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Books: New Book Promotes End to 75-year Split: Armenians Talk Peace

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  • Books: New Book Promotes End to 75-year Split: Armenians Talk Peace

    Science Letter
    January 6, 2009


    HYE BOOKS;
    New Book Promotes End to 75-year Split: Armenians Talk Peace, Unity
    After 1933 Christmas Eve Murder



    A new book by veteran CBS News correspondent Terry Phillips is
    sparking grassroots peace talks 75 years after a brutal assassination
    split the Armenian Apostolic Church in the United States (see also Hye
    Books).

    Murder at the Altar, a historical novel published by Hye Books
    (http://www.hyebooks.com/), investigates the Depression-era killing of
    Archbishop Ghevont Tourian in New York City. On Christmas Eve 1933,
    the spiritual leader of this ancient Christian denomination was
    stabbed to death as he led a Sunday morning procession down the center
    aisle of Holy Cross Church. The vicious crime was reported on the
    front page of every Manhattan daily newspaper.

    "For three-quarters of a century, Armenians have treated the murder as
    a taboo subject," says author Terry Phillips. "To this day, the church
    remains divided along political lines. But people are finally willing
    to talk about that painful event, understand why it happened and move
    toward possible reconciliation."

    Since the book was published earlier this year, Phillips has been
    leading unprecedented, coast-to-coast discussions about the Tourian
    assassination.

    "I am extremely gratified by the overwhelming public interest," he
    says. "Except for a few fringe extremists, the book has been very well
    received. Everywhere I go, people say it's about time that someone
    told this story."

    Based on fact, Murder at the Altar is a dramatized account of the
    Archbishop's killing. It grew out of a dispute over the Armenian
    movement for independence from the Soviet Union. Tourian was attacked
    for refusing to take sides in the conflict. After his slaying, the
    church separated into two factions, identical in every way except for
    partisan politics.

    "Seventy-five years later," Phillips notes, "church officials remain
    divided by past animosities. Today, there is no Soviet Union. Armenia
    is independent. Why stay split? Why stay silent?"

    Phillips covered the fall of the Soviet Empire and reported conflicts
    throughout the USSR as well as Afghanistan, Bosnia, Somalia and Haiti.

    Murder at the Altar is available through retail bookstores and
    websites.

    Keywords: Hye Books.

    This article was prepared by Science Letter editors from staff and
    other reports.
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