Children of Armenia:
A Forgotten Genocide and the Century-Long Struggle for Justice
Michael Bobelian
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From 1915 to 1923, around 2 million Armenians were driven from their ancestral homeland and some 1.5 million of them were killed. While there was an initial global outcry and a movement to aid the "starving Armenians," the promise to hold the perpetrators accountable was never fulfilled and a curtain of silence soon descended on one of the worst crimes of modern history. Now, almost a century later, the Armenians are still fighting for justice.
The grandson of Genocide survivors, journalist Michael Bobelian struggled to rationalize how an event as widely reported as the Armenian Genocide could fade from public consciousness. Why was the Genocide ignored, forgotten, and, worse, relegated to fiction for so long? What role did America's national self-interest play in helping Turkey evade public accountability? Why did decades of silence pass before a new generation of activists arose who would renew the fight for justice?
Based on years of archival research and personal interviews, Bobelian's groundbreaking Children of Armenia is the first book to trace this post-Genocide history and reveal the events that have conspired to eradicate the "hidden holocaust" from the world's memory and the story of the Armenians who struggled to seek redress in the face of recalcitrant perpetrators and an indifferent world.
Michael Bobelian is a graduate of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. A lawyer and journalist, he has written for Forbes.com, American Lawyer, and Legal Affairs magazine and has been featured on NPR's Leonard Lopate Show. He lives in New York City with his wife and daughter.
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October 8, 2009
NAASR Headquarters
395 Concord Avenue
Belmont, MA
Presented by:
The National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR)
