Christine Derdarian will discuss “The 20th Century’s First Act of Mass Murder: Armenian Genocide” on Wednesday, Nov. 14, from 6:30-8:30 p.m. in Muskegon Community College’s Sturrus Technology Center, 388 W. Clay Ave. in downtown Muskegon.
The event, which is sponsored by the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies – Muskegon. Is free and open to the public.
The deportations, mass killing, and forced Islamization of Armenians in 1915-1916 in the late Ottoman Empire were ordered and carried out by the Young Turks and their Kurdish allies. They were motivated out of fear that the Russians, allied with Britain and France against the empires of Germany, Austro-Hungary, and the Ottomans, would turn the large minority population of Armenian Christians – and Greek Christians – against the Turks.
Derdarian, whose mother, Mae, lived through the annihilation, wrote her testimony in the book Vergeen: A Survivor of the Armenian Genocide.
A frequent public speaker on leadership and governance issues, Derdarian is an executive and attorney with extensive experience in governance and compliance issues, government relations, regulatory concerns, health professional licensing, labor law, and administrative law. She served as legal counsel and special advisor to the past Governor of Michigan and several other state officials.
For more information on the event, please contact Trynette Lottie-Harps at (231) 777-0559.