Ձառք Ձառա Ուտունք (Let Us Extend Helping Hand)

 Father Hamazasp Kechichian  (2017)

Գերոնքը էմըն տարա, (The spring every year)

Աշխէրհէս ըրվան, (All over the world)

Հայաթ կը բիրի։ (Heralds life)

Ծաղկօծ ծառիրը, (Trees flowering)

Էվչող չըտտիրը, (Birds chirping)

Կանաչ լառռօնքը, (Mountains greened)

էնօշ ծաղկօնքը, (Sweet flowers)

Սիերտիդ կը բենուն, (Invigorate the heart)

Նուր գուվօդ կու տուն։ (Give new resolve)

Gangar, an edible plant grows in the wild in Kessab early spring

Ըմմը մի հեմօր, (However, with us,)

Ըղով ըրք տարա, (It has been three years,)

Միր աչուեն չըտըսնեն (Our eyes do not see)

Էնուշութենը գերընքվին. (The sweatness of the spring)

Չումքի մաճիրէն ըրք էմսըվին (Because with the three months of homelessness,)

Թէսըրը հա էվըլնու ուրթիլուօն։ (Misfortunes pile as time goes by)

Շուօտ մուօրդ անցով գընուօց, (Many people came by and left)

Վըրբ իթուօղ, տուօնը տէտէն, պէպկուօն (Leaving the ancesteral home orphaned)

Հընտանա, դուօր դըռացա չըմընուօց։ (Relative, next-door neighbor, did not remain)

Կանաչ Ծառիրը չարցուն, (The green trees dried up)

Պախչընէն օրման դարձուն։ (The orchards went wild)

Նա ին նա ճին հա գըտնէս, (Not a being, not a soul, do you find)

Կը խընտուօս թի թուօղը մուօրդ տըսնէս։ (You rejoice should you see a person in the neighberhood)

Ընծաս մինք եո՞ հարթունք, (Where are we heading this way?)

դըքըր ե՞րբ պըր դիմենունք։ (How long will we be able to endure?)

Սապըր հա ինինք, ըմմը հիշտ չի (We are being patient, but that is not easy

Մեվսըմը ծախիս գէն չունա, (Nothing for sale fetches income)

Պըր դետես բուն չըգըտնըվա։ (You want to work, but can’t find work)

Ճահիլնէն դուրիցի գեցեն, (The young went away)

էսքերլըքէն, իհդիադէն խելըսիլը, կարդիլը, (Either enlisted or avoiding the reserves, or for education)

եա բուն բեթվիլը, դետըլը հեմուօր։(Either looking for a job, for working)

Միրիրը տետիրը չըդիմեցուն (The mothers and the fathers could not cope)

Իրինց չուճուգնէն հառռօ մընիլիէն, (With their children being away)

Ճամբոյ իլուն իրինց իդիդիէն։ (They hit the road, after them.)

Գեցողը հայուրթու, մընեցողը հա մընու, (Those for going, leave; those for staying, stay)

Աստուօծ ալըննէն հիտ թըղ ըննու, (Let God be with them all.)

Հայ էսինք, քէչ մըլի սապըր, աղուր պըր ըննու։ (We say to ourselves, let us stay put a bit longer, things will be fine)

Աստուօծ լըսսի, ալէք բուն թըղ աղուրնու, (May God hear and let everythig be fine)

Ուվ կառնու թըղ եիտ դառնու. (Whoever can, let them return)

Չումքի առունց շըննըք առունց կենճիր, (Because without people, without the young)

Չուօց Քեսուօպը պըր պիհինք ըղիր։(How are we to keep Kessab?)

Ումուօտ կ՚ունենք, պըր ուղուրդա (We have hope that it will be alright)

Հառռունց զայիվ լօյս հա տըսնըվա։ (We see a dim light in the far)

Գուվուօդ սաղլըք քեսպըցիցը քեսպու, (Endurance, good health to the Kessabtis in Kessab)

Իրինց սայէն Քեսուօպ դառ մի հա մընու (Because of them, Kessab is remaining)

Պիտա ալէյիս բուն մը ինինք, (We should all do something)

Զօրթ մը իրինց եարտըմինք։ (And assist them a bit)

«Քէսուօպ Ղուրպուն ըննում քի» (“Kessab, I long for your”)

էսիլը իսուօր ալ հիրէք չի։ (Saying is not enough, anymore)

Պիտա տուշմըշըննունք, հուգ ինինք, (We should empathize, we should care)

Քի պարապուօր ձառ ըրկենցընինք։ (To extend an equal hand)

Քեսպըցէք կ՚ունէնք աշխուօրքիս միէկ (We have Kessabtsis all over the world)

Ըտնենք միէկըզմէկ, ճուղուտվենք, (Let us find each other, let us come together)

Ֆըրանսա, Պօրըթ, Ամիրքա (France, Beirut, America)

Իմարաթ, Աւըսթրալիա, Ͻանատա (Emirates, Australia, Canada)

Հայաստան, դըքըր Չինաստան։ (Armenia, all the way to China)

Ձառ ձառա ուտունք լելօկ, աղբար, (Let us give hands, brother, sister)

Քեսօպ հա դարկըվա (Kessab is being depopulate)

Վուօղը էնգուն կ՚ըննու, (Tomorrow will be late)

փուշմանիլը չէ ֆայտա։ (Regretting does not help)

Հեսնենք հընտենուօցը, քեսպըցիցը միր, (Let us reach out to our Kessabtsi relatives)

Եարտըմինք, սիէրտ ուտունք, (Let us assist, let us give them heart) 

Եօլ գըտնենք, բուն բենունք, (Let us find a way, let us start work)

Իշինք չուօց իրինց կռնուօկ ըննունք։ (Let us see how can we back them)

Քեսօպը միր պէպկըննիրէն մարաս ի քի, (Kessab of our grandfathers is a legacy)

Ընծի, միր էվլատնէն, (To us and to our children)

Միր վըզզէն պուօրտքն ի տիէր ըննիլ (It’s our our obligation to assume ownership)

Միր լիզվէն իլան ատաթնէն, (Of our language and our customs)

Հեսցընինք զիրինք միր թոռըննէն։ (Pass them on to our grandchildren) 

Translated: Vahe H. Apelian

Չէլէպեանը ՝ Քէօրքիւնէ գիւղին զաւակը

Ստեփամ Ժ.Աբէլիան

Առաջին շարք՝ Ասատուր (Աբէլեան) Պէտիրեան, Ժոզէֆ Աբէլեան, Սողոմոն Աբէլեան, Յովհաննէս Չէլէպեան, Գուրգէն (Աբէլիան) Պէտիրեան
Երկրորդ կարգ՝ ......, ......., Ժիրայր Աբէլեան, ...........

Չէլէպեանը, անկրկնելի էակ մը, եզակի անձ մը` Քէօրքիւնէ գիւղին զաւակը։ Այսպէս գիտէինք զինք, այն իմաստով որ Գիւղին արտակարգ հաւաքական ծրագիրները իր մտայղացումներն էին։

Իր անձնական աշխատանքի` ծրագրուած և նախագծուած օրինակը շատերու խթան էր Սորուելու և Հետևելու։

Իսկ երբ Գիւղի բարեկարգման հարցերը սեղանի վրայ ըլլային, իր խորհուրդը և առաջնորդութիւնը անխուսափելի էին։

Գիւղը, հոսող ջուր տուներու մէջ, և ելեկտրական հոսանք գոյութիւն չունէր մինչև 1960 ական թուականները։

Գիւղի մարդիկ համագործակցեցան և Չէլէպեանի առաջնորդութեամբ ունեցան Ջուր և ելեկտրական հոսանք տուներէն ներս մինչև 1968։

Մենք որպէս գիւղի պատանիները ականատես և հետևող եղանք այդ բոլոր հանգրուաններուն։

Չէլէպեանը միշտ բարձրաձայն և հաստատակամ կը բոլորէր իր շուրջ կամաւոր գիւղացիք և միասնաբար յաջողեցան այս երկու կենսական ծրագիրները իրականացնել։

Անխոնջ աշխատող մը, որ արևածագին արդէն պարտէզի գործերուն մէջ մխրճուած կ'ըլլար։

Որսորդ էր և որսի սիրահար։ Լաւագոյն որսի հրացանները ինք ունէր, առաջին կրակոցը իր տան Պատշգամէն կամ տանիքէն կը լսուէր երբ աշնան առաջին մեղուաքհաւերը կը գաղթէին հիւղին վրայով։

Հնարամիտ և մեքենագէտ ուղեղ ունէր։

Կը կանչէր զիս յաճախ ցոյց տալու թէ ի՞նչ են իր յաջորդ ծրագիրները։ Բահեր և թիեր պիտի շինեմ կ'ըսէր և կ'ընէր։

Իր շինած երկրագործական բահերն ու բրիջները Խանութիս մէջ ծախած եմ։

Միշտ զգուշ էր որ մարդիկ իր հնարքները չի գողնան և ընդորինակեն։

Այն ինչ որ հաւաքական գործի կը նպաստեր չէր զլանար բացատրել, սորվեցնել և ընդհանրացնել։

Միշտ հեռատես և ծրագրով, Սակայն կեանքի դաժան բախտը Միշտ ալ ուրացած էր զինք և դաւաճանած։

Շատ յոգնած, բայց միշտ ալ պայմաններէն վնասուած և կորսնցուցած։

Սուրիոյ ներկայ յեղափոխական կառավարութեան ներքին Սենեակներուն մէջ խօսք կայ որ Վերադարձուին բոլոր անցեալի գրաւեալ գործարաններն ու Սեփականութիւնները։

Չէլէպեանին Գործարանը (եթէ իրկանացուին տարաձայնութիւնները) Իր յիշատակին անուններով են արդարօրէն։

Հողը թեթև Սիրելի Յովհաննէս Չէլէպեան Ամմի։

Remembering Hovhannes: The Last Chelebian Sibling

 Vaհe H. Apelian

Hovhannes and Kohar (Apelian) Chelibian and family: 
LtoR: Haig, Khatchig, Nora

My maternal uncle Hovhannes Chelebian passed away peacefully in his sleep during his late afternoon nap on Wednesday 5/12/2021, after being bathed and groomed thanks to the round the clock service he received in the Ararat Nursing Facility in Los Angeles. Four years ago, on January 31, 2007,  his sister, my mother Zvart Apelian, passed away while on her chair attending the day's social for the residents of the same exemplary institution for the care of the elderly.  

Hovhannes, much like his father Khatcher, mother Karoun (Apelian), brother Antranig, sisters Zvart and Anna (deceased) was born in in Keurkune, Kessab. He was born on Thursday, August 26, 1926 in his parental house. He lived a long productive life overcoming inordinate challenges all along. He was named after his maternal grandfather Hovhannes - Hanno- Apelian,  who had died during their genocidal exile.

Unlike his brother Antranig and his sister Zvart, my mother; Hovhannes had no formal education having attended school only for a few years in Keurkune, Kessab and hence had ventured into life early on. 

He was tall, handsome, athletic and was extraordinarily gifted mechanic. If Ramanujan was an unschooled mathematical genius, Hovhannes was the unschooled mechanical genius. In his early youth, orphaned without means, he had fashioned for him a hunting gun and by the age of 25 had convinced a few Syrians to partner by investing for him and had opened the first tennis shoe factory in Damascus having designed all the pieces of the manufacturing equipment by himself.  By the age of thirty the company he was instrumental in its founding was overseeing a few hundred employees. He used to tell me in a nonchalant manner but without a hint of being boastful that he was not apprenticed by anyone. 

He was also an ardent nationalist and had joined the Armenian Revolutionary Federation early on and had assumed leadership position in Damascus in charge of community security, that suited his temperament. In 1961/1962, during the upheaval the Armenian community experienced in Syria, he was charged with treason and was jailed. After a long imprisonment he was acquitted of all charges and was released. That was an intense period in our family as my mother regularly went to Damascus to attend to his trial and lend her support to him and his family. Although he was not mistreated during his imprisonment but had witness the mistreatment of his friends who were jailed with him. A few of those who were imprisoned with him were sentenced for long term imprisonment or died in prison. The traumatic experience left an indelible mark on him.

Subsequent to his release there came a period of nationalization in Syria, including the factory he had brought about. Rebellious from his youth he refused to report to the Syrian government placed party official in charge of the factory and opted to resign but was not allowed. He eventually had his way but at a great financial cost. It took him a few years until the governed released him from duty upon him relinquishing his claims to the factory he had built from the ground up.

He returned to Latakia and set up a manufacturing shop. His specialty was in designing and fabricating mechanical presses for the large-scale manufacture of pickaxes, spades, and other farming implements. He also purchased properties in keurkune and set up his apple orchard. He came up in innovative way of digging a deep well for irrigating his orchard and designed a method of watering the trees by a network of pipes that dripped water at the base of the trees. He also fabricated a machine that sorted different size apples and lastly, he fabricated his own pistol which to his great regret was stolen from his house during the past civil war unrest in Syria. Previously, he fabricated a larger than life size April 24 memorial for the Armenian community in Latakia in the form of a decapitated tree trunk, with the axe embedded in it, having a branch rise from the periphery. The trunk consisted of 12 leaning panels, much like the number of stone slabs of the Genocide memorial in Armenia, but covered at the top to give the shape of a decapitated tree trunk flattened on top.

He married young, when he was in his early twenties to Kohar Apelian, also from Keurkune. They had fallen in love. They became parents to Nora, Khachig and Haig. Nora passed away a few years ago and his wife a little bit more than a year ago before his admission to the nursing home after incurring a stroke. For all practical purpose he became handicapped without his wife. Brilliant with machines but he could not fix a cup of coffee for himself and relied on his wife. They were inseparable. 

He was the exact opposite to his brother Antranig who was fastidious and not impulsive, as he was. But both were talented. Antranig, a historian, cartographer, calligrapher, and a medical illustrator, was a long-time instructor of physiology for the medical, pharmacy and nursing students in the American university of Beirut. In his youth, Antranig had assumed a leadership role helping organize the great repatriation to Armenia in 1947. He believed that the security and the viability of Armenia was better assured in the Soviet Union and hence he supported Soviet Armenia, while his brother Hovhannes opposed it on ideological ground. During my childhood and early youth, I experienced intense debates in our household. Both in their own ways were resolute and firm believers in what they advocated and stood firm. During those years, many families split apart because of their opposing views. But the Chelebian siblings, who had lost their father very early on and had grown up as driven orphans, remained a family to the end, with my mother acting as the peacekeeper between her two brothers. The sons and surviving daughter of the Khatcher and Karoun (Apelian) Chelebian, Antranig, Hovhannes and Zvart, enriched my life beyond measure. I would not have wanted my life otherwise and it would have been much poorer without them.

Hovhannes kept his creative streak to the very end. During my last visit to him he showed me a support he had fabricated that he dragged behind him while working in the backyard. Time had ravaged his body and he had tripped and fallen a few times while doing gardening in his home in Los Angeles where they had moved to be close to their son. The wooden structure he had fabricated was a combination of stepstool in a frame that he said would help him crawl into it and step by step enable him to sit on a step at a time and thus  help him rise on his feet. 

He was also tinkering to build a mechanical perpetual wheel that would turn around on its own with ball bearing falling on levels he explained to me. He was still figuring the intricacies of the design in his mind, he said.  

After long and productive and yet challenging years, he now rests in peace and has the time at his hand to see his device come to fruition. I am sure, in one way or another, he will accomplish it in heaven what physics on earth claims that it is a mechanical impossibility 

I take comfort knowing that the sons and daughters of the orphaned genocide survivors Khatcher and Karoun (Apelian) Chelebian,  Antranig, Zvart, Hovhannes, and Anna, the youngest child whom the family lost at young age due to illness, are now united in eternity. 

LtoR: Hovhannes, Khatcher, Zvart, Antranig, Karoun, Anna Chelebian.

 

Love During Medz Yeghern

 

Vaհe H. Apelian

Colorized copy of the black and white picture

The award-winning novelist Chris Bohjalian wrote the Sandcastle Girls in 2002. The news of the novel's publication was enthusiastically anticipated and received by the Armenian community, even before it hit bookstore shelves.

A quarter-of-century before Sandcastle Girls, journalist and editor Antranig Dzarougian (Անդրանիկ Ծառուկեան) wrote a novel in Western Armenian titled "Love in the Yeghern" (Սէրը Եղեռնին Մէջ). Medz Yeghern is a term that the survivors of the Armenian Genocide coined to refer to the horrible reality of their dispossession - of loved ones, of property, and of the loss of their millennia-old way of life on their ancestral lands. Simply said, it Medz Yeghern means genocide.

Both novels are love stories. Sandcastle Girls is a story within a story. Amazon.com describes with these words: “When Elizabeth Endicott arrives in Aleppo, Syria, she has a diploma from Mount Holyoke, a crash course in nursing, and only the most basic grasp of the Armenian language. It’s 1915, and Elizabeth has volunteered to help deliver food and medical aid to Armenian Genocide survivors. There she meets Armen, a young Armenian engineer who has already lost his wife and infant daughter. After leaving Aleppo and traveling to Egypt to join the British Army, he begins writing to Elizabeth, realizing that he has fallen in love with the wealthy young American. 
 Years later, their American granddaughter, Laura, embarks on a journey through her family history, uncovering a story of love, loss—and a wrenching secret that has been buried for generations.”

"Love in the Yeghern" is based on the true love story of the eminent early 20th-century Armenian poet Roupen Sevag, who studied medicine in Switzerland and fell in love and married a German woman. The novel is a true depiction of their love with a fictional rendering of their daily lives and their interactions with the community leaders of the day and about the cultural and their political state of affairs of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. Most of the other characters in the book are also depictions of prominent Istanbul Armenians. The characters are referred to either by their first or family names. However, for anyone who has a basic knowledge of Western Armenian culture that blossomed after remaining dormant for centuries and hit its zenith just before the Genocide, it would not be difficult to surmise who Dzarougian refers to when he describes characters named Varoujan, Adom, Zartarian and many more.

Love in Medz Yeghern by Antranig Zarougian

Roupen Chilingirian Sevag was born in Silvri, Ottoman Empire on Feb. 15, 1885. After graduating from the famed Berberian Armenian School in Istanbul he went to Lausanne, Switzerland where he studied medicine and fell in love and married a vibrant woman named Janni Apell. Instead of remaining in Europe, the young couple decided to return to Istanbul in 1914 with their two children and build their home there, among Roupen’s community. Their decision proved to be fatal.  Roupen was arrested not long after, on April 24, 1915, and was tortured to death on August 26, 1915, in Çankır (Chankir), Turkey along with poets Taniel Varoujan, Siamanto and others. He was 30-years-old. It is alleged that he had the opportunity to spare his life had he agreed to a Turkish pasha offering him to marry his daughter. 

Sevag is known for his patriotic and humanistic poetry. He is fondly remembered to this day. In 1995, a school was named after him in Yerevan. In 2011 Armenia issued a stamp in his honor. In the 1980s Roupen Sevag’s nephew, Hovhannes Chilingirian, founded and ran the Roupen Sevag family museum in Nice (France). Along with artifacts the museum displayed his paintings. Roupen Sevag was also an accomplished painter. The museum was moved to Holy Etchmiadzin in 2013. 

After her husband’s death, Janni - her real name was Yanni Apfel-Sevag - moved to Switzerland with her children. Distraught that German government did not heed her calls and abandoned her husband, she vowed not to utter German in her home any more and refused to teach her children German. Instead, she became an award-winning French writer and upheld the memory of her husband until her death in 1967.  Their son Levon Chilingirian passed away in 2005 at the age of 93. Their daughter Shamiram in 2016 in Nice, France at the age of 102.

Dzarougian depicts Sevag's wife in the Love in the Yegher, as follows: “Janine wrote poetry in French and published them in books. One of her books received an award from the French Academy. She lived engrossed in her books and in her children Levon and Shamiram. With the passing years ashes covered her hair, but not her heart. Her heart remained fresh and vibrant defying time and the years with an indifference but always open, always graceful on white pages and in her thoughts with her Roupen…”.

Kourken Mekhitarian noted in his review of Armenian literature that following his death Sevag had emerged as a tragic but iconic and heroic figure and that his life could be the subject of a captivating novel. Dzarougian’s novel "Love in the Yeghern" makes for a captivating reading and makes justice to the young couple’s love story. The novel awaits translation.

Roupen Sevag and his wife.