By Mark Pratt, Associated Press Writer | August 24, 2005
WATERTOWN, Mass. –Armenia has been conquered by the Romans, Greeks, Persians, Ottoman Turks and Russians.
Before gaining their independence in 1991 with the collapse of the Soviet Union, its people were oppressed, murdered and scattered across the globe.
“It is a rough and bloody history,” said Gary Lind-Sinanian, curator of the Armenian Library and Museum of America in Watertown.
The largest Armenian museum in the U.S. preserves and promotes the distinct and vibrant culture of the Armenian people, who have survived and thrived despite their sad history.
It houses a collection of 20,000 artifacts, and continually changing displays of ornate Bibles, Gospels and prayer books; colorful rugs, clothing and textiles; antique musical instruments; ancient coins from the time before Christ; dazzling jewelry and more.
“This museum is ethnic wealth and history accumulated in one place,” executive director Berj Chekijian said.
Founded in 1971 in the basement of a church in Belmont, the museum moved to its current location in busy Watertown Square in 1990. It now draws about 7,000 visitors annually.
The Boston suburb has long been a center of Armenian immigration. Of Watertown’s 34,000 residents, more than 20 percent can claim Armenian descent, by Lind-Sinanian’s estimate.
In all, there are roughly 90,000 people of Armenian descent in greater Boston, and about 1 million in the United States.
But it’s not necessary to have Armenian blood to appreciate the museum. The sheer beauty of the jewelry, rugs and textiles have universal appeal, and the museum also explains Armenians’ contributions to U.S. and world history.
In 301 A.D., Armenia became the first nation to adopt Christianity as its official state religion.
Through Oct. 30, it features an exhibit called “Monks, Merchants and Missionaries: The Bible in the Armenian Tradition.” There are ornate and colorful hand-transcribed and decorated Gospels and prayer books, including one that dates to 1207 and was in the same family for 39 generations before being donated to the museum.
“The book was said to have healing properties,” Lind-Sinanian said. “People with sick relatives would travel miles to rub bread on the cover, then bring the bread back for their sick relatives to eat.”
The museum’s one permanent exhibit explores the genocide of Armenians by the Turks. By some estimates, more than 1 million Armenians were killed between 1915 and 1922. To this day, the Turkish government denies the genocide.
But to those who would deny it, Lind-Sinanian waves his hand at the photographs of emaciated children, of Armenian men dangling from gallows as Turkish troops stand at attention, and says “Go read some of the firsthand accounts, listen to the oral histories. I’ve actually had Turkish visitors to the museum look at this exhibit and say ‘I’m sorry.'”
The museum also highlights prominent Armenian-Americans, including Dr. Jack Kevorkian, best known for being an advocate of doctor-assisted suicide for the terminally ill. But Kevorkian, currently serving a 10- to 25-year sentence in a Michigan prison for giving a fatal injection to a terminally ill patient, is also a writer, artist and composer, and the museum has samples of that work.
His paintings deal mainly with death — including an iris growing through the eye socket of a human skull — which many visitors find disturbing.
Moses Hadji Gulesian, a Boston coppersmith, is credited with saving the USS Constitution. When the Navy wanted to haul the warship into Boston Harbor to use for target practice, Gulesian recognized its historical significance and offered to buy it. It’s now one of Boston’s top tourist attractions.
“He essentially embarrassed the Navy into saving it,” Lind-Sinanian said.
Doreen Adams of Duxbury grew up in Watertown and is three-quarters Armenian, but she’d never been to the museum until earlier this month.
“There is so much here, the beautiful jewelry, the art, but I was particularly drawn to the exhibit about the Armenian genocide, because my grandmother used to talk about that,” she said.
Adams also learned a possible explanation for her Armenian grandmother’s marriage to a Turk. During the genocide, the young, unmarried women of some Armenian villages would offer themselves to the Turkish troops for marriage, and in exchange, the Turks would spare the village.
“There is so much to learn here,” Adams said.
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