KeghartKeghart.com Report, 23 August 2014
A group of Armenians and Alevis, from Toronto and nearby Burlington, travelled to Brantford on August 22 to join Ukrainian-Canadians commemorating the 100th anniversary of the internment of Ukrainians at the start of the First World War. While “enemy aliens” from a variety of countries, including the Ottoman Empire, were sent to distant camps by the government of Canada, the majority of the innocent victims were Ukrainian.
The commemoration-requiem, officiated by Father Bogdan Mironovich of the St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic Church, was attended by close to 100 people, mostly Ukrainians. Unlike the Turkish phony commemoration of Turkish internees a month earlier, the Ukrainian gathering was a dignified spiritual event. And unlike the Turkish shindig, which had succumbed to sleazy political propaganda and falsehood, the Ukrainian requiem was non-political and respectful of the dead.
Keghart.com Report, 23 August 2014
A group of Armenians and Alevis, from Toronto and nearby Burlington, travelled to Brantford on August 22 to join Ukrainian-Canadians commemorating the 100th anniversary of the internment of Ukrainians at the start of the First World War. While “enemy aliens” from a variety of countries, including the Ottoman Empire, were sent to distant camps by the government of Canada, the majority of the innocent victims were Ukrainian.
The commemoration-requiem, officiated by Father Bogdan Mironovich of the St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic Church, was attended by close to 100 people, mostly Ukrainians. Unlike the Turkish phony commemoration of Turkish internees a month earlier, the Ukrainian gathering was a dignified spiritual event. And unlike the Turkish shindig, which had succumbed to sleazy political propaganda and falsehood, the Ukrainian requiem was non-political and respectful of the dead.
Father Bogdan was joined in the ceremony by Father Vartan Tashjian of the Armenian church in nearby Cambridge. In addition to praying in Armenian for the souls of the Ukrainian dead, Father Tashjian reminded the congregation of the Armenian martyrs of 1915.
But the “keynote speaker” was award-winning writer Marsha Skrypuch who delivered a short but powerful speech about the injustices done to the Ukrainians and to the Armenians. She pointed out that it was a “sad irony that people (Alevis, Armenians, Assyrians) who had fled 
the oppressive Ottoman regime” were labeled ‘Turks’ by the Canadian government and interned for that false identification. She said the same verdict was meted to Ukrainians who had left the oppressive Austro-Hungarian Empire but were interned for having come from that state. Ms. Skrypuch, who has written five books on the Armenian Genocide, unveiled her latest book—“Dance of the Banished”—after the ceremonies. The book–a love story based in Dersim–is distributed in Canada by UTP Distribution and in the US by Orca Book Publishers.
The gathering also heard speeches by the local Member of Parliament Hon. Phil McColeman and Member of the Provincial Legislature Hon. Dave Levac. Brantford City Mayor Chris Friel, a controversial figure who was instrumental in the erection of a Turkish “Muslim” gravestone for the fake Turkish internees at the
nearby Mount Hope Cemetery, was not invited to the requiem.
Following the ceremony, Ms. Skrypuch autographed her book and met her many fans. After that, it was time to indulge in Ukrainian delicacies.
A day earlier, Keghart.com and the Toronto chapter of the AGBU unveiled (“kinetson”) Katia Peltekian’s “The Times of Armenian Genocide: Reports in the British Press 1914-1923” at the AGBU hall. The result of 12 years of research, the two-volumes include press reports, Parliamentary debates, letters from readers, and petitions to raise funds for the Armenian victims.
Ms. Peltekian was introduced by Keghart Editor Jirair Tutunjian. In a Power-point presentation, the author screened significant excerpts from debates at Westminster regarding the plight of the Armenians. She also underlined that while the British government seemed to be pro-Armenian during the war, it abandoned the Armenians soon after the war.
In introducing Ms. Peltekian, Mr. Tutunjian pointed out that the
author researched, scanned, compiled, published the book, and financed the vital project with her personal savings, because after her experience with her previous book about the coverage of the Genocide in the Canadian press (1894-1922), she did not wish to waste time uselessly waiting for an Armenian organization or institution to show interest.
About 70 people attended the gathering. Following her speech, Ms. Peltekian took questions from the audience and later autographed her remarkable 950 page, two-volume testimonial to the Genocide.
Keghart.com Report 23/08/2014
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2 comments
Katia Peltekian Book Launch
I ask everyone to please contact their local libraries, particularly their university libraries, and tell them that it is imperative that they order these two volumes. Katia's work is a valuable research source for students.
Bypass the well-paid, tenured professors who can't write the big G word without first holding out their hands to every Armenian organization and charity. Katia's work is far more valuable than theirs. She knew she had something so important that it had to be preserved, no matter what the cost in time or money to herself.
Well done, Katia Peltekian
Congratulations to Katia Peltekian for devoting more than a decade of her life researching and compiling the material for her remarkable book. I was honoured to receive a copy of her work, presented to me by Dr. Dikran Abrahamian at the Brantford event. I look forward to reading it.
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