Police Fear Elderly Armenian Man Kidnapped in Australia Is Dead

Chris was born in Jaffa but spent most of his childhood and youth in the Old Armenian Quarter of the City of Jerusalem.

They were halcyon days, when he felt at home among the score of relatives and friends, the close-knit community of Armenians, survivors of the Genocide or descendants of survivors.

He had six uncles, of whom two died young, four aunts and a dozen cousins, all linked together in an unbreakable bond molded in faith, love and devotion.

He attended the Armenian parish school and unlike some of his elder cousins who were given to pranks, he was quiet and modest.

His one great vice as a youth was smoking Lucky Strike or some other American cigarette which he obtained at a discount from a staffer at a UN center.

When he left school, he was apprenticed at a photographer’s, honing the skills he would find useful when he joined a movie distribution company in Sydney.

He arrived in Australia in the 1960s.

In Sydney, he married and bought a house in North Ryde (the one broken into).

His wife passed away a few years ago.

He kept in touch by mail with his family and community in the Old City, and went back to Jerusalem for a reunion with his ailing parents, relatives and friends.

In their convivial company he enjoyed a rare idyll, denied in the hectic run of life back in Australia.