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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. When did the first Armenian genocide resolution come before the U.S. Congress?

2. What is the traditional day of commemoration of the Armenian genocide?

3. Where was Balakian giving the poetry reading which his Aunt Anna attended?

4. What kind of business did Dovey's family run in the United States?

5. In what year was the Treaty of Lausanne signed?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does numbness help people who have endured great horrors?

2. Why is Der Zor considered the Armenian equivalent of Auschwitz?

3. Why was Balakian so affected by his visit to Aleppo, Syria?

4. How did Balakian's aunts justify the family's inability to talk about the genocide when he was a child?

5. What were the Young Turks like in terms of personality and education?

6. Why were the orders for deportation of all Armenians into the Syrian desert the equivalent of a death sentence?

7. What was Nafina's reaction to the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor?

8. What was the deeper significance of the way in which Dovey's father was killed?

9. How was the Armenian-Lebanese town of Anjar settled?

10. Why did Balakian eventually come to see his family's silence about the genocide as a gift?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Even after the genocide was over, the Armenian people continued to suffer, not least because there was no acknowledgment of their suffering. Write an essay exploring how they continued to suffer at the hands of the Turks in the aftermath. How did the Turks prevent them from reestablishing a free nation? Why did the world stand by as they continued to lose land? What is the current situation of Armenia and how has that nation provided Armenians around the world with some hope?

Essay Topic 2

Armenians in the United States--including Balakian's family--generally attempted to assimilate into American culture. How did this assimilation impact their ability to thrive after the genocide? Did assimilation mean an abandonment of Armenian culture? Or did they maintain traditions that could no longer be maintained in their wiped out homeland? Did assimilation make it easier for the survivors and their descendants to deal with the fact of genocide?

Essay Topic 3

Turkish government officials and their supporters have claimed that the denial of the genocide is a form of protected free speech. Do you believe that? Can speech that denies a central historical truth be protected under free speech statutes? Does this denial make it more difficult for Armenians to exercise their own freedom of speech to publicize the genocide? Does the granting of free speech rights mean that all positions must be treated as legitimate sides in a debate?

(see the answer keys)

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