I have compiled a list of random facts about Armenians of Lebanon. Vahe H Apelian
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| Top: Haigazian University. Low L to R: Armenian Catholic, Apostolic, Evangelical churches/cathedrals. |
1. Armenians first established contact with Lebanon when Tigranes the Great conquered Phoenicia and made it part of its short-lived Armenian Empire.
2. The Catholic Armenians who fled to Lebanon in the declining years of the 17th century may be credited with establishing the first enduring Armenian community in Lebanon.
3. The Armenian Catholic monastery in Bzoummar, Lebanon, built in 1749, is acknowledged as the oldest extant Armenian monastery in Lebanon and serves as the patriarchal see for the entire Armenian Catholic Church.
4. Lebanon Is the location of the only Armenian university outside Armenia. Haigazian University was established in Beirut by the Armenian Missionary Association of America and the Union of the Armenian Evangelical Churches in the Near East. It was founded on October `17, 1955, Haigazian is a liberal arts Armenian institution of higher learning, which uses English as the language of instruction.
5. Haigazian University produced the 1st rockets in the Arab world in 1960.
6. Lebanon Is the post Armenian Genocide seat of the historic Armenian Catholicosate of Sis / Catholicosate of Cilicia in Antelias.
7. Lebanon Is made up of 17 religious denominations and the Armenian Apostolic denomination is considered the 7th largest denomination in the country.
8. Lebanon is the country where ethnic Armenian citizens occupy 7 seats of the 128 member Lebanese Parliament.
9. Lebanon is where the Armenian Apostolic/Orthodox community has 5 seats in the Lebanese Parliament
10. Lebanon is where Armenian Catholic community occupy 1 seat in the Lebanese parliament.
11. Lebanon is where the ethnic Armenians and non-ethnic Armenian Evangelical occupy 1 seat in the Lebanese parliament. Dr. Antranig Manougian was the longest serving Armenian Evangelical/Protestant member of the Lebanese Parliament. He was followed by Nourijan Demirdjian.
12. Lebanon has the only Armenian sanatorium in the Diaspora. It was founded in 1923.
13. Lebanon is where the Armenian village Anjar, formed by descendants of Moussa Dagh, with the assistance of French, is located.
14. Lebanon’s President Emile Lahoud was born in Baabdat on Janury 12, 1936. He is the youngest son of General and former minister Jamil Lahoud. His mother, Andrenee Bajakian, is of Armenian descent from the Armenian-populated village of Kessab, in Syria.
15. Lebanon has many of its impressive building designed by Mardiros Altounian (1889–1958), an Armenian-Lebanese architect. He designed the Lebanese Parliament Building in Beirut (1931), the Abed clock tower (1934), Azounieh sanatorium in Chouf, and Melkonian Benefactors' Mausoleum in Cyprus (with French-Armenian sculptor Leon Mouradoff). Also, St. Gregory Cathedral in Antelian (courtesy Hagop Toroyan), St. Peter and Paul Cathedral in Harissa (courtesy Father Nareg Lousian), Genocide Memorial in 1923. (coutesy Garo Derounian).
16. Lebanon is where KOHAR library is located. It is owned and sponsored by Khatchadourian brothers, and has the world’s largest collection of Armenian song books and hymns and flies the largest Lebanese flag from its rooftop.
17. Lebanon is where Diaspora’s oldest and largest orphanage, Birds’ Nest, is found. It is under the juristiction of the Catholicosate of Sis in Antelias.
18. Under the Ottoman Empire, Mount Lebanon’s first – Daoud Pasha, and the last – Hovhannes Pasha Kouyoumjian - governors were Armenians.
19. Lebanon is where the Armenian Diaspora pop music started. Almost all the Diaspora pop singers had their debut in Lebanon. Name one that did not.
20. Lebanon is where the American University of Beirut is located, which boasts more Armenian college graduates than any other institutution of higher learning in any other country, save naturally Armenia.
21. Lebanon is where, the first post Armenian Genocide High School, the Armenian Evangelical College (AEC) was established in 1923, where Noubar Efeyan, the principal founder of Moderna, went to school.
22. Lebanon is where Nobel Prize Laureate, Artem Patapoutian was born and educated in Armenian school before immigrating to the U.S.A.
23. Lebanon is where the famed Armenian Jemaran-high school – was founded on March 3, 1930 by Hamazkayin Armenian Cultural and Educational Society . Prof. Richard Hovannisian and Vartan Krikorian attended it for varying times.
24. Lebanon is where the oldest literary magazine in Western Armenian, Pakin, was established in 1962 and continues to be published.
25. Lebanon is where Hamazkayin Vahe Setian publishing is founded and located that has published more Western Armenian books than anywhere else in the Diaspora.
26. Lebanon is where the municipality of Bourj Hammoud, once exclusively inhabited by Armenians, is located whose mayor is an Armenian to this day.
27. More Armenians born and raised in Diaspora were schooled in Western Armenian in Armenians schools in Lebanon, than anywhere else in the Diaspora.
28. In 1932 Siran Seza, A Lebanese-Armenian writer began publishing the first feminist literary review for women in Lebanon called The young Armenian Women (Երիտասարդ Հայուհի).Seza was born in Constantinople, present day Istanbul, in 1903. The final issue of the magazine was published in 1968.
29. The central committee of the Hamazkayin Armenian Educational and Cultural Society is located in Lebanon.
30. The Union of the Armenian Evangelical Churches in the Near East (UAECNE) is an autonomous body of Armenian Evangelical churches comprising 25 congregations throughout Australia, Cyprus, Egypt, Greece, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Turkey. The UAECNE, previously known as the Union of Armenian Evangelical Churches in Syria and Lebanon, is the continuance of the Union of Armenian Evangelical Churches in Cilicia. Those who survived the Armenian Genocide formed the timber around which the Armenian Evangelical Community was founded in the Near East. It is headquartered in Lebanon.
31. On August 4, 2020, during the 2020 Beirut explosions, 15 Armenians were killed, more than 250 were injured, The Armenian Catholicosate in Antelis suffered great material damage, Armenian churches and the building of Haigazin University were damaged.
32. John Wortabet (1927-1908) was an Armenian physician, missionary, and educator, John Wortabet was born in 1827. His father died while he was young and Ms. Whiting, an American missionary, took care of him. He joined the American School in Beirut until he mastered English well. Then he studied Arabic under Sheikh Nassif el-Yaziji and mastered Hebrew, Greek, and Latin while studying theology. When the Syrian Protestant College, the precursor of the American University of Beirut established its medical program, he joined it as a professor in anatomy and physiology. His bust remains placed in AUB.
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