Armenian Student’s Cultural Association

Facing Genocide from Ann Arbor

Armenian U-M Students 100 Years Ago
Harry A. Kezelian III
U-M Law School Alumnus, 2010

The Armenian Genocide of 1915 affected not only those who were victim to it but all Armenians the world over. Armenians who were studying at or had studied in Ann Arbor were no exception.

The first two Armenians to study at the University of Michigan, Khachadour Nahigian and Boghos Simonian, started in fall 1886. Simonian was born in Palu, Turkey, received his B.A. in 1882 from Armenia College (the American school in Kharpert, Turkey), and his M.D. from U-M in 1889. Nothing else is known except that he died in Petoskey, Michigan, around 1906.

Nahigian, a prominent Armenian Protestant, was born in 1860 in the village of Hussenig, near Kharpert. In 1880, he was a member of Armenia College’s first graduating class of ten students. He attended U-M for the 1886–1887 academic year only, listed under “students not candidates for degrees.” He studied natural science and mathematics, then returned to teach algebra, geometry, and trigonometry at Armenia College, renamed Euphrates College by government order in 1888. By 1915 he was one of seven full professors there, all Armenians. After having been arrested, he was taken out on the road on June 20, 1915 and massacred in a group that included two of the other professors. Of the seven, four were murdered, two were thrown in jail and died of disease, and only one was spared. Though some of the American schools in Turkey relocated to other countries, the doors of Euphrates College were shut forever.

When the Genocide broke out, the Detroit Armenian community had just begun to develop, and there were eight Armenians studying at U-M. In the following school year of 1915–1916, there were ten. It was during that year that the first student Armenian Club was organized. On February 18, 1916, this nascent group even held a concert for the benefit of the Genocide victims at Hill Auditorium, featuring legendary tenor and protégé of Gomidas, Armenag Shah-Mouradian, along with operatic singers Zabelle Panosian and Rose Hagopian, and violinist Krikor Aiqouni.

Who were these U-M students who came together for the first time to organize a club and even invite Shah-Mouradian to play at Hill Auditorium? Four had attended an American college in Turkey. Four were in Medical School, four became dentists, and two engineers. Dr. Avedis Kaye (Kouyoumjian), born in Yerzinga, arrived at U-M in 1911. He became involved in Armenian affairs in Detroit, and as an orator and activist, “brought enthusiasm and activity to the community’s literary life.” He received his M.D. in 1916, and in 1918 he was one of the ten founders of the “Yeridasartats Agoump” (Youth Club) in Detroit. This club sponsored lectures, raised money for Armenian causes, and supported cultural activities, but dissolved in 1928. Sometime in 1919 or later, Kaye went to Cilicia to try to set up a clinic, but returned in 1922 when the French withdrew, settling in Boston.

A fellow founder of the Youth Club was Dr. Mihran Deirmenjian, who received his B.A. from Anatolia College in 1909, and his M.D. from U-M in 1916. In 1928, he became the first chairman of the committee which built St. John’s Armenian Church in Detroit in 1931. Dr. Sarkis Kash (Kashkashian) studied at Anatolia College from 1910–1912, received his M.D. from U-M in 1917, and was the author of a 1965 book on the Genocide, Crime Unlimited.

In their own way, these students each had to face the Genocide as they began a new phase in their lives, even though they were living across the ocean and thousands of miles away in Ann Arbor.