Constantinople/Istanbul, PICTURES

The John Blanck Family and the families of the sisters of Alice Azarian Blanck spent their summers in Belmar, New Jersey for many years. To see pictures of Belmar, click on the post card of the beach scene

The April 21, 2006 Times of London reported on the "disappearance" of one of the medieval wonders of the Caucasus as an act of "cultural vandalism". An Armenian cemetery at Jugha near the southern boarder of Azerbaijan containing thousands of carved stone crosses dating from the 9th to 16th centuries has vanished apparently destroyed by the Azerbaijanis.

Azerbaijan has repeatedly dismissed Armenia's allegations as scaremongering and in turn accused Armenia of destroying hundreds of Muslim sites.

The Armenian foreign minister, Vartan Oskanian stated that "The irony is that this destruction has taken place not during a time of war but at a time of peace."

The Azerbaijanis contend that there was never an Armenian cemetery or any other Armenian cultural relics on the site.

My thanks to John Doherty who sent a copy of the times article.

Go to Armeniapedia: the online Armenia Encyclopedia for information on Jugha cemetery and to JUGHA HAS BEEN DESTROYED to see images.

There are a lot of other sites as well.

You As A Source

The history of the Azarian family is a work in progress. I have a few more research ideas to pursue, more documents I need to process, and more photos I want to clean up a bit before including them. I will be continually updating these pages.

If you have any suggestions, corrections, information, copies of documents, or photos that you would like to share with this site, please contact me at maggie@maggieblanck.com

I am particularly interested in old photos.

Thanks

To Lucille Iorio Gaudelli for

• Lending me the photos that she had of the Azarians and her parents. See Group Photos

To Ilda Pace Restrepo:

• For the correction of the spelling of Arevian. I had spelled it Arivian, but Arevian was the perfered spelling used by the family in the United States
• For information she provided on her mother. See Christine

To Julie Rose Claveloux:

• For photos she sent me

To George and Polly Parnagian:

• For additional information they provided in February, 2002 on George's parents. See Catherine

To Ani and Levon Capan

• For lending me Istanbul Ermeni Kiliseleri (Armenian Churches of Istanbul) by Pars Tuglaci, June 2002

To Eileen Claveloux and Paula Parnegian:

• For photos of Catherine, Toros, and George Parnagian

To Christine Parnagian Esposito:

• For information and the photo of Christine Azarian as a young woman

To Haniel Riviere-Allen, the granddaughter of Hagop Arevian/Hagopian:

• For information on her grandfather, Hagop, and other members of the Arevian/hagopian clan. See Arevian/Hagopian