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These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated: 1 00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:18,810 This program was made possible 2 00:00:18,810 --> 00:00:22,163 by generous contributions from the Bezikian family. 3 00:00:23,100 --> 00:00:26,673 Additional support was provided by Dr. Noubar Ouzounian 4 00:00:27,591 --> 00:00:30,817 and the Chitjian Foundation and viewers like you. 5 00:00:34,810 --> 00:00:39,520 - My grandmother experienced the genocide 6 00:00:40,720 --> 00:00:42,110 by her own eyes. 7 00:00:42,110 --> 00:00:46,210 She was in Moush in 1915, in July, 8 00:00:46,210 --> 00:00:49,440 when the Turkish soldiers shelled the city 9 00:00:49,440 --> 00:00:52,270 and destroyed her working field, 10 00:00:52,270 --> 00:00:55,313 destroyed her orphanage, destroyed her clinic. 11 00:00:56,800 --> 00:00:59,837 - They come knock the door and took us out, 12 00:01:01,522 --> 00:01:03,223 and we had to walk, 13 00:01:05,600 --> 00:01:08,173 and they took my father early. 14 00:01:09,020 --> 00:01:11,093 Only women and children left. 15 00:01:15,180 --> 00:01:20,180 - All beautiful girls were victims of some kind, you know, 16 00:01:20,860 --> 00:01:25,860 rape or theft or kidnapping. 17 00:01:28,410 --> 00:01:32,640 My mother said that they would use mud to rub on the faces 18 00:01:32,640 --> 00:01:36,260 of the beautiful women so they wouldn't look so attractive. 19 00:01:36,260 --> 00:01:40,130 To try to look like they had sores on their face, 20 00:01:40,130 --> 00:01:41,293 just to save them. 21 00:01:44,130 --> 00:01:48,490 - My mother would talk about that all the time 22 00:01:48,490 --> 00:01:53,140 and she would say in Armenian, 23 00:01:55,457 --> 00:01:58,120 "Why did God do this?" 24 00:01:58,120 --> 00:02:00,313 And she lost her faith. 25 00:02:16,747 --> 00:02:19,310 "Orphans of the Genocide," 26 00:02:19,310 --> 00:02:21,250 the story of hundreds of thousands 27 00:02:21,250 --> 00:02:24,210 of Armenian genocide orphans forgotten 28 00:02:24,210 --> 00:02:25,663 in the pages of history. 29 00:02:40,370 --> 00:02:45,010 On June 26, 2010 close to 2,000 Canadian citizens gathered 30 00:02:45,010 --> 00:02:46,850 at the Cedarvale Park Community Center 31 00:02:46,850 --> 00:02:48,860 for the official unavailing of the plaque 32 00:02:48,860 --> 00:02:51,430 that designated the Georgetown Boys Farmhouse 33 00:02:51,430 --> 00:02:53,843 as a historic and protected municipal site. 34 00:02:55,090 --> 00:02:59,740 - Designated property 2010, Cedarvale Park. 35 00:02:59,740 --> 00:03:03,870 In 1923 Cedervale Farm was a site 36 00:03:03,870 --> 00:03:06,180 of Canada's first international 37 00:03:06,180 --> 00:03:08,850 humanitarian resettlement effort, 38 00:03:08,850 --> 00:03:12,020 rescuing orphans of the Armenian Genocide 39 00:03:12,020 --> 00:03:15,320 that later became United Church Girl School, 40 00:03:15,320 --> 00:03:16,763 Heritage Halton Hills. 41 00:03:28,260 --> 00:03:32,633 - At the most crucial juncture of our history, 42 00:03:34,320 --> 00:03:38,193 Canada saved these children. 43 00:03:39,575 --> 00:03:44,186 This was not in fact a humanitarian action 44 00:03:44,186 --> 00:03:46,290 in the ordinary sense of the word. 45 00:03:47,940 --> 00:03:50,970 This was indeed a concrete expression 46 00:03:52,672 --> 00:03:57,672 of Canada's commitment to justice and Human Rights. 47 00:03:59,470 --> 00:04:01,453 Justice and Human rights, 48 00:04:02,790 --> 00:04:06,160 two concepts or their lack of etched the destiny 49 00:04:06,160 --> 00:04:09,050 of hundreds of thousands of parentless children. 50 00:04:09,050 --> 00:04:12,740 Hundreds of thousands of orphans, Armenian orphans, 51 00:04:12,740 --> 00:04:15,220 orphans of the genocide. 52 00:04:15,220 --> 00:04:19,620 The year was 1915, the place Anatolia, 53 00:04:19,620 --> 00:04:22,310 the persecutors were the Ottoman Authorities 54 00:04:22,310 --> 00:04:25,050 and the target was the Ottoman citizens 55 00:04:25,050 --> 00:04:26,793 of Armenian ancestry. 56 00:04:43,150 --> 00:04:46,130 Summer of 1915 marked the first waves 57 00:04:46,130 --> 00:04:48,910 of mass deportations that created scores 58 00:04:48,910 --> 00:04:50,780 of Armenian orphans. 59 00:04:50,780 --> 00:04:53,090 Within weeks, hundreds of thousands 60 00:04:53,090 --> 00:04:55,190 of Armenian citizens were uprooted 61 00:04:55,190 --> 00:04:56,890 from their ancestral villages 62 00:04:56,890 --> 00:04:59,513 and put in temporary concentration camps. 63 00:05:00,970 --> 00:05:02,800 - For the most part the men were gone, 64 00:05:02,800 --> 00:05:06,270 having either been killed at the outset of the genocide 65 00:05:06,270 --> 00:05:08,500 or conscripted into labor battalions 66 00:05:08,500 --> 00:05:10,050 and were killed sometime later. 67 00:05:10,050 --> 00:05:13,330 Women and children were of course organized into caravans, 68 00:05:13,330 --> 00:05:16,560 sent on the road towards Der Zore for their relocation 69 00:05:16,560 --> 00:05:19,010 and en route they fell victim. 70 00:05:19,010 --> 00:05:24,010 Women were raped, their goods, their money was stolen 71 00:05:24,830 --> 00:05:28,797 by their escorts or by people along the way. 72 00:05:36,920 --> 00:05:39,960 Der Zore, a desert, located northeast 73 00:05:39,960 --> 00:05:41,600 of present day Syria, 74 00:05:41,600 --> 00:05:44,870 known for its harsh climactic characteristics, 75 00:05:44,870 --> 00:05:48,080 200 millimeters average yearly rainfall, 76 00:05:48,080 --> 00:05:52,680 scorching summer heat that generates frequent droughts, 77 00:05:52,680 --> 00:05:55,463 bitter cold, sub-zero weather. 78 00:06:00,470 --> 00:06:03,100 Talaat Pasha, the Interior Minister, 79 00:06:03,100 --> 00:06:06,043 was well aware of the harsh conditions of Der Zore. 80 00:06:06,920 --> 00:06:11,410 On July 6, 1914, during a parliamentary debate, 81 00:06:11,410 --> 00:06:13,620 he refused to populate the area 82 00:06:13,620 --> 00:06:15,983 with Turkish Albanian refugees. 83 00:06:16,840 --> 00:06:18,580 About 10 months later, 84 00:06:18,580 --> 00:06:21,730 he gave the orders to relocate the Armenian citizens 85 00:06:21,730 --> 00:06:23,943 from Ottoman Turkey to Der Zore. 86 00:06:27,440 --> 00:06:28,940 - Through each town or each city 87 00:06:28,940 --> 00:06:31,130 that the Armenians would have passed through, 88 00:06:31,130 --> 00:06:34,790 local people, Kurds, Muslims, Turks, Arabs 89 00:06:34,790 --> 00:06:38,640 would have identified pretty girls or young boys 90 00:06:38,640 --> 00:06:40,330 and would take them from the caravans 91 00:06:40,330 --> 00:06:42,380 and integrate them into their own households, 92 00:06:42,380 --> 00:06:45,080 sometimes as wives, sometimes as servants. 93 00:06:45,080 --> 00:06:46,750 But they were taken as children 94 00:06:47,766 --> 00:06:49,966 and their families would often go on to die. 95 00:06:51,080 --> 00:06:52,580 Consequently, the banks 96 00:06:52,580 --> 00:06:54,380 of the Euphrates River is dotted 97 00:06:54,380 --> 00:06:56,860 with hundreds of mass graves. 98 00:06:56,860 --> 00:07:00,400 To this day human remains can be easily found 99 00:07:00,400 --> 00:07:03,600 in shallow mass graves and caves in Der Zore, 100 00:07:03,600 --> 00:07:08,260 El-Raqqa, Ras El Ain and tens of other locations 101 00:07:08,260 --> 00:07:10,613 all the way up to central Anatolia. 102 00:07:13,210 --> 00:07:15,383 - My mother's story is really tragic. 103 00:07:17,040 --> 00:07:20,700 She went through the whole thing in detail. 104 00:07:20,700 --> 00:07:23,520 They lost their home, they were on foot. 105 00:07:23,520 --> 00:07:25,963 They took with them only what they could carry. 106 00:07:26,893 --> 00:07:31,390 No carts, no riding animals or anything. 107 00:07:31,390 --> 00:07:36,223 And they were driven from their home in Govdoun, Sepastia, 108 00:07:37,980 --> 00:07:41,070 all the way across the Iraqi dessert 109 00:07:41,070 --> 00:07:42,100 to Ourfa 110 00:07:46,440 --> 00:07:48,020 and Mosul. 111 00:07:48,020 --> 00:07:53,020 And then during the trip they were bare foot all the way, 112 00:07:54,350 --> 00:07:56,823 across the hot dessert sands. 113 00:07:57,720 --> 00:08:01,140 And her feet were slightly disformed 114 00:08:01,140 --> 00:08:02,963 because of that but not bad. 115 00:08:04,470 --> 00:08:05,660 On the way, of course, 116 00:08:05,660 --> 00:08:08,850 there were women and children and old men, 117 00:08:08,850 --> 00:08:11,387 who couldn't resist the Ottoman power see, 118 00:08:12,320 --> 00:08:16,163 and so they didn't massacre them right away. 119 00:08:17,150 --> 00:08:19,110 My mother at the time was 15. 120 00:08:19,110 --> 00:08:22,870 Her sister was a little younger and she was considered 121 00:08:22,870 --> 00:08:25,960 to be the most beautiful girl in the village. 122 00:08:25,960 --> 00:08:28,420 At least that's what Murad Pasha said 123 00:08:28,420 --> 00:08:30,323 and he was from the same village. 124 00:08:34,530 --> 00:08:36,220 So they took a special care 125 00:08:36,220 --> 00:08:38,813 to make her look uglier than she was. 126 00:08:41,010 --> 00:08:44,300 But it didn't work, I mean she died of illness, 127 00:08:44,300 --> 00:08:46,813 she died of disease on the way. 128 00:08:48,330 --> 00:08:50,350 My mother also lost her brother 129 00:08:50,350 --> 00:08:55,223 who was tormented by Arab children. 130 00:08:57,300 --> 00:08:59,323 They used to throw stones at them. 131 00:09:00,770 --> 00:09:02,670 And he died also on the way. 132 00:09:02,670 --> 00:09:07,670 And so did my mother's mother, my grandmother. 133 00:09:08,400 --> 00:09:10,920 And she lost another sister 134 00:09:10,920 --> 00:09:13,850 who was taken in by friendly Arabs 135 00:09:14,940 --> 00:09:19,693 and after the war settled in Beirut. 136 00:09:22,250 --> 00:09:23,740 Dr. Jack Kevorkian, 137 00:09:23,740 --> 00:09:25,600 a former medical pathologist, 138 00:09:25,600 --> 00:09:28,310 who spent a good part of his professional life entangled 139 00:09:28,310 --> 00:09:31,090 in legal battles with the U.S. Supreme Court, 140 00:09:31,090 --> 00:09:33,410 protecting the rights of the terminally ill 141 00:09:33,410 --> 00:09:35,410 to choose voluntary euthanasia, 142 00:09:35,410 --> 00:09:38,003 was the son of an Armenian Genocide orphans. 143 00:09:39,290 --> 00:09:41,440 - This bothered me growing up. 144 00:09:41,440 --> 00:09:43,810 I didn't really have any hatred for the Turks, 145 00:09:43,810 --> 00:09:46,880 my mother never showed outright hatred 146 00:09:46,880 --> 00:09:49,810 and she could talk even with Turkish people 147 00:09:49,810 --> 00:09:54,810 without any kind of emotion and I always admired that. 148 00:09:55,290 --> 00:09:57,350 My sister couldn't stand that. 149 00:09:57,350 --> 00:10:01,563 My younger sister was more vengeful than my mother. 150 00:10:03,000 --> 00:10:05,133 My mother, I think, was wiser. 151 00:10:06,040 --> 00:10:08,590 But because of that, 152 00:10:08,590 --> 00:10:12,360 I can speak with Turks and not hate them, 153 00:10:12,360 --> 00:10:13,803 because they didn't do it, 154 00:10:14,930 --> 00:10:16,580 that was the Ottomans who did it, 155 00:10:18,200 --> 00:10:20,203 although that's the same people. 156 00:10:21,610 --> 00:10:23,110 Although he never thought of himself 157 00:10:23,110 --> 00:10:26,110 as an artist, Dr Kevorkian's paintings reflect 158 00:10:26,110 --> 00:10:30,230 a profound sense of distaste towards injustice. 159 00:10:30,230 --> 00:10:35,130 In this painting entitled "1915 Genocide 1945," 160 00:10:35,130 --> 00:10:37,750 using his own blood as red paint, 161 00:10:37,750 --> 00:10:41,970 he depicted the horrors of the 1915 Armenian Genocide 162 00:10:41,970 --> 00:10:44,993 and The Jewish Holocaust of 1945. 163 00:10:46,700 --> 00:10:49,400 - I am a historian of the Holocaust 164 00:10:49,400 --> 00:10:54,400 and I think about what happened to Jewish children caught 165 00:10:55,000 --> 00:11:00,000 in the net of Nazism and I think too about what happened 166 00:11:00,350 --> 00:11:03,760 to Armenian children who were caught 167 00:11:03,760 --> 00:11:06,383 in the grip of this genocide. 168 00:11:07,450 --> 00:11:12,450 For me their experiences are absolutely similar, 169 00:11:13,110 --> 00:11:15,803 far more similar than different. 170 00:11:16,850 --> 00:11:19,930 Both groups of children suffered 171 00:11:21,290 --> 00:11:23,840 irrevocable loss. 172 00:11:23,840 --> 00:11:28,300 Both groups of children were targeted for reasons 173 00:11:28,300 --> 00:11:30,360 which they didn't understand 174 00:11:30,360 --> 00:11:34,830 and which indeed are not understandable. 175 00:11:34,830 --> 00:11:39,430 - No Armenian males remained in Kayseri except 176 00:11:39,430 --> 00:11:44,430 for a few feeble elderly men and boys under the age of 15. 177 00:11:45,890 --> 00:11:50,890 The able bodied mostly intellectuals had been gathered, 178 00:11:50,950 --> 00:11:53,780 jailed and then slain 179 00:11:53,780 --> 00:11:57,677 in what came to be known as Slaughter Valley. 180 00:11:59,410 --> 00:12:00,710 90 year old Mae Derderian, 181 00:12:00,710 --> 00:12:02,479 the author of "Vergeen," 182 00:12:02,479 --> 00:12:05,750 based on the memoirs of Vergeen Kalenderian, 183 00:12:05,750 --> 00:12:08,483 a close family friend who was a genocide orphan. 184 00:12:18,990 --> 00:12:20,870 Vergeen's story is a testament to the plight 185 00:12:20,870 --> 00:12:23,450 of a typical teenaged Armenian orphaned girl 186 00:12:23,450 --> 00:12:24,773 during the genocide. 187 00:12:26,560 --> 00:12:31,560 - Vergeen's father had died before the deportation began, 188 00:12:32,120 --> 00:12:34,293 so it was just she and her mother. 189 00:12:35,540 --> 00:12:40,380 They started out from the city of Kayseri 190 00:12:40,380 --> 00:12:43,800 and joined other people in their neighborhoods 191 00:12:43,800 --> 00:12:47,140 in other cities and then took that journey, 192 00:12:47,140 --> 00:12:49,550 that awful journey, 193 00:12:49,550 --> 00:12:53,763 through the various villages and cities southward 194 00:12:56,070 --> 00:12:59,770 and eventually ended up in Aleppo, Syria, 195 00:12:59,770 --> 00:13:01,963 but a lot went on in between. 196 00:13:03,470 --> 00:13:05,590 While stillin the deportation route, 197 00:13:05,590 --> 00:13:07,530 a Bedouin horseman abducts Vergeen 198 00:13:07,530 --> 00:13:09,760 and drags her mother along. 199 00:13:09,760 --> 00:13:13,530 - When they got to where the Bedouin's family was, 200 00:13:13,530 --> 00:13:16,180 I guess the decision was made 201 00:13:16,180 --> 00:13:18,000 that they were gonna kill the mother 202 00:13:18,000 --> 00:13:19,890 and keep the daughter. 203 00:13:19,890 --> 00:13:21,360 And so the second day 204 00:13:21,360 --> 00:13:25,900 that she was there they did indeed kill the mother 205 00:13:25,900 --> 00:13:30,564 by drowning her and taking her clothes 206 00:13:30,564 --> 00:13:32,450 and giving it to Vergeen. 207 00:13:32,450 --> 00:13:35,997 So at the age of 13, 208 00:13:35,997 --> 00:13:39,903 she became an orphan in the hands of the Bedouins. 209 00:13:41,110 --> 00:13:43,580 Her captors treat Vergeen as a slave, 210 00:13:43,580 --> 00:13:46,090 assigning her difficult house chores, 211 00:13:46,090 --> 00:13:48,281 while she endured abuse and rape, 212 00:13:48,281 --> 00:13:50,550 and living with the tribe's livestock. 213 00:13:50,550 --> 00:13:52,850 A few months later, Vergeen is tattooed 214 00:13:52,850 --> 00:13:54,830 as an Arab Bedouin woman. 215 00:13:54,830 --> 00:13:57,650 - And she was interviewed on radio 216 00:13:57,650 --> 00:13:59,817 and the reporter said to her, 217 00:13:59,817 --> 00:14:03,057 "Why do you have your marks on your forehead 218 00:14:03,057 --> 00:14:06,670 "and your chin and your mouth?" 219 00:14:06,670 --> 00:14:11,057 And she said, "I," in English, perfect English, 220 00:14:11,057 --> 00:14:13,447 "I was captured by the Bedouins 221 00:14:13,447 --> 00:14:15,590 "during the Armenian Genocide." 222 00:14:15,590 --> 00:14:17,890 Eventually she manages to flee 223 00:14:17,890 --> 00:14:20,230 and finds a job at a military hospital 224 00:14:20,230 --> 00:14:23,450 where she meets Nartouhy, Mae Derdarian's mother. 225 00:14:23,450 --> 00:14:25,793 The two become lifelong friends. 226 00:14:26,730 --> 00:14:29,440 At the end of World War I they move to Aleppo 227 00:14:29,440 --> 00:14:31,600 together with Nartouy's mother. 228 00:14:31,600 --> 00:14:33,550 Vergeen finds a teaching job 229 00:14:33,550 --> 00:14:38,263 at an orphanage housing 2,500 Armenian Genocide orphans. 230 00:14:39,280 --> 00:14:41,080 - Just outside of Aleppo, 231 00:14:41,080 --> 00:14:44,860 these Armenian refugees were living in tents. 232 00:14:44,860 --> 00:14:48,450 My mother and my grandmother were in one tent. 233 00:14:48,450 --> 00:14:53,450 And right next to them was a tent of children. 234 00:14:54,710 --> 00:14:57,690 Infants and toddlers, about 50 of them. 235 00:15:01,710 --> 00:15:06,370 Crying, wailing, no one to take care of them. 236 00:15:06,370 --> 00:15:10,070 My grandmother tried to walk over to the tent 237 00:15:10,070 --> 00:15:13,320 and enter it to take care of these children 238 00:15:13,320 --> 00:15:17,193 and she was beaten badly by the gendarmes. 239 00:15:18,050 --> 00:15:23,050 Those kids died one by one with no one looking after them. 240 00:15:25,730 --> 00:15:26,883 My mother used to, 241 00:15:30,320 --> 00:15:31,693 it makes me cry, 242 00:15:33,470 --> 00:15:37,880 my mother would talk about that all the time 243 00:15:37,880 --> 00:15:42,151 and she would say, in Armenian, 244 00:15:44,857 --> 00:15:47,460 "Why did God do this"? 245 00:15:47,460 --> 00:15:48,933 And she lost her faith. 246 00:15:50,490 --> 00:15:54,760 It's pretty hard to look at babies, infants 247 00:15:54,760 --> 00:15:58,810 without parents and toddlers with no one to look after them. 248 00:15:58,810 --> 00:16:03,810 No one to give them water or food, or change their diapers, 249 00:16:03,980 --> 00:16:08,853 and those children died one by one, 50 orphans. 250 00:16:12,840 --> 00:16:16,170 In 1921, Armen Meghrouni of Milwaukee, 251 00:16:16,170 --> 00:16:19,070 the son of a family friend from Vergeen's birthplace, 252 00:16:19,070 --> 00:16:22,430 arranged her immigration to America as his fiancé, 253 00:16:22,430 --> 00:16:24,250 hoping to start a family with the woman 254 00:16:24,250 --> 00:16:27,100 he had fallen in love with as a young man. 255 00:16:27,100 --> 00:16:30,120 It was Vergeen's wish to have her tattoos removed, 256 00:16:30,120 --> 00:16:31,940 to rid herself once and for all 257 00:16:31,940 --> 00:16:34,350 of the constant reminders of the horrific memories 258 00:16:34,350 --> 00:16:37,200 of her life as an Armenian Genocide orphan. 259 00:16:37,200 --> 00:16:39,920 Her sons, Vahe and Victor made it their mission 260 00:16:39,920 --> 00:16:41,600 to grant their mother's wish 261 00:16:41,600 --> 00:16:44,610 and were successful in finding a medically safe solution 262 00:16:44,610 --> 00:16:46,580 to erase Vergeen's tattoos 263 00:16:46,580 --> 00:16:48,623 from her the forehead, lips and chin. 264 00:17:03,870 --> 00:17:06,467 Sabiha Gokcen, the first woman pilot in Turkey, 265 00:17:06,467 --> 00:17:09,530 was the adopted daughter of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, 266 00:17:09,530 --> 00:17:11,420 the first president of Turkey. 267 00:17:11,420 --> 00:17:13,950 To this day, Sabiha Gokcen remains 268 00:17:13,950 --> 00:17:17,300 as an iconic figure and a symbol of Turkish womanhood 269 00:17:17,300 --> 00:17:19,680 who was not only the first female pilot, 270 00:17:19,680 --> 00:17:22,578 but also the first female combat pilot. 271 00:17:31,421 --> 00:17:35,460 One of Sabiha's missions was the Dersim Operation of 1938, 272 00:17:35,460 --> 00:17:36,790 when her squadron was assigned 273 00:17:36,790 --> 00:17:39,790 to bomb the Kurdish populated region of Dersim. 274 00:17:39,790 --> 00:17:43,250 This operation cost tens of thousands of innocent lives. 275 00:17:52,280 --> 00:17:54,640 During the Genocide of 1915, 276 00:17:54,640 --> 00:17:57,000 large numbers of Armenians took refuge 277 00:17:57,000 --> 00:17:59,954 in Dersim disguised as Kurds. 278 00:18:04,330 --> 00:18:07,800 A 2004 US State Department report states, quote: 279 00:18:07,800 --> 00:18:10,640 In February, the "Hurriyet" newspaper's publication 280 00:18:10,640 --> 00:18:12,640 of a report that Sabiha Gokcen, 281 00:18:12,640 --> 00:18:15,180 an adopted daughter of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, 282 00:18:15,180 --> 00:18:17,300 who was the country's first female pilot, 283 00:18:17,300 --> 00:18:19,640 was of Armenian descent drew a number 284 00:18:19,640 --> 00:18:22,200 of racist public statements, unquote. 285 00:18:22,200 --> 00:18:23,800 The "Hurriyet" report was based 286 00:18:23,800 --> 00:18:25,970 on an article written in 2004 287 00:18:25,970 --> 00:18:27,960 by Hrant Dink and published 288 00:18:27,960 --> 00:18:31,500 in the "Agos" Armenian newspaper in Istanbul, Turkey. 289 00:18:31,500 --> 00:18:32,650 The article revealed 290 00:18:32,650 --> 00:18:35,583 that Sabiha Gokcen's real name was Hatun Sebilisian, 291 00:18:36,610 --> 00:18:38,950 an Armenian orphan of the genocide 292 00:18:38,950 --> 00:18:42,360 and the daughter of Dirouhi and Nerses Sebilisian 293 00:18:42,360 --> 00:18:47,040 whose father, Nerses, was killed during the 1915 Genocide. 294 00:18:47,040 --> 00:18:50,870 In 1925, while living in an orphanage in Cibin, 295 00:18:50,870 --> 00:18:52,900 Hatun Sebilisian was adopted 296 00:18:52,900 --> 00:18:56,270 by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, President of Turkey. 297 00:18:56,270 --> 00:18:58,790 The publication of the article created an uproar 298 00:18:58,790 --> 00:19:01,430 amongst government circles in Turkey. 299 00:19:01,430 --> 00:19:03,720 Journalist Hrant Dink was labeled a traitor 300 00:19:03,720 --> 00:19:06,200 for unveiling Sabiha Gokcen's secret 301 00:19:06,200 --> 00:19:08,450 which was based on a first account testimonial 302 00:19:08,450 --> 00:19:11,525 from Sabiha's niece, Huripsimeh Ghazaryan. 303 00:19:16,410 --> 00:19:20,310 Sabiha's Armenian ancestry has long been a common knowledge 304 00:19:20,310 --> 00:19:22,180 among the Armenians. 305 00:19:22,180 --> 00:19:25,210 This is an article, published in August of 1970, 306 00:19:25,210 --> 00:19:28,060 in an Armenian magazine discussing the secrets 307 00:19:28,060 --> 00:19:29,423 of Ataturk's daughter. 308 00:19:30,520 --> 00:19:32,360 This, and similar articles penned 309 00:19:32,360 --> 00:19:34,290 by the Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, 310 00:19:34,290 --> 00:19:37,653 sparked a series of hate mail and threats against his life. 311 00:19:39,130 --> 00:19:42,750 In 2007, Dink was assassinated in Istanbul, Turkey 312 00:19:42,750 --> 00:19:45,020 when a gunman shot him in broad daylight 313 00:19:45,020 --> 00:19:47,210 in front of his office building. 314 00:19:47,210 --> 00:19:48,870 Dink's funeral procession united 315 00:19:48,870 --> 00:19:50,810 the Armenian and Turkish citizens 316 00:19:50,810 --> 00:19:53,310 in what is believed to be one the largest funerals 317 00:19:53,310 --> 00:19:55,590 ever held in modern Turkey. 318 00:19:55,590 --> 00:19:58,830 At his funeral, 200,000 mourners marched 319 00:19:58,830 --> 00:20:01,457 in protest of the assassination, chanting, 320 00:20:01,457 --> 00:20:06,457 "We are all Armenians" and "We are all Hrant Dink." 321 00:20:06,460 --> 00:20:09,690 In 2009, Turkey's second largest airport 322 00:20:09,690 --> 00:20:13,071 in Istanbul was named after Sabiha Gokcen. 323 00:20:33,080 --> 00:20:35,200 The first waves of Ottoman atrocities 324 00:20:35,200 --> 00:20:37,020 against the Armenians started 325 00:20:37,020 --> 00:20:40,460 before the 1915 Armenian Genocide. 326 00:20:40,460 --> 00:20:43,320 Ottoman Emperor, Abdul Hamid II, 327 00:20:43,320 --> 00:20:45,670 34th sultan of the Ottoman Empire, 328 00:20:45,670 --> 00:20:48,900 ordered the massacres of tens of thousands of Armenians, 329 00:20:48,900 --> 00:20:52,750 becoming known as the infamous Red or Bloody Sultan. 330 00:20:52,750 --> 00:20:56,420 These atrocities, which started as early as 1892 331 00:20:56,420 --> 00:20:59,050 and culminated in the massacres of Adana, 332 00:20:59,050 --> 00:21:03,333 left an estimated 50,000 Armenian orphans in Anatolia. 333 00:21:37,320 --> 00:21:39,290 In 1909, an orphan 334 00:21:39,290 --> 00:21:41,500 who survived the Adana massacres, 335 00:21:41,500 --> 00:21:43,200 found herself at the doorsteps 336 00:21:43,200 --> 00:21:46,113 of the Hadjin Orphanage wrapped in this dress. 337 00:21:48,640 --> 00:21:52,280 In 1914, when the orphanage was uprooted in haste, 338 00:21:52,280 --> 00:21:55,520 sister Dorinda Bowman managed to bring this dress with her 339 00:21:55,520 --> 00:21:58,660 to all the way from Hadjin to the United States. 340 00:21:58,660 --> 00:22:01,793 The dress retains it's original dirt to this date. 341 00:22:05,170 --> 00:22:08,530 In 1908, two sisters, Rose and Nora Lambert 342 00:22:08,530 --> 00:22:10,440 of the Mennonite Brethren Missionaries 343 00:22:10,440 --> 00:22:13,170 took an arduous journey from New York to Hadjin 344 00:22:13,170 --> 00:22:16,670 by way of Mersin, Turkey and founded two orphanages, 345 00:22:16,670 --> 00:22:20,610 one in Hajin for girls and one in Everek for boys. 346 00:22:20,610 --> 00:22:23,400 This mission, perched at the hilltops of Hadjin, 347 00:22:23,400 --> 00:22:25,470 housed 306 orphans 348 00:22:25,470 --> 00:22:30,040 that survived the Hamidian massacres between 1894 and 1896. 349 00:22:31,570 --> 00:22:34,038 In her 1911 published memoirs, 350 00:22:34,038 --> 00:22:36,240 "Hadjin and the Armenian Massacres" 351 00:22:36,240 --> 00:22:39,730 Rose Lambert reassures a group of widow and orphan survivors 352 00:22:39,730 --> 00:22:42,417 of her sincere commitment to their security. 353 00:22:42,417 --> 00:22:45,937 "If the blood of 20 thousand innocent Armenians is shed 354 00:22:45,937 --> 00:22:47,717 "it will make very little difference 355 00:22:47,717 --> 00:22:50,247 "if the blood of one American is mingled with it". 356 00:22:53,500 --> 00:22:57,740 Later, during the Genocide of 1915 through 1918, 357 00:22:57,740 --> 00:23:00,170 both orphanages were torched down to rubbles 358 00:23:00,170 --> 00:23:01,860 by the Ottoman Turks. 359 00:23:01,860 --> 00:23:03,910 At least five American missionaries, 360 00:23:03,910 --> 00:23:06,573 including Reverend Henry Maurer, lost their lives 361 00:23:06,573 --> 00:23:09,353 while caring for the Armenian orphans of Hadjin. 362 00:23:27,610 --> 00:23:31,423 - My name is Jussi Flemming Bioern, my father was Armenian. 363 00:23:32,800 --> 00:23:35,843 His name was Rafael Safarian. 364 00:23:37,420 --> 00:23:40,692 He was adopted by a Norwegian missionary, 365 00:23:40,692 --> 00:23:43,090 Bodil Katharina Biorn from Karagida. 366 00:23:43,090 --> 00:23:47,340 He was brought to Norway and he grew up. 367 00:23:47,340 --> 00:23:51,630 He later was taken down 368 00:23:51,630 --> 00:23:52,900 to the Middle East 369 00:23:52,900 --> 00:23:54,363 to live with my grandmother. 370 00:23:58,163 --> 00:23:58,996 Bodil Biorn was 371 00:23:58,996 --> 00:24:00,870 a young Norwegian missionary nurse 372 00:24:00,870 --> 00:24:03,480 who came from a very affluent family. 373 00:24:03,480 --> 00:24:07,380 In 1905, Bodil chose to leave her posh life behind 374 00:24:07,380 --> 00:24:10,450 and dedicate her life to the Armenian orphans. 375 00:24:10,450 --> 00:24:13,450 After serving in Constantinople, present day Istanbul, 376 00:24:13,450 --> 00:24:16,800 and Marash in Western Armenia until 1907, 377 00:24:16,800 --> 00:24:19,010 she requested to be transferred to Moush. 378 00:24:19,010 --> 00:24:24,010 - My grandmother experienced the genocide by her own eyes. 379 00:24:24,120 --> 00:24:28,220 She was in Moush in 1915, in July 380 00:24:28,220 --> 00:24:31,410 when the Turkish soldiers shelled the city 381 00:24:31,410 --> 00:24:35,770 and destroyed her working field, destroyed her orphanage, 382 00:24:35,770 --> 00:24:38,963 destroyed her clinic and she had to flee. 383 00:24:40,000 --> 00:24:43,970 She had to flee for her life 384 00:24:43,970 --> 00:24:46,760 and she lost her children in the orphanage, 385 00:24:46,760 --> 00:24:51,760 she lost the girls that she had educated and helped so much. 386 00:24:56,060 --> 00:24:57,590 Bodil Biorn writes the following caption 387 00:24:57,590 --> 00:24:59,717 on the verso of this photo. 388 00:24:59,717 --> 00:25:02,777 "In this image, the teacher Margarid Nalbanchian 389 00:25:02,777 --> 00:25:04,677 "and most of the 120 children 390 00:25:04,677 --> 00:25:07,997 "of the day school were murdered in 1915." 391 00:25:17,190 --> 00:25:21,330 In 1917 she adopts a 1 1/2-year-old Armenian orphan 392 00:25:21,330 --> 00:25:24,130 named Rafael Safaryan of Constantinople, 393 00:25:24,130 --> 00:25:26,090 and takes him back with her to Norway, 394 00:25:26,090 --> 00:25:28,760 where she raises funds for orphan relief work 395 00:25:28,760 --> 00:25:31,200 only to return to Armenia one year later 396 00:25:31,200 --> 00:25:34,827 to serve in Alexandrapol, Armenia, present day Gyumri. 397 00:25:35,940 --> 00:25:38,420 - There she rented a big house 398 00:25:38,420 --> 00:25:43,420 and started all over again with a new orphanage 399 00:25:43,919 --> 00:25:48,640 this time for boys and she opened a clinic, a public clinic. 400 00:25:48,640 --> 00:25:50,120 She was a trained nurse. 401 00:25:50,120 --> 00:25:54,140 She had experience as a doctor even though she was not, 402 00:25:54,140 --> 00:25:56,650 but she had experience in surgery, 403 00:25:56,650 --> 00:26:00,543 in dental work, all what was necessary. 404 00:26:02,830 --> 00:26:06,760 In 1922, Bodil had to flee Armenia once more, 405 00:26:06,760 --> 00:26:09,640 this time under pressure from Soviet Authorities 406 00:26:09,640 --> 00:26:13,700 and continue her orphan relief work in Aleppo, Syria. 407 00:26:13,700 --> 00:26:16,760 99 years after Bodil Biorn's first visit 408 00:26:16,760 --> 00:26:20,490 to historic Armenia, her grandson Jussi Fleming Bioern, 409 00:26:20,490 --> 00:26:23,340 the son of the adopted orphan Rafael Safaryan, 410 00:26:23,340 --> 00:26:26,897 produces a documentary about Bodil Biorn's life. 411 00:26:29,280 --> 00:26:33,530 - We traveled to Turkey, eastern Turkey, 412 00:26:33,530 --> 00:26:34,813 we traveled to Moush. 413 00:26:35,900 --> 00:26:40,810 We traveled to Armenia and we traveled to Syria 414 00:26:40,810 --> 00:26:43,740 and shot the film in three parts. 415 00:26:43,740 --> 00:26:47,980 This was in 2006 and 2007. 416 00:26:47,980 --> 00:26:52,017 And used the rest of 2007 417 00:26:52,017 --> 00:26:57,017 and the spring of 2008 to edit and make the film. 418 00:27:10,430 --> 00:27:12,730 Arshile Gorky, considered a seminal figure 419 00:27:12,730 --> 00:27:16,190 in the abstract art movement that transformed American art, 420 00:27:16,190 --> 00:27:19,440 was born Vosdanik Adoian near Lake Van. 421 00:27:19,440 --> 00:27:24,010 On June 16, 1915, at the height of the genocide, Gorky, 422 00:27:24,010 --> 00:27:27,450 along with his three sisters and mother, Shushan Adoian, 423 00:27:27,450 --> 00:27:30,500 joined a death march caravan heading north east 424 00:27:30,500 --> 00:27:32,480 for 150 miles. 425 00:27:32,480 --> 00:27:35,130 30 days later, they arrived in Yerevan, 426 00:27:35,130 --> 00:27:37,830 present day Armenia's capital city. 427 00:27:37,830 --> 00:27:39,303 Soon after their arrival, 428 00:27:39,303 --> 00:27:42,693 Gorky's mother died of starvation in his arms. 429 00:27:44,290 --> 00:27:47,550 - Arshile Gorky's a really an interesting story 430 00:27:47,550 --> 00:27:50,790 in terms of having lost his mother 431 00:27:50,790 --> 00:27:55,790 and of what he became once he came to the United States. 432 00:27:55,790 --> 00:28:00,790 He and his sisters, lead by his mother fled the genocide. 433 00:28:02,130 --> 00:28:04,160 They fled to Van City for a while, 434 00:28:04,160 --> 00:28:07,780 then they ended up in and around Yerevan. 435 00:28:07,780 --> 00:28:10,490 There was so little food because of Turkish blockades 436 00:28:10,490 --> 00:28:12,780 of Armenia at the time, 437 00:28:12,780 --> 00:28:16,030 so many people were dying of starvation and disease 438 00:28:16,030 --> 00:28:19,030 and his mother would give 439 00:28:19,030 --> 00:28:22,010 whatever food she could to the children, 440 00:28:22,010 --> 00:28:25,370 particularly to Gorky because he was her only son. 441 00:28:25,370 --> 00:28:29,543 Eventually she basically starved to death. 442 00:28:29,543 --> 00:28:34,036 And the story in the family is that she basically starved 443 00:28:34,036 --> 00:28:36,640 to death in his arms and eventually, 444 00:28:36,640 --> 00:28:38,870 through the help of family friends, 445 00:28:38,870 --> 00:28:42,400 they made it to the United States in 1920. 446 00:28:50,150 --> 00:28:52,377 One of the two versions of Gorky's famous, 447 00:28:52,377 --> 00:28:55,330 "The Artist and His Mother" is on permanent exhibit 448 00:28:55,330 --> 00:28:58,820 at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. 449 00:28:58,820 --> 00:29:00,800 The inspiration for both paintings was 450 00:29:00,800 --> 00:29:02,850 the only photo Gorky had of himself 451 00:29:02,850 --> 00:29:07,120 and his mother taken just before the start of the genocide. 452 00:29:07,120 --> 00:29:09,360 - People actually stand in front of that painting 453 00:29:09,360 --> 00:29:14,360 and they weep, they weep, because they get the emotionality, 454 00:29:14,760 --> 00:29:17,410 they get what happened to Gorky, 455 00:29:17,410 --> 00:29:19,870 and they get what happened to her. 456 00:29:19,870 --> 00:29:24,760 And they see their mothers' face 457 00:29:24,760 --> 00:29:29,080 who they lost in the genocide maybe in that painting, 458 00:29:29,080 --> 00:29:33,220 because he has spent so much time trying 459 00:29:33,220 --> 00:29:35,750 to get an overall sense of the mood 460 00:29:35,750 --> 00:29:39,170 or that kind of atmosphere of that painting, 461 00:29:39,170 --> 00:29:43,610 without having created a work that is so individual. 462 00:29:43,610 --> 00:29:46,010 It's a very Armenian looking face 463 00:29:46,010 --> 00:29:48,200 and, yes, it looks like his mother 464 00:29:48,200 --> 00:29:51,260 but it also looks like a lot of Armenian faces. 465 00:29:51,260 --> 00:29:54,490 Faces of Armenian women that you see 466 00:29:54,490 --> 00:29:56,600 in the pictures of the genocide. 467 00:29:56,600 --> 00:30:01,120 Old pictures of the way life used to be in the old country. 468 00:30:01,120 --> 00:30:03,740 And so I think that that's a huge thing 469 00:30:03,740 --> 00:30:05,713 that kind of resonates for people. 470 00:30:08,000 --> 00:30:09,633 - An artist is like a blender. 471 00:30:11,050 --> 00:30:14,120 Everything that happens to you as an artist, 472 00:30:14,120 --> 00:30:17,750 as a human being goes into that blender. 473 00:30:17,750 --> 00:30:20,650 You read a fantastic book, 474 00:30:20,650 --> 00:30:23,030 you listen to some fascinating music, 475 00:30:23,030 --> 00:30:27,860 you fall in love and war goes in there 476 00:30:27,860 --> 00:30:30,460 and of course genocide, genocide. 477 00:30:30,460 --> 00:30:35,070 And so you process everything, that blender works 478 00:30:35,070 --> 00:30:36,610 and you spew it out. 479 00:30:36,610 --> 00:30:40,940 In Gorky's case, in Gorky's case it's fascinating, 480 00:30:40,940 --> 00:30:43,930 because his processor has worked so well 481 00:30:43,930 --> 00:30:46,950 that it's almost impossible to detect 482 00:30:46,950 --> 00:30:49,030 which is which, what's what. 483 00:30:49,030 --> 00:30:50,280 But it's there. 484 00:30:50,280 --> 00:30:54,513 It's impossible that it won't be there. 485 00:31:00,766 --> 00:31:02,720 Harutune Galents was four years old 486 00:31:02,720 --> 00:31:05,440 when his affluent family in Sepastia was deported 487 00:31:05,440 --> 00:31:08,000 after the disappearance of his father. 488 00:31:08,000 --> 00:31:11,460 Upon their arrival to relative safety in Aleppo, Syria, 489 00:31:11,460 --> 00:31:13,230 his mother died of exhaustion 490 00:31:13,230 --> 00:31:16,336 sending the four brothers into an orphanage. 491 00:31:19,201 --> 00:31:20,880 Harutune Galents, 492 00:31:20,880 --> 00:31:22,310 who's been through the journey 493 00:31:22,310 --> 00:31:26,680 of orphanhood and who was a typical Armenian man, 494 00:31:26,680 --> 00:31:30,220 who has gone through the dreadful genocide was able 495 00:31:30,220 --> 00:31:33,250 to battle life through his art 496 00:31:33,250 --> 00:31:37,850 by affirming that I exist, we exist. 497 00:31:37,850 --> 00:31:39,810 Harutune's artistic talents were apparent 498 00:31:39,810 --> 00:31:42,040 from an early age in the orphanage. 499 00:31:42,040 --> 00:31:44,520 Upon graduating from the orphanage school, 500 00:31:44,520 --> 00:31:48,190 he settled in Beirut, Lebanon where he excelled as an artist 501 00:31:48,190 --> 00:31:51,440 and in 1939 received the Medal of Merit 502 00:31:51,440 --> 00:31:54,350 at the New York International Exhibition. 503 00:31:54,350 --> 00:31:58,700 In 1943, he married his apprentice Armine Baronian, 504 00:31:58,700 --> 00:32:02,960 and in 1946 repatriated to Armenia with his family 505 00:32:02,960 --> 00:32:06,153 where he died at the peak of his career in 1967. 506 00:32:11,820 --> 00:32:14,270 Every time he mentioned the genocide 507 00:32:14,270 --> 00:32:16,830 he would go to his room and weep, 508 00:32:16,830 --> 00:32:20,100 but he wouldn't discuss it except with his family. 509 00:32:20,100 --> 00:32:23,500 He would talk about his experiences during the genocide. 510 00:32:23,500 --> 00:32:25,600 How his mother rubbed their faces 511 00:32:25,600 --> 00:32:28,030 with dirt to disguise them. 512 00:32:28,030 --> 00:32:31,140 How they witnessed the killings on the track. 513 00:32:31,140 --> 00:32:34,460 How human bodies would float in the river for weeks. 514 00:32:34,460 --> 00:32:36,950 He would tell us that in tears. 515 00:32:36,950 --> 00:32:40,950 But none of his paintings depict the Armenian tragedy. 516 00:32:40,950 --> 00:32:44,493 The contrary, what they do is celebrate life. 517 00:32:46,060 --> 00:32:47,230 Although Galents' paintings 518 00:32:47,230 --> 00:32:49,270 have vibrant, cheerful colors, 519 00:32:49,270 --> 00:32:51,820 his melancholic portraits reflect eyes 520 00:32:51,820 --> 00:32:55,403 that resonate the despondence of a tortured soul. 521 00:33:11,550 --> 00:33:16,550 The fear in Nuvart's face, the horror in Markarid's eyes, 522 00:33:16,750 --> 00:33:19,050 the destitute in their mother's vision 523 00:33:19,970 --> 00:33:23,123 and the hesitant grip of her newborn child. 524 00:33:24,880 --> 00:33:27,930 In 1899, after the murder of her husband 525 00:33:27,930 --> 00:33:32,130 during the Hamidian massacres she walked nearly 100 miles 526 00:33:32,130 --> 00:33:33,960 from the town of Keghi to Harput 527 00:33:33,960 --> 00:33:36,300 with her three fatherless children in tow 528 00:33:36,300 --> 00:33:38,373 and in search of food and shelter. 529 00:33:43,440 --> 00:33:46,140 The 105 year old, Almas Boghossian, 530 00:33:46,140 --> 00:33:49,810 once an Armenian Genocide orphan as Almas Avakian, 531 00:33:49,810 --> 00:33:52,860 now lives in Whitensville, Massachusetts. 532 00:33:52,860 --> 00:33:55,810 She was eight years old when the Turkish soldiers evicted 533 00:33:55,810 --> 00:33:57,840 her family from their ancestral home, 534 00:33:57,840 --> 00:34:00,920 to join thousands of other Armenian refugees 535 00:34:00,920 --> 00:34:02,970 in what became the starvation march 536 00:34:02,970 --> 00:34:04,393 to the desert of Der Zore. 537 00:34:05,410 --> 00:34:07,090 Almas is the only survivor 538 00:34:07,090 --> 00:34:09,673 of the Avakian Family of Harput province. 539 00:34:11,032 --> 00:34:12,283 - I remember but, well, 540 00:34:21,694 --> 00:34:23,315 they come knock the door 541 00:34:23,315 --> 00:34:27,823 and took us out and we had to walk. 542 00:34:30,220 --> 00:34:32,743 And they took my father early. 543 00:34:33,690 --> 00:34:36,933 Only women and children left. 544 00:34:39,860 --> 00:34:44,375 They killed them, my mother and my father 545 00:34:44,375 --> 00:34:46,803 and we walked and walked. 546 00:34:48,710 --> 00:34:49,860 Some of them dying. 547 00:34:49,860 --> 00:34:53,063 Kids were left alone, new born kids. 548 00:34:54,510 --> 00:34:57,877 It's awful, I don't want to even remember them. 549 00:34:59,330 --> 00:35:01,100 - And as best as we can figure 550 00:35:01,100 --> 00:35:06,100 she really went most of the way from Hussenig to Der Zore 551 00:35:07,540 --> 00:35:10,930 on foot with her family 552 00:35:10,930 --> 00:35:13,513 and she was the only one them that survived. 553 00:35:14,840 --> 00:35:19,610 Her younger sister died very early along the way, 554 00:35:19,610 --> 00:35:23,980 along the route, roughly following the Euphrates River. 555 00:35:23,980 --> 00:35:25,330 The march to Der Zore passed 556 00:35:25,330 --> 00:35:27,870 through Ras El Ain, a major processing 557 00:35:27,870 --> 00:35:30,840 and annihilation center for the Armenian deportees 558 00:35:30,840 --> 00:35:32,740 along the deportation route. 559 00:35:32,740 --> 00:35:37,640 - She remembers going into a store in Souare with her mother 560 00:35:38,670 --> 00:35:41,370 and she remembers the mother speaking 561 00:35:41,370 --> 00:35:43,580 to the Syrian owner of the store. 562 00:35:43,580 --> 00:35:45,440 They were speaking in Turkish 563 00:35:45,440 --> 00:35:49,400 and that it was sort of an excited conversation 564 00:35:49,400 --> 00:35:51,053 and it went on for sometime. 565 00:35:52,390 --> 00:35:55,180 My grandmother became tired after a while 566 00:35:55,180 --> 00:35:57,110 and fell asleep in the store. 567 00:35:57,110 --> 00:35:59,630 What was happening was that my great-grandmother was trying 568 00:35:59,630 --> 00:36:03,750 to convince the store owner to adopt my grandmother. 569 00:36:03,750 --> 00:36:05,853 - I was in a Arabic house. 570 00:36:06,700 --> 00:36:10,593 They adopted me, they were a very good family. 571 00:36:13,951 --> 00:36:17,950 They said whoever have Armenian kid, 572 00:36:17,950 --> 00:36:21,530 they should bring them to government house. 573 00:36:21,530 --> 00:36:24,230 - The relief agencies were making a plea 574 00:36:24,230 --> 00:36:29,230 for Syrian families that had adopted Armenian orphans 575 00:36:30,020 --> 00:36:33,373 to return those orphans to the relief agencies. 576 00:36:35,190 --> 00:36:39,470 - They took us there and that was my second home. 577 00:36:39,470 --> 00:36:42,900 You know I was small and little by little 578 00:36:42,900 --> 00:36:47,543 I started to love them and that's it. 579 00:36:48,545 --> 00:36:51,563 They brought us to the orphanage in Aleppo Syria. 580 00:36:52,890 --> 00:36:57,430 - She remembers food was scarce in the orphanage. 581 00:36:57,430 --> 00:37:01,570 And she would sometimes reserve her food. 582 00:37:01,570 --> 00:37:04,430 She would eat just enough so that she wasn't hungry anymore 583 00:37:04,430 --> 00:37:07,193 and hide the rest of it in various places. 584 00:37:08,600 --> 00:37:13,033 - We wake up in the morning, we all sleeping one room. 585 00:37:14,050 --> 00:37:17,987 About 20, 30 little by little. 586 00:37:22,090 --> 00:37:26,793 They feed me so we not die. 587 00:37:26,793 --> 00:37:30,300 Starving, we were starving. 588 00:37:30,300 --> 00:37:33,803 Each one is very thin because no food. 589 00:37:34,720 --> 00:37:38,183 This much bread and soup, little. 590 00:37:41,700 --> 00:37:44,113 - One day while she was in the orphanage, 591 00:37:48,700 --> 00:37:51,490 she made contact through the gate of the orphanage. 592 00:37:51,490 --> 00:37:54,680 There were other children outside, street children 593 00:37:54,680 --> 00:37:56,720 and sometimes she was able to talk to them 594 00:37:56,720 --> 00:37:57,970 through the orphanage gates. 595 00:37:57,970 --> 00:38:00,460 She was on the inside, they were on the outside 596 00:38:00,460 --> 00:38:02,970 and one of them was her older sister, 597 00:38:02,970 --> 00:38:05,710 whom she had not seen in several years, 598 00:38:05,710 --> 00:38:08,950 since the time of the deportation. 599 00:38:08,950 --> 00:38:11,270 She remembers passing some of the food 600 00:38:11,270 --> 00:38:13,480 out to her older sister 601 00:38:15,450 --> 00:38:18,740 and her older sister told her 602 00:38:19,870 --> 00:38:24,740 that the very day after her mother gave her 603 00:38:25,830 --> 00:38:27,750 to be adopted by the store owner, 604 00:38:27,750 --> 00:38:29,453 the next day her mother died. 605 00:38:30,500 --> 00:38:32,540 A few weeks later, the street children, 606 00:38:32,540 --> 00:38:35,220 also known as the roaming Armenian orphans, 607 00:38:35,220 --> 00:38:37,870 were no longer begging at the gates of the orphanage. 608 00:38:37,870 --> 00:38:40,760 A rumor soon spread that the Ottoman gendarmes, 609 00:38:40,760 --> 00:38:43,880 annoyed by the children had assembled and killed them all. 610 00:38:43,880 --> 00:38:47,760 Among the disappeared was Almas Avakian's older sister. 611 00:38:47,760 --> 00:38:50,460 She remembers it was a difficult life there. 612 00:38:51,445 --> 00:38:55,200 They taught the orphans to do various tasks. 613 00:38:55,200 --> 00:38:56,930 They would have to help out in the orphanage. 614 00:38:56,930 --> 00:38:59,910 Some of them, like my grandmother, were taught 615 00:38:59,910 --> 00:39:03,003 how to make Armenian lace. 616 00:39:03,890 --> 00:39:07,503 - I learned this in orphanage. 617 00:39:07,503 --> 00:39:11,780 This is made by sewing needle. 618 00:39:11,780 --> 00:39:15,313 Not crochet, sewing needle. 619 00:39:18,110 --> 00:39:20,340 - That's something that my grandmother has remembered 620 00:39:20,340 --> 00:39:21,250 all of her life. 621 00:39:21,250 --> 00:39:24,450 She has made very beautiful Armenian lace 622 00:39:25,630 --> 00:39:28,750 and a few years ago taught my daughter, 623 00:39:28,750 --> 00:39:31,040 her great-granddaughter, how to do the lace. 624 00:39:31,040 --> 00:39:34,413 So now my daughter knows how to do that very well. 625 00:39:40,620 --> 00:39:43,440 In 1920, Almas Avakian's aunt, 626 00:39:43,440 --> 00:39:44,800 living in Massachusetts, 627 00:39:44,800 --> 00:39:47,320 discovers that Almas was still alive 628 00:39:47,320 --> 00:39:50,120 and immediately claims her from the Aleppo orphanage 629 00:39:50,120 --> 00:39:52,910 and pays for her passage to America. 630 00:39:52,910 --> 00:39:56,340 - My aunt had seven children. 631 00:39:56,340 --> 00:39:58,783 Her husband made $25. 632 00:39:59,640 --> 00:40:01,730 And she bring me here. 633 00:40:01,730 --> 00:40:05,713 That cost them perhaps, three, $400 for me to come here. 634 00:40:07,672 --> 00:40:10,183 And later she married me. 635 00:40:11,539 --> 00:40:12,853 And then I had my children. 636 00:40:15,463 --> 00:40:18,503 And that's life, that's life. 637 00:40:20,520 --> 00:40:22,170 Almas Bogossian is considered 638 00:40:22,170 --> 00:40:24,940 to be one of the lucky Armenian Genocide orphans 639 00:40:24,940 --> 00:40:28,890 who survived the horrors and atrocities of the genocide. 640 00:40:28,890 --> 00:40:32,570 Living in America, 5,000 miles away from her ancestral home 641 00:40:32,570 --> 00:40:34,840 of Western Armenia where she was driven out of, 642 00:40:34,840 --> 00:40:38,340 Almas started a family and raised three children 643 00:40:38,340 --> 00:40:41,670 who went on to complete post graduate education. 644 00:40:41,670 --> 00:40:43,910 She lived to enjoy her eight grandchildren 645 00:40:43,910 --> 00:40:46,613 who made her a proud great grandmother of six. 646 00:40:55,290 --> 00:40:58,830 - The number of orphans was so large, 647 00:40:58,830 --> 00:41:01,530 that they would become really the basis 648 00:41:01,530 --> 00:41:03,030 of the new Armenian society 649 00:41:03,030 --> 00:41:06,380 in places like Aleppo and in Beirut. 650 00:41:06,380 --> 00:41:09,230 Armenian relief was an incredibly important aspect 651 00:41:09,230 --> 00:41:14,006 of America's relationship with the Middle East 652 00:41:14,006 --> 00:41:15,890 and entire organizations, 653 00:41:15,890 --> 00:41:17,140 Near East Relief being the most important one, 654 00:41:17,140 --> 00:41:20,070 but also the International Red Cross, 655 00:41:20,070 --> 00:41:23,260 that Americans were at the forefront 656 00:41:23,260 --> 00:41:27,413 of providing relief to Armenian victims of genocide. 657 00:41:28,730 --> 00:41:30,400 Robert Elliot Wirt Junior, 658 00:41:30,400 --> 00:41:33,840 a U.S. Special Forces Green Beret who has served his country 659 00:41:33,840 --> 00:41:35,090 in Central America, 660 00:41:35,090 --> 00:41:37,860 is the great, grandson of congregational minister, 661 00:41:37,860 --> 00:41:41,110 Loyal Lincoln Wirt who started a worldwide campaign 662 00:41:41,110 --> 00:41:42,910 for Near East Relief fundraisers 663 00:41:42,910 --> 00:41:46,660 for genocide stricken Armenians in Ottoman Turkey. 664 00:41:46,660 --> 00:41:48,650 - At the end of the First World War, 665 00:41:48,650 --> 00:41:52,520 Loyal had been a captain in the American Red Cross 666 00:41:52,520 --> 00:41:57,520 in the European theater and he came back to America, 667 00:41:57,560 --> 00:41:59,820 was recruited by Dr. Barton 668 00:41:59,820 --> 00:42:02,300 of the Congregational Mission there, 669 00:42:02,300 --> 00:42:07,180 to head up a relief effort to Turkey, 670 00:42:07,180 --> 00:42:12,070 which was being gathered under the auspices 671 00:42:12,070 --> 00:42:15,290 of Near East Relief, which is a church relief group 672 00:42:15,290 --> 00:42:18,270 that was set up and was chartered and authorized 673 00:42:18,270 --> 00:42:21,110 by the U.S. Congress at about that time, 674 00:42:21,110 --> 00:42:23,053 under Woodrow Wilson. 675 00:42:24,070 --> 00:42:25,930 Loyal Lincoln Wirt was commissioned 676 00:42:25,930 --> 00:42:28,260 to lead the first shipment of relief supplies 677 00:42:28,260 --> 00:42:30,470 from New York to Constantinople, Turkey 678 00:42:30,470 --> 00:42:32,840 aboard the vessel SS Pensacola. 679 00:42:32,840 --> 00:42:37,650 The 10,000 ton vessel set sail on January 25, 1919, 680 00:42:37,650 --> 00:42:39,860 carrying 100 automobiles, 681 00:42:39,860 --> 00:42:42,870 scores of necessary relief equipment and supplies 682 00:42:42,870 --> 00:42:46,030 and a group of 48 American volunteers. 683 00:42:46,030 --> 00:42:47,800 Loyal's mission marked the beginning 684 00:42:47,800 --> 00:42:50,383 of Near East Relief's herculean task. 685 00:42:52,030 --> 00:42:54,690 - They built, according to Loyal, 686 00:42:54,690 --> 00:42:59,690 approximately 212 orphanages from Istanbul to Aleppo 687 00:43:00,290 --> 00:43:01,363 down in Syria. 688 00:43:02,922 --> 00:43:05,172 And these were operated for a number of years 689 00:43:06,070 --> 00:43:10,160 until the children eventually gathered together 690 00:43:10,160 --> 00:43:14,410 approximately according to again Loyal's writings, 691 00:43:14,410 --> 00:43:17,090 approximately 200,000 children, 692 00:43:17,090 --> 00:43:20,210 the Armenian orphans which were left behind 693 00:43:20,210 --> 00:43:23,030 after their parents were had been murdered 694 00:43:23,030 --> 00:43:25,490 by the Ottoman Turks, during the war. 695 00:43:25,490 --> 00:43:29,886 And they were fed, clothed, educated 696 00:43:29,886 --> 00:43:34,080 and all of these locations that the Near East Relief set up 697 00:43:34,080 --> 00:43:37,240 for the Armenian orphanages, 698 00:43:37,240 --> 00:43:40,500 were under the protection of the U.S. government, 699 00:43:40,500 --> 00:43:43,360 and it didn't really take apparently, 700 00:43:43,360 --> 00:43:44,540 the posting of the troops, 701 00:43:44,540 --> 00:43:48,930 just the flying of the flag that the Turks would leave 702 00:43:48,930 --> 00:43:53,000 these locations alone and leave the Armenian orphans 703 00:43:53,000 --> 00:43:55,373 to their salvation in the orphanages. 704 00:43:56,370 --> 00:43:59,190 In his memoirs, the "World is my Parish," 705 00:43:59,190 --> 00:44:01,230 Loyal writes how he witnessed the arrest 706 00:44:01,230 --> 00:44:03,940 of Ismael Hakki Bey in Karahisar 707 00:44:03,940 --> 00:44:07,137 while transporting Armenian refugees to Aleppo. 708 00:44:07,137 --> 00:44:10,357 - "Ismael Bey was the Turkish Director of Deportations 709 00:44:10,357 --> 00:44:13,417 "at Aleppo, before the city was captured by the British. 710 00:44:13,417 --> 00:44:16,977 "Before their arrival he fled into the interior. 711 00:44:16,977 --> 00:44:19,227 "The regimental interpreter was standing near him 712 00:44:19,227 --> 00:44:22,447 "and I asked him what the crowd was saying. 713 00:44:22,447 --> 00:44:23,777 "He replied that their language 714 00:44:23,777 --> 00:44:26,333 "was more forcible than elegant, 715 00:44:27,197 --> 00:44:31,287 "but not more so than the old scoundrel deserved. 716 00:44:31,287 --> 00:44:33,297 "One was crying, 'Look at me, look at me, 717 00:44:33,297 --> 00:44:34,917 "'you have not forgotten me, 718 00:44:34,917 --> 00:44:38,757 "'I am the man who paid you 600 pound sterling at Mersin, 719 00:44:38,757 --> 00:44:40,047 "'you promised me exemption 720 00:44:40,047 --> 00:44:41,987 "'and then you deported me to the desert.' 721 00:44:41,987 --> 00:44:46,257 "Another shouted, 'You called yourself protector. 722 00:44:46,257 --> 00:44:49,117 "'You said pay me and I will save you and we believed you. 723 00:44:49,117 --> 00:44:49,950 "'We paid you plenty 724 00:44:49,950 --> 00:44:52,837 "'then you sent 40,000 of us to the desert. 725 00:44:52,837 --> 00:44:55,997 "'Most of us died of disease and starvation. 726 00:44:55,997 --> 00:44:57,977 "Still others heaped maledictions 727 00:44:57,977 --> 00:44:59,853 "on the prisoners in the head. 728 00:45:01,168 --> 00:45:03,067 "'You sent 300 orphans to a train, 729 00:45:03,067 --> 00:45:05,467 "'saying they were going to a happy orphanage. 730 00:45:05,467 --> 00:45:09,083 "'Then you set fire to that train and the children perished. 731 00:45:10,077 --> 00:45:11,687 "'You though you left no witness 732 00:45:11,687 --> 00:45:15,047 "'but I escaped to accuse you.' 733 00:45:15,047 --> 00:45:18,417 "Ismael Hakki Bey had a fair trial, 734 00:45:18,417 --> 00:45:20,827 "but the evidence against him was overwhelming. 735 00:45:20,827 --> 00:45:23,497 "The verdict was execution by hanging. 736 00:45:23,497 --> 00:45:27,400 "But as a military officer he was privileged to be shot. 737 00:45:37,320 --> 00:45:39,300 Child star actor, Jackie Coogan, 738 00:45:39,300 --> 00:45:40,310 who played an orphan 739 00:45:40,310 --> 00:45:44,160 in Charlie Chaplin's 1921 silent movie "The Kid," 740 00:45:44,160 --> 00:45:47,520 was commissioned by the American Near East Relief Foundation 741 00:45:47,520 --> 00:45:51,190 in 1924 to embarked on what became to be known 742 00:45:51,190 --> 00:45:52,930 as the the World's first celebrity 743 00:45:52,930 --> 00:45:55,810 humanitarian fundraising campaign. 744 00:45:55,810 --> 00:45:58,800 Coogan's fundraiser for the Armenian Genocide orphans 745 00:45:58,800 --> 00:46:01,710 was endorsed by the dairy product giant Nestle 746 00:46:01,710 --> 00:46:06,200 and raised $1 million for providing necessary food supplies. 747 00:46:06,200 --> 00:46:09,840 In this rare film, Jackie Coogan visits Detroit, Michigan 748 00:46:09,840 --> 00:46:12,010 as one of his stops for his fundraiser 749 00:46:12,010 --> 00:46:15,210 and eventually in October of 1924 travels 750 00:46:15,210 --> 00:46:18,190 across the Atlantic to deliver the humanitarian shipment 751 00:46:18,190 --> 00:46:21,260 to Armenian and Greek orphans in Athens. 752 00:46:21,260 --> 00:46:24,733 Jackie Coogan was honored by His Holiness Pope Pius XI, 753 00:46:25,573 --> 00:46:30,150 who in 1922 had saved 400 Armenian Genocide orphan girls 754 00:46:30,150 --> 00:46:32,970 from Constantinople bringing them safety 755 00:46:32,970 --> 00:46:35,893 to the city of Castel Gandolfo in Rome. 756 00:46:37,690 --> 00:46:40,440 During a 1923 visit to Jerusalem, 757 00:46:40,440 --> 00:46:44,140 Emperor Hailee Selassie of Ethiopia was so very impressed 758 00:46:44,140 --> 00:46:46,380 by the performance of a brass band 759 00:46:46,380 --> 00:46:47,430 that when he was informed 760 00:46:47,430 --> 00:46:48,630 that its members were orphans 761 00:46:48,630 --> 00:46:51,899 of the Armenian Massacres, he offered to adopt them all 762 00:46:51,899 --> 00:46:55,560 and brought them back with him to Addis Ababa. 763 00:46:55,560 --> 00:46:57,680 Soon, the 40 Armenian orphans formed 764 00:46:57,680 --> 00:46:59,940 the Imperial Band of Ethiopia. 765 00:46:59,940 --> 00:47:01,950 And their conductor, Kevork Nalbandian, 766 00:47:01,950 --> 00:47:04,563 composed the Ethiopian National anthem. 767 00:47:06,490 --> 00:47:09,840 In 1931, at the emperor's coronation, 768 00:47:09,840 --> 00:47:12,930 the brass band refused to play the Turkish Anthem 769 00:47:12,930 --> 00:47:15,287 as the Turkish delegation arrived. 770 00:47:15,287 --> 00:47:19,120 "They killed our fathers how can we play their anthem?" 771 00:47:19,120 --> 00:47:20,928 the band members reasoned. 772 00:47:40,070 --> 00:47:43,080 One of the largest Armenian Orphan relief initiatives 773 00:47:43,080 --> 00:47:45,952 launched by the American Near East Relief Foundation, 774 00:47:45,952 --> 00:47:47,190 was the management 775 00:47:47,190 --> 00:47:49,900 of the world's largest genocide orphan relief 776 00:47:49,900 --> 00:47:51,770 in the city of Alexandrapole, 777 00:47:51,770 --> 00:47:55,130 modern day city of Gyumri, in Armenia. 778 00:47:55,130 --> 00:47:57,210 - Alexandrapole was the place 779 00:47:57,210 --> 00:48:00,870 for mass concentration of orphanages. 780 00:48:00,870 --> 00:48:04,050 That's why the main three orphanages 781 00:48:04,050 --> 00:48:08,573 in Alexandrapole were called Orphan Cities. 782 00:48:24,830 --> 00:48:26,000 One of the orphanages 783 00:48:26,000 --> 00:48:30,000 in Alexandrapole was housed in 75 such stone buildings, 784 00:48:30,000 --> 00:48:32,463 once used as Russian Imperial barracks. 785 00:48:36,810 --> 00:48:38,430 About 90 years ago, 786 00:48:38,430 --> 00:48:41,470 thousands of Armenian orphans assembled in this field, 787 00:48:41,470 --> 00:48:43,463 for their daily exercise routine. 788 00:48:54,100 --> 00:48:57,600 22,000 Armenian orphans were cared for by American, 789 00:48:57,600 --> 00:49:00,913 European and Armenian relief workers in Alexandrapole. 790 00:49:08,680 --> 00:49:12,440 - We have hundreds of photos shot 791 00:49:12,440 --> 00:49:15,170 by Near East Relief personnel showing 792 00:49:15,170 --> 00:49:17,100 what kind of humanitarian activity, 793 00:49:17,100 --> 00:49:19,820 orphan care activities were organized 794 00:49:19,820 --> 00:49:23,163 in Alexandrapole, in 1920's. 795 00:49:24,050 --> 00:49:26,304 The orphanage had its own hospital operated 796 00:49:26,304 --> 00:49:30,050 by trained medical staff with scores of medical doctors 797 00:49:30,050 --> 00:49:33,350 and nurses providing professional patient care. 798 00:49:33,350 --> 00:49:35,580 They even had their own ambulatory system 799 00:49:35,580 --> 00:49:38,050 for patient transportation. 800 00:49:38,050 --> 00:49:40,190 In addition to academic education, 801 00:49:40,190 --> 00:49:41,950 the Armenian children were trained 802 00:49:41,950 --> 00:49:44,435 in the arts, crafts and trades. 803 00:49:52,150 --> 00:49:54,230 The orphanage had its own musical bands 804 00:49:54,230 --> 00:49:57,450 and organized concerts as well as theatrical groups 805 00:49:57,450 --> 00:49:59,340 that put on performances. 806 00:49:59,340 --> 00:50:01,560 While older girls helped out in the kitchen 807 00:50:01,560 --> 00:50:03,580 and attended embroidery classes, 808 00:50:03,580 --> 00:50:05,230 the boys learned about gardening, 809 00:50:05,230 --> 00:50:07,900 shoemaking and auto-mechanics. 810 00:50:07,900 --> 00:50:10,470 One of the children, a 14-year-old orphan, 811 00:50:10,470 --> 00:50:13,423 built a small automobile that really operated. 812 00:50:14,490 --> 00:50:16,760 Both, boys and girls were taught to knit 813 00:50:16,760 --> 00:50:20,270 their own winter stockings for the harsh Caucasian weather. 814 00:50:20,270 --> 00:50:22,800 They were also taught to mend their own clothing, 815 00:50:22,800 --> 00:50:24,903 but still found time for play. 816 00:50:26,490 --> 00:50:29,493 Even the nurses took respite from their hectic schedule. 817 00:50:30,830 --> 00:50:34,900 In 1920, Vahan Cheraz, a native of Constantinople, 818 00:50:34,900 --> 00:50:37,010 founded the first Armenian athletic 819 00:50:37,010 --> 00:50:40,050 and scouting organization in Alexandrapole. 820 00:50:40,050 --> 00:50:43,310 The group organized soccer teams, athletics programs, 821 00:50:43,310 --> 00:50:47,440 and many other sports competitions involving the orphans. 822 00:50:47,440 --> 00:50:49,230 All necessary measures were taken 823 00:50:49,230 --> 00:50:52,820 to make the Armenian Genocide orphans feel at home. 824 00:50:52,820 --> 00:50:55,863 They were provided toys, allowed to have pets, 825 00:50:57,000 --> 00:50:59,113 they even had an outdoor hair salon. 826 00:51:00,400 --> 00:51:03,093 And were showered with motherly love and care. 827 00:51:09,770 --> 00:51:11,640 Alexandrapole was the capital 828 00:51:11,640 --> 00:51:14,070 of Shirak Province in Armenia. 829 00:51:14,070 --> 00:51:16,900 The Governor, Garo Sassouni was very instrumental 830 00:51:16,900 --> 00:51:20,300 in the Armenian Genocide orphan relief efforts. 831 00:51:20,300 --> 00:51:25,300 - My father, along with other duties was able 832 00:51:26,590 --> 00:51:31,590 to save many orphans 833 00:51:31,630 --> 00:51:34,020 by paying Kurds 834 00:51:35,222 --> 00:51:38,670 delivering the orphans to their organization. 835 00:51:38,670 --> 00:51:43,670 That's where you will find a group of orphans 836 00:51:46,240 --> 00:51:49,240 with my mother Leyola Sassouni, 837 00:51:49,240 --> 00:51:52,520 doing some physical exercises 838 00:51:52,520 --> 00:51:54,893 on one of the hills of Khunous. 839 00:51:55,990 --> 00:51:58,330 Garo Sassouni's wife, Leyola Sassouni, 840 00:51:58,330 --> 00:52:00,560 a graduate of the American Robert College 841 00:52:00,560 --> 00:52:03,910 in Constantinople served as the administrative translator 842 00:52:03,910 --> 00:52:06,510 for Near East Relief in Alexandrapole. 843 00:52:06,510 --> 00:52:09,230 - My father was also instrumental 844 00:52:09,230 --> 00:52:14,190 in bringing large 845 00:52:15,840 --> 00:52:18,650 segment of the population 846 00:52:18,650 --> 00:52:21,650 of Daron, Van, Erzunga and Alashgerd 847 00:52:23,300 --> 00:52:25,570 to Eastern Armenia 848 00:52:25,570 --> 00:52:30,160 and many orphans were walking 849 00:52:30,160 --> 00:52:35,160 with about 100,000 or some say about 300,000 population 850 00:52:36,240 --> 00:52:39,720 from that region to Eastern Armenia 851 00:52:39,720 --> 00:52:43,363 and primarily through Alexandrapole. 852 00:52:44,340 --> 00:52:46,110 Later, the Sassuni's continued 853 00:52:46,110 --> 00:52:47,330 their orphan relief efforts 854 00:52:47,330 --> 00:52:50,280 in Aleppo, Syria and Beirut, Lebanon. 855 00:52:50,280 --> 00:52:53,520 Today, one of the chapter of the Armenian Relief Society, 856 00:52:53,520 --> 00:52:55,540 based in Watertown, Massachusetts, 857 00:52:55,540 --> 00:52:57,453 is named after Leyola Sassouni. 858 00:52:58,720 --> 00:53:00,263 - The rescue movement was an attempt 859 00:53:00,263 --> 00:53:04,860 to locate, find and retrieve these young people, 860 00:53:04,860 --> 00:53:07,840 who now in many cases had gone through adolescence 861 00:53:07,840 --> 00:53:10,270 and were adults, who wanted to be found 862 00:53:10,270 --> 00:53:13,483 and wanted to come back to the Armenian community. 863 00:53:14,440 --> 00:53:16,230 It wasn't just that international organizations 864 00:53:16,230 --> 00:53:17,650 that did this of course, 865 00:53:17,650 --> 00:53:19,700 the first and most important rescues were affected 866 00:53:19,700 --> 00:53:21,720 by Armenians themselves. 867 00:53:21,720 --> 00:53:25,220 The AGBU, Armenian General Benevolent Union, 868 00:53:25,220 --> 00:53:28,190 established in 1906 in Cairo, Egypt 869 00:53:28,190 --> 00:53:31,200 and the ARS, Armenian Relief Society, 870 00:53:31,200 --> 00:53:34,290 at times referred to as the Armenian Red Cross, 871 00:53:34,290 --> 00:53:38,300 established in New York, in 1910, played a momentous role 872 00:53:38,300 --> 00:53:41,230 in locating and rescuing Armenian orphans 873 00:53:41,230 --> 00:53:44,410 including those who were forcefully converted into Muslims, 874 00:53:44,410 --> 00:53:47,100 or roaming aimlessly in the Syrian dessert, 875 00:53:47,100 --> 00:53:49,010 and still others who were adopted 876 00:53:49,010 --> 00:53:51,220 by friendly Muslim families. 877 00:53:51,220 --> 00:53:54,126 Both organizations were instrumental 878 00:53:54,126 --> 00:53:55,140 in providing the genocide orphans 879 00:53:55,140 --> 00:53:58,640 with desperately needed physical, mental and spiritual care 880 00:53:58,640 --> 00:54:01,930 by starting soup kitchens, clinics, kindergartens, 881 00:54:01,930 --> 00:54:04,963 workshops, skill centers and Bible schools. 882 00:54:05,900 --> 00:54:09,000 Armenian organizations and church groups collaborated 883 00:54:09,000 --> 00:54:11,130 in administering scores of orphanages 884 00:54:11,130 --> 00:54:14,950 in Constantinople, Eastern Anatolia, Jerusalem, 885 00:54:14,950 --> 00:54:18,610 Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and many other locations, 886 00:54:18,610 --> 00:54:21,120 with financial assistance from United States, 887 00:54:21,120 --> 00:54:24,393 Europe and as far as Australia and Japan. 888 00:55:09,880 --> 00:55:11,640 Mampre and Myriam Shirinian, 889 00:55:11,640 --> 00:55:12,473 who look like 890 00:55:12,473 --> 00:55:14,670 an average hard-working Canadian immigrant couple 891 00:55:14,670 --> 00:55:17,480 in this photo, were in fact two Armenian orphans 892 00:55:17,480 --> 00:55:20,170 of the genocide, who met and started a family 893 00:55:20,170 --> 00:55:23,720 thousands of miles away from their ancestral homeland. 894 00:55:23,720 --> 00:55:25,690 Mampre was a Georgetown boy 895 00:55:25,690 --> 00:55:27,783 and Myriam was a Georgetown girl. 896 00:55:28,630 --> 00:55:32,653 - The Georgetown Boys endeavor was very important. 897 00:55:33,690 --> 00:55:36,290 The Armenian Relief Association of Canada 898 00:55:36,290 --> 00:55:41,290 raised public funds and these funds were raised 899 00:55:42,030 --> 00:55:44,750 for the Armenian children. 900 00:55:44,750 --> 00:55:48,340 The purpose was to bring these children to Canada, 901 00:55:48,340 --> 00:55:53,340 to settle them on a farm home school 902 00:55:53,960 --> 00:55:58,460 in Ontario, and to maintain those children, 903 00:55:58,460 --> 00:56:01,442 each of those children, for five years. 904 00:56:06,938 --> 00:56:09,160 In 1924, Mampre Shirinian was brought 905 00:56:09,160 --> 00:56:10,820 to Georgetown Boys Farmhouse 906 00:56:10,820 --> 00:56:13,000 in Cedervale, Ontario, Canada, 907 00:56:13,000 --> 00:56:16,730 by the efforts of the Armenian Relief Association of Canada. 908 00:56:16,730 --> 00:56:21,730 - He remembers his father who was taken away 909 00:56:21,830 --> 00:56:26,120 in a labor battalion and killed, 910 00:56:26,120 --> 00:56:27,903 before the genocide started. 911 00:56:28,804 --> 00:56:30,810 Miryam Mazmanian from Harput, Turkey, 912 00:56:30,810 --> 00:56:34,310 orphaned at the age of two and her brother were also brought 913 00:56:34,310 --> 00:56:36,473 to Canada by way of Corfu, Greece. 914 00:56:37,340 --> 00:56:41,050 - She remembers the day that her brother came running to her 915 00:56:41,050 --> 00:56:45,360 as she was playing in the yard outside her home. 916 00:56:45,360 --> 00:56:46,937 Grabbed her by the hand and pulled and said, 917 00:56:46,937 --> 00:56:48,567 "Run, the soldiers are coming." 918 00:56:49,680 --> 00:56:52,010 She never saw home or parents again. 919 00:56:52,010 --> 00:56:54,630 My dad told me a recollection 920 00:56:54,630 --> 00:56:58,160 of when he was on the deportations. 921 00:56:58,160 --> 00:57:02,720 He remembers, his brother, Kevork, 922 00:57:02,720 --> 00:57:06,510 after whom I'm named, dying of pneumonia. 923 00:57:06,510 --> 00:57:10,363 - And my father having lost everybody, 924 00:57:11,920 --> 00:57:14,100 moved from family to family 925 00:57:14,100 --> 00:57:17,630 and he would join with other orphaned boys 926 00:57:17,630 --> 00:57:19,820 when they'd pass through a town. 927 00:57:19,820 --> 00:57:21,180 And one trick they would have, 928 00:57:21,180 --> 00:57:23,610 they'd do go to the local granary 929 00:57:23,610 --> 00:57:25,740 and they would pretend to get in a fight, 930 00:57:25,740 --> 00:57:28,540 and they would throw each other on the grain pile 931 00:57:28,540 --> 00:57:30,610 and stuff their pockets full of grain 932 00:57:30,610 --> 00:57:32,440 that they would take back to the mother 933 00:57:32,440 --> 00:57:34,010 who was looking after them 934 00:57:34,010 --> 00:57:38,080 and this would allow her to make some food or some bread. 935 00:57:38,080 --> 00:57:41,580 - A group of Turkish soldiers saw him begging for food, 936 00:57:41,580 --> 00:57:45,080 recognized him as an Armenian and called him over 937 00:57:45,080 --> 00:57:46,580 and said they'll give him food 938 00:57:47,853 --> 00:57:49,954 if he let them circumcise him 939 00:57:49,954 --> 00:57:53,260 and convert him into Muslim on the spot. 940 00:57:53,260 --> 00:57:56,460 In 1936, Mampre, a Georgetown boy 941 00:57:56,460 --> 00:57:59,030 and Miryam, a Georgetown girl get married 942 00:57:59,030 --> 00:58:02,000 and settle in Ontario, Canada, start a business, 943 00:58:02,000 --> 00:58:04,020 raise two sons Lorne and George, 944 00:58:04,020 --> 00:58:06,984 who both excelled as academicians. 945 00:58:13,320 --> 00:58:15,950 Sarkis Sarkissian was another Georgetown boy 946 00:58:15,950 --> 00:58:20,350 who lost his parents in 1915 in Harput at age two. 947 00:58:20,350 --> 00:58:24,150 His grandmother took custody of Sarkis and his sister Nuver, 948 00:58:24,150 --> 00:58:26,220 but as her health began to fail 949 00:58:26,220 --> 00:58:29,100 she turned the children over to an orphanage. 950 00:58:29,100 --> 00:58:32,310 - His grandmother put him and his sister 951 00:58:32,310 --> 00:58:34,763 in an orphanage in Adana, 952 00:58:35,730 --> 00:58:40,730 and they stayed there for two to three years, 953 00:58:41,084 --> 00:58:44,960 then they were taken to the island of Cyprus 954 00:58:44,960 --> 00:58:48,120 to another orphanage and they were there 955 00:58:48,120 --> 00:58:49,990 for another two years, 956 00:58:49,990 --> 00:58:54,880 and then they were shipped to the Greek Island of Corfu. 957 00:58:54,880 --> 00:58:56,880 Eventually Sarkis was separated 958 00:58:56,880 --> 00:58:59,420 from his sister, Nuver, and taken to Canada 959 00:58:59,420 --> 00:59:01,670 as a Georgetown boy where he excelled 960 00:59:01,670 --> 00:59:03,740 in agricultural husbandry. 961 00:59:03,740 --> 00:59:05,923 - It's probably be this field right here, 962 00:59:06,850 --> 00:59:10,770 was all wet and marshy. 963 00:59:10,770 --> 00:59:15,180 And they gave the boys each a plot, 964 00:59:15,180 --> 00:59:18,800 and they had to tile drain this, this land. 965 00:59:18,800 --> 00:59:20,610 I'm sure if you dug down, 966 00:59:20,610 --> 00:59:22,860 you'd probably find the tiles are still here. 967 00:59:23,840 --> 00:59:27,070 Each boy had to dig a certain amount of trench, 968 00:59:27,070 --> 00:59:31,000 to put the tiles in to drain this field 969 00:59:31,000 --> 00:59:34,018 and each had a plot where they could grow a garden. 970 00:59:36,860 --> 00:59:38,540 Upon leaving Georgetown, 971 00:59:38,540 --> 00:59:40,520 Sarkis started a farming business, 972 00:59:40,520 --> 00:59:42,173 and after meeting Ann Popiel, 973 00:59:42,173 --> 00:59:45,560 a Canadian of Ukrainian descent, started a family. 974 00:59:45,560 --> 00:59:49,600 In 1938, Sarkis received word that his sister Nuver, 975 00:59:49,600 --> 00:59:52,750 the only family relation was alive and well, 976 00:59:52,750 --> 00:59:55,710 and employed as a nurse at the Scot Mission Hospital 977 00:59:55,710 --> 00:59:57,750 in Tiberias, Palestine. 978 00:59:57,750 --> 01:00:00,190 Sarkis contacts Nuver immediately 979 01:00:00,190 --> 01:00:02,440 and soon she joins him in Canada. 980 01:00:02,440 --> 01:00:04,060 - After letters and going 981 01:00:04,060 --> 01:00:07,110 through different political channels and all that stuff, 982 01:00:07,110 --> 01:00:10,253 he finally got her permission to come to Canada. 983 01:00:11,480 --> 01:00:15,110 And I can remember what we used to be called Multon Airport 984 01:00:15,110 --> 01:00:18,970 and she came in on this big Tristar, 985 01:00:18,970 --> 01:00:23,130 motor driven airplane and she got off the plane 986 01:00:23,130 --> 01:00:25,533 and well it was a very, 987 01:00:35,170 --> 01:00:38,410 sorry, but a very emotional reunion. 988 01:00:43,180 --> 01:00:44,860 After settling in Toronto, 989 01:00:44,860 --> 01:00:49,690 Nuver met and married Levon Vassoyan another Georgetown boy. 990 01:00:49,690 --> 01:00:54,120 - I can remember going to her wedding 991 01:00:54,120 --> 01:00:59,120 and another one of the Georgetown boys was their best man 992 01:01:00,230 --> 01:01:03,293 and his name was Mampre Shirinian. 993 01:01:05,140 --> 01:01:10,140 - There was a moment in Georgetown 994 01:01:10,350 --> 01:01:15,350 when the zeal to make the young orphans Canadians rapidly 995 01:01:17,170 --> 01:01:18,963 perhaps went a little too far. 996 01:01:19,970 --> 01:01:24,970 - So when the Armenian Relief Association of Canada 997 01:01:25,500 --> 01:01:27,760 changed the names of those children, 998 01:01:27,760 --> 01:01:31,773 anglicized them in the name of their sponsors, 999 01:01:33,846 --> 01:01:36,330 that was the connection. 1000 01:01:36,330 --> 01:01:40,490 The sponsors had given certain amounts of money 1001 01:01:40,490 --> 01:01:42,790 and were gonna continue that kind of money 1002 01:01:42,790 --> 01:01:45,030 for these children and it was at that point 1003 01:01:45,030 --> 01:01:49,100 that the children objected to having their names changed, 1004 01:01:49,100 --> 01:01:51,980 because that was the only thing 1005 01:01:51,980 --> 01:01:54,930 they came with was their names. 1006 01:01:54,930 --> 01:01:59,930 - So they told the boys, they had a meeting and said, 1007 01:02:00,377 --> 01:02:01,880 "We're gonna change your names," 1008 01:02:01,880 --> 01:02:04,200 and they even drew a list of what their names would be. 1009 01:02:04,200 --> 01:02:07,170 For example, my father Mampre Shirinian, 1010 01:02:07,170 --> 01:02:10,420 they said he was going to be Paul Oliver 1011 01:02:10,420 --> 01:02:12,960 and my father shook his head 1012 01:02:12,960 --> 01:02:15,660 and there was no rhyme or reason 1013 01:02:15,660 --> 01:02:19,620 to why it should be Paul Oliver and they were similar cases. 1014 01:02:19,620 --> 01:02:22,860 The boys in effect revolted. 1015 01:02:22,860 --> 01:02:27,500 - And all these young boys gathered together 1016 01:02:27,500 --> 01:02:30,480 and made a delegation to the leadership of the orphanage 1017 01:02:31,650 --> 01:02:33,320 and they begged to be able 1018 01:02:33,320 --> 01:02:35,403 to keep their original Armenian names. 1019 01:02:36,850 --> 01:02:38,960 They did not want to appear ungrateful 1020 01:02:38,960 --> 01:02:42,130 but, they said these names have no meaning to us. 1021 01:02:42,130 --> 01:02:44,020 But we've lost our mothers, 1022 01:02:44,020 --> 01:02:46,343 our fathers and friends and home. 1023 01:02:48,298 --> 01:02:52,087 Please let us keep our Armenian names. 1024 01:02:52,087 --> 01:02:56,660 - And in this way the administrators relented 1025 01:02:56,660 --> 01:02:59,230 and the boys were allowed to keep their names. 1026 01:02:59,230 --> 01:03:02,263 A memory of their parents they never saw again. 1027 01:03:04,960 --> 01:03:07,330 - I have mixed emotions of sadness, 1028 01:03:07,330 --> 01:03:10,740 because the Georgetown Boys Farm had to be established 1029 01:03:10,740 --> 01:03:15,477 and was established to look after 109 orphans of boys 1030 01:03:15,477 --> 01:03:19,240 and 29 orphan girls that had to come to a new land, 1031 01:03:19,240 --> 01:03:22,140 who knew nothing about the language or the culture, 1032 01:03:22,140 --> 01:03:24,890 but were put in the position that they were in. 1033 01:03:24,890 --> 01:03:28,470 But I have mixed emotions of celebration today, 1034 01:03:28,470 --> 01:03:30,050 because they were survivors 1035 01:03:30,050 --> 01:03:33,170 and this picture right here in front of all of us, 1036 01:03:33,170 --> 01:03:35,940 in any future printings of a dictionary 1037 01:03:35,940 --> 01:03:37,800 besides the word survivor, 1038 01:03:37,800 --> 01:03:39,690 every dictionary should have a picture 1039 01:03:39,690 --> 01:03:41,329 of the Georgetown Boys. 1040 01:03:49,620 --> 01:03:52,080 On June 27, 2011, 1041 01:03:52,080 --> 01:03:54,120 the provincial plaque was erected at the site 1042 01:03:54,120 --> 01:03:56,060 by the Ontario Heritage Trust, 1043 01:03:56,060 --> 01:03:57,960 further immortalizing the memory 1044 01:03:57,960 --> 01:04:01,480 of the 109 Armenian Genocide orphans rescued 1045 01:04:01,480 --> 01:04:04,320 by the Canadian relief efforts marking this 1046 01:04:04,320 --> 01:04:07,583 as Canada's first ever humanitarian undertaking of its kind. 1047 01:04:22,740 --> 01:04:25,550 A recently uncovered authentic Ottoman document, 1048 01:04:25,550 --> 01:04:28,700 issued on August 30, 1915, 1049 01:04:28,700 --> 01:04:31,300 dispatched by the Ottoman Interior Ministry 1050 01:04:31,300 --> 01:04:34,620 to the vice governor of Ankara, reads as follows: 1051 01:04:34,620 --> 01:04:36,740 The existence of Armenian children 1052 01:04:36,740 --> 01:04:39,630 in official institutions is not appropriate. 1053 01:04:39,630 --> 01:04:41,860 Therefore, the remaining ones should be divided 1054 01:04:41,860 --> 01:04:43,490 among Islamic villages. 1055 01:04:43,490 --> 01:04:45,453 Signed Interior Minister, Talat. 1056 01:04:47,070 --> 01:04:48,570 According to another document, 1057 01:04:48,570 --> 01:04:52,840 issued on September 22, 1915, dispatched in Ankara, 1058 01:04:52,840 --> 01:04:55,473 and signed by deputy governor Atef, 1059 01:04:55,473 --> 01:04:59,420 1,426 Armenian children were ordered 1060 01:04:59,420 --> 01:05:02,290 to be absorbed by Islamic Institutions. 1061 01:05:02,290 --> 01:05:07,100 - 1,450 orphans in Ankara, today's capital of Turkey, 1062 01:05:07,100 --> 01:05:08,810 back, right after the genocide, 1063 01:05:08,810 --> 01:05:11,310 according to Ottoman documents written 1064 01:05:11,310 --> 01:05:16,150 by Turkish government officials, that we have access to now. 1065 01:05:16,150 --> 01:05:18,050 According to those documents, 1066 01:05:18,050 --> 01:05:22,760 those 1,450 Armenian kids, young kids, were taken 1067 01:05:22,760 --> 01:05:24,290 and then distributed, 1068 01:05:24,290 --> 01:05:27,290 sent over to various Islamic institutions 1069 01:05:27,290 --> 01:05:30,000 the document says and as a result of course 1070 01:05:30,000 --> 01:05:32,070 when little, young kids are taken over 1071 01:05:32,070 --> 01:05:33,490 by Islamic institutions, 1072 01:05:33,490 --> 01:05:36,100 they are raised as Muslims, as Turks. 1073 01:05:36,100 --> 01:05:38,650 If you send an Armenian kids to an Islamic institution, 1074 01:05:38,650 --> 01:05:40,400 obviously the intent is to Islamize them, 1075 01:05:40,400 --> 01:05:42,910 so you also prove not only the act 1076 01:05:42,910 --> 01:05:44,490 but you prove the intent of the act, 1077 01:05:44,490 --> 01:05:47,050 the objective, the end result 1078 01:05:47,050 --> 01:05:50,110 of the act is to Islamize them. 1079 01:05:50,110 --> 01:05:54,510 - Under all international human rights laws, 1080 01:05:54,510 --> 01:05:56,623 which of course are frequently not obeyed, 1081 01:05:57,820 --> 01:06:01,370 to take a person out of their community 1082 01:06:01,370 --> 01:06:04,840 and turn them into another person is a crime 1083 01:06:04,840 --> 01:06:07,227 against humanity and is in deed an act of genocide 1084 01:06:07,227 --> 01:06:11,090 and the United Nations' documentation clearly shows that. 1085 01:06:11,090 --> 01:06:15,200 - Taking away Armenian children from families 1086 01:06:15,200 --> 01:06:18,480 and putting them either in orphanages 1087 01:06:18,480 --> 01:06:22,510 or within Turkish families and to assimilate them 1088 01:06:22,510 --> 01:06:25,020 into Islamic culture, into Turkish culture, 1089 01:06:25,020 --> 01:06:26,870 was a very structural element 1090 01:06:26,870 --> 01:06:31,870 and very important part of the genocidal process. 1091 01:06:32,160 --> 01:06:35,593 - What was happening was that, in effect, 1092 01:06:37,400 --> 01:06:42,400 the Turkish authorities were changing the identity 1093 01:06:42,490 --> 01:06:46,330 of Armenian children, who either had lost their parents 1094 01:06:46,330 --> 01:06:49,430 or whose parents were actually killed in the genocide 1095 01:06:49,430 --> 01:06:54,430 and these children were effectively being turned into Turks. 1096 01:06:55,520 --> 01:06:59,450 - Now they were in this very hostile environment 1097 01:06:59,450 --> 01:07:01,750 in the Turkish orphanages, 1098 01:07:01,750 --> 01:07:06,750 orphanages set up specially for collecting Armenian children 1099 01:07:07,250 --> 01:07:08,910 and Turkifying them. 1100 01:07:08,910 --> 01:07:10,420 And putting them through 1101 01:07:10,420 --> 01:07:13,530 a very strict regime of Turkification. 1102 01:07:13,530 --> 01:07:16,630 - Where they were, as was standard practice 1103 01:07:16,630 --> 01:07:18,370 in the Ottoman orphanages at that time, 1104 01:07:18,370 --> 01:07:22,140 if you were a Christian boy, you were circumcised 1105 01:07:22,140 --> 01:07:23,330 and given a Muslim name. 1106 01:07:23,330 --> 01:07:24,530 If you were an Armenian girl, 1107 01:07:24,530 --> 01:07:26,550 your name would have been changed to a Muslim name. 1108 01:07:26,550 --> 01:07:29,990 - And they forced them to become Muslim, 1109 01:07:29,990 --> 01:07:32,640 they were not allowed to speak Armenian. 1110 01:07:32,640 --> 01:07:35,300 They were often beaten, sometimes to death, 1111 01:07:35,300 --> 01:07:38,380 if they dared to maintained their Armenian identity. 1112 01:07:38,380 --> 01:07:43,223 - Armenian children between age five, six until 13, 1113 01:07:44,320 --> 01:07:47,170 gave them a wonderful opportunity, 1114 01:07:47,170 --> 01:07:50,920 because this was the age group that they thought 1115 01:07:50,920 --> 01:07:54,290 they could assimilate them easily 1116 01:07:54,290 --> 01:07:57,610 and then make them Turks. 1117 01:07:57,610 --> 01:08:02,610 - They strove to adopt themselves to this new environment, 1118 01:08:03,180 --> 01:08:06,890 but they weren't able to, because whatever they cherished, 1119 01:08:06,890 --> 01:08:09,410 their language, they heritage, 1120 01:08:09,410 --> 01:08:13,690 even small children was robbed out of them 1121 01:08:13,690 --> 01:08:18,340 and a new thing, something new was imposed on them. 1122 01:08:18,340 --> 01:08:20,680 - Ottoman authorities started 1123 01:08:20,680 --> 01:08:24,600 to implement these policies way before 1124 01:08:24,600 --> 01:08:28,213 they organized the actual deportations and killings. 1125 01:08:29,290 --> 01:08:31,600 They calculated that some 1126 01:08:31,600 --> 01:08:36,300 of the Armenian children would remain, 1127 01:08:36,300 --> 01:08:40,020 they won't be sent with their parents 1128 01:08:40,020 --> 01:08:43,630 and certain preparations were made 1129 01:08:43,630 --> 01:08:48,630 to keep these Armenian children either in form of orphanages 1130 01:08:49,110 --> 01:08:53,930 or in form of distributing them into Muslim families. 1131 01:08:53,930 --> 01:08:57,900 - We know that in Turkey itself, what is today Turkey, 1132 01:08:57,900 --> 01:09:02,770 there were orphanages opened for Turkish, and Kurdish, 1133 01:09:02,770 --> 01:09:05,210 in other words for Muslim orphans, 1134 01:09:05,210 --> 01:09:08,790 and as the genocide was unfolding, 1135 01:09:08,790 --> 01:09:11,860 the Turks also gathered Armenian orphans 1136 01:09:11,860 --> 01:09:15,580 and placed them in those Muslim orphanages, 1137 01:09:15,580 --> 01:09:19,170 and when you look at their statement after the war, 1138 01:09:19,170 --> 01:09:21,640 when certain parts of Anatolia were occupied 1139 01:09:21,640 --> 01:09:25,170 by the Allied Forces, the Turks began to say 1140 01:09:25,170 --> 01:09:30,170 that their mission was to shelter those Armenian orphans, 1141 01:09:30,830 --> 01:09:33,170 they did not differentiate 1142 01:09:33,170 --> 01:09:36,660 between an Armenian or a Christian and a Muslim. 1143 01:09:36,660 --> 01:09:39,590 - And when League of Nations observers would go 1144 01:09:39,590 --> 01:09:41,140 and visit those orphanages, 1145 01:09:41,140 --> 01:09:45,203 they would see list, long lists of names of Armenian kids, 1146 01:09:46,320 --> 01:09:48,533 Armenian children's names, Assadour, Hagop 1147 01:09:49,772 --> 01:09:50,650 that've been crossed out 1148 01:09:50,650 --> 01:09:53,723 and then replaced with Muslim names. 1149 01:09:54,821 --> 01:09:57,118 And so they understood that there was 1150 01:09:57,118 --> 01:10:00,170 a concerted, official, governmental process 1151 01:10:00,170 --> 01:10:04,130 to change Armenian children into Muslim Turkish children. 1152 01:10:09,250 --> 01:10:10,160 The result of one 1153 01:10:10,160 --> 01:10:12,920 of those concerted official governmental processes 1154 01:10:12,920 --> 01:10:15,790 was the creation of Antoura Orphanage spearheaded 1155 01:10:15,790 --> 01:10:19,473 by the commander of the 4th Ottoman Army, Ahmad Jemal Pasha. 1156 01:10:20,540 --> 01:10:22,610 - What Jemal Pasha was doing, in effect, 1157 01:10:22,610 --> 01:10:26,280 was killing the children's identity 1158 01:10:26,280 --> 01:10:27,900 by turning them into Turks. 1159 01:10:27,900 --> 01:10:32,900 Taking away their culture, their religion, their very names. 1160 01:10:33,260 --> 01:10:35,543 They were ceasing to exist as Armenians. 1161 01:10:36,860 --> 01:10:38,570 Probably not as cheap as killing them, 1162 01:10:38,570 --> 01:10:41,900 but mass killing in a place like Lebanon, 1163 01:10:41,900 --> 01:10:43,250 where it was a little bit more public 1164 01:10:43,250 --> 01:10:44,800 would have been more difficult. 1165 01:10:45,880 --> 01:10:47,650 Antoura, a small town nestled 1166 01:10:47,650 --> 01:10:50,640 between the cornucopia of the mediterranean turquoise 1167 01:10:50,640 --> 01:10:53,560 and the verdant pine forests of Mount Lebanon was 1168 01:10:53,560 --> 01:10:56,880 once home to 1,000 Armenian Genocide orphans 1169 01:10:56,880 --> 01:10:58,593 destined for Turkification. 1170 01:10:59,766 --> 01:11:02,860 Missak Kelechian, a silicon valley electrical engineer, 1171 01:11:02,860 --> 01:11:06,220 conducted thorough primary and secondary research 1172 01:11:06,220 --> 01:11:08,430 and was able to conclude that the building, 1173 01:11:08,430 --> 01:11:11,840 currently used by the Antoura Lazarite College in Lebanon 1174 01:11:11,840 --> 01:11:13,810 was once under the Ottoman rule 1175 01:11:13,810 --> 01:11:16,763 and a Turkification center for Armenian orphans. 1176 01:11:18,160 --> 01:11:21,570 - According to Antoura French College Archives, 1177 01:11:21,570 --> 01:11:24,200 there were 1,200 orphans. 1178 01:11:24,200 --> 01:11:27,980 200 of them being Kurds and Turks 1179 01:11:27,980 --> 01:11:31,000 and the rest, Armenian children. 1180 01:11:31,000 --> 01:11:33,883 There ages between three to 14 years old. 1181 01:11:34,955 --> 01:11:36,517 In March of 2010, 1182 01:11:36,517 --> 01:11:38,720 "The Independent" publishes an article penned 1183 01:11:38,720 --> 01:11:41,560 by the Award winning British journalist, Robert Fisk 1184 01:11:41,560 --> 01:11:45,570 under the title of "Living Proof of the Armenian Genocide." 1185 01:11:45,570 --> 01:11:48,270 In that article, Mr. Fisk provides details 1186 01:11:48,270 --> 01:11:50,028 of Mr. Kelechian's findings. 1187 01:11:50,028 --> 01:11:52,410 He describes how Mr. Kelechian was able 1188 01:11:52,410 --> 01:11:56,140 to trace a photo in a rare Book called, "Lions of Marash" 1189 01:11:56,140 --> 01:11:59,283 written by a Near East Relief officer, Stanley Kerr. 1190 01:12:00,640 --> 01:12:04,360 - This was the key element for my research, 1191 01:12:04,360 --> 01:12:07,580 because I looked for the French College of Antoura 1192 01:12:07,580 --> 01:12:11,590 in Lebanon and I did find the main entrance 1193 01:12:11,590 --> 01:12:14,040 and I was able to stand exactly 1194 01:12:14,040 --> 01:12:17,093 at the same spot where Jemal Pasha stood. 1195 01:12:18,620 --> 01:12:21,310 And it was an amazing discovery 1196 01:12:21,310 --> 01:12:25,400 to find the exact location where in 1916, 1197 01:12:25,400 --> 01:12:29,030 Commander of the Fourth Army in Syria, Jemal Pasha 1198 01:12:29,030 --> 01:12:31,960 with Halideh Edib, the director of the college 1199 01:12:31,960 --> 01:12:34,310 were standing side by side. 1200 01:12:34,310 --> 01:12:39,240 And here I am standing at the same exact position. 1201 01:12:39,240 --> 01:12:43,600 - What Missak did is, he found a location 1202 01:12:43,600 --> 01:12:45,327 and he found documents and he found photographs 1203 01:12:45,327 --> 01:12:46,630 and he put them all together. 1204 01:12:46,630 --> 01:12:49,363 So it became a real, a live issue. 1205 01:12:50,880 --> 01:12:54,910 You know, what was so significant about it is that, 1206 01:12:54,910 --> 01:12:57,060 you could talk to people who knew 1207 01:12:57,060 --> 01:12:59,420 where corpses of children were buried. 1208 01:12:59,420 --> 01:13:01,950 You could actually go to the place where they were buried. 1209 01:13:01,950 --> 01:13:04,450 You could see the church behind them. 1210 01:13:04,450 --> 01:13:07,490 You could the place where the Turks insisted 1211 01:13:07,490 --> 01:13:10,420 that Mouazin called the morning prayer 1212 01:13:10,420 --> 01:13:14,593 after Islamicizing the Christian college at Antoura. 1213 01:13:16,230 --> 01:13:17,230 According to journals 1214 01:13:17,230 --> 01:13:20,670 of the Lazarite fathers found at the Antoura orphanage, 1215 01:13:20,670 --> 01:13:22,430 the Turkification process called 1216 01:13:22,430 --> 01:13:25,510 for all male orphans to be circumcised. 1217 01:13:25,510 --> 01:13:27,950 All the orphans were taught the Turkish language 1218 01:13:27,950 --> 01:13:29,940 and cultural values in an effort 1219 01:13:29,940 --> 01:13:32,483 to strip them of their true cultural identity. 1220 01:13:35,700 --> 01:13:38,673 - Here again, we see a picture right at the entrance. 1221 01:13:39,920 --> 01:13:44,920 With lots of Turkish flags, all the Turkish dignitaries, 1222 01:13:45,460 --> 01:13:47,590 with Halideh Edib in the middle 1223 01:13:47,590 --> 01:13:50,890 and Fowzi Bey on her left hand side. 1224 01:13:50,890 --> 01:13:53,850 We also see flowers in front of the children, 1225 01:13:53,850 --> 01:13:56,850 trying to portray that this orphanage 1226 01:13:56,850 --> 01:13:59,343 was an excellent orphanage. 1227 01:14:00,330 --> 01:14:04,260 As you can see, both sides of the picture, 1228 01:14:04,260 --> 01:14:06,280 there are those arched windows 1229 01:14:07,410 --> 01:14:11,013 and right in the middle we can read 1898. 1230 01:14:16,550 --> 01:14:20,740 And here it is today, the same spot, 1231 01:14:20,740 --> 01:14:24,890 with the same windows and the entrance door 1232 01:14:24,890 --> 01:14:28,433 with the 1898 right on top of the arch. 1233 01:14:30,270 --> 01:14:31,850 Halideh Edib Adivar, 1234 01:14:31,850 --> 01:14:34,530 one the most prominent women of the Ottoman era, 1235 01:14:34,530 --> 01:14:35,780 was appointed the directress 1236 01:14:35,780 --> 01:14:37,883 of the orphanage by Jemal Pasha. 1237 01:14:38,940 --> 01:14:41,610 - Halideh Edib narrates in her autobiography 1238 01:14:41,610 --> 01:14:46,610 printed in 1926, that sometimes, in the middle of the meals, 1239 01:14:48,230 --> 01:14:51,490 when the children seamed happiest, 1240 01:14:51,490 --> 01:14:55,353 one of the little ones would suddenly begin to cry. 1241 01:14:56,504 --> 01:15:01,504 It was a screeching, cutting cry, which lasted for hours, 1242 01:15:01,700 --> 01:15:05,283 no doubt caused by some association with their home. 1243 01:15:06,120 --> 01:15:10,330 Also, that one felt that these children, 1244 01:15:10,330 --> 01:15:14,590 whatever happened would carry something cripple, 1245 01:15:14,590 --> 01:15:17,050 something mutilated in them. 1246 01:16:08,780 --> 01:16:10,130 Old archives found 1247 01:16:10,130 --> 01:16:13,760 in the library of Antoura College including photos, 1248 01:16:13,760 --> 01:16:17,520 handwritten documents and memorabilia prompted Mr Kelechian 1249 01:16:17,520 --> 01:16:19,247 to yet another discovery, 1250 01:16:19,247 --> 01:16:21,177 "The Memoirs of Karnig Panian," 1251 01:16:22,100 --> 01:16:25,010 one of the orphans at the Antoura Orphanage. 1252 01:16:25,010 --> 01:16:27,090 - You see you can either kill a people 1253 01:16:27,090 --> 01:16:29,200 or you can totally take away their identity 1254 01:16:29,200 --> 01:16:30,320 and inject them with a new one, 1255 01:16:30,320 --> 01:16:32,770 which was what happening in Antoura. 1256 01:16:32,770 --> 01:16:34,140 And effectively you have killed them, 1257 01:16:34,140 --> 01:16:35,100 'cause you've killed their race, 1258 01:16:35,100 --> 01:16:36,780 you've killed their religion, you've killed their culture, 1259 01:16:36,780 --> 01:16:38,790 you've killed their name. 1260 01:16:38,790 --> 01:16:42,680 Of course, the children were treated so badly in Antoura 1261 01:16:42,680 --> 01:16:45,160 that some of them died there. 1262 01:16:45,160 --> 01:16:50,160 We know from actual survivors' accounts 1263 01:16:50,250 --> 01:16:51,700 that some of the children were going 1264 01:16:51,700 --> 01:16:55,170 and actually trying to grind up the bones 1265 01:16:55,170 --> 01:16:58,550 of other dead children who had died in the forest of hunger 1266 01:16:58,550 --> 01:17:02,300 and eat what was left of the bones to try to stay alive. 1267 01:17:02,300 --> 01:17:04,150 Almost a form of cannibalism. 1268 01:17:04,150 --> 01:17:05,400 That shows what happened. 1269 01:17:06,450 --> 01:17:07,283 Karnig Panian, 1270 01:17:07,283 --> 01:17:11,560 orphan number 551 was renamed Mahmoud. 1271 01:17:11,560 --> 01:17:15,123 He arrived at Antoura in 1916 at age six. 1272 01:17:16,203 --> 01:17:18,533 - When we were little, my sister and I, 1273 01:17:20,020 --> 01:17:25,000 during dinner or lunch time, when we didn't finish our food, 1274 01:17:26,550 --> 01:17:30,217 my father used to say, 1275 01:17:30,217 --> 01:17:32,447 "God will be unhappy with you, 1276 01:17:32,447 --> 01:17:36,267 "when I was a little boy, in the orphanage, 1277 01:17:36,267 --> 01:17:41,040 "there were days when I was obliged to grind bones 1278 01:17:43,187 --> 01:17:48,187 "and eat bones in order to survive. 1279 01:17:48,357 --> 01:17:50,077 "Sometimes grass." 1280 01:17:50,990 --> 01:17:55,990 And he said, "I didn't know if these bones were animal bones 1281 01:17:57,667 --> 01:18:02,663 "or the bones of my fellow orphans, 1282 01:18:03,537 --> 01:18:08,537 "because those who perished in that orphanage, 1283 01:18:08,737 --> 01:18:11,457 "they were thrown in a pit 1284 01:18:11,457 --> 01:18:16,457 "and at night animals used to come and eat their flesh." 1285 01:18:32,330 --> 01:18:35,090 In his memoirs, Mr. Panian writes: 1286 01:18:35,090 --> 01:18:38,480 At every sunset in the presence of over 1,000 orphans, 1287 01:18:38,480 --> 01:18:40,817 when the Turkish flag was lowered, 1288 01:18:40,817 --> 01:18:44,060 "Long Live General Pasha," was recited. 1289 01:18:44,060 --> 01:18:46,143 That was the first part of the ceremony. 1290 01:18:48,400 --> 01:18:53,140 - And after that it was time for punishing the children 1291 01:18:53,140 --> 01:18:54,423 for what they've done. 1292 01:18:55,400 --> 01:18:58,500 Which was daring to speak Armenian 1293 01:18:58,500 --> 01:19:01,010 or making any Christian references, 1294 01:19:01,010 --> 01:19:05,530 say by crossing their heart or stealing food to eat. 1295 01:19:05,530 --> 01:19:08,613 And all these acts were punishable by falakha. 1296 01:19:10,240 --> 01:19:13,760 Falakha, which a Turkish Ottoman way of punishment 1297 01:19:13,760 --> 01:19:17,530 by hitting the soles of the punished individual 1298 01:19:17,530 --> 01:19:20,173 using an iron rod or a stick. 1299 01:19:21,560 --> 01:19:24,510 They tied the feet of the victim to a stick, 1300 01:19:24,510 --> 01:19:27,630 which was held up by two individuals 1301 01:19:27,630 --> 01:19:31,700 and the third one would strike the soles of the victim 1302 01:19:31,700 --> 01:19:35,593 using an iron rod to inflict maximum pain. 1303 01:19:36,870 --> 01:19:40,880 In this case the victims were children 1304 01:19:40,880 --> 01:19:45,880 aged three, four, five, and sometimes 10 years old, 1305 01:19:46,480 --> 01:19:51,480 who would call for their dead mothers in unbearable pain. 1306 01:19:58,580 --> 01:20:00,990 Out of the 1,000 Armenian children 1307 01:20:00,990 --> 01:20:04,630 at Antoura Orphanage, only 456 survived. 1308 01:20:04,630 --> 01:20:06,100 Hundreds died as a result 1309 01:20:06,100 --> 01:20:08,430 of deplorable conditions at the orphanage. 1310 01:20:08,430 --> 01:20:11,200 The remains of over 300 orphans were discovered 1311 01:20:11,200 --> 01:20:14,730 in 1993 when the Lazarite fathers began construction 1312 01:20:14,730 --> 01:20:16,280 for new classrooms. 1313 01:20:16,280 --> 01:20:18,560 The remains found in the foundation of the college, 1314 01:20:18,560 --> 01:20:20,680 were moved to a mass grave on the grounds 1315 01:20:20,680 --> 01:20:24,503 of the college cemetery, unmarked, carrying no epitaph. 1316 01:21:08,240 --> 01:21:10,820 In September of 2010, through the efforts 1317 01:21:10,820 --> 01:21:12,090 of the KOHAR Ensemble 1318 01:21:12,090 --> 01:21:15,050 and its benefactor the Khatchadourian family, 1319 01:21:15,050 --> 01:21:18,210 a special monument was erected at the Antoura cemetery 1320 01:21:18,210 --> 01:21:20,893 in memory of the 300 Armenian orphans. 1321 01:21:21,853 --> 01:21:24,620 The monument is topped by a replica of the crown donned 1322 01:21:24,620 --> 01:21:27,063 by the last Armenian King Levon V. 1323 01:21:28,380 --> 01:21:29,830 Underneath the crown lies 1324 01:21:29,830 --> 01:21:33,673 the Cilician Armenian coat of Arms, the roaring lion. 1325 01:21:33,673 --> 01:21:37,020 It represents a symbolic posthumous inauguration, 1326 01:21:37,020 --> 01:21:40,000 honoring the 300 Armenian Genocide orphans 1327 01:21:40,000 --> 01:21:41,563 as Armenian kings. 1328 01:21:45,920 --> 01:21:49,240 Nearly 2,000 community members and dignitaries gathered 1329 01:21:49,240 --> 01:21:51,010 for the inauguration of the site 1330 01:21:51,010 --> 01:21:54,533 to pay respect to the souls of the 300 Armenian orphans. 1331 01:21:55,380 --> 01:21:56,890 A special requiem service, 1332 01:21:56,890 --> 01:21:59,250 officiated the opening of the monument followed 1333 01:21:59,250 --> 01:22:01,810 by a special performance of Armenian liturgy 1334 01:22:01,810 --> 01:22:04,190 by KOHAR ensemble under the direction 1335 01:22:04,190 --> 01:22:06,683 of Maestro Sebouh Apkarian. 1336 01:22:09,380 --> 01:22:12,896 Today, the Antoura Monument is a pilgrimage site visited 1337 01:22:12,896 --> 01:22:15,370 by thousands who travel from around the world 1338 01:22:15,370 --> 01:22:17,160 to come and honor the memory 1339 01:22:17,160 --> 01:22:20,190 of the orphaned Armenian children of Antoura. 1340 01:22:20,190 --> 01:22:24,060 They come to touch their epitaph and to feel their sorrow, 1341 01:22:24,060 --> 01:22:26,610 giving voice to the silenced crime committed 1342 01:22:26,610 --> 01:22:31,117 nearly 100 years ago and still left unrecognized. 1343 01:26:04,003 --> 01:26:07,630 The next day, April 24, 2011, 1344 01:26:07,630 --> 01:26:11,280 marked the 96th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, 1345 01:26:11,280 --> 01:26:13,790 the 20th century's most documented, 1346 01:26:13,790 --> 01:26:16,873 least recognized ethnic cleansing campaign. 1347 01:26:21,300 --> 01:26:23,370 Descendants of hundreds of thousands 1348 01:26:23,370 --> 01:26:27,020 of Armenian Genocide orphans from around the world arrive 1349 01:26:27,020 --> 01:26:30,060 at Dzidzernagapert, at Armenia's capital city 1350 01:26:30,060 --> 01:26:32,970 of Yerevan to commemorate the darkest day 1351 01:26:32,970 --> 01:26:35,793 of the Armenian reality and world history. 1352 01:26:37,290 --> 01:26:41,210 Nearly 100 years later, with 21 world governments 1353 01:26:41,210 --> 01:26:46,110 and 43 U.S. states having recognized the Armenian Genocide, 1354 01:26:46,110 --> 01:26:48,910 the memory of the 1 1/2 million victims 1355 01:26:48,910 --> 01:26:51,050 is simultaneously commemorated 1356 01:26:51,050 --> 01:26:53,293 around the globe on April 24th. 1357 01:26:54,490 --> 01:26:57,140 The largest Armenian Genocide monument built 1358 01:26:57,140 --> 01:27:01,270 on the 50th anniversary of the genocide, in 1965, 1359 01:27:01,270 --> 01:27:04,700 with 12 massive pylons rising as reminders 1360 01:27:04,700 --> 01:27:07,350 of the 12 Armenian provinces obliterated 1361 01:27:07,350 --> 01:27:10,840 overshadows the eternal flame at its core. 1362 01:27:10,840 --> 01:27:13,470 The Citadel of Swallows named for the bird 1363 01:27:13,470 --> 01:27:17,420 that always returns to its nest even if it is destroyed, 1364 01:27:17,420 --> 01:27:21,190 keeps alive the memory of 1.5 million 1365 01:27:21,190 --> 01:27:24,230 as massive crowds gather for a collective prayer 1366 01:27:24,230 --> 01:27:26,090 around the eternal flame, 1367 01:27:26,090 --> 01:27:30,610 representing perhaps countless candles lit worldwide. 1368 01:27:30,610 --> 01:27:32,760 As mourners climb into the monument, 1369 01:27:32,760 --> 01:27:35,900 steep stairs force them to bow their heads. 1370 01:27:35,900 --> 01:27:38,120 And as they depart, a second monument, 1371 01:27:38,120 --> 01:27:40,580 a shaft rising high into the sky, 1372 01:27:40,580 --> 01:27:43,870 symbolizes the rebirth of a nation 1373 01:27:43,870 --> 01:27:47,252 from the ashes of annihilation. 1374 01:31:01,160 --> 01:31:02,940 This program was made possible 1375 01:31:02,940 --> 01:31:06,303 by generous contributions from the Bezikian Family. 1376 01:31:07,240 --> 01:31:11,440 Additional support was provided by Dr. Noubar Ouzounian, 1377 01:31:11,440 --> 01:31:14,967 the Chitjian Foundation and viewers like you. 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