Author, psychologist, father, survivor and motivational teacher reflect who Aghop
Der-Karabetian is.

Aghop is the Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, as well as a Professor of Psychology. As an author, he translated his grandfather’s book, Jail to Jail, and his wife’s grandfather’s book, Vahan’s Triumph, both autobiographies of their survival almost simultaneously in 2004. “It was hard emotionally, I had not dared to do this before, but at age 50, I decided I had to confront this evil and deal with it.”

As a child, Aghop did not hear detailed stories from his grandfather about the Armenian Genocide. He only knew that his family had survived and that they had gone through very difficult times. He learned about the Genocide mainly in the Armenian school he attended, just like any other Armenian children growing up. It wasn’t until he was a teenager that he picked up his grandfather’s book. “I quickly read it and just put it aside, just not wanting to deal with it.”

Later in his life, his way of dealing with it was to translate the books. While in the process of his translation, he discovered something surprising: how resilient and forgiving his grandfathers had become. “It was amazing because they ended up at an emotional place, where he was willing to be much more forgiving. Turkish strangers, among others, helped him and his family along the way and that may have played a part. But he mad sure that the world did not forget by writing his story of survival.” As a psychologist, he knows that when people go through such tragedies as his grandfather did, there is nothing but hatred and anger for the perpetrators, and that’s how many survivors felt. That hatred still lives on in the lives of many Armenians today due to the denial by the Turkish Government that the Genocide occurred at all.

The translation of the memoirs became his way of dealing with this evil, but also it was a way to honor the memory of his grandfathers for the whole world to read. He still commemorates the lives of the fallen today by visiting the Armenian Martry’s Memorial in Montebello every year on April 24.

Through his grandfather’s stories and through his own continuing self-discovery of Armenian identity, both personally and professionally, he became the author, psychologist, father, survivor and the motivational teacher that he is today. “I will always keep my Armenian identity.”

Click here to visit his website.