[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 133 (Wednesday, September 29, 2010)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1813]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                GUIRAGOS SHEKERDJIAN: A SURVIVOR'S STORY

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                          HON. ADAM B. SCHIFF

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                     Wednesday, September 29, 2010

  Mr. SCHIFF. Madam Speaker, I rise today to memorialize and record a 
courageous story of survival of the Armenian Genocide. The Armenian 
Genocide, perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923, resulted 
in the death of 1.5 million Armenian men, women, and children. As the 
U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire Henry Morgenthau documented at 
the time, it was a campaign of ``race extermination.''
  The campaign to annihilate the Armenian people failed, as illustrated 
by the proud Armenian nation and prosperous diaspora. It is difficult 
if not impossible to find an Armenian family not touched by the 
genocide, and while there are some survivors still with us, it is 
imperative that we record their stories. Through the Armenian Genocide 
Congressional Record Project, I hope to document the harrowing stories 
of the survivors in an effort to preserve their accounts and to help 
educate the Members of Congress now and in the future of the necessity 
of recognizing the Armenian Genocide.
  This is one of those stories (submitted by Angel Shekerdjian):

       My father, Guiragos, was born in 1905 in Adana, Turkey. He 
     was 4 years old in 1909, when the massacres started in Adana. 
     Several Armenians took refuge in the church; so did his 
     pregnant mother with her 2-year-old daughter and little 
     Guiragos. The Turks surrounded the church and set it to fire. 
     As the people inside realized what was happening, they 
     started running outside. So did my grandmother, carrying the 
     toddler in her arms and holding my father by the hand. As 
     soon as they were outside, a Turk killed her and the little 
     girl. And he stabbed my father 3 times in the back--two stabs 
     as the sign of the cross and a 3rd stab--all around the 
     spine. A ``good-hearted'' Turk saw that the Turk who was 
     stabbing was aiming again, stopped him saying: ``leave the 
     child, he is already dead.'' However, instead of leaving him 
     to die, the ``good'' Turk took him to a hospital. Once he 
     recovered from his wounds, they asked my dad what his name 
     was. He said it was Guiragos. And the last name? He did not 
     know. So they asked what the profession of his father was. My 
     father told them that his father used to make candy, 
     lollipops. . . . So they gave him the name of Shekerdjian, 
     meaning make of sugar. `Sheker' is `sugar' in Turkish. He was 
     sent to an orphanage. He eventually ended up in Beirut, where 
     he met my orphaned mother, also from Adana.

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