Local Armenian-Americans Reflect on Anniversary of Genocide
At the Armenian Church of the Holy Martyrs in Bayside, Queens, congregants pack the basement social hall to watch an elaborate commemorative ceremony broadcast live from the holy city of Etchmiadzin. There's singing and prayers, and you can almost smell the incense. As cathedral bells start ringing, everyone stands up.
Afterwards, as people get coffee and juice, pastries and bagels, church member Lynn Jamie says she was moved to think the whole Armenian diaspora around the world was watching the ceremony at the same time.
“I'm finding this very sad, and yet very happy that they have been recognized in this way, because there was such suffering, my own mother could not talk about it,” said Jamie. “I wish she were here to see this broadcast, and to see the whole world recognize what happened.”
Throughout the weekend, Armenians around the world are commemorating the 100-year anniversary of the genocide in Turkey. The New York-area observance of the genocide centennial anniversary culminates on Sunday with services at St. Vartan's Cathedral on East 34th Street in Manhattan, and a procession to Times Square. There will be music and speeches about the 1.5 million Armenians who perished at the hands of the Ottoman Empire, as it collapsed under the pressure of World War I. To this day, modern Turkey has not formally acknowledged a role in the slaughter, and some international leaders — including President Obama — have declined to use the word "genocide."
For many communities, the centennial is an occasion to celebrate their triumphs and resilience, while also grieving for slaughtered ancestors.
Jamie's mother, Alice Bogosian, was four-years-old in 1915, when much of her Armenian village was wiped out.
“She walked the desert with her mother, her three sisters, her brother who died in my grandmother's arms,” Jamie said. “I just can't even imagine what they went through.”
The Census Bureau estimates that 485,000 people of Armenian descent live in the United States, but Armenian groups estimate there are three times that, including 100,000 Armenian-Americans in the New York City area. Like many immigrant groups, they praise their adopted homeland for taking them in and helping them thrive.
“Our entire family — they became dentists, doctors, teachers, nurses,” Jamie said. “They passed on strength and faith to us, great faith.”
Upstairs, students from the parish's day school beaded bracelets and made pressings of thick metal foil on top of ornately carved religious icons. Father Abraham Malkhasyan, the pastor of Holy Martyrs, said he wanted the ceremonies and lessons to teach the children about their heritage — and about broader themes, too.
“We want them to learn that something terrible happened at the beginning of the 20th Century, not just to Armenians, but to humanity,” the 37-year-old priest said.
Around the church — on posters and pins and shirts — were images of a purple forget-me-not flower. Preserving memory is the order of the day — and one of the main longstanding missions of the congregation and school. But the "me" in 'forget-me-not' that parishioners are also supposed to remember is Jesus Christ.
Harry Milian marvels at the faith his grandmother preserved, despite everything.
“Having survived all these ordeals and having seen your family massacred, you could've walked away from it all and said, 'There is nothing we can believe on,'” he said. “Yet she clung to faith. She clung to belief in God.”
Milian said his grandmother's personal loss and her dedication to the church always motivated her to help others.
“She had seen so much that she always contributed to the poor, to the blind — in food, in clothing, in money,” Milian said. “There is that generousness of the heart that we learn from this generation, and we are grateful for it.”
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