The centennial of the remarkable & resilience Kessab United Ousoumnasirats Djemaran: Centennial - 1/2 -

 Vahe H Apelian

This year Kessab United Ousoumnasirats Djemaran secondary school, celebrates the centennial of its founding.

First and foremost, let me state that there is no English equivalent word for “ousoumnasirats. It  is a complex word made up of two root words: “ousoum’ (ուսում), which means  study, instruction, education; and “sirel” (սիրել), which means to love, , to like, to have a passion or an affection for. Consequently, the complex word “ousoumnasirats” means those who love, or have a passion for study for education. “Djemaran» means academy, seminary, or advanced high school. 

One more note, Kessabtsis name their cpatriotic organizaion Ousoumnasirats. I have not heard or read “ousoumnasirats” used anywhere else for a compatriotic organizaion  other than among the Kessabtsis.

Kessab United Ousoumnasirats Djemaran has an interesting story that also reflects the resilience of Kessabtsis and their quest for education. It began over a century ago, in 1910, which was the worst, but the Kessabtsis turned it into the best of times for the Kessabtsis, people of Kessab. The year before, the massacre that started in the city of Adana, which historically is known as the 1909 Adana massacre, spread like a wild fire to the other cities of the historical Cilicia and in northern Syria. The pogrom reached Kessab in the latter part of April 1909 and resulted in the sacking of Kessab and the pogrom of its inhabitants. The returning surviving Kessabttis faced  a bitter winter in Kessab, adding to their misery.

But the Kessabtsis responded to this tragedy with determinaitron by rebuilding their lives anew.  Instead of dwelling on despair, a group of young Kessabtsis establishing an educational association in 1910. They named it Ousoumnasirats. The goal of the association was not only to further the state of education in Kessab, but also to render Kessab a college level educational center for the Armenians in the historical Cilicia. The Kessab Ousoumnasirats Association (KEA) was thus born in 1910. The founders however could not realize their aspiration. In a matter of a few more years, the 1915 Genocide, the Medz Yeghern befell on the Armenian people that forever altered their millennial way of life in their ancestral land, including kessab. Two thirds of the Kessabtsis perished during the genocide. In 1918 the surviving Kessabtsis started rebuilding their lives again. 

In spite of all the hardship Kessab Ousoumnasirats Association established in 1924 the Kessab United Ousoumnasirts Djemaran - High School. In a short period of time the high school achieved a remarkable academic success. The colonial French government in Syria recognized the high school and its graduates were accepted in institutions of higher learning in France and many did.

 However, the ensuing political situation put a damper on the academic progress. In 1938 Kessab lost considerable portion of its arable lands to Turkey and the subsequent economic hardship resulted in the great migration of many to Lebanon, America, Canada and Australia. In 1946 and 1947 the great repatriation took place and many Kessabtsis moved to Armenia further depopulating Kessab. The Kessabtsi immigrants however did not let go of the mission of the Ousoumnasirats and established Kessab Educational Association branches in the cities they moved to, such as Beirut in 1951 and Los Angeles in 1957 and continued supporting  the Kessab United Ousoumnasirts Djemaran

The Kessab United Ousoumnasirats Djemaran faced its most recent existential threat because of the 2014 sack of Kessab by terrorists who infiltrated from Turkey. The ensuing saga is well known as the third existential threat not only of the school but of Kessab itself. The previous two being the 1909 sack and pogrom of Kessab and the 1915 Armenian Genocide that had two thirds of the Kessabtis perished.

Graduates of Kessab United Ousoumnasirats Djemaran

In spite of the last existential threat, the school continued its mission unabated. Las year, three of its graduates achieved academic success. Garod Saghdejian graduated from Haigazian College with distinction in his line of specialty.  Ardavast Terterian and Vazken Abdoulian received their Master of Science in Computer and Information Science from the American University of Armenia. This year Soghomon Lntian, who was a 2017-2018 academic year graduate, graduated from Republic of Armenia, Minstry of Education and Sciencve National Agrarian University of Armenia 

This year, the Kesssab United Ousoumnasirats Djemaran had its 2023-2024 graduation ceremony on June 27 under the auspices of the Prelate Archbishop Magar Ashkarian. The graduating class was called the Centennial Class.  The adminstration of the school reported that all of the students of the  2023-2024 graduating centennial class succesfully passed the government mandated examination. It is a remarkable success rate. The graduating students and their stores are as follows:

June 27, 2024, Kessab United Ousoumnasirats Djemaran Graduation

The graduating students and their stores are as follows:

Շողիկ Գաթապեան  (Shaghig Karabian) 2684

Սոնա Բարտի Լնդեան (Sona Pardi Lntian) 2186

Լոռի Մալաթջալեան (Lori Malatjian) 2064

Լուսի Սաղտճեան (Lucy Saghdejian) 2005

Մէյրի Ինճէճիկեան (Mayri Injejikian) 2002

Քարլա Աթիքեան (Karla Atikian) 1976

Ճորճ Ղազարեան  (George Ghazarian) 1955

Լոռի Մանճիկեան ILori Manjikian) 1859

Լարա Պէտուրեան  (Lara Bedourian) 1852

Քարլա Ղազարեան  (Karla Ghazarian) 1525

The school administration reported that the registration of the 2024-2025 academic year took place between September 2 to September 25.

This Kessab United Ousoumnasirats Djemaran has thus resumed its 2024-2025 academic year. 

The prisoners’ issue: prudence and not maximalist hyperbole

Vahe H Apelian

Rightfully or wrongly, I associate the term of maximalism to Simon Vratsian as it pertains to Armenian politics. Maximalism in the quest of what is desirable and not what is possibly attainable.

Hyperbole is a term best expressed by its synonyms, such as exaggeration, magnification, overstatement. Often the two terms merge into what I called maximalist hyperbole for bold and definitive statements often made regarding the perceived political mishandling the sitting government ostensibly is making. Maximalist hyperbole has become endemic in the 21st century politics, whether America or Armenia. For this blog, I am alluding to the Armenian prisoners languishing in the dungeons of Baku and the Armenian government handling the issue.

Maximalist hyperbole came to my mind when I read Hrair Balian reporting on the last panel of an international conference on "Human Rights and Accountability - Pathways to Post-Conflict Justice" organized by the Center For Truth & Justice (CFTJ), that took place in Yerevan, between September 11 to 13. The last panel has dealt with "Azerbaijan and COP29". The participants, wrote Hrair,  “included Michael Rubin, Anthony Portantino, Anouch Toranian, and me.” 

Hrair has “expressed regrets that the Government of Armenia has violated all three cardinal rules by making damaging public comments about the hostages, by leaving the hostages out of their negotiations with Azerbaijan, and by giving their consent to Azerbaijan hosting COP29 summit without demanding the release of the 23 hostages in Baku. ”Hrair has rightly “called upon the international community to boycott COP29 if the 23 hostages are not released before the summit.” The panel has been moderated by Eric Hacopian. I can safely envision that Eric Hacopian reciprocated Hrair’s comments.

I cannot imagine that there is an Armenian who is not concerned for the welfare of the Armenian hostages held prisoners in Baku. We also know that Armenia is negotiating with Azerbaijan on the crossroad for peace initiative. 

An issue cannot come on the negotiation table if both parties are not willing to negotiate on the matter. We all know that Armenia is the underdog in this negotiation having, for all practical purposes capitulated in its November 9, 2020, tri-party agreement, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Russia signed.  Each and every provision on that 9 points capitulation, Armenia secured by blood. It was not out of altruism that Baku consented for an umbilical cord between Armenia and the remaining Mountainous Karabagh.  And surely, it was not out of magnanimity that Baku agreed not to have any mention of a corridor through Syunik region connecting Nakhichevan and Azerbaijan in that same capitulation that the PM Nikol Pashinyan signed on behalf of Armenia. 

Hrair notes the following: “I expanded on the top three cardinal rules for hostage negotiations that I have learned in 35 years of conflict resolution: do no harm, establish dialogue with hostage takers, and look for incentives (bargaining chips) to facilitate the release of hostages.” 

But that is precisely the very issue that the PM Nikol Pashinyan alluded to during his latest conference. He said it is against the interest of Armenia to negotiate in the context of hostage negotiations that the opposition demands the government to negotiate. In a hostage negotiation, the hostages are the issue. In fact, the hostages are the only issue. The hostages are not a tangential issue. In fact, all other issues can be tangential when negotiating with the hostage takers to have the hostages brought safely to their homes, Surely the hostage taking issue, will be central, if not the only agenda item, if Armenia succeeds bringing it on the negotiation table. 

But imagine if Armenia puts the Artsakh prisoners’ issue on the negotiation table but Azerbaijan outright refuses to entertain. That will be a serious blow to Yerevan negotiating the cross road initiative or any other initiative on behalf of Armenia. What recourse Yerevan can possibly have to put the Artsakh prisoner issue on the agenda when Baku rejects it outright? Absolutely none, as far as I can reason.  Regrettable as it is, but from the past three decades I can safely say, unlike for the crossroad for peace initiative, there will no internationally backing whatsoever of Yerevan to bring the Artsakh prisoners issue on the negotiation table with Baku, if the later refuses it. It is said that during legal proceedings, the prosecutor should not ask questions whose answer the prosecutor does not know. So is in negotiation at that level. Do not put on the agenda an issue for negotiation, the other camp, you know refuses to entertain, and you have no recourse to force the issue on the table. Yerevan either makes the prisoners or the crossroad for peace initiative the crux of its negotiations with Baku and stands by it or it does not. 

As to why Armenia consented Azerbaijan to host an international conference on climate? I have no answer. But I trust the government of Armenia and I am for continual negotiations and firmly believe that supporting or backing the democratically elected government empowers it more at the negotiation round table. That is why I advocate prudence. We are in this for a long, long haul.

The Artsakh capitulation is moot, as far as I am concerned. The terms of the capitulation the last president of Artsakh Samvel Shahramanyan signed have not been public. At least I am not aware. The only thing that is visible in plain day light is the following. The last president Samvel Shahramanyan, who signed the capitulation and the depopulation of historic Artsakh, was flown out of Artsakh in Russian helicopter to Armenia, while the presidents of Artsakh who served before him were taken hostage and are languishing in prison with a few other high placed Artsakh officials, while Shahramanian roams freely in Armenia.  Wow!

 

 

Of Bees, Honey, and Olive Oil

Vahe H Apelian

Of Bees

Yesterday I posted a 25 seconds long clip of bees on flower in our yard. Those bees on those flowers validated the concern I had. Last year, I realized that the zucchini plants I had in our backyard were flowering attractively but I was not getting zucchini. It occurred to me that the flowers were remaining barren and were not being pollinated because I was not seeing bees in our yard. It also occurred to me that our yards are becoming killing fields for insects including bees of course, because of the insecticide that are sprayed to keep the all-American suburban pride and joy, the lush carpet green yards. I came with a compromise. There will not be any spraying in our backyard, which will remain natural with crab grass, dandelions and all. This year I had a good crop of butternut squash from the few plants I had in our backyard. The sight of those bees validated my concern that indeed, the suburban green front yards are killing fields for the insects as well as the bees and that we can attract bees if we stop spraying insecticides on our yards. 

I quote from Wikipedia: In the course of her lifetime, a worker bee produces 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey. To make one pound of honey, worker bees in a hive fly 55,000 miles and tap two million flowers. In a single collecting trip, a worker will visit between 50 and 100 flowers. During the active season, THE LIFETIME OF A WORKER IS FIVE TO SIX WEEKS. Over wintering worker bees may, however, live for four to six months. 

Whatever their life span, worker bees confine themselves to one task, working without pause.

Of honey 

My cousin Ara Apelian MD, had the following response: “Be aware of fake “honey” on the store shelf. We happened to have a small jar 4 oz of real genuine honey that tasted like real honey. I wanted to compare the taste to a store bought one next to it in our pantry, I was totally shocked: the store honey tasted nasty, plastic or some weird bad sweetness. I then tried to read the ingredients, nowhere did it say honey, except the large print label (Canadian products). The listed ingredients were 100% “ sugar” … “ similar to sugar in honey”… “ end of quote!!”

My response to Ara was: “to be honest, I do not think that there is natural pure honey on the market. I mean to say the natural, pure honey that is taken from the hive. The issue is to what extent and with what it is being adulterated.”

 The statement I made was not drawn out of a hat, so to speak. I have reasons to stand by my statement and that reason is my childhood experiences with two beehives my paternal grandparents and my paternal uncle had at the time in Keurkune, Kessab.

The beehives were in that patch of land where Stepan Apelian, years later, had his house erected, at the foot hill of the keurkune’s  hill – sarp -, next to Pasha’s famed pouvgeni tree. That patch of land was barren and could not be used as an orchard because not much of soil that had remained over the years because of erosion. But there was a partition wall that may have been erected at one time, when the land was usable. On that partition wall my uncle had two bee hives.

One summer my uncle Joseph asked me to accompany him to get honey from the beehives. He secured a pine tree log, lit it when we got close to the beehive and blew the smoke from the burning wood onto the hives and harvested honeycomb full of honey the bees had made and asked me to eat from it. Of course, he had kept most of the honey it its waxy honeycomb in the hive to sustain the bee colony. That day my uncle harvested a large cupful honey or maybe two. Naturally the honey was in its natural wax beehives. I have not tasted such honey ever since. Naturally it was made from the wild flowers in Keurkune.

That experience has remained etched in my memory. There is no way that the bees can make such natural honey in the natural beeswax honeycombs the bees make, in large quantitaties to flood the market. The beehives my uncle had were elongated wooden boxes where at one time, he had placed a queen bee with her entourage. Nowadays, beehives are sophisticated engineered structures, way different to what my uncle had.  All sorts of things are done to help bees produce more honey and I cannot rule out that the honey that is collected is not further adulterated. 

 The very term natural, organic are nowadays legal terms and do not necessarily mean what we understood what natural is, basically not man made.

Of Olive Oil

It is not farfetched to claim that olive oil is the first oil mankind harvested from nature.  I quote from Wikipedia, “Olives have also been found in Egyptian tombs from 2,000 years BC. The earliest surviving olive oil amphorae date to 3,500 BC, though the production of olive oil is assumed to have started before 4,000 BC. By 3,000 BC in Crete, the olive was widely cultivated and a highly prized commodity.”

The only way olive oil could have been harvested in antiquity was by pressing olive and the process had remained unchanged for a long time. 

But I am not sure I can claim the same nowadays although I read on bottles of extra virgin olive oil, that it is not only obtained by “cold press”, and that is collected from its “first pass”. Which leads me to conclude that nowadays there are other ways to produce olive oil.

Much like the “natural” honey being sold in the grocery stores, I doubt that the olive oil sold is obtained the way olive oil was obtained at one time in Keurkune, Kessab. It is from the late Kourken Bedirian that I learned that the Kessabtsis call newly pressed fresh olive oil, “tsenoun”. 

Those who are interested to know how the real natural, cold press, first pass olive oil was obtained may read the blog I wrote years ago by pressing the following link: http://vhapelian.blogspot.com/2019/03/kessab-real-cold-press-olive-oil.html

Yes indeed, natural pure honey and real cold press, first pass - tsenoun -  olive oil are things of the past and are not things on the grocery shelves. 

 

Virginia Apelian (1934- September 11, 2024)

It is with profound sadness that learned of the passing away of Virginia Apelian. She with her husband Henry were godparents to our wedding and to our son Daniel’s baptismal. She was a talented, colorful and civic minded lady. For many years she acted as the Armenian community’s representative to the NJ governor's office and secured the governor’s April 24 Armenian Genocide commemoration declaration. Attached is my reproduction of her obituary and the link about her last mission to Armenia for the benefits of the women in Armenia. Vahe H Apelian

https://parsippanyfuneral.com/tribute/details/3539/Virginia-Apelian/obituary.html#tribute-start

“Virginia Apelian (nee Matosian) passed away on Sept.11th at her Parsippany, NJ home. She was 89.

Born in Turkey, she immigrated to the United States as a young girl, settling in Paterson, NJ. She later raised her own family in Clark, NJ, and subsequently lived in Manchester Township before moving to Parsippany in 2007.

Mrs. Apelian earned a BA in psychology from Douglass College at Rutgers University in 1975 while raising a family of four children with her husband. An active member of her community, she often volunteered her gifts for the benefit of others, including holding public office as president of the Town Council in Clark, NJ. Her various other employments included her role as executive assistant for NJ Assemblyman William J. MacGuire, assertiveness training counselor, and teacher. Virginia actively served various causes that were important to her and her deeply held Christian faith, including a personal mission to Armenia to advocate for women who were victims of domestic abuse.

Her life was a joyous adventure, in which to paint, sing, spend hours tending her flower garden, and enjoy her family. In her later years, Mrs. Apelian authored several books, including a memoir of her experience as an Armenian immigrant to America called "Musa Dagh Girl: Daughter of Armenian Genocide Survivors," a self-improvement book called "Truly Beautiful Inside and Out," and a charming children's book titled "Aliens Celebrating Christmas."

Virginia is survived by her beloved husband of over 65 years, Henry M. Apelian; four loving children, Arminee Curran and her husband, Timothy of Colonia, NJ, Gregory Apelian of Rio Rancho, New Mexico, David Apelian and his wife, Heidi of Denville, NJ, and Christopher Apelian and his wife, Paula of Madison, NJ; ten grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. She is survived by her sister Alice White and was preceded in death by her brother, Michael Matosian, and her sisters Rosemary Habeshian, and Alice Matosian.

Relatives and friends are invited to attend the visitation on Saturday, Sept. 14th, 10:30am-12:30pm at SJ Priola Parsippany Funeral Service, 60 North Beverwyck Road, Lake Hiawatha (Parsippany), NJ. The Funeral Service will be celebrated at 1:00pm in the funeral home. Interment will follow at Rockaway Valley Cemetery, in Boonton Township, NJ. Flowers will be graciously accepted as Virginia loved them. However, for those who prefer, memorial gifts can be made to the Armenian Presbyterian Church in Paramus NJ [ Giving - Armenian Presbyterian Church (apcparamus.com) ] in her memory.”

Link

Virginia Apelian: Armenian American Alliance Against Domestic Abuse:

http://vhapelian.blogspot.com/2017/10/american-armenian-alliance-against.html

Random thoughts on 9/11

Vahe H Apelian

There are moments in our lives that do not pertain to us personally but we remember them and remember what we were doing when we first heard the happening. I remember the following, as the saying goes, as if it was yesterday - the news of Kennedy assassination on November 22, 1963; the outbreak of the 1967 Arab-Israel six days war on June 5, 1967; the death of president Gamal Abdel Nasser on September 28, 1970; and a few others, among which is the terrorists’ attack of the New York World Trade Center twin towers on September 11, 2001, the infamous  9/11.

At the time I was working in the Chelsea Laboratories in Cincinnati, OH. It was a division of California headquartered Watson Pharmaceutical corporation. I was in my office that morning when a colleague burst in, and said as he was parking his car, he heard on the radio that an airplane hit one of the NY City’s  WTC twin towers. I quote Wikipedia:  at “8:46:40: Flight 11 crashes into the north face of the North Tower (1 WTC) of the World Trade Center, between floors 93 and 99. All passengers aboard are instantly killed with an unknown number inside the building. The aircraft enters the tower intact.^” 

 We hurried to the front office and when we got there, we saw the secretaries had already turned the television in the conference hall and were following the news. The word had already gone around and everybody started coming to the front office and watch the reporting as we watched the unfolding of the happening. Quoting Wikipedia on “9:03:02: Flight 175 crashes into the south face of the South Tower (2 WTC) of the World Trade Center, between floors 77 and 85. All passengers and crew are killed together with an unknown number inside the building. Parts of the plane, including the starboard engine, leave the building from its east and north sides, falling to the ground six blocks away. Out of the four attacks, it is the only one witnessed by a live television audience and confirms that the North Tower had been deliberately attacked.”

No word came from the company’s headquarters. Understandably, being at the pacific time zone, it was way too early in California. We started debating whether to close the facility for the day.  An uncertain mood had taken hold on everyone. But what transpired next has remained etched in my memory as much as the event itself.  Not long after the second attack everyone, on their own accord, returned to their offices, desks, laboratory benches  attending to their tasks. There was no need to hear from the company’s headquarters. Chelsea Laboratories, a division of Watson Laboratories Inc. had resumed its daily pace. 

Google tells me that Gamal Abdel Nasser died on Monday. My friend Nerses Festedkjian and I had gone to the movies, seeing the film being screened in Cinema Capitole in Beirut, at its latest showing in the evening. The movie theater was in Ryad El Solh center, on the opposing side of Basta, a neighborhood that was inhabited mostly by lower middle-class Muslims. At least that was how Basta was known in my days. Not long into the movie when a group of men entered the hall shouting, Nasser died. Nerses, who was seated next to whispered to me telling something to the effect, “he died, every one dies at one point. Let us continue watching the movie!” We remained seated doing that, watching the movie being screened. But we were not the only ones remaining seated. Those who had entered the movie hall, surely took offense seeing us seated, hurled at us, and started giving us a beating, while shouting at us, “and you remain seated!.” A commotion broke in the movie theater with everyone rushing out. A veritable mayhem had broken on the outside as we exited the building. Nerses and I lost each other fleeing. I decided to go to the Hotel Lux my father ran, which was a few blocks away from the city center. Hurrying there, I came across Nerses and asked him to come with me. There was no way for us to return to our homes. We made to the hotel right on time because we found my father padlocking the iron gates at the two entrances to the building. Naturally, he let us in.

 Had we missed him, had we not been there right at that time, I do not know how would we have worked our way to our homes as the city was getting caught in a frenzy.  Mind you, it was fifty years ago. Let alone that there were no cell phones, there were no public phones in Beirut. Nerses, as well as I, called home from the hotel letting the  rest of the family know that we are safe and are not returning home and will be sleeping in the hotel. We watched from the veranda of the  hotel the crowd below on the streets swelling by the minute. The mob started attacking businesses, breaking the glass windows, signs, carrying effigies. A veritable turmoil had descended upon the city. 

At the end of the day on 9/11 in Cincinnati, we left work and returned to our homes as we always did. There were no mobs. There were no unruly demonstrators. Traffic was as usual. Later on, yes, there were reports for uncalled for reactions emanating from the other side of the Hudson river, in NJ, where there is a sizeable Middle Eastern community such as in Paterson, where a few had cries of jubilation at the sight of the smoke coming from the NY City from the site of the destruction. There may have been such uncalled-for cries for jubilation from elsewhere too, but Americans as a whole carried the day with amazing stoicism because they knew that their representative government hears them, and as president George Bush continued saying that “the rest of the world hears you…and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.” 

Trump-Harris presidential debate happened yesterday, on September 10, 2024, the day before 9/11. If there is one fundamental message that emanated from yesterday’s presidential debate, it emphatically was the following, safeguard the country’s democratic institution. The entrenched democratic institution in the United States of America is sacrosanct. The issues the nation faces can and will be resolved peacefully as long its democratic institutions are safeguarded and functioning.

Grand Armenian Book Fair

 Vahe H Apelian

Courtesy Hagop K Havatian

Hagop K. Havatian’s posting alerted me that today, September 8, 2024,  is the International Literacy Day. Hagop K. Havatian is the director of Hamazkayin Vahe Setian publishing. He is organizing an exhibit of Armenian books or Armenian literary books. The exhibit is scheduled to take place in Beirut, from October 9 to 18, exhibiting books from Armenia, Artsakh, Lebanon, Canada, United States, England, France, Turkey, Syria, Egypt, Kuwait, Greece, Cyprus.

Hagop K Havatian's quote reads as follows: «The process of reading, writing, accumulating knowledge in the course of history raises the level of civilization of nations and communities and strengthens the faith and pride of the people in the values of the given nation.

In the end, literacy is an irreplaceable way to connect the past life experience with the present, to permanently study the experiences, defeats and victories of the nation, and in that way also to value the present, far from superficiality, sloganeering and irresponsibility, so that it is possible to put our collective life on the right track and our collective desire to strive for good.

Read, read again, and never deviate from the mission of development and accumulation of knowledge. Reading expands one's horizons to face the outside world with self-confidence. Let's read and always try to change our life and turn around the unfavorable situations of the nation's survival.»

***

I was also reminded of Simon Simonian. I quote Levon Sharoyan from his book I translated “Simon Simonian, the last scion of the mountaineers». Levon Sharoyan wrote: «Simon Simonian was a prolific writer and his thirst for literature was unquenchable. He professed a deep love of Armenian book. He regarded these books one of the essential constituents for the preservation of Armenian culture and identity.»

In 1960 Simon Simonian proposed the following, "designate the Armenian Martyrs' Day on April 24, as «Armenian Book's Day», and have the following slogan – to read an Armenian book for every martyr during the Genocide, and perpetuate this year after year. If one million Armennians in the Diaspora, would buy and read one Armenian book a year, as an offering in memory of a martyr, the legacy of our forefathers would be perpetuated and we would best avenge the victims of the Genocide». (Spurk, 24.4.1960)

On this International Literacy Day

Vahe H Apelian

Hamazkayin Vahe Setian publishing Armenian book exhibit

Hagop K. Havatian’s posting alerted me that today, September 8, 2024,  is the International Literacy Day. Hagop K. Havatian is the director of Hamazkayin Vahe Setian publishing. He is organizing an exhibit of Armenian books or Armenian literary books. The exhibit is scheduled to take place in Beirut, from October 9 to 18, exhibiting books from Armenia, Artsakh, Lebanon, Canada, United States, England, France, Turkey, Syria, Egypt, Kuwait, Greece, Cyprus.

Hagop K Havatian's quote reads as follows: «The process of reading, writing, accumulating knowledge in the course of history raises the level of civilization of nations and communities and strengthens the faith and pride of the people in the values of the given nation.

In the end, literacy is an irreplaceable way to connect the past life experience with the present, to permanently study the experiences, defeats and victories of the nation, and in that way also to value the present, far from superficiality, sloganeering and irresponsibility, so that it is possible to put our collective life on the right track and our collective desire to strive for good.

Read, read again, and never deviate from the mission of development and accumulation of knowledge. Reading expands one's horizons to face the outside world with self-confidence. Let's read and always try to change our life and turn around the unfavorable situations of the nation's survival.»

***

I was also reminded of Simon Simonian. I quote Levon Sharoyan from his book I translated “Simon Simonian, the last scion of the mountaineers». Levon Sharoyan wrote: «Simon Simonian was a prolific writer and his thirst for literature was unquenchable. He professed a deep love of Armenian book. He regarded these books one of the essential constituents for the preservation of Armenian culture and identity.»

In 1960 Simon Simonian proposed the following, "designate the Armenian Martyrs' Day on April 24, as «Armenian Book's Day», and have the following slogan – to read an Armenian book for every martyr during the Genocide, and perpetuate this year after year. If one million Armennians in the Diaspora, would buy and read one Armenian book a year, as an offering in memory of a martyr, the legacy of our forefathers would be perpetuated and we would best avenge the victims of the Genocide». (Spurk, 24.4.1960)