In the spring of 1945, while serving in the U.S. Army in Italy, I was hit by Nazi machine gun fire. I survived with a shattered right shoulder and paralyzed from the neck down. It took nearly three years and many operations to take care of all my problems. In these trying years, the people of Russell, my hometown, stood by me both financially and spiritually and I never forgot what that help meant.
Then I met Hampar Kelikian - Dr. K to his friends. An Armenian immigrant, who lost his family in the 1915 Genocide, Kelikian was a pioneer in the surgical restoration of otherwise useless limbs. Dr. K was frank to say that after that, it would be up to me to make the most of what I had. There would be no miracles, he added. But he was wrong. Dr. K himself was a miracle. He would not take a penny for any of the operations and did the same for many young veterans coming back from the war who could not afford the medical care they needed. So, you can imagine how I cherished the friendship of Dr. Kelikian.
I know Dr. K would have been proud of George Jerjian’s splendid book The Truth Will Set Us Free: Armenians and Turks Reconciled, because like him, George is also a pioneer; a pioneer in the complex restoration of relations between the Armenians and Turks.
Former Senator Bob Dole
Washington DC, March 2003