04/24/2013 = 98th Armenian Martyr's Day Commemeration

In two years we will be commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. For some reason the Turkish government hates that word: "Genocide" which was coined by Raphael Lemkin. The term "genocide" was born by combining Greek genos (γένος; race, people) and Latin cīdere (to kill).

Over the years, the Turkish Government has indirectly forced politicians to find other words to take its place: "catastrophe", "victims", "tragedy", "slaughter", "atrocities", "massacres". Yes these are all good descriptions but it was still a Genocide.

A little history for those of you who are not in tune with this: In April 1915 the Ottoman government embarked upon the systematic decimation of its civilian Armenian population. The persecutions continued with varying intensity until 1923 when the Ottoman Empire ceased to exist and was replaced by the Republic of Turkey. The Armenian population of the Ottoman state was reported at about two million in 1915. An estimated one million had perished by 1918, while hundreds of thousands had become homeless and stateless refugees. By 1923 virtually the entire Armenian population of Anatolian Turkey had disappeared.

Armenians throughout the world are uniting today in spirit, in resonance, in energy, in consciousness.

God bless all of you,

Keri Topouzian

BTW: I just looked out the window and its snowing...

Life in the Village of Tchingiler

If you were a child growing up in the Village of Tchingiler, there is a good chance that your father worked in the silk industry. And fastened up in your attic above where you slept were wide shallow boxes covered with mess or cloth. Within were your family's silk worms and their favorite food, the leaves from mulberry trees. In the late spring as you were eating breakfast outside the fruit from the tree as well as fresh yogurt

On a clear day you could see Mt. Olympus and at its foothills, orchards of various fruits.

At night when all was quiet, just as you were to fall asleep you could hear the silkworms above in the attic munching and crunching on their intrinsic delicacy. The rhythmic sounds would drown out all your other thoughts and soon you would be fast asleep.