{"id":5453,"date":"2019-08-05T18:44:45","date_gmt":"2019-08-05T21:44:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.recoletacemetery.com\/?p=5453"},"modified":"2021-08-13T13:37:35","modified_gmt":"2021-08-13T11:37:35","slug":"547-kevork-akrabian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/recoletacemetery.com\/?p=5453","title":{"rendered":"548. kevork akrabian"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/recoletacemetery.com\/images\/200806F07.jpg\" alt=\"Recoleta Cemetery, Buenos Aires, Kevork Akrabian\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Armenians first arrived in Argentina during two periods in the early 20th century, either escaping a horrendous genocide beginning in 1915 during World War I or a continued massacre by the Turks in 1921. Although no accurate numbers exist, an estimated one million people were murdered by the end of violence in 1923.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Born in Marash, Akrabian&#8217;s father died defending a German orphanage where various Armenian families had gone for safe haven. Inside the orphanage also happened to be his future wife, Luisa Naldjian&#8230; but they wouldn&#8217;t meet until much later. Akrabian &amp; other family members managed to escape to the State of Aleppo, but he left in 1924 on a ship bound for Buenos Aires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/recoletacemetery.com\/images\/200912B04.jpg\" alt=\"Recoleta Cemetery, Buenos Aires, Kevork Akrabian\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Eventually Akrabian found work at a shoe factory where Luisa Naldjian worked. Her father happened to be the owner, &amp; they&#8217;d arrived in Buenos Aires one year earlier. Sounds like fate! They married in their early 20&#8217;s, opened their own shoe factory together &amp; became very active in the Armenian community in Buenos Aires. Most Armenians settled in the neighborhood of Palermo where self-help organizations opened &amp; restaurants thrive to this day. One reminder of this community is a monument in the Plazoleta Monte Ararat (Charcas 3500):<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/recoletacemetery.com\/images\/201201G06.jpg\" alt=\"Buenos Aires, Palermo, Plazoleta Monte Ararat\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>In the 1960s, Akrabian purchased the Wilton Hotel in Barrio Norte, near the intersection of Callao &amp; Santa Fe. Flying flags of Armenia &amp; Argentina, the hotel became a hub for Armenians visiting from abroad. Unfortunately flags of other countries are now mixed in with that of Armenia, but I had friends visit in 2003 &amp; stay there&#8230; at that time the original flags still flew:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/recoletacemetery.com\/images\/200306A12.jpg\" alt=\"Recoleta Cemetery, Buenos Aires, Kevork Akrabian, Wilton Hotel\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:25px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/recoletacemetery.com\/images\/200306A13.jpg\" alt=\"Recoleta Cemetery, Buenos Aires, Kevork Akrabian, Wilton Hotel\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Two plaques on Akrabian&#8217;s tomb commemorate his service as president of the <em>Uni\u00f3n Compatri\u00f3tica Armenia de Marash<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/recoletacemetery.com\/images\/200806F08.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:25px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/recoletacemetery.com\/images\/200912B05.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>His wife, Luisa, passed away in 2015 at the age of 100 &amp; is also buried here. For more information about this important family, read <a href=\"https:\/\/auroraprize.com\/en\/stories\/detail\/regular\/9540\/akrabian-siblings\">this post<\/a> on the <strong>Aurora Prize<\/strong> website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Armenians first arrived in Argentina during two periods in the early 20th century, either escaping a horrendous genocide beginning in 1915 during World War I&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"more-link-wrapper\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/recoletacemetery.com\/?p=5453\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">548. kevork akrabian<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/recoletacemetery.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/recoletacemetery.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/recoletacemetery.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/recoletacemetery.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/recoletacemetery.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5453"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/recoletacemetery.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6405,"href":"https:\/\/recoletacemetery.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5453\/revisions\/6405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/recoletacemetery.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/recoletacemetery.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/recoletacemetery.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}