'Rivers with blood' mar childhood memories of Armenians

Howell Township resident Andrea Rasizzi's grandmother was about 7 when she stood on a riverbank and watched as Ottomon Turks shot her father dead.

Her grandmother, Lucig Kngoyan Bagian, and grand-aunt, Aghavanie Kngoyan, were the only family members to survive the Armenian Genocide, which is historically noted as April 24, 1915, and which historians refer to as the first genocide of the 20th century.

" 'I think you should know: They always killed with a smile,' " Rasizzi's grandmother told her. " 'I remember them laughing as my father tried to swim across the river and they shot him.' ...

" 'They would play catch with babies on their bayonettes. They lined the children up in single line and shot them and for sport, they'd stab someone,' " Rasizzi said, repeating her grandparents' stories. "They'd slice the belly and breasts off pregnant women. It was horrific."

Nearly 1.5 million Armenians were killed at the hands of the Ottoman Turks during World War I, between 1915 and 1918.

According to historians, the Ottoman Turks were worried that the Christian Armenian population was planning to align with its primary enemy: Russia. As a result, the Turkish government subjected the Armenian people to "deportation, abduction, torture, massacre and starvation," according to the Armenian National Institute's website.

The majority, like Rasizzi's relatives who were from the village Sepastia, were forced to march to the Syrian Desert, where they died of thirst and hunger while others were killed in massacres. The children who survived were taken to orphanages, like Rasizzi's grandmother and grand-aunt.

Rasizzi's grandmother could not say exactly how she got to the orphanage, although she believed it was a Kurdish family who helped the sisters, Rasizzi said.

Among the family's treasured possessions are three photographs showing the Kngoyan sisters as they aged in the orphanage.

One is an identical match to a photograph held by Commerce Township resident George Mouradian, whose parents survived the Armenian Genocide. He later learned that his father and Rasizzi's grandmother were from the same village and ended up at the same orphanage.

Mouradian, who authored numerous books about the genocide, including "One Hundred Years of Denial," recalled the stories of his father, Vahan Mouradian, a native of Govdoun, and his mother, Armenouhi Neressian of Gavar, spurred in his 10-year-old mind the idea he could rally his childhood friends together and go fight the Turks.

"My mother saw rivers with blood because the Turks would kill someone and throw them in the river," George Mouradian said. "Their stories are nearly the same, but different versions of what they went through.

"I learned my father had four brothers and a sister. The four brothers who were older were all slaughtered and so were his parents. They took the sister away. What they did to her, heaven knows," he added.

George Mouradian said Armenians today believe the Turks set out to systematically wipe out the Armenian population by murdering them, but the Turkish government denied the atrocities, which they claim were committed in wartime.

Both he and Rasizzi said they long for the day when the Turks acknowledge the genocide.

Recognizing it as a genocide is arguably difficult for the White House as well. The Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday that White House officials decided that President Barack Obama will not use the word "genocide" to describe the killings when he commemorates the deaths today, the 100th anniversary of the massacres.

George Mouradian believes that schoolchildren across America should be taught about the Armenian Genocide.

Luckily for George Mouradian's father and Rasizzi's grandfather, they were both assisted by good Samaritans who helped relocate them at an orphanage. In order to hide them, however, the families dressed both boys as girls.

George Mouradian's mother was luckier than some. She and her siblings were helped by an uncle, who also was just a teen or slightly older himself. The uncle was able to safely relocate George Mouradian's mother and her siblings to orphanages.

George Mouradian's parents, who lived about 50 miles apart from one another in Armenia but did not know each other, met and married in the Detroit area, where they raised their family.

Rasizzi's grandparents, who married in France around 1925, also immigrated to the United States. Her grandmother's younger sister lived out the rest of her life in France. Although the two sisters never saw each other again, they kept in contact by writing letters.

Rasizzi and George Mouradian both said their family is proud to be Armenian.

"We're the first Christian nation; we're very proud of that fact," George Mouradian said.

Rasizzi noted: "It gives me strength. When I'm having a stressful day or a difficult day ... I think about what my grandparents survived and how they could be so strong."

Contact Livingston Daily reporter Lisa Roose-Church at 517-552-2846 or lrchurch@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @LisaRooseChurch.

Commerce Township man authors books on Armenia

George Mouradian has authored seven books relating to Armenia.

Among those is the 2014 published "One Hundred Years of Denial," which is a complete narrative about the Armenian Genocide. He said the text describes how Ottoman Turkey at the "onset of World War I carried out her sinful plan of genocide."

His other work includes: "Never to Die: A Historical novel about Armenia and the Quest for Noah's Ark," "Your Journey into Armenia" and "The First Crusade."

Anyone interested in learning more about Mouradian's books or ordering the books, can call him 248-684-5651. The books range in price from $12 to $23 plus shipping and handling.