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Ajemian Ahnert Speaks on ‘The Knock
at the Door’
 CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (A.W.)—On April 23, Author Margaret Ajemian
Ahnert spoke at Harvard about her book The Knock at the
Door: A Journey Through the Darkness of the Armenian
Genocide (Beaufort Books, 2007).
The Harvard Armenian Society and the National Association
for Armenian Studies and Research (NASSR) sponsored the
event.
Nina Kouyoumdjian, co-president of the Harvard Armenian
Society, introduced the event, followed by a short
introduction of Ajemian Ahnert by NASSR vice president Raffi
Yeghiayan.
“My book is a mother-daughter story,” said Ajemian Ahnert.
“It’s not scholarly. It’s not meant to be. I turned it into
a mother-daughter story because I wanted everyone to
understand it, whether they were Irish, Italian, or anyone.”
She explained, “My mother went from an idyllic childhood
with trips to the seashore and family trips to a horrific
time. She was 15 at the time the genocide started.”
Ajemian Ahnert asked of her mother as a child, “Why did you
march out into the desert,” when she could have been saved
by conversion to Islam?
Her mother replied, “Because I wouldn’t give up my God.”
“My mother hed no anger towards anyone. None,” Ajemian
Ahnert said. “She would tell me, ‘You must not have fear or
hatred. It’s like acid, it burns the container.’”
Of her book she noted, “It came about as a result of my
master’s degree.” She said she was amazed over how many
non-Armenians new nothing about the genocide but were hungry
for information on the subject.
She said of a friend’s luncheon in West Palm Beach, Fla.,
that of a group of Ivy League-educated women only one had
heard of the Armenian Genocide.
“That was a year ago. I was shocked. I wanted to reach these
people,” she said.
She recounted how last year, on May 1, 2007, she was reading
from The Knock at the Door at the 85th St. Barnes and
Noble’s bookstore in New York when Turkish members of the
audience began to disrupt the lecture.
They were subsequently arrested and were carried out of the
book store, all the while spreading denialist speech and
shouting, “Margaret Ahnert is a liar!”
She quipped of the publicity the incident produced: “I have
to say, the Turks helped launch my book.”
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