Kessab: The three fateful days in March 2014

 Kessab: The three fateful days in March 2014 and their aftermath.

Vaհe H Apelian

March 20, 21, 22, 2014 will remained etched forever in the memories of those who lived through those three days. Those three days in turn and their aftermath  will go down in the history of Kessab, the only Armenian speaking enclave from historical Cilician (Western) Armenia.

The three days presented here are personal accounts from the ground zero, as the events were unfolding, on those very same days. The unfolding of each day was posted separately. I summarized in this blog those three fateful days of Kessab, and their aftermath as a continuum 

March 20, 2014, an ordinary day, the day before the exodus. 

The Teachers' Day in Syria, is typically celebrated on the third Thursday in March. As teachers’ Day goes, it is meant to honor the dedication of educators to building the nation's future. It is not a public holiday, but schools and communities celebrate with special events. In that fateful month, the Teachers’ Day in Syria was on March 20, 2014.

But in 2014, the Kessabtsis celebrated the Teachers’ Day a few days earlier on March 16. Ani Apelian had been the principal of the Armenian Evangelical School for many years. The celebration had happened in their house and Stepan J Apelian had taken that historic picture posted above.

My Facebook records indicate that I had been chatting with Stepan on March 20, 2014, at 3:40 pm, local U.S. Eastern Daylight time. I was in Cincinnati, OH. My cousin Stepan J Apelian, was in Keorkune, Kessab, Syria. The local time there was 10:40 p.m. It was an ordinary evening. We seem to be chatting about my friend Hratch Bedoyan who had passed away in 1992 due to a heart attack. Hratch and I had had visited Keorkune and had spent a few days at our family’s ancestral home, with my paternal uncle and his family.

I do not know when we ended our conversation, but it sure was later in the afternoon local U.S. time and late into the night in Syria.  

March 21, 2014, The day of the exodus,. 

Late in the night of the same day of March 20, 2014,, I received a message from Sevan Apelian from Anjar, that her brother had left Keurkune in haste, because Kessab was under attack.

It turned out that a few hours after Stepan and I ended our chat, on the wee hours of the early morning on Friday March 21, 2014, the first day of spring, hell had broken loose over Kessab

Heavily armed extremists had attacked Kessab from Turkey accompanied by artillery fire. In a matter of hours, the overwhelming majority of some 2,000 or so Armenian inhabitants of the greater Kessab, along with those who had taken refuge there from the civil war raging in Syria, had fled for their safety to the coastal city of Latakia, some 35 miles away. 

So had Stepan, Ani with their son Hovag, who was in his early teens, and Stepan’s mother, my aunt Asdghig. They had hopped into their car, carrying with them their essential personal documents, fand had fled Kessab, with the rest of  the Kessabtsis, to Lattakia.

Kessab borders Turkey. This onslaught of extremists on Kessab from Turkey, surely happened with the assistance and the permission of the Turkish government. Many, if not most, of the extremists who attacked Kessab were later reported not to have been Syrian nationals but were mercenaries recruited from elsewhere. The attack on Kessab was termed the “Anfal” campaign. I quote, “Anfal, which is Arabic for the spoils of war, is the name of the eighth sura, or chapter, of the QurÂ’an. It tells a tale in which followers of Mohammed pillage the lands of nonbelievers. “Basically, the attackers were sanctioned to loot Kessab and looting they did. They also killed the few able-bodied young Kessabtsis who stayed behind to support their elderly family members who could not leave during the mayhem. The attack as recorded by Rev. Sevag Trashian.

March 22, 2014, the day after the exodus. 

Kessabtsis had become refugees in their own country. Some of them found shelter with family members, relatives, and friends they had in Lattakia. Stepan had the family settled in an apartment, he had his Lattakia based business lawyer, whom he had befriended over the years, rent for them. Not all had these connections and had to stay in the church compound. The Kessabtsis organized a relief committee to oversee the fair distribution of aid. 

Stepan posteտ the following on his Facebook page.

Stepan’s comment. 

"To all our brothers and sisters in the Diaspora and mainland Armenia.

It is a very sad day for Kessab. 

The first day of spring - 2014, March 21 - the barbaric enemy with the full support of Turkey as government; logistically, militarily, and even participated in military action and attacked Kesssab early morning at 4 a.m. The attack started with a heavy shelling of the peaceful village, with mortars and grads, creating a chaotic state. 

The civilians fled to Lattakia, but no one can assure safety in Lattakia too. 

This aggression of Turkey is not justified in any way. The extremists are hopeless and frustrated. They could not sustain their existence in many parts of Syria, so they poured their venom on a peaceful, farming, and touristic area – Kessab – and its peaceful people who had no inclination to politics and power, whatsoever.  All through the 3 years of dirty (civil) war, we stayed very peaceful, created no friction with any party, showed military activities against no one. All were busy supporting their families and gave a safe haven to more than 1000 displaced families from all over Syria, of all denominations and faiths without any discrimination. These people are now being penalized for such a peaceful stand. 

The super powers of West are making humanitarian and human rights declarations as the safeguards of all values. But in fact, are blindfolded and deaf to all such act s that they secretly support as well. President Obama in his presidency oath clearly declared that the U.S.A. will return back to its ancestors’ and founding fathers’ values. Wonder if he really did fulfill his promise. 

We ask all living world of conscience to raise their voice against all aggressions at peaceful and life loving civilians.”

March 2014, and beyond.

Most Kessabtsis remained in Latakia during the ordeal. On June 15, word reached them that the extremists had left and that regular Syrian soldiers had entered the Kessab. Following the news Stepan and many other  Kessabtsi men started returning to check on their houses, businesses, orchards. The found the Missakiian Cultural Center in the the center of Kessab still smoldering.

They found their homes, businesses, churches, community centers looted and mostly torched.  They found cemeteries desecrated. Some started rebuilding their shattered lives. But some left for overseas. Most of the latter group claimed their departure oversees was temporary and that they will when law and order prevail in the region to secure their and their families’ safety.

Stepan J Apelian inspecting his sacked and looted house and soap factory

For Stepan, Ani, Hovag and Stepan’s mother Asdghig, that, would be it. They would not return to Keurkune again, let alone resume their lives anew in Keurkune, Kessab.

Stepan returned to Keurkune visiting their ransacked house and businesses and made arrangements for essential repairs to save their home and businesses from the elements of nature.

 Ani, Hovag and Stepan’s mother Asdghig, went to UAE to be with their daughter and her family and from there onto the United States. The family settled in Corona, California. Stepan and Ani continue to live there.

 Hovag graduated from college with distinction into a fine young man.

My paternal aunt Asdghig, Stepan’ mother was born in Keurkune on May 5, 1931. She married my uncle Joseph in Keurkune, where he too was born and lived all his life. They raised their family in Keurkune and buried their elders there. My uncle Joseph had passed away in May 1988, in Keurkune. My aunt Asghgig passed away on May 29, 2025, in Corona, CA. 

The Muslim extremists wiped a century long hard work by the Kessabtsi Medz Yeghern survivors and their descendants. The blow the Muslim extremists had inflicted on Kessab was existential. Kessab has not fully recovered but it and Kessabtsis endure.

Celebrating Hovag's engaement

 

Kessab March 20 (2014), prelude for an enduring saga

Vaհe H Apelian

Yesterday, March 19, 2026 was the Teachers' Day in Syria, which is typically celebrated on the third Thursday in March. As teachers’ Day goes, it is meant to honor the dedication of educators to building the nation's future. It is not a public holiday, but schools and communities celebrate with special events. In that fateful month, the Teachers’ Day in Syria was on March 20, 2014.

But in 2014, the Kessabtsis celebrated the Teachers’ Day a few days earlier on March 16. Ani Apelian had been the principal of the Armenian Evangelical School for many years. The celebration may very well have happened in their house and Stepan J Apelian, may very well have taken that historic picture.

Today, Facebook alerted me that I had been talking with Stepan on March 20, 2014. The record indicates that it was 3:40 pm, local U.S. Eastern Daylight time. I was in Cincinnati, OH, and I am chatting with my cousin Stepan J Apelian. He is in Kessab, Syria. The local time there is 10:40 p.m. It was an ordinary evening. We seem to be chatting about my friend Hratch Bedoyan who had passed away in 1992 due to a heart attack. Hratch and I had had visited Keorkune and had spent a few days at our family’s ancestral home, with my paternal uncle and his family.

Thursday March 20, 2014 at 3:40 PM

Stepan J Apelian’s comment reads: “ He – Hratch – had a strong sense of humor. He was such a gentleman, RIP. I remember when he came with you t o Kessab and I returned with you to Beirut. When we crossed the border, he stopped the car, stepped out, bowed, and kissed the Lebanese ground.” Yes, Hratch loved Lebanon. His doctoral dissertation at Oxford, England was about the Lebanese political system. He told me that he could not wait finish his studies and return to Lebanon.

I do not know when we ended our conversation, but it sure was later at night.  A few hours later, on the wee hours of the early morning on Friday March 21, 2014, the first day of spring, hell broke loose over Kessab. Heavily armed extremists attacked Kessab from Turkey accompanied by artillery fire. In a matter of hours, the overwhelming majority of some 2,000 or so Armenian inhabitants of the greater Kessab, along with many other Syrian nationals who had found refuge there escaping the devastation of the raging civil war, fled for their safety to the coastal city of Latakia, some 35 miles away. So did Stepan, Ani with their son Hovag, in his early teens, and Stepan’s mother, my aunt Asdghig. They had hopped into their car, carrying with them their personal documents, fled Kessab, with the rest of  the Kessabtsis, to Lattakia. 

That would be it. They would not resume their lives again in Keurkune, Kessab.

Stepan returned to Keurkune visiting their ransacked house and businesses.  Ani, Hovag and Stepan’s mother Asdghig would never return to their home, again. The family settled in California. My paternal aunt Asdghig, Stepan’ mother was born in Keurkune on May 5, 1931. She married my uncle Joseph Joseph in Keurkune, where he too was born. They raised their family in Keurkune and buried their elders there. My uncle Joseph had passed away in May 1988, in Keurkune. My aunt Asghgig passed away on May 29, 2025, in Corona, CA. 

The Muslim extremists wiped a century long hard work by the Kessabtsi Medz Yeghern survivors and their descendants. The blow the Muslim extremists had inflicted on Kessab was existential. Kessab has not recovered

 

 

Marie Nichols and her two paintings about Kessab – The Shepherd - 2/2

Vaհe H Apelian

Chelpaz, the last shepherd of Kessab

The attached is the second painting of Marie Ghazarian-Nichols. It depicts the last shepherd of Kessab. Much like her Keurkune painting, the original photograph is from the album the Beirut Kessab Educational Association – Ousoumnasirats – had prepared in 1955. The album was  dedicated to Ovsia Saghdejian, the beloved  Dayee (uncle) for the Kessabtsis. The album was edited by bishop Terenig Poladian.

According to Ara Ghazarin, his paternal aunt Marie Ghazarian-Nichols had commissioned a student of the famed Armenian painter Mardiros Sarian to depict the photograph in oil paint. Ara told me that he paid a visit to Mardiros Sarian studio to locate the painter, but regretfully the studio was closed at the time and was in repair due to a fire. Thus, the painter remains unknown.

At one time shepherding was an important trade. The villagers trusted their domestic animals to the shepherd. Hagop Tcholakian, the eminent scholar has a very interesting write-up about shepherding in Kessab. Those interested may read the attached link.

The caption of the photograph in the album reads as follows: “At dusk, the shepherd of Kessap returns home. He is happy, cheerful and smiling. Breathing in the fresh and clean air  of Mount Cassius and Mount Seldaran, he remained healthy and cheerful until a ripe old age in his beloved Kessab” The last shepherd of Kessab was  endearingly called Chelpaz.

Marie Ghazarian-Nichols and her four brothers were born and rained in this house,
still stannding in keurkune. The pictrure courtesy Stepan J Apelian

The late Haygaz Terterian wrote the following about the last shepherd of Kessab. He wrote that «as the epitome of his class, it is worth reviving an entire class with a few lines written about him.» ՚

Haygaz wrote: 

«Kerob Arabian was an unknown to the people of Kessap. But who did not know Chilpaz, that uneducated, perhaps even illiterate, but wise shepherd known to all? Having spent his whole life with goats, having been born among them, having spent his childhood with them, he had become their leader. That thin and slender shepherd, having grown up in nature, became a man who disregarded the difficulties and dangers of life. Following the admonition of Jesus, "Be like the birds of the air, leaving your tomorrow to the providence of the Most Merciful." He lived his today, trusting God for tomorrow. The following were his own words: “What do I have to lose, if I climb the tree, the chakmas (long-strapped shoes) will climb ahead of me.” (see below)

Today, his grandchildren and great-grandchildren, through their hard work, diligence, and perseverance, live a comfortable life in Kessab. The most well-known of them is Kerop, the grocer who keeps his grandfather’s name. But I unfortunately or fortunately,  I don't know which, he has lost grandather's monicker, Chelpaz.»

 Marie Ghazarian-Nichols has gifted the painting of the last shepherd of Kessab to the Armenian Embassy in Ottawa.

The original photograph from the 1955 Kessab album

As a widower, Ara married Ellen Ayvazian whom he met in an Armenian Embassy function in Ottawa. Ellen was born in Tehran and studied in Armenia. She was appointed chief executive assistant to the Armenian Ambassador when the Republic of Armenia opened its embassy in Tehran and subsequently in Ottawa. Helen has said the Armenian Embassy receives paintings, but does not have room to have them all displayed. Consequently, many remain in storage. But the Armenian Embassy has made an exception to the Marie Gharian-Nichol’s painting of the last shepherd of Kessab and has the painting hung on the wall in its reception room.

 

Link: Marie Nichols and her two paintings about Kessab – Keurkune – 1 of 2 :  https://vhapelian.blogspot.com/2026/03/marie-nichols-and-her-two-paintings.html

                                                         ###

Link: Hagop Cholakian; The wounded wolf has no friends:  

https://vhapelian.blogspot.com/2020/12/and-that-becomes-end-of-all.html

 

Marie Nichols and her two paintings about Kessab – Keurkune - 1/2

Vahe H Apelian

 

Courtesy Ara Ghazarian

The attached is the only painting of our village Keurkune, Kessab in Syria. I first came across this painting on Ara Ghazarian’s Facebook page and I posted it on my Facebook page. That was twelve years ago, on December 2014. It elicited a few comments. Among them Garo Knoyalian wrote,  “wow, who has done this oil painting and where is the original?”. Stepan J Apelian commented and said, “this painting was framed and on my office wall next to the new keorkune picture. This, was sent to me by late Khachig Chelebian from Australia, but he did not know who was the painter.”

I gathered the following information about the painting from Ara Ghazarian.  The painting belonged to her aunt Marie Ghazarian-Nichols. He said that she had an Armenian painter from Iran in California paint it for her. She had presented to the painter a picture of Keurkune from a pictorial album about Kessab, the Beirut Kessab Association, Ousoumnasirats, had prepared in 1955. The album was dedicated to the Ovsia Saghdejian, the beloved Dayee of Kessab and it was edited by the later bishop Terenig Poladian. We can then conclude that the oil painting depicts Keurkune in 1955 and it was painted a few years later, sometime in the late 1950’s or early 1960’s.

The painting, in fact, depicts Keurkune of my childhood days. I numbered a few landmarks and posted a few comments. Much can be written about this unique village. 

 No 1, is our paternal grandfather’s house built in late 1800’s. My paternal cousins Stepan and Ara were born and raised in that house. Later on, Stepan and Ani raised their children Tsolag, Shoghag, Hovag in that historic house. It still stands, renovated.

Next to it, No. 10, depicts Manesh nanar’s – grandma’s house – at least that is how I remember it. The two houses next to each other had one common wall. 

No. 2 is Keurkune’s unfinished school whose roof remained unfinished for the following many years.  The room of the left room was finished early in late 1960’s where classed were held. The room on the right-hand side was finished later on.  Stepan, had a vision of rendering it into a soap museum. I let him comment about the building.

No. 3 is Keurkune’s historic church built in 1898. Its mason was Arch. Ardavast Terterian’s grandfather. There is much to write about the church and has been written too.

No.4, at the far end of the village is its cemetery.

No. 5, is where the village’s olive oil press – Nofer’s mangana – was located.

No. 6, is the cluster of homes, including my maternal grandmother’s house.

No. 7, the communal threshing lots for the villagers were located, for threshing the harvested wheat. 

No. 8, was our paternal grandfather’s lot where he planted wheat, chickpeas, and later on it became the apple orchard. 

No. 9, is where Chalaba Nanar’s house. She was my maternal grandfather’s Khatcher Chelebian’s sister Marie, married to Hapel Apelian. 

No. 11, I knew the household there are Karakeuni’s. The cluster of the trees there were prime bird hunting ground.

The rest are Apelian, Bedirian, Kerbabian, Chelebian  households. 

Much has changed and there is little resemblance of the way it was.

Marie Ghazarian-Nichols, Courtesy Armenian Weekly 
(see the link)

This is what her nephew Ara Ghazarin wrote about her aunt Marie-Ghazarian-Nichols (1920-2023). "My aunt passed away January 22 at the age of 102. She was born in Keorkune a village near Kessab Syria she was orphaned at young age and sent to an orphanage in Aleppo , she learned nursing in Altounian establishment, she moved to Beirut where her 4 younger brothers and mother were settled. She worked in AUB maternity ward. She also worked in a British hospital in Khan Younes in Gaza Strip working for United Nations. In 1953 she migrated to Canada and lived in Penticton BC. My deepest condolences to her daughter Johanna her son Albert and her twin grandchildren Sienna and Jera.” 

The painting remains with MarieGhazarian-Nichols family, in Canada.

 

Link: In Memory of Marie Marlene Ghazarian Nichols: https://armenianweekly.com/2023/02/19/in-memory-of-marie-marlene-ghazarian-nichols/

The photograph

The unforgettable Keurkune

Stepan J Apelian

According to my records, Stepan J Apelian wrote the attached limerick in native Kessab dialect, nine years ago. Stepan is born and raised in Keurkune. The Armenian in blue and the English in red, translations are made. Vaհe H Apelian

 

Keurkune, Kessab, Syria

Իլուօծ իկուօծ ինք Ամիրգան

Ելած եկած ենք Ամերիկա

We moved and came to America.

 

եիտ թուղուօծ ինք զմիր Քուրքունան

Ետ ձցած ենք մեր Քէորքիւնան

We left our Keurkune behind.

 

Զան իրուօզիս հատսնէմ

Զայն երազիս մէջ կը տեսնեմ

I see it in my dreams.

 

Ումօտ չունէմ ղուրպէթիէն

Յոյս չունիմ օտարութիւնէն

I have no hope from abroad.

 

Հէմու էրկիէք ծոռ նստենք ուղղուրդ զուրիցինք

Հիմա ծուռ նստինք շիտակ խօսինք

Լet us face it and speak truthfully.

 

Սէարպասդ Գիէղը թուղիլուօն

Ազատ համարձակ գիւղը ձգելով

Leaving the freely roaming village behind,

 

Մէմլէքէթէն զուգագնէն Գալապու

Քաղաքին խճօղուած փողոցները

The congested streets of the city,

 

Չընկարնուօր ըզմի մարցըսնիլ զՔուրքունու

Զեն կրնար մեզ մոռցնել տալ Քէորքիւնան

Cannot let us forget our Keurkune.

 

Ստեփան Աբէլեան

Stepan J Apelian

Hyortik: a reflection

Vaհe H. Apelian

Written by Boghos Shahmelikian, translated by Vahe H Apelian

 I owe the lyrics of Hyortik, maybe the signature song of the Five Fingers Band, to Vahig Vartabedian, a musician who was active on the Armenian pop music scene.

The Five Fingers band was made of a group of talented Armenian musicians. I hold Stepan Frounjian as the good will ambassador of the Five Fingers Band who continues to share his talent on the Facebook from Racine, Wisconsin while also serving the Armenian Apostolic Church there as its arch deacon.

I got to know more of the Five Fingers band because I translated Boghos Shahmelikian’s memoir of the band and of the Armenian pop music that suddenly burst onto the Armenian scene in late 1960’s. Those interested to know about the band and the era may read  the book I translated with the help of my cousin Jack Chelebian MD.  The book is titled "Dawn of Armenian Pop Music"

Hyortik is a complex word made of “hie” (Հայ) and “Vorti”, which according to the Nairi dictionary means son, child. We know that the Armenian language does not have different pronouns for males and females. By extension Hyortik may be translated as “Children of Armenians” or “Sons of Armenians.”  in my translation, I used the word son, instead of children. 

The first sentence of the lyrics addresses to “Հայորդիք որ կ՚ապրիք դուք հեռուն” (Sons of Armenians who live far away). 

The lyrics of Hyortic

Who were the children of the Armenians who lived far away? The song urged them not to forget the language, not to assimilate, to learn the Armenian history, to love one another and to uphold each other. 

It is hard to fathom now that that message was for the Armenian youth growing in the west, in the Armenian sense of the designation of the West (Europe, Americas,....). I may even say that they meant to Armenians of their age who lived far from the Armenian community of Lebanon,  Syria in the Middle East, the cradle of the Diaspora Armenian culture. They ended the song by repeating the following two sentences of the lyrics over and over again: "Let's not assimilate, let's love each other. Let's keep our holy honor high." 

The members of the Five Fingers were born and raised in a veritable Armenia outside Armenia, that was the Armenian community of Lebanon. Secure in their Diaspora Armenian homeland of sort, the state of the Armenianness of their brothers and sisters in those faraway lands in Europe, Americas, preoccupied and concerned them, and fired their youthful imagination. It is for them they composed HYORTIK.

But, little did they knew that in a few short years they too will cross oceans and continents and settle on the very same far away real estate that dreaded them once. And, in another twist of fate, I would end up dedicating my translation and publication of Boghos Shahmelikian’s memoir, both of which were a labor of love, to the children of those popular Armenian pop music musicians who changed the landscape of the Armenian pop music, so that their children now may be able to read about their parents in the language they, unlike their parents, are brought up and understand, English.

After some vacillating I decided to add the following concluding paragraph to end my reflection on the one-time popular song by the Five Fingers band. Those in Diaspora, who have something to say as to how best the elected government of Republic of Armenia should govern Armenia, or whether the citizens of Armenia are patriotic enough or not, have their priorities upended.  

A few decades after the release of the Hyortic extolling the Armenian youth in the west,  our own communities in Lebanon and Syria, are now culturally if not existentially threatened.

Wording the lyrics of Hyortik as   a set of questions, it is now a matter of reflection whether the Diaspora as a whole is upholding the lyrics of that song. 

Are we not forgetting our sweet mother tongue?

Are we singing and always talking (Armenian)?

Are we seeing how sweet it is?

We’re few. But are we remaining Armenian?

Are we not forgetting our mother tongue?

Are we endlessly supporting each other?

Are we always holding our nation high?

Are we always high? And are we remaining lofty?

Are we not assimilating? And are we loving each other?

Are we keeping our holy honor high?

As Armenians we live far away (from Armenia)

Are we not forgetting our Armenian history?

Are we telling our children?

Are we teaching our children to know the value of the Armenians?

 

“Jesus in the old testament - Յիսուս Հին Ուխտին մէջ”

Vaհe H Apelian

“Յիսուս Հին Ուխտին մէջ - Jesus in the old testament” is the title of the book the late Rev. Barkev Orchanian wrote.

This past week, the car accident, that took the lives of 32-year-old Arie Orchanian and his 80-year-old paternal aunt, Anie (Orchanian) Manoushagian, reminded me of their father and grandfather Rev. Barkev Orchanian.

 Local news outlets reported that the accident happened on a Watertown busy street where the speed limit is 20 miles per hour.  On Tuesday, December 23 morning, Arie Orchanian and his aunt Anie (Orchanian) Manoushagian, attended a funeral at the Bigelow Avenue Armenian Evangelical church. After the burial, they were headed back to the church for a memorial dinner, but they never made it. Their sedan collided with a Tesla, killing the two.

This tragic accident reminded me of another tragedy the family endured years ago, when Rev. Barkev Orchanian family lost his son Rev. Norayr Hagop, to illness.

I met the Rev. Barkev and his wife Mrs. Arousiag Orchanian and family in Keurkune, Kessab when they spent part of their summer with my paternal grandparents (see the link). Later on, Ani Orchanian became a student at the American University of Beirut when I was studying there as well. Other than my parents hosting Rev. Orchanian in Beirut, I have no recollection of meeting an Orchanian family member after I came to the U.S. But Rev. Barkev Orchanian and his family has remained etched in my memory because it would not have been possible to have met the reverend and not being impressed by his Christian conviction.

Rev. Barkev Orchanian is also the author of “Յիսուս Հին Ուխտին մէջ - Jesus in the old testament”  book written in 1992. I have retained a copy of the book in my library. The reverend has dedicated the book to his son, Rev. Norayr Hagop Orchanian. I would like to cite in translation Rev. Barkev’s dedication of the book to his son. And, Rev. Dr. Harold A.K. Hasessian’s presentation of the book.

***

Dedication: “I dedicate this humble study to the memory of my son, Reverend Norayr Hakop Orchanian, who departed this world prematurely and opened his eyes to eternity, as his tombstone. In a way, to have fulfilled his ardent desire for evangelization and to spread the love of the Lord Jesus Christ.

My son, you were a star that rose and shone in our celestial vault, but like a shooting star, you soon disappeared, wounding all the sensitive hearts that loved you. My son, we are aware that hope does not die, nor is it buried. Although it may become invisible to our eyes for a time, it lives on forever, maintaining its radiant existence, as the Prophet Daniel says, “And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.” KJV 12:3.

You came into this world as a light, illuminating a period, though brief, yet lasting, like a comet. You did what you could do and little more. In your debilitating illness, you did not refuse the offer made to you by your principal, Dr. Rev. H. Fletcher, that you would lead a group of young people to Damascus. You not only did not refuse, but you eagerly accepted it. Those around you had begun to forget your name and call you “the smiling young man.” Now, you are smiling from above.” 

***  

Rev. Dr. Harold A.K. Hasessian: “Reverend Barkev Orchanian has rendered a fruitful pastoral service in the Armenian Evangelical Church of the Near East. For nearly half a century, he has preached the Gospel of Christ and spread the message of salvation to the remote provinces of Lebanon and Syria, where Armenians are scattered. He has also worked in churches in Istanbul, as well as in U. S. and in Canada. The Reverend is a dedicated, orthodox and faithful clergyman. He has been a visionary, a tireless reader, a persistent worker, and a studious pastor. He has been a serious student of the Bible. He presents to the religious world a unique scholarly work, titled “JESUS ​​IN THE OLD TESTAMENT.”

It is very beneficial to follow the Reverend’s way of thinking in order to understand the art of his interpretations and analyses.

Reverend Barkev Orchanian sees in the characters and the happening of the Old Testament, our Lord Jesus Christ, His holiness and righteousness. He finds Jesus as the promised Messiah, the awaited Savior, the High Priest of the Temple, the Lamb of God and the Sacrificial Lamb on the altar of fire, for the salvation and forgiveness of sins, for the Jewish people and the entire pagan world.

The publication “JESUS ​​IN THE OLD TESTAMENT” invites the reader to delve deeper into pre-Christian revelation. Those who know Jesus and follow in His footsteps will find Him in the works of the kings, the judges, and the prophets of the Old Testament, as well as in the temple, where every symbol points to His majesty, authority, and power as the Son of God. The picture on the book cover reflects that mystery. Jesus, as the light of the world, floods the temple with its surrounding 

I wish and pray that, this meritorious work of the Very Reverend Barkev Orchanian, will illuminate the reader’s mind and the brighten the reader's soul. The author will feel rewarded when he learns that the central figure of the book, Lord Jesus, has been the personal savior of the reader. Spread the message of this beneficial book by sharing it with many”. 

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Link: Our granfather Stepan Apelian - https://vhapelian.blogspot.com/search?q=Stepan+apelian