Tag Archive for: This Week in Armenian History

BIRTH OF ZAHRAD

Zahrad, one of the most influential names of Armenian poetry in the second half of the twentieth century, was born Zareh Yaldizciyan on May 10, 1924, in the Nişantaşi district of Istanbul. He lost his father, who had been a jurist, adviser, and translator for the Ottoman Foreign Ministry, at the age of three. His mother remarried and he grew up with his maternal grandfather Levon Vartanyan.

In 1942 he graduated from the Mekhitarist Lyceum of Istanbul. He attended the Faculty of Medicine of Istanbul University but dropped after a while in order to work. He published his first poem in the daily Jamanak with the pseudonym Zahrad in 1943. His first collection of poetry, The Big City, appeared in 1960. He married Anayis Antreasian in 1963.

Read more

DEATH OF KONSTANTIN ORBELIAN

Konstantin Orbelian, a music prodigy, became one of the mainstays of Armenian jazz in the twentieth century.

He was born on July 29, 1928, in the town of Armavir (North Caucasus). His musical talents became clear at an early age. He was sent to a school for gifted children at the Baku Conservatory, but he studied there for a short time. His father was arrested and shot during the Stalin purges in 1936. Two years later, his mother was arrested and sentenced to five years of exile. Their children Haroutioun and Konstantin became “children of people’s enemies” overnight.

Eleven-year-old Konstantin Orbelian was immediately expelled from the musical school and had to earn some living as a musical accompanist to gymnasts.

Read more

DEATH OF ALEXANDER MANTASHIANTS

Alexander Mantashiants was a prominent oil magnate of Baku who was also well known for his philanthropy.

Born in Tiflis on March 3, 1842, Mantashiants spent most of his childhood in Tabriz (northern Iran), where his father was involved in the cotton and textile trade. From early on, he joined his father in business. In 1869, he moved to Manchester, a major textile center, from where he helped ship goods to his father in Tabriz. His sojourn helped him learn the secrets and crafts of the textile industry, as well as the intricacies of European business and English culture, while he learned English, French, and German.

In 1872, Mantashiants returned to Tiflis with his father, where they became fully engaged in …

Read more

BIRTH OF MGRDICH SANASARIAN

Mgrdich Sanasarian was a benefactor of Armenian causes who played an important role in educational and cultural undertakings during the second half of the nineteenth century.

He was born on April 10, 1818, in Tiflis (Tbilisi), to a family originally from Van. He was an elder first cousin of Grigor Artzruni, the famous Eastern Armenian journalist.

Sanasarian studied in the Nersisian School of Tiflis, which had his maternal grandfather as one of its founders. He served in the Russian army (1835-1845) and was decorated with the medal of St. George. In 1849 he started working at the “Caucasus and Mercurius” shipping company, and became a member of its board of directors in 1864.

Read more

DEATH OF VAHAN BEDELIAN

In 1915, the population of Adana was deported and the Bedelian family reached Aleppo. One of Vahan Bedelian’s friends, who by then was a good violin teacher, arranged a job for him as music and violin teacher at the Aleppo School of Art. With this job, he managed, after considerable difficulties, to obtain a permit from the chief of police to stay in Aleppo with the eleven members of his family.
They stayed there until the end of World War I and returned to Adana when French forces were stationed in Cilicia. Bedelian gave his first concert in 1920. When the French evacuated Cilicia in 1921, he went to Cyprus, where he devoted himself to music and teaching. In 1932 he replaced famous composer and conductor Parsegh Ganachian

Read more

BIRTH OF GREGOIRE ASLAN

French-Armenian actor and musician Grégoire Aslan was a versatile presence in film and TV sets, as well as on the stage.

He was born Krikor Aslanian to an Armenian family in Constantinople on March 28, 1908. They moved to Paris, and he made his professional debut at the age of eighteen as a vocalist, trumpeter and drummer with the dance band of Ray Ventura et ses Collegiens. He then launched an acting career under the name of Coco Aslan and also performed with guitarist Django Reinhardt.

He appeared in more than 110 films and TV roles between 1935 and 1979. His first film appearance, uncredited, was in Marc Didier’s Le Billet de mille (1935). His first credited appearance happened in Feux de joie (1939). During World War II he toured South America with actor Louis Jouvet and eventually started his own theatre troupe. He became a ubiquitous presence in many British and American films, mostly in the role of foreigner – Russian, Frenchman, Italian, German, Albanian, and Middle Easterner – with equal expertise.

Read more

BIRTH OF PAUL SAGSOORIAN

Paul Sagsoorian was a familiar presence in the publications of the Armenian American community, especially in the New York area, but also an accomplished illustrator in non-Armenian circles.

He was born in New York on March 26, 1923, to a family from the village of Havav, in the district of Palu (province of Diarbekir–Dikranakerd). He graduated from the US Army’s mapmaking school during his three years of World War II service in the European theater of operations. He received a sharpshooter’s medal during a military trip to Iceland and a good conduct medal while in Europe. He worked on maps for mine-laying in Iceland and their removal in Normandy.

Read more

BIRTH OF GEORGE AVAKIAN

Record producer and artist manager George Avakian was best known for his work in major American recording companies (Decca, Columbia, Warner, RCA) from 1939 to the early 1960 and as a major force in the expansion of development of U.S. recording industry. Names like Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Bob Newhart, John Cage, Alan Hovhaness, Ravi Shankar, and many others were among the luminaries that worked with him.
George Mesrop Avakian was born on March 15, 1919, in Armavir, in the Northern Caucasus (Russia);

Read more

TREATY OF MOSCOW

The Treaty of Moscow was signed between Soviet Russia and Kemalist Turkey on March 16, 1921. The Russian side yielded to most Turkish demands, and signed a document that was utterly damaging to Armenia for the sake of Russian-Turkish “friendship and brotherhood.”

The treaty was the outcome of the second Russian-Turkish conference, held in Moscow from February 26-March 16, 1921, with the participation of two Russian (Georgi Chicherin, the Commissar of Foreign Affairs, and Jelal Korkmasov) and three Turkish representatives (Yusuf Kemal bey, Riza Nur bey, and Ali Fuad pasha). Stalin, the Commissar of Nationalities, lobbied against any claim from Turkey that could put the Russian-Turkish alliance in risk. In a letter to Lenin on February 12, 1921, he had written: “I just learned yesterday that Chicherin really sent a stupid (and provocative) demand to the Turks to clean Van, Mush, and Bitlis (Turkish provinces with enormous Turkish supremacy) to the benefit of Armenians.

Read more

DEATH OF PATRIARCH SHNORK KALOUSTIAN

Archbishop Shnork Kaloustian was a prolific and active leader of the Armenian Church, who served in different capacities from Jerusalem to America to Istanbul, where he was the 82th Armenian Patriarch of Turkey for the last 29 years of his life.

Arshag Kaloustian was born on September 27, 1913, in the village of Ighdel, in the region of Yozgat. His father was a victim of the genocide and most of his siblings also died in the period 1915–1923. Little Arshag changed various orphanages in the years 1922-1927, from the former American college of Talas (Kayseri) to the American orphanages of Nahr Ibrahim in Lebanon and of Nazaret in Palestine.

Read more