[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 57 (Wednesday, April 24, 2013)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E525]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       A TRIBUTE TO ROSE GARJIAN

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. ADAM B. SCHIFF

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, April 24, 2013

  Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor a resident of Los 
Angeles, California, and a 105-year-old survivor of the Armenian 
Genocide--Rose Garjian.
  Rose Garjian, then Rose Dedeian, was born on May 1, 1908, in the city 
of Kilis, located in south-central Turkey. Her father, Zakar Dedeian, 
worked as a shoemaker and cobbler, and her mother, Maritsa Dedeian, 
worked as a teacher. When the government of the Ottoman Empire launched 
a campaign of fear, destruction and death in the Spring of 1915, Ms. 
Garjian was only six-years-old. Her father hurriedly took his family to 
a small neighboring village to go into hiding from the Turks.
  Ms. Garjian remembered the episode last year in an interview 
recalling that her father did not tell them why they had to go, only 
that they should hurry. ``We left our home, and went to the desert,'' 
said Garjian. ``My father took us to hide, he tried to take us away 
from the Turks.''
  While the Dedeian family was in hiding, the Ottoman government 
committed genocide against the Armenian people through wholesale 
massacre, forced marches through blistering deserts across the villages 
and cities of eastern Anatolia.
  When the killings ended eight years later, more than a million and a 
half Armenian men, women and children were dead, and the world's oldest 
Christian nation had been shattered--with its survivors scattered 
around the world.
  The Dedeian family moved to Lebanon, where Ms. Garjian attended 
Catholic School, learning French and Arabic. There, she met her husband 
Robert Garjian, a successful cobbler, who had come from the United 
States to marry her.
  Once in the United States, Ms. Garjian gave birth to two daughters, 
Ellen and Mary. She is a dedicated wife, mother, grandmother, and great 
grandmother, with six grandchildren, twelve great-grandchildren, and 
two great-grandchildren. One family member spoke of her caring nature, 
saying ``her home was always open to family members visiting or 
immigrating to the United States.''
  After her husband passed away in 1986, Ms. Garjian continued to 
dedicate herself to her family and community. She served as a volunteer 
for the Valley Guild of the Arat Home--where she now lives--and was 
active in the Armenian community where she was a member of the Massis 
Church in Los Angeles, treasurer for the Marash Women's Group, member 
of the United Armenian Congregational Church, and is one of the 
founding members of Aleppo College.
  After her husband passed away in 1986, Ms. Garjian continued to 
dedicate herself to her family and community.
  Garjian served as a volunteer for the Valley Guild of the Arat Home--
where she now lives--and was active in the Armenian community where she 
was a member of the Massis Church in Los Angeles, treasurer for the 
Marash Women's Group, member of the United Armenian Congregational 
Church, and is one of the founding members of Aleppo College.
  I ask that all Members join me in honoring a wonderful woman, Rose 
Garjian, for her remarkable story, dedication to family and exceptional 
service to the community.

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