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PRESS RELEASE
Monday, July 6, 2009
Berdj Svajian’s Lecture on the Centennial of the Adana Massacres at AGBU
Montreal
On April 29, 2009, Berdj Svajian delivered a lecture about the Adana
Massacres to an audience of over one hundred people at the AGBU
Demirdjian Hall in Montreal, Canada. The event was organized by the AGBU
Montreal Cultural Committee and the Manuel Keoseyan Armenian Studies
Course on the centennial of this historic event and included a
presentation of documentary evidence and 200 slides.
The lecturer was introduced by Shahe Tanashian, director of the Manuel
Keoseyan Armenian Studies Course. Svajian began his presentation by
dedicating the event to the memory of his grandparents, who were forced
to leave their native Adana during the massacres of 1909. Starting with
general information about the geography and history of the city, he
included a detailed description of local customs and practices that
defined the place.
He projected slides depicting the massacre, torture of intellectuals,
destruction of churches and transformation of schools into stables. The
first massacre took place on April 1, 1909 and was followed by a second,
and even more horrible event, which aimed to eliminate the whole
Armenian population. Svajian’s slides also included scenes of the Ayn
Toura orphanage in Lebanon, which had been established to house and
Turkify Armenian orphans. This insidious operation was under the
supervision of Turkish parliamentarian Halide Edib Hanim, who was also
one of the planners of the Armenian Genocide several years later, and
Jemal Pasha, who later served as the Turkish Marine Minister.
The final slides showed the documents and photos of the signed property
deeds belonging to Svajian’s grandparents, which were rescued from the
1909 massacre. At the end of the program, Svajian invited Garbis
Dekmezian, an Adana native, to light candles in memory of the victims of
1909.
Words of appreciation and thanks were spoken by Arsine Attarian, chair
of AGBU Montreal’s Cultural Committee, and Arshavir Gundjian, AGBU vice
president and founding president of the Alex Manoogian School.
The program came to a close with a prayer by Rev. Mher Khachigian and
the blessings of Bishop Bagrat Galstian, Primate of the Diocese of
Canada.
Established in 1906, AGBU () is the world’s largest
non-profit Armenian organization. Headquartered in New York City, AGBU
preserves and promotes the Armenian identity and heritage through
educational, cultural and humanitarian programs, annually serving some
400,000 Armenians on six continents