A Fresno State professor’s book looking at Armenians in Canada was published this month and coincides with the 90th anniversary of the beginning of the Armenian genocide that killed 1.5 million people.

Dr. Isabel Kaprielian-Churchill, a professor of history at California State University, Fresno wrote “Like Our Mountains: A History of Armenians in Canada,” which was published by McGill-Queen’s University Press. The book recounts the sweeping social history of the Armenian-Canadian experience that links the Old World with the New against a far-flung diaspora.

The genocide of Armenians in Turkey began in 1915. More than seventy-five thousand Armenians have found refuge in Canada and Kaprielian-Churchill’s narrative is the first comprehensive account of their experience from the late 19th century to the devastating earthquake in 1988.

“Like Our Mountains” relates the history of the Canadian Armenian community from its founding, settlements and economic adjustments, to its social, religious, political and cultural life, transformations over generations, and relationship with other communities in Canadian society. The book examines the cities settled by Armenian immigrants: Brantford before 1914, St. Catharines after World War I, Hamilton after World War II, and Toronto and Montreal from the 1960s to 1988.

Kaprielian-Churchill carried out exhaustive research in English, Armenian, and French sources including interviews with survivors of the genocide, archives, oral histories, diaries and memoirs and letters.

A professor of Armenian and Immigration History, Kaprielian-Churchill specializes in the field of Armenian diasporan history.

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