MEMORY FRAGMENTS FROM THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE, by Margaret DiCanio (My maternal family history)

My Armenian grandparents' parents & siblings fled their homes in Marash (in what is now Turkey) following the onset of the Armenian Genocide under the Ottoman Turks.

From the Wikipedia entry:

The Armenian Genocide (Armenian: Հայոց Ցեղասպանություն, translit.: Hayoc’ C’eġaspanowt’yowt’; Turkish: Ermeni Soykırımı), also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Armenian Massacres and, by Armenians, as the Great Calamity (Մեծ Եղեռն, Meç Eġeṙt’, Armenian pronunciation: [Mɛtsʼ jɛʁɛrn]), refers to the deliberate and systematic destruction (genocide) of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I.^[1] It was characterised by the use of massacres, and the use of deportations involving forced marches under conditions designed to lead to the death of the deportees, with the total number of Armenian deaths generally held to have been between one and one-and-a-half million.^[2] Other ethnic groups were similarly attacked by the Empire during this period, including Assyrians and Greeks, and some scholars consider those events to be part of the same policy of extermination.^[3]

It is widely acknowledged to have been one of the first modern genocides,^[4][5][6] as many Western sources point to the systematic, organized manner the killings were carried out to eliminate the Armenians.^[7]

The date of the onset of the genocide is conventionally held to be April 24, 1915, the day that Ottoman authorities arrested some 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople. Thereafter, the Ottoman military uprooted Armenians from their homes and forced them to march for hundreds of miles, depriving them of food and water, to the desert of what is now Syria. Massacres were indiscriminate of age or gender, with rape and other sexual abuse commonplace. The Armenian Genocide is the second most-studied case of genocide after the Holocaust.^[8]

The Republic of Turkey, the successor state of the Ottoman Empire, does not accept the word genocide as an accurate description of the events.^[9] In recent years, it has faced repeated calls to accept the events as genocide. To date, twenty-one countries have officially recognized the events of the period as genocide, and most genocide scholars and historians accept this view.^{[10][11][12][13]} The majority of Armenian diaspora communities were founded as a result of the Armenian genocide.

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Memory Fragments from the Armenian Genocide:
A Mosaic of a Shared Heritage

By Margaret DiCanio


* This book is available for limited previewing through Google Books. I'm assuming that I'm not violating any copyrights by providing these screenshot excerpts here, as the material is available for online public viewing, and all credits are provided. If I'm wrong, please do let me know. Please see the link above to go directly to the preview. All the commentary here is my own and does not reflect the opinions or endorsement of the book's author. I use this: ~~~ to separate screenshots from my own comments, etc. All book excerpts are ⓒ Margaret DiCanio 2002.

Find this book on Goodreads, here:
Memory Fragments from the Armenian Genocide: A Mosaic of a Shared Heritage

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Pages 124-131 : Leon Janikian

(my Uncle Leon---my mother's brother & only sibling)

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• Charles Janikian (born Garabed) is my Grampa!
• My Armenian fam lives in Watertown, Massachusetts.
• Marash is the name of the city/region (in what is now south-central Turkey) where my family hails from. People from Marash are called Marashtsis.

This is a picture of the city of Marash today (it is now officially known as Kahraman-Marash.) See the entry at Armeniapedia.


Here's Marash on a map. The region is in red, the city is the dot. (From Wikipedia's entry on Marash. You'll notice that this entry and Armeniapedia's take different angles...)

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• Aaron: My only maternal first cousin, he's like my brother.
• Krikor Janikian/Janigian: My paternal great grandfather (my Grampa's father.)

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• Miriam Galolyan: My Grampa's mother was Elmas Galolyan. Miriam must have been her mother.
• My Great Aunt Areka (my Grampa's only surviving sibling) was the youngest in the family at the time of their arrival in the US, just a little girl. I've seen her tattoo.
  

[...page 129 is not part of the online preview]
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• Armenianmusicarch.com My uncle's Armenian music preservation project:
  

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"DARK SKINNED WHITE GIRLS," by Murs

"D.S.W.G. (Dark Skinned White Girls)"

From Murray's Revenge,
album by Murs & producer 9th Wonder

[Verse 1:]

She got that mocha-chino baby on the back of the bus
If you close your eyes and listen she would be one of us

Never did trust her family at home
So she kicked it in the hood, raised herself on her own

She talk with that tone, but she white to the bone
You would swear she was black if you spoke on the phone

Some say it's overblown, but she don't give a damn
All the black girls think that she want they man

But it's not your fault that they attracted to you
That you blessed and got as much back as you do

Some white boys say that you're way too thick
And some brothers might say, you're the number one pick

You say [psh], "Girrrl," roll your eyes, twist your neck
But it comes from the soul, you don't mean no disrespect

And even when they check you, you just keep it moving
Cuz in your heart you feel you ain't got nothing to be proving

*

[Chorus x2:]

Whether chocolate or vanilla, or you're somewhere in between
A cappuccino, mocha or a caramel queen

Rejected by the black, not accepted by the white world
And this is dedicated to them dark skinned white girls

*

[Verse 2:]

Now she like The Smiths, The Cure, really into Morrisey
Heavy on the rock, never fooled with the Jodeci

You would notice she was never really welcomed by the others
Hard to find a date when there was only ten brothers
In the whole damn school, and they thought she was weird
Cuz she wore her hair different, and she never joined cheer

A melancholy dolly with a Polly-wanna syndrome
White stepfather, black daddy never been home

And when on the quad she could hear 'em say
"Look at how she walks, why she talk that way?"

But girl it's okay, your black is beautiful
No matter how you dress, or no matter what music you like

Forget what they say, you're doing it right
No more grabbing on your pillow as you cry through the night

Stand strong, hold your ground at any cost
and know that everyone who tries to put you down is lost

[Chorus x2]

[Verse 3:]

Now for you half-and-half and mixed girls,
I know what the battle be
Every time you go out, it's "What's your nationality?"

Everybody always wanna dig up in your background---
"You don't look _____," now how does that sound?

"I couldn't tell you were _____." (Tell you were...)
Oh, is that right?
Do you take it as a compliment or start up a fight?

Venezuelan and Indian, 'Rican and Dominican
Japanese or Portuguese, quarter a' Brazilian and
White and Korean, Black and Pinay
I could find out later it don't matter you're fly

It really don't make a difference to most of us guys
We just need an excuse to get close and say hi

I know they call you stuck up, say you think you're too pretty
Spreading rumors about you, all throughout the city

So much attention, so many haters
But don't be bitter, you'll be better for it later and...

[Chorus x2]

lyrics from lyricsondemand.com
(punctuation modified/errors corrected here)

*

Here's the song:




This next one is live, but doesn't include the third verse about being mixed.

WARNING: skip ahead to 20 seconds if you want to avoid some iffy language at the beginning.