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The George Mouradian Interview

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  • The George Mouradian Interview

    THE GEORGE MOURADIAN INTERVIEW
    Michael Shelton

    Spinal Column Online
    http://www.spinalcolumnonline.com/Articles- i-2009-07-01-70028.113117_The_George_Mouradian_Int erview.html
    July 1, 2009

    July 01, 2009 - George Mouradian, 82, is a Commerce Township
    resident of Armenian descent working through his writing to spread
    awareness of Armenia's history, which dates back more than 10,000
    years, and the issues the country is currently facing. Mouradian
    has written five books, including three about Armenia. One is
    geared toward adults and is entitled "Never To Die: A Historical
    Novel About Armenia and The Quest for Noah's Ark," while "Armenian
    InfoText: A Mini-Encyclopedia," provides a retrospective of Armenia's
    history. His most recent book, entitled "Your Journey Into Armenia,"
    is geared toward children. Mouradian, a retired engineer, has
    not only visited his homeland, but has also taught engineering at
    the American University of Armenia, which is also where he started
    research for his books. He developed a curiosity about his ethnicity
    in high school and is now looking to educate fellow Armenians and
    others about issues such as the massacre of 1 million Armenians at
    the hands of the Ottoman Turks during World War I, which Turkey has
    yet to recognize. Mouradian has been married for 58 years and has
    three children and four grandchildren.

    The George Mouradian Interview

    SCN: We understand that you're an American-born Armenian. When did
    you first become interested in your Armenian heritage and what did
    you do to further that interest?

    GM: I think it probably started in high school when there was some
    questions and differences between people and I did more reading on
    it and I found out that we had quite a bit of history, and I just
    got more interested in it.

    Later on in life, in college, I wrote papers on the genocide and what
    happened to our ancestors and then I got into writing books on it,
    so that's pretty much the way it went.

    SCN: How did you become involved in engineering and what were your
    proudest accomplishments in your career?

    GM: I guess I was always interested in putting stuff together. At
    first I started out being a school teacher, a mathematics teacher,
    but I got a job at Cadillac and I found out, "Gee, I like this, too,"
    so I went on and got my engineering degree.

    I guess the most interesting job I had was the one at Aero General in
    California. We were making the Minuteman Missile at the time and I was
    working with people from all over the United States. We were able to
    deter a nuclear war that was potentially damaging at the time and the
    Minuteman was a highly deterred missile that the Soviets respected -
    it kept the Cold War down to nothing.

    I taught at the Detroit high schools for awhile and I also taught at
    the American University of Armenia in Yerevan. I taught reliability
    engineering and quality management there in 1997, and I also have done
    a lot of teaching, instruction work, ISO 9000, quality engineering
    and reliability engineering and quality auditing.

    At Cadillac I was a quality analyst and we did work on the production
    lines to make sure that the parts that are made met the tolerances
    that they were supposed to meet.

    SCN: You taught engineering at the American University of Armenia. Was
    that your first trip to your homeland, and how did the experience of
    actually living in the country compare to what you had learned about
    Armenia previously through studying?

    GM: I visited Armenia in 1972, during the Soviet period, and we went
    in as tourists. I went there as an instructor in '97.

    It more or less verified what I was reading, and of course I had the
    chance to talk to all the people there, the inhabitants and the natives
    and ... talking to the young people was even more exciting, I think.

    Basically, it verified pretty much what I was putting together.

    SCN: What are some similarities and differences that you can tell us
    about modern Armenian life as compared to life in America?

    GM: There's a big difference now. There's still a little bit of the
    Soviet mentality there, where they're waiting for the government or
    somebody to come in and straighten things out. One of the things I
    couldn't fathom is that the people didn't know how to take care of
    things themselves, as we do in America. When we see something wrong
    here, we get together and take care of the problem. In Armenia,
    I didn't see that too much and I was a little disappointed in that
    regard.

    The other thing is that in the quality management part of things,
    the students would say "This is how we do it in Armenia," and I said
    'Well, you young people will be the leaders of Armenia in another
    10 years and this is the way you should be doing it," and I tried to
    teach them the way we do things in America as far as quality management
    and reliability goes.

    SCN: When people think of Armenia, they think about the genocide at
    the hands of the Ottoman Turks during World War I. Why do you think
    that tragedy doesn't receive more attention. What other hardships
    are Armenians and Armenian-Americans currently facing?

    GM: Armenian-Americans are all U.S. citizens here and we live just
    like all the other citizens. We have problems with unemployment and
    the economy just like everybody else, so there's no problem there.

    We have, what I feel, is an obligation. We should get Turkey to
    recognize what they did and they still deny it. The reason they deny
    it is because they're afraid of the retribution that's going to come
    from it. Just like Hitler did to the Jews, present-day Germany is
    civilized enough that they recognize what Hitler did and they have
    helped the Jews and the Jewish state quite a bit, and I think Turkey
    is a little bit afraid of that and this is why they're denying what
    really was a genocide.

    SCN: Have you ever thought about involving yourself in the political
    process in order to raise awareness of Armenians?

    GM: I think I do that quite a bit, not from a political point where
    I'm a candidate for office or anything like that, but I think the
    books I've written bring that out.

    Of course, I'm always writing letters to the editor whenever I see
    something that should be done. Also, whenever there's any campaigns
    or movements to get Turkey to recognize the genocide, I'm involved
    in that quite a bit also.

    I haven't gone to Washington, but I've certainly talked to
    (U.S. Rep.) John Dingle when I lived in Allen Park and got him to
    recognize pretty much what's going on, and I've talked to (Former
    U.S. Rep.) Joe Knollenberg quite a bit and he has been a very big
    factor in helping us out. Our current (U.S.) representative is
    Thaddeus McCotter and he has been very supportive of us. So I get
    involved when I can.

    SCN: Tell us about your book "Your Journey Into Armenia," what it
    entails and how people can pick up a copy. Also, what other resources
    can people that are of Armenian descent or are just interested in
    Armenia turn to for information?

    GM: The reason I wrote the book is because I wrote a previous book for
    adults, "Never To Die." It's supposed to be a novel about historic
    Armenia and the quest for Noah's Ark. I was giving a presentation
    in Watertown, Massachusetts and there was a woman in audience who
    said "This is a wonderful book, but there isn't anything like it
    for children."

    Right away the mind started working as to what can I do with this thing
    and I put seven years into "Never To Die," gathering information and
    research and so forth and so on, and it was just a matter of doing
    something for the children, which is "Your Journey Into Armenia."

    I tried to keep it at the children's level, anywhere from the
    fifth-grade on up. I put in color illustrations and photographs and
    real short paragraphs on what it's all about. I want to educate our
    American-born to recognize what has happened in our long history,
    and that's what I've tried to do with writing these books.

    I never thought of myself as an author in high school and certainly
    not in college, either, but I was reading a lot about Armenians and
    Armenian history and saying to myself "Gee, I'm absorbing all this
    information, why can't I put something together and help other people
    to do it in one book?"

    And that's pretty much what I did. It was pretty much late in my
    career, but I'm still going and still doing things like this whenever
    I can. So it wasn't like a reawakening, I just kind of flowed into
    it. When I was working on "Never To Die" - this was several years ago
    - my wife came up with the idea that I should write something more
    like an encyclopedia and that's the first book that I wrote. There's
    nothing like it in America. The Soviet Union had a 29-volume book that
    was very much slanted and it was in Armenian, but for a short 500,
    600 page encyclopedia, it turned out to be a really nice thing that
    got me started on this thing.

    The library is full of stuff. The University of Michigan-Dearborn
    Armenian Research Center has a big library where anything you want to
    know about the Armenians is there, the people there are very helpful,
    and any kind of research you want to do, it's there.

    Of course, we've got books galore on it and my books are available
    just by calling me up on the telephone and asking me about it. I'd
    be glad to send them a copy.

    They can call me at my home at 248-684-5651.
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