Anna-the-Bride and Her Grandson

Vahe H. Apelian

In memory of Kevork George James Apelian. Updated

George James Apelian

Kevork George Apelian's paternal grandfather Kerop eloping Anna for his bride from the Titizian family of Kaladouran, undoubtedly was the sensational news of the time in greater Kessab even though young couples eloping against the patriarchal choice for a spouse was not that uncommon in Kessab. Dr. Avedis Injejikian had eloped his wife Mary Apelian, the daughter of the well known medical doctor Soghomon Apelian.

But, Kerop's and Anna elopement had been altogether different. Anna had done the unthinkable. She had crossed all by herself, in the darkness of the night and through the eerie silence of the Kaladouran gorge and walked all alone all the way from the coastal village Kaladouran to Keurkune to her lover's house to the total surprise of lover Kerop's parents and his only sister, my maternal grandmother Karoun. Something had gone terribly wrong. Trusted intermediaries had worked out a plan for them. Kerop and his friends were to meet her in the cover of the night and escort her. But the lovers missed either the rendezvous point or the timing and Anna took upon herself to finish the task and wait for her lover's return in her lover's parental house. Never in greater Kessab had a girl walked all by herself to her lover's house before. She had always been free spirited with a mind of her own and was also known for her beauty. Anna, however, was not to experience the tranquility of family life with the man she chose to love.

Their elopement resulted in a bitter feud among the families involved. Anna's father had her engaged to a promising young Kessabtsi and their wedding was imminent. The families were in the midst of preparations for the upcoming wedding that would do justice to their social status. Their escapade must have been so sensational that a folk song evolved about them that continued to be sung during wedding celebrations in Kessab long after Anna, Kerop and most of their contemporaries were not around anymore.

Few years after the birth of their first child, a son whom they named Kevork, Kerop decided to move to America to join his two brothers in New York leaving behind his pregnant wife under the care of his parents. His brother Diran was a pharmacy graduate from Istanbul. His other brother Serop had run a store in Kessab selling candies and goodies of the day. That's why he had come to be known as shakarji, a Turkish word which means someone who deals with sweets. It was a moniker that stayed with him throughout his life much like the other endearing nicknames Kessabtsis gave to each. Kerop was to bring his family after he settled in the New World and saved enough to cover the expenses for his family's journey to America. 

In due time Anna gave birth to their second son. Kerop sent word from America to his wife letting her know that he wanted to have their son named James. The infant was destined to be an American citizen, therefore it was fitting for him to have a Western name but the family's reunion was never to be.

On June 1915 the local Ottoman authorities transmitted to the Kessabtsis the order for their deportation. James was a child when he also embarked on the perilous forced march along with his mother Anna, brother Kevork, grandparents Hanno (Hovhannes) and Anna, and his aunt, my maternal grandmother, Karoun. It would not be hard to envision that all the adults shared in caring  the young deportees. The ordeals of their forced marches to their elusive final resettlement destination decimated the family. Only James and his paternal aunt survived. My maternal grandmother Karoun,   became his guardian angel even though she was still in her mid teens. 

The popular account in Kessab is that their 1915 ordeal lasted three years and three months placing the start of the return of the survivors to their ransacked villages sometimes in the fall of 1918 only to face the bitter winter ahead without having the provisions to weather it. 

The returning survivors had seen fit that the young orphaned girl Karoun, be married to the most eligible bachelor, Khatcher Chelebian (Chalabian). Their wedding took place in their makeshift camp in the outskirts of Deir Attiyeh on their way home. The town is an hour's drive from Damascus. They were married in their rag tags. Their wedding was officiated by the groom's brother Stepan who was known for his piety and knowledge of church liturgy. There was no registry to record their marriage. They were to do that after their return and when a semblance of law and order was established. They were married by the grace of God and the consent of their fellow Kessabtsis. The young family moved to Karoun's parental vacant house, that stood in the center of the village, when they reached Keurkune, Kessab. James became a bona fide an adopted son.

Once the overseas communication resumed, James' father Kerop managed to have his son join him in America. The records of Ellis Island indicate that James set sail to the U.S. on June 1923 from Havre France, on a French ocean liner called France. He had started his journey from Beirut. He was on his way to see his father whom he had not seen before. He was to live in a country that was alien to him. He had witnessed harrowing realities of the Genocide and was growing up in Keurkune where electricity or a faucet at home was not even in their wildest imagination, let alone movie theaters or ice cream parlors. However enticing the latter may seem to be, they were alien to James along with the language spoken. He spoke only Armenian and Kesbenok, the local dialect. In 1928 he applied for naturalization but his acculturation to the New World proved to be impossible. His father and his two uncles made arrangements for him to return home, to Keurkune where his grandfather's lands would secure him a livelihood. He was the only male inheritor among the three brothers. 

The French ocean line France

The departure of his only surviving son must have been heartbreaking for his father Kerop. The 1915 Genocide had already deprived him of the cherished family life he must have dreamed.  His wife Anna, his first-born son Kevork, his parents had died during the Genocide. Throughout those heart-wrenching war years, Kerop must have kept faith to preserve his sanity and energy to work to make a living while awaiting news from the home front. After the war was over the news that one of his sons and his sister had survived may have given him hope. After the return of his son James, the realization of the enormity of his loss may have weighed heavy on him anew. A sense of hopelessness may have dampened his spirits and broken his will. It was rumored that he even attempted suicide. He passed away in Bronx, New York. It is not hard to surmise that he was a broken man, a far cry from the dashingly handsome young man who stole Anna's heart. He had become another victim of the Genocide although oceans and continents away from the killing fields.

Kerop's surviving son James would start his own life in Keurkune, Kessab.

                                                    **********

James married Sirvart Chelebian, the young sister of my maternal grandfather, Kacher. Not all the children they had survived. They named their son Kevork in memory of the brother James lost during the Genocide. They named their other son Kerop in memory of James' father and named their daughter Annais in memory of James' mother Anna.  The matriarch of the family, James' aunt, my maternal grandmother Karoun, had ruled naming daughters Anna anymore because she had named her youngest daughter Anna in memory of her mother but tragedy struck her teenage daughter as well. She died in her teens while her namesakes had become victims of the Genocide. Instead of Anna,  Annie and Annais had come into the family.

Kevork and his two younger siblings were raised in Keurkune. The allure of the village life did not seem to have left him. After graduating from Haigazian University, as one of the first graduates of the College then, he embarked on his career as a teacher in Anjar where he also settled down, married and raised his family. After a teaching career that spanned some two decades, he established a trade school and then his own business supplying school needs. In the midst of his labor to make a living, he made time to write. The writing was and remained his passion and over time he emerged as a prominent writer.

George published several books, namely, "Հելէ, Հելէ, ՀելէՔեսապ" (Hele, Hele Kessab), «Աննա հարսը" (Anna-the Bride), «Ցկեանս նահատակութիւն' (Martyrdom for Life), «Պէյրութ" (Beirut), «Նետենք¬բռնենք", "Աղբարի՜կ, ափիկ մը ջուր" (Brother, A Palmful of Water)« "Մաքարոնի թիլէկ-թիլէկ» (Makarone Teleg Teleg), «Քոյրիկս մի՛ծախեր, մա՜մ»  ( Do Not Give Away My Sister, Mom).

His first book «Հելէ, Հելէ, Հելէ Քեսապ» (Hele, Hele Kessab), is a collection of stories about Kessab and Kessabtsis. 

His second book «Աննա հարսը (Anna-the Bride), is a novel whose central character is Anna, his paternal grandmother. In reading the novel Anna emerges as the independent, free-spirited, stunningly attractive girl who eloped and wanted the man she chose to love against the will of her parents but  she died during while her husband waited for her and they their two sons in America. . The book was translated into English by Annie Chelebian Hoglind, George's grandniece.

Anna-the-Bride

«Պէյրութ" (Beirut), is a short novel about Beirut where George visited as a youngster and then moved to continue his education. No other city has had the allure Beirut has had for generations of Kessabtsis. The novel is a tribute to that allure.

His «Ցկեանս նահատակութիւն" (Martyrdom for Life) became a popular reading and was translated into Arabic, Spanish and English. His second book of the same series «Աղբարի՜կ, ափիկ մը ջուր" ( Brother, A Palm-full of Water) posthumously was translated into Arabic as well. Hagop Pakradouny, a member of the Lebanese Parliament gifted a copy of the book to each member of the Parliament.  Recently the former Prime Minister of Lebanon penned an appreciative letter addressed to the Lebanese Armenian community about the book. These two books are a collection of life stories of the survivors of the Armenian Genocide many of whom were raised by local Arab Muslim families. Some of these Muslim Armenians have organized themselves into a tribe in Syria known as "The Armenian Islamic Tribe". George was the first to interview members of this tribe and wrote about them.

 His last book "Մաքարոնիթիլէկ-թիլէկ" (Makarone Teleg Teleg), is titled after a satirical one-liner – Makarone Teleg Teleg- sang during festivities in Kessab. It is reported to be a collection of folk stories about Kessab and Mussa Dagh. 

George's other two books are for a younger audience. "Նետենք¬բռնենք" is a collection of four stories from Kessab that stretched the imagination. "Քոյրիկս մի՛ծախեր, մա՜մ"  (Do Not Give Away My Sister, Mom) is reported to be a rendering of the stories that appeared in the  Martyrdom for Life series intended for young readers.

Along with the books he authored, George kept a weekly column in Aztag Daily under the pen name «Ձիւնական (Tsounagan), a named derived from the Armenian word snow. The column depicted the ongoing issues with humor and satire but with much insight. Some likened his column to snowballs that hit the intended targets but never caused an injury. As one of his commentaries noted that George was a gentle and an unassuming man with a not unassuming literary talent and output.

George wrote that his natural inclination and preference is to write humorous and satirical stories. Oddly though he may be remembered by his depiction of the lives of the Genocide survivors he presented to his readers.

His baptismal name was Kevork but he remained socially more known and continued to be addressed as George. A name he kept and often times used interchangeably with Kevork or at times as his middle name. He also adopted his father's name -James - as his middle name as his still Facebook account indicates, George James Apelian..

George was born on March 24, 1941, and passed away on December 4, 2011. He is reported to have left behind yet unpublished material comprising several more volumes. After graduating from Haigazian College he started teaching in the Armenian village Anjar where he got married, raised their family  and continued to live until the end. The people of Anjar adopted this Kessabtsi as one of them and named their library after him.

Anna (Titizian), the beautiful and strong-willed girl from Kaladouran who broke her father's heart and left his choice for her to pursue her heart's calling did not live the promise of the life she must have dreamed. She succumbed much like the rest of the 1.5 million Armenian victims of the first Genocide of the twentieth century. Much like the rest of the victims of the Genocide, she also does not have a known burial site, let alone a tombstone. Unlike most of the victims who remain nameless and anonymous, Anna became an exception thanks to an appreciative grandson Kevork George James Apelian who never had the pleasure of knowing her paternal grandmother Anna in person but cherished the legacy she left behind and kept her memory alive for perpetuity within the covers of his popular bilingual novel, "Anna-the-Bride". 

Note: Dates and the picture of the ship courtesy George Aghjayan

The Ramifications of a Resignation

Vahe H. Apelian 

Aside the political ramifications, President Armen Sarkissian’s resignation highlights a growing phenomenon, the lack of allegiance of high placed officials to the country they serve having sheltered their and their family's welfare elsewhere. We see the ramification of the trend in Lebanon where the governing, who also are the wealthier, remain indifferent to the plight of their countrymen but remain driven to safeguard their own interests. But what made Armen Sarkissian resignation stand out are the way he tendered his resignation and the reasons he gave for resighning.

Yesterday, PM Nikol Pashinyan in his televised response to reporters’ questions said that he knew of the president’s resignation a few hours before it became public because president Sarkissian had telephoned him about the matter. The PM noted that initially he was not sure whether the president wanted to discuss the matter of his resignation with him or he was letting him know that he is resigning. It turned out to be the latter.

It also turns out that President Sarkissian was out of the country when he informed the PM of his decision to resign.  Not only that, but President Armen Sarkissian had no plans to return to Armenia to thank those who advanced his candidacy and elected him as the president and  meet those with whom he toiled during the past four tumultuous years when the country went through the Velvet revolution, snap elections; faced the pandemic, endured the second Artsakh war, and is braving the  inevitable aftereffects of the war.

The President noted that the primary reason for his resignation is the Constitutional provisions that do not give him enough influence to make a difference. Quoting him: "The question may arise as to why the President failed to influence the political events that led us to the current national crisis. The reason is obvious again - the lack of appropriate tools ... - the Constitution. The roots of some of our potential problems are hidden in the current Basic Law." But, a recording is being circulated where Armen Sarkissian notes that the mandate for the president is clearly spelled out in the Constitution and he voiced no objection. He is a very intelligent man not to have known the constitutional provisions of the presidency he assumed in the parliamentarian system of governance.

it was President Serzh Sargsyan who recommended the candidacy of Armen Sarkissian for the presidency on January 19, 2018, almost three months before Sargsyan’s term as the president ended on April 9, 2018. Subsequently Sargsyan was elected as the PM of Armenia  on April 17, 2018, after having served the country as its president for the preceding 10 years, since April 9, 2008. Serzh Sargsyan thus became the first PM of the fourth republic. On December 6, 2015,  a constitutional referendum was held in Armenia and amendments were voted in the Constitution changing governance in Armenia from presidential to parliamentary system republic.

The first parliamentary National Assembly elected Armen Sarkissian as the president on March 2, 2018. His election as president was welcomed. 90 out of the 105 delegates of the National Assembly voted for him. He was inaugurated with great fanfare on 9 April 2018 in the Karen Demirchyan Complex in Yerevan.

President Armen Sarkissian exuded royalty and projected an image of being someone who gives no reason for reproach. But much like Prince Andrew claiming that he does not know how his image appears next to an underage girl with his arm around her waist in Jeffrey Epstein’s upscale townhouse in New York city; president Armen Sarkissian realizing the Constitutional constraint of his office, after having served under the same mandate for four years, does not sound convincing. 

His unexpected resignation may tarnish his image and give credence to the reports claiming that he is not or was not a citizen of Armenia, when he was elected as president, contrary to the dictate of the Constitution. Instead of the landlocked Armenia, President Sarkissian is alleged to be a citizen of a far distant dual-island nation of Saint Kitts and Nevis situated between the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. His island citizenship makes him a British subject since at least 2013. 

His abrupt resignation will also muddle people’s perception of the image he projected as a person a few notches above the rest of the bare-knuckle players of politics in Armenia and as someone who can bring about order in the political chaos of Armenia and salvage it. “Can Armen Sarkissian save Armenia?” asked Kapil Komireddi in an article in  Spectator Worldon January 3, 2022, just three weeks before Sarkissian tended his resignation on January 23.

It was clear that his resignation did not concern the PM. Nikol Pashinyan avoided dwelling on it. But the political ramification of electing the next president became clear when the PM spelled what will be expected from the next president, a harmonious relationship between him as the PM, and the president of the National Assembly. The three top political leaders of Armenia, the Prime Minister, the President, and the President of the National Assembly, need to espouse a common vision for Armenia, PM Pachinyan emphatically noted.

The PM also noted that if the upcoming candidate as president is not elected the first time around, as he will need 75% of the votes of the National Assembly to be elected. The Civil Contract coalition has 2/3 votes and needs delegates from the opposition to vote for the candidate they will present. He noted that the Constitution makes a 2nd and even a 3rd tier provision, if the preceding fails and that the CC will have the votes to elect the next president of Armenia. 

Will the election of the next president render an imperial parliamentary system? Or is it the new majority exercising its will, much like previously, in the presidential system of governance? Things to ponder as  the free and independent post-Armenia shapes itself.

 

 

 

 

Celebrate the U.S. 20th Century in Philately: 1900s (No. 1)

1900's: The Dawn of the Twentieth Century

Dawn of Twentieth Century:  Sixty percent of the Americans lived on farms or in small towns. Immigrants were arriving on the average 100 every hour. Railroads dominated land travel, but 1900 saw the first U.S. auto show and 1908 the first family transcontinental car trip. In 1908 Henry Ford made automobile more affordable with Model T. The Wright brothers stunned the world with their first airplane flight in 1903, and the game baseball grew up. 

President Roosevelt protect 148 million acres as national forests. The first daily comic  strip “Mutt and Jeff” in the San Francisco Chronicle. The Ash Can School brought realism in the art world.

Muckrakers exposed corruption; Ida Tabell attacked monopoly in the oil industry, and Upton Sinclair revealed shocking conditions in the meat industry. In 1908 the newly from NAACP promoted equal rights for African Americans.

New words: cheerleader, filmmaker, phony, psychoanalysis.

The 15 stamps depicting 1900s are the following: 

1. St. Louis World Fair:  The  Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904 was also known as the St. Louis World’s Fair. American were already enjoying ice cream, but the ice cream cone was popularized in the fair.

2. The Crayola Crayon:  The first Crayola crayon was produced in 1903. It cost five cents and contained eight colors: brown, black, blue, red violet, orange, yellow, and green.

3. “The Great Train Robbery”: directed by Edwin S. Porter in 1903, was one of the first commercially successful story films. The box-office hit became part of the Western genre. 

4. Theodore Roosevelt: The 26^th president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt promoted conservation, regulated business and earned the Nobel Peace Prize for mediating the end of the Russo-Japanese War.

5. Model T Ford: The low priced 4-cylinder, 20-horsepower Model T Ford made the automobile affordable for the average American. One of the nicknames was Tin Lizzie.

6. Ash Can School: The painters of the Ash Can School portrayed the life and scenes around them. One of the most famous Ash Can paintings is Stage at Sharkey’s by George Bellows, at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

7. Kitty Hawk: On December 17, 1903 at Kitty Hawk North Carolina, the Wright Brothers, Orville and Wilbur, achieved the first controlled powered flight in an airplane.

8. The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906: prohibited the interstate sale of any adulterated or misbranded food or drug.

9. John Muir: Often referred to as a father of national parks, John Muir was a naturalist who championed the wilderness and its preservation. 

10. Ellis Island: was the nation’s principal immigrant station between 1892 and 1954. During the peak decades of 1900 – 1909, immigrants arrived on an average of 100 an hour. 

11. Robe House: Frank Loyd Wright is considered one of the nation’s most innovative architects The masterpieces of his early work, constructed in the Prairie House style, is the Ruble House in Chicago.

12. The First World Series: The championship games of 1903 are considered baseball’s first world series. Boston of the American League beat Pittsburg of the National League 5 games to 3 in a best-of-nine series.

13 Gibson Girl: Created by illustrator Charles Dana Gibson , the Gibson Girl set the fashion for the ideal American woman at the turn of the century.

14. W.E.B. Dubois: an educator and author who promoted the cause of equality for all Americans. He helped found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

15. “Teddy” Bear: America’ “Teddy” bear was created in 1902. A curious depiction of President Roosevelt’s refusal to shoot a captured bear in Mississippi is said to have inspired its creation.

 Vahe H. Apelian

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Sylva Portoian: “YOUR BRAIN ‘IS NOT’ a BOX”

Vahe H. Apelian

 

I met and befriended Sylva Portoian a few years ago through Facebook. Throughout those years I conjured an image of her, as we usually do towards friends we befriended online but not met in person. I knew that she is a medical doctor who likes to “poet” and that she has authored twenty books of poetry in a relatively short span, since 2007. She has also been the winner of the Carnegie Poetry Prize, NY, U.S.A.

My curiosity got a better hold of me. Among the books, she has authored one particular book that caught my attention for two reasons: the title of the book and its cover picture. I thought that book, among the others, may likely validate or negate my mental image of her as a person who “thinks outside the box”. Anguished over the Armenian young men dying in the prime of their lives in defense of the homeland, she suggested having a sperm bank for men on the front line. She exhorted Armenian men to marry Armenians to replenish the loss of a generation.  The title of the book, for that matter, is “YOUR BRAIN ‘IS NOT’ a BOX”. As to the cover of the book, it depicts a woman against a background of gears, implying an active mind. Her book cover, Silva notes, is painted by the famous painter Vakhtang Sirunyan. 

The book is 173 pages long including the dedication, a list of her medical publications, select stanzas from her publications, a glossary of medical terms she used in her poetry, a list of her books, an index that lists “Title, first line, names & others”,  glossary of words of her creation, and other personal notes such as quotes from poets and writers. She presented her poems in eight parts, titling each part, such as “Do You Think Your Brain Is A Box?” for Part I and “Petite Poems Like Tiny Lilies, Like Childhood Rhymes” for Part VII. She noted that the income from her books will be donated to an Armenian orphanage, where her mother - Viva Partoian - was sheltered during the Armenian Genocide of 1915.

On social media, I have read Sylva passionately argue against religion. But her poetry exudes a true humanist and she comes across as a woman of faith in the goodness of people. I am reminded of the following two passages from the bible. The first being 1 Corinthian 13:13 “And now these three remain faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.” The other is the following from Isaiah 41: 10 “Fear not, for I am with you.” I quoted these two passages because love and fearing not, permeate her poetry.

About love she wrote. I quote the following from her poetry titled, “The love ~ I Have, All and Whole”.

The love I have

I have it all

Deep till core.

I can give all

Never partial

Never half-half.

About fear she wrote, quoting a few lines from her poetry titled “I Feel No-One Should Have Fear”.

Why fear? If I have not committed any crime.

Why fear? If I am honest and clear of crime.

Why fear? If I am searching for justice to prevail.

Why fear? If I can make bread from grains

Why fear? If I have faith inside my cells.

I cannot say that I particularly like poetry. For example, Maya Angelo is mostly presented as an “an American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist”, in that order. But I did not enjoy her poetry as much as her prose. I have enjoyed reading her two books in prose, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” and  “The Heart of Woman”. But I cannot say that I have completed reading any one of her poetry books. But I enjoyed reading Sylva Portoian’s poems. They are easy to read conveying their unmistakable message peppered at times with medical terms. 

Her poetry is uplifting. It dwells on the better nature of man but does not absolve a person from the responsibility of nurturing its better nature. She advises the reader to “Take Care of Your Glial Cells”, and to deal with “Loneliness-Loveless, Searching Soulful ~Face”, “Internal Happiness. How Can We Keep It Safe?” and to “Train Your Brain To Feel Young Like a Deer Climbing Hills”, and many and many more such captivating poems and foremost, assume responsibility and “Never Blame Anyone”.

My impression is that she is not anti-religion but argues vehemently against those whom she envisions absolving themselves of personal responsibility and placing them squarely on God. I do not want to tread a minefield I am ill-prepared to navigate, religion. But is it not that God feeds the birds because birds cheerfully and tirelessly work all day long, hopping from one tree to the next, to make their substance? Are we not to "walk through the valley of the shadow of death" and not camp there, expecting to be rescued? I believe it is the self-reliance that drives her and that is what she vehemently argues for and not for being religious or because she is anti-religion... And by the same token, she claims, should drive her homeland Armenia as well, to be self-reliant in preserving itself.

From her prodigious literary output, it is not hard to surmise that she is a born poet. In her poetry titled “If I Don’t Poet”, she wrote:

If I don’t poet, my brain cells will sigh

Why should I allow my brain cells to cry?

Thus... I must poet, I must continue poeting.

If  “Your Brain 'Is Not' a Box”, what is then? Here is what she says. Do not worry, should you happen not to understand what nuclei, glial cell astrocytes, and dendrites are. She has a whole list of medical terms she uses, explained

Your Brain is Your Tree

Full of Green Leaves

Never Leave

Its nuclei

To  Cry

Dry

Sigh

Die.

Sylva Portoian, M.D., and her husband, who is a cardiac surgeon, retired recently after 50 years of active work. They are blessed with two grown-up sons who are accomplished medical professionals married to Armenians who also are accomplished medical professionals. They have two grandsons. No wonder Sylva says, “I live on the Armenian Highlands, At Dawn~At Dusk”.

As an added note.  “Don’t Lock Your Brain in a Box”, she titled one of her poems, Instead, Sylva poets:

Give chance

For Your Brain

To Breathe

Like your Lungs.

 

To Beat

Like your Heart

 

To sing

Like your

Vocal Cords

 

To Paint

Like your

Fingers

 

To Dance Like

Your

Legs

 

Never lock your Brain

In a Box.

Emperors, Tsars, and Commissars: The Commissars (No.4/4)

IN HINDSIGHT: I have reproduced excerpts from Dr. Antranig Chalabian’s booklet “Emperors, Tsars, and Commissars”. Second Edition, Michigan, 1988.

Soviet Socialist Republics in U.S.S.R.

1988

Then came Russia’s commissars, following the Bolshevik Revolution of October 1917, and a portion of the short-lived independent Armenian state in Transcaucasi came under Soviet rule, in November 1920.

Has the attitude of the Soviets towards Armenia and the Armenians changed during the past sixty-eight years? Do they see a role for a greater and stronger Armenia in an area which is inhabited by fanatically religious and basically anti-atheist Muslims? I am not so sure. The Soviets do not seem to be moving -or inclined to move – in that direction and are obviously heading  towards the same pitfalls as their predecessors. They have kept Armenia small and weak, thus strengthening their potential enemies in the south. Even the Armenian district of Mountainous Karabagh, once inhabited 93 percent by Armenians, is under Azerbaijan’s rule.

The Gamk (Will) Armenian daily in Paris, France, published an article  (see Hairenik daily, Boston, July 25, 1985, p. 7) entitled  “The Concerns of the Soviet Union – The Increase of the Moslem population poses a threat”, by Garo Ulupeyan. The writer considers the Moslem “a very serious danger” for the Soviet Union, because they constitute 18 percent of the country’s population and their relations with the authorities are far from being smooth or satisfactory.  Ulupeyan estimates that the Moslems of the U.S.S.R. (Union of  Soviet Socialist Republics) may be between 66 to 75 million by the year 2000, when the Russians, compared to the Moslems, a minority. This significant disparity may pose a threat to the Russian authorities, because the religious oriented Moslems cannot be trusted entirely, and they will provide 25 percent of the manpower for the Red Army. 

The Moslem peoples of the U.S.S.R. are geographically located at enormous distances from the Soviet administrative centers. The cultural amalgamation of white-Russian mentality and European way of life is virtually nonexistent in those areas. As to the ideological indoctrination of Marxist atheism, is had produced only superficial results on the traditional Moslem lifestyles o these peoples. 

As a student of history it is my deep conviction that the creation of a greater and stronger Armenia by the Soviet Union (other world powers have no access in its borders), with the acquisition of at least some of our lands, will serve the best interests of that country for the following reasons:

1. As long as Turks are Turks and they are living in Turkey, Armenians inhabiting the southern boarders of the Soviet Union have no choice but to seek Russian protection, irrespective of the kind of government which rules that country. This is a political affinity and has nothing to do with ideologies. Only deranged Armenian politicos  and pollical adventurers can think otherwise. 

2. In case of a world conflict, short of thermonuclear holocaust, the Soviet union is not vulnerable from the north (it is protected by natural barriers of the Arctic ocean). It is not vulnerable from the west  because it is protected by Russia’s “General Winter”, (Napoleon Bonaparte and Adolf Hitler can attest to this) It is not vulnerable from the east because it is protected by the “Field Marshal” of Siberia. Russia will not be intimadted by technologically superior or weapons, because military superiority is not “Factor No. 1” in a war (the wars in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and ….Little Lebanon have proven this.) Microscopic Malta in the Mediterranean Sea was bombarded by the German Luftwaffe all through the duration of the Second World War, but the proud Maltese did not capitulate.

The Soviet Union, however, is vulnerable on two other fronts: from within and from the south.  The Soviet Union is vulnerable from within because of its leaders have thus far overlooked one seemingly insignificant aspect of human nature, that man is greedy, he wants more , and more.

Antranig Chalabian

Russia is vulnerable from the south, not because of the climate is warmer there and the enemy can cross its southern borders more easily, but because in the south it is bordered by numerous Muslim peoples (Turks, Azerbaijanis, Kurds, Persians, Afghans, Turkmens, Uzbecks, Tajiks, Pakistanis, etc…) And the roots of Islam run much deeper in the hearts and minds of those peoples, than do the roots of Leninism.  The adversaries of communism in the west know this, of course, and sooner or later will exploit the religious sentiments of those peoples, as they are now doing in Afghanistan. Soviet soldiers of Moslem origin who were dispatched there to fight the rebels, actually defected to the rebel side, including a Soviet Moslem General. Those Red Army units of Moslem origin were replaced by non-Moslem Soviet soldiers. In conclusion, the south is the Soviet Union’s Achilles’ Heel.

If the Soviet Union cannot trust the Red Army units coming from Azerbaijan, Afhanistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbeckistan, and Tajikistan for the defense of its most strategic and vulnerable southern borders, then God help Russia. The Crimean Tatars, already proved their unfaithfulness to the Soviet Union during World War II. They were deported to Siberia. 

A golden rule of ruling subjected peoples is dividing them and not strengthening or uniting them. If Armenia stays  small and weak and Turkey one day joins hands with its brothers and cousins in the east, then Russia will be in great trouble. Armies cannot fight ideas or religious sentiments. Once the masses go crazy, nothing helps. Lenin tried to win over the friendship of Kemal Ataturk by ceding to Turkey the Armenian border provinces of Kars, Ardahan, Artvin, only to find out, a few years later, that he was fooled by the crafty Turk !

In March 1921, a treaty was signed in Moscow between Nationalist Turkey headed by Mustafa Kamal, and the Soviet Union. The treaty set the postwar boundaries between the two countries. In November of the same year, a treaty was signed in Kars, between the Transcaucasian republics (Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan) and Turkey. During both of these conferences, Stalin, then Commissar of the Nationalities of the Soviet Union, favored Tatar interests and subjected the Armenian province s of Mountainous Karabagh and Nakhichevan  to Azerbaijani rule, thus further weakening Armenia.  

Cartoonist Dikran Ajemian in Beirut, Lebanon

The Byzantine emperors made mistakes and they paid dearly for them. Russia’s tsars, in their turn, were incapable of seeing their southern borders were inhabited not by White Russians but by potentially dangerous Turkis peoples. In the face of of that danger, instead of creating a great and autonomous Armenian state to divide and weaken those peoples, they aspired for an Armenia without Armenians, thus strengthening and uniting their own enemies ! It is not unconceivable that world leaders often lack foresight and political farsightedness, as well as the ability to comprehend the facts or anticipate the future. 

Will the present-day Soviet rulers of glasnost and perestroika (openness and restructuring) be able to see the important role a greater and stronger Armenia can play in the political network of religious minded peoples on the southern borders of their empire? It remains to be seen. Their predecessors failed to do that and that is why the 3,000 years old Armenian nation, Russia’s natural and dependable ally in the south, was reduced to a mere one million people by 1922, by our and their natural enemies.

Links

Links for the previous sections

The booklet: (No.1/4)

https://vhapelian.blogspot.com/2021/09/in-hindsight-emperors-tzars-and.html

The Emperors: (No. 2/4)

http://vhapelian.blogspot.com/2021/09/in-hindsight-emperors-no-2.html

The Tars: (No. 3/4)

http://vhapelian.blogspot.com/2022/01/emperors-tsars-and-commissars-tsars-no3.html

Emperors, Tsars, and Commisars: The Tsars (No.3)

IN HINDSIGHT: I reproduced Excerpts from Dr. Antranig Chalabian’s booklet “Emperors, Tsars, and Commissars”. Second Edition, Michigan, 1988.

The Greek emperors had been unable to assess the importance of a strong Armenian kingdom for the defense of their eastern borders and had paid the price ! Russian tsars followed the same footsteps of the Byzantine emperors by trying to convert Armenia into a Russian province, even if need be without Armenians ! Their majesties were forgetting that the southern border of their empire was inhabited by potentially dangerous Moslem peoples who aspired to unite under the banner of the Turkish sultan -The Pan Turanian movement – and that a greater and stronger Armenia would divide and separate those peoples, instead of uniting and strengthening them.

The Armenian for centuries looked upon the Russian court as the only power in the area capable of liberating them from the unbearable Turkish yoke and granting them autonomy, but to no avail.  “Rus kerin piti ga” (Uncle Russia will come) was uttered by the Armenian peasants and intellectual alike, generation after generation with the devout hope and sincere expectation.

Peter the Great (1672-1725) was inclined to help the Armenians but was pre-occupied with the “Northern Question” (conflict with the Swedes).  During the Russo-Persian war of 1827, the Armenian bishop  (later catholicos) Nerses Ashtaraketsi led a group of over a thousand volunteers to fight on the side of tsar’s armies against the Persians. During the aftermath of victory, when the bishop raised the question of autonomy for Armenia to General Paskevich, commander of the Russian armies, he was banished to Bessarabia !

One of the most notorious advocates of an Armenia without Armenians was Tsar Nicholas II and his viceroys in Tiblisi, Varantzov-Dashkov and the Grand Duke Nicholas Nicholaevich Romanov. According to the renown Armenian historian Leo (Arakel Babakhandian), it was Tsar Nicholas II’s ambassador in Istanbul, Nelidov, who had allegedly toll Sultan Abdul Hamid II, “Massacrez, Votre Majeste, massacrez !” (Massacre, Your Majesty, massacre [the Armenians].) And Sultan Abdul Hamid, one of the most bloodthirsty tyrants in history, gave the order, in the fall of 1895, to his faithful subjects in the name of God, to break into Armenian homes with their swords and hatchets, and kill any Armenian on sight. The death toll was 300,000 innocent victims.

Sultan Abdul Hamid II would not have dared take such a step without the connivance of Tsar Nicholas II and the Christian powers of Europe.

During World War I (1914-1918), the Russian armies attached Turkey and occupied historic Armenia up to Erzincan. The Armenian Genocide meanwhile was in full swing. Tsar Nicholas II personally visited Tbilisi in 1916. Catholicos Gevorg Y of Etchmiadzin paid a courtesy visit to Tsar Nicholas II and pleaded for an autonomous Armenian state under Russia’s protection.  The answer was negative. Russia;s tsars were not only reluctant to creat an autonomous Armenian state that would break the chain of Turkic peoples inhabiting the southern boarders of their empire, but they also vehemently opposed all attempts of Armenian liberation by General Antranik and his freedom fighters, between 1890 and 1920.

Links for the previous sections

The booklet: (No. 1/4)

https://vhapelian.blogspot.com/2021/09/in-hindsight-emperors-tzars-and.html

The Emperors: (No. 2/4)

http://vhapelian.blogspot.com/2021/09/in-hindsight-emperors-no-2.html

The Comissars: (No. 4/4)

https://vhapelian.blogspot.com/2022/01/emperors-tsars-and-commissars.html

Printing a U.S. Cent and a 1000 Lebanese Liras

Vahe H. Apelian

Lebanese Bank Notes No Longer in Circulation 

The least denomination in the U.S. is the lowly 1-cent Lincoln penny. In Lebanon, it is 1000LL. The latest exchange rate of the Lebanese Lira (LL) against the standard bearer,  the almighty Green Buck, although the $ may not be so mighty anymore - is 33,600 LL. 

According to Wikipedia, seigniorage is the “the profit made by a government by issuing currency, especially the difference between the face value of coins and their production costs.”

Not all currencies make a profit to the government, be it the United States. The cost of paper, colors, metals and labor add to the cost for  printing a bank note or minting a coin. According to a more recent report in Coinnews.net, dated February 7, 2020, by Mike Unser, “in 2019, to make, administer and distribute the 1-cent coin eased to 1.99 cents form 2.06 cents.” It means that it costs twice its face value to print a lincoln penny.  Printing 5-cents is costly too. It costs 7.53 cents to mint a nickel (5 cents). 

It is no wonder that our northern neighbor Canada ceased minting penny in 2019. Bills have been introduced in the U.S. congress to phase out minting the costly penny but to no avail. Let us face it. The “lowly penny” evokes sentimental feelings. I bet many of us have picked a penny and set it aside or in a jar. I have. Penny has its honored place in the American culture and language. There are well-known sayings that reference the penny, such as “penny saved is penny earned”, “penny-wise, pound-foolish. It appears that the costly penny will remain with us for the foreseeable future,  although "untold billions are parked in collection jars and other dark, forgotten places."

50-Piasters, 1952

There is the other side of the coin as well. The metal in the coin may be worth more than the nominal value of the coin itself. Such was the case for the Lebanese 50-cents in the hey days of Lebanon. Sometimes in the 1960’s the 50 piasters disappeared from circulation in Lebanon. It turned out that its silver content was for more valuable than its trading face value. Lebanon being Lebanon, it would not surprise me a bit that those in the higher up bought all the available 50-piasters from the banks at their face value and had them processed for their far more expensive silver content. It even would not surprise me that Lebanese officials, being Lebanese officials, had the government continue on minting the silver containing 50-piasters while they hoarded the minted coins, until the government ran of its silver stock and legislation was passed to have the composition of the 50-piasters changed.

After the news, or should I say after the rumors became widely known. What Lebanese government official in his right mind would have alerted the people?  I too kept the few silver-containing 50-piasters I laid my hands on. They surely felt different in the pocket. They were heavier than the 50 piasters that replaced them. I do not know what happened to my few silver-containing 50 piasters. Recently I checked online about them and found out that they are available for purchase for those to whom the silver-containing 50-piasters evoke memories of the bygone days in Lebanon. But its expensive In a good condition each is retailed up to $40 U.S. dollars. 

I was told that the lowest Lebanese Lira denomination nowadays is 1000 LL. At the current market exchange, it means that 1000 LL is worth around 3 cents. It would not be farfetched to envision that it costs the Lebanese government more than 3 cents to print a 1000 LL bank note.  Why print a 1000 LL then? By the same token it costs more for the U.S. Government to  continue on minting the 1 cent.

There was a time when a 25-piaster coin is all you needed to secure a seating in the circulating taxicabs in the city, and 50-piaster coin to have a tasty manaesh from the baker across the American University of Beirut. Around 3500 LL (around 1000$) is what the student needed to meet the American University of Beirut tuition cost in my days. 

The 50-Lebanese piasters are now worthless. So are the circulating bank notes in my days such as 1, 5, 10, 50 or 100 LL. But should  a person have kept them in mint conditions, they may fetch a hefty price on ebay. In mint conditions, as noted, a 50 piasters may fetch up to $40.

Who can possibly dispute to the contrary that those were the days in Lebanon?  Quoting from the popular song of the 1960’s, the generation of my day in their youth dared to sing in Lebanon.....

We'd live the life we choose
We'd fight and never lose
For we were young and sure to have our way