Arturo Sarukhan is a Washington, DC-based strategic consultant with a 22-year-long diplomatic career in the Mexican Foreign Service. Between 2007 and 2013, Sarukhan served as Mexico’s ambassador to the United States, leading one of the most important embassies in Washington and representing over 100 million residents of Mexico as well as the 35-million strong Mexican-American Diaspora.
Sarukhan learned of his grandmother’s escape from the Armenian Genocide as a young boy. The realization that he is a descendant of a Genocide survivor “played a key role in my decision to enter public service and diplomacy in particular,” says Arturo.
Born in Mexico City in 1963, Sarukhan is a descendent of conflict refugees on both sides of his family – a fact that he says greatly influenced his decision to become a diplomat. His mother’s parents were Catalan republicans who fled the defeat of the Spanish Republic at the end of the Spanish Civil War in 1939. His paternal grandfather, Artur Sarukhanian, was an Armenian in the Russian Empire and served as an aide to the head of the Russian Provisional Government Alexander Kerensky following the February Revolution of 1917. Sarukhanian fled Russia after the Bolsheviks came to power in October of that year.
Arriving first in Venice, where was trained as a young boy at the Armenian seminary of San Lazarus, Sarukhanian met the woman who would become his wife, Angele Kermezian. A survivor of the Genocide, Angele had fled the Turks from her native Constantinople to Thessaloniki, later relocating to Italy.
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Arturo Sarukhan’s grandparents Artur Sarukhanian and Angele Kermezian with his father. |
The two were married in Venice, but were forced to flee once again after Benito Mussolini came to power and established a Fascist government. Sensing the tide dangerously changing once more, the young family sailed for Mexico. Although Canada had originally been their final destination, the two fell in love with Mexico and settled down in Mexico City. Artur Sarukhanian, who himself spoke nine languages, even shortened his last name to make it easier for the Mexican authorities to pronounce.
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Artur Sarukhanian’s entry form into Mexico, 1930 |
Grazed by a bullet
Like many who escaped the Genocide, Angele owed her survival to a series of miracles. In 1915, when mass deportations of Armenians began in the Ottoman Empire, Angele’s family was rounded up by the Turks and deported to the coast, where they were to be executed. “My great-grandmother – who did not survive the Genocide – bound [Angele’s] chest and cut her hair so the soldiers would not realize she was a woman,” Arturo recalls.
Most of Angele’s family was shot in front of her eyes. Angele herself had a bullet graze her forehead and was left for dead in a ditch with other corpses.
She managed to escape along with her sister, an uncle and aunt, and was later aided by Greek fishermen, who helped her to cross over to Thessaloniki.
Sarukhan recalls that he spent a lot of time with his grandmother, but like many survivors she did not dwell on the past. “She was usually very quiet about her experiences,” Arturo says. “She would mainly speak about my grandfather… and it was actually my father and aunt who would talk to me about what my grandmother lived through during the Genocide. My grandmother’s references to the Genocide were usually to admonish us when we didn't eat or left food on our plates.”
Responsibility to protect
While a small number of proud and active Armenians do live in Mexico at present, many members of the Mexican-Armenian community that formed as a result of the Genocide moved on to the United States or Canada after World War II. Arturo Sarukhan, however, feels his Armenian heritage has been crucial to shaping his career in Mexican diplomacy.
Sarukhan studied international relations and history in Mexico and received his postgraduate degree in American foreign policy from John Hopkins University (SAIS) in Washington. He joined the Mexican Foreign Service in 1993 and came up to Washington as the Mexican embassy’s chief of staff. He also served as chief of policy planning in the Foreign Ministry and the consul general of Mexico in New York City. He then went on to head one of the principal embassies in Washington.
The experiences of his ancestors served to guide him as a diplomat, he says. His Armenian background “formed my commitment to key principles of a 21st century rules-based international system, such as the responsibility to protect (or R2P) and the need for historical memory as the basis for reconciliation.”
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Arturo Sarukhan with family members in Fresco, California, during his tenure as ambassador |
While he is a self-described “rabid soccer player and fan,” it is his family that brings him the most joy. He met his wife, Veronica Valencia, in Washington, and has two daughters, Laia, 10, and Ani, 7.
His greatest achievement? “Having served my country and hopefully given back to a nation that opened its doors to both my father's and mother's families seeking refuge and asylum.”
The story is verified by the 100 LIVES Research Team.
