American actor Joe Manganiello, who recently learned about his Armenian roots, spoke about his great-grandmother, a survivor of the Armenian Genocide.
“This is one of two existing photos of my great-grandmother Terviz ‘Rose’ Darakjian holding my little grandmother Sirarpi ‘Sondra’ before they crossed the Atlantic to America,” Manganiello wrote on Instagram.
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“There is some debate among relatives about whether Sirarpi was my great-grandmother’s ninth or tenth child. Because all of her previous children were killed or left to die of starvation during the Armenian Genocide of 1915. Her husband was killed along with most other able-bodied men to reduce the likelihood of resistance. Terviz was shot and left for dead, but somehow survived, being held in a ‘displacement camp’ where she became pregnant by a German soldier stationed in Turkey during the war.
Regardless of where I stand in the battle of Good and Evil, this is what had to happen for my Mother, and now Me, to exist on this planet and receive the gift of Life.
Every year on April 24, Armenians around the world mourn the loss of 1.5 million people killed and pay tribute to people like my great-grandmother who survived and passed on Armenian culture to us. Thanks to the diaspora, they will live on forever in the stories told by their descendants... like me,” Manganiello added.
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