Anna Astvatsaturian Turcotte. “My homeland is where my heart is, that is, in Syunik and Artsakh”

American Armenian writer, lawyer  Anna Astvatsaturian Turcotte‘s “Deportation to the unknown” book, in which the author tells from the first person about the Baku pogroms, annihilation and violence on the national soil. This book, about broken destinies and searching for a home in the midst of alienation, was written to overcome the silent pain in the family, and then became a book.

During her three years of living in Baku, at the age of 14, she wrote about her experiences and what she saw in a diary, which twenty years later served as the basis for presenting to the American public her documentary book “Deportation. to the unknown” published in English in the USA. Newmag recently translated that book into Armenian, the presentation took place on November 1 in Yerevan with the author’s participation.

 Anna Astvatsaturian Turcotte was born in Baku in 1978, from where her family narrowly escaped from the pogroms in the 90s, fleeing to Armenia, and then settled in the United States, where Anna received a legal education and got married. Currently, she is a famous lawyer.

In 2021, she became the first refugee woman to be elected to the post of Westbrook City Council President. Astvatsaturian is also engaged in charity work, for years she initiated a number of humanitarian programs for the residents of Armenia and Artsakh. In 2013, she was awarded the Mkhitar Gosh medal, as well as the Nagorno Karabakh gratitude medal. In 2020, she founded the “Anna Astvatsaturian” foundation, within the framework of which he expanded charitable activities in post-war Artsakh.

Full text in Armenian