Dr. Stephan G. Svajian

Dr. Svajian attended both Armenian and Turkish schools in his native city and is conversant with both languages. By the time Dr. Stephen G. Svajian came to the United States with his family in 1923, he had already lived through two wars and witnessed the brutal massacre that took the lives of most of Turkey's Armenian population. After earning his B.S. and D.D.S. degrees at New York University, he practiced dentistry in Brooklyn until 1943, when he entered the U.S. Army as a first lieutenant. He served as a combat medical officer with the Fourth Infantry Division in Normandy, Northern France and Belgium, and was with the regiment that liberated Paris. He was discharged as a captain in 1946. A member of the Armenian Church, for thirteen years he chaired a committee charged with publicizing the effort to construct an Armenian cathedral in New York City. Dr. Svajian has authored a number of articles on Armenian history and culture and Turkish-Armenian relations. His particular interest is physical anthropology. He has conducted extensive research on the racial composition of the Armenians. A book entitled The Racial Characteristics of the Armenians will soon be published.