Thank You, America & Americans

By Armen Saginian

Why this appraisal
In the framework of an autobiography?
I am a naturalized American citizen. I am what I am, and I became
what I became because of you, you the wonderful American people. You
dear Americans, who have created this wonderful and benevolent country
through your hard work. No other nation, to date, can claim that they have done
more or better than you have in such a short time.

I am giving you my thanks, my appreciations, my respects, my love and
devotion to you and your work, aspirations, and ideals. I am doing this in a try
to nullify the vicious attempts of modern-day Trotsky(s) and their clones, who
are trying to tear down what you have built, because they cannot match you or
your work, or outdo you.

In my Addendums, I have selectively expressed my heartfelt gratitude to
those who had the most effect on my life, but the list of those who, in one way
or another, affected my life will probably make a book as thick as this one.
The majority of them are Americans.

My dear and benevolent people who have helped me, and others like me,
millions of us, be proud of who you are and what you have done. You have always
torn down what was useless, and have replaced it with something more useful.
For the sake of the future of this nation, and the salvation of mankind, don't give
anything free to anyone. Don't give anyone free fish to feed on, teach them how
to fish to live on. May the intelligent energy be with you.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 18, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669837930

Book preview

Copyright © 2022 by Armen Saginian.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 07/15/2022

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CONTENTS

The House I Was Born In

Who Was Dawood Khan Saginashvilli

Who Was Gorgin Khan

Who Was Colonel Solomon Khan?

I Am Born

Who Was My Mother

Who Was My Father

History Of My Mother With My Father

My Mother Takes Me To Her Parents House

My Kindergarten Year

My First Summer In A Village

My Problems As A Student In Iran

My Second Summer In Another Village

My Second Summer In Another Village

The Hacienda In The Sahatloo Village

The Last Day Before The Wine Festival

The Day Of Wine Festival

Return To Tabriz, My Life Has Changed

End Of Third Year, I Am Sent To Tabriz To Live With My Father I Prefer To Call Them Two Years In Hell

The Beatings I Took

Goodbye To Life In The Old Hacienda

Starting A New Life In Tehran

My Fifth Grade In Jamshid Jam

Grandma Dispatches Hasmik To Fetch Me

My Life In The Sixth Grade

Our Teachers In Alborz

My Life In Alborz College

My Political Involement

My Social Involvements

My Cultural Involvemets

My Situation With My Life Conditions

Scool Year Is Over And I Have To Majke A Decision

I Had To Decide What To Do With My Life

My Mind Is Being Made Up

My Year Of Preparation To Leave Iran

We Are In The Plane

Decision To Go To The United States

My First Breakfast In Maryville College

Some Sprcific Incidents In Maryvillr College

Christmas Is Aproaching

Sophomore Year Started

My First Year In University Of Tennessee

My Interviews And Employment

I Am At Boeing

New Rented House In Renton

My Short Stay With General Dynamics Astronomics

Employment With Airesearch

First Petty-Conflict At Aieresearch

Progress In El Segundo Facility

El Segundo Decides To Send Me To Iran

Preparation For Product Installation In Iran

Arriving In Tehran

Return To The United States And Report On The Trip

Mr. John Baptist Fallon Arrives In Tehran

Garrett Corporation Is Becoming Anxious

Problem With Corporations

Fifty-One Days In Limbo

December 12, 1978 To February 2, 1979 In Limbo

I Am Back In The United States

Was Sent To The Nuclear Enrichment

I Have To Restart Where I Levi’ Off In 1970

My Other Commercia Involvements

Hermes Enterprises

My Political Involements

Iranian National Affairs Council, Mid 1990S

Trip To The Pentagon

Adendum

Mr. Eman (Emanuel) Podgorni

The Love Of My Life

Who Was Miss. Marjorie Gardiner Hunter

My Friend Dr. George Podgorny

The Myers Family, Myhome Away From Home

Dr. William Ashley Hansen (My First Teacher Of (Americanism), (A True Friend, To The Core)

Artem Be.janian

Resume

About The Author

THE HOUSE I WAS BORN IN

To my knowledge, the house I was born in was built in late eighteenth century in the Citadel of Tabriz. Why do I call it citadel, because (remove)? Well, in those days, most of the cities were surrounded with high walls. Each city had gates opening to the city. Each gate was opening to a road that led to a neighboring city. Each gate had a name. The walls were there to defend the city dwellers from the hoodlums and thieves, each gate had towers on both sides. Gates would open in the morning to passengers and to the villagers who delivered their crops for the city dwellers. Gates would close in early evening hours. If the city were under attack, the gates would close, and towers and wall-walkways would be manned by city defenders.

Within each city, there was a citadel, or in other words, a city within the city, which was also walled and defended by the defenders. Residents of those citadels were the officials of the city and their serving resident people. Usually, those citadels had their own names, or were referred to as the citadel of the city. The city of Tabriz, due to its special function for the central government, had a special citadel. What was the special function? That city was the Sit (do you mean Seat?) of the Crown Prince, who was being trained by Attabay (father-tutor) for his future position as the king of the country. There were two cities in Iran with such designation, Tabriz, and Shiraz.

Attabay is a Turkish compound word of Atta which means father, and Bay which means Sir and/or Master. At times, Those Attabays, had their own sub-servient mini kingdoms. In Persian, that position is called Ataback, and those small kingdoms were referred to as Atabakan.

During the time of the Ghajar dynasty, Tabriz was the seat of the Crown Prince, whoever it may have been. The citadel where they lived was referred to as Ghal-e, which literally means Citadel. All the governmental officials resided in the Ghal-e, which commonly was known as Ghala. All the governmental offices were in Ghala. Of course, there were stores and service organizations that served the residents of Ghala, but they were all located withing the walls of Ghala. Some of the service people also resided with the Ghala, but most of them did not. They would come in when the Gates of Ghala would open in the morning. Even the main Bazaar was located outside of the Ghala, but adjacent to the Bazaar Gate.

The house where I was born was located inside the citadel. My great-grandfather was the commander of the cavalry of Azerbaijan. My grandfather, Solomon Khan, was the head of Post office, and later the telegraph office of East India Trade Company. The personal Physician of the Crown Prince, Dr. McCormick, was married to a Saginian Khnum

(Gorgin Khan’s daughter Tamara Khanum, and they lived in the citadel.

Before I continue the house where I was born, and since I mentioned the name East India Trading Company, I think I better give a short description of that organization. Disregarding its predecessors, East India trading Company received its Charter from Queen Elizabeth I, on December 3 1, 1600, and went on to become one of the most notorious, power usurping and colonizing organizations in the world. To make sure that everything was working perfectly and smoothly, they established a telegraph line from Bombay (today’s Mumbai) to London that was maned 24/7. The Tabriz telegraph office was one of their relay stations. Later it was taken over by the Iranian Government and made a Ministry of Post and Telegraph.

The house I was born in was a hacienda type house. It was all walled in, and it had everything that it needed. It had an underground water storage that would store enough water for household use for at least six months. A water-master called Mirab, would distribute water to all residents twice a year. The waterway was duct(remove) an underground duct through ceramic pipes, and he was very adamant in performing his duties (if theses referring to Mirab, move this sentence to describe Mirab) Yes, it was a hacienda. It had underground quarters and the first level that was composed of four parts: a bedroom and living room of the head of the household with its own small kitchen; the banquet room with its two balconies for the musicians to sit and play, with three large windows, eight niches in the walls for oil lamps, and a huge chandelier of forty oil lamps (instead of candles); next to it was the large kitchen; and next to it the storage room and baking room with an underground large tanur. The storage room had a large wooden storage for wheat and flower. That storage could contain four tons (8 thousand pounds, really?) of each. And next to it were the guest rooms for visitors who would come to stay for few days, or for the members of the family that lived with their parent.

The underground department also was composed of four departments. First the storage of wood for the winter heating of the building. Second the storage of preserved food in two parts, the front part for dried flat bread that was hanging from the sealing and preserved food that were not light sensitive. The rear side was for food that were light sensitive, and they were in exceptionally large ceramic pots, all around the room. Next to it was the bathroom for the entire building. It included the water heater, a small pool in the middle of the room that could accommodate five to six adults, two massage platforms on the sides, and a window that was put together by small colorful glasses and sunshine would shine in through the colorful glass mosaic window. Next to it was the wine cellar that had shelves for wines that were made in the next room. The next room had the huge wine pottery about five feet tall and two feet in diameter. There were twenty of them all around the room as I recall. Next to it was the room where they used to juice the grapes to be fermented in those pots. And the last room was the stable for the horses, with their food storage behind it. That stable had room for eight horses. And Finally the upstairs quarters that were the bedrooms of the young ones in the family.

WHO WAS DAWOOD

KHAN SAGINASHVILLI

Dawood Khan, a Brigadier General in Georgian Artillery and an adjutant to the King Heraclius of Georgia, was from a noble family, well known in Georgia as Saginashvillies. The majority of that clan were land-owners, and well to do.

From what I have read and heard, they were descendants from the old Ashkanian and Parthian dynasties.

When Caucasus was given to Russia, King Heraclius did not accept to live under Russian rule. He chose to migrate to Iran and live as an Iranian subject. Three of his adjutants and his son Prince Alexey accompanied him. Upon their arrival in Tehran, they were received honorably by the Qajar king, and Dawood Khan was given a post in the Military Officer Training School in Isfahan, to train artillery officers.

His son, captain Gorgin Khan was given the command of the Persian cavalry in Azerbaijan and sent to Tabriz. His other son, Zali Khan, accompanied Prince Alexey back to Georgia.

Dawood Khan marries an Armenian Girl in Isfahan, and after conclusion of his commission with the military school, he went to Tabriz and died there. He had participated in several military campaigns in southern Iran, and he became famous as a humanitarian officer, because in his campaigns, instead of canon-balls, he used turnips to make sure that he does not kill rebel soldiers.

His grave, as practiced in Georgia for the burial grounds of the nobility families, is in a plot that was purchased for him and his descendants, away from the rest of the Christian graveyards. It is known as the graveyard of Mary the mother of God.

To my knowledge, he spoke only in Georgian and Turkish. In all of his Command Commissions, he is referred to as General Dawood the Georgian. His only photo available is printed in the following page.

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WHO WAS GORGIN KHAN

He was one of the adjutants that accompanied the King of Georgia to Iran, and was commissioned to command the Azerbayjan cavalry. He was a wild one.

To further describe Gorgin Khan’s character, this episode is worth mentioning. He was a no-nonsense field officer. He meant what he said, and he proved it by action.

The story goes that one day he had a dispute with a notable person, and they did not settle their problem. That day he summoned some of his soldiers and ordered them to get some bricks and mortar and at night built a wall in front ofthe guy’s entrance gate to the yard of the hacienda.

In those days, living quarters were in the middle of the yard, and the entire yard was surrounded by a wall, and you could not reach the house without entering through the gate and pass through the yard. People who knew him never left any dispute unsettled.

While serving as cavalry officer in Salmas, in an Assyrian village called Khosravan, he saw the daughter of the village priest on top of the ladder. Enjoyed what he saw and married her. Together they had a bunch of children. Here is the only photo that we have of him.

2.jpg

WHO WAS COLONEL SOLOMON KHAN?

Unlike his father, Gorgin Khan, Solomon Khan was a sensible and mild-mannered fellow. Below is a photo of him.

3.jpg4.jpg5.jpg

I AM BORN

I am told that I was born on the second day of February of 1933 in Tabriz Iran. Someone had taken that page from a calendar, encircles the second day of February od the year 1933, and had framed it and it was hanging in our living room for years. I am sure that it was done by my mother. My father could not care less. I was also told that my birth took place at 4:35 in the morning. It was a cold day, and it had snowed all night.

My father had told me that early next morning, Gurgen Saginian, my father’s cousin (also his close friend) had come to inquire about my birth, and found my father clearing a pathway through the knee-high snow. Gurgen had said: Why don’t you get that son od yours to do the work?

I was also told that they built a delivery chair for me to be delivered at home. I was also told that I was born in the room that used to be the bedroom of Colonel Solomon Khan Saginian (my grandfather).

What surprises me is the fact that my mother was in love with my father, and she wanted to marry him, despite all the negative and discouraging things that she was told about my father. Yet, after marrying him, she chose not to have children for six years. I know that to be true because I have a copy of her birth certificate. A copy of their marriage certificate, and my birth certificate. I can mean only one thig, she was heartbroken, and did not wat a child, with that man. However, because of all the gossips going on, she decided to have one, me.

A PHOTO OF ME BEFORE I WAS THREE

IN THOSE DAYS, EVERY FAMILY HAD ONE

6.jpg

A PHOTO OF ME, MOTHER AND GRANDMA

AFTER SHE LEFT MY FATHER, NEVER DIVORCED

7.jpg

WHO WAS MY MOTHER

My mother was Varditer Melik-Djhanian, daughter of Ivan Melik Djhanian and Gayane Ter-Ovagimian. She was born in Tabriz on xx/xx/xxxx. She had two sisters and three brothers. Two brothers Sos and Gurgen had perished from Cholera as children. The surviving brother was Babgen, who had finished American Memorial College in Tabriz, and became ill with hepatitis and was sent to Russia for medical care. He died in Russia and was buried there.

Her father was Ivan Melik-Djhanian, a merchant who worked between Iran and Russia. He had a brother named Arshak MelikDjhanian. Both were born in Gharabagh, and later as young men migrated to Gharadagh in Iran, south of the Arax River bordering

Gharabagh. They purchased a small village there, put a wall to surround the village, and erected their flag on the main building in the compound. Their name suggests that they were descendants from one of Gharabagh’s Melikdom families, but not the part of the five major Melikades.

The two Melik-Djhanian brothers made good in Iran. By the time that Russian Revolution took place, both were rather well to do. Arshak had established himself a flour mill and was doing very well. He had three sons and one daughter. The sons were named Suren, Sokrat and Samuel, and the daughter was Annik.

Ivan on the other hand continued his trade business and became extraordinarily rich. In a sense, he was a millionaire. He had bank accounts for every one of his four children in Russian Banks, had two large homes in Tabriz, and a trunk that was left locked. After his death, when it was opened, it was full of Imperial Russian paper money, several million of them that I counted. Also, he had an earthen wear full of gold buried in the yard. He lost all the paper money and bank deposits when the revolution occurred.

My mother’s mother, Gayane Ter-Ovagimian, was from Muzhumbar Village, about twelve miles north-east of Tabriz. I know that she had a sister Varsenik, and a brother Petros. They were the children of Khudy, their father, but I do not know the name of their mother. Petros lived most of his life in Russia. Gayane had three years of schooling in the village school that was run by the village priest.

My mother and her sisters Ophelia and Hasmik had finished high school in the Armenian Tamarian school in Tabriz. Their brother, Babgen had finished American Memorial College in Tabriz. I do not remember much about my mother. Unfortunately, she fell in love with a self-centered, irresponsible, and arrogant playboy of a guy who became my father. She was advised by many that the guy is no good. But she was in love. Why do I write as such about my father? Because that is what I learned about him from others, and that is what I experienced from him in my own life.

What I recall from my mother are these episodes: We are in the house of the closest friend of my mother, Hasmik. I am sitting next to the window, and my mother is complaining about my father’s behavior, and they are shouting at each other. In another image, we are in the yard of her mother’s home, and she is teaching me German numerals, ein, zwei, drei,..., Another image she has taken me to the Photo Studio to take a picture of me in children’s navy uniform. Another image, she has taken me out for something, we are walking in a shopping center, and an old Turkish man is calling my name. And the last picture is the last night of her life. She is in bed and she has asked her sister Hasmik to play the violin for her. There are a lot of people in the room. I do not see my father in the room. I do not understand what is going on. I learn about my mother decades later when I pressed people to inform me who my’ mother was.

No one ever spoke to me about my mother. The silence was on both sides, her side and my father’s died. My aunt Hasmik held my father in contempt. My aunt Ophelia would say that they were of different bread. My grandma never spoke ill of my father. One day I asked my father if my mother had left any message