Tonight, on many PBS stations, there is a documentary on the Armenian Holocaust. (The link is to the Wikipedia article on the massacre.) And yes, it happened, despite the claims of the Turkish government. About 50% of the 2 million Armenians living in land occupied by the Ottoman Turks were slaughtered. I know some survivors.

Depending on where you live, this may or may not be followed by a roundtable discussion. About 1/3 of stations cancelled that portion due to protests from Armenians. The panel featured 2 people who denied the genocide, but the NY Times reviews makes it sound like their arguments were torn apart pretty well.

I recall reading a telegraph from a German minister in Turkey to someone in his government, saying that something needed to be done to stop the slaughter of the Armenians. Since Germany and the Ottoman Empire were on good terms* at that time, it seems unlikely that the minister would lie about the events that were transpiring.

*The two were part of the Central Powers in World War I, along with the Austro-hungarian Empire and the Kingdom of bulgaria.

The History of Armenia, the first nation to officially adopt Christianity as the state religion, in 301 CE

Some well-known Armenians

Adrienne Barbeau – Armenian-American mother; USA; actor.

Eric Bogosian USA; starred in Talk Radio (film); also in Writers below.

Mike Connors – born Krikor Ohanian; USA; TV series Mannix.

Arlene Francis Armenian father; born Arlene Francis Kazanjian; USA; actor.

David Hedison – actor, "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea"

Vivien Leigh – part Armenian; England; starred in Gone With the Wind (film).

Andrea Martin – Papazian family; USA; comedic actor; Canadian TV series SCTV; movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

Andy Serkis – film actor, "King Kong" (2005) Provided body movements for Kong, also played Lumpy the Cook.
.
Akim Tamiroff – USA; actor.

Michael Vartan – USA; actor. (Armenian paternal grandfather or great-grand

Arshile Gorky – painter

Yousuf Karsh – Canada; Egyptian-born portrait photographer

Sarkis – sculptor

Kirk Kerkorian – businessman, multibillionaire, philanthropist.

Alex Manoogian – businessman; developed single-handle faucet; philanthropist.

Zildjian – family; manufacturers of renowned Zildjian and Sabian cymbals since 1623.

Atom Egoyan – Canadian filmmake

Rouben Mamoulian – film and theatre director

Yevgeny Petrosyan – comedian

Paul Ignatos or Poghos Ignatosian – (born 1920, Los Angeles, California, to a family of Armenians from Kharberd, Western Armenia); 1st US Minister of Armenian origin; 1942-1945 service in US Naval Aviation; 1961 - US Deputy Secretary of Army; 1964 - US Deputy Defense Secretary; 1967 - US Navy Secretary; Projected the F-111; retired 1986.

John I Tzimisces or Iovhannes Tchimishkik – Late Roman (Byzantine) general and emperor (969-976).

Charles Aznavour – France; singer, songwriter, actor.

Ross Bagdasarian – USA; pseudonym "David Saville"; creator of Alvin and the Chipmunks.

Ross Bagdasarian, Jr. – USA; continues work of his father for Alvin and the Chipmunks.

Isabel Bayrakdarian – Canada; soprano and engineer.

Ara Berberian – opera singer.

Cathy Berberian – mezzo-soprano singer.

Raffi Cavoukian – stage name Raffi; Canada; children's singer, songwriter, musician; born Egypt.

John Herald – USA; bluegrass musician.

Michel Legrand – composer.

Pavel Lisitsian – opera singer.

Tigran Mansurian – composer.

Edward Manukyan – composer.

Naira M'noyan – Belgium; musician, composer.

Sayat Nova – folk songwriter-musician

System of a Down – USA; heavy metal band.
* Serj Tankian – vocals, keyboards.
* Daron Malakian – guitar, vocals.
* Shavo Odadjian – bass.
* John Dolmayan – drums.

Cher – USA; born Cherilyn Sarkisian (Armenian father); singer, songwriter, actor, director.

Sylvie Vartan – France; singer.

Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov – one Armenian grandparent; former premier, USSR.

Sarkis Assadourian – Canadian politician, member of Parliament.

Bob Avakian – chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA.

George Deukmejian – former governor of California.

Leon Redbone – USA; born Cyprus; neo-vaudeville singer (unconfirmed).

Heraclius the Elder – Exarch of Africa Province in the Late Roman Empire, late 6th, early 7th centuries, father of Emperor Heraclius.

Heraclius the Younger – Late Roman (Byzantine) Emperor (610-641).

Miklos Horthy – 1868-1957; Admiral and Hungarian Leader (1922-1944). (disputed)

Howard Kaloogian – California State Assemblyman
from 1994-2000.

Emile Lahoud – president, Lebanon.

Leo V, the Armenian – Late Roman (Byzantine) emperor (813-820).

Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan – Soviet politician and statesman.

Philippicus Vartanes, Eastern Roman emperor (711–713).

Alexander Raphael – first Armenian member of British Parliament; Sheriff of Londo

Raymond Setlakwe – Canadian politician.

Ferenc Szalasi – part Armenian (name was Salasyan); leader of Hungary, World War II.

Tigranes the Great – King, Armenia (95-56 BC); allied with Mithridates Pontus; warred against Romans under Lucius Cornelius Sulla and Lucius Licinius Lucullus.

Larry Zarian – Mayor, Glendale, California.

Prince William, Prince Harry, Princess Diana Spencer – their distant Armenian ancestor in the maternal line lived in India; the princes are second and third in line for the British throne and are 1/128th Armenian.

Gregory the Illuminator – ("Krikor"); Christian saint, founder of the Armenian Apostolic Church.

G. I. Gurdjieff – (Georges Ivanovich); half Armenian; mystic, philosopher.

Patriarch Karekin II Kazanjian of Constantinople – 83rd Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople.

James P. Bagian – NASA astronaut

Jack Kevorkian – pathologist, euthanasia activist

Artem Mikoyan – designer of MiG aircraft

Michel Ter-Petrossian – inventor of Positron Emission Tomography [PET scanning] which revolutionized the understanding of brain function

Andre Agassi – tennis player

Levon Aronian – chess master, ranked 5th in the world

Steve Bedrosian – baseball player

Garry Kasparov – half Armenian; world chess champion

Armen Keteyian – broadcaster

Tim Kurkjian – baseball analyst on ESPN

Ara Parseghian – football coach

Tigran Petrosian – world chess champion

Jerry Tarkanian – basketball coach

Matt Vasgersian – broadcaster

Garo Yepremian – NFL kicker (and very bad passer)

Michael Arlen – novelist

Amy Ouzoonian – USA; poet.

William Saroyan – USA; novelist; playwright,
etc. (also wrote "Come On-a My House", a hit for Rosemary Clooney, based on an Armenian folk song, written with his cousin, Ross Bagdasarian, the impressario of Alvin and the Chipmunks.)
Among Saroyan's best known plays is The Time of Your Life (1939), set in a waterfront saloon in San Francisco. It won a Pulitzer Prize. Saroyan refused the honor, on the grounds that commerce should not judge the arts, but accepted the New York Drama Critics Circle award. In 1948 the play was adapted into a film starring James Cagney.

Martin the Armenian – first Armenian colonist in America; lived in the Jamestown settlement. (You gotta like that name.)

Varaztad, King of Armenia, last Champion of the Ancient Olympics, won in Pancratium (a combination of boxing and wrestling; The victory was not decided until one of the parties was killed, or lifted up a finger, thereby declaring that he was unable to continue the contest either from pain or fatigue.)

I remember clippings my aunt had in some scapbooks having to do with events from the time of the Boer War to the end of the first world war. There was no doubt in the minds of the news reporter at the scene as the Armenian refugees arrived that the Armenians had been harrassed by Turks as they tried to flee from the genocide. Their stories were truly harrowing. Having to watch from hiding as whole groups of half-starved refugees were butchered, literally, by laughing Turkish soldiers who had followed them and caught up with them. The atrocities against the young women were the most horiffic. Making it through the mountains was bad enough, but making it while trying to stay ahead of pursuing Turks was worse. Many of the young and old died of exhaustion.

There was no doubt in the minds of the surviving refugees that the intent of the Turks was to track them all down and kill them before they could reach safety in Russia so that no one could tell the story.

My aunt told me that the expression "cruel as a Turk" came into being at that time.

As cruel as a Turk: Whence came
That proverb old as the crusades!
From Anglo-Saxons. What are they?
The Anglo-Saxons -- lacking grace
To win the love of any race;

Herman Melville, 1876

I don't know that Melville was right about it being "old as the crusades," but he viewed the expression as old four decades before the genocide. The genocide may well have given it new life, though.

Add "Greyed, Dorian" to that list of distinguished Armenians!