Garo Derounian, More Than a Researcher, a Master Silversmith

By Vahe H. Apelian

I do not remember when and under what circumstances I met Garo Derounian. When I say met, I do not mean to say in person but online, more precisely on the Facebook where nowadays we establish acquaintances and even forge friendships.

I am not sure what drove me to feel a kinship with him long before I got to know of his unique artistic talent as a master silversmith and his varied interests in history. It could have been his name. He is my late brother’s namesake. Garo is the endearing version of Garabed, which means a forerunner, a pioneer of good things. He is an avid collector of Armenian books and regularly posts on his Facebook page the copy of the cover of a new book he has recently acquired to enrich his ever-expanding library.

Thanks to Garo’s postings I also became aware that his parental roots hail from Marash. He is one the three administrators of the Union of Marash Armenians in Facebook. He regularly posts about historical Marash. But it became obvious to me that Garo’s natural interests are in everything of recent Armenian history and he presents himself as an independent researcher.

Catholicos Aram invited him to the committee that oversaw the staffing of the museum in Jbeil, Lebanon dedicated to the Armenian genocide orphans. His research unearthed interesting facts about the Armenian Genocide orphans who were cared for by the Birds’ Nest orphanage in the same city. The museum is located in the orphanage’s sprawling campus on the Mediterranean Sea shore.  One of his finds was our mutual friend, Garo Konyalian’s father’s picture repairing shoes. Garo did not know that his orphaned father Krikor, who was one of the co-owners of a clothing store on Beirut’s main thoroughfare, Rue Weygand, had started his life as an apprenticed shoe repairer trained in the orphanage. Garo Derounian’s name is now listed on the plaque of the Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia’s Armenian Genocide Orphans’ “Aram Bezikian” Museum as the Archives Collector.

Nowadays Garo Derounian is in charge of the library of the all-time Armenian favorite KOHAR Symphony Orchestra and Choir. The Armenian culture patron Harut Khatchadourian, who along with his brother is the benefactor of this favorite Armenian symphony orchestra, appointed Garo to that position as a researcher. He is tasked to have a complete collection of Armenian hymnals ever printed. I am happy to be a contributor of a small hymnal that was titled in English as “Armenian Song Book” and was published by St. Leon Apostolic Church of Fair Lawn, NJ in 1984. The Late Mirjan Kirian had compiled 48 favorite songs in that hymnal. I happened to have kept the copy Mirjan had given to me. Derounian considered it a rare find. The museum did not have a copy of this hymnal. He deemed it be worth archiving it in the KOHAR’s library.

Garo Derounian is born in 1969 in the Arakatz neighborhood of the famed Bourj Hamoud of Lebanon. He graduated from Mesrobian Armenian Catholic School and had planned to study medicine. His studies in the Lebanese University were interrupted due Lebanese civil war and he started apprenticing in the family’s business of silversmithing and bronzesmithing. In 1994 he married his college sweetheart Caroline Rafaelian. They are blessed with two sons, Shant, and Razmig who had their secondary education in the famed Djemaran and nowadays are university students.

I have always remained appreciative of Garo Derounian’s interest in research and his single-minded devotion as a researcher of things that are Armenian. But I would like to be brutally honest here and say that it is not his interest in archives that has impressed me the most, but it is by far his unique talent as a master silversmith.

Silversmithing has been a cherished artistic trade among Armenians. Kalemkerian family of Aintab has been one the most prominent families in this art. The family had passed the tradition down for the past two hundred years. Regrettably the last of the family’s scion, Hovhannes Kalemkerian, passed away recently in Aleppo putting an end to the family’s unique artistry.  Recently a book was published in Aleppo titled “The Kalemkerians” by Hraztan Tokmajian where the pictures of many of the silverware pieces the family had fashioned over the years for use in the Catholicosate of Sis Churches are presented.

Garo has ceased to apply himself as a master silversmith. When I suggested to him that he should train one of his sons in this unique art, he claimed that the art has died. Many Saudi princes and Armenian ecclesiastical leaders, such as Catholicos Aram I, have commissioned him to make beautiful, ornate silverware. It is plainly evident, however, that they do compensate his rightfully due given the tremendous amount of time it takes to produce such a silverware piece.

A cursory look at the pictures of the pieces he has made, whose pictures he has posted on his Facebook page shows a variety of silverwares Garo Derounian has manually fashioned over the years such as Islamic incense burners, flower vases, differently styled coffee holders, crosiers used by Catholicos Aram I and by Armenian Catholic Patriarchs, jewelry boxes, Armenian “Khatchkar” in silver, ecclesiastical walking staff, chalices and others. I invite readers to view the pictures. I have attached the pictures of some of the pieces.

After the passing away of the last Kalemkerian scion, Garo Derounian may well end up to be the last of the Mohegan of this ancient artistry in the Armenian Diaspora.

What a pity it would be if he ceases to apply his unique artistic silversmithing mastery because of lack of appreciation nowadays of this unique, hard-earned ancient artistry.