Berdj Svajian lectures at AGBU Montreal on the centennial of the Adana Massacres

Published: Friday July 17, 2009

A view of the audience that attended the April 29th Adana lecture by Berdj Svajian at the AGBU Montreal Center.

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Montreal - On April 29, Berdj Svajian delivered a lecture about the Adana Massacres to an audience of over 100 people at the AGBU Demirdjian Hall in Montreal. The event was organized by the AGBU Montreal Cultural Committee and the Manuel Keoseyan Armenian Studies Course on the centennial of this historic event and included a presentation of documentary evidence and 200 slides.

The lecturer was introduced by Shahe Tanashian, director of the Manuel Keoseyan Armenian Studies Course. Mr. Svajian began his presentation by dedicating the event to the memory of his grandparents, who were forced to leave their native Adana during the massacres of 1909. Starting with general information about the geography and history of the city, he included a detailed description of local customs and practices that defined the place.

He projected slides depicting the massacre, torture of intellectuals, destruction of churches, and transformation of schools into stables. The first massacre took place on April 1, 1909, and was followed by a second, and even more horrible event, which aimed to eliminate the whole Armenian population. Mr. Svajian's slides also included scenes of the Ayn Toura orphanage in Lebanon, which had been established to house and Turkify Armenian orphans and was under the supervision of Halide Edib Hanim and Jemal Pasha, who later served as the Turkish marine minister.

The final slides showed the documents and photos of the signed property deeds belonging to Mr. Svajian's grandparents, which were rescued from the 1909 massacre. At the end of the program, Mr. Svajian invited Garbis Dekmezian, an Adana native, to light candles in memory of the victims of 1909.

Words of appreciation and thanks were spoken by Arsine Attarian, chair of AGBU Montreal's Cultural Committee, and Arshavir Gundjian, AGBU vice president and founding president of the Alex Manoogian School.

The program came to a close with a prayer by Rev. Mher Khachigian and the blessings of Bishop Bagrat Galstian, Primate of the Diocese of Canada.