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PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID WEST PALM BCH, FL PERMIT 593 WWW.ARMENIANWEEKLY.COM | WWW.HAIRENIKWEEKLY.COM | WWW.ARMENIANWEEKLY.COM WWW.ARMENIANWEEKLY.COM DECEMBER 2019 DECEMBER The Armenian Weekly DECEMBER 2019 NOTES REFLECTIONS 5 Contributors 29 Reflections on the Weekly and the Armenian Armed 6 Editors’ Desk: A Hairenik Away from Home Struggle Movement: 1982–1984—By Georgi-Ann Oshagan —By Rupen Janbazian 33 Connected for a Century with the Hairenik and the Armenian Weekly—By Matthew Karanian HISTORY 37 Following Their Example: My Experiences at the Weekly during a Revolutionary Time in Armenia—By Murial 8 Trial and Triumph: The Hairenik Was Born—By Tovmas Parseghian Charshafjian 15 The Legacy of the Hairenik and the Armenian Weekly: COMMENTARY Vital Institutions for a Community in Exile—By Michael G. Mensoian 40 Understanding the Responsibility of Carrying on a 20 Introducing ‘Our English Weekly’ to the World Tradition—By George Aghjayan 44 A Commitment to Future Generations: Reflections from the 25 How Things Have Changed: Publishing the Weekly in 1948 Armenian Weekly’s Assistant Editor—By Leeza Arakelian 46 Challenges Facing Our Media: Looking Back, Looking ON THE COVER The first issue of the Hairenik, published in Ahead—By Antranig Kasbarian New York City on May 1, 1899. The quote that appears is the conclusion to an essay written by Hairenik’s founding editor Tovmas Charshafjian about the establishment of the newspaper. The Armenian Weekly The Armenian Weekly ENGLISH SECTION THE ARMENIAN WEEKLY The opinions expressed in this December 2019 Guest Editor: Rupen Janbazian (ISSN 0004-2374) newspaper, other than in the editorial column, do not neces- Assistant Editor: Leeza Arakelian is published weekly by the Hairenik Association, Inc., sarily reflect the views of THE Art Director: Gina Poirier 80 Bigelow Ave, ARMENIAN WEEKLY. UPS identification statement ARMENIAN SECTION Watertown, MA 02472. 546-280 Manager: Armen Khachatourian Editor: Zaven Torikian Periodical postage paid in Sales Manager: Zovig Kojanian Proofreader: Garbis Zerdelian Boston, MA and additional Designer: Vanig Torikian, mailing offices. Tel: 617-926-3974 Fax: 617-926-1750 3rd Eye Communications This special publication has a [email protected] print run of 10,000 copies. www.armenianweekly.com December 2019 | THE ARMENIAN WEEKLY | 3 Contributors George Aghjayan is the Director of the Matthew Karanian is a lawyer, the author of Armenian Historical Archives and the chair several books about Armenia, and a longtime of the ARF Central Committee of the Eastern contributor to the Armenian Weekly. U.S. Aghjayan graduated with honors from He first traveled to the Republic of Armenia Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1988 with a in 1995 and then to the historic lands of West- Bachelor of Science degree in Actuarial Math- ern Armenia two years later. This book is the ematics. He achieved Fellowship in the Society product of the author’s numerous research trips of Actuaries in 1996. to Western Armenia since 1997. After a career in both insurance and structured finance, Agh- Karanian lived in Armenia’s capital city of Yerevan during the jayan retired in 2014 to concentrate on Armenian related research early days of Armenian independence and served as an advocate and projects. His primary area of focus is the demographics and for Armenia’s non-governmental organizations. As a legal scholar, geography of western Armenia as well as a keen interest in the hid- he later served as Associate Dean of the law school at the Ameri- den Armenians living there today. Other topics he has written and can University of Armenia, where he taught international law and lectured on include Armenian genealogy and genocide denial. He founded the Armenian Law Review. is a board member of the National Association of Armenian Studies He is the 2016 recipient of the Arshile Gorky Medal from the and Research (NAASR), a frequent contributor to the Armenian Republic of Armenia in recognition of his contributions to the arts Weekly and Houshamadyan.org, and the creator and curator west- and for his role in helping to build bridges between Armenia and ernarmenia.weebly.com, a website dedicated to the preservation of its worldwide Diaspora. Armenian culture in Western Armenia. The Armenian Highland: Western Armenia and the First Armenian Republic of 1918 is Karanian’s latest publication. It is the first and only Leeza Arakelian has been serving as assistant historical guide to the Armenian nation in Western Armenia and in editor of the Armenian Weekly since Sept. the now-overrun territories of the First Armenian Republic of 1918. 2018. She is a southern California native and a formally trained broadcast news writer and Antranig Kasbarian Antranig Kasbarian is a multimedia storyteller. former editor of the Armenian Weekly (1987– In 2010, she graduated from UCLA with a 1992) and has been active in Armenian affairs communications degree and then traveled to for most of his life. Over the past 20 years, he Boston to live with her maternal grandmother while attending has been a lecturer, activist , and community Emerson College’s journalism graduate program. Since 2012, Leeza leader in the Eastern U.S. He has also worked has written and produced for several local and network televi- regularly as a journalist, activist, and researcher sion news programs including Boston 25. In 2013, she headed to in Artsakh and has held various positions within the ARF. He holds Washington, D.C., where she became the associate producer for a PhD in Geography from Rutgers University. His doctoral disserta- Al Jazeera America’s flagship program America Tonight. Leeza tion dealt with the geography of nationalism during the 1988–1994 lives in Sudbury, Mass. with her husband Sebouh, their son Alik, war in Nagorno-Karabakh, based largely on his own experiences on and dog Penny. the ground. He has published widely on Artsakh in both academic journals and the press. He joined the Tufenkian Foundation in 2003, Rupen Janbazian is the editor of Hamazkayin’s launching its program in Artsakh focusing on economic recovery and online platform h-pem. He previously served refugee resettlement, and now serves as its Director of Development. as the assistant editor (2014–2016) then editor (2016-2018) of the Armenian Weekly. Michael G. Mensoian (Ph.D., J.D., MAJ, U.S. Janbazian’s writings primarily focus on com- Army, Retired) is Professor Emeritus Middle munity, language, literature, and Armenian cul- East and Political Geography, at the University of ture. He has reported from Armenia, Artsakh, Massachusetts, Boston, where he was the former Turkey, Canada, the U.S, and Western Armenia. He has served on Chair of the Department of Regional Studies and the local and national executives of the Armenian Youth Federa- Director of the Armenian Studies Program. Dr. tion (AYF) of Canada and Hamazkayin Toronto, and served as the Mensoian created the curriculum and served administrator of the Armenian National Committee of Toronto. He as Director of the Graduate Program for Teachers in the American has also taught Armenian History and Creative Writing at the ARS Schools in Brazil. He has served as a Consulting Geography editor Armenian Private School of Toronto and the St. Stephen’s Armenian for the Catholic Textbook Division of Doubleday and Company and Saturday School of Watertown, Mass. contributor to World Book Encyclopedia. Dr. Mensoian has co-au- Janbazian’s Western Armenian translation of William Saroyan’s thored many textbooks, including The Arab World-New Africa, People short stories was published by Sosé & Allen’s Legacy Foundation in of Africa and Asia, People of the Middle East and North Africa, and 2016, while his English translation of Andranik Tzarukian’s Letter Manual for Physical Geography, and also served as contributing author to Yerevan, which he completed in collaboration with Tatul Sonentz for Arab World-New Africa-Oriental World, a William Sadlier series on Papazian, was published by Hairenik Press in 2018. World Culture Groups. He writes regularly for The Armenian Weekly. December 2019 | THE ARMENIAN WEEKLY | 5 Contributors Georgi-Ann Oshagan is a former editor of the Muriel “Mimi” Parseghian served as editor of Armenian Weekly (1982–1984). She was vice- the Armenian Weekly from June 1984 to June chair and chair of the Armenian Relief Society 1989. Mimi immigrated to the U.S. from her (ARS) Eastern U.S. Board of Regional Directors birthplace, Marseille, France, in 1963. She was from 2001 to 2005 and vice-chair of the ARS educated in the Lowell, Mass. public school Central Executive Board from 2005 to 2008. system and received her BA in History from Georgi-Ann graduated from Emerson Col- Northeastern University in 1976. Prior to her lege with a degree in Mass Communications/Journalism. Her first tenure at the Armenian Weekly, Mimi spent nine months in Bei- journalism job was at the Armenian Weekly and her first by-line was rut attending the Nishan Palandjian Jemaran’s Armenian Studies published in the Weekly when she was chapter reporter for the Arme- Program. nian Youth Federation (AYF-YOARF) Providence Varantian Juniors. Mimi has been an active member of the ARF since 1977 and the Today Georgi-Ann is an administrator for the UAW-FCA-Ford- Armenian Relief Society (ARS) since 1979. She has previously served General Motors Legal Services Plan. Prior to that appointment, she on the ARS Eastern U.S. Board of Directors. had been an associate general counsel for the International Union, After leaving the Hairenik Publications, she joined the private UAW in Detroit since 1995. sector in the field of sales and marketing. A Harenik Away from Home Editor’s Desk By Rupen Janbazian, Editor, The Armenian Weekly (2016–2018) he first time I walked through the doors of the Hairenik head- Today, 120 years after the establishment of the Hairenik and quarters in Watertown almost a decade ago, the unfamiliar 85 years since the launch of its English-language counterpart, it is Tbuilding and its dedicated occupants felt strangely familiar.