The Axinar Is Armenian - And It WAS Genocide

The Axinar's ancestors have quite a number of interesting stories of course.

From my father's side there's the story of how one of my ancestors snuck out with the daughter of his employer in the middle of the night to seek a new life in America.

From one part of my mother's ancestry is the story of John "Chicken" Stephens, who apparently was one of the first people ever lynched by the Klan for the unpardonable crime of trying to help the then recently freed slaves to claim compensation from their former owners.

But one of the saddest tales of my ancestors is my great-grandfather Mesrob Sarkis Mamoulian, who grew up in what he would later describe in the U.S. Census as "Turkey (In Asia)" and spoke Turkish as his native language, but was ethnically Armenian - living in an area that had historically been Armenia for many centuries.

He apparently avoided the horrors that befell his people in 1915. He was an artist and was apparently on the way from Naples, Italy to New Mexico in 1909 aboard a ship called Prinzess Irene. He was involved in a number of adventures here in America that involved patents apparently as well as generating a number of children - one of whom led to the Axinar.

Apparently his family was not so fortunate. From all accounts there were systematically butchered by the Ottoman Empire - the ancestor of the modern-day nation of Turkey.

Looks like the U.S. Congress is FINALLY getting ready to put through some legislation to recognize the Armenian genocide, a move that has prompted praise from modern-day Armenian leaders.

However, you guessed it - that S.O.B. Bush is threatening to veto the measure for fear of p*ss*ng off the Turks, and, if I understand this flow of logic here, quite possibly causing the Turks to set off a chain of events that could lead to another terrorist attack on the scale of 9/11.

To tell you how freaky this whole situation is, even the ISRAELIS are on Turkey's side on this one.

I think I've seen it all.

Look - ever since I've gotten into the genealogy thing I have met some FASCINATING cousins - newspaper writers and computer geeks on my dad's side, and one fascinating gentleman on my mother's side who doesn't appreciate my use of the nickname "Chicken" when referring to State Senator John Stephens, but I've never had the chance to talk to my Armenian great-grandfather's relatives because they were all MURDERED - systematically and only because of their ethnicity.

Even Hitler thought he could get away with the Holocaust because of what happened to the Armenians in 1915.

It's about time someone grows a pair enough to recognize that.

And if the Turks can't live up to their past, so be it ...