An Intriguing Spin in the Narrative of the Armenians & Ottomans in Ethiopia

An Intriguing Spin in the Narrative of the Armenians & Ottomans in Ethiopia: A story of “Arba Lijoch” Guest Lecture – CXIV – MMXV, Centre for Human Environment, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos, PhD, Professor of Public Policy, School of Graduate Studies, College of Business & Economics, AAU,

Summary The Ottoman systematic extermination of its minority Armenian subjects inside their historic homeland is what led Raphael Lemkin to coin the word genocide and defined it as a systematic and premeditated extermination within legal parameters. The Ottoman period spanned more than 600 years and came to an end only in 1922, when it was replaced by the Turkish Republic and various successor states in south-eastern Europe and the Middle East. The Ottoman activities in Ethiopia proper preceded their invasion, supporting the campaign of Imam Ahmad Gragn (1527) and following the Imam's reverse after the Battle of Jarta in 1542 they had sent him badly needed aid at a time when firearms in the region were rare. The Ottomans invaded the Kingdom of Medri Bahri in Northern Ethiopia in 1557 and then Mitswa and Hirgigo and finally Debarwa. Emperors Sarsa Dengel and Susenyos battled until the Ottomans were defeated. On the other hand, while the Armenians had traded with Ethiopia from the first century AD and notwithstanding the historic Ethiopian and Armenian Church affiliations, there is also the story of the Arba Lijoch (coming to Ethiopia after the Ottoman Genocide), which led to a wave of trans- formation in arts. The Armenian community later brought forth the pharmaceutical and medical institutions, introduced the first modern astronomical observatory and built new houses and institutions that incorporated traditional architecture aesthetic motifs to create unique structures. For the Arba Lijoch, Ethiopia not only became a refuge from extermination, but a place to flourish inventively and skillfully, in the mold of their forefathers in search of esoteric likings, unremorseful about their own craving for sanctioned chefs-d'oeuvre in fashioning Ethiopian Jazz. These conscientious and trustworthy Armenians continue to leave their permanent legacy on Ethiopia’s communities and its rich art, music and culture as master managers and crafts persons who built great edifices. Key words: Armenians, Ottomans, Arba Lijoch, Ethiopian Jazz,

1. The Ottoman & Ethiopian Empires 1.1. The Ottoman Empire Ottoman Empire, empire created by Turkish tribes in Anatolia (Asia Minor) that grew to be one of the most powerful states in the world during the 15th and 16th centuries. The Ottoman period spanned more than 600 years and came to an end only in 1922, when it was replaced by the Turkish Republic and various successor states in south-eastern Europe and the Middle East. At its height the empire encompassed most of south-eastern Europe to the gates of Vienna, including present-day Hungary, the Balkan region, Greece, and parts of Ukraine; portions of the Middle East now occupied by Iraq, Syria, Israel, and Egypt; North Africa as far west as Algeria; and large parts of the Arabian Peninsula. The term Ottoman is a dynastic appellation derived from Osman I (Arabic: ʿUthmān), the nomadic Turkmen chief who founded both the dynasty and the empire about 1300 (Shaw, 2015). 1.2. The Ottoman activities in Ethiopia proper preceded their invasion. The Ottomans had supported the campaign of Imam Ahmad Gragn (1527), and following the Imam's reverse after the Battle of Jarta in 1542 they had sent him badly needed aid at a time when firearms in the region were rare.i This support led to the destruction of almost all forces under Chris- topher da Gama. Had Ahmad Gragn not dismissed the reinforcements soon, he may have prevailed at the decisive Battle of Wayna Daga. The Ottomans invaded the Kingdom of Medri Bahri, now in Eritrea, in 1557 with a force of perhaps 1400-1500 under Özdemir Pasha. First they captured Mitswa and Hirgigo, then moved in- land and occupied the regional capital of Debarwa, where he established a fort [...] with 'a long wall and very high tower... filled with vases of gold and silver, precious stones, and other valuables that were obtained by looting, extractions on trade, and the imposition of a poll tax on the local population.[9] A fort was also constructed at Hergigo; a planned fort at Mitswa had to be abandoned due to a lack of suitable building materials. Debarwa was then given to the local noble Ga'éwah, the sister of Ahmed Gragn's mother-in-law. Debarwa was intended to be the base of penetration of [...] Ethiopia, but had to be abandoned for several reasons. The invading force had run out of provisions and the local population, who were beginning to have access to fire-arms put up fierce resistance. The Ottoman force abandoned the fort and retreated to Mitswa, but was attacked and defeated by the local peasants who captured all their goodsii (Özbaran, 1994). Emperor Sarsa Dengel was angered by this and campaigned against Yeshaq in 1576, defeating an alliance of the Ottomans, the Bahr Negash, and the Emir of Harar in 1579, killing their leaders. Em- peror Sarsa Dengel then retook Debarwa, which surrendered to him and some of whose soldiers were absorbed into the army. Further relations between the Ethiopian Emperor and the Ottoman Na'ib were marked by periods of relative peace and others of confrontation. The first major conflict came in 1615, in the reign of the Portuguese-influenced Ethiopian Em- peror Susenyos. During the reign of the Na'ibs, Ottoman raiding parties from the garrison at Mitswa would periodically raid the surrounding hinterland for cattle, slaves, and other booty. As a result, Susenyos ordered the governor of a northern province to cut the Na'ib off from Ethiopian supplies, as the eyalet of Habesh had no supplies of its own. Though the Pasha told his men to acquiesce in case of such an event before leaving on a hajj, he was replaced by another Pasha who was unyielding. Susenyos later commented that if he wished to retake Arqiqo, he could do it quickly, but could not hold it against retaliatory Ottoman assaults (Wikipedia, 2015a).

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2. Armenian Genocide Armenia had come largely under Ottoman rule during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The vast majority of Armenians, grouped together under the name Armenian millet (community) and led by their spiritual head, the Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople, were concentrated in the eastern provinces of the Ottoman Empire (commonly referred to as Turkish Armenia or Western Armenia), although large communities were also found in the western provinces, as well as in the capital Con- stantinople. The Armenian community was made up of three religious denominations: the Armenian Apostolic to which the overwhelming majority of Armenians belonged, and the Armenian Catholic and Armenian Protestant communities. Through the millet system, the Armenian communities were allowed to rule themselves under their own system of governance with fairly little interference from the Ottoman government. With the exception of the empire's urban centers and the extremely wealthy, Constantinople- based Amira class, a social elite whose members included the Duzians (Directors of the Imperial Mint), the Balyans (Chief Imperial Architects) and the Dadians (Superintendent of the Gunpowder Mills and manager of industrial factories), most Armenians – approximately 70% of their population – lived in poor and dangerous conditions in the rural countryside (Wikipedia, 2015). The Armenian Genocide was the Ottoman's systematic extermination of its minority Armenian subjects inside their historic homeland, which lies within the territory constituting the present-day Republic of Turkey. The total number of people killed as a result has been estimated at between 800,000 to 1.5 million. The starting date is conventionally held to be 24 April 1915, the day Ottoman authorities rounded up and arrested, subsequently executing, some 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople. The genocide was carried out during and after World War I and implemented in two phases: the wholesale killing of the able-bodied male population through massacre and subjection of army conscripts to forced labor, followed by the deportation of wom- en, children, the elderly and infirm on death marches leading to the Syrian desert. Driven forward by military es- corts, the deportees were deprived of food and water and subjected to periodic robbery, rape, and massacre (Ibid:2). Raphael Lemkin was explicitly moved by the Armenian annihilation to coin the word genocide in 1943 or 1944 and define systematic and premeditated exterminations within legal parameters. The Armenian Genocide is acknowledged to have been one of the first modern genocides, because scholars point to the organized manner in which the killings were carried out in order to eliminate the Armenians, and it is the second most-studied case of genocide after the Holocaust. Turkey, the successor state of the Ottoman Empire, denies the word genocide as an accurate term for the mass killings of Armenians that began under Ottoman rule in 1915. It has in recent years been faced with repeated calls to recognize them as genocide. To date, twenty-eight countries have officially recognized the mass killings as genocide, a view which is shared by most genocide scholars and historians (Ibid). 3. Armenians in Ethiopia 3.1. There is a small community of Armenians in Ethiopia. Armenians had traded with Ethiopia from the first century AD. The Armenian presence in Ethiopia is historic. On a religious basis, the Ethiopian Church and the Armenian Apostolic Church are both members of the Oriental Orthodox communion of churches alongside Coptic Orthodox, Syriac Orthodox and Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church (India) churches. The Armenian inhabit- ants in Ethiopia are Armenian Apostolics (Orthodox Armenians) belonging to the Armenian Apos- tolic Church. The Armenian Apostolics (Orthodox) have their own church, Sourp Kevork (St. George) Armenian Apostolic Church in Addis Ababa. The first-ever pastor of the Armenian community was Rev. Hovhannes Guevherian (Wikipedia, 2015b) Besides the obvious religious affiliation, there is also the story of the Arba Lijoch children coming to Ethiopia after the Armenian Genocide. Arba Lijoch (40 Armenian orphans) who had es-

2 | The Ottomans & the Armenian Legacy in Ethiopia caped from the atrocities in Turkey were afterwards adopted by Haile Sellasse I of Ethiopia, then Crown Prince Ras Tafari. He had met them while visiting the Armenian monastery in Jerusalem. They impressed him so much that he obtained permission from the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem to adopt and bring them to Ethiopia, where he then arranged for them to receive musical instruction. The Arba Lijoch arrived in Addis Ababa in 1924, and along with their bandleader Kevork Nal- bandian became the first official orchestra of the nation. Nalbandian also composed the music for Marsh Teferi (words by Yoftehé Negusé), which was the Imperial National Anthem from 1930 to 1974. Armenians have a much older presence in Ethiopia. Indeed, one of the first recorded diplomatic missions to Europe from Ethiopia was led by Matthew the Armenian who traveled to Addis Ababa Armenian school students in 1918, Portugal and Rome at the request of the Dowager teachers Mari and Vaghinak Bekaryan Empress Eleni of Ethiopia to appeal for aid against Islamic incursions into Ethiopia in the 16th Cen- tury. 3.2. In The Company of Emperors: The Story of Ethiopian Armenians (Aslanian, 2014) Addis Ababa is the capital of Ethiopia and the seat of the African Union. Taking a stroll through the capital today, you may be entirely unaware of the extensive Armenian presence in the city during the modernization period of Ethiopia. Although Armenians and Ethiopians share a long history as members of the same branch of Orthodox Christianity, there is a lesser-known story regarding the contributions of Armenians in Addis Ababa and how they transformed a newly born agricultural town into a thriving capital of culture and commerce. During the early 1900s, under the rule of Emperor Menelik II, there were approximately 50 Arme- nians in Addis Ababa. But the size of the community would soon grow tremendously and flourish with the turn of the century under Haile Haile Sellasse’s rule. Known by his official name, Tafari Makonnen Woldemikael, Haile Haile Sellasse was Ethiopia’s head of state from 1916 to 1930 and Em- peror from 1930 to 1974. His life and legacy carry a fundamental role in African and Ethiopian history as well as in the Rastafari movement. In the case of the latter, he is considered a messianic and holy figure. In fact, the African-Jamaican spiritual ideology known as Rastafari gets its name from the imperial title of ―Ras,‖ and Tafari — Haile Sellasse’s first name. After becoming the regent and de facto ruler of Ethiopia in 1916, Haile Sellasse began to gradually modernize Ethiopia, beginning with the capital, Addis Ababa. He started by having Ethiopia admit- ted to the League of Nations in 1923 and his diplomatic trips in the following years aimed to solidify stable connections outside of Ethiopia. The first of these diplomatic visits was in 1924, when Haile Sellasse went on a trip to Europe and the Middle East in the hopes of establishing allies in Europe. But it was in the heart of the Middle East — in Jerusalem — that Haile Sellasse would soon become acquainted with the 40 Armenian orphans who would ultimately become the forerunners in the modernization of mainstream music in Ethiopia. As Haile Sellasse toured Jerusalem, he visited the Armenian Quarter and marveled at the St. James Armenian Apostolic Church (Surb Hakobyants Vank.’) Haile Sellasse himself was a devout member of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and he noted the striking similarities between the two churches, as well as the likeness in written script.

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More significantly, however, it was on this day, as he was walking through the Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem, that Haile Sellasse observed a marching band composed of 40 young Armenian men; he was deeply moved by the band’s musical talent. After concluding his tour of the Armenian Church and district, Haile Sellasse had a conversation with Patriarch Turyan and learned that these 40 talented young musicians were orphans of the Armenian Genocide. He also learned of the terrible financial strain that came with raising these orphans. In response, Haile Sellasse offered to adopt and bring the marching band back with him to Addis Ababa. The 40 Armenian orphans arrived to the capital on September 6, 1924, accompanied by Father Hovhannes Simonian, and officially became known as the Arba Lijoch (―forty children‖ in Amharic, the official language in Ethiopia.) The Arba Lijoch formed the royal imperial brass band of Ethiopia and each of the children were allocated a monthly stipend, provided with housing and trained by their musical director, Kevork Nalbandian. Nalbandian was an Arme- nian orphan himself, originally from Aintab (modern-day Gaziantep) in the southeastern region of the Ottoman Turkish Empire. It was Nalbandian who led the Arba Lijochwith his musical compositions and Haile Sellasse was so impressed with the band’s compila- tions, he asked Nalbandian to compose the music for Ethiopia’s national anthem. In 1926, Nalbandian composed the Ethiopian Imperial National An- them titled, Teferi Marsh, Ethiopia Hoy, which translates to ―Ethiopia, be happy‖ and it was performed by the 40 orphans for the first time in public during Haile Haile Sellasse’s official crowning as Emperor on November 2, 1930 in Addis Ababa. A recent project by Silva Sevlian, Arba Lijoch - Haigaz Boyajian, royal photographer of Ethiopia. which was conducted during her time at the University of Southern California, documents the experience of the Armenian community in Addis Ababa at that time. Included in these documents is an oral account of an Armenian who wit- nessed one of the anniversaries of the coronation in the late 1950s. Araxi Aslanian recalls the memory: During the anniversary of the coronation, the emperor passed through the piazza and stopped in front of the Armenian Church. And the Armenian community was there to greet him. The heads of the community would sa- lute him, and it so happened that I was eight years old. I gave flowers to the Emperor when I approached him, and he gave me his hand. Later, we were invited to the palace the following day, and when we went to the palace, I finally had the chance to see where the emperor that I had seen all my life lived! Aslanian wasn’t the only Armenian that Haile Sellasse had made an impact on. In fact, Haile Sel- lasse’s initial coronation on November 2, 1930 set a defining tone for the Arba Lijoch and the Arme- nian community in Ethiopia. The Arba Lijoch began performing for nearly every imperial event of the state, and later trained Ethiopia’s army and imperial bodyguard bands. These 40 orphans who

4 | The Ottomans & the Armenian Legacy in Ethiopia were once deprived of their most earnest childhood memories due to genocide and dispossession had now found their beacon of hope through music. While not much is recorded about the personal lives of the 40 orphans, Mesfin Kebede possesses some documents that provide a look into the lives of the orphans, including their names, ages and hometowns. Kebede recounts that the majority of the orphans were originally from various Armenian towns. Most of the orphans came from Vaspu- rakan (Van), Karin, Zeytun, and Sis. Kebede described the Arba Lijoch as diligent, abstemious, and hon- est, virtues that, according to him, are qualities of the race to which they belong. While Emperor Haile Haile Sellasse gave these orphans the opportunity for a new life, the Arba Lijoch gave Ethiopia the opportunity to modernize its music. Through their brass instruments and widespread musical instruction, the 40 orphans forever changed the framework of mainstream music in Ethiopia. Though it is undeniable that select brass instruments were eminent in intimate circles of musicians in Addis Ababa since the early 1900s, it’s widely agreed by Ethiopian and non- Ethiopian musicians and scholars that the Arba Lijoch was both directly and indirectly responsible for modernizing popular music in Ethiopia. Prior to the Arba Lijoch and Kevork Nalbandian, the prominent musical instruments in Ethiopia were mostly made of wood and string.iii Musician Vahe Tilbian, a fourth generation Armenian- Ethiopian who currently lives in Addis Ababa expands on the influence of the Nalbandians: A good friend of mine and virtuoso of Ethio-jazz is Samuel Yirga who has taken the world by storm with his compositions and his piano skills. We often discuss music and it is never a doubt that musicians are grateful for Nerses Nalbandian‟s work, which is highly commended and respected. Orchestras like the Either Orchestra based in Boston have come all the way to Ethiopia to perform Nerses Nalbandian‟s compositions. One of the most respected musical institutions in Ethiopia is the Yared School of Music at Addis Ababa University, which Kevork Nalbandian, along with his Greek and Ethiopian colleagues, founded in 1954. The Yared School of Music‟s periodical of 1973 reads: Two Armenians Kevork (1924-1949) and Nersès Nalbandian (1930s-1977) were major forces in developing modern Ethiopian band and orchestral music. Over the next 50 years, countless bands followed their same line-up and forged a stately brand of jazz-funk. The particular jazz-funk that the Yared periodical and Tilbian referenced was the emergence of a unique musical genre known as Ethiopian jazz (or, Ethio-jazz) that developed sometime in the mid- 1950s and reached its peak in the late 1960s. During the initial years of Ethio-jazz, the first recording studio in Ethiopia was opened in 1952, by an Armenian musician named Garbis Haygazian. Haygazi- an, in collaboration with Kevork Nalbandian‟s nephew, Nerses Nalbandian, would continue the tradition of Armenians in contemporary Ethiopian music by becoming founding fathers of this genre. Nerses carried Kevork‟s musical legacy by becoming the musical director of the Haile Haile Sellasse National Theater in the 1950s, later composing the anthem for the African Union and, most importantly, in- fluencing and training popular Ethiopian artists such as Mulatu Astatke. Among Ethiopian society today, Astatke is widely regarded as being the father of Ethio-jazz and evolving the orchestral brass band sounds of the Nalbandians to encompass jazz and funk tunes. His musical style incorporates a unique mix of Ethiopian melodic tunes through the medium of brass instrumentsiv. The Armenian influence in Addis Ababa wasn’t just limited to the Arba Lijoch, but also encompassed various professional roles within a given society. While the Armenian orphans led the wave of musical modernization in Ethiopia, the Armenian community in Addis Ababa also governed the pharmaceutical and medical institutions at the turn of the 20th century. Dr. Richard Pankhurst, a highly-renowned scholar of Ethiopian history, highlights figures such as the Devletian and Latifian families. He notes that Hovhanes Devletian was a native of the Van region and became Haile Sellasse’s personal physician, while the Latifians owned and managed the imperial pharmacy. This tradition of

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Armenian physicians and dentists is also present today: according to Kebede, one of the sons of the Arba Lijoch, Mesrop Sarkisian, is one of the most renowned dentists of Addis Ababa. In modern times, when scholars and historians research and engage in the historiography of modern Ethiopia, they often utilize the primary visual sources that are largely indebted to the work of Bedros Boyadjian. Boyadjian, born in Tigranakert (modern-day Diyarbakir), in the Ottoman Empire, became the first royal photographer of Ethiopia. Initially, he was the photographer of Menelik II, and later became the photographer for Haile Sellasse’s imperial court. Boyadjian was widely acclaimed for developing a talent for photography that was different from the norm at the time. Almost defiantly, he incorporated female and male subjects in one sitting frame and habitually cropped and montaged photographs to depict his royal subjects in the most optimal way possible — a practice that was almost non-existent in Ethiopian royal photography prior to Boyadjian. Engineering and city planning were also industries that Armenians in Ethiopia thrived in, with the most notable contributors being Krikor Howyan and Minas Kherbekian. Howyan was born in Con- stantinople, graduated from the prestigious Ecole Nationale University in Paris with a degree in mathe- matics, and later published many scientific studies. Most notably, however, he was the chief engineer of Addis Ababa and built many bridges throughout the capital, as well as one of Addis Ababa’s most well-known historic hotels: the Itegue. Even before Haile Haile Sellasse assumed the position of emperor, Howyan had already established the first modern astronomical observatory in Addis Ababa in the imperial palace of Menelik. He also assumed an official position in the Astronomical Society of France (Société Astronomique de France) through the assistance of established networks throughout Europev. Working under the pat- ronage of Howyan was Minas Kherbekian, or better known by his nickname in Amharic, Bet afrash Mi- nas, which translates to Minas the house-crusher. Kherbekian became to Addis Ababa what Haussmann was to Paris. According to accounts of the time, Kherbekian would walk around the city with a point- ing stick and single out the structures in Addis Ababa that he deemed necessary for renovation or demolition. In their place, Kherbekian built new houses and institutions that incorporated traditional aesthetic motifs of Armenian, Arab, Italian and Ethiopian architecture to create unique structures. Despite being frequently met with opposition and skepticism, Kherbekian remained devoted to his plans of modernization and a vision of an urban capital that was suitable for the 20th centuryvi. While Howyan translated the visual poetry of the heavens into scientific studies and Kherbekian focused on infrastructure, their countryman Haig Patapan occupied himself with the intellectual realm. The extensive historiography of Armenian-Ethiopian relations is widely documented, thanks to Pata- pan‟s 400-page text that was published in 1930 on the Armenian island of San Lazzaro in Venice, Ita- ly. When he wasn’t translating the philosophical works of Friedrich Nietzsche into Armenian and Am- haric, Patapan focused his attention on compiling encyclopedia-like texts about Ethiopian history. One account of Ethio-Armenian relations tells us a story of Kherbekian. Patapan documented that shortly prior to Sellasse’s crowning, Kherbekian concluded the construction of one of the most ad- vanced bridges in Addis Ababa. Society at large, including Emperor Menelik II, doubted the modern design of the bridge and determined that it would not be secure enough for heavy traffic. The Em- peror asked the crowd, what fool would cross this bridge? Confidently, Kherbekian replied, I will be that fool. He quickly called upon his friend and industrialist Sarkis Terzian to bring his latest invention, the steamroller, the heaviest machinery in Addis at the time, to test the bridge. Kherbekian successfully maneuvered the steamroller across the bridge while communities watched in awe. When Kherbekian crossed the bridge, Emperor Menelik II made his way to Kherbekian with a grin and bowed to him out of respect. A notable Ethiopian historian, Bahru Zewde, addressed the influence of Terzian‟s innova- tions in his book titled, A history of Modern Ethiopia:

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The Armenians, also Orthodox Christians, like the Greeks, were welcomed to Ethiopia at a time when they were suffering persecution in their homeland. They were to attain the highest level of integration into Ethiopian society and they thrived mainly as craftsmen. But one of their pioneers, Sarkis Terzian, made his fortune as an arms trader and his fame by introducing the steamroller (aptly named Sarkis „babur,‟ steam engine of Sarkis). By the year 1935, the Armenian population in Addis Ababa was roughly estimated at a little over 2,000. The extensive labor and love that the Armenians of Addis Ababa put out in the years prior had already solidified their reputation in Ethiopian society and in the eyes of Haile Sellasse. Haile Sellasse continued his rule for many years to come until his death in 1975. According to Tilbian, this political strife took a toll on Ethiopia as a whole, but also on the Armenian community specifically. Reflecting on the dwindling numbers of the Armenians left in Addis Ababa today, Tilbian states, Most Armenians left when the Derg communist regime nationalized homes and businesses and currently more will leave for post-secondary education. Indeed, today, there are about 100 Armenians remaining in Addis Ab- aba who stay interconnected largely thanks to the Kevorkoff Armenian School and the St. George Ap- ostolic Church, thanks to Simon Hagopian, son of one of the 40 orphans and Archdeacon Vartkes Nal- bandian. Equally imperative, Vahe Tilbian is producing music in English, Amharic and Armenian & performing in Ethiopia. Asked about music and the Armenian community’s future prospects, he said The older generation is more aware of the Armenian presence in Ethiopia while the younger generations who have gone to music school or are involved with music know of the Armenian contributions. I also meet strangers who, once they hear I am of Armenian descent, tell me stories of how their father was a friend with an Armenian family or they had Armenian neighbors back in the day. I would say, on the most part, Ethiopians view Arme- nians very positively. Armenians who came to Ethiopia during the Armenian Genocide and in the aftermath were given citizenship, allowed to live and work here, and were given land to build homes. It really is a great story of ac- ceptance and finding a safe haven.” Today’s global citizens are finding innovative ways to bring this vibrant community’s story to life through the medium of film. Filmmaker Aramazt Kalayjian is working on a documentary about the Armenian Ethiopians entitled, Tezeta: The Ethiopian Armenians. Kalayjian says: It‟s a story which documents the rare cultural co-creation that has existed between Armenians and Ethiopi- ans that has developed so much in Ethiopia… I want to share this inspiring story in the most fun, musical, and entertaining way so that our story as Armenians starts to diverge from the melancholic narrative we often find our- selves attached to, with regards to Genocide and past traumas that no longer need to serve as our driving force. There are aims and goals that we can set our minds and efforts to work towards that are higher than waiting for recognition or retribution. As prospering citizens of the world we have a chance to take hold of our future, this film aims to inspire that feeling. The remaining Armenian families live in Addis Ababa. Aramatz Kalayjian, an Armenian filmmaker. He has being working on Tezeta, a documentary about Ethio-Armenian music, since 2012. The only remnants of a great cross-pollination of cultures are the few Armenian community members left, the music, history books, and memories that tell of the relationship between Ar- menians and Ethiopians, Kalayjian said.vii For the Arba Lijoch, Ethiopia not only became a refuge from extermination, but a place to flourish inventively and skillfully, in the mold of their forefathers in search of esoteric likings, unremorseful about their own craving for sanctioned chefs-d'oeuvre in fashioning Ethiopian Jazz. These conscientious and trustworthy Armenians continue to leave their permanent legacy on Ethiopia’s communities and its rich art, music and culture as master managers and crafts persons who single-handedly built great edifices.

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References & endnotes Aslanian, Ani. In The Company of Emperors: The Story of Ethiopian Armenians, October 6, 2014, http://thearmenite.com/2014/10/company-emperors-story-ethiopian- armenians/#prettyPhoto) Associated Press, Ethiopia's Armenians: Long history, small numbers, (Mail Online, 2013, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-2714079/Ethiopias-Armenians-Long-history- small-numbers.html) Bournoutian, George. A concise history of the Armenian people: (in Wikipedia, 2015a) Özbaran, Salih, The Ottoman Response to European Expansion: Studies on Ottoman-Portuguese Relations in the Indian Ocean & Ottoman Administration in the Arab Lands During the 16th Century, (Isis Press, 1994) Shaw, SJ. The Ottoman Empire, (Britannica, Mar 15 2015 http://www.britannica.com/place/Ottoman-Empire) Wikipedia, Armenian Genocide, (2015c, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_Genocide) Wikipedia, Armenians in Ethiopia (2015b, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenians_in_Ethiopia) Wikipedia, Ottoman conquest of Habesh (2015a, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_conquest_of_Habesh)

i 10 cannons with artillery men, as well as many as 900 gunmen in 1542. ii The Ottomans at this point made a change in tactics, opting to pit Ethiopian rulers against each other in order to achieve their conquest, rather than invading unilaterally. They had employed this same tactic earlier in the Balkans: absorbing local entities through local rulers due to a shortage of manpower (here because of its peripheral nature and problems with the Safavids and in the Mediterranean) rather than direct conquest. The Bahr negash Yeshaq had bad relations with Emperor Menas, who had just assumed the throne, so in 1561 he revolted against Menas, but the following year he was defeated in battle. Yeshaq then fled to the Ottomans and promised to cede them Debarwa, Massa- wa, Arqiqo, and all the land in between in return for their help. Yeshaq and the Emperor later made peace, and the Ottomans withdrew from Debarwa in 1572, which Yeshaq quickly occupied, but he returned it to the Ottomans as a result of the earlier agreement (Ibid). iii For example, traditional Ethiopian folkloric music utilized ethnic instruments such as the ney and washint; similar to what the tsiranapogh (commonly known as duduk) instrument is to Armenian folk music. The replacement of wood and string instruments with brass instruments among popular music earned Arba Lijoch the prevalent recognition of being the pioneers of musical modernization in Ethiopia. This musical development in Ethiopia took place in two phases. First, the imperial brass band trained and lent support to the development of other modern music ensembles such as the army, police, and imperial bodyguard bands. Secondly, as the Arba Lijochbegan performing among crowds during national events throughout the years, musicians began to prefer new brass instruments as opposed to the more traditional wood and string. iv A story passed down to Tilbian by one of the last remaining members of the Arba Lijoch, tells us that it was customary for the Arba Lijoch to play the national anthem for visiting diplomats. One year, Sellasse‟s interior had summoned the orphans to learn the anthem of Turkey in preparation of the visit of Turkish delegates. All 40 orphans, in protest, refused to learn the anthem, saying, We will not learn the anthem of a country that killed our par- ents. After much pleading from the Ethiopian interior, the Arba Lijoch eventually learned the anthem. But when the time came to perform it to the visiting delegates, the orphans performed an ethnic Armenian song instead. The plight of the Armenian orphans and residents of Addis Ababa was also well known to Sellasse himself, for he lent special treatment to the Armenian community and believed in their good intentions towards Ethiopian society. Not only were the Armenians granted asylum, but they also had a special role within Ethiopia, which explains why the Armenians were the only ethnicity besides Ethiopians who were allowed to arrive to and depart from Ethiopia freely. In contrast, both Emperors Menelik II and Sellassie often had doubts regarding their relations to other ethnicities and were gener- ally weary of the possibility that the other ethnicities may attempt to colonize Ethiopia.

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In a varying viewpoint to the popular theories of Ethiopian modernization, Ethiopian scholar Milkias Paulos suggests that prior to the 1900s, association with business was looked down upon by Ethiopian society at large. Paulos thus postulates that this is the reason why most of Ethiopia’s early businessmen, musicians and other professionals were mostly composed of professionals who were ethnically Greek and Armenian. In his book Haile Selassie, Western Education and Political Revolution in Ethiopia, Paulos provides a demographic of the ethnic minorities in Ethiopia that highlights the Ar- menian community at its peak in 1935 with a population of 2,800, slightly under the Greeks and Ar- abs. Though the numbers of the Ethiopian Armenians were marginal in comparison to other ethnic minorities, it’s undeniable that the influence of the Armenian community at times surpassed that of other communities. Even when the Armenian community numbered less than two hundred in 1909, an Italian map printed during the same year made a specific note to highlight the Armenian quarter just north of the Ras Makonnen Bridge. v Howyan studied the constellations, meteors, and planets as seen from Addis Ababa and communicated his dis- coveries with the Astronomical Society of France on behalf of Ethiopia. When he wasn‟t serving the Ethiopian royalty, he focused his attention on the small but thriving Armenian community in Addis Ababa. For example, Howyan constructed the first Armenian school in the country‟s capital, in which Amharic, Armenian, English, and French languages were taught. The state-of-the-art school also included a gymnasium and a sports club named “Arax” after the Araxes River of the historic Armenian Highlands. And in 1943, a second sporting branch was opened, called the “Ararat Sporting Association.” A couple years prior to his death, Howyan split his will three ways: partly to his immediate family, partly to the Armenian community in Addis Ababa and partly to the newly established Armenian Republic. vi Most of Kherbekian‟s constructions can still be seen in the capital today and are currently being renovated as part of an effort to preserve old Addis Ababa. Additionally, one of the buildings that Kherbekian had designed and built is one of Addis Ababa‟s most well-known tourist attractions called the Mohammedaly house. During Kherbekian‟s time, the Mohammedaly institution was the largest importing and exporting trade firm, and he was commissioned to construct the central headquarters. Today, the Armenian influence of Kherbekian‟s distinguished design of the Mohammedaly house is most prominently evident in the pillared staircases with triangular designs. On the other hand, the residential structures of Kherbekian include intricately detailed balconies, which encircle the upper floors of his buildings. These two styles of infrastructure carry exemplary designs of architecture that can be traced to cities with long-standing Armenian cultural and historical backgrounds, such as Gyumri or Shushi. vii Vartkes Nalbandian disagrees with Kalayjian's view that the community is fading. He notes that a Syrian-Armenian man recently visited the Addis community with a view to moving there with his family. The school is open, the church is open, the club is open, he said. It doesn't matter if I open the church on a Sunday and preach to many people or just a handful. As long as our spirit is strong, our identity is, too. (Wikipedia, 2015c)

9 | The Ottomans & the Armenian Legacy in Ethiopia