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Apigian: George Mardikian: Freedom Fighter
And More than a Successful Restaurateur
George Mardikian’s memoir, Song of America (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1956), which tells of his life and opening Omar Khayyam’s famous restaurant in San Francisco, is the story of an immigrant’s dream come true.
Only in the homeland of the Statue of Liberty could Mardikian’s Song of America have become a reality.
Self-motivated, he was fueled by love for his adopted country.
George Mardikian, with wife Nazely (Amirian) of Fresno at his sid
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Poignant memoir of Mardikian’s travails. But speare me the myth re:Imrig Halva being invented by him. This is a tradtional Armenian dessert that is centuries old.
God bless George Mardikian and Betty.
Compare Mardikian with some Armenian Americans today who won’t even lift a finger to write a letter to a Congressman.
I am trying to locate the book regarding Yerzenga Erzincan, I was told it is written in French. How can I purchase this book, for my greatgrandfather was the Kahana in Yerzenga and I was told that his name is mentioned in this book,
if anyone can help me in this matter I’d greatly appriciate .
My grandfather was Martin Boghosian and he was a good friend of George Mardikian. Although he settled in the Wash. D.C. area, we visited George’s ranch in California when I was a child. I remember a jolly man who had a bull he called Ferdinand (possibly only for me, as I had just read the children’s book). I know my grandfather was saved by a sympathetic Turkish family in Constantinople and that he hid in their house in a secret room. He finally emigrated to America, spoke 5 languages, and worked for 40+ years as a rug salesman at Woodward & Lothrops in downtown D.C. We were close to the Keshishian’s, Panoshian’s, Mardigian’s. and others but he passed on when I was only a young teen so I am unclear on many details. Anyone knowing more about him would be more than welcome to contact me. I believe he may have been a freedom fighter with George but am not sure. He spoke little of the atrocities he’d witnessed but his funeral was well-attended and there were comments about his being a freedom fighter overheard by me but being so young and the speakers being in their seventies, I never found out details.