God Bless Amerika

This true life narrative begins during the early years of World War One (1914-1918). In 1915, the Ottoman Government of Turkey brazenly embarks on a program of exterminating its Christian Armenian citizens. The first recorded genocide of the twentieth century continues unabated until the death toll reaches over the one and a half million mark. In April 1915, the Turkish government "dealers in death" attack the Armenian community in the village of Khunoos. Two American missionaries, Dr. Bob Thompson and his wife, Joan, become witness to the unimaginable horrors taking place before their eyes. Fearlessly, they rush to the Armenian neighborhoods, frantically searching for those still clinging to life. Several children and a young boy, my father, Kegham, are saved. For over a year, in the safety of the mission, he learns to read and write English. The mission's small library and especially the National Geographic magazines become a rich source of information. Its pages of photographs bring to life the endless wonders of America-truly, a "Paradise on Earth." In time, an overwhelming and irresistible desire to go to America gathers momentum. The Thompsons, filled with foreboding, listened to their young charge as he confidently outlines his plans. The distraught missionaries ply every tact and arguments to dissuade him, but to no avail. It is a heart-rending and painful parting as a tragically orphaned teenager clutching a bag filled with apples, cheese, and bread confidently begins the most fateful journey of his life. The panorama of unfolding events that follow run the full gamut of life's "syllabus of survival"-hope and despair, success and failure, happiness and sorrow, health and sickness, life and death. Regardless of one's age or circumstances, this true life story will energize you to never lose sight of your hopes and ambitions-and just maybe you too will adopt Kegham's lifelong mantra, "God bless Amerika," with or without an accent. cxiii