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Diana Apcar, The Stateless Diplomat

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Weekly Armenian, October 9, 2019 When Alex stopped by the Burien Library GenHelp desk last October, he was very excited to share his news.   Just a few days earlier it had been announced that a city park in Yerevan, Armenia, was being named to honor his great grandmother, Diana Agabeg Apcar. In commemoration of Woman’s History Month in March, here is her powerful story. Diana Agabeg Apcar, a widow with young children and a business to operate in Yokohama, Japan, was very concerned for the welfare of Armenians, her ancestral people.   She rescued refugees from the Armenian Genocide of 1915, arranging transportation to Yokohama, Japan, housing them and arranging their immigration to the United States.   A child of the Diaspora, she had never set foot in Armenia but she was deeply committed to church and her people. With the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, many small countries gained their independence but there was no regar