Armenian Evangelical College (AEC): A United Nations Security Council Session - 1/2

 Vahe H. Apelian

The attached picture is from my high school days and is taken on the stage in the Armenian Evangelical College social hall, which was in the basement of the Armenian Evangelical Church. The church and the school are in the same campus what is now almost officially designated as West Beirut.

The picture depicts the students of the high school acting the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) session pertaining to the Cyprus issue. I checked on the Internet and found out that in 1964 there were several resolutions, I counted six, pertaining the Cyrus issue that pitted the Greek and the Turkish communities of the Mediterranean island. 

It may very well be that what we had staged had to do with one of the 1964 resolutions because I graduated in 1965 and Ara Manougian who is in the picture graduated in 1964. The wordings of our mock UNSC session were the actual words the delegates had used. They were  copied for us by our history teacher Mr. Zaven Messerlian, who was in charge of the history club and this event may have been a history club activity. Note, I did not use Dr, Zaven Messerlian's academic credential because he was not yet awarded the doctorate degree. 

I remember the staging. I was a delegate along with my other two classmates Ohan Armenian and Vaghenag Tarpinian. My wordings were just a few short sentences. After all I was the Czechoslovakia delegate, and thus did not represent a power country. But if you were to look at my face, you will find it serious and pensive much like the facial expressions of the rest of the students staging the UNSC session about Cyprus. After all, it is an important matter, even though we were mock acting it.

What happened?

Our mock session was well received by the students. We put an act and a show and exited the stage. In real life, something similar happened. The delegates did their parts, put an act and a show and moved on because in 1975 Turkey invaded Cyprus and occupied, I am told, 32% of the Island. Cyprus remains divided. 

Life went on.

In 1976 I left Lebanon as another U.S. immigrant and on my way to the New World, I stayed in Cyprus for a few days waiting for my flight. In Cyprus I looked for and was able to contact one of the two Cypriot students in my pharmacy class. They were Kyriacos Georghiou and Phoebus Stavrides. We addressed them by their last names. I sent word through a pharmacy that I am looking to meet them. Georghiou visited me at the hotel I was staying. He told me that he had lost his house because it fell on the Turkish side of the border in the divided island. I wonder if he still is alive as they were a few years older than the rest of us. They were sent by their government to bring their professional qualifications up to date.

Fast forward 

On September 20, 2023, the former Soviet Union’s Nagorno-Karabakh Oblast capitulated to Azerbaijan. The following day, the UNSC held a meeting. The session was held because “France requested the meeting following a letter sent by Armenia to the president of the Security Council. The letter cited Article 35 (1) of the UN Charter, which states that any UN member state “may bring any dispute, or any situation referred to in Article 34 [that is, one that may lead to international friction or give rise to a dispute] to the attention of the Security Council or of the General Assembly”.

What transpired?

I quote my cousin Dr. Ara Apelian’s comment in a Facebook message to friends. He wrote: 

“I watched the entire UN session on Artsakh. I was amazed as to the number of countries who were represented and each took turn to speak, including Japan, China and the chair was an Albanian representative. I was amazed that ALL of them were so knowledgeable about the details of the suffering of the people of Karabakh and urged immediate humanitarian intervention. But after all the speeches (including Armenia and Azerbaijan and Turkey), the session ended just like that, like watching the news. There was no item on the agenda to take any steps or give any recommendations or any ruling to do anything. Good bye .. thank you all, and they left ….”

In 1964, we students had acted a mock session of UNSC on the stage of the Armenian Evangelical collage and moved on with our lives. It had to do with Cyprus. 

Fifty-nine years later, the real players of the UNSC staged their act on the world stage and moved on. It had to do with Nagorno-Karabakh, the historic Armenian Artsakh

Same o՛, Same o՛ (!)

Or

All the world’s a stage,

And all the men and women merely players;

They have their exits and their entrances………

William Shakespear