On 6 and 7 May 2017, the Regional Executive Board of Hamazkayin Canada organized Armenian Studies lecture on the theme The Race and Armenian Emigrants of America. The event took place in the hall of the National Prelacy. The key speaker, invited from New Jersey, was Dr. Vartan Mateossian, writer, philologist, director of the US Eastern Diocese of the National Educational Council. The lecture consisted of 3 sessions, which took place in the presence of 20 listeners.
At the first session on Saturday, the lecturer presented the ideology of race developed in Europe at the end of the 17th century. The ideology, compared with other "colored" races, gave preference to the so-called white race and eventually caused a lot of disaster in the world. It still, in various ways, exists in America and elsewhere.
The second session took place after the afternoon lunch. Dr. Vartan Mateossian spoke about the Armenians’ emigration to the United States, and the American racist behavior towards the Armenians and other "inferior" refugees. Quoting from testimonies, statistics and a number of legal and other documents, Dr. Vartan Mateossian thoroughly described the discriminatory atmosphere that reigned in America in 1880s, from the very beginning of Armenians’ arrival until 1950, and later dates.
In this context, the lecturer presented the judicial cases of Hallajian (1909) and Gartozian (1924) families excited in connection with their US citizenship. Then he spoke about Garegin Nzhdeh’s activities in the United States in1930s, focusing on the National Covenant (Tseghakron) movement, its establishment, and Nzhdeh’s Nation and Tribe doctrine.
The third session took place on Sunday morning. It concerned the discriminations towards the Armenians in Fresno, California, where the largest number of Armenians had settled after reaching America, in the first decades of the century․The lecturer mentioned that the native white population had special feelings of envy towards the naked and barefoot refugees, which in a very short period succeeded in creating a prosperous life.
Professor concluded his speech saying that we should not forget that unfair situation, which the first emigrants and their immediate descendants underwent, and be vigilant today towards any discriminatory behavior.
V-A.A.