Collection is open for research.
Gift of The Immigrant Story, June 2023 (RL2023-081).
Lilia Boteva-Ayzoukian, nee Boteva, was born in Pleven, Bulgaria, in 1940. As a child, she studied violin. When she was sixteen years old, she won a storytelling competition, and she later became a student at the Ivan Vazov National Theatre in Sofia, Bulgaria. She worked as a stage and film actress in Bulgaria. In the 1960s, she married Barkev Ayzoukian. The couple moved to his home in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1969, and they later had several children. In 1984, the family immigrated to the United States, and lived in Los Angeles, California. Lilia Boteva-Ayzoukian took up the violin again, and later became first violin in the Topanga and Moorpark Symphonies.
Source: Information provided by Boteva-Ayzoukian in her interview.
Oral history interview with Lilia Boteva-Ayzoukian, by Sankar Raman, Nancy E. Dollahite, and Lindsey Keefer, SR 12342, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
This oral history interview with Lilia Boteva-Ayzoukian was conducted by Sankar Raman, Nancy E. Dollahite, and Lindsey Keefer on December 22, 2019. The interview was recorded for The Immigrant Story, an organization that documents and archives the stories of immigrants and refugees in the United States.
In this interview, Boteva-Ayzoukian discusses her family background and early life in Pleven and Sofia, Bulgaria, including her memories of the end of World War II and life in a Communist country. She talks about becoming involved in theater at age three, about studying violin as a child, and about winning a storytelling contest as a teenager. She speaks about studying at the National Theater in Sofia, and about her acting career. She describes how she met Barkev Ayzoukian, talks about their courtship, and shares her reasons for moving to his home in Beirut, Lebanon, after they married. She discusses learning to speak Armenian. She talks about raising a family in Beirut during Lebanon's civil war, and shares the reasons why she and her family immigrated to the United States in 1984. She closes the interview by speaking about her career as a violinist in Los Angeles, California, and about the lives, careers, and families of her children.
Joint copyright for this interview is held by the Oregon Historical Society and The Immigrant Story. Use is allowed according to the following statement: In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted,
An article about Lilia Boteva-Ayzoukian, "Saying "Yes" to Both Career and Family" by Lindsey Keefer, was based on this interview and published on The Immigrant Story website at