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.

we had a new veterinarian move into our neighbourhood, he had an open house. His surname is Avedisian, so I said, "Are you are Armenian?". and he gave me a really cold look and said, "No Azerbajani". So, the "ian" surname doesn't always mean Armenian! (yeah, I know we all know that, I'm just giving an example where it's easy to get it wrong. I still wonder if his ancestors are Armenian and he somehow doesn't know)

I don't know, it may be that the information I read was incorrect (I wasn't saying that this was the case, only that I had read somewhere that it was the case, that at some point after taking over their land, the Turks re-named all the Armenians. I think it may have been in "The Burning Tigris"? ....now I'll have to go re-read and see if I can find it. I may have just come across it on some spurious internet site, and it got lodged in my brain.)

Actually, maybe it would help if I gave a few specific examples? (but I have loads more questions than this, if anyone is patient enough to answer a few of them ) So, for example, I was thinking of having the novel starting with a wedding, (say June 1912?). This would be a wealthy family with a very big house (I'm thinking of placing them in Tokat). Some questions I have are: 1. would they have a reception after the wedding, like we do these days? If so, who would be invited - just close family, or would hundreds of people come? If they were friendly with Turks (well, in the survivor stories I've read some Turks actually hid Armenians during the deportations, even at risk of being executed themselves, and did not agree with what the government was doing at all - so I gather that not all Armenians and Turks hated one another), would they have come to the wedding, or would it just not be the done thing for a Moslem to enter a church? 2. Did the bride wear white? Did she take her husband's name? (my grandmother did, put I didn't know if that was common, or if she did that later) 3. Are there any foods that are specific to weddings? 4. Any particular blessings or sayings? Any specific rituals of the time? Any fables or folk tales that relate to weddings? I know it's a lot (and more where that came from), but I'll be so grateful to anyone who can answer even one of these questions just thought of a couple more: 5. How formal were people? At what point would people use first names rather than calling each other equivalent of "Mr" and "Mrs"? Did class matter? (ie would say a doctor refer to a farm worker by his first name, but expect to be called "Sir"?) Did gender matter? (ie, perhaps men could never call women by their first names unless they were married or their daughters or something like that? 6. And what were the equivalents of "Mr" and "Mrs", "Sir" and "Madam" anyway? Thanks

Well, as you can see, I'm an "ian" Armenian. I'm told it means "blond son of Melchior" (although my family aren't particularly fair, so I don't know where the "blond" comes from). I read somewhere recently (I can't remember where), that some Armenians dislike the "ian" names, as they are Turkish in origin (ie, supposedly Turks having renamed Armenians based on who their father was or where they lived). I haven't read this entire thread, but that doesn't seem to be the case here - has anyone else heard this?

Hi everyone I hope this is the right place to post this, but I'll jump right in: I've started writing novel that is loosely based on my grandparents' escape from the genocide - it will be a combination of personal stories interspersed with some detail of political events as they unfolded. Unfortunately, both grandparents are long since dead, as are any relatives who might be able to tell me what life was like back then. I've been ordering lots of history books and personal accounts (eg some of the oral history series, Morgenthau's diaries, etc), but I was wondering if there is any one out there will detailed knowledge of this period who would be willing to answer questions when they pop up? (for example, how homes might have been furnished, common sayings... I remember my grandmother used to tell me these "there was and there was not" stories, but I can't remember them now). And translating the odd phrase into Armenian could be useful too (for example, my father always used to say something that he translated as "your brains are flying around the room" - when our last Armenian-speaking relative died, he stopped speaking Armenian, and so I've forgotten the phrase... and now he's dead, so I can't ask him any more, so...) Anyone able and willing to help?