On Nov. 1, the Armenian Relief Society (ARS) of Eastern USA conducted its Regional Educational Seminar at the Hovnanian School in New Milford, N.J. It was hosted jointly by the four New Jersey ARS Chapters—Agnouni, Bergen County, Shakeh, and Spitak.

Participants in the seminar

The day started with a rich spread for breakfast. The ARS anthem was sung by Silva Kouyoumdjian, and joined by all. Talin Daghlian, chairperson of the ARS of Eastern USA, gave her welcoming remarks. She acknowledged the ARS Central Executive Board (CEB) treasurer, Caroline Chamavonian, and the guest speaker Khatchig Mouradian, and welcomed all 13 chapter representatives from 7 states to the fiscal year Regional Seminar.

Daghlian in her remarks stressed the organization’s mission, programs, and projects, and the difficult task our communities are facing with limited financial sources and manpower. She encouraged members to stay actively involved in fulfilling the ARS’s humanitarian projects.

Sevan Kolejian

She thanked the four ARS New Jersey chapters for sponsoring the seminar, and thanked Hovnanian School Board of Trustees administrator Hilda Baronian for reserving the hall for the seminar in a short time.

In his presentation, Mouradian went back in time and gave a comprehensive report about the Armenian Red Cross, which was also known as the ARF Red Cross and later became the Armenian Relief Society. He showed the reports, minutes, and correspondence of the early women’s groups that functioned in Armenian cities and towns within the Ottoman Empire, as well as elsewhere in Georgia (then part of the Russian Empire) and Persia.

The Armenian Red Cross was founded by Agnouni in 1910, during a two-month prolonged visit to the U.S. During its first Convention, on May 30-31, 1915, it made an appeal to U.S. President Wilson.

The ARS, in coordination with the Near East Relief, carried out relief work during and after the Armenian Genocide. During the ARS Convention in Boston in 1926, it adopted the “Meg vorp, meg vosgi” (“One orphan, one gold coin”) program to secure the freedom of Armenian orphans who were taken by Turks and Kurds.

From 1918-21, after World War I and before Ataturk came in power in Turkey, the ARS and other Armenian organizations were active and flourished in areas of the Ottoman Empire under Allied control. During this time, the activities of the ARS expanded throughout the Middle East, Europe, the Americas, and elsewhere where survivors of the genocide had settled. The ARS even reached Shanghai. Interestingly enough, an American missionary from Van went to China and helped the Armenian refugees there. Mouradian is currently researching this subject through a China Fellowship grant from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.

Khatchig Mouradian

After a plentiful and delicious Armenian lunch, during which the ungerouhis had a chance to co-mingle and reminisce, the seminar continued with a presentation by Sevan Kolejian on the ARS’s current activities worldwide and especially in Armenia, Artsakh, Javakhk, and Aleppo. Especially dire is the situation in Aleppo, she said, which needs our full dedication and sacrifice.

She handed out forms, and everyone participated and offered suggestions for building and strengthening of the ARS.

The last hour of the seminar was dedicated to a Q&A session and discussion of issues. Everyone left the seminar with positive feelings and high spirits.

The post ARS of Eastern USA Regional Educational Seminar appeared first on Armenian Weekly.

NEW YORK— The Armenian National Committee of America Eastern Region (ANCA ER) is pleased to announce that community leader and humanitarian Dr. Garo Nazarian will serve as Master of Ceremonies of the 8th Annual ANCA Eastern Region Banquet. The gala evening will be held on Sun., Dec. 7, at the Ritz-Carlton Battery Park Hotel in New York City.

Dr. Garo Nazarian will be the Master of Ceremonies at the ANCA-ER banquet in New York City on Sun., Dec. 7.

“I am honored to serve as Master of Ceremonies of this year’s ANCA Eastern Region banquet and share the podium with our respected honorees—Mr. Robert Morgenthau and Ms. Alice Movsesian,” said Dr. Nazarian. “The work that the ANCA does is pivotal in ensuring the long-term viability and development of the Armenian Nation and I am proud to add my voice to that effort,” he added.

Dr. Garo Nazarian grew up in the New York City metropolitan area Armenian community, graduating from Holy Martyrs Armenian Day School in 1988. After earning his Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from Boston College, Dr. Nazarian returned to his native New York and received his D.D.S. from Columbia University.

One of his lifelong passions has been the ability to help Armenia and its children. During the past six summers Dr. Nazarian and a team of dentists have spent two weeks providing dental care for the orphaned and disadvantaged in Armenia. This irreplaceable and one of a kind experience has proven to be fulfilling, gratifying and educational all at the same time. Each summer session at the dental clinic located in southwestern Armenia at the charming Camp Siranoush, the dentists complete more than a hundred treatment plans which include each child receiving an exam, cleaning and fluoride treatment, as well as hundreds of amalgam and composite fillings, countless extractions and as many root canal treatments as they can fit in their 12-hour workday.

When not in Armenia, Dr. Nazarian keeps a private practice in midtown Manhattan focusing on all aspects of general, cosmetic, and implant dentistry. As a member of the American Dental Association, New York County Dental Society, Academy of General Dentistry, and the New York State Dental Association, Dr. Nazarian has had an opportunity to work with many of the top dental specialists and cosmetic dentists from around the world. These experiences have motivated him to provide the best quality dentistry with the most advanced technology. Dr. Nazarian currently resides in Long Island with his wife Rubina and two children Alina and Alec.

“Dr. Nazarian’s commitment to the children of Armenia is an inspiration to us all,” said ANCA Eastern Region Board Member Karine Shnorhokian. “His unrelenting dedication—and that of the doctors who work with him—reminds us of the volunteer spirit that has been a cornerstone of Armenian American community development for generations.”

The ANCA Eastern Region Banquet will begin with an elegant cocktail reception and silent auction at 4 p.m., followed by dinner and awards ceremony at 6 p.m. To purchase tickets or to make a tax-deductible donation, please visit http://www.anca.org/erbanquet . For more information, please email erbanquet@anca.org or call (917) 428-1918.

The ANCA Eastern Region Endowment Fund is a 501(c)(3) charitable and educational organization that supports the Armenian National Committee of America Eastern Region in outreach to Armenian American communities.

By Hagop Vartivarian

A scene from the event

ENGLEWOOD, N.J.—After Detroit, Toronto, Los Angeles, and Fresno, the Tekeyan Cultural Association (TCA) made New York reverberate with the words of a pair of newly published volumes dedicated to the writings of Vahan Tekeyan—Vahan Tekeyan: Selected Poems, translated into English by Gerald Papasian and his uncle John Papasian, and the Armenian-language Vahan Tekeyan: Panasdeghdzutiunneru hadendir, edited by Edmond Azadian.

The presentation took place on Friday evening, Oct. 31, at the New Jersey TCA Center, where admirers of Tekeyan the poet and public figure filled the hall completely. The program was at a professional level suited to the audience, which itself appeared to have serious literary interests. The director, actor, and translator Gerard Papasian had come from Paris for the occasion, while literary critic Edmond Azadian and artist Nora Ipekian-Azadian came from Detroit.

After words of welcome from the chairman of the New York TCA executive, the artistic portion of the program began with a performance by one of the best interpreters of classical music, soprano Anahit Zakaryan, accompanied on the piano with composer Hampartzoum Berberian’s music of Tekeyan’s poems “G’antzreve, dghas” (“It Is Raining, My Son”) and “Ser me kaghdni” (“A Secret Love”).

Zarmine Boghosian, educator and writer, served as the master of ceremonies. Boghosian was recently given a medal by the Mother See of Etchmiadzin. Thanks to her efforts, the program went smoothly, and she introduced the participating artists with a seriousness worthy of Tekeyan.

While the program had been initiated and organized by the TCA, the Hamazkayin Armenian Education and Cultural Society and the Essayan-Getronagan Alumni Association also participated as fellow cultural organizations. As Vahan Tekeyan had been a student in, and then principal of, Constantinople’s [Armenian] National Central [Getronagan] School, it was particularly appropriate that the chairman of the latter’s alumni association, Arto Khrimian, give a heart-felt talk.

The anthology of poems in English translation was presented by the well-known intellectual and translator Dr. Hrant Markarian. He analyzed on video the difficult work conducted by the Papasians, which reappeared at a late date by chance in John Papasian’s home in Rome, after the latter had passed away in Cairo in 1989. This initial work was continued by Gerald.

The book was published by California State University, Fresno, and edited by Edmond Azadian. The cover illustration, a portrait painting of Vahan Tekeyan, is by Nora Azadian, who personally knew the writer while he was living in Cairo. The Prince of Poets would frequently visit the home of Azadian’s maternal grandfather, Mihran Damadian, the hero of Sasun and an Armenian Democratic Liberal leader.

The poet Vehanoush Tekian presented in the Armenian language the second book, which was published by Armenia’s TCA in Yerevan in 2012. Edmond Azadian both edited this volume and wrote its foreword. The book is comprised of a selection of Tekeyan’s poems in separate chapters, “Presenting Oneself,” “Love and Impossible Loves,” “Armenian Verses,” “Something Terrible Thing There,” and “Beyond Life and Death,” which represent the true measure of the great poet.

Instead of just introducing the book, Tekian also gave information on Tekeyan’s biography and work, which she conscientiously prepared (and which could be presented in a separate literary assembly).

Gerald Papasian first expressed his gratitude to the TCA executive for organizing the event and then reflected on the process of translating the volume. It was laborious and the book was given to the publisher only after a hiatus of many years.

Then the graceful actress Nora Armani and Papasian recited six poems from the English translation of Tekeyan’s verses.

The multitalented Nora Azadian, despite her advanced, age recited with deep feeling two well-known Tekeyan poems—“Bidi esenk Asdudzoy” (“We Shall Say to God”) and “Bidi iynas” (“You Will Fall”), which at the threshold of the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide display Tekeyan’s rage even against God as he wrote:

“Let us all swear that when at last we meet

God in his paradise coming to greet

and comfort and make amends for our pain,

we shall refuse his tardy gift, and say:

‘Send us to hell. Send us to hell again.

You made us know it alas, all too well.

Save paradise for the Turks. Send us to hell.’”

The audience responded with a long-standing ovation to Nora Azadian’s interpretation of Tekeyan’s words.

Edmond Azadian then spoke, thanking the organizing committee and specifically mentioning each artist in the program. Azadian himself is one of only a few living intellectuals who knows Tekeyan’s work and life, and transmits to the new diasporan and Armenian literary generation the legacy of Tekeyan’s Armenian national activities and the talent he used for the advancement of Armenian literature.

Azadian has various works dedicated to Tekeyan and other Armenian writers scattered throughout the pages of our national press, and finally is engaged in assembling them in the form of several volumes.

The talented contemporary singer and songwriter Berge Turabian then performed three songs of Tekeyan’s verses that he had set to music. Turabian is one of the best interpreters of Tekeyan, and of Charles Aznavour. He has a compact disc of Tekeyan verses turned to song.

At the conclusion of the event, some in the audience brought copies of the books to be autographed by the authors.

Proceeds to Benefit AGBU Performing Arts Initiatives Worldwide

NEW YORK—The Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU) New York Special Events Committee’s (NYSEC) Performing Artists in Concert will take place on Sat., Dec. 6 at 8 p.m. at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in New York.

he 7th Annual Performing Artists in Concert will feature (top row, L-R) Samvel Arakelyan (violin), Narek Arutyunian (clarinet), and Grigor Khachatryan (piano); (center row, L-R) Lilit Kurdiyan (cello), Nune Melikian (violin), and Edvard Pogossian (cello); (bottom row, L-R) Veronika Vardpatrikyan (viola), Lauren Williams (oboe), and Sarkis Zakarian (piano, artistic director).

The concert will be dedicated to celebrating the life and work of renowned Armenian composer Tigran Mansurian. The event, in honor of Mansurian’s 75th birthday, will bring together young musicians from Armenia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. The musicians in this year’s international ensemble include Samvel Arakelyan (violin), Narek Arutyunian (clarinet), Grigor Khachatryan (piano), Lilit Kurdiyan (cello), Nune Melikian (violin), Edvard Pogossian (cello), Veronika Vardpatrikyan (viola), Lauren Williams (oboe), and Sarkis Zakarian (piano). Zakarian, who recently launched the AGBU London Chamber Orchestra, will also serve as the artistic director for the evening.

Each musician has received an AGBU Performing Arts Fellowship, which has supported his/her training at some of the world’s most prestigious institutions. This year’s ensemble includes graduates of the Yerevan State Komitas Conservatory, the Royal Academy of Music, the Juilliard School, and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

The evening’s program will feature a diverse array of Western classical and Armenian composers. Along with lesser-known pieces by Grammy Award nominee Mansurian, guests will also be treated to two rarely performed transcriptions by Alexander Spendiaryan and works by Aram Khachaturian, Mozart, and Schumann, among others.

Tickets for the benefit concert are on sale now. Seats are available in the orchestra and front balcony for $65 and in the rear balcony for $35. To purchase tickets, call the AGBU at (212) 319-6383 or visit www.carnegiehall.org.

To make a contribution to AGBU NYSEC initiatives, visit https://donate.agbu.org/agbu-nysec-initiatives. Donors who contribute $1,000 or more will be recognized in the Performing Artists in Concert booklet and will receive two complimentary concert tickets and two invitations for dinner with the evening’s performers following the concert.

For more information about AGBU and its worldwide programs, visit www.agbu.org.

Silent Auction to Feature Paintings by Mourad, Grigorian, Vahramian, and Others

NEW YORK, N.Y.—World-renowned artist Kevork Mourad will perform live at the 8th annual Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) Eastern Region Banquet, melding music and painting in a unique style that has captivated audiences the world over.

Kevork Mourad will perform live at the ANCA-ER banquet in New York City on Sun., Dec. 7.

“We are excited and honored that Kevork Mourad will join us to perform his special live art show at this year’s gala,” said ANCA-ER Board member James Sahagian. “We are particularly proud that he has chosen our venue to showcase three of his important pieces, along with those of several other artists—all committed to promoting the Armenian Cause through the arts.”

Kevork Mourad holds a MFA degree from the Yerevan Institute of Fine Arts in Armenia, and currently lives and works in New York. His most recent exhibits were group shows at White Box Gallery in New York City and at the World Bank in Washington, D.C.

With his technique of spontaneous painting—a collaboration in which art and music develop in counterpoint to each other—Mourad has shared the stage with world class musicians, among them Yo-Yo Ma, Kinan Azmeh, Ezequiel Viñao, Tambuco, Brooklyn Rider, Mari Kimura, Ken Ueno, and Liubo Borissov. He has performed at many renowned venues, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Chelsea Museum of Art, the Bronx Museum of Art, the Rhode Island School of Design, the Chess Festival of Mexico City, and the Armenian Center for Contemporary Experimental Art in Yerevan.

Six of Mourad’s pieces are in permanent residency at the Gyumri Museum in Armenia, and several more at the Armenian Library and Museum of America in Watertown, Mass. His digital piece, “The Map of Future Movements,” toured as part of a group exhibition in Jerusalem and Ramallah, and was in the 2010 Liverpool Biennial.

“The Family” by Armen Vahramian

As a teaching artist with the Silk Road, he has worked with public school students throughout the five boroughs of New York, and has been called back many times as a favorite visiting artist. In 2010 and 2011, with actress/singer Anaïs Tekerian of Zulal, he co-produced and created two multi-media plays, “Tangled Yarn” and “Waterlogged,” which premiered at the New York International Fringe Festival and toured San Francisco and the Berkshires. His most recent performance, “Home Within,” created with Kinan Azmeh, has been touring Europe and North America for the past year.

Three of Mourad’s pieces will be featured at the banquet silent auction. Paintings by other renowned Armenian artists, such as Armen Vahramian, Alexander O. Grigorian, Eduard Kharpetian, Mary Melikian, and Aghassi, will also be showcased by Berge Zobian of Gallery Z in Rhode Island.

The ANCA Eastern Region Banquet will begin with an elegant cocktail reception and silent auction at 4 p.m., followed by dinner and an awards ceremony at 6 p.m. To purchase tickets or to make a tax-deductible donation, visit www.anca.org/erbanquet. For more information, e-mail erbanquet@anca.org or call (917) 428-1918.

The ANCA Eastern Region Endowment Fund is a 501(c)(3) charitable and educational organization that supports the Armenian National Committee of America Eastern Region in outreach to Armenian-American communities.

Joseph Oughourlian Announces Pledge of $150,000 towards Tumo Karabakh

NEW YORK—On Tues., Nov. 18, artist Michael Aram hosted a holiday shopping event at his flagship store in New York to announce a new partnership between the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU) and the Tumo Center for Creative Technologies, bringing the Tumo Centers to additional locations throughout Armenia, starting with a center in Nagorno-Karabagh. Tumo x AGBU is a state-of-the-art facility that offers Armenian youth access to learning resources, digital media, and leading professionals in the fields of media and technology. Michael Aram kicked off the fundraising efforts by contributing 30 percent of sales that day to this project.

On Nov. 18, Aram hosted a holiday shopping event at his flagship store in New York.

Initiating the large-scale effort, Joseph Oughourlian, an AGBU Central Board member and co-founder of Amber Capital Investment Management, pledged $150,000 to support the Tumo Center in Karabagh. Oughourlian has been closely involved with development in Karabagh, both personally and professionally, for many years.

“Seeing firsthand how critical it is to invest in Nagorno-Karabagh for its success and strength, I am sure that the center will have an outstanding impact on thousands of children who would not have had these opportunities otherwise,” Oughourlian said.

Through its partnership with AGBU, the Tumo Center plans to expand its reach throughout Armenia and Karabagh and touch the lives of thousands more in the years to come. To date, more than 10,000 children and young adults have experienced the center’s high-quality, hands-on program, which includes workshops, teamwork, and mentorship as well as training in animation, digital media, web design, and game development.

Michael Aram, Marie Lou Papazian, and Sam Simonian at the event after announcing the partnership with AGBU

The event featured a meet and greet with Michael Aram; Sam Simonian, Tumo founder and AGBU vice-president; and Marie Lou Papazian, managing director of Tumo. Aram announced his plans to design a special edition houseware item that will include a collaboration of students participating in Tumo classes in Armenia along with interns from AGBU’s New York Summer Internship Program. This item will be inspired by the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, with 100 percent of proceeds from sales benefitting the Tumo x AGBU Nagorno-Karabagh Center.

“I am delighted to have the opportunity to contribute to Tumo’s pioneering vision for Armenian education. I know the critical role education can play in transforming a society and Tumo is very much at the forefront of this effort. We’re excited to collaborate with students and the Internship Program to create something very special for the public,” Aram said.

Michael Aram is an American-born artist who works primarily in metal. His pieces, ranging from tableware to furniture, are entirely handmade using age-old traditional techniques. The handmade quality of his work allows it to shift between the realms of fine and decorative art. Aram is also a member of the Tumo Center’s Board of Advisors.

“We at Tumo are honored to have the backing of people like Michael Aram and Joseph Oughourlian. Their commitment to equipping Armenian youth with the skills they need to become the next generation of critical thinkers and creators is really overwhelming,” said Simonian.

To learn more about the Tumo Center, visit www.tumo.org/en. For more information on Michael Aram’s work, visit www.michaelaram.com. For more information about AGBU and its worldwide programs, visit www.agbu.org.

RICHMOND, Va.—The Virginia Council of Churches unanimously approved a resolution calling for the commemoration of the 100^th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, at its 70^th Annual Meeting at Faith Community Baptist Church in Richmond, Va., on Nov. 6. The Virginia Council of Churches presented this resolution to its entire member congregation, so that they share this resolution with their congregations.

The Convention was attended by representatives of every Christian denomination in the Commonwealth, including representatives of the Baptist, Orthodox, Lutheran, Episcopal, and Catholic churches. Rev. Dr. Jonathon Barton, executive director of the Virginia Council of Churches, has been most instrumental in forwarding this action. For many years, he has participated and joined in activities of the St. James Armenian Orthodox Church community of Richmond. He is currently an honorary member of the 100^th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide Committee.

After the presentation of the Resolution by Bedros C. Bandazian and Sona K. Pomfret, who represented the St. James Armenian Church, there were extensive questions and responses regarding this recognition. Several Church representatives asked about reparations being a part of this Resolution. After debating this issue, the Armenian representatives indicated that this will be part of the next phase of the program. Several in the Assembly spoke about their knowledge of the Armenian Genocide and expressed the need for the Christian Churches of Virginia to stand firm in their condemnation, and to pray for remembrance.

The Assembly wished to affirm that this was an act that the public needs to be educated about. Some had indicated that perhaps if this first act of Genocide had been addressed properly in 1915, perhaps other massacres and holocausts would not have occurred subsequently. The Assembly stood firm in moving this action forward and asked that all congregations in Virginia educate themselves on this sad chapter of “man’s inhumanity to man.”

A strong commitment from many of the attending clergy indicated that they will join with the Armenian community of Virginia to participate in an ecumenical service on April 18, 2015, at St. James Armenian Church in remembrance of the 100^th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

Below is the text of the adopted resolution:

Resolution for Virginia Council of Churches

October 26, 2014

WHEREAS, 2015 marks the centennial of the commencement of the Armenian Genocide, in which more than 1.5 million Armenians were exterminated by the Ottoman Turkish government; and

WHEREAS, this centrally planned and systematically executed crime against an ethnic minority of Christians living on their ancestral homeland is regarded as the first genocide of the 20th century and the precursor to the Holocaust; and

WHEREAS, those who attempted to rescue the Armenians and provide humanitarian aid included Western missionaries of various Christian denominations, U.S. relief organizations, and brave individuals such as U.S. ambassador Henry Morgenthau, Sr.; and

WHEREAS, persecution of Christians in several parts of the world today concerns the Virginia Council of Churches and citizens of the Commonwealth, underscoring the Armenian Genocide’s historical significance; and

WHEREAS, the Armenian Genocide Centennial Committee of Central Virginia and the people of Saint James Armenian Orthodox Church—a member of the Virginia Council of Churches—represent an ancient Christian tradition, remain devoted brothers and sisters in Christ, and strive to inform Virginians of all faiths about the Armenian Genocide;

NOW, THEREFORE, the Virginia Council of Churches hereby recognizes the centennial of the Armenian Genocide; officially and expressly supports the efforts of the Armenian Genocide Centennial Committee of Central Virginia; resolves to convene with leaders of the Virginia Council of Churches as well as the Interfaith Center for Public Policy and the Richmond Interfaith Council to participate in an ecumenical service on Saturday, April 18, 2015, organized by the Centennial Committee; and hereby calls upon all its member churches, during all services on Sunday April 19, 2015, to pray for the victims of the Armenian Genocide and for all those, past and present, who have fallen victim to violent acts based on hatred of a people, community or state because of gender, religion, race, nationality or ethnic identity.

The following prayer is suggested:

Blessing: Armenian Genocide Prayer—April 18, 2015
Virginia Council of Churches, Richmond, Virginia

Heavenly Father, Creator of the Universe:

We ask your blessing on the people gathered here today, all of whom stand in the cause of witness, memory, and the ongoing struggle for justice.

We ask you to grant rest to the souls of all who perished in the genocides of the past and present—and especially to the million and a half souls lost, 100 years ago, in the Armenian Genocide. Remember the fallen, O Lord; cast your blessing on those who survived; and bestow your peace on their descendants.

On this most solemn occasion—the 100th year of remembrance of the Armenian Genocide—we painfully acknowledge that the world has not yet learned the vital lesson, and has not done enough, to expunge the plague of genocide.

And so we ask, Lord, that you will shine your light into the dark corners of the world, to expose cruelty and injustice wherever it afflicts innocent people—so that the genocides experienced by so many peoples will never be repeated anywhere on the face of this earth.

We pray that you will inspire our leaders with wisdom, compassion, and resolution in the face of evil. Our world today exists in a time of uncertainty; and in such a time, O God, we seek above all to know and perform your will. We pray that you will remember the precious sacrifices being made today in the name of faith and religious liberty; that you will shepherd the downtrodden out of the darkness of tyranny; and that you will steer our entire world to a new dawn of peace, justice, and dignity—for all your children.

Finally, we thank you for the bounty and liberty of this great country of America. Bless this land and her people, Lord, so that she may continue to be a beacon of hope to our world.

For all of these things, may your name be praised from generation to generation.

Amen.

New York— Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-Chairs Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) and Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.) will join the annual salute to Armenian American community activism at this Sunday’s ANCA Eastern Region Banquet in New York City.

Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-Chairs Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) and Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.) will join the 8th Annual ANCA ER banquet in New York City on Sun., Dec. 7.

“Representatives Pallone and Grimm have been leading advocates on the full range of Armenian American community concerns on Capitol Hill—from justice to the Armenian Genocide, to support for Artsakh independence and the overall strengthening of the U.S.-Armenia relationship,” said ANCA Eastern Region Chairman Steve Mesrobian. “We’re honored to have them join us this evening—as they have so many times in our nation’s capitol.”

Congressman Pallone was a co-founder of the Congressional Armenian Caucus in 1995 with former Representative John Edward Porter (R-Ill.). Over the past 19 years, the Caucus has grown to over 150 members and worked closely with the ANCA in advancing key legislation on a broad range of topics. Rep. Grimm joined as Republican Co-Chair in 2013.

The Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-Chairs will be joined by renowned lawyer Robert Morgenthau and the Morgenthau Family, who will be honored with the prestigious ANCA Freedom Award for their decades-long efforts to raise the public’s consciousness on the atrocities of the Armenian Genocide. Near East Foundation Chairman Shant Mardirossian will be presenting the Freedom Award.

The Vahan Cardashian Award will be bestowed upon longtime Hai Tahd activist Alice Movsesian of New Jersey. Dr. Antranig Kasbarian will present the Cardashian Award.

Community leader and humanitarian Dr. Garo Nazarian will serve as Master of Ceremonies. His Eminence Archbishop Oshagan Choloyan will open the ceremony with a prayer and a message of faith. Very Reverend Father Gabriel Adde of the Syriac Orthodox Church will deliver the benediction prayer.

During the course of the evening, world-renowned artist Kevork Mourad together with the famous violinist Sami Merdinian will perform a live exquisite “spontaneous painting” show at the banquet. Mourad will showcase three of his pieces, including the piece he will create live during the show, at the silent auction. He will be joined by Berge Zobian of Gallery Z who will feature paintings by other famous Armenian artists, including Armen Vahramian, Eduard Kharpetian, Alexander O. Grigorian, and others.
Armenia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Ambassador Zohrab Mnatsakanyan will be among the honored guests joining prominent members of the Armenian community present at the gala.

The Dec. 7 banquet, sponsored by the ANCA Eastern Region Endowment Fund, will begin with an elegant cocktail reception and silent auction at 4 p.m., followed by dinner and awards ceremony at 6 p.m. The event will take place in the heart of New York City at the prestigious Ritz-Carlton Battery Park Hotel, located at 2 West Street New York, NY 10004. Valet parking will be available at a reduced price of $35 per car. Additional information is available at: http://www.anca.org/erbanquet.

For more information, please email erbanquet@anca.org or call (917) 428-1918.

The ANCA Eastern Region Endowment Fund is a 501(c)(3) charitable and educational organization that supports the Armenian National Committee of America Eastern Region in outreach to Armenian American communities.

NEW YORK—On Sun., Dec. 14, the Armenian a cappella folk trio “Zulal” will appear in concert performing new material from their upcoming third album at St. Vartan Cathedral in New York. The benefit concert will be held in honor of the 2014 Annual Appeal of the Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern).

Zulal is a vocal folk trio that has been charming audiences since 2002. Three singers build upon some of Armenia’s most mesmerizing folk melodies with original arrangements, journeying into the past with a sound that is captivating to the modern ear. Their impressive performance roster includes the Getty Museum, the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, and performances with Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble and Cirque du Soleil. Zulal’s success—attributed to their engaging stage presence, ethereal harmonies, and witty between-song banter and story-telling in English—is in bringing the rich heritage of Armenia’s rural folk music to diverse audiences, both young and old. The three singers have not only collected and arranged a powerful set of songs, but deliver a performance that calls on a simpler time and place, yet dazzles in its contemporary sensibility and wit.

The Armenian a cappella folk trio “Zulal”

Zulal’s members, Teni Apelian, Yeraz Markarian, and Anais Tekerian, ask their audience to leave behind the transience of modern life and connect to the enchanting melodies and vibrant, colorful characters of the Armenian village through songs that come to life in three-part harmony. The story-telling and singing of the Armenian folk trio animate the trials and joys of traditional folk life: budding romances in elevated gardens, gossip in village markets, the war of vanities between local village girls, moonlit faces of shepherd boys and their brides, the lament of lost wishes, and the enduring vibrations of dance, celebration, and survival…

This long-awaited performance in New York will give local supporters the chance to get a glimpse of the spirit that has left so many communities raving about Zulal: three women who have managed to bring new energy to traditional repertoire while making it accessible, playful, and transporting.

“An amazing accomplishment of brilliant music. Live performances are highly recommended, they are an experience,” raves one audience member. “Zulal, an a cappella trio of Armenian-American women who refract ancestral folk songs through the prism of the collegiate close-harmony group, do so to spectacular effect,” says Justin Davidson of New York Magazine.

The concert begins at 2 p.m. at St. Vartan Cathedral, Kavookjian Hall, 230 Second Avenue at 34th Street, New York, N.Y. Tickets are $30 and can be purchased by visiting http://zulal.ticketleap.com/ny; student and senior discount is available at the door. For more information, visit www.zulal.org.

A collaborative art installation commemorating the Rwandan Genocide was on display in the Rayburn Foyer at the House of Representatives on Dec. 2. U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) was instrumental in bringing the exhibit—titled “100 Days of Silence”—to Washington, and greeted and escorted fellow House members and other visitors around the exhibit.

(L-R) Mimi Werbler, Nancy Rubinstein, Cinde Orlick, Rep. Chris Smith, Dale Daniels, Arlene Smelson, and Susan Yellin

The exhibit originally opened in April, with more than 160 life-sized human forms, at the Center for Holocaust, Human Rights, and Genocide Education at Brookdale Community College (CHHANGE) to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide.

(L-R) Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), Dale Daniels (executive director, CHHANGE), Howard Dorman (president, CHHANGE Board), and Rep. Chaka Fatta (D-Pa.)

Its title corresponds with the 100 days in 1994 when some 800,000 Rwandan men, women, and children were killed by Hutu extremists. It is a reference to the failure of the global community to intervene.

The forms, made of foam and designed by area middle and high school students, are part of a collaborative effort to learn about and respond creatively to the tragedy.

“The exhibit is a chance for students, educators, and community members to reflect upon the human experience of the Rwandan people and the silence of the world,” said Dale Daniels, the executive director of CHHANGE. “It is a powerful statement from our children and our community about genocide and humanity.”

NEW YORK (A.W.)—Photojournalist Scout Tufankjian will speak about her experience documenting Armenian communities for the Armenian Diaspora Project at the 2015 Armenian Relief Society (ARS) Youth Connect Program (YCP), to be held at New York University (NYU) on Feb. 28 and March 1.

Photographer Scout Tufankjian photographs President Barack Obama during the last presidential campaign.

Tufankjian is a photojournalist based in Brooklyn, N.Y. Her work has been featured in Newsweek, US News & World Report, Le Monde, Newsday, and the New York Times. Her book featuring a selection of the photographs from Obama’s presidential campaign, Yes We Can: Barack Obama’s History-Making Presidential Campaign in December 2008, sold out its initial 55,000 copy run a month before it was released. Tufankjian’s photo of Michelle Obama and President Barack Obama hugging each other, released in Nov. 2012, became the most-liked photo on Facebook and most retweeted Tweet in history.

The program will also feature a talk by scholar Khatchig Mouradian, the director of the ARS Youth Connect Program. Other speakers will be announced in the coming weeks.

The theme of the two-day program will be “Looking Beyond the Centennial.” University students are encouraged to apply.

The program will be held on Sat., Feb. 28, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at NYU. A brunch featuring a discussion on volunteering in Armenia will be held on Sun., March 1 at 10 a.m. The program will conclude at noon.

Registration is required. The $25 registration fee includes meals and the evening dinner.

Overnight accommodation will be offered for out-of-town students. To register, visit http://arseastusa.org/programs/#youthconnect. For more information, contact the ARS Eastern USA office by calling (617) 926-3801 or e-mailing arseastus@gmail.com.

The post Scout Tufankjian to Speak at Youth Connect Program at NYU appeared first on Armenian Weekly.

By Aram Arkun

Special for the Society of Armenian Studies

The Society for Armenian Studies (SAS), a primarily American association of scholars and supporters of Armenology, is celebrating its 40^th anniversary this year. It held an international conference in Yerevan in October, and on Nov. 21-22, it convened a conference in Washington, D.C. called, “Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in the 19^th-20^th Centuries.”

Dr. Kevork B. Bardakjian, president of the SAS Executive Council and Marie Manoogian Professor of Armenian Language and Literature at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, welcomed participants and guests. The chairman of the conference organizing committee, Dr. Bedross Der Matossian, Assistant Professor of Modern Middle East History in the Department of History at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, spoke of the attempt to organize three panels, on the following topics: the contribution of Armenians to Ottoman culture, society, art, and architecture; Armenians of the empire from the Balkan Wars to World War I; and the Armenian Genocide and its aftermath. Unfortunately, no submissions were received on the second topic, but speakers for one panel on the first range of topics, and two on the last, were found.

Participants in the SAS Conference in Washington, D.C.

In fact, Der Matossian felt the first panel “should be seen as a microcosm of what type of research needs to be done in order to bring back the Armenians into Ottoman history and reconstruct their history.” The focus on the Armenian Genocide for the other two panels, he said, was fitting due to the approaching Centennial of the start of that event. Der Matossian also stated that “From the academic perspective, a lot of work needs to be done in understanding the complexities of the Armenian Genocide beyond the clichés of Muslims vs. Christians or Turks vs. Armenians.” He concluded that Armenian Genocide studies can go beyond the analysis of a specific event to provide “new empirical data and thematic approaches to understand mass violence in general.”

Der Matossian thanked Prof. Barlow Der Mugrdechian, Berberian Endowed Coordinator of the Armenian Studies Program at California State University, Fresno, for help in organizing the conference and SAS Secretary Ani Kasparian, of the University of Michigan, Dearborn, for preparing registration materials.

The first panel, on Armenian contributions to Ottoman culture, was chaired by Dr. Levon Avdoyan, the Armenian and Georgian Area Specialist at the Library of Congress. Before introducing the speakers, he stated that “as someone who was at the 1976 conference, it is really spectacular that we are at the 40^th year of this organization.”

The first speaker on this panel, Murat C. Yildiz, a doctoral student in the Department of History at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), spoke on “Reassessing Cultural Transformation in Early 20^th-Century Bolis: Armenian Contributions to a Shared Ottoman Physical Culture.” This topic was related to his dissertation, entitled “Strengthening Male Bodies and Building Robust Communities: Physical Culture in the Late Ottoman Empire.”

Yildiz depicted Armenian programs to develop exercise and sports as part of a broader shared physical culture in the Ottoman Empire from the mid- to late-19^th century. Athletics were associated with modernity, and were thought important for building physical and mental health, discipline, and strength. In Istanbul the Imperial School and Robert College disseminated such ideas, but Armenians wanted to form their own autonomous sports clubs. These clubs shared a developing middle class identity with other Ottomans, but had a distinct ethnoreligious nature. Mistrusted by the regime of Sultan Abdul Hamid II, the clubs mushroomed in number with the liberties of the Young Turk era after 1908.

Armenians looked to their pagan past in naming some of these clubs, such as the Kurucheshme Ardavazt Athletic Club or the Armenian Dork club. They published their own sports magazines, like “Marmnamarz” (established in 1911 by Shavarsh Krisian), which was part of a multilingual Ottoman sports press.

Yildiz’s study can be considered part of a new movement to examine social, cultural, and political transformations in the Ottoman Empire through linguistically diverse sources. He demonstrated that shared Ottoman civic values did not prevent exclusive ethnoreligious ties.

Conference organizer Dr. Bedross Der Matossian (right)

Yildiz was followed by Nora Cherishian Lessersohn, a master’s student at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University, who graduated from Harvard College in 2009 and has worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. Her talk was entitled, “‘Provincial Cosmopolitanism’ in Late Ottoman Anatolia: An Armenian Shoemaker’s Memoir.” Her goal is to add the Ottoman-Armenian voice as a full partner in the conversation on Ottoman provincial history.

She explored her great-grandfather Hovhannes Cherishian’s memoirs. Born in Marash in 1886, he was a shoemaker who served in the Ottoman army from 1910-14 in Adana and Mersin. He experienced great suffering and loss due to the Armenian Genocide, and its aftermath. He was deported to Syria, and returned after the war to Marash, yet lost his young bride and brother during the retreat from this city in 1920. Nonetheless, he also enjoyed good relations with various Muslims.

Lessersohn read two excerpts from the memoirs. She called the close relationship between Muslims and Christians provincial cosmopolitanism, which resulted from living in an urban, demographically complex but provincial environment, something different from the interactions in major port cities.

The next speaker was Anahit Kartashyan, a doctoral student working on the Armenian community of Constantinople in the 19^th century at the Department of Asian and African Studies at Saint Petersburg State University. With a bachelor’s degree in Turkish studies (2008) and a master’s degree in Ottoman studies (2010), both from Yerevan State University (2008), Kartashyan taught modern Turkish from 2010-11 at her alma mater before continuing her graduate studies in Russia. Her talk was titled, “The Discourse of First-Wave Ottomanism among the Armenian Intellectuals and Statesmen in the Ottoman Empire,” and is part of her dissertation work. She has studied a number of contemporary Armenian newspapers, the records of the Armenian National Assembly, and various other Armenian publications.

Ottomanism during its first stage, from the 1830’s to the 1860’s, was an ideological justification for strengthening the state. A special role was attributed to the middle class. For the Ottoman Armenians, reforms were primarily cultural rather than political, though in fact they could not be implemented without political change.

Young Armenians saw Ottomanism as an opportunity to reorganize education, culture, and the Armenian millet, or ethnoreligious community structure, and believed it could help in their struggle with Armenian conservatives. They could get state support and privileges if they respected the sultan and the laws of the Ottoman Empire. However, the gap between Muslims and non-Muslims grew when reforms were not implemented, so that excitement about Ottomanism disappeared. Over the next two decades, Armenians realized that equal rights were not sufficient—they also needed access to the state bureaucracy.

The final presenter in the first panel was Dr. Heghnar Zeitlian Watenpaugh, Associate Professor of Art History at the University of California, Davis, and co-chair of the Department of Art and Art History. Her book, The Image of an Ottoman City: Imperial Architecture and Urban Experience in Aleppo in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (2004), received the Spiro Kostof Book Award from the Society of Architectural Historians. Her next book on Mass Violence and Cultural Heritage in the Modern Middle East is forthcoming from Stanford University Press. Her paper was called, “Reconstructing the Urban and Architectural History of Ottoman Armenian Communities: Zeytun, 1850-1915.”

Watenpaugh became interested in Zeytun as a result of the Zeytun Gospels, located now at Yerevan’s Mesrop Mashtots Institute of Ancient Manuscripts, except for eight pages at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. The Western Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America’s lawsuit to take the eight pages away from the Getty called a great deal of attention to this manuscript illuminated by Toros Roslin.

Zeytun’s architecture, religious life, and local history provide the last context for the manuscript before it was taken away. Watenpaugh pointed out how Zeytun was usually studied from the point of view of political history due to its unusual position of local autonomy through most of the Ottoman period. She reviewed the extant sources and provided images of Zeytun’s landscape, architecture, and population.

Watenpaugh concluded that as Raphael Lemkin had written, the destruction of things like architecture, relics, agricultural methods, and natural sacred phenomena are examples of the eradication of culture as a part of the genocidal process. In this way, the Armenian layer of life in cities and villages in Turkey today has been largely silenced or ignored. Nonetheless, no art or urban history of the late Ottoman Empire is complete without addressing the history of Zeytun or other Armenian settlements.

(L-R) Dr. Hegnar Watenpaugh, Murat Yildiz, Dr. Rachel Goshgarian, and SAS President Dr. Kevork Bardakjian at the opening session of the SAS Conference.

Dr. Rachel Goshgarian, Assistant Professor of History at Lafayette College, with a Ph.D. in Middle Eastern studies from Harvard University, served as discussant for the first panel. Formerly director of the Krikor and Clara Zohrab Information Center of the Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern), she is completing a book manuscript entitled, A Futuwwa for the Borderlands; Homosociality, Urban Self Governments and Interfaith Interactions in Late Medieval Anatolia. Goshgarian was excited to see such a wide range of papers excavating what Armenian life looked like in the Ottoman Empire, and asked a number of questions of the speakers.

Session II began with Barlow Der Mugrdechian, chair, introducing the speakers. First was Asya Darbinyan, a graduate student at Clark University’s Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies with Professor Taner Akcam, who received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in international relations from Yerevan State University. Her master’s thesis concerned American humanitarian assistance and Near East Relief efforts for the Armenians during and after the genocide. She worked at the Armenian Genocide and Museum Research Institute as deputy director. Her presentation for the panel was entitled, “The Armenian Genocide and Russian Response.”

Darbinyan explored relief efforts on the Caucasus front during World War I, including the rapid official response of the government of the Russian Empire to the suffering of the Armenians. Aside from political actions and declarations, regulations were issued defining refugees, which created complexities in determining who was eligible for aid, medical assistance, and official refugee identity cards.

A number of organizations provided aid under dire circumstances. According to N. Kishkin, in August 1915 the total number of refugees was 150,000. There was a huge daily death toll.

The Tatianinsky Committee, named after the Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna, was established in September 1914, and collected donations of money, clothing, and food from companies, individuals, churches, mosques, educational institutions, and other organizations. The All Russian Union of Cities had a Caucasus Department (or Committee), the All Russian Union of Zemstovs, the Russian Red Cross, and various other local and national Russian organizations provided humanitarian aid. When Russian troops advanced and some Armenian refugees were able to return to their homes, aid was still sent to them by the same committees.

The second speaker was Aintab native Umit Kurt. With a bachelor’s degree from Middle East Technical University in political science and public administration and a master’s degree from Sabanci University from the Department of European Studies, Kurt at present is a doctoral candidate at Clark University’s Department of History and an instructor at Sabanci. He is the author of The Great and Hopeless Race of Turks: The Origins of Turkish Nationalism in 1911-1916 (in Turkish 2012; in English forthcoming from I.B. Tauris), and with Taner Akcam, Kanunlarin Ruhu, which will come out in English as the Spirit of the Laws: The Plunder of Wealth in the Armenian Genocide in 2015. His talk was called, “The Emergence of the New Wealthy Class between 1915-1911: The Seizure of Armenian Property by the local Elites in Aintab.”

Kurt presented the legal framework created for the confiscation of Armenian properties by the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), which was also linked to various local forms of Armenian hatred. This framework was necessary to legitimatize the largely state process of theft and seizure. In Aintab, the careful preparation and rapid seizure was striking. Local notables became a new wealthy strata through this confiscation.

Kurt used a number of Armenian sources, like the Aram Andonian archives, the Sarkis Balabanian diaries, and Avedis Sarafian’s history of the Aintab Armenians, to depict the deportation process in Aintab, while also consulting German, Ottoman, and other archival documents.

He showed Aintab to be a microcosm of the unfolding policies of the Young Turks. The wide range of actors indicated how central and coordinated the deportation of Armenians and confiscation of their properties was, while the direct and active involvement of provincial Muslim elites was motivated by the desire to enjoy Armenian wealth and properties.

The final speaker of the panel was Khatchig Mouradian, a doctoral candidate in genocide studies at Clark University who teaches at Rutgers as the coordinator of the Armenian Genocide Program. He is a former editor of the Armenian Weekly (2007-14). His talk was entitled, “The Meskene Concentration Camp, 1915-1917: A Case Study of Power, Collaboration, and Humanitarian Resistance during the Armenian Genocide.”

As sources, Mouradian primarily used the Aram Andonian archives from the AGBU Nubarian Library in Paris, the reports and minutes of the Armenian Prelacy in Aleppo and its council for deportees, and the accounts, diaries, and memoirs of deportees.

Tens of thousands of Armenians arrived in Meskene between May 1915 and winter 1917, of which many died of diseases and violence. Though intended as a transit camp, Meskene morphed into a concentration camp where many spent months. Mouradian focused on daily life in the camps. Many of the guards were Armenians, who were particularly brutal to prove themselves to the Ottomans. Armenians tried to volunteer for building works in order to escape further deportation and death in Der Zor further down the river. Food and aid were minimal, so most of the camp residents were usually starving. Armenian women tried to help orphans in the camp at great personal cost.

Camp director Huseyin Avni was venal but not murderous and brutal. It was his replacement, Kor Huseyin, who nearly completely emptied the camp. By the end of 1916, 28,834 Armenians had been redeported to other camps, and 80,000 had died at Meskene.

Dr. Rouben Paul Adalian served as discussant for the second panel. With a UCLA history doctorate, he serves as director of the Washington-based Armenian National Institute, and is the author of Humanism from Rationalism: Armenian Scholarship in the Nineteenth Century (1992) and the Historical Dictionary of Armenia (2010). Adalian found that all three of the speakers from Clark University provided new contributions to the understanding of the Armenian Genocide, with great detail. He directed questions to all of the speakers, and afterwards a lively discussion ensued with audience members.

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PARAMUS, N.J.—On Dec. 5, the Board of Directors of the Armenian Missionary Association of America (AMAA), in accordance with the association’s established policies and procedures, elected its new officers as follows: Nazareth Darakjian, M.D., president; Michael Voskian, D.M.D., vice president; Thomas Momjian Esq. and Arsine Phillips, Esq., recording secretaries; and Nurhan Helvacian, Ph.D., treasurer.

Nazareth Darakjian

Dr. Darakjian was born in Aleppo, Syria. At the age of 13, his family moved to Beirut, Lebanon, where he graduated from the Armenian Evangelical College. He continued his education at the American University of Beirut (AUB), receiving his bachelor of science degree in 1974 before entering the AUB Medical School. In 1976, escalations in the civil war in Lebanon forced him and his family to immigrate to Chicago. There, he continued his medical education at Loyola University School of Medicine and received his M.D. cum laude in 1978. Darakjian was also inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society and the Alpha Sigma Nu Jesuit Honor Society. He further carried out his postgraduate studies in ophthalmology, again at Loyola University of Chicago. In 1982, he moved to Southern California, where he started a private practice specializing in diseases and surgery of the eye.

Darakjian is an active member of the United Armenian Congregational Church, Los Angeles. For many years he has served on the Board of Directors of the Merdinian Armenian Evangelical School of Sherman Oaks, Calif., as treasurer. Currently he is the chairman of the Dilijan Chamber Music Series, associated with the Lark Musical Society of Glendale, Calif.

Darakjian has served on the AMAA Board for several years, most recently as its vice president. He is also a member of several AMAA committees. He is married to Dr. Ani Darakjian and they have two sons, Haig and Ara.

The AMAA was founded in Worcester, Mass., in 1918 and incorporated in New York in 1920 with the purpose of strengthening and supporting the Armenian people in their Christian faith and to encourage religious education as well as literary and philanthropic work. Since its founding, the AMAA has expanded its programs of educational, evangelistic, relief, social services, church, and child care ministries to 24 countries around the world. For more information, visit www.amaa.org or call the AMAA headquarters at (201) 265-2607.

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Carnegie Hall Concert Celebrates 75th Birthday of Composer Tigran Mansurian

NEW YORK—On Dec. 6, nine performers and hundreds of guests gathered at the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall for the Armenian General Benevolent Union’s (AGBU) New York Special Events Committee (NYSEC) Performing Artists in Concert. The evening of music was held in honor of composer Tigran Mansurian’s 75th birthday and raised more than $60,000 for performing arts initiatives worldwide.

(L-R) Sarkis Zakarian on piano, Samvel Arakelyan on violin, Lilit Kurdiyan on cello, and Lauren Williams on oboe.

The evening’s program featured Armenian musicians from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada, eight of whom were first time participants in the concert series. The performers were all recipients of AGBU performing arts scholarships, which have allowed them to study at prestigious institutions like the Juilliard School of Music in New York, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, the Royal Academy of Music in London, and the Komitas State Conservatory in Yerevan.

The musicians making up this year’s international ensemble included Samvel Arakelyan (violin), Narek Arutyunian (clarinet), Grigor Khachatryan (piano), Lilit Kurdiyan (cello), Nune Melikian (violin), Edvard Pogossian (cello), Veronika Vardpatrikyan (viola), Lauren Williams (oboe), and Sarkis Zakarian (piano).

“Taking part in this concert was such a great experience for me and it was wonderful to get to know the Armenian community in New York,” Pogossian said. “The financial support AGBU has given me is beyond generous and I can’t thank them enough for it!”

Zakarian, who recently launched the AGBU London Chamber Orchestra, also served as the artistic director for the evening and was delighted to be part of the event. “It was a pleasure to meet all the other wonderful musicians and work together to prepare the program,” he said. “This was a wonderful opportunity for all of us, not only to perform at the Carnegie Hall, but also to meet and collaborate together.”

The concert was composed of an eclectic selection of Western classical and Armenian music. It was also the New York premiere of Aram Khachaturian’s early works that were recently discovered, provided by the Khachaturian Piano Trio, and two little known pieces published in the 1930’s by Alexander Spendiaryan, which were generously provided by the director of the Spendiaryan Museum, Marine Otaryan. The evening also featured a tribute to Tigran Mansurian and a special performance of some of his works.

Narek Arutyunian plays his clarinet in front of the crowd that gathered for the 7th annual NYSEC concert.

Hayk Arsenyan, the director of the AGBU Performing Arts Department (PAD), commented on the special place of the annual concert in PAD’s larger mission of encouraging Armenian art: “The Performing Arts Department at AGBU is committed to promoting Armenian artists worldwide, both contemporary artists and those who created our traditions as a way to build a bridge between the generations.”

Following the concert, a reception was held at Molyvos Greek Restaurant, where sponsors and donors had the opportunity to meet the performers. NYSEC committee chairwoman Maral Jebejian expressed her gratitude to all those who lent their support. “We are very appreciative of everyone who contributed to the concert series and so proud to have been able to showcase the talent of our young musicians for the past seven years,” she said. “We look forward to many more concerts to come.”

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Program Director Khatchig Mouradian Also Among Speakers

NEW YORK (A.W.)—Filmmaker Eric Nazarian and photojournalist Scout Tufankjian will speak at the 2015 Armenian Relief Society (ARS) Youth Connect Program (YCP), to be held at New York University (NYU) on Feb. 28 and March 1.

Eric Nazarian

The program will also feature a talk by scholar Khatchig Mouradian, the director of the Armenian Relief Society (ARS) Youth Connect Program. Additional speakers will be announced in the coming weeks.

The theme of the two-day program will be “Looking Beyond the Centennial.” It will be held on Sat., Feb. 28, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at NYU. A brunch featuring a discussion on volunteering in Armenia will be held on Sun., March 1 at 10 a.m. The program will conclude at noon.

University students are encouraged to apply.

Registration is required. The $25 registration fee includes meals and the evening dinner.

Overnight accommodation will be offered for out-of-town students. To register, visit http://arseastusa.org/programs/#youthconnect. For more information, contact the ARS Eastern USA office by calling (617) 926-3801 or e-mailing arseastus@gmail.com.

Scout Tufankjian

Tufankjian is a photojournalist based in Brooklyn, N.Y. Her work has been featured in Newsweek, US News & World Report, Le Monde, Newsday, and the New York Times. Her book featuring a selection of the photographs from Obama’s presidential campaign, Yes We Can: Barack Obama’s History-Making Presidential Campaign in December 2008, sold out its initial 55,000 copy run a month before it was released. Tufankjian’s photo of Michelle Obama and President Barack Obama hugging each other, released in November 2012, became the most-liked photo on Facebook and most retweeted Tweet in history.

Nazarian is a screenwriter, filmmaker, and photojournalist. In 2007, he wrote and directed “The Blue Hour,” a first feature film that won six international awards. In 2008, Nazarian received the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences® (home of the Oscars) prestigious Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting for his original screenplay, “Giants.” In turn, Nazarian’s film “Bolis” was the recipient of the Best Short Film Award at the 14th Arpa International Film Festival in 2011. He is currently adapting Chris Bohjalian’s critically acclaimed novel, The Sandcastle Girls, for the big screen.

Khatchig Mouradian

Mouradian is the coordinator of the Armenian Genocide Program at the Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights at Rutgers University, where he also teaches in the History and Sociology Departments as adjunct professor. Mouradian was the editor of the Armenian Weekly from 2007-14. He is the recipient the Gulbenkian Armenian Studies Research Fellowship (2014) to study the Armenian community in China in the 20^th century. He is a Ph.D. candidate at the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Clark University, currently completing his dissertation titled, “Genocide and Humanitarian Resistance in Ottoman Syria, 1915-1917.”

The post Eric Nazarian, Scout Tufankjian to Speak at Youth Connect Program at NYU appeared first on Armenian Weekly.

By Aram Arkun

WASHINGTON—Society for Armenian Studies (SAS) Vice President Bedross Der Matossian welcomed guests back on Nov. 22 to the final session of the conference “Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in the 19th-20th Centuries.” Like the second panel of the session of the previous day, it was devoted to the Armenian Genocide and its aftermath.

Panel on the Armenian Genocide and its aftermath with (L-R) Rouben Adalian, Khatchig Mouradian, Asya Darbinyan, and Umit Kurt; (standing) panel chair Prof. Barlow der Mugrdechian

Dr. Carina Karapetian Giorgi, visiting assistant professor of sociology at Pomona College, was the first speaker. Her 2013 dissertation from the University of Manchester is an examination of the lives of Armenian women migrants to the United States from 1990 to 2010. She found this migration to be an unexamined growing phenomenon, which she felt constitutes a disruption in conventional gender relations within Armenia. Her current research project is examining the Armenian matrilineal ritual and tradition of tasseography, or coffee grounds reading, from a queer theoretical and quantum physics perspective. Her conference paper was called, “Critical Reevaluation of the Historiography of the Armenian Women during the Armenian Genocide.”

Giorgi reexamined Armenian memoirs of genocide from the feminist gender queer perspective. She felt that a void existed on the large role gender played in survivor experiences, as in her opinion, the focus of mainstream Armenian scholarship has been refuting denialists. Her presentation combined two future separate articles on visual and written accounts of Armenian women.

Giorgi argued that a myriad of simplistic gender constructs are found within the literature on the Armenian Genocide. In the works of writers like Vahakn Dadrian or Taner Akcam, she contended, women often are depicted as helpless as children and objectified as lost possessions, while men are active in resistance.

Survivors faced male control, violence, and stigmatization from both Turkish and Armenian men, she stated. On the other hand, Armenian women fedayi fighters in military uniforms disrupted the traditional view of femininity, with passive women as victims. Victoria Rowe’s work on Zabel Yesayan, a key observer of Armenian massacres, showed how it is necessary to interrogate history once more.

Giorgi has collected and is studying between 50 and 75 accounts of women’s lives pertaining to the Armenian Genocide. She also intends to compare experiences of male to female rape, including the aftermath, and who experienced difficulties returning home.

The second speaker, Dr. Richard Hovannisian, spoke on “Armenian Genocide Denial 100 Years Later: The New Actors and Their Trade.” Professor of Armenian and Near Eastern history and past holder of the Armenian Educational Foundation Chair at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Hovannisian is also a Distinguished Chancellors Fellow at Chapman University, adjunct professor of history at USC (to work with the Shoah Foundation), and a Guggenheim Fellow. A consultant for the California State Board of Education, he is author or editor of more than 35 books, including the 4-volume Republic of Armenia.

Hovannisian expressed skepticism over statements that recognition of the Armenian Genocide has been achieved, so that it is time to move on to the next phase of reparations. Denial of the Armenian Genocide took place from the very beginning, and then during the Republic of Turkey attempts were made at the suppression of memory. The hope was that any mention of genocide would just pass from the scene, he noted. The best example was the successful Turkish suppression of the film version of the novel The Forty Days of Musa Dagh, with the complicity of the U.S. government. In the United States, the Cold War alliance with Turkey also aided in the acceptance of Turkish efforts.

Post-1965 Armenian activism and even violence led to the return of active deniers. After efforts at suppression came a phase of relativization and rationalization. Great suffering and deaths were not dismissed but instead put into context. The arguments in the 1985 book of retired Turkish diplomat Kamuran Gurun 20 years later were almost parroted by American denier Gunter Lewy.

Scholars at the international conference on ‘Armenians in the Ottoman Empire’ organized by the Society for Armenian Studies

Hovannisian spoke about contemporary deniers like Dr. Hakan Yavuz at the University of Utah, who is funded by the Turkish Coalition of America (TCA), which itself has aggressively pursued legal action (such as its lawsuit against the University of Minnesota) against entities showcasing the Armenian Genocide. Yavuz organizes international conferences, runs a publication series, and writes directly on the subject, depicting Turkey as the victim of Western Orientalism. Yavuz even insisted that it was the Soviet Union that was the first to use the term “genocide” concerning the Armenians due to Cold War propaganda value, and that Raphael Lemkin was untrustworthy because he was an employee of the U.S. government.

Among other contemporary deniers of the Armenian Genocide, Hovannisian finds that Edward J. Erickson, relying on Ottoman documents and military dispatches, might appear solidly academic to some. Yet he portrays Armenians as distinct from Ottomans, as evidenced in his book Ottomans and Armenians: A Study in Counter-Insurgency (2013). Gunter Lewy adopts a similar approach. Both use modern Western methods of scholarship and have extensive citations and bibliography that make their works appear scholarly.

Hovannisian concluded that logical argumentation does not succeed with such deniers. For example, historian and denier Stanford Shaw just corrected the factual errors that Hovannisian had pointed out in his work in a second edition, while leaving the approach and conclusions the same. Denial is still enormously dangerous, and little is being done despite new scholarship by serious scholars, including young Turkish ones. One further problem is that on the internet, denialist websites often come up first in searches for materials on the Armenian Genocide.

The third panelist, Dr. Keith David Watenpaugh, spoke on “The Practical Failures of the League of Nation’s Interwar Humanitarian Project for Armenian Genocide Survivors and the Origins of International Human Rights.” Watenpaugh is associate professor of modern Islam, human rights, and peace at the University of California (UC), Davis, where he directs the UC Davis Human Rights Initiative. He recently finished a year as an American Council of Learned Societies Fellow. He is the author of the forthcoming book Bread from Stones: The Middle East and the Making of Modern Humanitarianism, and Being Modern in the Middle East: Revolution, Nationalism, and Colonialism and the Arab Middle Class (Princeton 2006), along with many journal articles.

Watenpaugh prefaced his formal presentation with some remarks on his own experience as a target of threatened lawsuits from the Assembly of Turkish-American Associations (ATAA), and commented on similar high-pressure tactics employed by the TCA. He felt that any time scholars make substantive claims about groups or individuals engaged in spreading denial of the Armenian Genocide, the threat of legal action should be expected as an attempt to suppress criticism. Some scholarly periodicals that privately agreed with Watenpaugh’s views rejected his articles out of fear of legal hassles. Watenpaugh suggested that it was important to shelter junior scholars from such threats and attacks, and that funding of scholars should be increased by Armenian organizations and groups to prevent the replacement of Armenian scholarship by denialist literature.

Watenpaugh also mentioned the publication of the memoir of Karnig Panian in English translation (Goodbye, Aintoura: A Memoir of the Armenian Genocide) by Stanford University Press as an example of a book that, with the ratification by publication of a major university press, can be used in classes on comparative or modern genocide, unlike the prolific denialist literature.

In his official talk, Watenpaugh showed some “iconic” pictures on the post-genocide period and Armenians as he discussed what the international community did after failing to create a state for the Armenians, who were seen as the most deserving of all the peoples after World War I, and how this contributed to the contemporary humanitarian regime and discussions on human rights. The first decade of the League of Nations saw the abandonment of Armenian national aspirations. Shifting League policies nevertheless affected the status, position, and even survival of Armenian refugee communities, and sometimes even individuals. The League formulated a sui generis humanitarianism for Armenians, with an emphasis on Armenian communal survival instead of just assimilation.

Armenians and Russians received refugee status not because of individual persecution but because they were part of a group that no longer had national protection. The Nansen passport was developed as a partial solution. It was not an actual passport but an internationally recognizable identification document that would allow obtaining visas and travel. Armenians could thus move on, but these documents made no provision for any civil or political rights, and host countries had no binding obligations toward the Armenians. In essence, Turkey was relieved of responsibility toward its citizens that it had turned into refugees. These documents, Watenpaugh states, constituted an early international juridical notice of the permanence of the exile of the Armenians. [Make sure this is accurate]

The final speaker was Dr. Gregory Aftandilian, adjunct faculty member at Boston University and Northeastern University, and an associate of the Middle East Center at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. Aftandilian had been a policy advisor for Congressman Chris Van Hollen and Senator Paul Sarbanes, as well as foreign policy fellow to the late Sen. Edward Kennedy. He worked 13 years as a Middle East analyst at the U.S. Department of State. He is the author of several works on Middle East and Armenian politics, including Egypt’s Bid for Arab Leadership: Implications for U.S. Policy, Looking Forward: An Integrated Strategy for Supporting Democracy and Human Rights in Egypt, and Armenia, Vision of a Republic: The Independence Lobby in America, 1918-1927.

The title of Aftandilian’s talk was “The Impact of the Armenian Genocide on the Offspring of Ottoman Armenian Survivors.” While some work has been done concerning survivors, much less is known about how their offspring, now in their 80s and 90s, have been affected. Aftandilian found that the extensive scholarship on transmission of trauma to children of Holocaust survivors is relevant for Armenians, too, though denial in the Armenian case is an additional exacerbatory element.

The survivors themselves in the U.S. formed a highly traumatized community, with even bachelors who came prior to World War I suffering from survivor guilt. Those who did go through the events would often recount stories about them later. The poor socioeconomic status of the U.S. Armenian community in the 1920’s and 1930’s compounded the ordeal of the survivors, along with local discrimination. Nonetheless, there was an attempt to transmit provincial or local identities to the next generation through the creation of a closed ghettoized world.

The general absence of grandparents, children being named after murdered relatives, and overly protective survivor parents made life more difficult for the new generation. Even when shielded children came to understand the grief or depressive state of mind of many of their parents.

World War II became another great traumatic event for the parents, who had to send off their first sons to the war. Aftandilian interviewed some veterans who broke down in tears, not about what they had witnessed in combat but about the stress caused to their parents when they left home.

Prof. Simon Payaslian served as the discussant for this final panel. Holder of the Charles K. and Elizabeth M. Kenosian Chair in Modern Armenian History and Literature at Boston University, he is the author of United States Policy toward the Armenian Question and the Armenian Genocide; Political Economy of Human Rights in Armenia: Authoritarianism and Democracy in a Former Soviet Republic; International Political Economy: Conflict and Cooperation in the Global System (with Frederic S. Pearson); and The History of Armenia: From the Origins to the Present.

Payaslian suggested that more context and the use of existing literature would be helpful in Giorgi’s work. He agreed with Hovannisian’s views on current Armenian Genocide denial. He pointed out for Watenpaugh that the origins of modern international human rights began with slavery and the abolitionist movement, and the post-World War I League of Nations efforts were contributions to the development of international human rights. Finally, he wondered whether the disintegration of Armenian communities in places like Worcester, Mass. could be connected to the transfer of trauma resulting from the Armenian Genocide.

The panelists then defended their approaches and answered further questions from the audience, after which Barlow Der Mugrdechian, treasurer of the SAS, thanked the organizers, participants, and audience members and closed the conference. He said that as Armenologists do not typically have the opportunity to interact in this open manner in many other places, this conference was a useful contribution to the furtherance of Armenian studies.

The post SAS Conference on ‘Armenians in the Ottoman Empire’ (Part II) appeared first on Armenian Weekly.

Morgenthau: ‘The world has paid a heavy price for not paying attention to the Armenian Genocide.’

NEW YORK—Lifelong humanitarian Alice Movsesian and famed human rights defender Robert Morgenthau and the Morgenthau family were honored by Armenian-American community leaders and activists from throughout the New York metropolitan area, southern states, and the Midwest at the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) Eastern Region 8th Annual Banquet held on Dec. 7 at the Ritz-Carlton Battery Park in New York.

Alice Movsesian receiving the Cardashian Award

The evening was a tribute to the growing voice of Armenian Americans in the civic arena, with elected officials and community stalwarts emphasizing the key role the ANCA and its grassroots network play in representing Armenians’ views on core concerns, ranging from justice for the Armenian Genocide, an independent Artsakh, a strong, prosperous, and democratic Armenia, to support for Armenians in the Middle East.

(L-R) Robert Morgenthau receiving the Freedom Award on behalf of the Morgenthau family from Dr. Garo Nazarian

“One of our greatest strengths lies in the diversity of our ANCA supporters. We are here in this room with quite the mix: varying ages, different political and economic backgrounds, and hail from different countries,” said the evening’s master of ceremonies, Dr. Garo Nazarian, a prominent member of New York community with a long track record of humanitarian efforts in Armenia. “Collectively we make the ANCA an incredible organization. We can foster an environment in which each individual matters, every story is read, and every voice is heard. This all contributes to the long-term success of the Armenian National Committee of America.”

Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-Chair Frank Pallone cited the need for continued activism by the Armenian community, especially in educating the new Members of Congress about the Armenian Cause. “I want to urge you to continue to be involved, not only in the way you are tonight but also financially, in terms of petitions, writing letters, coming down to Washington and meeting with your Representatives. The fact that Armenia is in a hostile neighborhood is still very true. The biggest concern now is the continued aggression from Azerbaijan, not only aggressive statements, but aggressive actions.”

ANCA Freedom Award honoree Robert Morgenthau: Third generation of a legendary family

Shant Mardirossian, the chairman of the Board of the Near East Foundation, offered a moving introduction of ANCA Eastern Region Freedom Award recipient Robert Morgenthau and the Morgenthau family for their decades-long efforts to raise the public’s awareness of the atrocities of the Armenian Genocide.

“The name ‘Morgenthau’ is synonymous with ‘public service,’” Mardirossian stated in his remarks. “In searching the ledgers of New York City history or, indeed, American history, one is hard pressed to find a family that better embodies a commitment to social justice. The Morgenthau family has garnered accolades, inspired debates, and fueled discussions for generations. They have been at the center of global and local social change for over a century. In that time they have impacted and saved countless lives.”

Morgenthau came up to the podium to a standing ovation and warmly greeted those in attendance. His speech was marked by enthusiasm and eloquence. “This award is particularly meaningful because of the upcoming anniversary of the Armenian Genocide,” began Morgenthau. “I know my grandfather would also have been proud that you have asked me to be with you tonight. It demonstrates once again that Armenians do not forget their friends, even until the third generation.”

“It is important to understand that the world has paid a heavy price for not paying attention to the Armenian Genocide,” Morgenthau added. “If there had been a greater outcry and condemnation of the Armenian Genocide, perhaps Hitler would not have proceeded with his plan to kill the Poles and the Jews in the land that he intended to occupy.”

Robert Morgenthau was born in New York City in 1919 into a highly regarded political family. His grandfather, Henry Morgenthau, Sr., was the United States ambassador serving in the Ottoman Empire during World War I and is regarded as the most prominent contemporary American politician to speak against the Armenian Genocide. A lawyer by training, Robert Morgenthau continued his family’s tradition of public service, serving as district attorney of New York’s Manhattan Borough from 1975 to 2009, making him the second longest-serving district attorney in United States history.

(L-R) ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian, Sue Aramian, ANCA Chairman Kenneth Hachikian, and Gloria Hachikian

ANCA Vahan Cardashian Award honoree Alice Movsesian: A tireless humanitarian

Dr. Antranig Kasbarian, a member of the ARF Central Committee of Eastern United States and a former editor of the Armenian Weekly, reminisced about the involvement of ANCA Eastern Region Vahan Cardashian Award recipient Alice Movsesian in the Hai Tahd movement since the 1950’s in her home state of New York. “Today I am very happy to introduce this year’s recipient of the Cardashian Award. She’s someone close to my heart, someone with whom I have worked on numerous projects on a variety of subjects. She’s someone who never says ‘no,’ who always seems to be there, and has been involved in the Hai Tahd movement from the earliest days, even before the days of the Armenian National Committee.”

A humble and deeply moved Movsesian began her remarks noting, “We have come a long way since the early 1950’s. The ANC has been doing an amazing job furthering the Armenian Cause. … This [award] belongs to all of us who have worked tirelessly for many decades. When you do work from your heart, it is not really work. When you love and unwaveringly believe in the Cause, it is not work. And I am honored to receive an award for the work that I have done, as I have done it from the heart—never wavered—and I loved every second of it.”

Alice Movsesian was born and raised in New York City. After an extensive career, she retired as a CFO for a conglomerate of men’s and women’s fashion companies. Service to her community was a constant parallel to her growing business career. Immediately after the devastating Spitak earthquake in 1988, she worked closely with the late Arthur Halvajian, providing emergency medical assistance to hundreds of victims and facilitating the adoption of 14 Armenian children in the United States through the Medical Outreach-Eastern Division.

One of her greatest achievements was coordinating the open-heart surgeries for some 400 Armenian children who traveled to the United States for these life-saving procedures. By 1991, she and her team of dedicated volunteers had created a pediatric heart department at the Michaelian Institute in Armenia. In 1993, they established the Nork Marash Medical Heart Center, which performs surgery for both children and adults.

World-renowned Kevork Mourad and Sami Merdinian: A breathtaking combination of live music and art

The evening gala featured a moving spontaneous live art performance by world-renowned artist Kevork Mourad and violinist Sami Merdinian. The performance was a fusion of music and painting in a unique style that captivated the attention and imagination of the audience.

Kevork Mourad holds a MFA degree from the Yerevan Institute of Fine Arts in Armenia, and currently lives and works in New York. His most recent exhibits were group shows at White Box Gallery in New York City and at the World Bank in Washington, D.C.

With his technique of spontaneous painting—a collaboration in which art and music develop in counterpoint to each other—Mourad has shared the stage with world class musicians, among them Yo-Yo Ma, Kinan Azmeh, Ezequiel Viñao, Tambuco, Brooklyn Rider, Mari Kimura, Ken Ueno, and Liubo Borissov. He has performed at many renowned venues, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Chelsea Museum of Art, the Bronx Museum of Art, the Rhode Island School of Design, the Chess Festival of Mexico City, and the Armenian Center for Contemporary Experimental Art in Yerevan.

(L-R) ANCA-ER 2014 Banquet Committee members Stephen Mesrobian, Armen Sahakyan, Karine Shnorhokian, Neiri Amirian, Hooshere Bezdikian, Anahid Ugurlayan, Melanie Mesrobian, Dr. Anthony Deese, and James Sahagian

ANCA and community leaders spotlight the power of grassroots advocacy

A consistent theme in remarks offered throughout the evening was the expansion of the ANCA’s dedicated network of grassroots supporters throughout the Eastern United States.

“The struggle to achieve international recognition, restitution, and justice for the crimes of the Armenian Genocide is not a matter of merely providing some form of justice for past crimes. It is essential in giving the current Armenian republics the opportunity to survive and thrive in the geopolitical realities of today,” noted ANCA Eastern Region Board member James Sahagian. “For how can Armenia possibly feel secure with a non-repentant Turkish successor state which still honors the organizers of the Armenian Genocide by naming hospitals, streets, and plazas after those same pashas who ordered the mass murder of Armenians, Greeks, and Assyrians, in today’s modern Turkey? The Armenian pursuit of justice is not an idealistic dream; it is a practical necessity for the survival of our nation. It is in this context that the ANCA works every day.”

ARF Eastern Region Central Committee chair Richard Sarajian talked about the importance of activism and involvement in American civic life. “The job is not finished. We need to strive every day to continue the fight for the recognition of what happened and to continue to serve and protect the rights of the independent Republic of Armenia and the people in Nagorno-Karabagh. Everyone has to call their Congressmen, visit their Congressmen, call the U.S. government, and be a grassroots activist, because that is what will make us successful. ”

Nazarian navigated the evening with skill and eloquence. NYC-based singer and songwriter Hooshere Bezdikian kicked off the evening with the American and Armenian national anthems. Archbishop Oshagan Choloyan, Prelate of the Eastern Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America, provided a moving invocation. Very Rev. Fr. Gabriel Adde from the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch later offered the evening’s benediction and spread the message of justice, faith, and brotherly relations between the Armenian and Assyrian peoples.

Among the dignitaries in attendance were Rev. Fr. Mamigon Kiledjian of the Armenian Diocese of Eastern United States; Hagop Der Katchadourian of the ARF Bureau; ARF Eastern Region Central Committee members Richard Sarajian (chair), Dr. Antranig Kasbarian, and Aram Hovagimian; ANCA Chairman Ken Hachikian; Ambassador Zohrab Mnatsakanyan from the Armenian Permanent Mission to the UN; Suzanne Azarian of the Armenia Relief Society; Sarah Leah Whitson, the executive director of the Middle East and North Africa Division at Human Rights Watch; author and novelist Nancy Krikorian; Zaven Khanjian, the executive director of the Armenian Missionary Association of America; Khoren Bandazian, chairman of Armenia Fund and the Armenian Genocide Centennial Commemoration Committee of Eastern United States; Dr. Ara Chalian, chairman of the ARF Armenian Genocide Centennial Committee; and Armenian Bar Association Board members Gary Moomjian and Edvin Minassian.

Attendees were also treated to two special videos highlighting the activities of the ANCA Eastern Region in advancing the priorities of the Armenian-American community, which were played during the evening’s intermission. The night began with an elegant cocktail reception and silent auction at 4 p.m. With more than 40 auction items, attendees were able to bid on a variety of gifts, from cruise tickets to Armenian paintings.

The ANCA Eastern Region Banquet was organized by Stephen Mesrobian (chairman), Melanie Mesrobian (Silent Auction chair), Neiri Amirian, Hooshere Bezdikian, Taline Chalian, Anny Deese, Dr. Anthony Deese, Tamar Nahabedian, James Sahagian, Armen Sahakyan, Karine Shnorhokian, Simone Soultanian, and Anahid Ugurlayan. AYF of New Jersey and New York volunteers also helped with the function.

Efforts are already underway to plan next year’s gala, to take place in the fall of 2015.

Pictures from the ANCA Eastern Region Banquet, taken by Jose Castillo Pazos and Justin Kaladjian, are available on the ANCA Facebook page or at www.anca.org/erbanquet/banquet14/photos.

The complete video from the ANCA-ER Banquet, as well as news coverage by Ardzagang TV of NY and Armenian Public TV, will be posted to the ANCA YouTube page youtube.com/ancagrassroots.

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Comedic Armenian Play, “Where Is Your Groom? (Pesad Oor Eh)” to Perform for Philadelphia Armenian Community Jan. 31

The culturally relevant play, “Where Is Your Groom? (Pesad Oor Eh)” will be staged in Philadelphia in an event hosted by the St. Gregory Armenian Church on Saturday evening, Jan. 31, at Delaware County Community College in Media, Pa.

‘Where Is Your Groom? (Pesad Oor Eh)’ will be staged in Philadelphia on Jan. 31

The mainly English-language play, which tackles the themes of assimilation and cultural preservation as it follows an American-Armenian family’s efforts to find their daughter, Lara, a suitable Armenian partner, has been hailed as fresh and funny by enthusiastic audiences across the country.

“On behalf of our board we are very excited to be hosting the cast and crew of “Where is Your Groom?” here in Philadelphia for a family friendly cultural event for our community,” said Lucinda Stamboulian.

The performance promises to deliver an entertaining show featuring the familiar faces that comprise an Armenian family – from the patriotic family patriarch to the “choreg” baking mother to the wise grandmother – each of whom believe the suitor they’ve picked for Lara is the right one, resulting in many laughs and entertaining twists and turns along the way.

“It is an honor to perform in the city of brotherly love to a tight knit Armenian community that prides itself in preserving its heritage and culture,” said writer and director Taleen Babayan. “We thank the St. Gregory Armenian Church for inviting our group to perform and we look forward to staging an enjoyable and unforgettable production for everyone in attendance.”

The 18-person cast and crew features young professionals from the New York/New Jersey Armenian community who have enjoyed participating in their culture in a unique way, presenting elements of their heritage on stage while forging new friendships behind the scenes.

“The connections made with the cast and crew as well as the positive reaction we’ve gotten from the Armenian community has been truly rewarding,” said Daniella Baydar, who plays Siroun, the matriarch of the family who will stop at nothing to have her children marry a fellow Armenian, even if it means calling a truce with her choreg-baking rival, Maro. “Thinking back to the beginning of this journey over a year ago, I never imagined where we’d be today.”

This performance will mark its sixth for the group, following its New York City debut at The Players Theatre in October 2013. The group has since staged its production on both the East and West coasts.

“After performing around the country, including our recent trip to Los Angeles, it will be nice to put on a show for our neighboring Philadelphia Armenian community, where we have friends and family,” said Andrew Saganda, who plays the role of Levon, a lawyer who is set up to meet Lara.

“This play not only appeals to our Armenian culture but many ethnic families assimilating here in the United States,” said Stamoublian. “We hope many will come and enjoy a night out with family and friends.”

The Philadelphia performance of “Where Is Your Groom? (Pesad Oor Eh)” will take place on Sat., Jan. 31 at 7 p.m. at Delaware County Community College, located at 901 Media Line Road, Media, PA 19063. Snow date is Feb. 21, 2015. Tickets are limited and advanced purchase is required. For tickets please contact Rita Selverian at 917-601-9721 or rita@selverian.com. For more information about the play and its cast, photos and special previews, please visit www.whereisyourgroom.com and www.facebook/whereisyourgroom.

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Late in 2013, Betty Cherkezian and Nancy Burdman of New Jersey came up with the idea of “Stitched with Love,” a program to provide newborn children in Armenia with much-needed hats and blankets. The Armenian Missionary Association of America (AMAA) liked the idea and adopted the program as part of its relief efforts in Armenia.

Nancy Burdman and Betty Cherkezian

More than 40,000 babies are born in Armenia each year, yet few hospitals distribute hats and blankets to newborns, and none are distributed in small towns and villages.

Recognizing this need, Stitched with Love strives to provide knitted or crocheted hats and baby blankets to newborns in maternity hospitals throughout Armenia. To achieve this goal, Stitched with Love has reached out to Armenian communities in the United States and has received growing support from donors and knitters who wish to participate in this cause.

Patterns and designs are also welcome. Blankets should be a minimum of 30″x30″ in size. Newborn hats should be between 9″ and 14″ in diameter. If needed, a basic pattern is provided on the AMAA website. It is required that only acrylic worsted weight yarn is used.

The support provided from individuals, community organizations, and church groups has been encouraging and is making a real contribution in Armenia. One supporter from North Carolina who recently participated in the program writes, “My maternal grandmother was the sole survivor in her family of the genocide. It is through her and my mother that I was passed the talent of sewing and handwork. I am grateful to God and to them for this gift and try to use that gift in service to others. Thanks for your work in making this dream of helping Armenian babies and children a reality.”

Expectant teacher-mothers

During this Christmas and New Year season, with the cooperation of the head of the Malatya-Sebastya Administrative District of Yerevan, a special event was organized at AMAA’s Khoren and Shooshanig Avedisian School and Community Center for all expectant teacher-mothers of the neighborhood. The expectant teacher-mothers were welcomed in the school hall by the school principal, Melanya Geghamyan; AMAA Armenian representative Harout Nersessian; and the head of the Education Department the district. During the gathering, special film was presented devoted to maternity. It was a joyous occasion at which time each expectant teacher-mother received hats, blankets, and other clothing from Stitched with Love for their soon-to-be-born babies, as well as 2015 calendars, greeting cards, and booklets about AMAA. The event was highlighted in the Malatya-Sebastya local press.

Stitched with Love hopes that there will come a time when all newborn babies in Armenia go home with their mothers, swaddled in a blanket and hat made by caring individuals from the diaspora. For more information on how to participate or donate, call the AMAA office at (201) 265-2607 or visit www.amaa.org and click on the Stitched with Love tab. Donations to cover the cost of yarn, transportation, and freight can be mailed to the AMAA at 31 West Century Road, Paramus, NJ 07652.

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NEW YORK—Thirty-two youngsters topped with Santa hats and dressed in the colors of the Armenian flag displayed their impressive talents before parents, teachers, and an excited group of churchgoers, on Sun., Dec. 21. They held hands, sang in unison, recited with passion, and danced their hearts out around a cheerfully decorated Christmas tree, delighting an after-church crowd at St. Vartan Armenian Cathedral in New York City.

The school principal, Khoren Onanyan, warmly welcomed the large crowd, and explained that these children, ages 6-13, and their parents, had come to America from Armenia, Russia, and Azerbaijan. They meet once a week, every Sunday from 12-5 p.m. at the St. Gregory Armenian Mission Parish of Brooklyn, to learn the language and history, church studies, songs, dance, etiquette, and physical training of their ancient Armenian heritage.

Though the school has been in existence for 20 years, many of the youngsters arrived in America in the last few years.

The special surprise of the program came with the entrance of Santa Claus, who was greeted with cheers and yelps of joy. He passed out gifts to the youngsters, took photos with them, and joined in the circle dance with the students, parents, and teachers.

Several of the youngsters shared their excitement of being enrolled in the school. Nare Heboyan, 7, is anxious to learn Armenian so she can speak with his cousins in Armenia. For Ariana Abrahamyan, 8, the Armenian-language and dance classes are her favorites. “I love to dance,” she gushed. And 10-year-old Aram Sahakyan looks forward to the music classes, and has fervent hopes of becoming a singer in the future.

Special guests in attendance included the Very Rev. Fr. Mamigon Kiledjian, dean of St. Vartan Cathedral, and Jacob Yehiahian, administrative director of the Diocese of the Armenian Church, who is also a member of the school’s Board of Directors.

The hardworking teachers of the school include Marina Sahakyan, Almast Tonoyan, Naira Mkrchyan, Tamara Grigorian, and Hripsime Harutyunyan.

The school’s Board of Directors is headed by Hrant Gulian, with members Khoren Onanyan, Tigran Sahakyan, Jacob Yehiahyan, Christina Davtyan, Marina Bagdasaryan, and Sergei Yesayan.

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