Armenian refugee who survived Baku pogroms elected into US city council

Armenian refugee who survived Baku pogroms elected into US city council –

News.am – Armenian candidates have won in the city council elections that were held in two US cities, reported the Facebook page of Asbarez.

After an intense “battle,” Jack Hadjinian was reelected to Montebello City Council, in the State of California.

Hadjinian, 38, is a real estate agent, and his grandfather was a survivor of the Armenian Genocide. Hadjinian was first elected to the Montebello City Council in 2011, and three years later, he was elected Mayor of Montebello.

And Anna Astvatsaturian-Turcotte, a refugee from the Baku pogroms, won the city council race in Westbrook, Maine, with a wide margin of votes.

Astvatsaturian-Turcotte is an attorney as well as a well-known human rights activist and writer.

In 2012, she published her first book, titled Nowhere, a Story of Exile, which she wrote at the age of 14 as her family was settling in North Dakota.

In 2013, Anna Astvatsaturian-Turcotte was honored by the President of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, by being awarded the Mkhitar Gosh Medal.