Originally published in AGBU News magazine (March 2000) Atom Egoyan and Arsinée Khanjian: Canada’s Premier Couple of the Arts At the forefront is cinematic superstar Atom Egoyan. Interviewing Egoyan is like stepping into one of his films. As the light of the tape recorder flashes the discussion is filled with pregnant pauses and frequent segues. […]
Double Exposure: Two Family Portraits, Canada’s Giants of Photography
Originally published in AGBU News magazine (July 2000) For decades, the names of Karsh and Cavouk continue to evoke a world-standard of photography paralleled by few. Together the two familial dynasties have documented the who’s who of the twentieth century and the timeless images of Canada. Today, Malak Karsh and Onnig Cavouk work within their […]
Armenian in Ontario and Quebec: The Long Road to Canada
Originally published in AGBU News magazine (July 2000) The earliest history of Armenians in Canada is mostly an unknown chapter. While records reveal the first Armenian settler, Garabed Nergararian, arrived in Ontario during the 1880’s and lived in the small fishing village of Port Hope, it was not until decades later that any substantial Armenian […]
The First Armenian American Communities Take Root: The Armenian American Plymouth
Original published AGBU News magazine (March 2001) The true Armenian community began to form in Worcester in 1867 shortly after the settlement of Garo from Bitlis, a servant of missionary George C. Knapp. Oral history suggests that while working at the missionary’s home, one of the servants, an Irish laundrywoman, convinced him that working in […]
New York Life Recognizes Genocide Era Insurance Claims
Originally published in AGBU News magazine (April 2004) Sam Kadorian remembers that at the age of five or six a New York Life Insurance Co. salesman visited his home in the Kharpert region of the Ottoman Empire to sell his parents insurance. Kadorian knows his parents bought it, he says, hoping to guarantee some security […]