George Mardikian

George Magar Mardikian (Ջորջ Մարտիկյան) (November 7, 1903 – October 23, 1977) was a Turkish-born American restaurateur, chef, author and philanthropist of Armenian heritage.

Mardikian was born on November 7, 1903, in Bayburt, in what was then the Ottoman Empire (now Turkey), to Magar Mardikian and Haiganoush Amirian.

Mardikian grew up in the city of Scutari, an Armenian community in Constantinople.

Mardikian's paternal family was one of warriors—hence their family name: in Armenian, 'Mardik' translates to 'warrior'.

His maternal family, the Amirians, was an influential and powerful family in Bayburt.

Mardikian's mother also was the eldest sibling of his idol, Krikor Amirian.

As a child, Mardikian was very chubby and carried the nickname 'shisko', which is Turkish for 'chubby'.

Mardikian's father, Magar, was of one of the approximately 250 ethnic-Armenian intellectuals and community leaders arrested on April 24, 1915, known as Red Sunday.

After his arrest, the Amirians were driven out of their homes and marched to Erzincan.

Mardikian's maternal grandmother, Vartanoush Amirian, committed suicide by jumping in the Euphrates, while the rest of the Amirian family was either beaten to death or burned alive.

Witnessing the massacre of his mother's side of his family, Mardikian wanted to avenge their deaths and prove to his mother that he was a true warrior.

As a result of his ambition, Mardikian ran away from his home and joined the Armenian volunteer units, in which his uncle, Krikor Amirian, was a high-ranking member.

After the First World War ended, Mardikian returned to his mother as a war hero.

In the summer of 1920, Mardikian worked with Captain Eddie Fox and George D. White of the Near East Relief organization to create an Armenian Boy Scout unit.

It would be a short-lived accomplishment, since war broke out between the First Republic of Armenia, Turkey, and Russia.

Mardikian called on his fellow youths to continue the fight for freedom.

When he returned to the battlefield, he was quickly captured and imprisoned.

Mardikian served his term in prison in a sauerkraut factory where the Turkish guards forced the Armenian prisoners to chop ice, even though it was a useless activity.

After serving two years in prison, Mardikian got lucky.

George D. White, whom he had met a few years earlier, told the Turkish prison commandant that Mardikian was an American and demanded his freedom.

Mardikian eventually gained his freedom and returned to his mother and his surviving family members in Scutari.

His mother, Haiganoush, and uncle, Krikor, advised him that he must go to the United States like his older sister Baidzar.

Within a few days, he left Scutari.

One hour after Mardikian's ship left the port of Scutari, Turkish police knocked on Haiganoush's door demanding that they reveal the location of her son.

The reason for this was that Mardikian stated he was a Near East Relief worker, which led to his freedom from prison.

Haiganoush stated that her son had left this world and had entered a new one.

Nonetheless, the Turkish police ransacked the home and finally left, assuming that he had died.

Mardikian arrived at Ellis Island on July 24, 1922.

He, like every other immigrant, went through all the steps in order to gain legal permission to enter the country.

When he was able to take a shower, Mardikian stated, "I washed away the grime, I washed away the years. I washed away the Old World, I washed away all the hatred and injustice and cruelty I had known, all the hunger, all the weeping, all the pain".

He later stated, "As I dried myself with the thick, heavy towel, and saw my clean skin and felt my blood tingle, it was as though I had been reborn, as though I were a completely new human being, a taller, a stronger, prouder man—an American".

Since that day, Mardikian had said that July 24 is his birthday.

During his entire journey by train to San Francisco, he ate only potato salad, as that was all he could read in English.

He vowed to one day open a restaurant of his own.

After arriving in San Francisco, he found a job working as a dishwasher at Coffee Dan's and later at Clinton's Cafeteria.

He was later appointed restaurant manager by Eugene Compton.

In 1938, he opened Omar Khayyam's restaurant in San Francisco, California, which was open for more than 40 years.

He was important in popularizing Armenian cuisine in the United States.

Mardikian was the founder of ANCHA (American National Committee To Aid Homeless Armenians).

He is a nephew of Armenian revolutionary Krikor Amirian.