‘Giants of the Earth’: Searching for Answers in Western Armenia

In 1969, I went to Turkish-occupied Western Armenia to confirm a U.S. State Department report that my Aunt Parancim, who we believed had been killed during the genocide, had died just six years earlier.

With the help of a then-friendly State Department, my assigned guide was a young Turkish law student graduate named Nur, and my driver-bodyguard was a Kurd named Mehmet. For two weeks we drove through the heartland of historic Armenia, starting in Sepastia, crossing through the Pontic Manzur mountains, then on to Erzurum, across the Mourad River to Mush, Lake Van, Bitlis, Koops, Keghi, and Kharpert. During that time, the three of us—an Armenian, a Turk, and a Kurd—developed a bond of friendship. At the end, Mehmet expressed his sadness that the Armenian lands were barren of my people. Nur remained curious as to what really happened in 1915.

When I left Ankara for my flight home, Nur and Mehmet took me to the airport and, in a parting gesture, expressed hope that our three peoples could find justice and friendship in the future. But we still wait for so-called “modern” Turkey to acknowledge the 1915 genocide. They still occupy Western Armenia, and deny self-rule for Mehmet’s Kurdish people.

On my return to Detroit, I visited Armenian communities throughout the United States and Canada to show my slides of the devastated Armenian villages and cities. For the older generation, the scenes were flashbacks to when they fled for their lives, never to see their families again.

In the years that followed, I was urged by my cousin, the late Rev. Vartan Kassabian, to publish a memoir of my journey into historic Armenia, a pilgrimage that took place just 54 years after the massacre of 1.5 million of our people. Shortly after I embarked on my assignment, Rev. Kassabian died. I dedicated the memoir to his legacy, for inspiring me to write the 162-page book. I titled it Giants of the Earth.

When the memoir came out in late 2009, requests for a showing of the original slide program came from the younger generation, for a link to the ancestral homeland of their grandparents.

Thankfully, my longtime friend Hrayr Toukhanian, the director and producer of the movie “Assignment Berlin,” a docudrama of Soghomon Tehlirian’s assassination of genocide mastermind Talaat Pasha, offered his professional help.

He developed a 32-minute abridged video of the journey by utilizing the color slides that had been stored for at least 40 years. In doing so, we completed what I thought was an impossible task.

Interested persons can view the abridged video by visiting www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiNDannZYRU.

 

Mitch Kehetian is a retired editor of the Macomb Daily and former board trustee at Central Michigan University.

Mitch Kehetian

Mitch Kehetian

Born and raised in Detroit, Mitch Kehetian launched his newspaper career as a reporter in 1953 with the Detroit Times. He was also editor of Wayne-Westland Daily Eagle and the Macomb Daily. He has been honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award from Wayne State University's Journalism Department. Mitch retired in 2005 and has served as president of Detroit Moorad-Zavarian AYF and Antranig ARF Gomideh.

2 Comments

  1. I never have seen my own homeland nor the civilization my people laid the foundation for, as it is occupied by a terrorist nation of bloodthirsty thieves. I ask why is this savage barbaric inferior nation of mongoloid cretin tolerated in Western Asia. As we know from whistle blowers like sibel edmonds and wiki leaks the 2 Turkic insurgencies are in fact Terrorists, they formed their so called countries through the text book definition of terrorism- using violence to achieve political gains. As we know without the Genocidal campaigns neither Turkey or Azerbaijan could exist.
    What kind of self proclaimed world authorities for justice could allow such a wicked almost human plague to continue. Learning of the turkic historical thirst for blood has lead to an organic outgrowth known as ISIS AL Nursa etc

    So I ask where are the sanctions where are the blockades embargo and expulsion from NATO or Airstrikes or an all out invasion to eliminate these Terrorist Nations creating this bloodshed once again.
    Turks are Terrorists, Turkey/Azerbaijan were founded on Terrorism

    Why is this bloodthirsty nation of insurgents a NATO member when it should be a Target for destruction

    http://news.antiwar.com/2014/08/05/report-nearly-10-of-isis-fighters-are-turkish/

    http://shoebat.com/2014/08/04/muslims-plan-christians-beheadings-amputations-gunshots-crucifixions/

    Turks are historically known for this kind of brutal inhuman behavior
    http://markhumphrys.com/turkey.html

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-479143/The-forgotten-Holocaust-The-Armenian-massacre-inspired-Hitler.html

    list of massacres in Turkey
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_massacres_in_Turkey

    List of Massacres in the 2nd Turkish state created in the 20’s Azerbaijan
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_massacres_in_Azerbaijan

    Exposing Azeri Turkish Terrorists in Syria and the Azeri Turkish history of Terrorism
    http://jihadology.net/2014/01/28/guest-post-azerbaijani-foreign-fighters-in-syria/

    http://www.islamicinvitationturkey.com/2013/05/14/report-terrorist-groups-in-syria-recruiting-azeri-nationals/

    http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=719_1369488234

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