LOS ANGELES—City Councilmember Paul Krekorian recognized Hagop Manjikian for his civic leadership on April 23, 2014, as he led the Los Angeles City Council in commemorating the Armenian Genocide.
“Hagop Manjikian, thank you for your dedicated service to the Armenian-American community. Throughout the years, you have met with former Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, former California Governor Pat Brown, in addition to other city, state and national leaders to bring awareness and recognition of the Armenian Genocide. Your tireless work helped ensure that the Armenian Martyrs Monument was built in Montebello, California, and your leadership was also instrumental in the creation of the Soghomon Tehlirian monument in Fresno, California. Thank you again for your unwavering commitment, advocacy and selfless work to uplift the Armenian community. I wish you nothing but continued success,” noted Councilmember Krekorian.
Catholicos Aram I endowed Manjikian with a medal for his dedication to serving his people in 2001.
In 2004, as he watched the generation of Armenian Genocide survivors slipping away, Manjikian decided that he and his wife, Knar, should self-publish their stories. He remembered a particularly tragic memoir that he read as a youth by a Genocide survivor named Armen Anoush, and he decided then to have the book translated to English so that it would be accessible to a broad audience. Published in 2005, that book, “Passage Through Hell,” is in its third printing.
The Manjikians have published a total of six Armenian Genocide memoirs. Their mission is to render a moral service to the English-speaking Armenian youth to read first-hand the stories of their ancestors and to educate English-speaking people of the world about the 1915 Armenian Genocide.
The six books in the Armenian Genocide Library series, available on Amazon and in Armenian bookstores, are: “Passage Through Hell,” “Fatal Night,” “Death March,” “Crime of the Ages,” “Defying Fate,” and “Our Cross.”
