The Sun reveals secrets of history of Kim Kardashian’s family

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 2, ARMENPRESS:“The Sun” English magazine has referred to the destiny of world-famous Armenian model Kim Kardashian and her family. The magazine describes how Kim’s ancestors migrated to the USA during the Armenian Genocide, Armenpress reports.

It was from Karakale - poverty-blighted village on the Eastern Europe/Southwest Asia border that Californian reality TV star Kim's God-fearing family fled as the storm clouds of one of history's greatest tragedies swirled. Now, for the first time, The Sun reveals the Kardashian family's incredible journey from membership of an obscure Christian sect in this snow-capped wilderness to reality TV stars in just four generations.

Armenian-American Kim — who famously featured in an internet sex "tape" — has often spoken proudly of her roots. The 31-year-old whose marriage to NBA player Kris Humphries ended in October after just 72 days, once revealed: "I was raised with a huge Armenian influence, always hearing stories of Armenia, celebrating Armenian holidays. "My father taught us to never forget where we came from."

Today, life in the Kardashian's home village of Karakale — in east Turkey close to the Armenian border — appears to have changed little since the Middle Ages. Some 500 Muslim farmers eke out a meagre living making cheese and growing root vegetables on the frozen wastes while women in headscarves rise early to milk the herds of dairy cows by hand.

In fact, Karakale was once an ethnic Armenian village. Salman's shack may even have been the home to Kim Kardashian's great grandad. Formerly part of the Ottoman Empire, from 1878 to 1917 the village and the surrounding province of Kars was ruled by Russia. The Tsars offered land to peasants in this new borderland and some migrants brought with them the Molokan Christian faith.

Many of Karakale's Armenian villagers came under the sway of a branch of Molokan teaching whose faithful were known as Jumpers. So-called because some members leapt in the air with hands held up during a religious service, Jumpers believed in the power of prophecy. In July 1896, Jumpers Sam and Harom Kardaschoff — a Russian spelling of the Armenian name Kardashian — became proud parents to a little boy called Tatos — Kim's great grandfather.

But in 1915 the Armenian Genocide was committed. Ottoman Turks deported Armenians to the Syrian desert. Thousands were butchered or died from starvation or disease. The number of Armenians who died is disputed but the International Association of Genocide Scholars claim it was "more than a million". Armenians who remained in Turkey were forced to convert to Islam, Christians who refused were herded into barns which were set on fire.

Early this year Kim wrote: "It's time to recognise the Armenian Genocide. Until this crime is resolved, the Armenian people will live with the pain of what happened to their families."

Karakale itself became part of Armenia after Russia's 1917 revolution, before becoming officially part of Turkey in 1921.

So how did the Kardashians escape the genocide horrors?

They, like many Armenian Jumpers, listened to an 11-year-old "boy prophet" Efim Gerasemovitch Klubniken, who, in 1852, had urged them to flee to escape a tragedy. He identified Los Angeles on a map — some 7,000 miles away — as the place to head. People began to flee in the early 20th Century. Sam and Harom Kardaschoff, with their son Tatos and his siblings, fled in the autumn of 1913 — just before the bloodshed. Once in LA, Tatos anglicised his name to Tom, started a business in rubbish collection and married another Karakale Jumper immigrant, Hamas Shakarian.

The family moved into the meat-packing business, becoming hugely wealthy through grit and hard work. The couple's son Arthur — alive today at 94 — and Armenian wife Helen built up the business. Arthur — father to Kim's dad Robert — was said to have had the largest meat-packing company in southern California. Robert, who died of esophageal cancer in 2003, became a celebrity lawyer and married Kim's American mum Kris. Kim's socialite siblings — Khloe, Kourtney and Rob — have all featured in TV's Keeping Up With The Kardashians.