These humanitarians aided displaced Armenians in Fresno. A monument now honors them

Sophie Mekhitarian immigrated to the United States in 1949; one of thousands of displaced Armenians resettled following World War II thanks to the efforts of the American National Committee to Aid Homeless Armenians, or ANCHA as it would become known.

Her family had fled from Soviet Russia and spent time in a military camp in Germany, in a kind of limbo, she says, “a hopeless state.” Eventually, with the aid of ANCHA, her family made it to New York, then to Los Angeles and eventually settled in Fresno.

“My parents were ever so grateful for this lease on life,” says Mekhitarian, who spent the past three years working to honor the work of ANCHA, and its founders, with a monument that will be dedicated in a ceremony at 12:30 p.m. Sunday at the Holy Trinity Armenian Apostolic Church in downtown Fresno.

The monument is a slab of black granite that stands more than 13 feet high and is adorned with pictures of “ANCHA’s triumphant trio:” founders George Mardikian, Suren Saroyan and Brigade General Haig Shekerjian.

These men were true humanitarians, Mekhitarian says, and hold a special place within the community of displaced Armenians in Fresno and across the country.

Mardikian, in particular, gained national fame for his humanitarian work with the U.S. government. In 1953, President Harry S. Truman gave him the Medal of Freedom.

Mardikian is particularly revered, Mekhitarian says.

She remembers her father having serious debate on whether to donate a kidney to Mardikian, who was in need of a transplant at one point in his life. Ultimately, her father didn’t have to make that choice.

There was already a huge outpouring of volunteers from the community, she says.

“He did so much good.”

Along with his philanthropy and humanitarian work, Mardikian was a restaurateur who popularized Armenian food in America at Omar Khayyam’s, a rather famous restaurant on Powell Street in San Francisco. Before that, he ran the restaurant on Van Ness Avenue in Fresno, and was on the board of Fresno’s Holy Trinity Church, which became a gathering spot for Armenians as they settled into the community.

“We are all from the same church,” Mekhitarian says.

“The church that took care of us.”

The church community took in total strangers, she says, “one family after another.” It helped them find places to work and live.

The church, and others like it, are also honored with a special plaque on the monument, as are several unsung heroes who prevented the deaths of Armenians, especially its prisoners of war, during WWII.

The intent of the monument is to serve as both reminder and inspiration, says Varoujan Der Simonian, with the Armenian Museum of Fresno, which helped facilitate its installation and dedication. Certainly, it is designed to educate the larger public about ANCHA and the role it played in the relocation of Armenian communities in the United States.

But more than that, “it’s the call to serve,” he says.

“It’s a great example of how to serve humanity.”