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Memorial Marks Armenian Hero'S Death At Hotel North Of Chico

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  • Memorial Marks Armenian Hero'S Death At Hotel North Of Chico

    MEMORIAL MARKS ARMENIAN HERO'S DEATH AT HOTEL NORTH OF CHICO

    Enterprise-Record
    http://www.chicoer.com/news/ci_21441708/memorial-marks-armenian-heros-death-at-hotel-north
    Aug 30 2012
    CA

    CHICO - Memorials all over the world - including one near Chico -
    pay tribute to a war hero and "freedom-fighter" who spent the last
    month of his life in Butte County.

    Gen. Andranik Ozanian is revered by people of Armenian descent
    everywhere, said Chico State University accounting professor Tim
    Kizirian.

    Probably few people know that Ozanian came to Butte County and died
    here, 85 years ago today.

    Ozanian, who is known affectionately by Armenians as "General
    Andranik," was born in 1865 in Armenia.

    Modern-day Armenia is just east of Turkey and north of Iran. When
    Ozanian was born, Armenia was part of the Ottoman Empire, a vast
    Turkish empire that lasted from 1299 to 1922.

    Ozanian grew up in a troubled time, Kizirian said. The Ottoman Turks
    were attacking and killing great numbers of Armenians. One issue
    was that the Armenians were Christians while the Ottoman Turks were
    Muslims, the professor said. Another was the Ottoman Turks' increasing
    desperation as the empire lost land and power.

    Ozanian's fame stems from his deeds during what's known as the Armenian
    genocide, Kizirian said. After the Young Turks - an especially
    aggressive party - came to power, a decision was made to rid the
    empire of Armenians.

    The new leaders' motto was "Turkey for the Turks," said Kizirian,
    who is an Armenian-American himself. The genocide, which was carried
    out over eight years, began in the spring of 1915, when 200 members
    of Armenia's "intelligentsia"

    - mayors, professors, priests - were publicly hanged, he said.

    The next step was to gather men of "fighting age" all over Armenia,
    Kizirian said. They were told they were being drafted into the army.

    Then they were marched out of their towns and villages and were killed.

    During the period, 1.5 million Armenians died, Kizirian said. Elderly
    men, women and even children were killed, and thousands were marched
    into deserts and left to die, Kizirian said. "This was our Auschwitz."

    Ozanian led guerrilla fighters, who tried to rescue as many people
    as they could, he said.

    In one famous episode, Ozanian and his men headed for a monastery,
    diverting the attention of Ottoman Turkish soldiers who were about
    to attack an Armenian village. As the guerrillas and the soldiers
    fought for days, the villagers were able to flee.

    It's said than when Ozanian and his men ran out of ammunition, they
    escaped unnoticed by draping themselves with sheets so they'd blend
    in with the snow-covered land.

    During World War I, Ozanian was named a general and put in charge of
    Armenian volunteer units of the Russian Army, the professor said. He
    and these volunteers took part in 20 offensives.

    After the war, Ozanian went to America and raised money for Armenian
    refugees and orphans, Kizirian said.

    The general and his wife were living in Fresno when he became ill
    with heart trouble. A doctor advised him to go to Richardson Springs,
    just north of Chico, to see if treatment in the mineral water there
    could help him, Kizirian said. He stayed at the Richardson Springs
    hotel for a month until he died of his heart ailment.

    Kizirian said he hardly knew anything of the Armenian genocide until
    after his son was born several years ago. Then, he asked his father
    about their family history. His parents had avoided talking about the
    "bad things" that had happened in Armenia, he said.

    Some time after that, he said, his father read in a book about Ozanian
    that the general had died at a hotel with hot springs near Chico.

    When his father brought this fact to his attention, Kizirian said he
    knew it must have been at Richardson Springs, and he started looking
    for evidence.

    He searched newspapers from 1927 but could find no mention of Ozanian.

    Then, at the county offices in Oroville, he was amazed, he said,
    to find the general's death certificate. And it said, indeed, that
    he had died at Richardson Springs.

    Kizirian said a copy he made of the certificate is now in the General
    Andranik Museum in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia.

    The professor said he spoke about Ozanian to the local director of
    Youth With a Mission, the Christian organization that now owns the
    Richardson Springs hotel building and its grounds. The director was
    agreeable to having a memorial placed there in honor of Ozanian.

    Since he first asked his father about the family history, he said
    he's become very interested in Ozanian and the genocide.

    Kizirian, who worked as an auditor before turning to teaching, said
    he's embarked on a research project and plans to write an article he
    will title "Auditing Genocide."



    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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