Professor Armen Marsoobian Tells the Story of His “Islamized’ Armenian Family during the Genocide

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YEREVAN, Armenia – On April 27, 2015, the American University of Armenia (AUA) hosted Professor Armen Marsoobian, Chairperson and Professor of Philosophy at Southern Connecticut State University, for a photo lecture entitled, “Resisting the Darkness: The Story of an ‘Islamized’ Armenian Family During the Armenian Genocide.” The event was the last in AUA’s 1915 Centennial Series.

Marsoobian’s lecture showcased Ottoman-era photographs from his most recent book, Fragments of a Lost Homeland: Remembering Armenia, which is based upon extensive research about his family, the Dildilians, who were accomplished photographers in the late Ottoman period. Using the visual records that were left behind, along with old notebooks and memoirs that his family members had written, Marsoobian told the story of how converting to Islam was a key factor in his mother’s survival of the Armenian Genocide.

Marsoobian’s mother, who was born in 1911, grew up in Marsovan, in the central Black Sea region of the then Ottoman Empire. To avoid deportation, her and her family converted to Islam in August 1915 at the urging of an already Islamized family member. The story represents one of many often untold stories of Armenians that gave up their religion in order to escape the Armenian Genocide.

Armen T. Marsoobian is Professor and Chair of Philosophy at Southern Connecticut State University and is editor of the journal Metaphilosophy. He received his Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He has twice served as the Nikit and Eleanora Ordjanian Visiting Professor in the Department of Middle East, South Asian, and African Studies, at Columbia University. He has lectured and published extensively on topics in American Philosophy, aesthetics, moral philosophy and genocide studies. He has edited five books, including The Blackwell Guide to American Philosophy and Genocide’s Aftermath: Responsibility and Repair. He has organized exhibitions based upon his family’s Ottoman era photography collection in Istanbul, Merzifon, and Diyarbakir. Further exhibitions are planned for Yerevan, London, Ankara, Thessaloniki and cities in the United States. He has received the Hrant Dink Foundation Prize for Historical Research for his work on his family’s activities during the Armenian Genocide.

Founded in 1991, the American University of Armenia (AUA) is a private, independent university located in Yerevan, Armenia and affiliated with the University of California. AUA provides a global education in Armenia and the region, offering high-quality, graduate and undergraduate studies, encouraging civic engagement, and promoting public service and democratic values.