Leaderboard

A JOURNEY BACK IN TIME: A LOOK AT THE HISTORY OF ARMENIANS IN ETHIOPIA Addis Ababa — When Mateos Armenawi embarked on his first diplomatic mission on behalf of an Ethiopian Queen in 1512, little did he know that he was paving the way for generations of Armenians to play an active role in Africa’s first Christian nation. Armenawi, or Armenian in the Amharic language, was dispatched to Portugal via India to seek help in halting an Ottoman expansion toward Ethiopia. He returned after an arduous journey which took him ten years to complete only to die of ill health a few weeks later. But Armenawi had earned his place in the Ethiopian history books as a trusted emissary and skilled negotiator. A decade later, a fellow Armenian by the name of Murad was already following his footsteps by gaining prominent positions in the palaces of Ethiopian Kings and Emperors. He too traveled the world on behalf of Ethiopian royalty and is noted for his role as a key intermediary with a number of European states, and primarily Holland from where Murad brought back a massive bronze church bell which is considered one of the country’s historical treasures. Armenawi and Murad were involved in the Ethiopian framework as individuals, and it was not until 1875 that Armenians began arriving in Ethiopia in significant numbers, setting the stage for what later became a small but influential community halfway around the globe from historical Armenia. Among those in the first wave was Kevork Terzian, a young caterer who entered the northern town of Harare with the Ottoman Army. Within a few years, young Kevork was established enough to send for his nephew from Arapkir in 1882 and soon, a growing Terzian clan was taking its place in the political and military establishment of Ethiopia. “All this is recent history for me, most of which involves my father and uncles,” said Avedis Terzian, the elder statesman and doyen of the Armenian community of Ethiopia. Born in Harare in 1904, Avedis Terzian, is a walking encyclopedia on the evolution of Armenian community life in Ethiopia. Fluent in several languages including English and French, Avedis Terzian is still very much in public life. As honorary chairman of the Armenian Community Council of Ethiopia, he is seen as a moderating influence, constantly providing the moral impetus for the dwindling community. In his younger days, Avedis Terzian served as Oriental Secretary at the U.S. Embassy from 1928 to 1937 — a job which in effect made him the most senior liaison officer between the American Embassy and the Ethiopian government. “I was not the only Armenian holding such a position. During those years we also had Ohannes Semerdjibashian who was the interpreter and Oriental Secretary at the British Embassy, Souren Tchekerian was at the Italian Embassy, Ardashes Peshtimaldji was at the French Embassy and Antranig Papazian was at the Egyptian Embassy,” he said. “Armenians have always had a special place in Ethiopian life despite their small numbers. It’s quality rather than quantity,” he said with a smile. Terzian’s father, who helped restore the town of Harare to Ethiopian rule in 1887, was named Governor of the Ethiopian town of Gildessa in 1888 and is credited with securing a vital road linking the city to the Djibouti coast. “My father was also probably the first Armenian gun merchant in the world,” Terzian says. As a confidante of Ethiopian kings, Terzian’s father was asked to arm the Ethiopian military and sent on a secret mission to France in 1890 to purchase surplus weapons. Given the political sensitivities of the time, the French would only sell the hardware but declined the use of their national merchant fleet to transport the weapons to Ethiopia. Undeterred, Terzian secretly loaded the steel crates on a Dutch cargo vessel and transported them to the French colony of Djibouti for the land journey on camel back to Addis Ababa. “It was the biggest arms shipment of the time, and it included 80,000 rifles, 13 million rounds of ammunition, machine guns and 33 cannons. This earned my father a special status, just like Dikran Ebeyan who was the royal goldsmith,” he said. The Terzians, Ebeyans and others like them were first generation Armenians who had come as young bachelors in search of fame and money. They set the stage for the first major wave of families to follow in the wake of the 1895 massacre of Armenians in Arapkir at the hands of the Ottoman Turks. “My father brought about a dozen of his relatives who had survived the first massacres. They were mainly women and children, thus forming the nucleus of the Terzian clan, first in Harare and then Addis Ababa itself. More immigrants came in 1908 and again after the great massacre of 1915 and later young men and women from Aintab, Marash, Izmir and Adana. What you see in Addis Ababa today are the children and grandchildren of these people, and I am the oldest among them,” Avedis Terzian said. One such group which is still remembered today are the 40 Armenian orphans brought to Addis Ababa by then Emperor Haile Selassie from Jerusalem. “This was in 1923,” Terzian says. “Selassie, during a visit to the Armenian Patriarchate in Jerusalem, was very impressed by the performance of a brass band. When he found out that all 40 players were orphans of the 1915 massacres, he offered to adopt them.” “The group came to Addis Ababa with their bandmaster, Kevork Nalbandian, who later composed the now abandoned Ethiopian national anthem. He also founded the Ethiopian military band which exists until today,” Terzian said. With the influx of Armenians came the concept of organizing community life and that meant a school which opened its doors to a handful of children in 1915, just as new immigrants were coming. Initially a small private kindergarten, the facility developed into the Araradian National School only to be fragmented into three smaller schools run by rival political parties in the 1920’s and early 1930’s. “The introduction of Armenian politics was a divisive factor for this community, starting with the arrival of Matig Kevorkoff, a Djibouti-based Armenian merchant from Constantinople who was Armenia’s first ambassador to Addis Ababa in 1920. The inter-factional squabbles led to Kevorkoff’s abrupt resignation and return to Djibouti with his wife,” Terzian said. Unshaken by what amounted to a diplomatic debacle, Kevorkoff talked the community into merging the three Armenian schools under one roof — thus forming the National Armenian Kevorkoff School which is still serving Addis Ababa Armenians today. “We were a powerful economic force in this country, and more so after the British entered Ethiopia in 1941. For 33 years, or until 1974, the Armenian community of Ethiopia was at its zenith. It’s a different story today,” Terzian said.

Don Boyajian Announces Campaign for Congress Don Boyajian Announces Campaign for Congress By Contributor on August 4, 2017 in News // 1 Comment // // CAMBRIDGE, N.Y.—Don Boyajian, a third-generation Armenian American, has announced his candidacy for New York’s 21st Congressional District, representing the Adirondack Mountains and Thousand Islands regions of the Empire State. Don Boyajian If elected, he would be the third U.S. Representative of Armenian heritage serving in the U.S. House, joining Congresswoman Anna Eshooo (D-Calif.) and Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-Calif). The grandchild of Armenian immigrants from Aintab, on his father’s side, and Palu, on his mother’s side, Don represents the third generation in his family to live and work in the U.S. During the Armenian Genocide era, his father’s family settled in Saratoga County, N.Y., where they operated a sheep farm, and his mother’s family put down roots in Providence, R.I. He and his family are active in St. Peter Armenian Apostolic Church, where his mother recently received the Women’s Guild’s Woman of the Year Award. Professionally, Don is an environmental and municipal attorney at Dreyer Boyajian LLP, a firm his father co-founded. Don graduated from Colgate University and Cornell Law School, where he clerked in the U.S. Attorney’s Office (NDNY), New York Office of the Attorney General (Environmental Protection Bureau), and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Don also served as a Legislative Aide in the U.S. Congress, where he focused on agriculture, natural resources, and energy policy. Don, a Democrat, will face a primary election to win his party’s nomination, and then challenge incumbent Republican Elise Stefanik, who has no meaningful record of support for Armenian-American issues. https://armenianweekly.com/2017/08/04/don-boyajian-announces-campaign-for-congress/

ANCA : BREAKING NEWS: A grand jury called by the District of Columbia Superior Court just issued indictments against 19 people, including the 12 of Turkish President Erdogan's bodyguards, on a charge of conspiracy to commit a crime of violence, with a bias crime enhancement following the May 16th brutal beating of peaceful protesters in Washington, DC. Many were indicted on additional charges. More information to come.

PanARMENIAN.Net- Armenia Aug 26, 2017 Danny Tarkanian takes lead over Dean Heller in U.S. Senate race: poll http://media.pn.am/media/issue/245/852/photo/245852.jpg August 26, 2017 - 14:55 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - GOP U.S. Senate challenger Danny Tarkanian has blown past incumbent Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV) per a new poll out of the state of Nevada, Breitbart News reports. Tarkanian, who is of Armenian descent, announced his 2018 Republican primary challenge against Heller for a U.S. Senate seat from Nevada in early August. Tarkanian, per the new poll from JMC Analytics, is up at 39 percent in the new survey. His lead towers eight points over the incumbent Heller’s 31 percent. A whopping 31 percent are undecided between Heller and Tarkanian. Even so, when given the choice of Heller versus not Tarkanian, a majority of Republicans in Nevada—51 percent—want someone other than Heller, 31 percent would renominate Heller, and 18 percent are undecided. The survey of 700 likely GOP voters in Nevada was conducted from Aug. 24 to Aug. 25 and has a margin of error of 3.7 percent with a 95 percent confidence interval. Earlier, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin endorsed Danny Tarkanian for the U.S. Senate in Nevada http://www.panarmenian.net/eng/news/245852/

PanArmenian, ArmeniaAug 25 2017 Sarah Palin endorsed Danny Tarkanian for U.S. Senatehttp://media.pn.am/media/issue/245/835/photo/245835.jpgAugust 25, 2017 - 16:08 AMTPanARMENIAN.Net - Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin endorsed Danny Tarkanian for the U.S. Senate in Nevada, Breitbart News reports exclusively. Tarkanian, who is of Armenian descent, announced his 2018 Republican primary challenge against incumbent Senator Heller for a U.S. Senate seat from Nevada in early August. “Commonsense Conservatives in Nevada and across America need to unite and help win this critical fight. I strongly endorse Danny Tarkanian for the United States Senate and look forward to helping him win this important election,” Palin said in the statement endorsing Tarkanian. Tarkanian in a statement of his own responded by thanking Palin. Polling data on the race suggests that Tarkanian has a chance to topple Heller in Nevada, should he gain momentum moving into the next several months. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, however, is likely to fight as hard as he can to save Heller—but endorsements from major national conservative figures like Palin open the door to a potential upset. http://www.panarmenian.net/eng/news/245835/

Good luck!!!!!!!!!!!

Even though I'm not a fan of Democrats because of the political correctness fiasco, I'll support his candidacy and so should every voting Armenian in the US. Good luck!!!!!!

Asbarez Aug 3 2017 15th Century ‘Miraculous’ Gospel Donated to Matenadaran http://asbarez.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/7Z5_20206014_1592319900820172_981442627_n.jpgThe Gospel, said to contain miracles, is being presented by Raffi Dadaian to the Matenadaran YEREVAN—A 15th century manuscript, said to have healing prayers, that journeyed from Western Armenia to Yerevan, to France and then the United States—Iowa and California—has found its way back in Armenia, when the Dadaian family, which was entrusted with its safe keeping a century ago, donated the rare artifact to the Matenadaran. During a special ceremony on July 18, Hriyr Dadaian and his sister Hrepsima (Helen) Dadaian-Parnagian were joined by Hriyr’s grandson, Raffi, to present the Gospel to Matenadaran officials. http://asbarez.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/IMG_8915.jpegThe Gospel, whose silver cover was added in 1753http://asbarez.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/IMG_8913.jpeghttp://asbarez.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/IMG_8914.jpeg The story of the manuscript is traced to the Godarich village in the Charsanjan district of Western Armenia, which was home to the St. Kevork Church, a pilgrimage site for the local Armenians and Kurds alike. The book was commissioned by Khjan Alexan, who dedicated it to his brother, Gabriel. The current version of the book is adorned with an ornate silver cover, which was added in 1753. The Dadaian family resided in the village of Lusadaritch in Charsanjak Province. During the years of the Genocide, the men of the family were dispersed around the world. Some were in the US, while others were fighting alongside General Antranig or had been killed during the Genocide or had perished. Hrepsima (Helen) Dadaian-Parnagian during the presentation at Matenadaran Yeghsa Dadaian, the wife of Sarkis, who was the eldest of the six Dadaian brothers, became the matriarch of the family. She fearlessly gathered the five women and six children of the Dadaian clan and led them out of Lusadarich village in 1915, travelling east for three years, until they reached Yerevan in 1918 on the eve of Armenia’s Independence. While in Yerevan, Yeghsa met a man from the Godarich village who was extremely ill and asked her to care for her. During that time, he presented Yeghsa with the gospel and asked her to keep it safe until his recovery. Unfortunately, the man did not survive and Yeghsa was left with the manuscript. Two years later, three teenage Dadaian boys, one of them Yeghsa’s son John, left for America to join an uncle who had settled in Davenport, Iowa. Soon after, Yeghsa and her daughters went to France, and she took the Gospel, wrapped in silk and hand embroidered cloth, with her. In 1934 she took the precious book with her when she crossed the Atlantic to reach America to be with her son in Iowa. Yeghsa passed away in Iowa. Her son John inherited the manuscript and upon his death, his wife Araksi moved to California, fervently guarding the book. Araksi passed away in 1990 and the book was inherited by her children, Hriyr and Hrepsima (Helen). They decided it should go back to Yerevan where the Dadaian family originally came into possession of the ancient manuscript. http://www.groong.com/news/attachments/msg607596/pngcAXTTO9U83.png http://asbarez.com/165314/15th-century-miraculous-gospel-donated-to-matenadaran/

This song has been written three centuries ago by the great Armenian - Georgian composer Sayat Nova and yet sounds so contemporary. translated by Karen Daduryan I have two homes - locked I have two hearts - stopped I have two wings - bound I have two lords – One God Play with the string of my soul Dance with the beat of my heart Sound the bell of my monastery Remember that Sayat-Nova.. I saturate with the breath of duduk I bear the pain of my soul I get blinded by the lies of this world I depart poisoned by envy They proclaimed me troubadour (gusan), mockingly They took my wounded songs hostage The voice of my throat muted Conscience of these people vanished. Play with the string of my soul Dance with the beat of my heart Sound the bell of my monastery Remember that Sayat-Nova..

Something that catched my eye, is the languages they use - Amharic, Tigrinya, Tigre and Blin - Do the first three names pull a string? Arpa?