Things We Left Unsaid (34 page)

Torshi, an Iranian condiment (literally sour stuff) of assorted pickled vegetables, usually eaten with rice pilaf or sometimes with bread, as an appetizer.

Toumanian, Hovhaness, poet from the Lori region of Armenia (1869–1923), known as ‘the Poet of All Armenians’ (on the paradigm of Catholicos of All
Armenians).

Van, a city in Anatolia, present-day Turkey, where Armenians have lived since antiquity. During the genocide, the Armenians of Van, then a part of the Ottoman Empire, organized
armed resistance against the Ottoman army after Armenians had been slaughtered in other cities of the Ottoman Empire.

Vigen (Vigen Derderian, 1929–2003), a widely popular Iranian singer of Armenian background. He introduced original pop songs along western lines into the Persian
language, and also starred in several movies in the 1950s and 1960s. His tall good looks and his career as an actor and singer earned him the title of the Sultan of Pop, and ‘the Elvis
Presley of Iran.’

VOKS, the Russian acronym for the Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, an organization created by the government of the Soviet Union to promote cultural
exchange, and, it was sometime alleged, communist propaganda.