In memory of Gabriel Injejikian: "Gossip or It is What It Is"

Vahe H. Apelian

1974 in Beirut, with dignitaries when the Community Honoring Gabriel

All Armenian newspapers in Beirut were printed nocturnally and saw the light of day early next morning with the exception of "Ayk" although it meant dawn. It came about in the afternoons and had its famous distributor (srvitch) who would be heralding the paper at late afternoon Armenian functions or at the theater of the popular movie.

"Ayk" had a column that was titled "Panpasank Gam Pann Asank". Its liberal translation would be akin to "Gossip or It Is What It Is". In that column, the paper carried news they thought were hard to believe. This time around it alluded to the promissory notes that Gabriel Injejikian had printed and was distributing. The signatory of the promissory note promised to pay the sum if Gabriel Injejikian fulfilled his promise of opening an Armenian day school in the United States after his return to the U.S. having ended his tenure on the faculty of Haigazian College, Haigazian University now. Having an Armenian day school in the United States was considered an impossible task in the prevailing mindset of the day. The year was 1963/1964.

There was a reason for the prevailing mindset. The United States of America was the “land of honey”where “dollars grew on trees” and it was for the folks' harvesting it but at a price and the price was called "assimilation". For decades on end, it was, in fact, the hard earned dollars of the fellow Armenians in the U.S. that had helped the Middle Eastern Armenian communities to establish themselves and found their network of schools where Armenian language, history, and literature were taught.  Alluding to an incident Antranig Zarougian describes while he was assisting Simon Vratsian on his fundraising campaign in the U.S. to raise funds towards establishing the famed Jemaran in Beirut; one of the attendants of the fundraising raised the issue that people are treating the Armenian Americans like a "milking cow". Zarougian wisely responds to the allegation, to the satisfaction of Vratsian, by not negating the prevailing notion but by dwelling on the benefits the "milk" brought to the nation.

This time around it was the other way round. It was the Armenian community in Lebanon that was promising Gabriel Injejikian to assist him financially should he keep his promise.

It so happened that Vicken Hovsepian, Gabriel's nephew, was our classmate in  the Armenian Evangelical High School 1965 class. We were only eight in our section, three girls and five boys. Berjouhy Barsoumian was also a classmate. Her father Yervant was the chairman of the ad hoc committee that came about that was to follow on these promissory notes once Gabriel left Lebanon and keep the drive going while Gabriel embarked on his impossible mission in the United States

Yervant Barsoumian being honored by the Catholicos for his support as the Chairman of the committee for assisting Gabriel Injejikian

In his recent article about the founding of the Ferrahian Armenian School, Boghos Shahmelikian noted that those promissory notes were for ten Lebanese pounds. But that was over a half a century ago and ten Lebanese pounds was not "peanuts". It had its noteworthy value. As a class, we signed those promissory notes and thus our High School class became one of the earliest signatories of those promissory notes.

The rest is history.

Fast forward. I spent two years in LA attending to my mother who could not manage her affairs by herself anymore and needed assistance. She was a teacher and had taught in the Ferrahian Armenian school right after she immigrated to the U.S. and socialized with the Injejikian family.  I knew Gabriel personally and forged a friendship with him during my two years long stay in Los Angeles. He would invite me at times to come to their house for a chat. They lived not far from my mother's house. During such visits, I inquired him what happened to those promissory notes. He said they were in a box, and that he apparently misplaced and lost it. He noted that Catholicos Khoren I was the first signatory of the promissory note with his red ink pen, the Catholicos' trademark. He did not chagrin over their loss.

In another visit, I asked Gabriel to write his own memoirs about the founding the first-day Armenian school in the U.S. He replied he should, one of these days.  He was then busy on another pioneering project. He spearheaded and founded the "Ararat" Charter school. He never came about writing down his memoirs.

During another visit I asked him to show his picture albums. In it I saw pictures taken in 1974 in Beirut, in Hotel Bristol, where the Armenian community honored him for his pioneering work. My parents and I attended the function along with many Kessabtsis. To my great surprise, he was oblivious that he had those pictures. I borrowed some and had it posted in Kessab Educational Association Facebook account. The attached pictures are from there.

Another anectode. The fence bordering his house had a large opening. I asked him once why does he leave it open like that? He explained that he purposely  had made that opening by taking down some panels so that his neigbor, Arshagounys could have easy access to drop in at will for a chat. The late Arshagounys were the parents of Mary Arshagouny Papazian, the fist Armenian female president of a University. She was a student in the Ferrahian Armenian school Gabriel founded. 

Gabriel was a doer and an intensely social. He was not the one to contemplate on his legacy, his achievements or contributions to the society. As a matter of fact, he remained completely oblivious of  such things and of the fact that he was a visionary and a pioneer. He remained an ordinary person, a gentle man, accessible to all although he was a giant of a man.

1974 in Beirut, the community honoring Gabriel  Injejikian for his pioneering work.