Remembering Antranig Chalabian

By Vahe H. Apelian

 

Antranig Chalabian (Chelebian), my maternal uncle, was born in Keurkune, Kessab on March 11, 1922. As his name indicates, he was the firstborn son of Khatcher Chelebian and Karoun Apelian who were married in late 1918 in their makeshift camp in Deir Attiyeh, Syria on their way to their ancestral village having survived the horrid ordeals of the 1915 Armenian Genocide.

He and his siblings, Zvart, my mother, Hovhannes, and Anna were orphaned at their tender ages having lost their father on February 2, 1930, at the age of 38. Antranig was a brilliant student and remained so until the twilight of his later years. After graduating from the Armenian Evangelical School of Keurkune he was awarded a scholarship to continue his education at Aleppo College. He graduated with distinction and won the coveted Altounian Prize. After graduation, he taught in his former school in Kessab for one year then returned to Aleppo College where he taught English and mathematics to the middle school classes from 1945 to 1949.

In 1949 Antranig moved to Beirut where his family had settled four years earlier. He taught English for one year at the AGBU Hovagimian-Manouginan High School. He then took a position in the Physiology Department of the American University of Beirut (AUB), where he remained for twenty-seven years as a research assistant and physiology laboratory instructor to the medicine, pharmacy, and nursing students. During the last fourteen years in the American University of Beirut, he worked as a free-lance medical illustrator and calligrapher. He single-handedly illustrated three medical textbooks, countless research papers, and theses and calligraphed many medical school graduation diplomas. Meanwhile, he contributed articles to the Armenian Evangelical community’s periodical “Djanaser,” Simon Simonian’s weeklly “Spurk”, and Antranig Zarougian’s weekly “Nayiri”. 

In 1977 Antranig immigrated to the United States with his family and settled in Detroit where his paternal uncle Garabed (Charlie) had settled in the early 1920s having survived the Genocide. He assumed the position of Public Relations Director of the AGBU Alex Manougian School and continued to contribute articles to various Armenian periodicals. In 1984 he published his first bi-lingual book "General Antranik and the Armenian Revolutionary Movement". The book became an instant best seller and was printed in 75,000 copies in Armenia. He donated the proceeds from that print to the Karabagh freedom fighters. In 1989 the History Department of the University of Armenia invited him to defend his exhaustive historical study. Upon a successful defense, he was awarded a doctorate degree in history.  The book was later translated into Turkish and Spanish.

In 1991 Dr. Antranig Chalabian published his second book in Armenian titled, "Revolutionary Figures". Dr. Ara Avakian translated the book in English. In 1999 he published his third book, "Armenia After the Coming of Islam" in English. The book became a very popular reading and had two printings. In 2003 he published his fourth book in Armenian titled "Dro". The book traces the feats of the legendary Armenian freedom fighter, Trasdamat Ganayan. In a February 2006 letter, Dro's son Martin M. Kanayan of Spring TX, wrote to Antranig noting "Our entire family and our non-ideologue friends believe that your work on Dro has been the best and most accurate to date", and provided unpublished family stories. His son, Jack Chelebian M.D. included them in his translation of the book into English. In 2009 Indo-European Publishers printed the book. Dr. Antranig Chalabian was also an invited contributor to the internationally acclaimed "Military History Magazine" where he published articles dealing with Armenian history. Without any assistance, he prepared the print ready manuscripts of his books by typing them both in Armenian or in English, proofread them without resorting to spelling check, painstakingly prepared the indices and drew the maps that appear in his books.

Before writing and publishing his books, Dr. Antranig Chalabian collaborated with Dr.Stanley Kerr after discovering Dr. Kerr’s personal notes in the attic of the Physiology Department. Dr. Stanley Kerr had moved to New Jersey after retiring in 1965 from his distinguished career as the Chairman of the Biochemistry Department of the American University of Beirut. However, he had left his notes behind assuming that the notes were long lost through the years. Stanley Kerr had kept his notes and taken hitherto unpublished pictures while serving in Near East Relief. In 1919 Stanley was transferred to Marash, in central Anatolia, where he headed the American relief operations. The outcome of their collaborative work was the publication of Dr. Stanley Kerr’s "The Lions of Marash" in 1973. The Kerrs hosted the Chalabians as their overnight houseguests during the latter visiting America in 1971.

While collaborating with Dr. Kerr, Henry Wilfrid Glockler, a one-time controller at AUB and a neighbor of the Kerrs in Princeton, entrusted Antranig Chalabian his personal memoirs. Chalabian edited the memoirs and had it published in Beirut in 1969 by Sevan Press. The book is titled "Interned in Turkey".  In private conversation, Antranig Chalabian noted that he heeded to Kersam Aharonian’s call in 1965 urging Armenians to encourage non-Armenian authors to publish about the Armenian Genocide. Kersam Aharonian is the late eminent editor of Zartonak Daily in Beirut.

Dr. Chalabian received numerous accolades and recognition. Armenian organizations in various states invited him to lecture. The mayor of Southfield designated in 2005 a day as Dr. Antranig Chelebian Day in recognition of his goodwill ambassadorship of the city through his readers worldwide. He continued to live in Southfield, MI with his wife Seran (Tootikian) who preceded him in death in 2010. In 1995, his compatriots, the Kessabtsis, honored him as a noted professional and dedicated the 2003 Edition of the Kessab Educational Association’s yearbook and directory in his honor.

My earliest childhood impression of my maternal uncle Antranig is vividly embedded in me when he interrupted an ongoing traditional Kessab circle dance during a festivity in Keurkune and took the guns away from two dancers who had joined the dance with their hunting guns dangling from their shoulders. I realize now that my very first childhood recollection of him was a reflection of his innate total aversion of guns and anything remotely violent and by the same token his instinctive appreciation of those who, as a last resort, resorted to the gun as Armenian freedom fighters. He made the preservation of their legacy his cause. Years earlier he prepared the graphical presentation of my first Master of Science thesis.

Antranig passed away on April 12, 2011. The Good Lord had bestowed upon him unusual talents, which he put in good use as an accomplished medical illustrator, calligrapher, cartographer, and historian, and foremost as a devout Armenian. He leaves behind a void and a legacy of extraordinary accomplishments. He exemplified the indomitable spirit of the first post Genocide generation who were mostly born to parents orphaned during the Genocide.