GRANITE CITY, Ill. — The 1940 Granite City Warriors boys basketball team poses after winning the state championship.
For over 30 years, Arthur Sarkissian has been a successful Hollywood producer, making 17 motion pictures, including three in the “Rush Hour” series starring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker.
Now, he’s setting his sights on producing “Men of Granite,” a film about the 1940 Granite City boys basketball team winning a state championship.
“It’s not so much about sports, although I love basketball very much, but it’s about the challenges that anyone faces in any particular field,” Sarkissian said. “It’s a challenge that I connect with these kids. They had nothing and didn’t give up and I like that.”
The motion picture will be based on the 2007 book written by Dan Manoyan, a former longtime sportswriter from Milwaukee.
“I’ll be happy when it gets moving,” Manoyan said.
This will be the second attempt for “Men of Granite” to hit the big screen. Production for the movie was originally scheduled to start in 2015 after Milwaukee philanthropist Albert Nicholas — who died in 2016 — invested $1.3 million in the project and Valerie McCaffrey was hired as producer. But lack of funding halted production for four years.
Two years ago, Manoyan sued the producers for mismanagement of money for the film. A three-day trial ended earlier this summer in Milwaukee and the judge will decide within the next several months who will pay back the money that remained in the production account when the project was shut down.
“It was a bench case, which means you don’t get a verdict right away,” Manoyan said. “You have to wait about two months.”
Manoyan said he’s happy that the project has started back up with a new producer.
“It’s great to get the Men of Granite project back on track, especially with a proven producer like Arthur Sarkissian,” the author said. “He has a track record of producing quality films and I couldn’t be happier that he is interested in the project. The project is still in the early stages, but with the court case behind us, I’m sure things will start happening rapidly now.”
Sarkissian said there is no specific timetable on when the movie will be made.
“It’s finding the right person to adapt it and finding the right director,” the producer said. “I don’t think it’s a difficult movie to make. I’m hoping that within the next six months, I’m hoping to be able to be in production with it.”
Sarkissian said he contacted Manoyan through Anita Busch, a Granite City native who used to work for Deadline Hollywood.
“She brought the story to my attention and she said I should get in touch with him and I did,” Sarkissian said. “The rest is basically talking about what I wanted to know, like what has transpired, who was involved and what happened.”
“Men of Granite” tells the story about the players growing up in the Lincoln Place neighborhood. Most of the players on the team came from Hungarian, Armenian, Yugoslavian and Macedonian backgrounds.
Granite City beat Herrin in the 1940 state championship game and finished 29-5.
“It’s a story that I feel is timeless and I love true stories and what these guys have accomplished,” Sarkissian said. “It’s something I felt very strong about and I want to find a good way to bring it to the screen.”
LONDON (RFE/RL) — The British government has appointed an ethnic Armenian diplomat as the United Kingdom’s new ambassador to Armenia.
A government statement released on Monday, August 12, said Alan Gogbashian will replace Judith Farnworth, a fellow diplomat who has served as British ambassador in Yerevan for the last four years.
Gogbashian has headed various divisions at the British Foreign Office since 2014. He was Britain’s deputy head of mission in Morocco from 2011-2014.
The office of Zareh Sinanyan, Armenia’s commissioner general of Diaspora affairs, welcomed Gogbashian’s appointment. “This is the first time that a Diaspora Armenian will be ambassador to Armenia,” the office wrote on its Facebook page.
The development coincided with Armenian President Armen Sarkissian’s latest visit to London. Sarkissian’s office said on Monday that he met there with “a number of high-ranking UK officials.” It did not name any of those officials.
Sarkissian expressed Armenia’s readiness to deepen ties with the UK when he congratulated Boris Johnson on becoming British prime minister late last month.
Sarkissian, 66, lived and worked in London, including as Armenian ambassador to Britain, for nearly three decades prior to becoming Armenia’s largely ceremonial head of state in April 2018. He received British citizenship in 2002 but renounced it about a decade later.
Meanwhile, the British Embassy in Yerevan touted on Monday a “substantial” increase in commercial ties between the two countries.
“Growth in trade turnover was 42 percent and 18 percent in 2017 and 2018 respectively,” it said in written comments to RFE/RL’s Armenian service. “There was a substantial growth in the UK’s investment flows to Armenia over the past four years in sectors such as ICT, pharmaceutical and mining.”
“The British Embassy in Yerevan sees further potential for growth and is working with UK companies and sectors in Armenia to encourage more UK trade and investment,” it added.
The British mission also said London is committed to helping Armenia become a “democratic, prosperous and resilient country.”
“To do this, over the last year or so, the UK has increased its support to Armenia’s domestic reform agenda,” it said. “We supported delivery of the free and fair elections last December and now we are focusing on helping to strengthen Armenia’s institutions, which is crucial for Armenia’s long-term development. We are doing this through a range of governance and economic reforms, defense reform, efforts to tackle corruption and uphold human rights.”
YEREVAN (Armenpress) — Armenia and Russia have jointly sent another batch of humanitarian assistance to Syria through the Russian-Armenian Humanitarian Response Center, the Ministry of Emergency Situations said in a news release on August 13.
“The humanitarian aid is envisaged for the Syrian population who was affected as a consequence of the military conflict,” the news release said.
Minister of Emergency Situations of Armenia Felix Tsolakyan personally reviewed the cargo before dispatching it.
The aid contains 52.5 tons of canned meat, 35 tons of canned fish, 40 tons of sugar, as well as dry rations weighing around 14,5 tons.
The Armenian-Russian team will deliver the cargo to representatives of the Syrian Red Crescent, which will distribute it further.
(Recipe and photo are courtesy of the late Dr. Harold H. “Buzz” Baxter from the Gutsy Gourmet, his popular international food website.)
“Here’s my late Auntie Zee’s (Zarhoui Baxter) private recipe for the most delicious apricot jam on earth,” said Dr. Baxter. “This delicious jam recipe takes time to make and is a major labor of love. My Auntie Zee in Fresno knew how to cook and always went the extra mile to make special Armenian dishes that had her signature. Auntie Zee protected this recipe for many years, and had a twinkle in her eye when she would give it up to those few relatives and friends who asked how to make it. I think I am the only person she shared the recipe with in all those years. And I think that was because I once caught her climbing up a fruit tree to pick her own apricots on a hot summer day when she was in her late 90’s. She knew I was thinking of her that day, and she reluctantly shared this recipe with her oldest nephew.”
Ingredients:
3 quarts washed and cut apricots*
8 cups sugar
1 small can crushed pineapple
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
15 apricot pits — remove seeds and boil until skin peels off
2 tablespoons light Karo syrup or corn syrup
Preparation:
In a large pot, bring all ingredients to a boil and cook until apricots are soft and begin to lose their shape. Let cool completely.
Pour into shallow baking pans to about 3/4 inch deep. Cover with cheese cloth netting and put in the hot sun for 3-4 days to further “sun-cook.” (Dr. Baxter explained: “Of course you have to live in an area where the temperature will remain in the 90’s to 100’s during the day. Bring pans in at night because you do not want insects to eat your jam.”)
When ready (after 3-4 days), put the jam back into a large pot and bring to a boil for 10-12 minutes, stirring. Pour into sterilized jars and seal (and follow normal canning instructions).
*Dr. Baxter adds: “Cut apricots in half unless they are very large, then you should cut them in quarters. We are making jam here, not jelly. Tree-ripened apricots are not easy to find these days. It is important that these apricots are ripened in the sun. That is where all the flavor comes from. If you can find a farm that grows apricots or have your own tree, you are going to love this recipe. The apricot pits are the hard woody center of the apricot. Within that hard woody center is the seed. You will have to use a hammer or vise to break the hard pit and remove the seed. Boiling the seed will remove the bitter skin that covers it. This seed gives a unique flavor to this jam.”
MOSCOW – Sad news arrived from Russia: sculptor Frid Soghoyan (Sogoyan in Russian) passed away at the end of July. He was born in 1936 in the town of Gyumri (back then Leninakan).
Frid Soghoyan
As a schoolboy Soghoyan would often miss classes in order to go out onto the streets to see how master craftsmen were carving ornaments on stone. As an adult, having grown up to be a sculptor, he was invited to Moscow by the Academy of Fine Arts of the USSR in 1970. In Moscow and Kiev, Soghoyan was a part of groups that created famous monuments dedicated to World War II. Soghoyan received several awards from the Armenian, Russian and Ukranian governments. Works crafted by this prominent sculptor are displayed in the museums of Russia, Germany, United Kingdom, France, United States and certainly Armenia.
However, in America he is best known for the monument which stands in front of the American Red Cross’s national headquarters next to the White House. It symbolized the gratitude of the Armenian people to the Red Cross in particular and to the United States in general for the enormous humanitarian aid to devastated Armenia after the 1988 earthquake. “To the American people from grateful Armenian people,” the inscription on the monument says.
Soghoyan personally reflected on this: “I am from Gyumri and I did lose 32 close friends in the 1988 earthquake. During my visit to Washington, I realized how important U.S. aid was to the earthquake victims. I had to do something in appreciation for what the American people had done for Armenia.”
As prominent Armenian-American journalist David Zenian reported, “…Soghoyan began work on a large statue depicting a mother with a child in her arms. Through his new American friends and the help of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow Soghoyan contacted former Senator Bob Dole and the American Red Cross and arrangements were made to transfer the life-size structure.”
The statue is made out of bronze and is 140 inches long. It exists on the Red Cross’s website.
Rita Balian, prominent community activist from Washington, remembers the erection of the statue of gratitude which took place in 1990 in the following video.
WASHINGTON (RFE/RL) – The United States imposed sanctions on two Armenian companies on Wednesday, August 15, saying that they have acted against U.S. national interests.
The Yerevan Telecommunications Research Institute (YETRI) and the Markel company are among 17 Canadian, Russian, Georgian and other firms blacklisted by the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), which is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce. They will now be banned from purchasing U.S. products.
“These seventeen entities have been determined by the U.S. Government to be acting contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States,” the BIS said in a statement.
The agency explained that YETRI has been sanctioned because it had obtained unspecified sensitive items and re-exported them without BIS licenses. “And the person who is both Executive Director of YETRI and President of Markel has been engaged in a business relationship with a sanctioned Iranian organization,” its statement added without elaborating.
That person, Mher Markosian, described the sanctions as unfair and unfounded. He insisted that YETRI has never sold any equipment to Iranian firms.
“As for Markel, it had signed contracts and done business with Iranian enterprises until 2009,” Markosian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service. “It hasn’t signed any further contracts since 2009.”
“Any export operation, especially to Iran, is examined under the microscope,” he went on. “If there is even a slight suspicion [of wrongdoing] rest assured that the [Armenian] state will not permit it. Knowing all this, we have never gone down that path.”
Markosian also said that officials from the U.S. State Department have regularly visited and inspected his companies designing telecommunication equipment. “They praised and told us to keep up the good work,” he claimed.
Markosian added that he will therefore appeal to the U.S. Embassy in Armenia to help lift the sanctions.
The Armenian Ministry of Economy said, meanwhile, that it is looking into the U.S. announcement and will comment later on.
U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton discussed Washington’s renewed sanctions against Iran with Armenian leaders during an October 2018 visit to Yerevan. Shortly afterwards a team of officials from the U.S. departments of state and treasury visited the Armenian capital to give Armenian government officials and business executives more detailed information about the sanctions.
YEREVAN (Panorama.am) — The Armenian Wounded Heroes Fund has called for a support of a wounded soldier in April war to pass a six-week therapy to walk normally. In a statement on Facebook the Fund informs that Hayk Sekhliyan was wounded in April 4, 2016 as part of a small unit of Armenian heroes who fought against a large number of Azeris and successfully liberated an overrun position in Talish.
“He has lived with a severely injured spine and can’t walk without a cane. He has already been evaluated by a hospital in Germany and will require 6 weeks of therapy at a cost of $35,000 to walk normally again. With your help, we can thank him for this sacrifice and actual liberation of a strategic part of our homeland,” the statement said.
BUENOS AIRES (PanARMENIAN.Net) — Turkish Parliamentarians Garo Paylan, who is of Armenian descent, and Ebru Günay of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) of Turkey delivered strong statements during a conference at the National Congress of Argentina on Wednesday, August 15, reports Agencia Prensa Armenia.
“The same Genocide against the Armenians 105 years ago, could be repeated today against the Kurds,” said Paylan. “I am very grateful for Argentina’s recognition of the Armenian Genocide. Many countries recognized it, but did this stop our pain? We will achieve justice when the Turkish Parliament recognizes the Armenian Genocide,” said the Deputy. “Only a truly democratic Turkey will recognize the genocide against the Armenian people.”
Günay said that the HDP has gender parity and that those accused of gender violence or those who exercise polygamy are not allowed to participate in it.
“We are fighting for women in a region where patriarchy is very strong,” said Günay. “It is very difficult to fight for the rights of different peoples in an almost fascist environment.”
Paylan and Günay are touring South America — Uruguay, Argentina, Chile and Brazil. They met with Uruguayan Vice President Lucia Topolansky and former President Jose “Pepe” Mujica on August 13-14.
LONDON – The Turkish Interior Ministry’s removal of three democratically elected mayors in the major municipalities of the Kurdish southeast and eastern regions blatantly violates the rights of voters and suspends local democracy, Human Rights Watch announced on August 20.
The Interior Ministry on August 19, removed the mayor of Diyarbakır, Adnan Selçuk Mızraklı; the mayor of Mardin, Ahmet Türk; and the mayor of Van, Bedia Özgökçe Ertan, accusing them of supporting terrorism. All three mayors are from the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP). The three mayors should be allowed to resume their posts immediately.
“President Erdogan’s government has effectively cancelled the results of the March local elections in the three main cities of the Kurdish southeast and east by removing voters’ chosen mayors, all valid candidates, and taking over these municipalities,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Smearing the mayors by alleging vague links with terrorism to deprive the Kurdish population of their chosen representatives endangers everyone in Turkey who is committed to democratic elections, human rights, and the rule of law.”
The Interior Ministry justified substituting government-appointed provincial governors in each municipality because the mayors face investigations and legal proceedings under terrorism laws for their speeches and non-violent political activities. None have received a final conviction.
Abusive prosecutions and investigations for overly broad and vague terrorism offenses are widely used in Turkey to silence and arbitrarily detain government critics, journalists, human rights defenders, and opposition politicians, Human Rights Watch said.
The European Court of Human Rights has harshly criticized Turkey for its actions in pursuing baseless terrorism charges against elected members of parliament. In one example, the unlawful detention of Selahattin Demirtaş, former co-chair and HDP member of parliament, the court found in 2018 that his detention “pursued the predominant ulterior purpose of stifling pluralism and limiting freedom of political debate, which is at the very core of the concept of a democratic society.”
In September 2016, the Law on Municipalities was changed under a state of emergency decree to facilitate the removal of mayors accused of terrorism links and their substitution with provincial governors. Ninety-four mayors from the pro-Kurdish Democratic Regions Party (DBP) were subsequently removed, and many were held in prolonged pretrial detention. Turk, a veteran Kurdish politician, was previously stripped of office as elected mayor of the Mardin greater municipality under that decree and arrested in November 2016. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made a speech in February, in advance of the March elections, in which he stated that mayors found to be linked with terrorism could be removed once again.
These moves by Erdogan’s government against democratically elected officials violate Turkey’s obligations under international and regional human rights law, Human Rights Watch said. The moves violate the right to political participation, the right to free elections, and the right to freedom of expression under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights.
Jerusalem is one of the most hotly-contested cities in the world. Consequently, to discuss any issue relating to the Armenian presence in that holy city is equally controversial. However, the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem is a badge of honor before the world thanks to its history as well as its location in one of the most important cities in the globe.
In addition to its religious, cultural and educational role, Jerusalem plays a significant political one.
Incidentally, during the Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat negotiations in the 1990s to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the fate of the Armenian Quarter became a sticking point, because each side had been insisting on bringing the quarter under its jurisdiction.
The Armenian Patriarchate dates back to the 7th century AD, when the first patriarch, Abraham I, served from 638 to 669. Ever since then, its place in the Christian world has expanded exponentially, along with its real estate portfolio, which has helped to sustain its existence.
The Patriarchate and its St. James Monastery have survived under Arab, Crusader, Ottoman, British, Jordanian and Israeli rules, thanks to the monks’ ingenuity and political maneuvering.
Armenians all around the world have supported the St. James Brotherhood to expand its real estate holdings, which have reached a size that is fairly unmanageable.
At times, its fortunes have ebbed and the debts of the Patriarchate have endangered its existence; in those instances, the monastic brotherhood has appealed to the greater Armenian community.
One Patriarch in particular has symbolized the degree of sacrifice the clergy have endured in order to salvage the Patriarchate and the brotherhood. His name was Krikor VI the Chain Bearer (1715-1749) or Krikor VI Shiravantzee, who had decided to wear heavy chains around his neck as a symbol of the difficulties he was willing to endure in his efforts to help the Patriarchate recover from its debts.
Jerusalem also served as a safe haven for the survivors of the Armenian Genocide, who were housed, protected and fed for a long time by the Patriarchate. There were 25,000 Armenians sheltered at the St. James Brotherhood compound at that period. When the war broke out in 1948 between the Arabs and Israelis, there were 8,000 left in the wake of war and today their numbers hardly reach 800. Perhaps with other cities such as Haifa, Ramallah and Bethlehem, they may total 2,000-2,500.
The St. James Brotherhood has educated many generations of clergy who then served churches in Armenian communities around the world.
For many centuries, different churches and religions have fought to maintain their turf. Finally, a firman by the Ottoman Sultan defined the delineation of the property in 1757. The document is called the Status Quo, which was ratified and finalized by Sultan Abdelmecid in 1853 and ever since, the ruling governments have respected it. According to the clauses of the Status Quo, the Old City of Jerusalem is divided into four quarters: Muslim, Latin (Catholic), Jewish, and Armenian. The Armenians control valuable real estate as well as major religious sites, to the envy of the other Christian denominations.
The status of Jerusalem has provided full authority to the Armenian Patriarchate to conduct its own affairs. They are not overseen by any authority and they are not accountable to any hierarchy, like the Greek Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church are to their leaders.
For many centuries, most of the patriarchs and the members of the Brotherhood have managed the Patriarchate conscientiously. But sometimes, the baser instincts of human nature have taken over the members of the clergy in power who have commited outrageous crimes in full view of an impotent world.
The Patriarchate owns 4,000 Armenian-language manuscripts, second only to the Matenadaran Armenian Repository in Yerevan.
The Patriarchate owns invaluable real estate, with some putting the estimated price at billions of dollars.
For centuries, the Patriarchate in Istanbul played a role of government in the Ottoman government and had control over Jerusalem. Istanbul has amassed large volumes of documents and statistics. Those documents are of fundamental value any time a compensation issue is raised. These documents have been transferred and are housed in Jerusalem, along with many manuscripts and documents about the Genocide.
The Jerusalem Patriarchate has not been immune to scandals and sometimes by members of the clergy who have otherwise contributed meaningfully to the church and the culture.
As Jerusalem was accountable to the Patriarchate in Constantinople. Periodically, delegations were sent from Constantinople to Jerusalem to settle disputes or dissipate controversies. In 1914, one such delegation was composed of former Patriarch Malachia Ormanian, an intellectual giant whose monumental contributions to church history could only be achieved by an entire institution. The other member was poet Vahan Tekeyan.
Ormanian was prone to intrigues while Tekeyan was the epitome of integrity. As soon as the delegation arrived in Jerusalem, Ormanian joined the corrupt clergy and dissociated himself from the other member of the delegation, using the excuse that lay people have no business in getting involved in settling clergy disputes.
That excuse is alive even today when corrupt members of the clergy seek refuge in hiding their misdeeds.
Ormanian’s transgressions paled by comparison to the conduct of other members of the clergy in Jerusalem since then.
A very particular and colorful case was that of Patriarch Yeghishe Derderian, a gifted poet in his own right but corrupt to his very bones.
Before ascending to the Patriarchal throne, he had served as locum tenens, during which he connived with Jordanian authorities to expel from Jerusalem Archbishop Tiran Nersoyan, a towering figure in the Church and legally-elected patriarch. Then he elected himself as Patriarch in 1960 and served for 30 years. Since a relatively small number of Brotherhood members are left, it has become almost the norm for any member of the clergy to bribe his way to the seat of Patriarch.
Patriarch Yeghishe was a skillful diplomat to be able to navigate through the political jungle of Israelis, Jordanians and Palestinians to preserve the prestige of the Patriarchate. But he ruled the Brotherhood as if the Patriarchate were his own personal fiefdom, surrounding himself with his concubines.
In the early 1970s, 27 Armenian manuscripts emerged on the auction block of Sotheby’s in London. Thanks to historian Dr. Sirarpie Der Nercessian’s detective work which tracked down the provenance of the manuscripts. The Patriarch cynically blamed the disappearances of these manuscripts on a saintly member of the clergy, namely Patriarch Shnork Kalustian, and a certain antique dealer of ill repute. Thanks to Alex Manoogian’s involvement and contributions the manuscripts were returned to the Patriarchate.
The Patriarchate has properties outside Jerusalem, in Israel and elsewhere.
Archbishop Derderian ceded two properties to the Catholicosate of Cilicia in Lebanon: St. Nishan Cathedral in Beirut and the Hovivadoon (Pastor’s residence) in Aleppo, Syria.
The current leadership at the Patriarchate is pursuing other pieces of property in Turkey, diligently and diplomatically.
Archbishop Torkom Manoogian succeeded Derderian and served from 1990 to 2012. He was the quintessential clergyman, a poet and a musicologist of Armenian divine liturgy. Under his watch, a real estate scandal broke out and a valuable piece of property was sold for a pittance by his underlings in charge of real estate. The Patriarch had to confess publicly that “our attorneys duped us.”
Now and then, stories break about the loss or sale of properties in Jerusalem. It is horrendously difficult for the clergy, most of whom lack the expertise, to preserve the vast holding in an era when President Trump can slice a piece of land, such as the Golan Heights in Syria, and donate it to Israel.
In October 2018, the Christian Churches were alarmed that a bill was introduced at the Israeli Parliament by Rachel Azaria, of the centrist Kulanu party, which was meant to “solve the problem of thousands of Jerusalem residents who would leave their homes due to the demands of developers.”
The Armenian and Greek Patriarchates wrote a letter to Prime Minister Netanyahu, asking “To block the draft legislation, which was aimed at expropriating their properties.”
The bill was frozen but not rescinded.
In the meantime, the government stated that “the government of Israel has no intention to confiscate church lands or cause any economic damage to the churches. The goal of the government is to protect the rights of the churches, of investors and tenants.”
There is obviously a struggle for a land grab.
If the expropriation of Palestinian lands is an indication, the Christian churches cannot expect any better outcome. Particularly if and when corrupt members of the clergy are involved in the matter.
Historically Jerusalem Patriarchate has appealed to the worldwide Armenian communities for assistance, but they have never felt any obligation to present a transparent accounting.
Also, the mindset of the ruling Patriarch determines whether the unity of the Armenian Church will be preserved or not. The irreverent public diatribe by the current Patriarch, Nourhan Manougian, against his superior, Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II, is an indication of that status.
The gradual weakening of the clergy and the extended legal and illegal assaults leave the Patriarchate in a vulnerable position.
One cannot be assured if the integrity of the Genocide and other valuable documents have not yet been compromised.
The Armenian government nor the Supreme head of the church in Echmiadzin are not legally entitled to ask for any accountability.
FRESNO — Four scholars from the University of Southern California (USC) and the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) will discuss their research on Western Armenian in a panel discussion titled “Western Armenian in the 21st Century: Challenges and New Approaches” at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, September 6, in the University Business Center, Alice Peters Auditorium, at Fresno State. Armenian Studies Program Director Prof. Barlow Der Mugrdechian will moderate the discussion.
The presentation is part of the Armenian Studies Program Fall 2019 Lecture Series and is supported by the Leon S. Peters Foundation.
Jesse Arlen
For the past few years, scholars have discussed how to best teach Western Armenian and to transmit the language to future generations. In November of 2017, the Society for Armenian Studies and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation organized a conference on “Transmitting Western Armenian to the Next Generation,” with the participation of six scholars. The conference was organized based on this discussion and from the 2010 report that UNESCO had placed Western Armenian on the list of the world’s endangered language. The scholars at the conference presented the latest research in the field of language acquisition, which benefits from theoretical and practical approaches in the field of teaching minority languages in a diasporic situation.
In 2018, the Press at California State University, Fresno published Western Armenian in the 21st Century: Challenges and New Approaches as part of the Armenian Series at Fresno State. The book was edited by Bedross Der Matossian and Der Mugrdechian. Four of the contributors to the volume will present their conclusions on September 6.
Dr. Shushan Karapetian is deputy director of the Institute of Armenian Studies at USC. She received a PhD in Near Eastern Languages and Cultures from UCLA in 2014, where she has taught Armenian Studies courses for the past nine years. Her dissertation, “‘How Do I Teach My Kids My Broken Armenian?’: A Study of Eastern Armenian Heritage Language Speakers in Los Angeles,” received the Society for Armenian Studies Distinguished Dissertation Award in 2015.
Jesse Siragan Arlen is a PhD Candidate of Armenian Studies in the Near Eastern Languages & Cultures department at UCLA. He has taught Western Armenian at a Sunday School since 2016, and his creative prose and poetry in Western Armenian has appeared in literary journals such as Inknagir and Pakine.
Elizabeth Mkhitarian graduated from UCLA with a B.A. in English and Armenian Studies in 2018. She is a published writer of prose and poetry in English and Armenian. Her first book of poetry in Armenian is forthcoming.
Dr. Hagop Gulludjian received his PhD with highest distinction from the Jesuit University of Buenos Aires. He has been teaching modern Western Armenian at UCLA for many years. His area of research is in poststructural rereading of medieval mystical poetry and in languages without a country: language vitality programs and their replicability.
BERLIN — If there is one name that calls to mind the conflict-laden relationship between Germany and Turkey, it is Dogan Akhanlı. The Turkish-born German writer has lived in the Federal Republic since 1992, after he fled political persecution in his homeland, and received asylum, then citizenship. Since then, several of his books have been published in German translations, and have received literary prizes.
Yet, even as a German citizen and acclaimed author, he has not escaped harassment from the Turkish authorities. In August 2010, when he flew to Istanbul to visit his dying father, he was seized at the airport, and jailed on hoked-up charges of participation in armed robbery and murder. An international mobilization of intellectuals and political activists led to his eventual acquittal and release. But in Spring 2013 an Appeals Court in Ankara reversed the ruling, reopened the case and issued an international warrant for his arrest. Akhanlı responded by refusing to return to Turkey. In 2016 his book, The Days without Father appeared in German, and told the story of a politically persecuted exile in Germany.
In 2017, while on vacation in Grenada, Spain he was hauled out of his hotel room by police and transferred to Madrid, on the initiative of Turkish authorities, who hoped to extradite him. The case escalated into an international scandal and brought German-Turkish relations to a boiling point (See https://mirrorspectator.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/SEPTEMBER-2-2017.pdf)
Again, the writer regained his freedom; and, again, he found refuge in literature. His account of his most recent Kafkaesque experience appeared in a new book, Arrest in Grenada, or Is Turkey Drifting into Dictatorship?
Enhancing Cultural Exchange
Considering his political-literary adventures and the strain they have left on relations between Berlin and Ankara, it is not without a touch of irony that Akhanlı is to receive this special award from the Goethe Institute. The Goethe Institute is named after Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who, like Friedrich Schiller, is a national poet of Germany. In addition to his own literary works, Goethe was instrumental in building cultural bridges to the Islamic world; this year marks the 200th anniversary of the publication of his West-Eastern Diwan, a collection of his lyrical works inspired by the Persian poet Hafez. As Germany’s cultural representative, the Goethe Institute is active in almost 100 countries with over 150 offices. An official institution, it promotes not only study of the German language but–in the spirit of its namesake–also exchange between different cultures, and supports a vast array of programs in all the arts (www.goethe.de/en/index.html).
As a press release announcing this year’s recipients explains, the Goethe Medal is awarded annually to personalities “who have performed outstanding service for the German language and for international cultural relations.” Akhanlı’s contribution to “cultural relations” between his place of birth and Germany is of a special kind. Not only was he an opponent of the military regime in Turkey during the 1980s, for which he spent three years in prison, but he broke the taboo on the Armenian Genocide, which some official figures in Erdogan’s Turkey may regard as an even more serious crime. His prize-winning novel, The Judges of the Last Judgment, is dedicated to the story of the genocide, and his monodrama, “Anne’s Silence,” portrays the personal crisis of a Turkish-German girl who discovers her mother was Armenian. In addition, the author has played a leading role in conferences, seminars, historical tours and other civil society activities dedicated to educating people about the Armenian Genocide and the Shoah.
A Gathering of Luminaries
The selection process leading to the nomination of the candidates for the honor involves members of the various Goethe Institutes abroad, “in close collaboration with Germany’s diplomatic representation offices.” Prominent representatives from science, art and culture make up the Conferment Commission which makes the initial selection of individuals, and the Board of Trustees confirms the winners. The chair of the Goethe Medal Conferment Commission is the cultural scientist and Vice President of the Goethe Institute Christina von Braun.
The prestigious award was established in 1954, and in 1975 it became the official decoration of Germany. The ceremony will take place on Goethe’s birthday, August 28, in Weimar. Among the 348 individuals who have received the honor since 1955 are Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Bourdieu, David Cornwell AKA John le Carré, Sir Ernst Gombrich, Lars Gustafsson, Ágnes Heller, Petros Markaris, Sir Karl Raimund Popper, Jorge Semprún, Robert Wilson, Neil MacGregor, Helen Wolff and Irina Shcherbakova. This year, along with Akhanlı, are the publisher, bookseller and political journalist Enkhbat Roozon from Mongolia and artist and filmmaker Shirin Neshat from Iran and the US.
LOUIS, Mi. (Chessbase) — Levon Aronian emerged as the winner of the Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz leg of the Grand Chess Tour on August 16, after a tumultuous day of blitz games here at the Saint Louis Chess Club. The day almost belonged to the wildcard participant from China, Yu Yangyi, who excelled and barely missed tying for the title — which would have forced an eagerly awaited tiebreak match — as well as winning the blitz tournament. The day was disappointing for the overnight leader Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and for World Champion Magnus Carlsen, as they could score only 4 and 4½ points respectively.
To keep things in perspective, there was almost no one who managed to score heavily on the last day, with Yu (6 points out of the final nine rounds) the top scorer of the day, followed by Levon Aronian, Ding Liren and Sergey Karjakin with 5 points each. It underscores the tough level of this tournament, as well as the great battles seen throughout.
YEREVAN/BUENOS AIRES — Alin Demirdjian is an Argentinian-Armenian singer-songwriter. She has two solo albums with her own songs in Spanish, and she has also been part of different Argentinian and Armenian musical projects in Buenos Aires. She is always curious about different artists and places, and most of the time she is touring around Argentinian provinces, singing and meeting new local artists.
That’s why last year while she was visiting Armenia for the fourth time, she had the idea to do the same in Armenia and Artsakh, and she developed a project called “One province, one song,” which she is implementing this year with the support of Birthright Armenia www.birthrightarmenia.org.
Alin Demirdjian, right, sings in Armenia.
The project is aimed at sharing the current musical scene of Armenia and Artsakh while showing its landscapes and traditions. It consists of exploring every province and searching for a local musician or a band with whom she can sing a song in Armenian and record a music video.
Regarding the songs, the goal is to record artists of all ages, styles, -both in traditional and modern genres. All videos will be filmed on-site and, later on, edited and shared individually (on YouTube and all social media platforms) as episodes. They’ll all be available in Spanish and in English subtitles.
Alin’s desire is to know more, discover artists and share songs in each region of Armenia and Artsakh. She expects to create bridges through music and generate musical exchanges in the future!
The trip started on July 30 and end in December of this year.
On August 3, a hate-driven heinous mass shooting targeting immigrants in El Paso, Texas left 22 people dead and added another chapter to the saddest of American stories.
The tragedy made me reflect on the lives lost. They came to the US in search of a better future. Their deaths reminded me of the stories and tragedies of so many who look for the same thing.
I came to America over a decade ago with my young family. Both my wife’s and my family had emigrated from Turkey to Germany in the 1970s.The US meant opportunity for us. We were young and idealistic.
The history of the US is well-known. This country has traditionally been a shelter for the oppressed, a refuge for the persecuted, and a land of hope for people fleeing tragedies that range from discrimination to famine.
From 1892 to 1954, Ellis Island was the gateway for about 12 million of these people. They all went through a tough vetting process that included a myriad of tests and examinations, but about 98 percent of them were allowed in.
A few weeks back, my family and I decided to visit Ellis Island as part of our first road trip to the East Coast. We are an immigrant family and we wanted to learn about those who entered the US a century ago.
We talked about how difficult it must have been back then to leave the only place you know by ship and travel for weeks under cruel conditions to a new land, hoping desperately that you’d finally find peace, freedom and prosperity upon arrival.
Our tour included audio stories from these men and women who took a chance on America so many years ago. To my delight, I saw that one of those stories belonged to a person from Turkey. His name was John Alabilikian. The surname gave away his Armenian background.
I was instantly curious about why Alabilikian came to the US in 1922.
As It turns out, Alabilikian’s story is heart wrenching. He was born in Yozgat, today’s Turkey, then part of the Ottoman Empire.
In 1915, when Alabilikian was 7, most Armenian men in Yozgat were rounded up by the Ottoman army and disappeared; that’s what happened to Alabilikian’s father. Then the same thing happened to his mother and sister. He lost his family because they were Armenian.
In order to survive, his aunt married a Turkish man. They adopted Alabilikian and raised him as a Muslim. Since his step-father’s family was well off, they could afford to immigrate to the US in 1922.
Alabilikian was able to celebrate his Armenian identity and heritage when he arrived in the US. In the Ottoman Empire, it was this very identity and heritage that got his parents killed.
That tragedy never left him, but he always carried gratitude in his heart for what the US gave him.
John Alabilikan’s story reminded me about a dear friend who also came from Turkey to the US. Let’s call him Mehmet. Of Turkish descent, Mehmet lived in Western Turkey until he was 15. He’s the third youngest of four children. His family enjoyed a comfortable life in Turkey. Mehmet moved at the age of 18 to pursue his education in the US.
But the good times didn’t last.
What started as the American Dream turned into a nightmare for Mehmet and his family on the night of July 15, 2016.
On that day, a faction within Turkish military tried unsuccessfully to overthrow the government, headed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Much like Hitler’s reaction after the Reichstag fire, Erdogan called for a press conference while the coup attempt was still happening. He used the occasion to call this attempted coup “a gift from God” and, with no evidence, readily designated the perpetrators behind the failed coup as Fethullah Gulen and the famed Gulen Movement.
The Gulen Movement (GM) identifies itself as a peace movement that started in the 1960s in Turkey. it focuses on charity, education and dialog activities. The group initially supported the Erdogan government until he turned into an autocrat and shut down a corruption probe involving him, his family and his government.
Erdogan used the failed coup to target his political opponents. He’d already hollowed out much of Turkish civil society, including academia and the news media — incidents that have been thoroughly documented by international human rights groups and think tanks. Now he had the GM in his cross-hairs.
Like millions of other Turks, Mehmet and his family anxiously followed the coup attempt on TV and social media. Afterwards, a neighbor reported Mehmet’s father as a Gulen follower. This resulted in him doing five months in a concrete cell.
Then his father learned that the Turkish government had a search warrant out for him. He was accused of being part of a terrorist organization that tried to overthrow the Turkish government. He’d get 16.5 years in prison for that.
They gave zero evidence. But they didn’t have to since they ran the country.
Mehmet’s father didn’t give in. He knew that the police were torturing GM members as well as those accused of being participants or supporters. So he and his family went into hiding in a rural area, eventually becoming farmers.
Last October, Mehmet was driving on the highway when his mother called him and asked him to start FaceTime. He felt that something was wrong but kept his composure. He FaceTimed and smiled.
Then, in tears, Mehmet’s mother gave her 22-year-old son the awful news: his father just died in a tractor accident. He was just 56 years old.
His mother found out later that Erdogan’s government now had a search warrant out for her. They used the same baseless accusations. This forced her into perpetual hiding. First at a friend’s house, then to another friend’s house…and on and on…
Mehmet’s older brother and sister finally decided to flee Turkey because search warrants were issued for them as well.
His older siblings and their families, which included a three months old baby, fled to Greece by boat. To get there, they swam across the Evros River where they almost drowned. From Greece, his siblings managed to travel to Germany and the Netherlands where they filed for political asylum.
Mehmet prays every day that he’ll be able to rescue his mother and younger brother from Erdogan’s tyranny. They’re still hiding from authorities, on the run.
Mehmet is the only one in the family who has a decent job. He works as an IT specialist by day and drives a Lyft by night in order to provide for all his family members.
I’m grateful to be in the United States, to enjoy its privileges. The challenges we face today, including mass violence, makes me think about how we got here. I don’t have all the answers, but I know one thing: as a privileged member of society and a successful settler of this country, I am responsible for welcoming and assisting those who reach our shore in search of a better life.
They may be our friends. They might even have been our ancestors. We can never forget about them.
(Ismail Akbulut resides in Colorado, where he is President of the Multicultural Mosaic Foundation.)
PLYMOUTH, Mass. (Old Colony Memorial Newspaper) — This is a story about summer, baseball and a joyful clash of cultures on the beach. It’s about food, dances, music, sleepovers and a close-knit neighborhood. It’s about kids playing outside well after dark and parents making sure no one got hurt or crossed too far over the line.
This is a story about summer, baseball and a joyful clash of cultures on the beach. It’s about food, dances, music, sleepovers and a close-knit neighborhood. It’s about kids playing outside well after dark and parents making sure no one got hurt or crossed too far over the line.
A post card with the photo of the Idlewild Hotel (courtesy of Project Save)
For a time, a four- or five-block section around the Idlewild Inn in Manomet was a glorious mixture of ethnicities and eccentricities. This quaint collection of cottages and summer homes was awash in the cultures and customs of a different land that many in other parts of Plymouth would have found unusual, to say the least.
From the 1930s through the 1970s, the sounds of curious music echoed from the Idlewild every Saturday night during the summer. Unusual aromas of ethnic food cooked by elderly women who barely spoke English wafted around and through nearby homes, tantalizingly teasing neighbors and passersby alike.
Yet, no one seemed to mind or care about the differences. In fact, they were celebrated and embraced at neighborhood parties, on sandy beaches, around backyard grills and on the local baseball field, where the community came together to celebrate the warm weather and relaxed atmosphere that was Manomet in this era.
For Steve Kurkjian, summers here as a young boy were heaven on earth. He was part of the new culture that was absorbed into this neighborhood. As a first- generation Armenian American, he was proud of both his heritage from the old country and his citizenship in this land. Mostly, he loved baseball and going to the beach.
In Manomet home of Anna Kalajian, seated) with her son Arthur Kalajian who grew up in Belmont and is now an engineer in Michigan, and his wife Debra
“We played baseball all summer long at Briggs Field,” he says of his time coming of age in Manomet in the 1950s and ’60s. “If we weren’t on the baseball diamond, then we were on the beach chasing girls. It was a glorious time. I have so many memories.”
Now 75, Steve once worked for the Boston Globe on the Spotlight investigative team, where he won three Pulitzer Prizes. One was for his work on uncovering sexual abuse cases related to the Catholic church in Boston. He is also the author of the book Master Thieves: The Boston Gangsters Who Pulled Off the World’s Greatest Art Heist, which chronicled the $500-million theft of paintings at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.
More than 70 years ago, Steve’s family lived in Dorchester and started spending summers in Manomet. At first, they stayed at the Idlewild Inn, which had been purchased by an Armenian family in the 1930s. The Sarafians welcomed all guests to their beautiful facility on Manomet Avenue, and many Armenians stayed at the inn and later bought nearby cottages and homes.
How the Sarafians found this cozy coastal community is a bit of mystery, though there is a tantalizing clue at the Second Church of Plymouth. Records show that in 1897 the church hired a young Armenian minister, Haig Adadourian, who led the parish until 1904 and again from 1916 until 1923. He sponsored numerous people from the old country and helped them emigrate to America. It is believed some of those newly landed émigrés, including the eventual owners of the Idlewild, visited the reverend in Manomet.
The inn still stands on the bluff above Manomet Beach and offers a stunning vista of the seashore and beyond. To the south lies Cape Cod. Across the bay is Provincetown, clearly visible when the humidity is low and the sun is at your back. To the north, where Manomet Beach curves toward Cape Cod Bay, are Stone Horse Rocks, a rough outcropping that is a favorite for local swimmers.
In the Manomet home of Anna Kalajian, (seated) with her son Arthur Kalajian who grew up in Belmont and is now an engineer in Michigan, and his wife Debra
“I’ve traveled around the world and to me, this is the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen,” Steve says. “It’s breathtaking. Not a bad place at all.”
The Kurkjians bought a cottage in Manomet in 1948. The father, Anooshavan, was a toddler during Armenian Genocide by Turkey in 1915, when as many as
1.5 million are believed to have died. He came to America with his mother, the only surviving members of their family. He grew up to become a respected commercial artist and portrait painter in Boston. Anooshavan and his wife Rosella wanted their children Stephen, Karolyn and Elizabeth to enjoy all the fruits this new and exciting country bore.
“We didn’t even own a car when we first started coming here,” Steve recalls. “We would get a ride from cousins and friends. We would stay for the summer and my father would come down on weekends and for his vacation. I remember there were always people at the house – 25 or so at a time. The women were constantly cooking. I don’t know where all those people slept because the cottages were tiny back then!”
Affable and athletic, young Steve made friends easily and played with other children in the neighborhood. Baseball and epic late-night games of tag ranging across the neighborhood filled their summer. One of his younger companions was Miriam “Mimi” O’Neal, who still visits the family home in Manomet during the warm-weather months.
“I always thought I was Armenian,” says Mimi, who is as Irish as the day as long. “All my friends were Armenian. I loved the language and the food. I didn’t know ethnicity as a child. Steve’s father cooked pancakes every Saturday morning for the neighborhood kids. We spent time together and all blended as one.”
Like an extended clan, everyone in the community kept an eye on the younger ones. Neighbors dutifully watched out for the children to make sure everyone was safe and would report youthful indiscretions. Once, Anooshaven caught Mimi’s older sister smoking and told her parents about her illicit activity.
“She was horrified,” she recalls. “But that’s what happened here. It was very family-oriented.”
Steve Kurkjian, right, and his extended family in Manomet
Mimi also attended the Idlewild dances with Steve’s sister Elizabeth. Well, they didn’t really go into the dance hall since children were prohibited. Rather, they sat outside in back of the inn and listened to the lively and strangely enjoyable music as it poured forth from doors and windows left open in a futile attempt to cool sweaty bodies from the summer heat.
“Elizabeth never really wanted to go, but I made her,” she says. “I think she was uncomfortable because it was the older generation of her family, but I loved it.”
Manomet’s Armenian enclave also mingled with neighbors on the beach. The community gathered together on the shore to bask in the sun and enjoy the salt water. Steve still remembers all the Armenian women holding hands and walking tentatively into cold Cape Cod Bay.
“The women were always busy cooking and running the home,” he says. “This is where they could rest and bond together. They would walk arm and arm into the water and hold hands in a circle. No one ever swam because it was too cold.”
One of those women was Ann Kalajian. She started coming to Manomet in 1947 with her husband Charles and later her three sons, Edward and twins Arthur and Peter. They also stayed at the Idlewild Inn before purchasing a cottage on Vinal Avenue. Ann, 91 and an ethnic Armenian who was born in Syria, lives year- round in the home now.
“It was a nice community,” she says. “You could hear the music from the bands at the Idlewild all over the neighborhood. The inn had good food and service.”
For Arthur, summers in Manomet were all about the beach and swimming. His family would head down the stairs in the morning to enjoy as much time as possible in the surf, sand and sun.
“We would spend a full day at the beach,” he remembers. “It was a lot fun. My mother taught me how to swim. How she learned to swim, I don’t know. She grew up in Damascus, where there is no water.”
The Asadoorian family of Worcester and Manomet have placed several benches dedicated to their deceased family members at the top of the bluffs across from the Idlewild Hotel.
Of course, all things must change. Just as the summer winds give way to the cool breezes of autumn and the carefree days of childhood drift into the endless demands of adulthood, Manomet would begin to evolve again.
The Sarafians sold the Idlewild Inn in 1968. It still welcomes all guests, but no Armenian bands play music late into the night on weekends anymore. The nearby summer cottages were replaced with expansive year-round homes.
Families moved away seeking better opportunities. New people arrived in and made those houses their own. Nothing bad about that; just different.
Today, a few Armenians live in the neighborhood, which now has a much more diverse population. People are still friendly and care about their neighbors, but the ambiance has changed. Bigger homes and the increased demands of 21st century life mean less opportunity to rub elbows and to connect as a community.
Manomet is now Steve Kurkjian’s full-time address. He loves the casual feel of the neighborhood and cheerfully greets everyone he sees while around – whether he has known them for 70 years or met them last week at the beach. For him, the place is home. He wrote about it recently in a reflection of his recollections growing up in that friendly corner of Plymouth:
A painting by Anooshavan Kurkjian of the area
“I spent my boyhood summers in Manomet and though I delighted in growing up in a vibrant Dorchester neighborhood, my favorite memories come from the weeks spent here between the last day of school and Labor Day. From making it all the way through the list of 20-plus flavors of ice cream offered at Gellars to playing hours of baseball with great friends at Briggs Field to hearing the calliope music announcing the arrival of another two-week stint of Colbert’s Fiesta on the empty lot beside St. Bonaventure’s Church, my growth from boyhood to young adult wended along that stretch of Route 3A from Rogers (now Luke’s) and Lisa Jean’s ice cream shop where now Marshland is located.
“When people asked me why I didn’t know more about the attractions of the Cape, I would answer if you knew the enjoyment I gained with friends and family from my patch of sand on Manomet Beach, swimming at high tide in the freezing cold water out to House Rock, or marveling at the Bluffs to the north knowing that the Pilgrims would have taken in the same breathtaking vista as the Mayflower sailed from Provincetown to America’s Home Town in 1620, you would understand why I was fine just where I was.
“And at some later point, I began to understand what this same expanse of sand and the neighborhood around the Idlewild Inn had meant to that generation of older Armenians who had found their way to Manomet when it was acquired in
the 1930s, and thrived during the years of my youth. And as I have grown older, so many different Armenians whom I have met realize that we’re really not strangers but that our families knew each other from the vacation weeks they had spent in Manomet. But it was the older generation, the one that had survived the Armenian Genocide of 1915 in Ottoman Turkey and had had lost their parents, siblings, cousins and even children to it, that Manomet meant the most .
“These mostly older women had gained safety in America, and though most never had spoken about their suffering or what they had lost, you could see them drawing comfort and strength in Manomet’s summer warmth. I can still see them, small groups of older Armenian women, all dressed in their billowing black bathing suits, walking together down the long flight of stairs onto the warm sands, then wading hand in hand into the water, conversing in soft somber tones in their native Armenian, yet shouting, almost with laughter, as another cold wave came splashing towards them.”
YEREVAN – The FC Ararat-Armenia soccer club hosted cup-winner and champion of Luxembourg Dudelange at Armenia’s Republican Stadium in the sidelines of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Europa League play-off round and won 2-1 on August 22.
Though Dutch striker Mailson Lima scored the first goal in the 22nd minute for Ararat, in the second half the guests managed to reply. Danel Sinani scored a goal in the 68th minute but Ararat-Armenia managed to secure victory at the 3rd minute of the added time. Estonian footballer Ilja Antonov scored the winning goal.
Armenia’s team, led by head coach Vardan Minasyan, has made it to the play-off of the UEFA Europa League for the first time in the history of Armenian soccer. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan congratulated the Ararat team on his Facebook page.
The second match between the teams will take place on August 29 in Luxembourg, starting at 10 p.m. Yerevan time. The winner will continue the championship in the group stage.
The credit for the video of the goals presented below belongs to H1 Armenian public TV.
BERLIN/YEREVAN — This year Armenians in the Republic and in the diaspora are celebrating the 150th birthday of Hovhannes Tumanyan (1869-1923), a beloved national poet. Known for his vast literary output including ballads, poems, fables and essays, he is best remembered for his fairy tales. One first encounters such magical stories in childhood, but the vivid memories remain through adulthood, and in later years may be shared with children and grandchildren.
Tumanyan searched through the legends and sagas, fables, humorous tales, allegories and anecdotes of his native Armenia and unearthed an immense literary treasure. But he looked into the traditions of other cultures as well, and translated Russian, Indian, Japanese, Irish, Italian and Persian fairy tales into Armenian. The genre of fairy tales thus became a vehicle for cultural dialogue.
His relationship to German literature was very special. In the Tumanyan Museum in Yerevan one can find works by the Grimm brothers, Jakob (1785-1863) and Wilhelm (1786-1859), the groundbreaking philologists who assembled and published the authoritative collection of German folklore, as well as works collected by Ludwig Bechstein. Tumanyan not only translated several of Grimms’ fairy tales, but also picked up themes from them that he developed in his own works; for example, the sly fox in “King Chach-Chah” is a kindred spirit of the “Puss in Boots,” “The Girl without Arms” reminds us of Grimm’s “Girl without Hands,” and in “Kadj Nazar” we recall “The Valiant Little Tailor.”
Now a new volume of 20 fairy tales has appeared in German translation by writer and translator Agapi Mkrtchian and professor Helmuth R. Malonek. The book, Armenische Märchen – Howhannes Tumanjan, was released in May, published by the Wolfgang-Hager-Verlag in Austria. It is 100 pages long and contains 20 color illustrations, paintings done by Armenian and German schoolchildren on themes from the fairy tales.
Why Fairy Tales?
The translators chose to issue a new edition of the fairy tales because it represents a genre that knows no borders, whether geographical or political. The themes treated are universal, even though each language culture may elaborate them in utterly different forms.
As in all the tales by Tumanyan, those selected by Mkrtchian and Malonek display a clear moral; they show the triumph of Good and Justice, and were written at a time, on the eve of World War I, when animosity, violence and oppression ruled. Tumanyan’s tales are intended here to continue building a bridge between the people of Germany and Armenia. In the translators’ view, “strength and weakness, honesty and cunning, cleverness and stupidity as well as the yearning for requited love and esteem — none of these acknowledges any borders or nationalities. They are universal human characteristics and desires; this implies, however, that we are the ones responsible for determining which of these characteristics and desires in and around us shape our actions and deeds.”
Fairy tales teach morality, just as they provide the material for children to learn to read. And they have the ability to stimulate the imagination and nourish artistic talent. The illustrations reproduced in the book are the creations of school children in Germany and Armenia who have read Tumanyan’s tales and been inspired. A traveling exhibition of their works has been accompanying presentations of the new volume in Armenia and Georgia. In early July, the book was presented in the Tumanyan Museum in Yerevan, in Gyumri, in Tumanyan’s birthplace in Dsegh and in the Gegashen junior high school, as well as in Hajordats Tun in Tiflis. The pupils in Dsegh and Gegashen performed some of the tales as complete theatrical pieces, and in fluent German. Several German and Austrian cities will host further presentations of the book and the travelling exhibition over the coming months.
FRESNO — The Society for Armenian Studies is pleased to announce the establishment of “The Nina G. Garsoïan Graduate Research Grant for Ancient and Early Mediaeval Armenian History.” The grant of $500.00 will be awarded on an annual basis to a graduate student in the field of Ancient and Medieval Armenian History.
The grant is funded by Dr. Levon Avdoyan, who recently retired as the area specialist for Armenia and Georgia at the African and Middle Eastern Division of the Library of Congress. Avdoyan received his PhD from Columbia University in New York in ancient and Armenian history under the supervision of Garsoïan.
Avdoyan commented on the importance of the grant, saying: “Nina Garsoïan’s passion for the ancient and early mediaeval periods of Armenian history and culture led not only to many brilliant publications but also to the preparation of an entire generation of young Armenists. With her retirement from the Chair at Columbia, the study of the Armenian pre-Christian past went into eclipse in the United States, yielding to more modern studies. I intend, with this modest grant, to support the research activities of those young scholars who have rediscovered or are in the process of rediscovering the allure and intrigue of that past to restore the balance that Garsoïan’s generation worked hard to establish.”
The grant will constitute part of the Society for Armenian Studies (SAS) Graduate Research and Conference Grant for MA and PhD students awarded on semi-annual basis.
Nina G. Garsoïan
“The Society for Armenian Studies highly appreciates Dr. Avdoyan’s initiative of establishing the Nina G. Garsoïan Graduate Research Grant. I hope other scholars and individuals will follow in Dr. Avdoyan’s footsteps and establish named grants to support graduate and post-graduate members of the Society. Students who pursue graduate studies in the field of Armenian Studies usually have limited access to grants. One of the major objectives of the Society for the coming years is to the increase the size of grants so it can help a larger pool of applicants,” stated SAS President Prof. Bedross Der Matossian
Nina G. Garsoïan is a world renowned Byzantanist and Armenologist and author of multiple groundbreaking books and articles. She was the dean of the Princeton University Graduate School and the first holder of the Gevork M. Avedissian Chair in Armenian History and Civilization at Columbia University. She retired in 1993 and is currently Professor Emerita of Armenian History and Civilization. After her retirement, the Avedissian Chair has never been filled and still remains vacant.
For more information on how to establish named grants for graduate and post-graduate students, contact the president of the Society for Armenian Studies at bdermatossian2@unl.edu.
BOSTON —Celebrating Contributions of Our Nation’s Immigrants, a gala benefit on Wednesday, September 18, at the InterContinental Hotel Boston, will benefit the Endowed Fund for Care of Armenian Heritage Park on The Greenway, Boston. Dr. Noubar Afeyan, founder and CEO of Flagship Pioneering, is the evening’s honoree.
An extraordinary gift to the City of Boston and Commonwealth of Massachusetts from the Armenian-American community, the park is “gem of The Greenway” (Boston Globe, 2012) engaging people from all nations, all ethnicities, all ages, to unite and come together on common ground.
The benefit celebrates the immigrant experience and all who have come to our Massachusetts shores, reestablishing themselves in new and different ways, consistent with a key theme of the Park.
Afeyan is a remarkable leader and philanthropist, whose life journey has positively impacted individuals, businesses and cultures in the US, in Armenia and around the world.
Benefactors of the park from the outset, Noubar Afeyan and his wife, Anna, have endowed the park’s Fund for Public Programs, which annually supports the Genocide Commemoration and the Welcome Reception for New Citizens at the Park following their Naturalization Ceremony at Faneuil Hall.
The evening will also shine a light on the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative, the philanthropic vision of founders Dr. Noubar Afeyan, Dr. Vartan Gregorian and Ruben Vardanyan, and its Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity, given to an individual for the exceptional impact their actions have had on preserving human life and advancing humanitarian causes.
During the evening, at Afeyan’s suggestion, organizations serving immigrants and refugees will be recognized. These organizations include the Greater Boston Immigrant Defense Fund, Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, International Institute of New England, Irish International Immigrant Center and RefugePoint.
Afeyan has dedicated his career to improving the human condition by systematically creating science-based innovations that serve as the foundation for startup companies. At Flagship Pioneering, which he founded in 1999, Noubar has created an enterprise where entrepreneurially minded scientists invent seemingly unreasonable solutions to challenges facing human health and sustainability. They begin by asking “What if?” and iterate toward the unexpected answer “It turns out,” resulting in the creation of first-in-category companies with significant impact.
“The entrepreneurial scientists and professionals who work at Flagship Pioneering are at the heart of everything we invent and build,” said Afeyan. “Innovation is a team activity, and life-changing companies are built by creative collaborators.”
Armenian Heritage Park
Flagship has fostered the development of more than 100 scientific ventures resulting in $30 billion in aggregate value, thousands of patents and patent applications, and more than 50 drugs in clinical development.
During his career as inventor, entrepreneur, and CEO, he has cofounded and helped build more than 40 life science and technology startups. Prior to founding Flagship Pioneering, he was the founder and CEO of PerSeptive Biosystems, a leader in bio-instrumentation that grew to $100 million in annual revenues. After PerSeptive’s acquisition by Perkin Elmer/Applera Corporation in 1998, he became senior vice president and chief business officer of Applera, where he initiated and oversaw the creation of Celera Genomics.
He serves on the boards of a number of public and private Flagship companies, including Moderna and Evelo Biosciences, where he is chairman, Rubius Therapeutics, Seres Therapeutics, and Kaleido Biosciences. Previously, he was a member of the founding team, director, and investor in highly successful ventures including Chemgenics Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Millennium Pharmaceuticals), Color Kinetics (acquired by Philips), Adnexus Therapeutics (acquired by Bristol-Myers Squibb), and Affinnova (acquired by AC Nielsen).
He entered biotechnology during its emergence as an academic field and industry, completing his doctoral work in biochemical engineering at MIT in 1987. He has written numerous scientific publications and is the inventor of more than 80 patents. He is a lecturer at Harvard Business School and from 2000 to 2016 was a senior lecturer at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. He teaches and speaks around the world on topics ranging from entrepreneurship, innovation, and economic development to biological engineering, new medicines, and renewable energy.
Noubar’s commitment to improving the human condition through science and business goes hand in hand with social investments and a global humanitarian initiative. Together with his partners, he has launched philanthropic projects including the IDeA Foundation, UWC Dilijan School, 100 LIVES, and the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity to raise awareness of the world’s most pressing humanitarian problems. He is a member of the Corporation of MIT (the Institute’s governing body) and a member of the board of trustees of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Afeyan was born in Beirut to Armenian parents in 1962, did his undergraduate work at McGill University in Montreal, and completed his PhD in biochemical engineering at MIT in 1987. A passionate advocate of the contributions of immigrants to economic and scientific progress, he received the Golden Door Award in 2017 from the International Institute of New England, in honor of his outstanding contributions to American society as a US citizen of foreign birth. He was also awarded a Great Immigrant honor from the Carnegie Corporation in 2016, received a Technology Pioneer award from the World Economic Forum in 2012, and was presented with the Ellis Island Medal of Honor in 2008.
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