Readers' Forum
A similar fate
I am currently reading the book The Hundred-year Walk by Dawn Anahid McKeen. Her middle name reveals that she is of Armenian descent. Her story starts when she discovers faded and curling pieces of thin paper on which are detailed the life of her grandfather who escaped with great difficulty the Armenian genocide perpetrated by the Turks. When McKeen discovered that diaries covering two years were missing, she started looking for them within her family and found them in a trunk in the attic of her uncle’s house! She decided to leave her comfortable life in New York, resigned from a good job and with the blessings of her American father embarked on a journey to retrace the road that her grandfather had taken before finally landing with his immediate family in New York’s Spanish Harlem.
It occurred to me that the Zoroastrians of Persia suffered a similar fate a little more than 1,000 years ago. The travails and experiences of the Armenians would have been very similar to those of our Zoroastrian forefathers who escaped from Iran and came to India where they made a new life and have now dispersed around the world in pursuit of a better existence.
If there is any doubt about the Armenian genocide (1915-1917) this book lays it to rest once and for all with all its graphic pictures. The Armenians were refugees in Syria whose government allowed them to remain there and practice their faith and culture in peace. And now they are once again on the run from Syria as refugees.
I recommend that all Parsis read this book. I am sure there may be some Zarathosti Iranis in India who can trace their family history back to Iran and write a similar book retracing the journey.
Dr ARDESHIR B. DAMANIA
Davis, California
abdamania@yahoo.com
It occurred to me that the Zoroastrians of Persia suffered a similar fate a little more than 1,000 years ago. The travails and experiences of the Armenians would have been very similar to those of our Zoroastrian forefathers who escaped from Iran and came to India where they made a new life and have now dispersed around the world in pursuit of a better existence.
If there is any doubt about the Armenian genocide (1915-1917) this book lays it to rest once and for all with all its graphic pictures. The Armenians were refugees in Syria whose government allowed them to remain there and practice their faith and culture in peace. And now they are once again on the run from Syria as refugees.
I recommend that all Parsis read this book. I am sure there may be some Zarathosti Iranis in India who can trace their family history back to Iran and write a similar book retracing the journey.
Dr ARDESHIR B. DAMANIA
Davis, California
abdamania@yahoo.com
◆ ◆ ◆
From the archive