Vahe H Apelian
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| Courtesy Mark Gavoor. |
I imagine most readers understand that the title of this blog alludes to Armenians whose ancestors hail from Aintab, Marash, and Kharpert. Driven from their ancestral homes in Western Armenia, their descendants endearingly retained the history, cuisine, aspects of the local culture, family anecdotes and of course its dialect as long as they could. Readers may relate to following books, “The Armenians of Aintab” by Umit Kurt, “The Lions of Marash”, by Stanley Kerr, and the books by Hamastegh. In my mind, each became more prominent in a mosaic, that made the tapestry what is the Armenian Diaspora.
Antranig Zarougian, wrote the following about the Aintabtsis in his famous book “Dreamy Aleppo- Yerazaying Haleb – Երազային Հալէպը»… “The overwhelming majority of the Armenians in Haleb were Cilician Armenians; the Sassountsi Armenians were the second largest. Among them, the Aintabsi Armenians occupied a prominent and dominant position. Their numerical superiority was such that they had two schools, Zavarian (Tashnag) and Grtasseerats (the other kind). For some time they had their own church, next to the Cathedral of the Holy Forty Martyrs (Սրբոց Քառասնից Մանկանց Մայր Եկեղեցի). It was known as the “Aintabsis” church. When Catholicos Coadjutor Papken passed away, they did not let him be buried in Antelias. They brought the coffin to Haleb and with a large showing had him buried in “their” church.
Before the Genocide Aintab was considered the Athens among Cilician cities because of its schools, and American College. In spite of the fact that Aintabsi Armenians were Turkish speaking, love of learning and education were much stressed among them….” (see the link below).
Marashtsis were prominent in what was considered the heartland, not only of Armenians of Lebanon, but of Diaspora, the Armenian enclave Bourj Hamoud. They had a whole neighborhood named after Marash, as “Nor Marash- New Marash”. For a quarter of century my mother taught in the Armenian Evangelical Shamlian Tatigian School in Nor Marash. The neighborhood boasted the largest hall of its time called Kermanig. I am not sure if the hall is still in use or if the hall is still around. Kermanig is synonymous with Marash.
Before I immigrated, I associated Kessabtsis being prominent in America, I mean to say in the United Stats of America. The great Mississippi River dividing the country in halves had not made inroad in my imagination. It is only after I immigrated in 1976, that I realized that organized Kessabtsis were not present on the East coast, let alone any other ethnic Armenian group. It also was only after we moved and settled in Boylston in 2018, a suburb of Worcester in Massachusetts, I realized that I could safely ascribe Kharpertsis being prominent, on the East Coast, especially in Massachusetts, notably in Worcester, which was the cradle of the Armenian organized community in the United States. Also, in distinction to Aintabtsis in Aleppo, and Marashtsis in Lebanon, Kharpertis, started coming to the U.S. before the 1915 Armenian Genocide. For an example, Hamasdegh, the noted Kharpertsis, came to U.S. before the genocide to join his father.
A series of happeneing made me come to that realization. But three persons cemented what I had been suspecting that Armenians from Kharpert, more than from any other place in Western Armenia, constituted the cornerstone of the Armenian American community, at least in Massachusetts, notably Worcester, where all things organized Armenian American began.
On January 24, of this year, 2024, Gregory Aftandlian, Senior Professorial Lecturer at the American University, in Washington, DC, gave a presentation at NAASR about “Recreating Kharpert in Massachusetts”, where he said “There is a special connection between Armenian Americans of Massachusetts and the Ottoman province of Mamuret ul-Aziz, which the Armenians called Kharpert.”
Two others, whom I have befriended on line and not yet met in person, came to bolster in me that I can safely claim that if Aintabtis were prominent in Aleppo, Marashtisi in Beirut, Lebanon, Kharpetrsis surely were prominent on the East Coast U.S.A., especially in Massachusetts.
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| Kenneth Martin family dog Chalo |
The first was Kenneth Martin, who I found out is of Kharpert extraction. A few months ago, in March 2024, Kenneth posted a picture of a dog the family had owned in his younger day. For some reasons it reminded me of Chalo, Armenian literature’s famous dog by Hamasdegh. Lo and behold, it turned out that it was named Chalo and that Chalo for a while faithfully guarded Camp Haiastan. (see the link below).
The other is Mark Gavoor, who just recently posted in the Armenianweekly, a picture, which is posted above, of a shirt embroidered “Kharpert Country Club”! Surely, Kharpert is prominently lurking below the bland surface.
It is then that I also realized that it was very natural that the two great Armenian-American writers Hamasdegh and Vahe Hag, were of Kharpet extraction and that Hamasdegh had settled in Watertown, where Hairenik publication was and continues to be and Massachusetts was sort of a Nor-Kharpert.
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| LtoR: Hamasdegh, Vahe Haig, courtesy Levon Sharoyan) |
A reader may ask, what about those who trace their ancestry to Urfa, Zeitoun, Sassoun, Keghi, Erzeroum, Dickranagerd and many and many other places in the historic western Armenia. Aftr all they were natives of that land. Surely, they also endearingly retained the history, cuisine, aspects of the local culture, family anecdotes, and of course the dialect of their ancestral region, as long as they could.
It is just that these three, the Aintabtsis, the Marashtsis and the Kharpertsis came together this morning to put this blog together.
Notes:
Dreamy Aleppo: http://vhapelian.blogspot.com/2017/09/dreamy-haleb-yerazayeen-haleb.html
Chalo: http://vhapelian.blogspot.com/2024/03/chalo.html
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