Celebrating
Armenian Heritage
Most Armenians immigrating
to Canada this century tended to settle in either Ontario or Quebec. In
1979, nevertheless, they were active in creating the Armenian Cultural
Association of the Atlantic Provinces. This view, taken circa 1990, in
Halifax, Nova Scotia, depicts an Atlantic Association picnic. Gathering
together as one big family, these are the descendents of those who faced
genocide in Turkey early in the 20th century and eventually came to Canada
via such countries as Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Palestine, and Lebanon. One
of these descendents, Dr. Dickran Malatjalian, sitting, middle, had parents
who were born in Turkish-occupied Armenia, were forced to flee their native
homeland, met and married in Jerusalem, and eventually produced a son,
who immigrated to Canada and settled in Halifax where, today, he is a practicing
medical doctor. [Photo, courtesy Dr. Dickran Malatjalian]
