Ara sarafian biography of barack obama

British historian of Armenian origin

Ara Sarafian (Armenian: Արա Սարաֆեան) is a British historian of Armenian origin. He is the founding director of the Gomidas Institute in London, which sponsors and carries out research and publishes books on modern Armenian and regional studies.^[1]

Early life

Sarafian was born in July in Cyprus, Kyrenia.^[2] In , while he and his parents were on holiday in London, the Turkish military invaded North Cyprus and his family became refugees.

He decided to learn Turkish so that he could challenge the Turkish state's denial of the Armenian genocide and applied to study the language in Ankara.^[3] When the Turkish Ministry of Education turned down his application to study, he went anyway, paying for his tuition by teaching English. According to a New Yorker profile, "coming to Turkey transformed him, in an unexpected way.

The combined effect of getting to know Turkish citizens, of higher education, of