20th Annual Krieger Essay Contest

AASSSG LAUNCHES THE TWENTIETH ANNUAL KRIEGER
ESSAY CONTEST
FOR HIGH SCHOOL AND COLLEGE STUDENTS

The Armenian American Society for Studies on Stress & Genocide (AASSSG) was founded in 1988 by Dr. Ani Kalayjian to advance national and international understanding of the generational and intergenerational effects of traumatic experiences, such as genocide, earthquake, and war. In 1995, 80 years after the Ottoman Turkish Genocide of the Armenians (1915-1923), AASSSG established an annual essay contest as part of its commemorative activities.

ESSAY SUBJECT
“What the Legacy of Genocide Means to Me”
AWARD
$100.00 for High School student winner
$200.00 for College/University student winner

Eligibility and Submission Criteria:
1. Students must be enrolled in high school (Grades 10-12) or college/university (undergraduate level); they must be residents of New York, New Jersey or Connecticut;
2. Essays must be original and unpublished;
3. Essays must include social, psychological, philosophical or human rights perspectives, include multiple genocides both current and past, with multiple references, books, research, eye witness;
4. Essays must be in English, typewritten, double-spaced, and 1,000-2,000 words in length;
5. No more than one entry per year, and per family;
All entries become the property of AASSSG and will not be returned;
7. AASSSG reserves the right to make no award(s) in a given year if, in the opinion of its three judges, the submissions do not meet its criteria.

The benefactor of this essay contest is Dr. Edmund L. Gergerian, who resolved to establish this award in memory of his late uncle, Father Krikor Guerguerian, aka Krieger. Born in 1911 in Gurin, Sebastia, Turkey, Father Guerguerian was the tenth child of a prosperous Armenian Catholic family, whose ancestors originated from Gargar, a fortress-city dating from the time of the Crusaders. He survived one of the forced death marches, which ended in Syria. He witnessed the murder of his parents as a child, was taken as an orphan to Damascus, Syria, and then moved to Lebanon in 1916.

Krieger’s own near death experiences compelled him to devote his life to gathering documentary evidence: on the Ottoman Turkish Genocide of the Armenians. In the early 1940’s, Father Guerguerian met with Kurd Mustafa Kemal in Cairo, Egypt. Kemal was one of the judges on the War Crime Tribunals convened by the Ottoman government in 1918 and 1919. Since the documents were written in Ottoman, he spent months painstakingly teaching himself Ottoman. He then traveled around the world combing through archives and collections in the United States, Great Britain, France, Italy, Egypt, Israel, and Lebanon. He collected hundreds of documents in Ottoman, authenticated by seals of government agencies and therefore representing incontrovertible evidence of these events as genocide. He had completed about 80% of his work when he died in 1988. Today, his nephew continues his uncle’s work.

Deadline:
All entries must be postmarked by February 26, 2015. The winners will receive personal notifications by April 24, 2015, the anniversary date of the Ottoman Turkish Genocide of the Armenians. Awards will be given in April, at the United Nations, date TBA.
Please include cover letter indicating name, address, age, year of study, e-mail & personal contact, name of school/college attending, college major field of study, and career objectives and mail to:
Dr. Kalayjian, 135 Cedar Street, Cliffside Park, New Jersey, 07010-1003; Phone: 201 941-2266; E-mail: DrKalayjian@Meaningfulworld.com; website: www.Meaningfulworld.com.

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