True Love: Swinging through a New England Winter

    Photo Op suggested by Karoun                                                                   Photo by Marash Girl

Love in the Time of Marash . . .

The presentation, Grandmothers & Grandchildren, presented by Fethiye Cetin (human rights activist and attorney in Turkey) and Ayse Gul Altinay (Professor of Anthropology at Sabanci University in Istanbul, Turkey) on Wednesday evening at the Watertown Public Library, (Watertown, Massachusetts) brought to mind a conversation Marash Girl had with her father many years ago.  The conversation went like this:

Didn't they ever fall in love -- the Turkish men with Armenian women, the Armenian men with Turkish women?  asked teenaged Marash Girl of her father who had been born in Marash.

Yes, they did, but that was quickly put to an end, replied her father.

How? asked innocent Marash Girl.

They were murdered in their beds the very first night they were together.

By whom? insisted Marash Girl.

By either side, depending on which way it went.  The couple never survived to tell the tale, her father told her.

AMAL CLOONEY - COUNCIL FOR ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RECOGNITION

FULL SPEECH: Amal Clooney on legal team in EHCR Armenian genocide case

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJ9_vW6FcTs

Published on Jan 28, 2015

"Amal Clooney accuses Turkey of hypocrisy on freedom of speech in Armenian genocide trial.

Amal Clooney, the human rights barrister, has accused Turkey of double standards on freedom of expression for defending a Turkish Leftist who described the Armenian genocide an "international lie".

Mrs Clooney, who is representing Armenia on behalf of Doughty Street Chambers along with Geoffrey Robertson QC, said Turkey's stance was hypocritical "because of its disgraceful record on freedom of expression”, including prosecutions of Turkish-Armenians who campaign for the1915 massacres to be called a genocide.

She took on the case against Doğu Perinçek, chairman of the Turkish Workers' Party and an MP, who was found guilty of genocide denial and racial discrimination in Switzerland in 2007, but had his conviction overturned by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) after being defended by Turkey's government."

We've had it up to here!

We've had it up to here!  Both hearing about the snow, and the snow itself (which is three feet deep in some places!)

Listening to the newscasters days before yesterday's snow storm, during the storm, and after the storm ad nauseam -- even on National Public Radio --  brought to mind one of Grandpa Peter's favorite sayings from Marash:

Kizdirip, kizdirip, yediriyorlar.  They reheat it and reheat it and force it down our throats!

And speaking of snow . . . .

"The smaller the snowflake, the greater the snowfall!"  
                                                                Azniv Sanjian Charkoudian

Translation from the Armenian into English by Marash Boy

Bear Cub in the Evergreens

Look out the dining room window, called Marash Boy yesterday morning!  There's a bear cub in the evergreen tree!  Marash Girl took a peek, and sure enough, there in the evergreen tree outside of her dining room window Marash Girl saw the profile of a little snow bear cub just waiting to have its picture taken! Do you see its profile?

Giving Thanks

Overheard at the gym:

 I always tell my children,

"Be thankful for what you have . . . and for what you don't have!"

Lentil Pilaf and Chicken Soup

Marash Boy was laughing uncontrollably yesterday evening when Marash Girl served soup for supper.  Ahsin was visiting.  "This soup is delicious!" Ahsin complimented.  Her mother, Marash Girl, told her the secret:  "Whenever you have leftover lentil pilaf, just throw it into your  leftover home made chicken soup.  Makes for a whole new taste treat!"

Marash Boy couldn't stop laughing.  "Jivan Tabibian should be here now . . . Who has leftover lentil pilaf to add to their leftover homemade chicken soup?"  he asked between chortles.

N.B. If you make a lot, you'll always have leftovers! You can find Marash Girl's recipe for Lentil Pilaf on Marash Girl's blog of Sunday, July 24, 2011, or simply cut and paste the address below into your browser:

 marashgirl.blogspot.com/2011/07/what-do-you-want-for-breakfast.html

Sniper on a Minaret

Yesterday's broadcast (WBUR's Here & Now) by Robin Young -- A Sniper's Look at Snipers -- was a fresh reminder of an experience that Genocide survivor Peter Bilezikian had as a young boy.

Peter was always courageous though hungry.  It was during the Armenian Genocide -- circa 1918 -- when 6 year old Peter, running through the streets of Marash, saw an Armenian woman baking bread.  He was so hungry that, although he had been taught not to beg, he asked the woman for a bit of her bread. Her answer:  If I give you bread, I'll have nothing to feed my children.  At that moment, a bullet whizzed through Peter's cowlick, nicking his forehead (the scar there 'til the day he died) and hit the woman baking the bread between the eyes.  She fell to the ground, instantly dead.  A Turkish sniper from the top of a minaret had done his duty.

Peter, young as he was, hungry as he was, grabbed all the bread, ran under a staircase, and, as he tells it, ate every bit of the bread.  He said he was not hungry for days after.  And he never, in all his life, refused anyone who asked him for anything.  He had learned his lesson.

And so, Robin Young, tell this sniper story, if you can, as this year, 2015, is the 100th year anniversary of the Genocide of the Armenians by the Turks (1915-1922).  Yes.  Genocide of innocent Armenian women, men, children, babies.  Genocide by any other name is Genocide, is it not?

Onions and Garlic: More on Cooking from Marash

Marash Girl's mother-in-law (née Azniv Sanjian), while teaching Marash Girl in the ways of Marashtsi cooking, underscored the fact that she never used onions in a dish that contained garlic, nor did she use garlic in a meal that contained onions.  That struck Marash Girl as unusual, as Marash Girl had always combined the two when cooking tava, or soups, or fasulia . . .  (Perhaps that was the Aintepsi way of cooking?  Or Marash Girl's practice only?) What is your tradition?

Remembering Peter Koutoujian, Sr.

left to right:  Peter Koutoujian, Senior; Rev. Barkev Orchanian; Peter Bilezikian.
 at the commemoration of the Historic Defense of Marash held in Belmont, Massachusetts, in January of 2007.
Photo by Marash Girl

Marash Girl and Marash Boy send their condolences to the family and friends of Peter Koutoujian, Senior, who passed away in Waltham, Massachusetts, on January 16, 2015. He always had a smile and a kind word for all.

John Bilezikjian -- We loved you and miss you!

Kissing Cousins.  April, 2011, Southern California:  cousins Berta Bilezikjian (left) and 

Bethel Bilezikian Charkoudian (right) express their love for their cousin, famous oud player John Bilezikjian (center).  All three are  children of Armenians who survived the genocide and came to this country early in the  20th Century from Marash, Ottoman Empire.
Photo Credit: Helen (Mrs. John) Bilezikjian

John Bilezikjian, a musician famous for his compositions, performances and recordings of Middle Eastern oud music -- a master oud player -- passed away yesterday morning,  January 19, 2015, in Los Angeles, California.  May God rest his soul.  Condolences and love.
John -- you are sorely missed.

Tarkhana á la Rose Baboian

Rose Baboian, a friend of Marash Girl's mom, and a wonderful cook who was born in Aintep, suggests a recipe for sweet Tarkhana, a recipe that Marash Girl has never tried, and a food that Marash Boy's mother Azniv never made.  Perhaps it is unique to the Ainteptsis. Be that as it may, the recipe can be found in Rose Baboian's Armenian-American Cook Book, a cook book that is available for sale from Marash Girl's favorite bookstore, online at this link:

http://www.biblio.com/bookstore/oldcornerbooks-newton-corner?aid=BSCB132202

There are 35,000 books available at that site, most out-of-print, many on Armenian topics.  Check it out!

For more posts on tarkhana, scroll down to earlier postings.

Tarkhana and the Armenians

Thanks to those of you who posted the photos (scroll down to yesterday's blog post) on Facebook . . . the photos Marash Girl reposted here yesterday. Mother-in-law, Azniv Sanjian Charkoudian, born in Marash, a survivor of the forced mass exodus to the desert, (known as the "death march" among us Armenians), used to make        թարխանա (tarkhana) in her new American home in Springfield, Massachusetts.  She would mix equal parts of boulghour (the large size used for making pilaf) with salt and her own homemade yogurt, simmering the mixture on the stove top, stirring the mixture constantly so it would not burn,  until it made a very thick paste; she  let the mixture set in the pot overnight. The next day, from the thickened mixture, she formed patties (about the size of a burger) which she would dry and later either make into soup, or soften with water and eat that way. Because the weather in Massachusetts was usually cold and rainy during the year, she had to dry the tarkhana patties in a tray placed on her radiator rather than on her rooftop as she used to do in Marash.

Notice the flat rooftops of Marash - photo from KAHRAMANMARAŞ, ( Bir Zamanlar Maraş ) Facebook page!

N.B. The patties were often taken on long trips for sustenance, as the patties were dry and could be softened with water and eaten just that way, or made into soup with water and fresh greens.  The Armenians probably used ermerouk (purslane) as it was the one green that was high in nutrition and grew readily along the roadside, even along the route that they had to travel during those terrible days of deportation and death a century ago.  Sorry.  Although she likes to stay positive, Marash Girl had to say it.

Armenians making Tarkhana - Photos from Facebook

Comment on photos from Facebook's KAHRAMANMARAŞ:  "My guess is the lower photo was taken before the war and the upper photo is a photo of food  production in the Armenian orphanage taken during the war or after the war." . . . for war, we might want to substitute the words Armenian Genocide.

Tarhana yapan Ermeniler

CONDEMN FLOGGING BLOGGING!

Write to your congressman to condemn the flogging of free speech in Saudi Arabia, the flogging of Raif Badawi, a Saudi Arabian jailed and flogged for blogging critiques of the Saudi government!

Happy Anniversary, Peter and Jennie!

But for you two, our branch of the family tree would have ceased!  Thinking about you on the date of your wedding anniversary, Marash Girl remembers the story of the day before your wedding in 1940.  As Marash Girl has related earlier in this blog, Peter and Jennie were from diverse backgrounds -- Peter a Marashtsi, and Jennie an Ainteptsi . . . AND their families were from two different religious backgrounds -- both Protestant, but there the similarity ends.  Peter's family attended (and actually began) the United Armenian Brethren Evangelical Church on Arlington Street in Watertown, Massachusetts, and Jennie's family attended the more "liberal" Armenian Memorial Church on Bigelow Avenue in Watertown.  Thus, when Jennie purchased her wedding dress (some day soon Marash Girl will find the picture and post it here), Jennie thought nothing of purchasing a dress with short sleeves.  (Not sure why, as the wedding was in the middle of the winter, but perhaps the winter in 1940 was warmer than this winter! And then, again, in those days, the heat was cranked up so EVERYONE wore short sleeves inside in the winter.)  When Peter's older sister learned of this "lapse" in etiquette (on the day before the wedding), she stated that she would not attend Peter and Jennie's wedding unless Jennie's arms were covered.  And that, on the day before the wedding!  There was a big rush, then, to find some way of covering Jennie's beautiful arms -- far too beautiful, apparently, to be exposed to the eyes of the folks attending the wedding.  Salvation came with the purchase of long gloves, (luckily they sold them in those days), gloves that reached to the beginning of the short sleeves on Jennie's wedding dress.  And, yes, Peter's older sister attended the wedding. Phew!

Standing In Line . . .

Last night,  Marash Girl was one of many Armenians who gathered to hear Taner Akçam, (Professor of Armenian Studies at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts)  give a talk at the Armenian Church on Brattle Street in Cambridge, the talk entitled, "Giving Voice to the Voiceless: Armenian Genocide Survivors and the Aleppo Rescue House of the League of Nations" (summary to follow, hopefully tomorrow).  Preceding the talk was a, what else? chicken and pilaf dinner, a dinner for which we were to stand in line to get our meal.  Marash Girl's friends all rushed up to the line, but she stayed seated.  "Why are you sitting," they asked;"Come on up with us before the food runs out." She sat.  "I'll wait; if there's no food left, there's no food left."  "Why?" they asked.  "I'll try to explain it tomorrow in my blog post," she answered.

At last, when there were only two folks left standing in line, Marash Girl got up and, yes, walked over to the food table, actually standing in line herself for several minutes behind a fellow she had never met.  Typical of her style, she started a conversation with this fellow, or at least with the back of the head of this fellow who was standing in line in front of her.  

"I hate to stand in line for food," she told the back of his head.  "Especially with other Armenians; it reminds me of the days in Marash that my father spoke of, when there was no food except for the food that the missionaries were offering the hungry Armenians, the food that Armenian folks had to stand in long lines for, waiting and hoping that they made it up to the table before the food was done." 

"That's exactly why I came up now, to stand at the end of the line when it was no longer a line; I've heard those stories too, growing up! I'm Armenian from Iran," he said.

Marash Girl continued.  "My father would never stand in line for food. When he was a little boy in Marash,  his mother told him that she would rather have him go hungry than beg for food.  That's what standing in line, waiting (and hoping) for food meant to him.  Begging.  And I guess that goes for me, too."

Don't Let Your Family Tree Die!

Wondering who your great grandparents were and where they came from?  There may be an answer to your question at the New England Historic Genealogical Society in Boston, Massachusetts.  

The New England Historic Genealogical Society on Newbury Street in Boston has offered to be the repository for Armenian genealogical history — to accept materials (family trees, letters, oral histories) from the Armenian community relating to family history and genealogy, materials relating to Armenian families living in New England. 

Founded in 1845, the NEHGS is the country's founding genealogical organization and a leading national resource for family history research.  NEHGS has acted as a repository for family history material for years and is willing to accept materials from the Armenian community relating to family history and genealogy.  The NEHGS website includes several searchable databases of Armenian births, marriages, and deaths in Massachusetts between 1880 and 1915.  These extremely useful databases were compiled by William A. Brown, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel and to Thailand, and are available for free on the NEHGS website, AmericanAncestors.org .

The Armenian community of New England is an early immigrant community in North America. The first Armenians to settle in New England came in the early 1800s to pursue religious education in American universities. These Armenians had been converted to Protestantism by the American missionaries (from Boston) operating in historic Armenia. The next wave of immigration occurred after the 1895 massacres of Armenians in Turkey, and those who survived the Armenian Genocide (1915-23) arrived on these shores in the 1920’s.  Armenians were attracted to New England because of the employment opportunities provided them by the textile factories of Worcester, Massachusetts, and the Hood Rubber Factory in Watertown, Massachusetts. Since the establishment of those first communities, Armenians have taken pride in contributing to their local communities and over the years have become an integral part of the multi-cultural fabric of American society. 

If you are one of the hundreds of individuals who has compiled a family history, please consider donating it to NEHGS. NEHGS is a  premier research center which offers access to unique content, publications, research materials, expert staff, and vast collections of rare artifacts & primary documents.  Online materials include a vast collection of resources — databases, articles, tutorials, charts,  and other research materials. NEHGS is hoping that New England Armenian-American genealogical materials will soon be added to its impressive collections of New England Irish-American materials, New England African-American materials, and New England Jewish American materials.

The New England Historic Genealogical Society is the place where your descendants  — your great grandchildren and great-great grandchildren — will be able to go to learn about their family history.   That is, if you deposit family history at the NEHGS for those descendants to discover in the future.  

Donations of family history documents are the basis of NEHGS’s amazing collection of over 28 million items—the largest collection of original family history research materials in the nation. NEHGS encourages donations of materials from members and non-members alike.

Want to ensure your family’s documents are preserved for future generations? Call or email  NEHGS archivist Judy Lucey at jlucey@nehgs.org or 617-226-1223.  She will advise you on what NEHGS can accept and how you can go about submitting your materials.  You can find more information about donating materials on AmericanAncestors.org under “Library and Special Collections” or “Support.”

The donation of your family history is a gift to your ancestors, a gift to your descendants — a gift commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

Another recipe for popovers -- this one from the 1940's!

Deciding to peruse her battered copy of Betty Crocker's Cookbook, 1st printing, 1969, for an earlier popover recipe (earlier than the recipes that are appearing now online and that appeared several years ago in Marash Girl's blog), Marash Girl found the following recipe on page 50 and decided to try it.

POPOVERS: A bread spectacular that pops up while baking forming crusty hollow shells.  Break and spread with butter or fill with creamed seafood or meat.

4 eggs

2 cups milk

2 cups Gold Medal Flour

1 tsp salt

Heat oven to 450 degrees F.  Grease 12 deep custard cups (5 ounces) or 16 medium muffin cups.  With hand beater, beat eggs slight, add milk, flour (Msarash Girl used King Arthur Unbleached White Lour) and salt (Marash Girl used kosher salt).  (Marash Girl added a pat of butter, melted) and beat just until smooth.  Do not overheat.  (Marash Girl would say gently stir until almost smooth BY HAND). 

Fill custard cups 1/2 full, muffin cups 3/4 full, (or, adds Marash Girl, popover pans 3/4 full).  Bake 25 minutes. (At this point, in Marash Girl's oven, the popovers were done and she turned the oven off, leaving the oven door open and the popovers in the oven to dry slowly a bit more.)  Betty Crocker says to lower oven temperature to 350 degrees and bake 15 to 20 minutes longer or until deep golden born.  As stated two sentences ago, Marash Girl did not follow this last step.  Betty crocker says to immediately remove from pan and serve hot.  Makes 12 to 16 popovers.

Marash Girl was delighted with the results and recommends that you try the recipe yourself; quick and easy and very impressive to those who have never made popovers or who have never eaten hot popovers fresh from the oven.

In the old days, Boston's Pier Four would serve hot popovers  to every guest they seated before the guests even ordered -- hot popovers fresh from their ovens -- but that was in the old days . . .