|
Congregation rallies to build sacred home for Armenian community
JIM BATES / THE SEATTLE TIMES
Aida Kouyoumjian of Mercer Island displays the medal given to her mother, who survived the 1915 Armenian genocide. Kouyoumjian will be the master of ceremonies at a commemoration of the slaughter tomorrow.
Zorab "Kirk" Ohanessian of Redmond has dreamed about building an Armenian church in the Northwest for more than 20 years. His dream may soon come true.
This year church leaders will finish laying water, power and telephone lines and finalize architectural plans for the 2.6 acres the Armenian Apostolic Church of Seattle purchased in Redmond. After 20 years of trying, purchasing the land was a big step, Ohanessian said.
"We've had a mixture of people and chances," he said. "We tried to buy several times - some (land) in Seattle and some on the Eastside - but people wanted land close to where they lived. We never were able to reach a consensus, so we would discontinue the purchase."
There was no dissent when the congregation of 500 families bought the $210,000 Redmond property in 1999, he said. The site is beautiful and convenient to freeways.
Commemoration of Armenian genocide
2-4 p.m. tomorrow
Room 220, Kane Hall
University of Washington
Since then, members have met each Saturday to clear brush and set up a picnic and a parking area at the site, near the intersection of Northeast 116th Street and 164th Avenue Northeast.
A three-phase construction plan will start with a multipurpose hall when the congregation raises $500-$750,000. No target date has been set.
Despite the volunteer corps, it has been a long, slow process. There are no local clergy members to galvanize the group. The Los Angeles diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church monthly flies a priest to Seattle to conduct a two-hour church service. (California has the largest Armenian population in the United States, about 1 million, compared with the estimated 2,000 in the greater Seattle area.) The local congregation pays the priest's salary and expenses.
The Armenian Apostolic Church rents St. Andrew's Greek Orthodox Church in Seattle's Greenwood area for the service. The Armenian church is similar to Eastern Orthodox.
"We go to church one Sunday a month," Ohanessian said. "The other three Sundays we pray for more money to build our church."
The Armenian Cultural Association, whose goal is to strengthen traditional ethnic ties and preserve the Armenian heritage, is the social hub and service arm of the church. If it is religious, the church handles it. If it is Armenian food, music, literature, history, language or fine arts, the cultural association handles it. Most people consider themselves members of both, although the two have separate leadership and budgets.
Without a church of their own, both groups scramble for meeting places. Tomorrow's annual genocide commemoration will be at Kane Hall on the University of Washington campus.
Each April Armenians worldwide observe a day of remembrance for the atrocities of 1915, when leaders of the Ottoman Empire systematically began executing and driving out Armenians. Historians estimate 1.5 million Armenians were killed. Turkey defended its actions, calling the deaths war casualties.
"There are many answers as to why the genocide happened," said Aida Kouyoumjian of Mercer Island, who came from Iraq to the University of Washington on a Fulbright Scholarship in 1952. "We were educated, we were a Christian minority in a Muslim country. Who knows them all?"
Emotion fills her voice as she describes her family's experiences, the men killed, the forced march of her mother's family from its village near Istanbul, the clubbing death of a grandmother, the starvation and disease.
Adolf Hitler cited the Armenian diaspora and slaughter, noting that few remembered it, when he launched his campaigns against Poland and the Jews, Kouyoumjian said.
"We think and work like everyone else 364 days a year," she said. "One day a year we spend remembering the genocide, passing on the memories to our children and grandchildren."
Tomorrow's program will include traditional Armenian musical performances and a postcard-writing campaign to President Bush. During his campaign, Bush agreed to give the genocide official recognition.
Armenians teach their children that Armenia became the first Christian nation in the world in the fourth century. Even when the country was subjected to foreign rule and Armenians dispersed throughout the Middle East, into the former Soviet Union and to the United Sates, they've maintained their language, food, music and customs.
In the Puget Sound area, that means the Cultural Association organizes weekly Armenian language classes for children in Bellevue and Tukwila. There are choirs for church and ethnic gatherings and Sunday soccer games at Marymoor Park in Redmond.
"Teaching our children and grandchildren the culture is the only thing that can keep us identifiable as Armenians," Kouyoumjian said.
There have been several waves of Armenian immigrants to the United States, said church treasurer Sergey Avtandilov of Bellevue. The most recent influx has been from Azerbaijan, which explains why the sermon at the monthly church service is given in three languages: Armenian, English and Russian.
One new immigrant is Bellevue's Viktoria Gyulnazarian. The former resident of Russia and Armenia moved to the Puget Sound area three years ago.
"I play the piano with the Armenian choir," she said. "And the club helps me to meet other Armenians."
Sherry Grindeland can be reached at 206-515-5633 or
sgrindeland@seattletimes.com.
Armenian, Assyrian and Hellenic Genocide News Archives