The Knock at the Door

[Gavur]

http://www.wtnh.com/Global/story.asp?S=6505150&nav=3YeX

Posted May 12, 2007
6:00 AM

(WTNH) _ Author Margaret Ajemain Ahnert joins Good Morning Connecticut Weekend to talk about her new book, The Knock at the Door.

Information provided by our guest

About the book:
In 1915, Armenian Christians in Turkey were forced to convert to Islam, barred from speaking their language, and often driven out of their homes as the Turkish army embarked on a widespread campaign of intimidation and murder. More than one million Armenians lost their lives in what came to be known as the first horrendous genocide of the twentieth century.

While historical documents abound, first-time author Margaret Ajemian Ahnert goes beyond the statistics and takes us on a personal journey in her new book The Knock at the Door, a skillful retelling of her mother's traumatic battle to survive as a young girl coming of age in this period of brutality and hatred.

At age 15, Ahnert's mother Ester was separated from her foster family during a forced march away from her birth town of Amasia, narrowly avoided kidnapping, faced unspeakable horrors at the hands of soldiers, and was forcibly married to an abusive Turkish wagon driver. From her room in an Armenian old age home in Queens, NY and with Margaret as her scribe, Ester recounts in vivid detail the years-long journey from her once-happy life in Amasia to the shores of America.

In retelling her 98-year-old mother's story - the good times and the bad - Ahnert leaves her own imprint on the work, plumbing the depths of her own relationship with Ester in alternating chapters and incorporating Ester's story into one of a mother and a daughter.

About the Author:
Margaret Ahnert was born in New York City. She received an MFA from Goucher College and a BA from Goddard College, and is a graduate of the Barnes Foundation. She has pursued a variety of careers including producing television documentaries, running a Pennsylvania hotel and resort, lecturing as a docent at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and teaching art appreciation through the "Art Goes to School" program in elementary schools. Ahnert holds a 100-ton master captain's license and is an avid hunter and fisherwoman. She is the mother of two grown children and two grandchildren.

For more information, please visit www.margaretahnert.com

Advance Praise:


“A frank and searing testimony.” Publishers Weekly


“A rewarding and intriguing read. You will not be disappointed.” Armenian Weekly Review


“The Knock at the Door is an inspired, beautifully written chronicle of one of the worst eras in human history. Had such books been written long ago, another Holocaust, which followed 25 years later, might never have happened.”

Robert Morgenthau, District Attorney for New York County, grandson of Henry Morgenthau, Sr., United States Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire during World War I

[Gavur]

Guess who answered “The Knock at the Door”

Anti-Armenian
propagandists disrupt a
book signing event in New
York
by Anoush Ter Taulian
-------------------------
Anoush Ter Taulian, a writer and activist in New
York, was among those present throughout the May
1 reading and book signing for The Knock at the Door
_______________________________________________


I never thought much about what kind of
person would disrupt a book signing – until
last week. I had gone on May 1 to the Barnes
and Noble on East 86th Street in New York,
to hear Margaret Ajemian Ahnert discussing
her book The Knock at the Door, which
chronicles the memories of her mother Ester
Meinerajian, a Genocide survivor born in
Amasia in 1900.
In her presentation, Margaret Ahnert was
relating that as a child she wondered why
she had no living relatives on her mother’s or
father’s side. When she posed the question
to her mother, her father interjected, “Forget
the past.” In Mrs. Ahnert’s telling, “The Jews
say remember, remember; but Armenians
said forget, forget.” She went on to read a
passage from her book where she asks her
mother, “Do you hate the Turks today ... ?”
and her mother replies, “No, I don’t ... Hatred
is like acid that burns through the container.”
Suddenly during her reading five men
stood up and started passing out leaflets.
The “disrupters” turned out to be Turks,
and their handouts were Armenian Genocide
denialist literature (if that’s the proper
word). One read: “Hey Margaret Ajemian,
what religious freedom are you talking
about? There are many Armenian chuches
in Istanbul, but is there even one Turkish
mosque in Yerevan?”
Of course the leaflets didn’t mention that
Armenians are not allowed to worship or
even erect a cross atop their ancient church
at Aghtamar; nor did they mention that
there is a functioning (and finely maintained)
mosque in Yerevan.
The Turkish contingent also distributed
publications by the Assembly of Turkish
American Associations (ATAA) which depict
Armenians as having perpetrated a genocide
against Turks during World War I (four million
Turks, no less – this is probably the textbook
definition of “adding insult to injury”).
The ATAA publications also dismiss the
reports of Henry Morgenthau, the U.S. ambassador
to the Ottoman empire during
the Genocide period, as false. One wonders
whether the Turkish disrupters felt any
shame or embarrassment (or intimidation?)
at the fact that Morgenthau’s grandson,
longtime Manhattan District Attorney
Robert M. Morgenthau, was present at the
book signing. Also in attendance that evening
was former New York governor Hugh
L. Carey.
As the disruption continued, a bookstore
staffer warned the Turks, “You cannot pass
things out. This is not a public place. This
is a book signing which you cannot disrupt.”
One of the Turks snapped back, “This is a
free country. Hear another viewpoint,” and
continued to pass out his leaflets.
After another request to sit down and another
refusal, the police were called in. In the
meantime, the lecture had been stopped cold,
and there were worried expressions on the
faces of more than a few listeners.
When the police arrived they tried to escort
the disrupters out, but 41-year-old Erdem
Sahin refused to leave. He was charged
with resisting arrest, inciting a riot, unlawful
assembly and disorderly conduct for disrupting
a lawful assembly. Resisting arrest is a
misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in
jail; but in Sahin’s post-arrest appearance before
a Manhattan criminal court, Judge Rita
Mella ruled that the case against him should
be dropped in six months if Mr. Sahin is not
arrested again.
Ironically, I had spoken with Sahin just prior
to the May 1 lecture. He had approached
me and said, “I know you.” In fact, I didn’t
recognize him; but he said he had seen me a
week earlier, during the April 21 Turkish anti-
Armenian demonstration near Times Square,
which I had gone to witness. [A report on
that event appeared in the Reporter’s April 28
edition.] I showed him some pictures I had
taken on the occasion, one of which showed
a balding man holding a sign reading “Armenian
Pinocchio Talks About the so called
Genocide.”
“That’s me,” said Sahin.
I asked him if he had read any of the Turkish
scholars who acknowledge the Armenian
Genocide, but his response was that he believed
his grandfather’s stories about Armenians
killing Turks. Later, Mr. Sahin would
publicly say, “We are fighting for freedom of
speech.” But did he or his accomplices extend
the same courtesy to Margaret Ahnert?
Something new?
The fact that the Turkish government uses
intimidation tactics to stifle discussion of
the Genocide is old news; it’s been going on
for 80 years and more. But this kind of “street
theater” on the part of Turks – with its faux
“civil disobedience” veneer – taking place in
America, seems like something new.
All of the disruptions, demonstrations,
and dissembling by Turks over the past several
months lie in the shadow of the murder
of Hrant Dink. One has to ask (as I was asked
after the lecture), do writers like Margaret
Ahnert now have cause for concern about being
attacked – here in the U.S.? In the 1970s,
the editor of Leslie Davis’s Slaughterhouse
Province did indeed go into hiding, out of fear
of being shot. Thirty years later, in America,
do Armenians have to wonder how far
a Turkish extremist would go to create fear
and stress, to discourage authors from writing
about the Armenian Genocide? Should
we be investigating who these disrupters are,
and trying to figure out how to stop them
in the future? Should we protest the slap on
the wrist Judge Mella meted out to Erdem
Sahin?
I had the opportunity to interview Margaret
Ahnert the day after the Barnes and
Noble episode, by which time the Turkish
disruption had been publicized in a widelydistributed
New York Times article. In that
article, Mrs. Ahnert was quoted as saying, “It
was the first time I had that ugliness” – to
which she added: “It’s not pleasant, but this
is America. Everyone has free speech.” On
the previous night she had been very cool
and collected throughout the disruption.
It took her 10 years to write her book, and
her mother’s memories give us an insight
into how Armenians of an earlier time survived
abuse on a far more lethal scale. We
learn how an Armenian is forced by a Turkish
court to pay for a Kurd’s sword that broke on
a walking stick the Armenian raised in selfdefense,
to prevent being decapitated. We
learn, too, that Ester has the courage to talk
about the horror of being raped and becoming
a slave bride. The crime was common in
those days, it is terrible to relate; but such
courage was and is rare.
Ahnert said of her mother’s experience:
“Despite all the trauma she went through,
my mother was a positive, happy, humorous
person.” She told a story of Ester’s daring
resourcefulness: how she was on her way to
market when four Turkish women blocked
her path shouting, “Here comes the gavur.”
They surrounded her, swinging their walking
sticks at the level of Ester’s head, but she
ducked and the assailants hit each other instead.
When I interviewed Margaret Ahnert I
asked her what she thought of the Armenian-
Americans who are lobbying Congress
to recognize the Armenian Genocide, and
those who are suing financial institutions for
the assets owed to the heirs of Genocide victims.
She replied, “I am not political. There
are people looking for justice, but I am not in
that category.”
Even so, events like the book signing disruption
suggest that merely speaking about
the Genocide is a political act – whether or
not we intend it to be so. Indeed, in some
places, merely being Armenian is a political
act: we cannot forget that Hrant Dink was
also called a “gavur” by his assailant, just
like the heroine of The Knock at the Door;
although unlike her, he was not given the
chance to dodge away. Full justice for the Armenian
case – whether through recognition,
restitution, or something else – still lies
somewhere in our future. In the meantime,
though, through this outstanding book,
Margaret Ajemian Ahnert has found a form
of justice for her mother,

[Joseph]

Our stories reveal the true nature of history


By David Joyner
CNHI News Service

Birmingham, Ala. —
Ester Minerajian Ahronian Ajemian was 20 when she fled her hometown in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire. World War I was finished, and she scarcely could find traces of her family and what was once a thriving Armenian community near the Black Sea.


Most had been forced from their homes and killed during five years of atrocities committed against Christian Armenians at the hands of soldiers, who were Islamic Turks. Ester would say later, “The only thing I brought with me to America was my memory – the thing I most wanted to leave behind.”

Nearly 80 years later, while residing in a home for Armenian seniors in New York, she reached into her past to describe these memories for her daughter, Margaret Ajemian Ahnert.

A woman once defenseless to soldiers who forced her from the family home had fashioned a powerful tool – a personal account of their awful deeds.

Ester’s story is preserved in her daughter’s book, “The Knock at the Door: A Journey through the Darkness of the Armenian Genocide,” published this spring by Beaufort Books. It shows how a human voice – amplified by a book, Web site or newspaper – can rise above clouds of dates and political debate to bear witness to history.

Everybody likes a good story, and stories can be a fluid commodity, swapped over a long-distance connection or passed with the green beans at dinner.

But stories – especially firsthand accounts – do more than entertain. They are the narrative of human experience. They reveal our past: what people did, why they did it, how those events affected others.

Put to writing, they have a particular way of setting and fixing the past, ensuring that it cannot be wiped clean.

Such is the work of Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust survivor whose novels tell about the atrocities committed by the Nazis and who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. It is the work of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, another Nobel laureate who chronicled Soviet labor camps that sucked the life from their prisoners. And, similarly, it is Ester’s recollections of the brutality inflicted upon the Armenian people.

Most stories are less sweeping in scope, but nonetheless they help us to comprehend the past.

They may be immediate, such as the stories shared recently by reporters at The Eagle-Tribune of North Andover, Mass., who detailed the angst and hope of the family of U.S. Army Specialist Alex R. Jimenez of Lawrence, Mass. Jimenez was kidnapped last month by al-Qaida militants in Iraq and has not been seen since. His family’s experience is sure to be one that endures to define the emotional toll inflicted by war upon families and communities.

Stories also illuminate what is past, such as those being collected this summer by reporters and editors at the Johnstown, Pa., Tribune-Democrat about the flood that struck the community in 1977 and claimed 85 lives. The newspaper has prepared a book that compiles the accounts of those who survived and rebuilt their community.

The underlying power of these intimate stories is their ability to capture history before it slips away.

Ester’s story is important for that reason, but also because of the controversy that surrounds what happened to her and other Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire at the time.

“A Knock at the Door” recalls the atrocities that began April 24, 1915, during World War I, when the government gathered and killed hundreds of Armenian leaders, presumably for their sympathy to Russia. Historians have recorded that Turkish soldiers killed hundreds of thousands of others – as many as 1.5 million – over the years that followed.

Those who study the systematic killing of ethnic groups recognize this as the 20th century’s first genocide. Modern Turks dispute that description, saying many Armenians died as part of the greater casualties during World War I.


There’s no doubt in Ester’s story about what happened. Her personal horror started when soldiers took her adoptive father, whom she never saw again. She was marched from her hometown of Amasia, attacked by soldiers and left for dead.

She was discovered and turned in at an orphanage, where brutality and torture continued. She was ultimately taken as a wife, and her identity stripped from her, before she found the courage and hope necessary to escape.

Like any important story, Ester’s rises above the din of political debate. And while it may not settle the controversy, her story will at least endure to remind us of a dark chapter in history and maybe bring us closer to the truth.


David Joyner is executive news editor of Community Newspaper Holdings Inc. He may be reached at [email protected].

[Joseph]

http://www.hairenik.com/armenianweekly/fea08040702.htm

Deep Dark Tragedies
A Review of ‘The Knock at the Door'
By Bedros C. Bandazian

Recently, there have been many new publications, media documentaries, movies and books revealing personal stories about the Armenian Genocide of 1915 perpetrated by the Ottoman Turkish Government. As an American-Armenian whose father was a survivor of this vile act committed by the Turkish Government against its own citizens, these books and publications are welcome revelations to the world public of this "forgotten Genocide."

Understandably, for many years, the survivors and their children were more attune to making a living, educating their descendents and establishing themselves into reviving the Armenian Nation; thus this type of publications were not readily available. Now, the words of the survivors and their extreme tribulations are being told to the world by many people, exposing the dastardly deeds of the Turkish government, committed over 92 years ago, but still being defended by the current Turkish government and many Turks. Ms. Ahnert has shown great courage in telling the complete story of her Mother, Ester Minerajian Ajemian.

Of special interest is the style and content of her book. The reader accompanies Ester back and forth from the time she spent in the Armenian Old Age Home in Flushing, N.Y. to the period of her life during the tribulations of 1915. It is an easy read. Margaret Ahnert’s love for her mother cries out from every page. Ester Minerajian Ajemian, the survivor, the mother, the wife, the woman, becomes an extraordinary storyteller to her daughter of these events and a real hero for the Armenian nation. All the details of every passage in the life of this Armenian Genocide survivor are exposed: The good, happy moments, the horror, the most inhumane acts against her and the complete annihilation of her family from Amasia is brought to life in this book.

It is especially important that books of this nature are published, read and promoted. Many authors do not have the courage of Ms. Ahnert to tell the deep dark tragedies committed by the Turks. Especially the horrid acts against Armenian women, children and old people as told by this survivor is articulated in amazing detail. It is one thing for a government to be strong in war against an army of its enemies but the acts committed by the Turks against the defenseless were unprecedented. The author , Margaret Ahnert, knows the importance of telling it all and not anesthetizing the facts, because the details of this horror need to be known by all human beings. Too many times, we excuse the Turkish people of these acts by passing the responsibility on to the Ottoman Government at the time. Some say, the Turkish people did not know, the Turkish people were helpful, it was the Turkish Government and its leadership.

As the story of Ester Minerajian Ajemian unfolds in the book, we see that the entire Turkish people become involved in this plot of extermination. In the city of Amasia, Turkish townspeople, its civil & governmental leaders, its business leaders, its Islamic religious leaders, its women, men and children all become part of the conspiracy of annihilation of the Armenian People, the Armenian Nation. The Christian Armenian population becomes the target. In this story, we see how the Turkish leadership of 1915 gave carte blanche to its Turkish citizens, criminals, its Islamic religious institutions, its army and the Kurdish tribes, to fall prey upon the Armenian population. Many Turks of that era were guilty and their descendents, who deny and, therefore, perpetuate this Genocide even today, are guilty as well. This book is open proof of this crime.

Ester Minerajian Ajemian’s survival was a miracle. Her future was destined to bring forth a new family in America and perpetuate the survival of the Armenian nation. Her daughter, Margaret Ajemian Ahnert took the banner from her mother and has now provided all an opportunity to see within the prism of reality, an uncut version of the Armenian Genocide. It must have pained Ms. Ahnert to reveal the gory details of the offenses against her mother and the Minerajian Family but knows that to omit actual facts would not reveal the true horror. Is this a one-time book from the author? Did she only want to tell the story of her mother?

We admire her bravery for the truth revealed, as one reads this story, we share her pain. The book is a must read for all people, not just Armenians. Especially it is a must read for Turks and their friends in Washington, DC. The ancestors of the perpetrators of this genocidal act have built a false country upon the dead bodies of the Armenian victims, a shaky foundation that will crumble if justice does not take its course. No state that has the inner source to commit such vile acts against their own citizens can justify being part of the civilized world of today. This book is another testament to this fact. Thank you, Margaret Ajemian Ahnert for this novel. It will be a lasting addition to our library.

Bedros C. Bandazian is chairman of the ACAA Armenian Heritage Cruise, the managing trustee of the ACAA Endowment Funds and the St. James Armenian Church of Richmond, Va. Endowment Funds and President of Bandazian & Holden, Inc.

[Nick_A]

A disgrace

In addition to Gavur's post above: how low can they go?

U.S. author heckled by people denying Armenian genocide

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/03/news/armen.php

[Gavur]

BTW excellent book well written,made me cry ! (twice)

[Gavur]

Author Target of Turkish Threats Following Armenian Genocide Book Reading

http://www.asbarez.com/

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.--Amid security concerns and ongoing Turkish death-threats, author Margaret Ajemian Ahnert led the Fort Lauderdale book reading of her Armenian Genocide family memoir, "The Knock at the Door," reported the Armenian National Committee of South Florida. Over 80 people attended the event hosted by the Broward County Main Library, sponsored by the Florida Center for the Book.
The subject of the book, a skillful retelling of her mother's traumatic battle to survive as a young girl during the Armenian Genocide, comes at a crucial time when the United States House of Representatives is set to vote on H.Res. 106, calling upon the President to ensure that the foreign policy of the United States reflects appropriate understanding and sensitivity concerning issues related to human rights, ethnic cleansing, and genocide documented in the United States record relating to the Armenian Genocide.
Among the audience were the influential members of the Writers Network, and civic leaders from South Florida. Despite a high turnout, "I was uncomfortable from the threats I received from angry Turks," said Ahnert. To assure the safety of the public, the Fort Lauderdale Police Department provided security for the night.
"Turkish death threats to Ms. Ahnert are an insult to American values upon which our country was founded. The threats demonstrate the incompatibility of Turkish nationalism and the first amendment of the US constitution; the freedom of speech and to assemble," said Albert Mazmanian, chairman of the ANC of South Florida.
Threats to proponents of genocide affirmation are not unprecedented. Last January, Hrant Dink, a Turkish-Armenian journalist, was assassinated by a 17-year old nationalist for speaking about the Armenian Genocide. Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code outlaws criticism of Turkish identity, and academicians have been victims of such laws. On the state level, Turkey threatened to cut-off supplies to US troops in Iraq in response to the House Foreign Affairs Committee vote on H.Res 106. "Turkey's threats against U.S. interests are outrageous and must not be tolerated. I applaud the House Foreign Affairs Committee for adopting the Genocide resolution and look to House Members to show the same courage and principles," said Sandra Lalaian, an activist and resident of Key Biscayne, Florida.
During the Q&A session, a Turkish-American from the audience asked Ahnert, "if you want to remember something, why do you remember the bad things," citing Seljuk liberation of the Armenian Church from the Byzantines. Ahnert rebutted that fifteen of the sixteen chapters of her book are "happy memories," and only one chapter is a "bad memory."



Friday, October 19, 2007