The vengeful brave fedaye will never mistreat women.

Vaհe H Apelian

Կանանց երբէք ձեռք տալու չէ վրէժխնդիր քաջ ֆէտան

The vengeful brave fedaye will never mistreat women.

It's a passage from a well known song, at least in ARF circles, about Khanasor Expedition. In my youth as a member of ARF affiliated youth organizations, I too have joined in singing that song. It appears that Khanasor Expedition was also celebrated on the East Coast United States. I was pleasantly surprised when I read the following about Armenian picnics: «For many years, the Providence ARF has held a picnic to honor the memory of the “Khanasor Expedition,” a retribution led by ARF fedayees against the marauding Mazrik Kurdish tribe in 1897.» ( Stepan Piligian, Weekly, July 17, 2025).

But I am astounded to read the ARF press make room for deragotary remarks hurled at Anna Hakobyan, prime minister Nikol Pashinyan's significant other. I used that term purposely, not to make room for  comments about her or his marital status. Significant Other was a commonly used term during my  employment, for social get together, as co-workers or colleaques do and did. I am particularly disturbed when I come across such deragotary comments in the Weekly, or for that matter in Hairenik as well, simply because Weekly's experience runs deep on the East Coast U.S., where more than any other Armenian communities I know, there are second, third generatrion or even forth generation Armenian Americans whose education and experience, I expected would have shaped the Weekly to be more in tune with the current social norms and set standard for verbiage in the ARF press worldwide. I will be amazed to learn that there are Weekly readers who do not have in their larger family social circles, young men and women cohabiting. The all knowing AI tells me that approximately 40% of births in the United States are to unmarried women. Of course it varies from region to region. 

 

I happened to be watching the prime minister Nikol Pashinya explain  about his marital status. Some news outlets reportedit  as well. I quote from such reports because they reflect what I heard. The prime minister said,  “Back in the 1990s, when I was engaged in opposition political activities, I fully expected to be arrested, prosecuted, and have my assets confiscated.” “The only reason I chose not to marry was to protect my family.” He continued on elaborating and said: “I knew what could happen to me. I wanted my children to at least have a home. That’s the only reason we’re not officially married.» Anna Hakobyan commented too and said they have been together since she was 17 years old. Let us face it, had the people of Armenia not stood by Nikol Pashinyan during the Velvet Revolution, he would have been languishing in jail now. He was imprisoned for 1 year and 11 months for his role in the 2008 post-election protests and was released in May 2011.

The fact of the matter is that Nikol Pashinyan and Anna Hakobyan have been together long enough to have to have four children. I quote and let the reader update their ages: «Nikol Pashinyan has four children: a son, Ashot, who was 18 in March 2018, and three daughters. The youngest daughter, Arpi, was celebrated on her 5th birthday on August 2020, meaning she was 5 at that time.» 

When it comes to legal marriage, my maternal grandmother was also not legally married.

My paternal and maternal grandparnts were orphaned survivors of the genocide. My maternal grandmother did not legally marry. She was socially married in their make shift camp near a town in Syria called Deir Atiyah. Some of the Kessabtsis were lucky enough to be driven there and to surrounding towns, instead of to Deir ez-Zor, in Syria. 

My grandmother Karoun was hardly 15 years old when she was driven for extermination with her father Hanna Apelian, mother Anna (nee Boymoushakian), her sister-in-law Anna Apelian (nee Tititizian), and Anna's surviving son James Apelian (see note). When the rest of her immediate family died due to exhaustion and disease, her relatives arranged her to mary the eligble bachelor Khacher Chelebian, from keurkune, Kessab as well. Her brother-in-law to be, who was known for his piety, married them.

They,  along with the remaining survivors managed to return to Kessab in 1918. She may have been married in that year as well.  At that time, Syria was a French protectorate. When the French left, Kessab was incorporated back toTurkey, as it was always part of the Ottoman Empire. But later on, upon the appeals of the  survivors, Kessab was included in Syria. 

Their marriage did not last long in that convoluted period of history. Their elest son my late uncle Antranig Chalabian was eight years old when his father, my grandmother's husband died on February 1, 1930, due to «pneumonia», if not,malnutrition. I am not sure at what point did she have her marriage registered or if they did. Her children, my mother and her two brothers were Syrian nationals in their adult lives.

Note: As to young James Apelian, he was the father of the late Kevork George Apelian, who is the author of «Anna the Bride» and «Martyrdom for Life» books that have been translated in several languates.