PORTLAND, ME — Baku pogroms survivor, Anna Astvatsaturian Turcotte, discussed her family’s narrow escape from Azerbaijani aggression and the need for expanded U.S. support for the economic and political development of the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh with newly elected U.S. Senator Angus King (I-ME) during a meeting at his Portland offices, reported the ANCA Eastern Region (ANCA-ER).

Astvatsaturian Turcotte, an accomplished lawyer and author, shared a copy of her recently published family memoire, “Nowhere: A Story of Exile,” with the Senator and his staff. The heart-wrenching story, told through her diary entries, documents the harrowing details of organized terror against Armenians in Baku, her life as a refugee, and her struggle to find herself, all against the backdrop of the collapse of the Soviet Union. Surviving the atrocities, Astvatsaturian Turcotte emigrated to the U.S. in 1992, and became a U.S. citizen in 1997.

Last December, at a Capitol Hill event that the ANCA helped organize, Astvatsaturian Turcotte spoke passionately regarding the anti-Armenian massacres that began in 1988 and the ongoing intolerance faced by the few Armenians left in Azerbaijan as among the most powerful reasons to continue the fight for justice and self-determination for the people of Artsakh. “The reality of today and the last 24 years since 1988 is that Armenians there are no safer under Azeri rule than we were in Baku,” she explained. “The anti-Armenian rhetoric and propaganda plagues its policies. Artsakh Armenians could and should never be subjected to the Azeri government.”

Astvatsaturian Turcotte’s complete Capitol Hill remarks are available here.

“We applaud the work of Anna Astvatsaturian Turcotte who embodies the grassroots nature of our cause and has taken initiative to work on the critical issues of interest to our community,” said Michelle Hagopian, ANCA Eastern Region Executive Director. “We look forward to similar discussions with legislators throughout the Eastern U.S. to expand U.S. support for economic and democratic development of Artsakh.”

Senator King was first elected to the U.S. Senate in November 2012. He currently serves on the Armed Services, Budget, and Rules and Administration Committees, as well as the Select Committee on Intelligence.

You can find Astvatsaturian Turcotte’s “Nowhere: A Story of Exile” here: http://www.amazon.com/nowhere-story-exile-volume-1/dp/0985786418 or http://www.amazon.com/Nowhere-story-exile-ebook/dp/B008C3MGYA.

Photo Caption (left to right): Anna Astvatsaturian Turcotte with Sen. Angus King and Astvatsaturian Turcotte’s husband, John Turcotte, at the Senator’s district office in Portland, ME.