Vaհէ H Apelian
I read to day in Aztag Daily, Hagop Latoyan’s article that had for its introduction the following two sentences: “the current situation of the Diaspora communities reveals a worrying and unpromising situation. The Diaspora has never been so weak and in turmoil in its history.”
It is upon reading his article that it downed on me to share my thoughts in this blog. The community I alluded to is the ARF segment of the Eastern United, the cradle of the Armenian American community. The Eastern U.S. Armenian community has its roots dating later part of the 19th century, well before the Hamidian massacres, if not much earlier; let alone the Genocide. The Western U.S. AYF-YOARF is relatively new. It was established as a separate administrative region during the 1973–1974.
There, in the United States, for a long time, other than the Eastern Region AYF, there was no other ARF Youth organization. AYF was founded in 1933, forty years before the founding of the ARF-LEM (Youth Organization of Lebanon), and had remained the sole ARF youth organization for good reason. It was, as it is commonplace for Armenian American children to have a public assisted education up to their high school graduation. That was not the case in Lebanon for the Armenian children. If there were any public assisted schools, the Armenian community had no visualization of having their children attend such schools.
During those early decades, many young Armenian boys and girls in Lebanon, left schooling early on, as many of my classmates did. Some left school as early as during or right after elementary schooling, and started apprenticing to learn a trade. Consequently, two tiers of ARF youth organizations had come about in Lebanon. ARF affiliated families enrolled their children in their local Badanegan (juvenile, minor) Associations. Mine was with the Papken Suni Badanegan in West Beirut. From there, those who continued their education to middle school and then to high school were enrolled in ARF Zavarian Ashagerdagan (student) Association, and those who furthered their education to college, were enrolled in ARF Zavarian Ousanoghagan (college) Association for a period of two years. After which the college student had to make a choice. Either take vows as a member of ARF and remain in Zavarian as an ARF-er; or leave, having ended its affiliation with ARF youth organizations.
The youngster of the Banadegan (minor) Association, who did not pursue education and ended up apprenticing, continued their association with Badanegan, when their ages placed them well above to be in a Badanegan Association or to be called a badani (minor). Over time perceptions changed. Continuing through high school became more common and the distinction between those who apprenticed and those who continued their education through high school became less pronounced. It is at that point that the ARF undertook to re-structure its youth organization world-wide. The Badanegan Associations and the two Zavarian Ashagerdagan (minor) Student Associations, one in Beirut and the other in Bourj Hammoud, were dissolved. The members in these associations became part of youth association and hence, ARF-LEM, or ARF-YOARF of Lebanon came about in 1973.Three years ago, on January 21, 2023, the Youth Organization of Lebanon -ARF-LEM, celebrated the 50th anniversary of its founding. I was a member of its founding committee.
I imagine that it was in 1972/73-time frame that the entrenched AYF in the U.S. had its name changed and formally adopted AYF-YOARF designation, which remains the sole ARF affiliated youth organization in the U.S. In Lebanon, ARF Zavarian Ousanoghagan (college) Association continues to this day along with LEM – YOARF.
As I look back, I become reflective. The members of the ARF Zavarian Ousanoghagan (College) Association became the drivers who got the nascent youth organization going and oversaw its activities. I was among them. I realize that, over the years, the young members of ARF-LEM brought much service to the Armenian community. I met Hagop Der Khatchadourian, the previous representative of the ARF Bureau in the Antelias region ARF-LEM. He chaired the committee of the Antelias region LEM, named Hayastan. He had built a reputation as a studious student who excelled in his studies. I also met Hagop Pakradouni, the current ARF member of the Lebanese Parliament when he was a committee member, if not also the student who chaired the West Beirut branch of the ARF-LEM, called Potoreg. He was noted for his student activism.
I left Lebanon in 1975. I visited it once, in 1995. The change was noticeable. It. became obvious to me that the community had changed noticeably during the past two decades. The change had come about much more rapidly than I had thought it would. It was apparent to me that the turmoil in the region during the past two decades, mostly due to the civil war in Lebanon, had brought about an unmistakable change in the Armenian community. The community had noticeably dwindled in number and those who continued to live in Lebanon naturally had absorbed more of the language, customs, and norms of the greater Lebanese society, much like anywhere else I imagine; be it in the South and North Americas, Europe and elsewhere in the world; the inevitable lot of the Diaspora.
Thirty years after my 1995 visit, the Lebanese Armenian community, from what I read and what my friends who stayed foot there, tell me, that it has become unrecognizable from its hey days. The enduring aftermath of the civil war, the ramifications of the Arab Spring, and the enmity with Israel, compounded by the rivalry among the Arab states, have impoverished the community and is in need of assistance.
Naturally much was and is expected from the ARF segment of the Eastern Armenian community that remained pretty much unaffected from turmoils that, for all practical purposes, devastated the cradle of the Diaspora, the Middle Eastern Armenian communities. But regrettably, it - the ARF segment of the Eastern U.S. - failed to live up to the expectations that naturally came. ARF and AYF-YOARF in the Eastern U.S, come from the most affluent Armenian community, whose members and youth, born and raised in the U.S., were expected to have been nurtured by the ideals that the U.S. projected, as the bastion of democracy and the rule of the law and set examples for ARF organizations to emulate. That did not happen,
To be continued: The failure of the community from which much was expected – 2/2 -
