Last Armenian Genocide survivor in Canada passes away

By Asbarez | Monday, 23 January 2017

MONTREAL, Canada (Horizon Weekly)—Knar Yemenidjian, who was believed to be the last Armenian Genocide survivor in Canada, passed away in Montreal on January 19, just short of her 108th birthday.

Yeminidjian (née Bohjelian) was born in Ottoman Kayseri in 1909. When the massacres and the assault on Kayseri began, she and her family sought refuge in a barn for a few months. Her family was then deported.

Following a governmental decree and with their grandmother’s backing, Bohjelian’s family was forced to Turkify themselves in order to survive. Subsequently, Bohjelian and her entire family bore Turkish names.

Once a cease-fire was announced, her parents decided to flee the region. In 1928, they travelled to Ankara, then Istanbul. After staying there for 11 months, they made their way to Greece by boat and two days later, arrived in Alexandria, Egypt.

Bohjelian got married and lived in Egypt for over 40 years before moving to Montreal in 1971 with her family.

The Armenian National Committee of Canada (ANCC) mourned the passing of Yemenedjian and expresses its deepest condolences to her family in a short statement on its official Facebook page. The ANCC also said that it will release a more thorough statement shortly.

On September 26, another one of Canada’s last survivors of the Armenian Genocide Keghetsik Hagopian-Zourikian, passed away in Montreal at age 107.


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