In Southern California, home to the largest Armenian community outside of Armenia, many in the diaspora say that the fight for recognition is an integral part of Armenian American identity.
For three generations, Sophia Armen’s family has fought for recognition of the massacre that drove their ancestors to the United States.
“This only gets attention once a year, on April 24, but it is honestly an everyday thing we are always working on,” she said. Armen’s own last name carries an echo of the genocide. Her great-grandfather’s first name was Armen. As a child, he witnessed Turkish soldiers killing his family and was left to wander through Turkey alone. When he was picked up by American missionaries, they anglicized his name, calling him Albert Armen.
“And in fact, for the U.S., this is a domestic issue as much as it is a foreign policy issue,” she said.She remembers sitting in her family’s Detroit home, her grandmother sobbing as she told her that as a 9-year-old she watched as Turkish soldiers axed her father, grandfather and uncle to death in front of her eyes. That day in 1915, she said, the women gathered the children, said a prayer and threw themselves into the river on the outskirts of town.
Photos of Sophia Armen’s family on her mother’s side from Kharpert -- current day Harput, Turkey -- sit on an Ottoman Empire era prayer mat at St. Peter Armenian Apostolic Church.
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