“Nowhere, A Story of Exile” book on Armenian massacres in Baku presented
Saturday, September 06, 2014
Novosti international press center in Yerevan yesterday hosted
“Nowhere, A Story of Exile” book about a family of Armenian refugees
from Baku. The head of Ordinary Genocide Project Marina Grigoryan said
at the event that the book was published in the U.S. and is unique in
the sense that it is the first English-language book about the
Armenian massacres in Baku.
According to M. Grigoryan, the book is based on Anna Astvatsaturian
Turcotte’s diary that she kept at age of 10-12 when she lived in Baku.
Later in the United States where she moved along with her family, Anna
Astvatsaturian Turcotte published the book that contains her memories
of the 1988-1992 events. The book also includes recollections from
witnesses of persecution and atrocities committed against Armenians.
M. Grigoryan said that because of the records made in the diary, Anna
Astvatsaturian Turcotte can be compared to Anne Frank, a Jewish girl
who described the Nazi terror in her wartime diary.
Ms. Grigoryan informed those present that the creative group of “The
Baku Tragedy in Eyewitness Accounts” Project that was launched on the
25th anniversary of the Armenian massacres in the Azerbaijani capital
went to the U.S. to meet with Armenian refugees residing there. “As a
result, extensive interesting materials with unique accounts were
gathered to be used for a new collection and a film,” the project head
said, adding that new forms of presenting the tragedy will be sought.
“We consider it important to show that not only Armenians, but also
families in which one of the spouses was of Armenian descent suffered
from the tragedy,” Marina Grigoryan said. She announced that the
English- and Russian-language premieres of the film are scheduled for
January 2015.
Novosti-Armenia news agency reports that Anna Astvatsaturian Turcotte
who is on a visit to Yerevan said for her part that the Americans are
not familiar with the Karabakh problem and the Baku events, but
following the book’s publication and the meetings held, many of them
started taking a sincere interest.
She told those present that in September 1989 when she was 11 her
family fled Baku and moved to Armenia. The plight of Armenian refugees
from Baku worsened after the 1988 Spitak earthquake, amid the Karabakh
war and the disintegration of the USSR.
“After living in quite difficult conditions in Armenia for two and a
half years, our family made a decision to move to America. We arrived
in the U.S. with four suitcases, $180 and refugee status: that was all
we had. It was the beginning of a new peaceful future,” Astvatsaturian
Turcotte noted.
In her words, at that time she took a decision to preserve the diary
for her children and grandchildren so that “they could be aware of
their roots, their past and imagine those hardships that the people of
Artsakh have endured,” she said.
“Interest in the Baku events and the Karabakh independence process is
increasing in American society in recent years. Many members of the
Armenian Diaspora had no idea of it, and I consider this inadmissible.
My husband and me worked together to contribute to the adoption of the
resolution about Karabakh’s independence by the State of Maine,”
Astvatsaturian Turcotte stated.
In her words, she has repeatedly made speeches, sharing her memories
not only in various U.S. states, but also in the Congress, and she
received an invitation to deliver a speech in the European Parliament
in October.
“I will speak about the difficult path that Armenians of Baku have
followed, as well as the Karabakh problem and the work aimed at the
recognition of Karabakh’s independence,” said Anna Astvatsaturian
Turcotte, a lawyer and a mother of two. She was granted U.S.
citizenship in 1997.
The Ordinary Genocide Project is implemented the PR and Information
Center of the Armenian President’s Administration. As part of the
project, a series of documentaries was filmed in five languages about
the events in Sumgait, Baku, Maraga, the Ring Operation, Karabakh
records website was launched, and a number of books were published,
republished, and translated.