Yes! Sultan in UAE Fixing History Books

More recognition:

Interesting tidbit here on the ancient city of Julfar - now in the UAE - was founded by Armenians who were on the run from Persia during the Mongol invasion.  There is still a heavy presence of Armenians in the UAE

http://www.peopleofar.com/2014/11/11/the-city-of-ras-al-khaimah-was-founded-by-armenians/

 http://www.peopleofar.com/wp-content/uploads/ras-al-khaimah-in-the-emirates-2.jpg

They Published My Story!

Thanks to 100 lives, they published my story which I wrote about the steps, the tragedies and the efforts of goodhearted people that enabled my mother and my grandparents to escape to America.

https://100lives.com/en/stories/detail/regular/7578/shirley-collins

1928 France

 The picture shows 1928 France: these are the two Bardakjian brothers who looked after my mother, my grandmother and my uncle while my grandfather went to America to find a job and a home.  Unfortunately, my uncle could not get a quota because he was born in Jerusalem and it took four years before my grandmother finally relented and left him with his cousins while she and my mother went on the boat without him.  My mother cried the whole trip across the sea.  It would be another 6 months before my uncle was able to join the rest of the family in Philadelphia.

This is why I always thank the Bardakjian family for taking such good care of my family so many years ago.

Another Attic Treasure

I found these among my mother's things after she passed away.  Apparently, my grandmother must have picked them up on a trip she took to then Communist Armenia in 1963:

Commemorative pins and key chains

On the bottom are vintage pins made in 1962 for celebrating the 1600th Anniversary of the Armenian Alphabet created by St. Mesrop Mashtots years 362-1962. 

In the middle is a vintage lapel pin with the map of Armenia and «ՀՍՍՀ» means Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic.

The key chains have the picture of "Vardan Mamikonian" and his sword on the back.  He is a national hero, it is in memory of "avarayri herosamart" which happened in 451 A.D. Vardan was a commander and a warrior who was killed in the battle but Armenians believe they won the battle because the king of Sassanid Persia wanted to make them change their religion and he failed doing that, the Persians were victorious in battlefield, the battle is proved to be a strategic victory for Armenia.  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Avarayr

My grandmother's visa to Communist Armenia 1963

Today's checklist - check, check, half-check

I accomplished two things today:

1) I started a flickr account and posted a few of my favorite pics:

Picture on Flickr

2) I submitted a story to Chicken Soup for the Soul.  http://www.chickensoup.com/story-submissions/submit-your-story

3) I tried to go outside but the heat and the smoke drove me back in, blah!

Left is a picture of me my daughter took while I was taking pictures of the flowers on her cactus plant.

Camp Oddo and Armenian Refugees

Nansen Passport: My mother and grandmother

My mother, my grandparents, my uncle, and my auntie I never met, were refugees in the 1920s.  They were forced to leave their home which was at one time Western Armenia.  When they ended up in France they stayed in Camp Oddo initially and were issued Nansen passports.  Those were, basically, humanitarian passports given to those without a country.

Today I found out there is a cooperative website that lists my family at Camp Oddo.  I got chills reading their names.  My mother would talk about the camp and her memories of it as a little girl.  She remembered lots of tents, that it smelled and was dirty.

Even little Marie Guleserian who fell ill and supposedly died in France is listed. They are listed on page 37.

http://webaram.com/

ARAM is an acronym and stands for: 

 Association for Research and Archiving of the Armenian Memories

What an incredible effort and thank goodness for the information highway.

It saddens me though when I hear daily of new refugees flooding out of Syria and even Lebanon due to religious bigotry and intolerance, violence and hatred.  Sadly, only recently, a small family drowned trying to get to Greece so they could eventually travel to Canada. They had no identification issued by the government.  Once again, man's inhumanity to man strikes anew.