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L'auteur | |
Kerop Bedoukian was born in the city of Sivas in central Anatolia into a family of Armenian merchants. His early education was in the kindergarten system founded in the city by his aunt. In 1915, he was forced to leave the city with his mother and sisters for Aleppo, Syria during Armenian massacres in which his father, older brothers and uncles perished. After stays in Istanbul, Turkey, Bulgaria and England he and his mother obtained admission to Canada in 1926. After two years of farm labour he moved to Toronto in 1928, and later to Vancouver where he became a citizen in 1931. He then moved to Montreal to establish his own rug cleaning business, Ararat Rugs, which grew into a large retail business. Bedoukian was active as an Elder in the First Armenian Holy Apostolic church of Montreal, and a member of the Canadian Council of Churches which paid travel costs for Armenians from refugee camps in Greece. He was also a member of the executive of the Canadian Armenian Congress and the Armenian General Benevolent Union which aided Armenian immigration from Turkey, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon and Egypt as well as other Middle Eastern countries. In 1967 the Canadian government honoured his humanitarian activities by awarding him the Centennial Medal for 'Services rendered to the Nation'. | |
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