A street in Yerevan named after King Bab

Yerevan City Council decided today, to rename Amiryan Street, which is a major central thoroughfare. It stretches from Republic Square to the intersection with Mashtots Avenue, placing it right at the heart of the city's downtown, after King Bab. Who was King Bab? I reproduced below a blog I wrote about king Bab, years ago., on January 7, 2024. Vaհe H Apelian

King Bab - Պապ Թագաւոր 

 On more than one occasion the PM Nikol Pachinyan mentioned King Bab - Պապ Թագաւոր - (353-374/375). Reading in the internet about the king, it became apparent that King Bab has fired the imagination of the Armenians in Armenia to this day. In 1944, Stepan Zorian published a 707 pages long novel about the king and in the 2019, a 12th grade student at Mkhitar Sepastatsi Educational Complex  in Yerevan, wrote about King Bab in her blog. I have no recollection of a student in Diaspora Armenian schools write about King Bab. In an attempt to learn and share about King Bab, I resorted to translating the information the young student Hasmik Nersisyan noted in her blog about King Bab (Պապ Թագաւոր). The original is posted below, Բնագիրը կցուած է ներքեւը։ Vahe H Apelian

A depiction of King Bob

Introduction

King Bab ascended the throne during a difficult period, when Armenia was under siege by Persia and Rome and was under the threat of attack at any moment. The King, Arshak II, was in captivity.  The queen was besieged in Artagers (a historic castle).  The general was skinned and placed in the Anhush fortress (in south-west Iran) before King Arshak. The Catholicos Nerses the Great, was busy building and repairing churches. 

When Bab ascended the throne, he set himself the task of creating a state that would not depend on Rome or Persia. In a little while, we shall see how successful he was to accomplish his goals.

Family and youth

 Bab (353-374) was the son of King Arshak II of the Arshakuni dynasty (note: The Arsacid dynasty, called the Arshakuni dynasty, ruled the kingdom of Armenia from 12 to 428). The queen was Parandzem, Arshak's 3rd wife. Before ascending the throne, Arshak II was married to a woman whose name is unknown. The woman apparently died before 358. Bab is the only known child born to Arshak II during his reign.

The Defense of Artagers

After the imprisonment of the Armenian king Arshak II, the Persian king Shapuh II invaded Armenia in the fall of 368 with 50 thousand soldiers, according to P'awstos Buzand (an Armenian historian of the 5th century). The Armenian queen Parandzem, taking the state treasures, fortified herself in the fortress city of Artagers with the king's guards numbering 11 thousand soldiers. The queen's goal was to resist the enemy until the help came from the forces of the Armenian nobles led by the crown prince Bab and chief of staff Mushegh Mamikonyan. They had taken refuge in Rome seeking military help. Bab presented himself to Roman Emperor Valens (364 to 378), and asked him for help. Meanwhile Bab often sent word to the queen that he would be coming soon to her help with the support of the Roman army. But emperor Valens vacillated to take a decision.

According to Ammianus Marcellinus (a Roman soldier and historian), the besieged Armenians not only organized a heroic resistance, but also caused significant losses to the Persian troops with nightly counter attacks temporarily stopping the siege of the fortress, while. negotiating with the Persians who demanded the queen Parandzem to yield, arguing that it is a pointless defense. The queen sent word with them to the Persian army that the Armenians needed two days to prepare for surrender. Thereupon, the Persians loosened the siege. But the Armenian forces, instead of surrender, attacked the Persians and defeated them.

When the Persian king Shapur (Շապուհ Արքա) learnt about the defeat of his army, as Ammianus noted, he fell into "beastly fury". Under his leadership, in the spring of 369, the Persian army entered Armenia and surrounded Artagers again. During the 14th month of the ensuing defense, an epidemic started in the fortress, from which most of the fortress guards died. Deprived of the means of resistance, the queen surrendered. The Persian army looted the king's treasures, captured thousands of people and the queen Parandzem and brought her Persia, where she was publicly humiliated and tortured to death. 

The queen Parandzem defending the  besieged in Artagers

 At that time, Bab was in Rome, seeking military help from the emperor Valens so that he could save the country from the Persian yoke. In 368, Bab with Rome's assistant returned to Armenia with a 10,000-strong army, accompanied by several Armenian nobles. 

His entry into Armenia became a turning point. With his small army, Bab slaughtered not only the Persian battalions, but also the Armenian nobles who had betrayed. But his initial efforts were not all successful to defeat the Persian army. Bab retreated and took refuge in Pontus, within the Roman dominion. He camped in a forest with his commanders for a year taking his time to get organized. Subsequently, showing will and determination, he was able to liberate the country and expel the Persian from Armenia, with the help of his commander Mushegh Mamikonian, the son of Vasak Mamikonian (the Mamikonyan family occupied the hereditary office of sparapet (generalissimo) under Arshakuni dynasty kings).

Ruling

King Bab ascended the throne in 370. He entered Armenia with the help of the Romans led by general Terentius, defeated the Persians in a short period of time, and established himself on the throne.

 Bab began his reign at a very difficult time. Like his father, he tried to restore the Arshakuni dynasty with the help of two important dynastic pillars: the Mamikonyan dynasty and the catholicosate (that was hereditary at the time). Vasak Mamikonyan's son, Mushegh Mamikonyan, became the sparapet. King Bab turned to Nerses the Great, and resolved the animosity between the Arshakuny dynasty and the catholicosate. Nerses the Great begam to appear in the court again. 

Another important achievement that King Bab accomplished was to increase the military strength. At the beginning of his reign, the Armenian army numbered only 10 thousand strong. With such forces, it was impossible to resist the huge Persian military force. Emperor Valens sent a Roman battalion to ensure that the Persians would not destroy the Armenian kingdom. Early in his reign, Armenia and Rome won a joint victory over the Persians at the Battle of Bagavan, and some former territories of the kingdom were reconquered by the efforts of his sparapet Mushegh Mamikonian. 

Although Bab's reign began with a reconciliation of the monarchy, with nobility and church, his relations with the church soon deteriorated.. Bab also eventually ran afoul of the Romans, who suspected him of colluding with the Persians.

King Bab's reforms

Bab began to reduce the enormous lands granted to the churches during King Trdat and gave them to the military. He took away five of the seven parts of the church property in favor of the state and the army. He abolished tithing by the church. 

King Bab closed convents, almshouses, nunneries, widow’s homes founded by Catholicos Nerses, which drained the state treasury, and forced all girls and widows to marry to give a boost to the country's population. 

Weakening the economic power of the Church, he forced the clergy to work and some of them to go into compulsory service. 

Because of his reforms of the church, animosity began between King Bab and Nerses the Great. (note: Saint Gregory the Illuminator had two sons, Saint Ardashes, and Saint Verthanes who became the catholicos after St. Gregory. Saint Verthanes' youngest son Saint Hussik succeeded him as Catholicos. Saint Nerses was the grandson of Saint Hussik )

 Nerses the Great passed away and was succeeded by Shahak A. Manazkertsi, who, by the order of the King Bab,  did not go to Caesarea to be ordained as a Catholicos. Instead, he was ordained Catholicos by bishops in his native land. From there on the Catholicos began to be ordained in Armenia. But the elevation of Shahak as Catholicos was not welcomed by the clergy, because it ended the dynastic succession of St. Gregory the Illuminator. 

After the capture of Arshak II, King Bab’s father, a number of Armenian nobles had started a separatist politics and had rebelled. For this reason, a number of territories were separated from the king’s domain. The King Bab set for himself the goal of recapturing and annexing them to the state territories that had been conquered during that period. He assigned  this very important task to Mushegh Mamikonyan. For that, it was first necessary to reorganize the army. He had the number of skilled troops increased to about 90 thousand. Finally, all the provinces of Great Armenia were united again.

King Bab’s Marriage, Death and Legacy

Bab married an Armenian noblewoman named Zarmandukht, who became the queen of Armenia. Zarmandukht gave birth to two sons. Arshak III and Vagharshak.

The emperor Valens unsuccessfully attempted to assassinate him in 373/374, but ultimately succeeded in having him killed in 374/375. Bab was succeeded by his nephew Varazdat as king.

I believe that the Bab took a very important step forward in the establishment of independent Armenian statehood. Having come to power with the help of Rome, he was able to become independent from Rome in a short period of time and lead a policy independent of  Rome and Persia. 

He also made the church independent from Rome. Although his action was not well received at that time, it is because of King Bab that our church is independent from other churches.

 He closed all nunneries and widows' homes and forced everyone to marry. Due to this, he gave a boost to the country's population growth. He closed charitable institutions that were draining the state budget. He forced the clergy to work and enlist, thanks to which he increased the number of the army to 100 thousand.

Bab came to power with difficulty, but was quickly loved by the people. He reduced the land of the churches, abolished a number of taxes (the tenth of the fruit). Thus, he was able to reduce the role of the church in state administration.

 King Bab demanded the nobles contribute towards a permanent army. For this step, he received the displeasure of the nobles.

Thus, the Bab was a controversial historical figure and reigned for only 4 years, but he can be considered one of the best kings in Armenian history, if not the best. (Hasmik Nersisyan, 2019, as a 12th grade student at Mkhitar Sepastatsi Educational Complex  in Yerevan)

Բնագիրը - The original 

(https://hasmiknersisyan.wordpress.com/2019/12/09/պապ-թագավոր/) 

 

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