My persons name is Lusin Melikian. She seemed to have lost her uncle during the Genocide and she seemed not to be able to find him. She seems to be sad about it. I would have been sad if that happened to me, but I haven’t lost any of my relatives to the Armenian Genocide because I wasn’t alive during that time. The thing is that we should try not to let anything like this happen, so that is why we have history class in our teen years so we could learn not to make the mistakes like the Turkish did and how Hitler did when they massacred so many millions of people.

Lusin herself lived in Iraq after the Armenian Genocide. Her mother died when she was 1 and half years old and when she came to America her father died. Her grandmother and grandfather died during the Armenian genocide in 1915. Her father raised her and her brothers for years then she came to America. She came to America in about 1971 about 31 years ago. She came to Glendale from then and lives now and she lives as a bank accountant. When she was little there were not to many Armenian schools in Iraq, but she went to an Armenian school and she graduated as a second. Later she went to a university in Iraq and then later taught at highocs Varzaran for six years to children about history, which included a lot about the Armenian Genocide. She tried to teach the children about the big mistakes, which were made by Turkey, etc.

She tried hard to teach the children and read them a lot of books, of which a lot were about the Armenian Genocide and also told her share of the story. During the genocide many people died and it was horrible. She said that when people wanted to get married they went to the orphanage because in those days if you wanted to marry an Armenian that’s what you would probably do. The reason they went to the orphanage is that after the genocide most children didn’t or weren’t able to find an Armenian with a family because everyone had to have lost a couple or more family members. Some Armenian’s didn’t even have any relatives left because Turkey killed their relatives.

She thought that Turkey killed Armenian’s because who they were. She said that Turkey doesn’t confirm that the Armenian Genocide occurred and say it hasn’t, but in time they will have to say they did commit the Armenian Genocide. She also had a relative whose name is Vardui who were in different places at the time. She also lives in Glendale now. She remembers being next to her mother and relatives. She thinks that the Armenian genocide happened because who they were. She says that she lost her uncle. Now she tries to find him, by asking around to see if he is still alive. He was only eight to ten years old that time when he got separated from them. She says that when she hears the last name Babikian she tries to go and see if it’s its her long lost uncle or not. For a long time after the Armenian Genocide she hadn’t found her uncle though she found some other babikian’s who were not her uncle, but were relatives.


Her father usually didn’t talk about the Armenian genocide because he lost his parents and when somebody would talk about it he would put down his head and cried. He cried for his parents and for the Armenians who lost their lives resulting the Armenian genocide. But he still told the story so people would know what awful things happened to the Armenians during the Armenian genocide done by Turkey. The Turkish government though still doesn’t want to recognize the Armenian genocide because they want to have it stayed covered and now that some people know, it isn’t covered anymore and Turkey should be punished for what they did. Many people lost their lives and many children lost their families because of the Armenian genocide. It was a very big impact to everyone who was Armenian. It was going from a rich family to nothing or to the orphanage, which were usually not in Armenia.

A lot of people lost their lives resulting the Armenian genocide, which was done by Turkey. Old people and adults know the impact that hit them after the Armenian Genocide, which happened because of who they were. Many people were killed about 1.5 million Armenians and 500,000 Armenians remained then and scattered everywhere. Turkey still doesn’t want to recognize that the Armenian Genocide happened and that they were the ones who massacred one and a half Armenians. Most of the Armenians were normal people who didn’t even have any weapons at all, but that wasn’t a reason for Turkey not to massacre them too. Many people lost their lives because of the Armenian Genocide. Healing begins with acknowledgment; people only can be thought not to do bad things like that if they are thought not to. If not they will do bad things against humanity.
 

Interviewed by SEVADA ISAYAN

ARMENIAN

GENOCIDE