The first student protest

Vahe H. Apelian

I leave it to historians to negate me. In my view the first  Armenian students' public protest against the Turks took place on April 6, 1970 in the American University of Beirut. Attached is my recollection of the protest. I and my classmate Movses Hovsepian who would become my brother-in-law, appear in the  attached picture that appeared on the front page of the  Aztag Daily the following day.

April 6, 1970 marks the date that I, along many other Armenian students, participated in our first ever protest against Turkey over an exhibit that was organized by the Turkish Embassy to take place in the West Hall building located in the center of the American University of Beirut campus. The timing of the exhibit in the month of April, when we commemorate the genocide, could not have been coincidental. The exhibit would have highlighted Turkish culture.

To be fair to the University authorities, I would like to note that they had allowed the Armenians organize an exhibit commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide in 1965 in the same West Hall building, five years before the Turkish exhibit.

The protest was spearheaded by the student members of the A.R.F. Zavarian Student Association, arguably the oldest university or college level Armenian student association in the Diaspora. Simon Zavarian had founded the student association in 1904 during his field trip to the Armenian communities in greater Cilicia. Lebanon was part of the Ottoman Empire then. Some of the members of this student association were martyred during the Genocide. Years later the student association was renamed after its founder who was also a founder of the A.R.F.

The Zavarian Student Association enjoyed a privileged status within the A.R.F. hierarchy. While other bodies needed to have a certain number of members to attain a similar status, the Zavarian Student Association was exempt from such requirement. Consequently, the organizers of the protest reported to their superiors of their intention. The latter’s response became akin to what Khrimian Hayrig had told those who wanted to abide by the wishes of the young poet Bedros Tourian and have him buried with a music band playing during the funeral procession, contrary to the accepted norms and hence the church had not given them permission. In desperation they appealed to the Patriarch Khrimian Hayrig, who famously told them that he too will not give them his permission but will forgive them for doing so. So was the case this time around. The party higher ups did not give their explicit permission but would not reprimand the students for doing so.  It later became evident, without telling the student organizers, the ARF leadership had provided security should the demonstrating students would be mishandled by unlawful elements.

As the date of the opening of the exhibit on April 6 approached, the student members of the Zavarian Sutdent Association had a flyer distributed. I have kept one flyer all these years having it cross with me oceans and continents. It is posted below. The language appears to be confrontational. It forewarns that unspecified “serious consequences might ensue” should the Turkish exhibit take place as planned.

 

The opening of the exhibit was planned in the afternoon of April 6, 1970. Checking the date revealed that it was Monday. That very afternoon the Armenian students started heading towards the West Hall and were directed to sit next to each other on the stairways leading to the building. As the attached picture of the front page of the next day’s “Aztag” Daily shows, the students sat tight next to each other. The circle on the picture depicts me and my friend and classmate Movses Hovsepian, who would be my brother-in-law. Some of the students carried banners. Dignitaries started coming for the opening of the exhibit but they encountered the students barricading the building entrance with their sit-in and hence could not enter. To the credit of the University authorities, they did not call police or have university’s security to dispel the students. The Turkish exhibit thus could not take place. The next day, the “Aztag” Daily heralded that 500 Armenian students had foiled a Turkish exhibit by peaceful demonstration, (see the attached April 7,1970 front page of the “Aztag” daily).

Fifty years have come and gone by since that day. Those young and restless Armenian students are now parents, grandparents and surely have mellowed a bit and are “wiser”, if age ever imparted wisdom. Some have left this world for good such as my brother-in-law Movses. Most if not all surely remember the event, much like I do, as a watershed moment in their lives.  First experiences remain entrenched in our memories for good. They now watch a new generation of students carrying the torch. 

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