Sun-Sentinel, FL
April 25 2005
Armenians recall horrors of 1915 killings
By Erin Cox
Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted April 25 2005
WINTER PARK — A dozen people came to mourn a million.
Names of entire families executed by the Turkish government 90 years
ago rang out at St. Andrew’s United Methodist Church on Sunday as
local Armenian Christians retold tales that shaped the lives of
generations.
On April 24, 1915, Turkish authorities began gathering and executing
the intellectual elite of Armenian Christians in Constantinople.
During World War I, 1.5 million Armenians died at the hands of the
Turkish government or perished when forced to march out of the
country and into the desert.
Services across the world — and from California to New York —
commemorated the 90th anniversary and remembered stories of people
such as 64-year-old Lucine Mardirosian, who lived in the legacy of
the killings.
Her mother became an orphan at 12. Her grandfather was shot as he
jumped into the Euphrates River. Her grandmother was forced to march
with cousins, aunts and uncles.
“We don’t know whatever happened to them. We just don’t know,”
Mardirosian said.
And details from the remaining family are sparse.
“Here I am, she said. ” I have not anyone in the world. I had no
childhood. I can’t help but to remember. Where are my grandparents?
Where are my brothers and sisters? I feel like I dropped out of the
sky.”
The corners of Ann Polasek’s 83-year-old eyes tear at Mardirosian’s
words.
“And that story, the same with many of us,” Polasek said of
Mardirosian’s story.
Even in America, she grew up in the shadow of the genocide. Her five
brothers and sisters died when troops forced them to march across the
desert. “My mother then was lost for years,” Polasek said.
The Turkish government denies an organized genocide and attributes
the deaths to a civil war that claimed as many Turkish lives as
Armenian.
In an interview Friday, Tuluy Tanc, minister counselor for the
Turkish Embassy in Washington, said the accusation of genocide was
“unfair and untrue,” a legal ploy to gain reparations.
“We don’t see what happened as genocide, quote-unquote,” Tanc said.
“Unfortunate and tragic events took place during World War I, and bad
things happened to Armenians, and Muslims and Turks also.”
“The number killed is much less than they say — it’s more like
300,000 Armenians who lost their lives,” he said.
The small community of St. Garabed Armenian Church, begun by
Mardirosian 20 years ago, shared what they knew and prayed together.
They do what they can without a priest. There are only three
Christian Armenian congregations in Florida with churches. Only two
have full-time priests. There are two other mission churches, like
St. Garabed, that have services in other Christian buildings and have
a visiting priest.
“I was like shocked when I found I could come to something here,”
said Edmon Vardanyan, 20.
This is his first martyr day outside of Armenia, and his friend Armen
Mkoyan brought him to the service.
Compared with the day in Armenia, “It’s upside-down,” Mkoyan, 22,
said.
They buy candles in the early hours of April 24, go down to what
Mkoyan calls the “museum of the genocide” and spend all day in
remembrance.
There are nowords — at least in English — for Mkoyan to describe
how the day brings both deep pride and sorrow.
“But I do know what it’s like for people who have been grown in
Armenia,” Mkoyan said. “It’s like how you know your first language.
It comes from your heart. It’s like built inside of you.”