I had read somewhere that he was - where can I learn more about this character? thanks

Can anyone point me to resources where I could find out more about particular historical figures? I'm trying to do a bit of research on someone named either Boghos or Bedros Haladjian, who was apparently a member of the Young Turk government, and was deported and executed along with the other members of the intelligentsia in Constantinople on April 24th. Where would I look? Many thanks

But the great thing about this is that there are 43 writers telling this story - and every time Turkey tries to prosecute one, they raise the profile of the genocide. I wonder if I'll get sued if I ever end up publishing my novel? It would be great publicity.

thank you so much Anahid. I've just PM'd you to say, yes, yes, yes, please tell me your family's story! (and anyone else, if you have information that you would like to have represented in the novel, please let me know)

This one I haven't heard before. And I thought just the opposite was true ?

Well, I think I did address this in my original post, about the risk of giving them air time, so I sort of feel like the sarcasm is a bit unwarranted. All I'm asking is, how do each of us as individuals respond when you come across other individuals who want to deny the genocide? My Dad would say to ignore such things, but I felt like, leaving that comment up their unchallenged increased the risk of someone believing it.

This may be a counterproductive thread, in as far as perhaps the best thing to do with genocide deniers is to ignore them, to try to limit any air time they may get... but I thought I'd ask the question, what do you think is the best way of dealing with individual genocide deniers (as opposed to say the Turkish government?). I'm gathering research materials for my novel, and came across "The Treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire 1915-1916: Documents Presented to Viscount Grey of Fallodon by Viscount Bryce" on the UK amazon site - and some nitwit had posted to say that the genocide was fabricated to make the Turks look bad!!! It makes me so mad, especially when I think of what my grandparents went through, I feel like my head wants to pop! In this particular case I posted a response which will probably get deleted by amazon as it has nothing to do with the book and is more or less a comment on that poster's ignorance... but what do you think is the right way of handling these things? My dad would have said to leave it alone.

thanks so much for posting the link to the ancestry site - I found links to my grandparents listing on a ship manifest, and confirmation that they were born in Tokat (which is not so far from Gurun - I was a bit confused because in an e-mail my Dad sent me shortly before he died, he said "Tukaut", and my grandfather's passport says Eutokia - which I now know is the same as Tokat - but it's nice to have the confirmation) Arpa/Dave - do you know of any sites for Tokat that are like the ones you've posted for Gurun? I'm also trying to find out about French catholic schools in the area (my grandmother went to one, and I'm trying to find out where she might have been) cmg - sorry for hijacking your thread - I seem to do it a bit on this forum

Yes, exactly. It's so frustrating and sad. Because I'd heard these stories from when I was very small, it never occurred to me that they were anything out of the ordinary, anything that might need to be remembered and preserved. I think the first kick for me to try to learn more about it was when I learned that the Turkish government were trying to deny the genocide. I was just stunned when I learned that - how could they? But my grandmother was already dead by then, so who could I ask? And now my father is dead (the last of my relatives who spoke Armenian) and I think, could I have questioned him more? Maybe he knew more, maybe he just didn't want to talk about it. I wish I could talk to them now (especially my grandparents, who lived through it), and find out how they survived. But sorry for the thread hijack - I do have a scan of their passport photo, which I will post later when I am on the right computer.

I always feel sad when I see this thread. My grandmother had several albums full of photos of her family (I'm sure that was very unusual back then, but she did). She used to show them to me when I was little, introducing each member of her family to me (and always ending with "Killed in Bloodbath" - I wrote a poem about it actually, which ended up being picked up by a composer and incorporated into some of his work). My grandmother, father and brother all lived in the same house. My father was blind, so after my grandmother died the house became extremely disordered. But you couldn't do anything about it, because my brother would get hysterical if you touch anything. Now my father is dead, and I realise how much has been lost. You can't find anything in that house - and not those photos. And my brother doesn't value his Armenian heritage at all (he is a little crazy, sadly), so I wouldn't be surprised if he'd thrown them away. I asked after them, and also some cartoons that my father had done, but he claims not to be able to find them Sorry for going off in a self-indugent moment here.

Okay, this thread is 45 pages long, so forgive me if this joke has already been posted. In it's favour, at least it's short My Dad lived in Miami. whenever anyone would say "Hi!" to him (which in South Florida will happen 30 sisquillion times a day), he would say, "How did you know?"

No, but my grandfather did! (well, not just rugs... he was a "fine art dealer"). Okay, okay, so every Armenian evidently has some connection to the rug trade, my rolleyes were completely uncalled for (although, my uncle had a textile factory, not a single rug at all. So my rolleyes can come back ) Sorry, I will stop going off topic All of my relatives are -ian Armenians btw

No, I live in the UK. Going off topic again, my dad used to live in LA though. When he was at college, he started off at Columbia, then decided he hated the cold of New York, and so transferred to USC. I once had a boss who had lived in LA. I said, "My Dad used to live in LA!" and he said, "Oh, did he sell rugs?"

I suppose it's possible... but that is unlike any other Armenian I've ever met... usually Armenians seem so delighted to meet other Armenians. My mother once even had a complete stranger phone her up, just because he was so happy to see an Armenian surname in the phone book! And even once, a Greek fellow recognised my surname and said, "You are Armenian! The Greeks and the Armenians have always been great friends, we have both suffered at the hands of the Turks" (and it's true, my grandmother actually went into hiding with a Greek family, which is how she escaped the genocide) Sorry, I've gone way off topic. I guess there are all different kinds of people in the world, but I would never expect another Armenian to react coldly if asked if he was Armenian. But maybe this guy was an oddball. Or maybe he just thought it was unforgiveable that I didn't say, "You are Armenian! so am I!" rather than asking (still think that would be weird though)

I think I posted this message in the wrong forum originally, so I hope no one minds if I post a link to it here: http://hyeforum.com/index.php?showtopic=16060 I'd be very grateful for any help anyone can offer.