How I stood in these trying times?

Attached are my postings on my Facebook page pertaining to prime minister Nikol Pachinyan’s visit to Turkey to attend the inauguration of the newly elected president of Turkey, Erdogan. The PM’s visit was not a historic visit although in the age of social media it was earth shattering for the Armenian world. Was the visit a diplomatic necessity for the Republic of Armenia or was it not a diplomatic necessity and consequently a failure? That will be for the future historians to debate. Attached is how I stood. Vahe H. Apelian

Courtesy Garo Konyalian

June 3, 2023 

GODSPEED: I wish the prime minister of Armenia Godspeed as he embarks on his journey to Turkey.

***** 

June 4, 2023

MAY GOD HELP: God help the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pachinyan and give me him fortitude, courage in pain and in adversity, as he deals with powerful, arrogant, SOBs. Asdouatz hedt varchabed - Աստուած հետդ վարչապետ։

*****

June 5, 2023

WAS IT A DIPLOMATIC FAILURE? The PM’s visit was not a historic visit although in the age of social media it was earth shattering for the Armenian world.  

Was PM Pachinyans's visit a diplomatic necessity for the Republic of Armenia or was it not a diplomatic necessity? That will be for the historians to comment or debate. Nikol Pachinyan’s diplomatic venture lasted two days. The First Republic's diplomatic venture led by Avedis Aharonian, lasted six weeks, from June 13 to August 31, 1918. IF the PM Nikol Pachinyan’s visit led to one less border skirmish and one less Armenian soldier being killed, it was a diplomatic success in my book, although it’s an IF. 

But there is more that is going on here, much more than the PM’s diplomatic visit. IT also has nothing to do with the diplomatic visit for IT will be going on with the same pace or vigor, even if the PM had not paid a diplomatic visit. 

We are being tested as never before at least since 1915. We are in a process of change. I quote Anatole France: " All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of our-selves; we must die to one life before we can enter into another!" We are dying for one life to enter another and that life will be as good and as bad as we make it. We have to be cognizant of the necessity to confront and adapt to the inevitable change.

It may not have happened, but it profoundly rings true that when "When Winston Churchill was asked to cut arts funding in favor of the war effort, he simply replied, ‘then what are we fighting for?" It the end the Armenians are also fighting to safeguard their lives, honor, possession and culture. “Peace in the region” is a policy and like any other policy it will regretfully but likely excise lives, property loss.

There is no policy for us that does not have a cost to bear. 

Whatever is the cost of “peace in the region” Armenia’s policy, it cannot take our culture and dignity away if we do not give them away. Patronizing or sermon like, this may sound. but it remains true in my book that no one can take away your culture and dignity if you do not give them away.

 *****

 

June 6, 2023

WAR STRATEGY: “What king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace.”—Luke 14:31-32. Thank you Hagop Toroyan Hagop Toroyan for alluding to this biblical passage. 

This time around the king of 3 million confronting the King of 80 million. In plain English “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace."

 *****

June 6, 2023

THEY FAILED US - In no uncertain terms the two heads of the Armenian Apostolic Church failed the Armenian people they are called upon to pastor during this existential period of the Armenian history. I was expecting that the two religious heads of the Apostolic church, would pray for the safety and security of the PM and ask God to grant him fortitude as he confronts the enemy on behalf of the people. In my view, in this historic junction, they miserably failed both as religious leaders and, in their quest, to also act as civic, if not political leaders in charge marshalling the destiny of their flock, the Armenian nation.

*****

June 6, 2023

THAT IS AN ECHO NOT AN ACT – Echo is defined as “a sound or series of sounds caused by the reflection of sound waves from a surface back to the listener.” A person's or an organization's, be it civic or religious, claim for the self determination of the Armenians of Artsakh is not an act on behalf of  or for the people of Artsakh. It is simply a sentimental echo.

  

How I stood in these trying times?

 N THESE TRYING TIMES: Attached are my postings on my Facebook page pertaining to prime minister Nikol Pachinyan’s visit to Turkey to attend the inauguration of the newly elected president of Turkey, Erdogan. The PM’s visit was not a historic visit although in the age of social media it was earth shattering for the Armenian world. Was the visit a diplomatic necessity for the Republic of Armenia or was it not a diplomatic necessity and consequently a failure? That will be for the future historians to debate. Attached is how I stood. Vahe H. Apelian

Courtesy Garo Konyalian

June 3, 2023 

GODSPEED: I wish the prime minister of Armenia Godspeed as he embarks on his journey to Turkey.

***** 

June 4, 2023

MAY GOD HELP: God help the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pachinyan and give me him fortitude, courage in pain and in adversity, as he deals with powerful, arrogant, SOBs. Asdouatz hedt varchabed - Աստուած հետդ վարչապետ։

*****

June 5, 2023

WAS IT A DIPLOMATIC FAILURE? The PM’s visit was not a historic visit although in the age of social media it was earth shattering for the Armenian world.  

Was PM Pachinyans's visit a diplomatic necessity for the Republic of Armenia or was it not a diplomatic necessity? That will be for the historians to comment or debate. Nikol Pachinyan’s diplomatic venture lasted two days. The First Republic's diplomatic venture led by Avedis Aharonian, lasted six weeks, from June 13 to August 31, 1918. IF the PM Nikol Pachinyan’s visit led to one less border skirmish and one less Armenian soldier being killed, it was a diplomatic success in my book, although it’s an IF. 

But there is more that is going on here, much more than the PM’s diplomatic visit. IT also has nothing to do with the diplomatic visit for IT will be going on with the same pace or vigor, even if the PM had not paid a diplomatic visit. 

We are being tested as never before at least since 1915. We are in a process of change. I quote Anatole France: " All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of our-selves; we must die to one life before we can enter into another!" We are dying for one life to enter another and that life will be as good and as bad as we make it. We have to be cognizant of the necessity to confront and adapt to the inevitable change.

It may not have happened, but it profoundly rings true that when "When Winston Churchill was asked to cut arts funding in favor of the war effort, he simply replied, ‘then what are we fighting for?" It the end the Armenians are also fighting to safeguard their lives, honor, possession and culture. “Peace in the region” is a policy and like any other policy it will regretfully but likely excise lives, property loss.

There is no policy for us that does not have a cost to bear. 

Whatever is the cost of “peace in the region” Armenia’s policy, it cannot take our culture and dignity away if we do not give them away. Patronizing or sermon like, this may sound. but it remains true in my book that no one can take away your culture and dignity if you do not give them away.

 *****

 

June 6, 2023

WAR STRATEGY: “What king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace.”—Luke 14:31-32. Thank you Hagop Toroyan Hagop Toroyan for alluding to this biblical passage. 

This time around the king of 3 million confronting the King of 80 million. In plain English “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace."

 *****

June 6, 2023

THEY FAILED US - In no uncertain terms the two heads of the Armenian Apostolic Church failed the Armenian people they are called upon to pastor during this existential period of the Armenian history. I was expecting that the two religious heads of the Apostolic church, would pray for the safety and security of the PM and ask God to grant him fortitude as he confronts the enemy on behalf of the people. In my view, in this historic junction, they miserably failed both as religious leaders and, in their quest, to also act as civic, if not political leaders in charge marshalling the destiny of their flock, the Armenian nation.

*****

June 6, 2023

THAT IS AN ECHO NOT AN ACT – Echo is defined as “a sound or series of sounds caused by the reflection of sound waves from a surface back to the listener.” A person's or an organization's, be it civic or religious, claim for the self determination of the Armenians of Artsakh is not an act on behalf of the people of Artsakh. It is simply a sentimental echo.

Raffi, The Prophet From Payajuk By Murad A. Meneshian

Reviewed by Vahe H. Apelian PhD, 26 June 2012 

Raffi, the literary and the political Soul of 19th Century Armenian Renaissance 

The meticulously and painstakingly researched “Raffi, the Prophet from Payajuk” by Murad A. Meneshian is published by Mayreni Publishing, Monterrey, CA.

The bulk of the 360-page book (twenty-one chapters) features the evolution of Raffi, the most prominent and prolific of Armenian novelists. The epic biography is followed by "Raffi Remembered"--forty pages of appraisal of the novelist and his legacy by 40 individuals. It's followed by 15 pages of numerical annotations--483 of them! The seven-page index lists persons, places, newspaper and periodicals connected to the great novelist.

The appendix lists Raffi’s books and their first publication dates, including the foreign translations. The author lists 21 book titles written by Raffi. Some of Raffi’s novels have been translated into Russian (7), Georgian (6), German (2), French (3), Polish (1), English (6) and Spanish (1).

The five-page bibliography lists eighty authors, at times with more than one source referenced by the same author, along with a reference to Hairenik and to a centennial commemorative committee. The author spent a year in Armenia in quest of sources for his exhaustive work. Raffi (Hagop Melik Hagopian) was born in Payajuk, Persia in 1835. Universally loved by Armenians, the novelist passed away in Tblisi, Georgia on April 25, 1888.

I vaguely remember the lyrics of a popular '60s song which asked whether the situation made the man or the man made the situations. Raffi was the product of his times and his times were partly the product of his popular pen. It would be impossible to understand Raffi without thoroughly understanding the period he lived--a challenging endeavor that the author has accomplished and conveyed superbly.

I cannot fathom how Mr. Meneshian accomplished his immense task in a mere year spent in Armenia. In the introduction, he does not specify when he embarked on his scholarship of Raffi. It is obvious, however, that Raffi had been a pre-teen fascination. Like the author, I, too, was a Raffi fan in my adolescence. However, I read no other Raffi novels afterward. The novels are fascinating for a teenager but no more. It takes maturity to understand the depth and the reasons for his novels. In order to do that the teen needs to carry his fascination well into his youth and beyond. It is obvious that the author has done that. I quote Murad: “In the early 1970s I had the opportunity to order several of Raffi’s novels from Vienna Mkhitarist. I read the novels once again, and again I was fascinated by them”.

Mr. Meneshian was fascinated by the novels of Raffi as a teen and as an adult. However, as an adult he must have felt the need to understand the era Raffi lived in to better understand the man who stirred his enduring fascination. The author must have then engaged in collateral scholarship as well, for lack of a better description, in order to understand the social forces which were shaping Raffi’s times and often pinned one camp against the other. Raffi, an architect of the 19th century Eastern Armenian literary and political awakening, questioned the status quo and was not immune to these forces. The loyalty of his staunch followers, the indifference, if not outright animosity, of his opponents attest to that. This monumental work is nothing less than decades’ long labor whose finishing touches were made over a year--fittingly and out of necessity in Armenia.

Murad A. Menseshian is a retired Bell Laboratories research chemist. In his dedication, he says his father “followed the path set by Raffi.” He co-dedicates the book to his mother--Anush nee Gezurian “who dared to survive the Genocide.”

The book makes for a very pleasant reading. Raffi wrote in pre-Soviet Eastern Armenian and popularized the region. We have long given up discussing whether knowing how to read and write in Armenian are imperative to keep our national heritage. We have tacitly, if not overtly, accepted the inevitable and sad reality that fewer of us in the Diaspora read and write in Armenian and fewer will do so as time goes by. However, we cannot claim to uphold our national heritage while continuing to live in Diaspora--and not read in Armenian--if we do not read Armenian books in English or in French. This book is a must especially for all those who do not read Armenian but would like to maintain the umbilical cord with our colorful but often sad “modern” history. If we fail to do that we have no one to blame but ourselves to have been beaten on two fronts twice over, but this time of our choosing.

“The rain falling on the open casket had not altered Raffi’s gentle face” writes Murad in his concluding paragraph. “He seemed to be asleep. He appeared as if his thoughts glowed on his finely furrowed wide forehead. At the end of the interment services when the priest uttered his bidding prayers, the crowd spontaneously cried out “He lives! He Lives!” 

Indeed, he does. There are a few Armenian first names we make a mental connection with the most prominent person bearing the name. Among the latter prominently stands out the name Raffi, a name coined by no other than Raffi himself.

Murad Meneshian quotes the following from Raffi.

Will a day come, or a time,

To see a flag atop Massis

And emigre' Armenians from everywhere

Head toward their beautiful fatherland?

Serendipity or a divine tribute to the "Prophet from Payajuk" had that the person who raised the flag at the United Nations heralding Armenia’s entry onto the fold of sovereign nations is the grandson of Armenian emigres, born and raised in the Unites States of America, and is Raffi’s namesake–Raffi Hovannissian– Republic of Armenia’s first foreign minister.

Updated on June 2, 2023

 

 

What Happened to Her?

 Vahe H. Apelian

(Reproduced from 2020 posting)

I visited Armenia for the very first time in the later part of 1960's or very early 1970, in a tour organized by the Soviet Embassy for the students attending the  American University of Beirut. The tour was held during the ten days or so Easter break and consisted of visiting Yerevan, Leningrad (now Petersburg) and Moscow.

 I, along many of my generation in the close-knit Armenian community of Beirut, was brought in a cocoon that was Armenian conjuring a velvety image of an Armenia that never was nor could it ever be. Consequently, I was eager to absorb everything I saw from the moment the captain pointed to us Mount Ararat as we entered  the sky above.  It did not take me long to understand that I had stepped in a country that was far different from the one I came from and that I could not do shopping there as there was practically nothing on the shelves to buy but our relatives, who had repatriated from Kessab in 1947 and who hosted me royally, knew how to shop and were eager to buy for me the things I wanted to take home with me, including a Soviet made camera for the young sister of my classmate who had wanted to have one and who, years later, would become my wife.

 The tour was meticulously organized round the clock that included visiting Lake Sevan. On our way there we passed by villages and in one them the bus stopped, I do not recall why. We stepped out and I saw a young girl tending to her chores. I asked her if I could take a picture of her. She accepted it and stood still for a picture I took a snapshot that  became to me akin to the famous Afghan girl who made the popular cover of the National Geographic Magazine with one difference. Years later, the photographer of the Afghan girl tracked her down and found her a married woman and mother of children. i did not. 

Upon my return I had the film developed and shared her picture with family and friends and tucked it away. A few years ago, I came across the picture and I posted it on my Facebook page noting:  “To this day and especially with the economic hardship affecting most in Armenia, I wonder. Who was she and what happened to her?”

Much changed in this fast-changing world since my first visit to Armenia. In fact, late 1960's may be considered ancient history that has not much of a bearing with the current reality. During these past fifty plus years that young girl in a village on our way to lake Sevan lived through the devastating earthquake in 1988, the collapse of the Soviet Union; through the  Karabagh conflict and the re-emergence of the free and independent Republic of Armenia on September 21 1991. There followed almost three decades of presidential rules in Armenia under Levon Ter-Bedrossian, Robert Kocharyan, and Serzh Sargsyan each marked by political upheavals of their own. Then there came about the Velvet Revolution led by Nikol Pachinyan followed by his prime ministership since 2018 during which Armenia defended itself against the unprovoked blitzkrieg attack the TurkaBaijan forces unleashed on her on September 27, 2020. The attack was halted with the catastrophic defeat of Armenia accepting the dictates of the victor in a trilateral agreement between it and Azerbijan brokered by Russia. As these events unfolded, that young girl likely married, raised her own family and if nature remained kind and considerate to her, she is now a much-tested proud grandmother or even great grandmother.

Behind each picture there is a “picturer", not to use the official term, a photographer. I was the one who took that snapshot. But, unlike her I lived in the Armenian Diaspora, which also changed in fundamental ways and has no bearing of what it was when I took that snapshot. The civil war that erupted in Lebanon in 1975, gravely wounded the Armenian community of Lebanon which, in its hey days, embodied the best that a diaspora Armenian community could possibly aspire achieving. Reports claim that the overwhelming majority of the Armenians, much like I, left Lebanon after the civil war that ended fifteen years later in 1990, fundamentally altering the demography of the Lebanese Armenian community and the landscape of the Diaspora. Two decades later, In 2011, civil unrest shook the foundation of Syria and the once thriving Armenian community there, Aleppo, the epicenter of the post genocide diaspora, stands now gravely wounded and emaciated.  There also, the overwhelming majority of the Armenians left the country for good gravitating not to Armenia but westward.

As to Kessab in Syria, the last member of our extended family, my paternal cousin Stepan, left Kessab after the devastating onslaught from Turkey on March 21, 2014. He left behind the graves of my maternal and  our paternal grandparents, the graves of my paternal uncle and maternal aunt whom I did not have the pleasure of  knowing as she died young and also the graves of many other relatives. Nowadays in Kessab, there remains our family’s ancestral family home vacant. It is built in the later part of 1800s, by layering two rows of stone after stone.  

 “Life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday” says Kahlil Gibran’s sage prophet. As life moves forward I cannot dismiss from my mind and wonder what happened to that young girl in that village in Armenia on the way to Lake Sevan? She might have been tending with her family in a Soviet era collective farm. I feel a strong kinship with her although our encounter was momentary. After all, she from Armenia and I from the diaspora, lived through the most tumultuous period of our most recent history.

Points to Ponder on this May 29, 2023

 

“The Thinker” Statue by Auguste Rodin – Dante Contemplating Hell

Today I read Rouben Galician's response to an article Stepan Piligian had posted in the May 24, 2023 issue of the Armenian Weekly titled " Mr. Prime Minister, please don't sign away our dignity."

Roupen Galichian is man of impeccable credentials. I wanted to archive his response to the article. It reads as follows:

“May I remind of some historical facts.

On July 5, 1921, Stalin decided to give the region of Mountainous Karabakh, which includes Artsakh, Kashatagh, Lachin and east Zangezur, to Azerbaijan.

In Almaty Levon Ter Petrosian accepted the borders of Azerbaijan, which included Karabakh.

In Madrid Mr Kocharian accepted that Karabakh is part of Azerbaijan.

In 2016 Serge Sarkisian accepted the borders of Azerbaijan.

Notwithstanding its geographical location being inside Azerbaijan, in 1991 the people of Artsakh with a referendum resolved to be independent, which lasted until 2020 attack of Azerbaijan-Turkey-mercenaries and NATO arms.

Armenia or its Prime-Minister do not possess Artsakh and therefore are not even empowered to give it away. Artsakh is the property of its own people and Armenia cannot give it away. We can only do our best to help our compatriots, but cannot make a decision for them and/or on their behalf.”

I took the liberty and reproduced his biography from his website roubengalichian.com. (http://roubengalichian.com)

Rouben Galichian (Galchian) 

Rouben Galichian (Galchian) was born (1938) in Tabriz, Rouben_GalichianIran, to a family of immigrant Armenians who had fled Van in 1915 to escape the Genocide, arriving in Iran via Armenia, Georgia and France. After attending school in Tehran, Rouben received a scholarship to study in the UK and graduated with a First Class Honours Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Aston, Birmingham in 1963.

 

After returning to Iran he worked in the Iranian Oil and Gas industries first as engineer and then as project manager for various pipeline projects. He was also active in designing lighting, electrical and communication systems for high-rises, university and college complexes. Since 1973 he was the Technical Director of a large consulting engineering firm, Bornaa, later renamed Nargan in Iran. From 1981 to 2000 he was a project director in Halcrow-Balfours Engineering firm in the UK, improving their design criteria and methods and later worked as consultant for oil-gas-petrochemical industries. From 2000-2005 he was the representative of Nargan Engineering of Iran, in Technip Company of France.

 

Rouben’s interest in geography and cartography started from his school days, but he began seriously studying this subject since the 1970s. In 1976 he laid the foundation of his map collection, which in 2013 he donated to Matenadaran in Yerevan. In 1981 he moved to London with his family, where he had access to a huge variety of old maps and other cartographic material.

 

His first book entitled “Historic Maps of Armenia: The Cartographic Heritage (I. B. Tauris, London & New York, 2004) contained a collection of world maps and maps of Armenia over a period of 2600 years, as seen by various mapmakers. It became a bestseller of its kind and the following year, an expanded version of the book (produced in Russian and Armenian) was published in Armenia (Printinfo Art Books, 2005).

 

His third book, “Countries South of the Caucasus in Medieval Maps: Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan” (Gomidas Institute, London, 2007), provides basic historical-geographical information of this region for readers in the West The book contains 82 medieval maps and 26 detail maps, which constitute a major part of the world cartographic heritage, beginning with biographic details of their authors and their sources, augmented by cartographic-geographic analysis of all the map contents, particularly regarding the manner that Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan are presented on these maps.

 

His fourth “The Invention of History: Azerbaijan, Armenia, and the Showcasing of Imaginations” (Gomidas Institute-London and Printinfo Art Books-Yerevan, April 2009), documenting Armenia’s and Armenian’s native pedigree and culture through the centuries, which the recently (1918) born Republic of Azerbaijan falsifies, disputes and appropriates. The book was translated into Armenian and Russian and published in Armenia in 2010. The second edition of the English was published in Armenia in 2010.

 

One of his most recent books is “Clash of Histories in the South Caucasus. Redrawing the Maps of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Iran” (Bennett & Bloom, 2012), which exposes Azerbaijan’s historic and cultural misrepresentations, presenting the truth revealed through various documents. The book has also been published in Russian (2013) and Persian (2015).

 

In 2014 he revised and abridged his most successful work, Historic Maps of Armenia (Bennett & Bloom, London, 2014).

 

His latest works, published in 2015, are the revised re-publication of his first cartographic work in three languages, Armenian-Russian-English, published under the auspices of the Catholicos of All Armenians in a luxurious and large volume, as well as a smaller volume entitled A Glance into the History of Armenia through Cartographic Records (Bennett & Bloom, 2015), designed to accompany the travelling exhibition of 51 map panels, which depict Armenia in various periods of its history.

 

In addition to the above mentioned books, Rouben is the author of many articles on cartography and related subjects, written for various periodicals and magazines.Hehas lectured in in the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Yerevan and other cities such as Boston, Providence, San Francisco, Paris, Tehran, Los Angeles, Cairo etc. Some of these papers can be found in the website.

 

His wife Mariette is a qualified therapist and counselor with many years of working experience in London Marriage Guidance Center. Since 1994 she has trained many therapists in Armenia where she currently is active in therapy, counselling and training of the specialists.

 

Rouben and his wife are also involved in many charitable projects in Armenia. He has been the chairman of Aid Armenia, a British charity, which built and equipped the children’s hospital in Vanadzor,they are trustees of Friends of Armenia, involved in projects dealing with education, health and alleviation of poverty in vulnerable families by providing them with means for getting additional income. They also have founded Levon Galchian Art Studio in the village of Myasnikian, Armavir Marz, in memory of their artist and designer son, Levon (1965-2004), where village schoolchildren can learn various crafts and arts.

 

In appreciation of theservices offered to Armenian historical cartography, Rouben was awarded an Honourary Doctorate by the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia in November of 2008. In 2009 he was the recipient of “Vazgen I” cultural achievements medal. In 2013 the President of the Republic of Armenia awarded Rouben the prestigious Movses Khorenatsi medal for his achievements in the preservation of the Armenian heritage and improvement of relations between Armenia and the Diaspora.

 

August2015.

 

Aram Manougian

Aztag Daily front page on May 28, 1939

Attached are articles about Aram Manougian I have translated and posted in my blog. Vahe H. Apelian

Aram Manougian in Van.

http://vhapelian.blogspot.com/2018/03/aram-manougian-in-van.html

Gadarine Manougian, Aram Manougian's widow.

http://vhapelian.blogspot.com/2021/06/gadarine-manougians-golgatha-attached.html

Aram Manougian's tombstone. 

http://vhapelian.blogspot.com/2021/05/armenag-yeghiayan-aghpalian-aram-and.html

May 28: From INDEPENDENCE DAY to (independent) REPUBLIC DAY

 Vahe H. Apelian

Throughout my pre-University schooling in Armenian schools in Beirut, May 28 was celebrated as Armenia’s Independence Day. The Sourp (saint) Nshan school which, looking back, may be characterized as a middle school, observed May 28 by giving the students a day off. After graduating from it, I started attending the Armenian Evangelical College, which is a high school. May 28 was the Armenian Evangelical schools’ yearly trip day. They had separate school trips on May 28. The schools were thus naturally closed on May 28 and the students were on a holiday, attending their yearly school trip. 

The American University of Beirut bought the Armenian high school graduates together. It is there that we started intermingle pursuing our academic careers, at times attending same classes, and also hanging out together, as college students do.

After I successfully completed my two years pre admission requirements, I was accepted to the school of pharmacy. It was my first year there and I was with one of my Armenian classmates in their house. Her younger sister attended the famed AGBU affiliated Taruhi-Hagopian high school. I was surprised to learn there that her younger sister was preparing her school work for the following day, which happened to be May 28. When I asked her if their school is not closed on May 28. She was utterly surprised to hear that an Armenian school closes on May 28. She had no inkling of the significance of May 28, let alone her not having heard of May 28 as part of the modern Armenian history. It is there, in that moment and for the very first time I realized that not all Armenian schools in greater Beirut closed on May 28. The incident happened in 1967/1968 time-frame. 

During the seven decades of Soviet Armenia, celebrating May 28, as the Armenian Independence Day, remained a contested feast between two politically opposing polars, until the establishment of the third republic in 1991, whose founding we celebrate on September 21, as the Independence Day, which is a non-working holiday in Armenia. 

But for a brief period, the second - or may be the third - fledgeling republic appeared to continue celebrating May 28, as Independence Day, as attested by the first day cover of the very first stamps the postal service of the Republic of Armenia issued on May 28, 1992, as the attached indicates. It is marked as First Day Cover, Independence Day. A few months before the issuance of the Republic of Armenia's first stamps as their first day cover, a philatelic tradition, a referendum was held on September 21, 1991and over 90% of the citizens of Soviet Armenia voted in favor of seceding from the crumbling Soviet Union. 

Quoting Wikipedia: “In November 1991, Levon Ter-Petrosyan was elected the first president of Armenia. A few months later, in December 1991, Armenia joined the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Finally, on December 26, 1991, in connection with the dissolution of the USSR, Armenia gained independence. It is the second declaration of independence in modern Armenian history. The first took place on May 28, 1918, when the First Republic of Armenia was established as a nation-state.”

According to Wikipedia, since 1992, May 28th has been formally celebrated in Armenia as Republic Day. It is a non-working holiday. There appears to have been an overlap in 1992.  As noted, Armenia’s postal service marked May 28, 1992 as Independence Day.

Coming to May 28, 2023, some communities in the Diaspora will continue celebrating May 28 as Armenia’s Independence Day, much like it was celebrated in the Diaspora, during Soviet Armenia era. The Armenian government will celebrate May 28, as Armenia’s Republic Day. Since it is a non-working day, the Armenian embassies, consulates will be closed that day. The Republic's officials may also have celebratory get together.

 It may behoove us to celebrate May 28 as (independent / Independent) Republic Day of Armenia, because May 28, 1918 has an historical solemnity that overshadows September 21, 1991. It was on that day that after centuries without a state of its own, Armenians brought forth the short lived first Republic of Armenia that lasted 2 years, 6 months and 1 day or 916 days. But it laid the foundation of the Armenian statehood.