THE ARMENIANSIN

RHODE ISLANDAncient Roots to Present Experiences·

BY

ARA ARTHUR GELENIAN

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THE ARMENIANSIN

RHODE ISLAND

Ancient Roots to Present Experiences

BY

ARA ARTHUR GELENIAN

Rhode Island Ethnic Heritage Pamphlet Series

Published Jointlyby

The Rhode Island Heritage Commissionand

The Rhode Island Publications SocietyProvidence, 1985

Published jointly byThe Rhode Island Heritage CommissionSenator Robert ]. McKenna, Chairman

andThe Rhode Island Publications Society

Dr. Patrick T. Conley, Chairman

150 Benefit StreetProvidence, Rhode Island 02903

Copyright © 1985 The Rhode Island Heritage CommissionAll rights reserved

Printed in the U.S.A.ISBN: 0-917012-73-9

Published with a grant from theRhode Island Heritage Commission

Rhode Island Echnic Heritage Pamphlet SeriesDr. Patrick T. Conley, General Editor

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EDITOR'S FOREWORD

In 1975 and 1976, on the eve of the bicentennial observance, inmy -capacity as chairman of Rhode Island's celebration (ri76), Iestablished eighteen ethnic heritage committees, consisting ofrecognized leaders of this state's major ethnocultural groups. Onepurpose of this -move was to involve in bicentennial activities thoseethnic communities whose contact with this country did not extendas far back as the Revolutionary era. I urged such groups to observeand commemora te the contributions they had made to the Americanand Rhode Island experience from the time of their arrival down tothe bicentennial year. A much more important reason forestablishing the ethnic heritage program, however, was to allow eachgroup to present its unique contributions, customs, and folkways toits neighbors from other cultural backgrounds. Formulated under thepremise that knowledge promotes understanding and understandingbegets brotherhood, the program was designed to break down theethnocentric barriers and antagonisms that hindered us fromachieving that lofty motto and goal-E pluribus unum, one out ofmany.

The one task assigned to each group upon its formation was towrite a brief interpretive account of its Rhode Island experience­its motives for migration, areas of settlement, cultural survivals, andeconomic, political, and social activities-together with anassessment of its contribution to the development of our state.Though some efforts are more sociological, subjective, anecdotal, orselective than the neat, precise historical narrative that I envisioned,each of these pamphlets in its own way makes a valuable statementto all Rhode Islanders and provides a useful self-evaluation for thegroup that is the subject of analysis.

Mter the bicentennial's expiration, the concept of an ethnicheritage pamphlet series was kept alive by the Rhode IslandHeritage Commission and its tireless chairman, Robert J. McKenna.Albert T. Klyberg of the Rhode Island Historical Society, Dr. HilliardBeller of the Rhode Island Publications Society, and, especially, theauthors of the various essays have also labored to bring this project tofruition as their contribution to the 350th anniversary of thefounding of the state. No historical enterprise could be moreappropriate for this 1986 celebration than a recounting of the toiland the triumph of our diverse peoples: From American Indiansto Southeast Asians, we are Rhode Islanders all!

Patrick T. Conley

PREFACE

. The following essay on the Armenian-American community ofRhode Island surveys the ancient roots of the Armenian people, theirimmigration to the United States-the state of Rhode Island inparticular-:-and some aspects of their ethnic community life. Therehas been no attempt to be exhaustive, since a comprehensive study ofthe Armenian-American community in Rhode Island would requiresome years of extensive research and a lengthy volume forpublication of such material. Some research, however, wasundertaken in order to gain a general but accurate picture of theArmenian-American ethnic experience. The Providence Journal wasscanned fOr articles relating to Armenians, especially articles writtenforty or more years ago. A number of interviews were conducted bothwith Armenian-Americans active in Rhode Island life and withArmenians now retired who were of the immigrant generation. Aquestionnaire eliciting information in family history, occupations,and community service was sent to every known family of Armenianancestry in Rhode Island and nearby Massachusetts. Although only avery few questionnaires were returned, some valuable informationwas nonetheless culled from the responses. Statistical informationfrom the early twentieth century was made available throughtranslation. Other statistics were available in English from churchrecords and other sources. Some additional statistics and materialsexist in the Armenian language but could not be utilized in this essay.

For the writer of this essay, a few persons in particular were ofgreat help in his attempt to understand something of the flavor ofthe Armenian-American community of Rhode Island. Mr. HenryDerderian and his wife Bargeshd were extremely helpful, arranginginterviews and sharing their knowledge and perspective of theArmenian-American community with the writer. Also, AnnKimatian, who worked for the state of Rhode Island for some forryyears beginning in 1935, was very helpful in the writer's efforts tounderstand the attitudes and participation of the Armenian­American in the larger community of Rhode Island; it wasinteresting to hear of those few Armenians who desired to becomeinvolved in public and even political life three or four decades ago.Other Armenian-Americans also graciously communicated theirknowledge and shared their opinions of Armenian ethnic life inRhode Island.

This essay is dedicated to the Armenian immigrant who had thecourage and stamin~ to live in a new environment, and to strive for abetter life in the face of the disasters of the immediate and distant'past.

A. A. Gelenian

Ancient Times to World War IA well-known contemporary Armenian poet, Kevork

Emin, wrote a very pertinent poem entitled "Small," whichsuccinctly describes the Armenian people:

Yes, we are small ..like the bullet in the boreof the rifle; . . .as the pinch of saltthat seasons the table.Small, yes,you have compressed us, world,into a diamond.Small,you have dispersed us,scattered us like stars.

The images of the insightful Eminaptly tell us of the age­old burdens experienced and the countless blessings received bythe Armenian people. Today the numbers of Armeniansthroughout the world have been estimated in the range fromfive million to about seven million persons. In the ancientworld the Armenian people, who lived in the eastern part ofAsia Minor (present-day Turkey) and the Transcaucasian area(present-day Soviet Armenia and part of Soviet Georgia, SovietAzerbaijan, and Iranian Azerbaijan), were well known andreferred to in the documents of Assyria, Greece, Persia,Hellenistic Greece, Rome, Byzantium, the Islamic world,Russia, and Italy. What motivated this people, constantlythreatened and nearly annihilated, to survive and flourish tothis day?

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The suggested answers to this broad question will help usto understand the Armenians as a people, and especially as anethnic group in America and in Rhode Island. We will take tworoutes toward understanding something of the origins andhistory of the Armenian people: first, the geographical route,which will communicate something of a physical picture of theArmenian motherland; second, the historical route, which willreflect, on the basis of modern studies, some of the latestconclusions concerning the Armenian people, their origins, andtheir development.

Armenia is a highly mountainous area, able, withoutexaggeration, to make our Vermont look merely hilly incomparison. It is located between the Black and Caspian seas.At its geographical and political height in the first century B.C.,Armenia covered an area estimated at about 100,000 squaremiles, touching the shores of the Black and Caspian seas as wellas the eastern M:editerranean Sea. But only 11 ,175 square milesof that territory are included today in the Soviet Armenianstate, which is approximately twice the size of Connecticut, aviable but small reminder of the glories of the past.

"The main Armenian plateau lies at an average height ofbetween 4,500 and 5,500 feet above sea level," writes DavidMarshall lang. "Almost everywhere, Armenia is higher thanthe countries which immediately surround it. Cut off fromthem on virtually all sides by barriers of lofty hills andmountain peaks, Armenia seems like some massive rock-boundisland rising out of the surrounding lowlands, steppes andplains." The Armenian people are descended from a sturdymountain people who regarded their mountain peaks, comelyhills, sparkling brooks and streams, and lakes and rivers asreligious symbols of God's greatness and mystery. The physicalenvironment of Armenia is a rugged wilderness, often totallyhostile to human life. For thousands of years Armenians haveused their skills to make this land inhabitable. The Armenianpeople have had to literally wrest their food from the stones ofthe Armenian mountains. The climate is varied and harsh, withthe intensely freezing, winds and snows of winter and thesometimes extreme dry heat of summer. Some areas havewinter seven months of the year, whereas other areas, whichhave wooded mountains and hills, enjoy more moderatetemperatures.

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Mount Ararat in Armenia

The best-known geographic feature of Armenia, and oneespecially familiar to Christians throughout the world, isbiblical Mount Ararat. About eighteen thousand feet above sealevel, Mount Ararat is traditionally believed to be the landingplace of Noah's Ark after the great flo"od as described inGenesis, the first book of the Bible. Mount Ararat has actuallytwo peaks, and although it is in the territory occupied byTurkey today, it is still clearly and historically the ancient areaof Armenian civilization (and was to 1915), and it is rightfullyseen as an Armenian mountain.

Mount Ararat is an ideal context in which to begin ourreview of the origin of the Armenian people. According toGenesis 8:3-5, Noah and his family landed in "the mountains ofArarat" after the biblical flood. Tradition has expanded theBible's account somewhat and placed the actual landing ofNoah's Ark on the hillsides of Mount Ararat in the center ofhistoric Armenia. Thus tradition asserts that the land ofArmenia was the place of the second beginning of civilizationafter the great flood.

Historically speaking, Ararat is the name not only of amountain but also of a land area and a people. In the Old

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The A rmenian alphabet

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in a village-and-:<:lan structure ruled by local headmen andprovincial governors. By and large the Armenians remaineddominated by the Persians (Iranians) until c: 331, whenAlexander the Great conquered the Persian Empire. There­after, Armenia was influenced by the Hellenistic (Greek­Mediterranean) culture of the period, which extended to thefourth century A.D. later, and into Christian times, Armeniawas also dominated by the Roman Empire, and at one periodher soil became the Roman Empire's easternmost province.

The historical period which really defines all else inArmenian history began in the late third to the early fourthcentury AD. In 301 AD. King Tirdat III of Armenia wasconverted to Christianity by the great Christian evangelizer St.Gregory the llluminator, and the king declared that henceforthArmenia was to be a Christian nation. According to tradition,Christianity had come to Armenia during the first century AD.by way of St. Thaddeus and St. Bartholomew, two of Jesus'apostles, who had preached in Armenia, establishing Christiancongregations; they were martyred and buried there.Armenians honor these two apostles to this day. ArmenianChristians and their leaders were sporadically persecutedduring this early period until the nation as a whole becameChristian in 301 A.D. Armenia was perhaps the first state orpeople as a whole to declare Christianity their only religion.Thereafter, Armenian culture, tradition, and attitudes wouldcompletely reflect this Christian foundation.

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Testament book of Jeremiah, chapter 57, reference is made to apeople called the Ararat (Urartu), a people and civilization thatcentered on lake Van and branched into what is today SovietArmenia. Current intense archaeological investigation isrevealing much about the ancient people of Urartu. Theirlanguage is known and many of their inscriptions in acuneiform script have been deciphered. The Urartian kingdom(the home of iron smelting, which began about 1400 B.C)lasted in one form or another until the sixth century B.C, whenit disintegrated and the people were subdued and absorbed bythe Medes. Following this Urartian demise, the Armenians,and Indo-European-speaking people, are mentioned in theancient Persian and Greek records of civilization as theinhabitants of the country of Ararat-Urartu.

The oldest historical and more traditional viewsconcerning Armenian origins, which stem from the ancientGreek historians Herodotus and Strabo, are that the Indo­European-speaking Armenian tribes migrated from theBalkans, down through Thrace, and into Asia Minor, movingeastward and eventually migrating to the Armenian highlandsprior to the sixth century B.C There they absorbed ordominated the remnants of the Urarru people and establishedtheir Indo-European language in the region (related to Celtic,Germanic, and Greek, Armenian is one of the several distinctlanguages in the Indo-European group). Thus, historicallyspeaking, Armenia carrie into existence at a time in the sixthcentury B.C favorable to the settlement and growth of a newpeople.

The word Armenian came to be the identifying name toother nations of a people who now dominated and settled thatarea, while in their own language the Armenians calledthemselves and Armenia Hayk. The actual word Armenia mayderive from the name of a tribal coalition called Arme. By themiddle of the sixth century B.C, there was a distinct politicalArmenian state and an Armenian people. The Armenians havethus been known in the clear light of history for a minimum oftwenty-five hundred years.

In the mid sixth century B.C, Armenia was annexed to theAchaemenid Persian Empire. Located on the ancient wodd'seast-west trade crossroads, Armenia became known forexcelling in the crafts, arts, mountain farming, horse raising,pottery making, metallurgy, wines, and trade. The people lived

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One of the most important events to occur after the year301 A.D. was the invention of the Armenian alphabet. Underthe leadership of two scholars, St. Sahag and St. Mesrob, thisalphabet was created by 404 A.D. Perfectly designed for theArmenian language, it is a phonetic alphabet of thirty-eightletters. Soon after the invention of the alphabet St. Mesrob andother scholars worked on the translation of the Bible intoArmenian which has been recognized as the "queen of alltranslations." This was followed by original works of literature,history, and theology, as well as by the translation of greatliterary works from other languages. And most importantly,the services of the Armenian Church were now rendered fullyin the Armenian. Because of historical circumstances, theArmenian Church emerged as a national church, a distinct andunique institution expressing the characteristics and piety ofthe Armenian people while still retaining its connection to theother ancient eastern churches.

As time went on, Armenians not only intensified theirChristian culture but expanded it. Their Christian zeal tooktheir leading preachers to other lands. In the mid fifth centurythe Armenians began a long struggle with Persia to preservetheir freedom of conscience and religion, to worship freely asChristians, and to preserve their culture against Persianencroachments. Beginning with the famous Battle of Avarair in451, the Armenian lords and their knights struggled with themuch larger Persian armies in order to remain a free Christianpeople. At great cost the Armenians succeeded in this goal. Theconflict, which lasted a century and more, left an indelible markon the Armenian people, a mark of sacrifice for the Christianfaith and personal conscience. Even today in Rhode Island, asin other American communities, every February the wholeArmenian community commemorates the Battle of Avarair.

From about the sixth century to the eleventh century, thewestern part of Armenia was part of the Byzantine (Greek­Christian) Empire, while the eastern part was dominated bythe Persians and then by the Arabs. In the eleventh century theSeljuk Turkic hordes from Central Asia began to penetrate andoverrun Asia Minor and the Middle East. During this periodArmenia~the land and the people-was seriously "dev­astated,. but the people never lost their spirit to rebuild.Most Armenians continued to live, however desperately, intheir homeland, but after this period many Armenians began to

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move to a territory called Cilicia in what is today south centralTurkey, north of the Syrian border. There an Armeniankingdom was established which continued for several hundredyears, maintaining relations with Mongols from Central Asiawho had penetrated the Near East, the Crusaders from theWest, and other Christian states in the Near East. Armenianslived in Cilicia until World War I, even though that medievalArmenian kingdom had also been destroyed by the fourteenthcentury.

From the eleventh century through the nineteenthcentury, the Armenians were ruled or dominated by eitherByzantines, Persians, Turks, or Russians. Although losing theirpolitical independence, they nevertheless persevered in theirchurch, culture, and economic pursuits. The disasters which theArmenians constantly experienced might well have wipedthem out as a nation, but they did not, though there was no endto such calamities. "The Armenian is one of nature'sindividualists, a leaven for the conformist mass of the humanrace," writes David Marshall Lang. "Logically he should havegiven up the struggle and la,in down to die long ago. But herefused and still refuses to surrender, and here lies the key tounderstanding the nature of this dogged, invincible littlepeople, whose contribution to human civilization is out of allproportion to its numerical strength." Even into modern times,and particularly during the late nineteenth and early twentiethcentury, the Armenian lived as a near slave in his own landunder the Ottoman Turkish Empire, which had conquerednearly all of Asia Minor, southern Europe, and the Near Eastsince the fifteenth century. Christian groups such as Armeniansand Greeks were continually persecuted and nearly annihilated,despire their nonthreatening feudal and slavelike status.

With the advent of modern times and the growth of thenineteenth-century European democratic, revolutionary, andnationalistic movements, all of which influenced youngArmenian students studying in Europe, some segments of theArmenian people began to express hope for reform, freedom,and cultural revival. In the late nineteenth century, when theOttoman Turkish Empire became "the sick man of Europe,"subject minorities such as the Armenians cried out for theircultural independence. At this time America was booming, andthe lure of this great country of the West was attracting a fewArmenians to its shores to taste its ways of freedom and

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opportunity, far from the periodic tribulations of the Armenianhomeland. This was not the first time Armenians had migratedfrom their homeland. Ever since the eleventh century,Armenians had departed, sometimes in significant numbers, tosettle elsewhere, concluding that it was hopeless to dream of abetter existence and a more secure society in their oppressednative land. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century,there was to be another dispersion of Armenians, probably thelargest in Armenian history. This exodus would lay thefoundation for the Rhode Island Armenian community, as wellas other Armenian communities in America. '

In the 1890s the Ottoman Turkish government began asystematic attempt to destroy the Armenian people, and thisencouraged an unprecedented volume of immigration to theUnited States. Hundreds of thousands of Armenians werekilled in this first attempt at mass murder in the late 1890s.But it was during the years 1915-1920, the period of WorldWar I, that the Ottoman Turkish government planned andcarried out what was the first genocide of the twentiethcentury: the nearly complete destruction of the Armenianpeople in their native land. It is now estimated that 1.5 millionor more Armenians lost their lives in the massacres and fromthe diseases and starvation which followed, not to mention themillions of dollars in destroyed property and lost land.

Persecutions and massacres are not uncommon, butgenocides-when an attempt is made to wipe out a wholepeople and their culture-are rare in the history of man. Thereasons for this unspeakable action of the Ottoman Turkishgovernment against the Armenian people lie in the context ofextreme Turkish nationalism and the resultant Turkish fear ofthe Christian minorities within Turkey's declining empire.

World War I (1914-1918) was a crucible for much humansuffering, and civilian populations like the Armenians sufferedbeyond all imagination. The miracle of the day was that somesurvived to rebuild the greatly reduced but still existingArmenia under Soviet rule, and that others survived to leaveand find refuge in the free environment of the United States.

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Immigration and Economic MobilityThough relatively few in numbers, Armenians were

among the millions of immigrants who migrated to the UnitedStates and who gave their labor to help make America a leadingindustrial power. Nearly all Armenians began life in theUnited States at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder. Theyrose economically as conditions improved and as they becamefluent in the English language, saved their money, boughtproperty, and established businesses. Armenians were"ambitious and hardworking, shunned relief and were anxiousto find work," as one American observer described them in theearly twentieth century.

Coming in small numbers in the 1870s and 1880s, andthen in larger waves in the 1890s, from the less economicallyprosperous areas of the Armenian provinces of eastern Turkey,Armenians worked in Rhode Island factories and mills. Duringthe depression of 1893 the small population of Armeniansshunned the public rolls and searched for or made work forthemselves. Their ethic of hard work combined with theambition for economic prosperity derived from the necessity ofhelping impoverished relatives living in the Ottoman Empire.Once settled, the Armenians in Rhode Island began to climbthe hard road to greater economic security. Many, if not most,eventually moved out of the factory into specialized work orsmall family businesses. Armenians seemed intent on savingtheir hard-earned cash to become independent, self-employedmerchants of one kind or another. Many became smallshopkeepers, evenif they owned no more than a cobbler shop.But Armenians also opened tailor shops, grocery and meat

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markets, candy businesses, small department stores, andjewelry-manufacruring firms. The immigrant tailor or grocerworked twelve co fourteen hours a day, as hard as his brother inthe faccory. His only purpose was to make enough money tohelp his family in the homeland and ultimately to be reunitedwith his loved ones. The majority of the immigrants were menwho left behind wives, children, and parents.

Since farming in industrial Rhode Island was not a viableeconomic prospect for the Armenian newcomer, who lackedmoney to buy land, he most quickly thought of entrepreneurialactivity as being the most desirable occupation, even though hisexperience in this area might have been negligible. The life ofthe small independent businessman was more familiar to theArmenian immigrant than the industrial atmosphere of thefactory, since the factory system was largely unknown in theArmenian homeland. In Armenia cottage industries wereprimary.

Among the businesses in which Armenians soon becameprominent were the trade in oriental rugs and jewelry making.Although only a few Armenians in Rhode Island engaged inthese activities, they were consistent occupations forArmenians in New England cities, New York City, and othermetropolitan areas. The specialty of rug cleaning became acommon business among Armenians. These occupations werebenefited during the late nineteenth and early twentiethcenrury by an American taste for things oriental ot eastern,from rugs to orromans.

While some Armenians rose economically from smallshopkeepers to larger merchants, many spent their entire livesas factory laborers or in semiskilled pursuits, working hard andpursuing the goal of greater socioeconomic success for theirAmerican-born children, especially through the medium ofeducation. The newly arrived Armenian immigrant was aseager for education as he was for social and economic mobility.There was as strong a desire for education in the factory workeras in the shopkeeper. Some members of the immigrantgeneration arrended college full-time or as srudents inextension programs, and some early Armenians evengraduated from prestigious Brown University. One sourcereported in 1921 that "in proportion co their total numbersthey (the Armenians) have the largest number of students inour colleges."

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The Armenian immigrants were particularly desirous ofupward economic and social mobility, possible because of theirsmall number. They probably felt a need to succeed in order tosurvive. But there must have been other factors as well. Wesuggest that a better answer lies in knowing about the kind ofArmen.ian who came to Rhode Island.

At least one immigration report reveals that 40 percent ofArmenians gainfully employed in Turkish Armenia and Turkeywere of the nonagricultural classes~the artisan and, to asmaller degree, the merchant and professional classes. But thisfact requires further explanation. This economic conditionmay have been the case only with Armenians from theprovinces under Turkish rule rather than with all Armenians.Some writers assert that in the late nineteenth century at least70 to 80 percent of Armenians were.rural peasants. But there isa possibility that much of the rural peasantry, as much as 60percent, was massacred during the period of persecution, 1895­1920. Thus the greater part of the nearly 50 percent of theremaining Armenian people could have been classified in theartisan, the mercantile, or; to a small degree, the professionalclasses. Many of these people immigrated to the United States.Consequently the Armenians who came here displayed a highdegree of handcraft skills and trade and small businessbackgrounds in comparison with the late nineteenth- and earlytwentieth-cenrury immigrants from elsewhere in Europe.Some professionals, clergymen, and teachers were included inthis group. This was, therefore, a fairly literate group ofArmenian immigrants who came co these shores. The lessliterate farming class had in good part been destroyed.

Possibly Armenian immigrant success in America alsoresulted from the kind of society from which the Armenianscame. To live in the Ottoman Empire, even in the Armenianprovinces, was to live in an area surrounded by many people ofdiverse backgrounds, life styles, and religious perspectives. TheArmenian found similar diversity in the United States andreadily adapted to it. The diversity of the people here washardly a novelty to the Armenian, and he became comfortablequite quickly in America. Neither the dominant Protestantculrure nor the large urban Catholic population posed anythingunusual or threatening to him. He was happy that he now livedin a Christian country, a land of Christian churches, howeverdifferent from his Eastern Orthodox form of Christianity, and

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he felt secure knowing he would never again be persecuted forbeing Christian.

A final reason explaining the Armenians' economicsuccess has already been alluded to: the eagerness of Armeniansfor education. In the nineteenth century, with the ArmenianChurch and its cultural institutions in a state of repressionbecause of the long Islamic Turkish domination, there wasnevertheless an educational revival in the Armenian provincesin Turkey and under Russia. This revival reflected thecontemporary European and American growth in generaleducation and the emerging belief in universal literacy as a keyto higher culture. In good part this educational growth camethrough American and German Christian missionaries inTurkey, who were there primarily to convert Turks toChristianity (a formidable task). These missionaries alsohelped to revive the culture and educational life of theArmenian Christian people. In the central city of Harpoot, theArmenian schools became so advanced that periodically theywere closed until the Turkish students in their schools caughtup to their Armenian counterparts, a fact attested to by manyArmenians who attended the precollege schools of Harpootand later came to Rhode Island as immigrants.

Coming to America with this background, Armenianstook advantage of new opportunities by becoming more literateand educated. In Armenia not only men but also women wentto school, often covering what would be equivalent to ourcurriculum in a community college. Would Armenians not lookfor similar opportunities in America? It is said that between1899 and 1924 in Armenia, 82 percent of all Armenians couldread and write in Armenian, with many having fluency inTurkish, French, German, and English as well. This is a highrate of literacy for a nation where the majority of the peoplelived in a semirural environment. The educational experiencein Armenia encouraged discipline, skills, self-respect, a sense ofpersonal dignity, and cultural pride. The literacy of theArmenian immigrant in Rhode Island and elsewhere wasprobably far higher than that of other immigrant groups,especially among those who did not speak English initially.This level of literacy facilitated the rapid rise of the Armenianimmigrant up the socioeconomic ladder.

Although Rhode Island was a new and strange place,Armenians quickly settled in and created a community life

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centering on home, clan, church, political organizations; culturaland educational groups, philanthropic societies, and memoriesof the not-too-distant past. The earlier Armenian immigrantsto Rhode Island of the 1890s could welcome-as Americans-their kin who were coming after 1915 as refugees of aterrible national disaster. By the 1930s Armenians had begunthe slow process of becoming fully a part of the largerAmerican community of Rhode Island. During the period 1898to 1932, when U.S. immigration statistics reflected thlltethnicityof the new arrivals, 6,375 Armenians came to thisstate. They settled mainly in Providence in Smith Hill, theNorth End, Federal Hill, and Olneyville, with smallercommunities in Pawtucket and Woonsocket. By the 1940sArmenia's sons and daughters were giving service in the armedforces of the United States during World War II. The 1950saffected the Armenian community, as other immigrantcommunities were also affected, with the problems andtensions of the "melting pot" reality: The first of theAmerican-born generation was coming of age, feeling the"foreignness" of their parents and experiencing a strong desireto be just American.

Those of this first American-born generation have by nowlong since become secure. They, as well as the second and thirdArmenian-American generations, are no longer concernedabout "foreignness," but instead have a desire to cultivate theirethnic ancestry,· renew their appreciation of their parents,grandparents, and great-grandparents, and express theiridentity as Armenian-Americans in a pluralistic Americancontext.

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Armenian-Ameri(:ans: Two ExamplesThe lights of Providence shown in the dark as we disembarked onthe soil of this beautiful country, and into the arms of my fatherand brother. When we arrived at their home on Wilmarth Avenuein East Providence, we mer our wonderful stepmorher, Mariam.We asked in amazement wherher all the furniture and roomsbelonged to them. My most wonderful parents jusr looked ar usand smiled.

Henry Derderian (of Henry's Delicatessen, Cranston,Rhode Island) had expressed these thoughts in 1927, relatingan experience common to the generation which came here tobuild a new life from the ravages of the massacres. Henry was ayoung man when he came to America, but his arrival here in1927 was relatively late among Armenian immigrants. Henry'sexperience, however, was a mirror of the circumstances whichbrought most Armenians here, circumstances which havedefined the Armenian character positively and negatively inthe twentieth century and will do so for some generations tocome.

Born in 1910, Henry Derderian can remember clearly atage five holding onto his mother's hand as the whole village ofPropert, near Sepastia in Turkish Armenia, was apparentlymoving out. As young Henry (Armenian name Hampartzoom)watched, women, the elderly, and children-many men, youngand old, had already been murdered-were packing theirworldly possessions onto mules and wagons and preparing todepart. ,

Traveling with the group, Henry saw nothing but dead,massacred Armenians along the roadways, beside the brooks,

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and in the valleys. "The stench of death was everywhere," herecalls. Although he was very much afraid, his mother wasthere to comfort him, and there was dried bread to eat. Oneday,· the Turkish police accompanying the group tooksome Armenian young men to a valley out of sight of theothers. Gunshots rang out. The Turks returned, but the youngArmenian men did not return. Henry knew the youths hadbeen murdered-but why? How could a five-year-oldunderstand, even with the realities staring him in the face?

One evening, for no apparent reason, Henry and hismother were taken from the group and brought to a villagenamed Oulash. Then they went on to Kanak, to the home of arich Turk. Another Armenian woman and her son were alsosnatched away and brought there by the man's brother. TheArmenians were to serve this wealthy Turk and his family asvirtual slaves. Henry's mother was to wash and clean. Henrywas to tend sheep and keep the barn clean. To their Turkishmaster, Henry and the others were scum because they wereChristians. The Turks were Moslems. Christians, if not killed,were made slaves and treated as scum, or giaou1'J, as they werecalled by the Turks.

, Henry slept in a trough in the barn. His mother and theothers slept in the barn as well. Henry now was nearly totallyuprooted from everything he once knew-family, friends,home, church, school. During this time two importantincidents occurred which he never forgot. The first was theoccasion of his being beaten with a whip by his Turkish master,who found him asleep in the pasture one day. Some of thesheep had gone astray. The second incident was the tragicdeath of his mother. The occasion. was passed with no churchservice, no priest for last rites, just a white sheet to wraparound her and a wooden cross on her grave to symbolize herfaith in Christ.

Soon people began to hear that an Armenian boy had beenenslaved nearby, and plans were made by Armenians to rescuehim. Eventually Henry was snatched away from the Turkishfamily and placed in an orphanage in Sivas. There in Sivas werethousands of orphans who had been left homeless and starvingas a result of the massacre of their parents and grandparents bythe Ottoman Turks. Henry did not even remember his lastname at the orphanage, and so he gave his father's first name,Soukias, as his last name. A year later Henry's older brother

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Now retired, Henry is best known for his Henry's Deli,which he opened in 1945 in Edgewood. It was probably one ofthe first Armenian specialty food stores in Rhode Island.Although Henry is a distinct individual, he is also typical of theArmenian immigrant: bringing with him both fond memoriesof his native land and painful, nightmarish recollections of themassacres perpetrated against his people, he arrived ready tobuild a new life in America: Henry's story is only one amongstmany, and there were immigrants from Armenia who hadsuffered even more than he did. But the story of HenryDerderian illustrates the common background which motivatedArmenians to come to the United States as their permanenthome.

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The grand opening of Henry's Spa, March 6, 1947. Shown in thepicture are Henry Derderian and his wife Bargeshd, AnnetteKlanicm, Theodore Topakian, Albert Arabian, and a throng ofopening-day customers.

Providence and graduated from junior high school in a coupleof years. He was proud of being an American. In 1933 he marriedBargeshd Stambolian in Providence. Her father, a doctor inIstanbul, Turkey, had been killed by the Turks when she wasless than six months old. During the sad days of deportation,both she and her mother were saved by her uncle, KeghamAyvazian, who also settled in Rhode Island for a while beforemoving west to Ohio.

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Arshag found him and corrected this situation by telling himthat his last name was Derderian. Henry attended a school atthe orphanage, and it was there that another memorableincident occurred. While workmen were digging for thepurpose of additional construction, human bones werediscovered everywhere. It seems that the Mongols had wreakeddestruction on the Armenian people-Armenian children inparticular-centuries ago. History had repeated itself in thetwentieth century with greater intensity, and Henry waswitness to it.

In 1922 the orphans were informed that they were to bemoved to Greece, for once again life was insecure in Turkey.The group was taken to the port of Samson, and there theyboarded a Turkish ship which carried them through the BlackSea and the Dardanelles toward Greece. Thousands of peoplewere on the decks with no sanitation facilities and little food. Itwas a rough voyage and a trying time. When the ship finallyreached Edipsos, Greece, the group of orphans was broken up,and Henry was taken to an orphanage in the city of Corinth.

A few years later Henry was transferred to an orphanagecalled Zapion in Athens. Here he discovered his secondbrother, Moushegh, and also found out something that he hadsuspected-his two sisters had been murdered by the Turks inthe massacres. It was in Athens that Henry was at lastcontacted by his father. Together with Henry's eldest brotherMegurditch, his father had gone to America in 1900 with theintention of earning and saving money and then returning toTurkish Armenia to help his family, as other immigrants haddone in the years prior to 1914. The First World War hadintervened, however, and Henry's father and brother wereunable to come back as they had planned.

Finally, in January 1927, at age 17, Henry boarded a shipwith his brother Moushegh at Piraeus, Greece, to come toAmerica. Brother Arshag, who had become separated from hisbrothers, had boarded the same ship a few days before inConstaninople, Turkey. After some twelve years of living inorphanages, the brothers were reunited and on their way toAmerica, a land that would surely be a place of God's blessing.Their mother was buried back in ancestral soil, relatives andother family members were dead, but once in Rhode Islandthey would be a fam.ily again, and they would begin a new life!

Henry went to the Bliss School on Broadway in

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Harry Kizirian is a first-generation Armenian-American.He was born in Providence, Rhode Island, inJuly 1925, the sonof Toros and Haropig Kizirian, both immigrants now deceased.Harry's mother had been widowed in Armenia and hadexperienced the loss of nine children in the massacres. Here inAmerica she married Toros Kizirian, and Harry was their onlychild. Although Harry's parents were able to provide for him inonly a modest way during his growing years, his academic workwas excellent and he was offered a scholarship to laSalleAcademy, though he chose to attend Mount Pleasant HighSchool. When Harry was fifteen his father died, and thus hehad to grow up fast. He began work part-time bagging beef andunloading freight cars. In 1942 he went to work at theProvidence Post Office at the suggestion of a high schoolfootball referee. He graduated from Mount Pleasant HighSchool in January 1944, having been active in Sports andcaptain of the football team in 1943.

On the day after his graduation Harry enlisted in theMarine Corps, and for the next two years he served his countrywith great distinction. With World War II at its height, he wasquickly sent into combat. Wounded twice on Okinawa, he wasawarded the Navy Cross, two Purple Hearts, the Bronze Starwith Gold V, the Rhode Island Cross, and more. He is one ofthe most decorated Marines in Rhode Island. Honorablydischarged in February 1946, he then came back to RhodeIsland to resume his life in his native state.

In September 1947 he married Hazel Serabian of Messina,New York. During that same year he returned to work at thepost office, and in 1954 he was named foreman there. LaterHarry took on the responsibility of administering the newTurnkey Mechanized Post Office in Providence. It wasa new andtough job, but he kept at it for two years until his task wascompleted. He seemed blessed with both the ability and thedesire to work hard at tasks that would challenge him.

At the age of thirty-five Harry was nominated to becomepostmaster of Providence. Although no Armenian in RhodeIsland had yet attained a position of this stature, in modest butdefinite ways Armenians had begun to enter public service, andthus the road that Harry was traveli'1.g was not unusual. In1961 Harry Kizirian's appointment as postmaster wasconfirmed by the United States Senate. For this first­generation Armenian-American, in a world far removed from

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Harry Kizirian, U.S. Postmaster, Providence, Rhode Island

The first native-born generation of any immigrantcommunity is one especially worthy of study. It is thegeneration which is most closely tied to the immigrant group.It is the generation which feels most keenly the tensions andstrains of being somehow both of a particular ethnicbackground and American at the same time. It is the generationthat is embarrassed by its parents' foreign accent, and yet, whenmature, it is a generation that begins to prize its ownconnection to a past only a generation removed in history. It isa generation which is proud of its cultural transition, atransition that makes it possible for its children to feelcompletely at home in the new country. If there are traditionsto pass on or be witness to, it is the first generation which hasthe opportunity to transmit the culture of its forefathers andmothers.

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opportunity and success had indeed come true.

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We have looked briefly at Henry Derderian and HarryKizirian, two Armenians separated by age but significantlyrepresentative of the manner in which Armenians becameAmericans in Rhode Island. Although not all Armeniansprospered here, the successes of these two men show how formany the promise of America has been richly fulfulled.

In their differences and similarities, Henry Derderian andHarry Kizirian are representative of Rhode Island's Armenian­Americans. They reflect the general experience of bothimmigrant and native-born Americans, living in two culturessimultaneously, yet fulfilling simultaneously the need to beAmerican and the desire never to forget what it means to be ofArmenian ancestry. Looking at these two men and otherpersons like them in the Armenian-American community, wecan discern something of the nature and growth of thatcommunity here in Rhode Island as it moved from newlyarrived immigrant families to church congregations andbuildings, to political organizations, to philanthropic andcultural societies, and finally to the full participation of theArmenian first, second, and third American-born generations

, in every aspect of Rhode Island life.

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III

I The Church: The Center ofArmenian Community Life

For thirteen centuries the Armenians lived under the swayof Islam, which recognized them as a religious entity. Thus thechurch became for Armenians the symbol of their nationhood,language, spirit, and pride. It was the only channel throughwhich they could culturally and politically assert their identity.It would appear that this was the case for the aristocracy as wellas for the mountain peasant farmer and those in between. Wewould expect that wherever Armenians began to build orrebuild their lives, one of the first tasks they would undertakewould. be the construction of a church to serve as the center ofthe spiritual and cultural life of the community. The RhodeIsland Armenian community was no exception.

The overwhelming maj'Ority of the Armenian peoplebelong to the ancient Church of Armenia, or, as it is morecommonly called, the Armenian Apostolic Church, whichbelongs to the Eastern churches of the Orient. From the fourthcentury A.D. on, the Armenian Church helped to create andsustain the Christian culture and national identity of theArmenian people. Not only did the church's teachers andpreachers preach the Christian faith, but the very architectureof the church communicated its sense of having a distinctidentity and a divine mission to the Armenian people as anation. Thus the Armenian Church, in all ages and whereverArmenians settle and resettle, is the outward sign of an innerreality of the religious and national sentiment of the Armenianpeople. The ethnic community life of Armenians is centered intheir church. '

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The Armenian Apostolic community in the Providencearea established itself as an organized entity in 1888 with apopulation of just thirty-five persons. (The ProvidenceArmenian community was an extension of that of Worcester,Massachusetts, which was the first city of significant Armeniansettlement in the New England area.) Prior to 1895 theyounger generation of Armenians brought pastors such asBishop Saradjian of Worcester to celebrate the Divine Liturgy(Mass) for the Providence church, but by 1895 the need for apermanent pastor was evident. The Very Reverend VaghinagSiragian, an able religious leader, was recommended to thepastorate of the church, and the Catholicos Khrimia.n Hairigwas cabled to request approval of the choice (the catholicos isthe supreme leader, or patriarch, of the Armenian Church).The choice was approved, and on May 30, 1897, Siragian waswelcomed enthusiastically to Providence by the parishioners.The Armenian population of Providence and vicinity at thattime numbered over five hundred.

Just two years later, on July 14, 1899, Siragian died. For ayear and a half no pastor was available, and in 1900 theReverend Khat Markarian served for four to five months. In1901 the Very Reverend Arsen Behouni was elected pastor ofthe church and served for three years, after which he waspromoted to work as Vicar-General under Bishop Saradjian.From 1904 until 1911 the church was able to have priests foronly short terms.

In 1912 and 1913 the community's spiritual life declined,and the catholicos sent Archbishop Kevork Utudjian torevitalize the congregation and serve and enhance the spiritualand cultural needs of the people. A new parish council wo,rkedtowards the establishment of a permanent church location.While there had been attempts made prior to 1913 to buy orbuild a church structure, it was not until 1913 that the crucialstep was taken and the former Jefferson Street Baptist Churchin Providence was acquired. Prior to the actual purchase, thechurch was incorporated under Rhode Island law as theArmenian Apostolic Church in Providence, but later-and tothis day-it would be known as the St. Sahag and St. MesrobArmenian Apostolic Church (Holy Translators Church). Thecharter was granted on September 26, 1913.

On January 26, 1914, the first Christmas Divine Liturgywas performed in the newly acquired church. The church was

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consecrated on June 7, 1914, by Bishop Moushegh Seropian.From 1917 to 1932 six clergymen served for short periods oftime. One of the longest pastorates was held by the VeryReverend Sion Manoogian, who served from 1936 to 1946.This was a period of spiritual reawakening.

In 1936 the church's mortgage was paid and anenthusiastic celebration was held in the church hall; in 1938 thetwenty-fifth anniversary of the church's purchase wascelebrated., Father Manoogian was elevated to the office ofbishop and consecrated to that office in the spring of 1946 inHoly Etchmiadzin (in Soviet Armenia), the ancient andcontinuing primary seat of the Armenian. Apostolic Church.

During the decades of the 1940s and 1950s, theAmerican-born generation of Armenians began to take anactive part in the church's life. In the 1950s another longpastorate was held by the Reverend Shahe Altounian, who waspastor of the church from 1950 to 1958. During this time thechurch grew in its spiritual outreach, as well as organizing amen's club and the envelope system of donations. TheReverend Haik Donikian followed Altounian in the pastorate,performing his first Divine Liturgy in the church on Sunday,June 8, 1958. He has been pastor of the St. Sahag and St.Mesrob Church since that time. It was during this period thatthe Egavian brothers donated a sum of money for the purposeof constructing a social hall, completed in 1960 and dedicated in1961.

In June 1960 the supreme patriarch of the ArmenianChurch, Catholicos Vasken I, visited the Providence congre­gation. This was the first time the head of the ArmenianChurch, seated in Soviet Armenia, had come to America, andthe St. Sahag and St. Mesrob Church was included as one of hispoints of visitation.

In that eventful year the church newspaper Paros was firstpublished in both Armenian and English, and the churchbecame a member of the Rhode Island State Council ofChurches. A few years later the church's' basement wasrenovated, and since the completion of this work in June 1963the new rooms have been used for a church school and anArmenian language school.

In 1963 the new Interstate Highway 95 cut throughseveral of the streets close to the church, depriving it ofparking spaces but making the church structure more visible,

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the church plant for religious and ethnic activities. Landproperties around the church have also been purchased toprepare for an eventual community center building.

,..,..,..,..,..The Armenian Apostolic Church community does not dot

the Rhode Island landscape with many small parish churches.A hundred years ago there were as many as three thousandchurches in Armenia, literally one in every village and town,and more than a few in every larger town and city. The idealparish was a small community of Armenians led by their priest.In Rhode Island smaller parishes never developed, since themajority of Armenians in the state settled in the Providencearea very close to each other, at first many (if not most) livingin the Douglas Avenue-Smith Hill section of Providence.Recovering from the shock of massacre and social destruction,Armenian immigrants naturally tended to settle together inlarge groups, rather than in such smaller separated groups aswere common in Armenia. In addition, the genocide of 1915­1920 had decimated the clergy, and spiritually the church wasbereft of its usual number of spiritual leaders. Thus in America,with fewer clergy, large parishes became the rule.

Despite its residential pattern, by the 1940s theArmenian community could have utilized one or moreadditional parish churches in the areas of Rhode Island whereArmenians had settled or resettled. Nevertheless, it was for acomplex set of reasons having to do with the internal politicaland religious life of the Armenian community in the UnitedStates, rather than for simple parish need, that an additionallarge parish church began to take shape.

Sts. Vartanantz Armenian Apostolic Church was estab­lished in 1940 as a result of a rift in the Armenian communityin Providence. Almost all ethnic communities in the UnitedStates eventually experience some fracture or schism, and theArmenian ethnic community was no exception. For many yearsthe Armenian Apostolic community had worshipped togetherin what is presently the St. Sahag and St. Mesrob Church. Bythe 1930s the Armenian community in the United States wasincreasingly beset by tensions and frustrations concerning thefailure of the peace agreements of the post-World War I periodto create an independent and secure Armenia (Armenia hadbeen independent as a small state from 1918 to 1920, but it had

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His Holiness Vasken I, Supreme Patriarch and Catholi"cos of allArmenians, blessing the cornerstone of the Egavian Auditorium,St. Sahag and St. Mesrob Armenian Apostolic Church. With thecatholicos are (left to right) Archbishop Sion Manoogian, Primateof the Diocese of the Armenian Church of America; Deacon Ka­chadoor N. Kazarian; and Archbishop Gomidas Der Stepanian.Seen in the backf!.round is Judge John K. Najarian.

especially at night, when the church's main cross on top of thebell tower is lighted in a soft blue neon light.

Characteristically, St. Sahag and St. Mesrob has remainedthe center of Armenian ethnic life for her people. By the 1970sAmerican-born Armenians had fully taken their place asleaders in the church Sunday school, the Armenian languageschool, and church committees, all of which are seeking toincrease the church's service and outreach to the congregation.Athletic programs have been initiated for the church's youth.In the 1960s the church had become more involved in theactivities of the Council of Churches and other ecumenicalactivities, as illustrated by gifts from the Providence Greekcommunity and the Sacred Heart Catholic Church of WestWarwick in 1969. In that same year costly reconstruction,internal and external, was undertaken in order to further utilize

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then been absorbed into the Soviet Union). By 1933 manyArmenians in the United States had become estranged fromthe larger Armenian-American community, and these tensionscarried over into religious life.

Some Providence Armenians who now felt estrangedbegan to plan for a new parish church, and a nine-man board oftrustees was formed to proceed with this church's organization.The immediate work of this committee was to rent a church at197 Cranston Street in Providence. Prior to the time whenthere was a church building, the Reverend Mateos Manigiantraveled from place to place performing religious services. Insuccession, the Very Reverend Chevont Martoogesian, theReverend Hoosig Nakhnikian, and the Reverend YegisheKasparian were invited to pastor the congregation in therented church.

It was with much difficulty that the church's work wascarried out. Priests and congregation became. tired anddiscouraged laboring from church to church, hall _to hall, forservices and other functions. This situation persisted for fiveyears. In September 1938 the infamous hurricane destroyed therented church on Cranston Street, and that sad event became animportant turning point for the church. The congregation wasforced, in that devastated condition, to purchase a churchbuilding to serve as its permanent center. A committee wasformed, and it chose the present church building on Broadway,which formerly housed the Episcopal congregation of St.James. This structure was felt to satisfy all the requirements ofthe congregation's spiritual and community activities.

$ince it was not certain what to name the new church, itwas unanimously agreed to call it All Saints Church, and thisname still stands on the original records. It was the desire ofMrs. Mary Markarian to become godmother of the church (anArmenian custom), and with the agreement of thecongregation, on June 23,1940, the church was consecrated andnamed Sts. Vartanantz Armenian Apostolic Church.

Just three years later, on June 27, 1943, the church'smortgage was completely paid, as were all its debts. Thisaccomplishment reflected the wholehearted moral andfinancial support of the church's parishioners. Through theyears the priests have labored to see the congregation progress,and without their devotion and prayers the church could nothave accomplished so much in so little time.

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The Reverend Dr. Mesrob Tashjian has been the pastor ofSts. Vartanantz Church for nearly a quarter of a century,serving the church with great dedication and writing a churchschool curriculum for the Armenian Prelacy. He has concludedthat Armenian ethnicity will be furthered by an intelligentawareness of the unique Armenian Church and its Christianwitness and the history of the Armenian people. He has taughtclasses in religion, history, and language to his parishioners forthe purpose of heightening their awareness of their ethnic andChristian heritage.

Sts. Vartanantz Church, like other churches, is seeking tobecome relevant to young people while communicating tothem a spiritual and historical consciousness as well. To thatend a new school building, attached to the main church, wasconstructed and dedicated to Christian learning and theteaching of the Armenian language.

The Sts. Vartanantz Church looks to the catholicate seat ofthe Armenian Church in Antelias, Lebanon, the see of Cilicia,for spiritual and administrative guidance, as do otherArmenian churches that are affiliated with the ArmenianPrelacy. Thus the Armenian Church has two administrativeseats, the primary one in Soviet Armenia and another inAnte1ias, Lebanon, the latter being an extension of the Ciliciansee in south central Turkey prior to World War I. In the UnitedStates the two representative units are in continuous dialoguein order to heal the breach that developed during the turmoilwithin the Armenian-American community a half century ago.

* * * * *The third and oldest parish in the community is the

Armenian Euphrates Evangelical Church. In 1889 a group ofArmenian Evangelical immigrants first convened to holdprayer meetings in various American Protestant churches. Thegroup grew, and in 1891 it became organized and beganholding regular services of worship in the BeneficentCongregational Church of Providence, the congregation's homefor the next twenty-one years. In 1892 membership consistedof thirty-eight parishioners. Various preachers and ministersserved the church for periods ranging from six months to threeyears until 1905, when Arpiar Vartabian became minister. Hewas ordained in the church in 1906 and served until 1910.

For a time the congregation undertook to serve the

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Armenian Protestants in nearby Rehoboth, Massachusetts. TheReverend Stephen Yaghoubian (1910-1915) organized a groupof families in 1910 as a branch of the Providence church.Services of worship were conducted in private homes oneSunday every month, with laymen performing the services onthe other Sundays. These services lasted until 1918, when someof the fam.lIies moved to Providence and there was no furtherneed for church services in Rehoboth. Prayer meetings,however, continued to be held in Rehoboth until 1929.

In 1912 Yaghoubian led the effort which saw the purchaseof a church building and the home behind it at 42 HammondStreet in Providence. The land upon which the church buildingstood was rented. In 1915 the Reverend Jacob Depoyan began afifteen-year ministry at the church, during which time anumber of significant events took place. In 1917 the wordEuphrates was incorporated into the church's name. In 1921the Evangelical Union was held in the Euphrates Church. In1922 the Reverend Mr. Depoyan and his wife were honoredwith a wedding anniversary celebration, where the sum oftwenty-four thousand dollars was given as a gift to the couple;the Depoyans asked that the sum be given to the church, andwith this money the land was purchased. In 1927 thecongregation raised funds to remodel the church and build asocial hall.

In 1931 the Reverend Nishan Hachian began hispastorate on the occasion of the fortieth anniversary of thechurch. By 1944 the mortgage on the church hall was fully paid.That year marks the financ;ial independence of the church,attained through the efforts of the Reverend Y. Rushdoony, itspastor. In 1946 the church gave a reception to welcome backforty-seven young men who had served during World War II, alarge number of men in service for such a small congregation.The purchase of the church parsonage in 1948 was anotherimportant financial step for the congregation.

The Reverend Arsen Goergizian was elected pastor in1954, and the following year he began to publish a monthlynewsletter. In 1961 he completed fifty years of service in theArmenian Protestant ministry. Also in 1961 the church joinedthe newly formed national denomination of the United Churchof Christ.

In 1966 the Covenant Congregational Church building at13 Franklin Street was purchased and became the permanent

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home of the congregation and the center of its collectiveactivities. Since 1966 the church has called a new pastor to itspulpit, the Reverend leon Tavitian, who has emphasized aministry to the youth and, the teaching of the socialimplications of the Christian faith. While never growingbeyond a small congregation, the Armenian Protestantcommunity is a significant element in local Armenian­American life. Its oldest members were among the earliestRhode Island Armenian arrivals, while its current parishionersinclude many who are in successful business and professionalpursuits.

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Armenian Political OrganizationsAs Armenians were settling in Rhode Island, they were

naturally interested in organizing themselves socially. This wasdone not only through the churches and educational andcultural associations, but also through the transplantedArmenian political organizations of the late nineteenth andearly twentieth centuries. These organizations represented akind of politics more characteristic of continental Europe thanof America. The Armenian political clubs have in their ownway encouraged the continuity of Armenian consciousness andthe enhancement of ethnic life.

Although it is difficult to draw a direct connectionbetween Armenian political organizations and Armenianparticipation in American politics, a few things are clear.Probably Armenian political organizations acted as anintermediary political experience for the immigrant who wasgetting adjusted and beginning to find security in his newAmerican environment. If we use Armenian political activitiesas an indicator, then Armenians would be rated highly political.But since Armenians' did not come from northern Europe,.where politics are more like those of America, and since theydid not initially speak English and were few in numbers, it isunderstandable that they were preoccupied with ethnicconcerns. Armenian participation in the American politicalprocess had to wait until the first and second Armenian­American generations became comfortable enough to begenuinely interested in American politics.

Some knowledge of political parties in Armenia isimportant to an understanding of the initial political activity of

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Armenians who had' settled in Rhode Island. The crucial factabout these Armenian political parties is that they were formedin the 1880s as a result of persecutions suffered at the hands ofRussia and Turkey. Aspirations for freedom and independencegrew among young Armenians who had been educated inEurope, and some concluded that the separation of Armeniainto an independent state was the only guarantee of futurepolitical security and cultural regeneration. Other Armenians-probably the majority-wanted to work for politicalreform within' the Ottoman Empire. Thus the origins oftwentieth-century Armenian politics, like those of the politicsof most European states, lay in the nineteenth century, whennationalism and ethnic consciousness were growing once againamong southern Europeans as well as Armenians in easternTurkey.

There were three principal Armenian political organizations: the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, or Dash­naktsuthiun; the Armenian Democratic liberal organization,or Ramgavar; and the Hunchag, or Social Democratic party.One of the earliest parties formed was the Armenakan party,founded in 1885 by students, intellectuals, and clergy. Thisparty later merged with the Ramgavar party. A less thanrevolutionary organization, the Ramgavar party was perhapsroughly equivalent to the liberal wing of the Republican partyin America. The Ramgavar party reorganized itself in 1920,after the massacres, and played an important role in thepolitical life of the Armenian communities in the United Statesand the Middle East. In 1887 a new party was formed called theSocial Democratic, or Hunchagian party. Httntchag means"ringing bell." This party was formed to call all Armenianpeople to revolution and freedom from the domination of theoppressive Ottoman Turkish Empire. Both the Ramgavar andthe Social Democratic parties had been active prior to themassacres, and sometimes their activities led to reprisals.

In 1890 a third imporcant Armenian political parcy wasformed, the Federation of Armenian Revolutionaries (Tash­nags). As its name indicates, it was intended to unite all theother political groups, but it became a separate political partyitself. This was the most determinedly revolutionary of all theparcies. Its members were daring enough to strike againstTurkish and Kurdish chieftains who had for so long persecutedArmenians, even: though these acts brought murderous revenge

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upon the Armenian people at the hands of the Kurds andTurks.

When the Armenians came to Rhode Island, they broughtwith them their political organizations and interests. DouglasAvenue in Providence became the center of Armenian politicalclubs, which exist there to this day. These organizations haveserved more as an expression of hope and idealism than as ameans of bringing about political change in Armenia. Whilethe Armenian political organizations in America haveundertaken such cultural activities as the publication ofnewspapers, they have been more actively involved in moaningover the frustrations of the World War I period. Their criticismof each other has at times reached the pitch of destructiveantagonism. As a result, many Armenians separatedthemselves from the animosities and infighting of theArmenian political organizations and became apolitical, andthis too may have slowed the participation of Armenians inAmerican politics. Armenian political life thus has had a longchilling effect on Armenian-American involvement in theAmerican political process. That a thaw in the freeze is comingnow is a positive development.

In general, the life of the Armenian community is almostfully centered in the church rather than in Armenian politicalgroups. The original goals of the political organizations are allbut irrelevant now, with the exception of their efforts­pursued with other Armenian-American associations-tocorrect the great injustices of the 1915-1920 period against theArmenian people. Armenians hope someday to see the returnof traditional Armenian territories and the fulfillment of theage-old dream of an independent Armenia. In Rhode Island, aselsewhere, the Armenian political organizations are wonderingif they can survive, since they must resolve the question of howrelevant Armenian old-world politics are in America sixtyyears after the major immigration period. Yet the interest insuch organizations remains, at least to some degree. Now,however, Armenian-Americans are beginning to participatesuccessfully in American political life as well.

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ConclusionPatriotism

America enjoys a special kind of patriotism, andArmenians share in it fully. As the United States is a fresh startin history, the Armenians who came to these shores wished tooto make a fresh start, to live as free people in a nation dedicatedto freedom. The notion of freedom is a concept especially dearto Armenians. For centuries the Armenians suffered under theyoke of various dominant powers, oppressors for whom a beliefin fate provided a rationale for political subjection and slavery.But America, which has never been dominated by anotherpower, showed that man can exercise control over his own life.This is what Armenians craved in their homeland, a rejectionof fate and a chance for self-determination. It was the spirit ofChristianity, as Armenians first understood it, that made thenotion of freedom a true possibility, and it was in America thatthat notion was socially and politically realized.

Materialism is a part of America's coloring. But money inAmerica, the promise of a better material blessing, is not justmaterialism. Armenians worked especially hard to succeedmaterially because they realized that money can be a greatliberalizing force, a great equalizer. It destroys the oldoppressive class strucrure of feudalism and enables anyone torise. Money makes it possible, however little else one has, toclimb the socioeconomic ladder.

But even money is not enough. Basically it is freedom andthe love of it that defines America. Armenians are perhapsespecially sensitive to signs of political regimentation whichcan endanger freedom. One immigrant Armenian clergyman,the Reverend Abraham Hartunian, has offered a profound

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The Armenian '1 ·Martvu' Memorialof ProvidenceRhode1ala..d

their ability to deal with those terrible memories. The projectwas an expression of an energetic people proud of theirancestry and able to look objectively at the tragedy of the past, atragedy that to some degree involved them all.

The Armenian-American author Michael Arlen, in hisaward-winning book Passage to Ararat, portrayed a kind ofcoming-of-age of an Armenian-American, with a realisticrecognition of the hurts of the past, a need to write of them,and a determination to work to correct these injustices-butalso to live beyond them. The Armenians have been toocreative a people, and have struggled too long to surviveagainst the most terrible odds, to have been crushedpermanently under the tragic events of their history. In a sensethe memorial monument has at last given rest to the one and ahalf million Armenian martyrs, who could not be buried withthe last rites of the church in Christian dignity. The Martyrs'Memorial is a deeply felt psychological venture, an affirmationby the community that its hurts, while not completelyforgotten, can now be faced with candor and courage. '

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warning to a free society: "When governments forget that theyare dealing with human beings, not abstract problems, theresults can be horribly inhuman." Armenians lived until 1915under an empire governed by the Turks, al d even nowArmenia is a Soviet Republic under yet anothe. empire.

It was a quest for freedom that brought the Armenians tothis country, and they found here the freedom they wereseeking. But· Armenian-Americans are aware that freedomcannot be taken for granted, that it is a responsibility as well asa privilege. Mindful of their history, they are prepared to joinwith other Americans in the continuing task of preserving andenhancing the freedom they value so dearly. In doing so, theywill be true not only to their own Armenian culture but to thebest traditions of America as well.

The Ethnic FutureRhode Island's Armenian-Americans have expressed their

sense of community through a number of committees,including the Armenian Bicentennial Subcommittee. Not onlydid this group organize the Armenian Heritage Day celebratedat the Warwick Mall in 1976, but the spirit of community thatit fostered led to the full activation of another importantcommittee, the Armenian Martyrs' Memorial Committee.

This latter group, formed several years ago, consists ofmen and women from throughout the Armenian ethniccommunity of Rhode Island. Members of the local Armenianclergy serve on the committee as honorary members. The goalof the committee, now realized, was to erect a granitemonument dedicated by Rhode Island Armenians to the mem­ory of friends and relatives, and the memory of all Armenians,who died in the 1915 -1920 massacres conducted by theOttoman Turkish government. The monument was erected in1977 on twenty-five thousand square feet of land situated at theentrance of the North Burial Ground in Providence.

The leaders of the Memorial Committee saw theirendeavor not only as an ethnic community project but as a taskwhich could have begun only now, after years of settlement andgrowth of the state's Armenian community. Even a generationago the community would have been too divided and toodistressed by memories of the Genocide of 1915 to have madethe Martyrs' Memorial a reality. That the project could beundertaken is a testimony to how far Armenians have come in

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SUGGESTED READINGDer Hovanessian, Diana. Anthology of Armenian Poetry. New York,

1978.

Der Nersessian, Sirarpie. The Armenians. New York, 1970.

Lang, David Marshall. Armenia: Cradle of Civilization. London,1970.

Mirak, Robert. "Armenian Emigration to the United States to 1915(I): Leaving the Old Country." Journal of Armenian Studies, 1(Autumn 1975), 5-42.

Nalbandian, Louise. The Armenian Revolutionary Movement.Berkeley, 1963.

National Association for Armenian Studies and Research. RecentStudies in Modern Armenian History. Cambridge, Mass., 1972.

Walker, Christopher. Armenia: The Survival of a Nation. New York,1980.

1

1

Works by William Saroyan and Michael Arlen.

NmR .I

A statistical analysis of the 1910-1915 period, a summary of interviews, .~responses to questionnaires, and footnote references were prepared to!support the conclusions reached in this survey. The format of this seriesdoes not permit their inclusion in this pamphlet. Copies of thisdocumentation have been deposited at the Rhode Island Historical SocietyLibrary to assist the researcher of local Armenian-American life.

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