GLENDALE — On Wednesday, June 25, 2014, at 7 pm, Prof. Richard G. Hovannisian will discuss and make a PowerPoint presentation on the Armenian communities of Kesaria/Kayseri and Cappadocia at the Glendale Central Library Auditorium, 222 East Harvard Street in Glendale. The presentation is in English, with a summary in Armenian. It will also include brief sound video segments prepared by Ani Hovannisian Kevorkian on the last Armenians of Dikranagerd/Diarbekir and on the Armenian-speaking Hamshen people on the Black Sea.
Admission is free. Library visitors receive 3 hours FREE parking across the street at The Market Place parking structure with validation at the Loan Desk.
Armenian Kesaria/Kayseri and Cappadocia focuses on the history of the Armenians in the city of Kesaria (Gesaria) and its many outlying villages, including Talas, Everek, Fenesse, Tomarza, Chomakhlu, Injesu, Efkere, and Germir. During the centuries of Ottoman rule, the Armenians of Kesaria were noted as goldsmiths and skilled craftsmen. Professionals and producers of carpets, linens, textiles, leather goods, pottery, and cured beef. For centuries the Armenians of the Kesaria region managed to preserve their distinct identity with their tightly-knit communities, strong religious faith, schools and churches, like almost all other areas of Armenian existence in the Ottoman Empire. However, in 1915 during the Armenian Genocide they were uprooted and deported toward the Syrian deserts, with very few of the survivors ever returning.
The program is sponsored by Nor Serount Cultural Association, Tekeyan Cultural Association, and Hamazkayin Regional Executive Committee of the Western United States.
