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Hello everyone,
Here is the continuation of the email Garni sent. First, it is the story of my family. Then, it is the story of Charles Aznavour, legendary French singer of Armenian origin.
Many of you have told me stories of discovering that many of the people around you were Armenians once you spread the news about your departure to Armenia. You suddenly realized that Armenians are pretty much everywhere.
I myself have parents that are diaspora Armenians. My father is Ethiopian-Armenian, and my mother is Istanbul-Armenian. My father’s family had left Cilicia in Western Armenia/Eastern part of Ottoman Empire in the early 1900s, for their safety from the persecution of Armenians from the Ottomans, and this prior to the genocide of 1915. Their timing was right as within 2 years of their departure in 1905, over 25,000 Armenians of the city of Adana and their environs were massacred. On the side of my grandpa, his family, or more specifically his grandfather, first went to Egypt, but then moved to Ethiopia for his work. They settled down in a country with which Armenians had a kinship as Orthodox Christians as well as a small presence of trade diasporans. Here they could practice their religion in peace.
On the other hand, my mother’s family was from the heart of the Ottoman Empire, Istanbul. Many of the great Armenian intellectuals of that period were killed on April 24, 1915 which is symbolically commemorated as the date of the Armenian genocide. The massacres and deportations mostly happened in the Armenian villages in the East of the Ottoman Empire, not in Istanbul, even though Armenian intellectuals were killed or imprisoned. The Armenians in the city of Istanbul (or Bolis as the Armenians called it, from the original greek name of Constantinople) knew very little about what was happening to their fellow Armenians in the rest of the Empire. Even in the years following the genocide, when my great grandfather was born, little was known about the genocide.
There were two survivors that married into my mother’s parents’ families. One of them was Siranoush Berberian who had changed her last name to Ozgeren because of pressure and fear. She was 4 or 5 when she was taken from her hometown. As my grandmother tells me today, Siranoush was one of the orphans that was helped by a “priest or something”,as my grandma said, and put on a boat to Lebanon which is depicted in Garni’s grandmother’s touching video. If you haven’t watched it, please do so. Siranoush was then brought to Istanbul, where the Armenian community welcomed her and adopted her. We don’t know much about her story, as she refused to talk about her past, probably because of the terrible pain it brought her to remember those traumatizing days she experienced at such a young age.
My grandma’s father would never let any of his family members speak or read Turkish in the house, but she never understood why. When she was 20 years old, she went to Baghdad on vacation, where she read books about the genocide and found out about the terrible things that were that were done to the Armenians, books that simply couldn’t be found in Istanbul. It was therefore at the age of 20 that she found out about the genocide, and it affected her greatly as well as her view of Turkey as a country and as a people. This was when she understood why her father had that one important rule, which was to preserve our Armenian language and culture after more than a million had died because of their culture and religion, refusing to let go of their beliefs and their identity. She had a relative Hagop who would tell them stories of how his wife had disappeared when he had come back to their village, and that he was forced to walk in the mountains and to find refuge in Istanbul. She realized then what he was talking about. They weren’t just tales, as they seemed so much to be, they were about the genocide.
It was only years later, when the younger generation of Istanbul-Armenians started to find out about what had happened in 1915, that the subject was brought up publically and that books were written and published about it. It became even more dangerous for Istanbul-Armenians then, more so than during the genocide as per my grandmother. For the period before this generation, it was as though nothing had happened, that these were just stories of individuals.
It was only years later, when the younger generation of Istanbul-Armenians started to find out about what had happened in 1915, that the subject was brought up publically and that books were written and published about it. It became even more dangerous for Istanbul-Armenians then, more so than during the genocide as per my grandmother. For the period before this generation, it was as though nothing had happened, that these were just stories of individuals.
Armenians have found homes in all corners of the world, from Argentina to Zambia. They have created strong communities that allow for their identity to survive even in the most unlikely of places. They have dreamed of a return to the homeland, to the places that they were named after, like my surname named after a town in Western Armenia, Erzinga (modern-day Erzincan). As Garni said, they have stayed strong and connected thanks to their love for their identity. The events of the late 19th and early 20th centuries won’t be forgotten. Neither will the survivors of the genocide, nor the language and the culture that they sacrificed themselves for.
Now, about the legendary French singer of Armenian origin, Charles Aznavour. If you haven’t yet heard about him after living in Armenia, it’s about time. After all, he was named National Hero of Armenia in 2004 and was the most popular Armenian of his time and arguably of all time.
Charles Aznavour, Shahnour Aznavourian, was born in Paris in 1924 of two Armenian parents that escaped the genocide. His father was from the town of Akhaltsikhe, Georgia and his mother was from Adapazari, or present-day Sakarya, Turkey. He started singing in his father’s restaurant ‘Le Caucase’ (or ‘The Caucasus’ in english) after he left school at the young age of nine. His amazing sense in music came from his father, who according to Charles himself, was more talented in music than in business. That is why the restaurant didn’t last very long and Charles had to go beyond the family business to pursue his passion.
The love of music wasn’t the only thing his father passed onto Charles. It was also the sense of honour that his father had towards the country that had welcomed him, the country that became his childrens’ home. That was why his father volunteered in the french army and had the courage displayed by the Resistance heroes to hide Armenians and Jews during the war.
It was after the war that Charles met a talented pianist with whom he worked and through whom he met the great french singer Edith Piaf. It was with Edith Piaf that he went to North America, where he lived and performed for a long period of time. He would then go back to France to gain popularity as he had in the city of Montreal in Canada (and in the US) over the year or so he was there. In the 60s he became very popular with hit songs, in France and even in the UK. During his legendary career, he played in more than 60 films, composed over 800 songs and sung in eight different languages.
In the year of 1988, the earthquake in Northern Armenia occured, and according to Charles himself, it was a turning point in his life. “Having always been very close to my family and adoring my parents, Armenia and Armenians are in my heart and in my blood. It was unthinkable that I would do nothing faced with so much misfortune and suffering.” said Charles. He wrote a song for Armenia and donated funds to help the country recover from the terrible event. He also started a NGO for the cause. That was partially why he was given Armenian citizenship, accepted the position of Ambassador of Armenia to Switzerland and was given the title of national hero of Armenia. He was very involved politically, and in the sphere of activism, not only with his global efforts of help towards Armenia and towards the recognition of the 1915 genocide of the Armenian people, but also with his support for LGBT rights and in his efforts to empower citizens in France and all over the world in order to raise their social consiousness.
Really, Charles Aznavour was much more than a singer. He is a true artist and hero of France and of all Armenians and will forever be remembered for what he did for the people. Here are a couple of songs, the first , Ils sont tombés (They fell), is about the fallen Armenians during the genocide follown by the english lyrics to the song. The second, ishis most famous song, La bohème. The third, is Les comédiens, a song he wrote about artists.
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