Remembering Mr. and Mrs. Samuel and Dikranouhi Arukian

Vahe H Apelian

St. George (Sourp Kevork) Armenian Apostolic Holy Orthodox Church, Ethiopia 

Armenian Alpha News reported a video conversation with Vartkes Nalbandian about the Ethiopian Armenian community.  He reported on the deep-rooted Armenia and Ethiopia history. But at the present, he said the Ethiopian Armenian community numbers 100.  Armenian community school in Addis Ababa was closed recently. The school had operated as Armenian community school until 2000, after which it had closed as the Armenian community school because of dwindling number of students enrolling in the school and had become an international school teaching in English until its recent closure.

Vartkes Nalbandian said that most of the community members are in various trades. Two are medical doctors, one of whom is a pediatrician, the other is a dentist. Vartkes Nalbandian is the author of two books in English. His book about the Armenians in Ethiopia is being translated in Armenia. He spoke in Western Armenian but noted that the newer generation do not speak Armenian.  

Vartkes Nalbandian’s reporting on the state of the Ethiopian Armenian community remined me of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel and Dikranouhi Arukian. I met them when they stayed in Hotel Lux, the inn my parents ran in Beirut, on their way to the United States to be with their son Hrach after having taught at the Armenian Evangelical high school in Anjar, Lebanon. 

Attached is the blog I had written remembering the Arukian family. I reproduced the blog in its entirety.  

***

Of Arukians and Sevags (February 12, 20`4): https://vhapelian.blogspot.com/search?q=Arukian