On Sunday evening Kim and Kourtney Kardashian attended an event dedicated to their father Robert Kardashian, who passed away in 2003, following a long bout with cancer, the Daily Mail reports.
Along with their cousins, Kourtni and Kara, the two ladies pulled out all the stops to attend the Armenian Bar Association event held at the Montage Hotel in Beverly Hills.
Sharing a picture of them standing in front of their father’s honour to Instagram, Kim wrote: ‘Thank you to The Armenian Bar Association for honoring my father last night!’
A second picture showed the girls cosying up to their cousins and the wife of rapper Kanye West also wrote:
‘Thank you to all of my cousins, aunts & uncle who came out to the Armenian Bar Association event last night! Kourtni, Kourtney, Kara & I!’
According to Asbarez, the Armenian Bar presented the award posthumously to the late attorney, Robert Kardashian, in recognition of the importance of those who champion the Constitutional rights to due process and equal protection under the law, even if in unpopular cases.
The site adds that gala banquet co-masters of ceremonies and Armenian Bar Board members Gerard V. Kassabian and Vanna Kitsinian said of the honour:
‘We are so pleased to be able to welcome the family of Robert Kardashian to accept the honor on his behalf and also to recognize their contribution to international recognition of the Armenian Genocide.’
The event ran from June 12-14 in order to celebrate the Armenian Bar Association’s 25 years of unifying the colourful and distinct fabric of the Armenian nation.
Robert Kardashian, who passed away in 2003 just eight weeks after being diagnosed with oesophageal cancer, passed on his pride in his heritage to his family, who have been vocal about their Armenian roots.
Robert’s ancestors fled the Armenian Genocide in the early 20th century, thanks to a ‘prophet’ who urged them to uproot to America.
Known at the time as the Kardaschoffs, in Russian style, the family made their way from their home village of Karakale in the late 19th Century to German ports. From there, they travelled to a new life in America on the passenger vessels SS Brandenberg and SS Koln.
By doing so, they escaped the triple horror of the First World War from 1914-18, the Armenian Genocide’ starting in 1915 – exactly a century ago this year – and the Russian Revolution in 1917.
Among those fleeing Erzurum – then in Armenia, and ruled by last Russian Tsar Nicholas II was family patriarch Hovhannes Miroyan and Kim’s great great grandfather, born in 1844. He married Luciag Chorbajian, born in 1853.
The couple wed in Erzurum, which is now in Turkey, in 1867 but escaped along with their daughter Vartanoosh Mironyan, born in 1886, in the early 20th century.
Vartanoosh’s daughter Haigoohi Arakelian – known as Helen, born in America in 1917, was Kim’s grandmother, who later married into the Kardashian clan.
The glamorous and ‘dynamic’ Helen wed Arthur who ran the largest meat-packing business in southern California.
Helen’s son Robert married Kris Houghton and fathered the 21st Century’s biggest reality TV stars Kourtney, Khloe, Robert Jr and most famous of all – Kim.
Their mother Kris eventually married Olympic gold medalist Bruce Jenner and together they raised two more TV personalities, Kendall and Kylie.