Tag Archive for: This Week in Armenian History

DEATH OF RICHARD YARDUMIAN

Richard Yardumian was an Armenian-American classical music composer who was associated to Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra for two decades.

Yardumian was born in Philadelphia on April 5, 1917. He was the youngest of ten children and began studying the piano at a very early age. His father, Rev. Haig Yardumian, was the founding pastor of the Philadelphia Armenian Evangelical community and his mother, Lucia, was a teacher and organist.

One of his brothers, Elijah Yardumian, a concert pianist who graduated from the Curtis Institute, served as a musical mentor. Richard Yardumian began composing at age 14 and began a formal study of piano, harmony, theory and …

Read more

BIRTH OF VARDGES PETROSIAN

Vardges Petrosian was one of the remarkable authors of the group of “young prose-writers” in Armenia in the 1960s-1980s.
He was born on August 9, 1932, in the town of Ashtarak, where he spent his childhood, went to school, and began writing poetry. In 1954, he graduated from the journalism department of Yerevan State University and, after a stint as editorial secretary of the regional newspaper of Kamo (Gavar, 1954–1955), he worked as correspondent for the daily Sovetakan Hayastan (1955-1957) and as editorial secretary and later deputy editor of the bi-weekly Avangard (1957-1961). He was editor of the children weekly Pioner Kanch (1961-1966) and the founding editor-in-chief of the literary and youth monthly Garun.

Read more

DEATH OF ANAYIS

Anayis is one of the lesser known female writers of Western Armenian literature, particularly remembered for her memoirs.

She was born Yevpime Avedisian on February 20, 1872, in Constantinople. She was a member of one of the branches of the Chobanian family from the town of Akn and thus related to famous writer Archag Tchobanian (1872–1954). She studied at the Makruhiats School and then attended the Fourier School to improve her French, while taking private lessons in Armenian from poets Tovmas Terzian and Khoren Nar Bey. She published her first poem in the Armenian journal Massis in 1893. She contributed works in prose and verse to various periodicals…

Read more

THE CARTOZIAN CASE RULING

A hundred year ago this day, a pivotal legal case, United States v. Tatos Osgihan Cartozian, came to an end with a conclusive victory for the defendant. The victory was not only for Cartozian, a prominent rug dealer in Portland, Oregon (pictured in the photo with his daughters), but also for the Armenian American community.

The reaction against immigration in the post-World War I period was an extension of the process of racism and dehumanization that had been already present since the last quarter of the nineteenth century. First it was the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) and then the virulent calls for restriction against the immigration from eastern and southwestern Europe and western Asia in the 1890s and 1900s. The Alien Land

Read more

DEATH OF CATHOLICOS COADJUTOR PAPKEN I

Archbishop Papken Guleserian was one of the prolific members of the Armenian Apostolic Church in the first decades of the past century, reaching the throne of the Catholicosate of the Great House Cilicia, when death interrupted his life at the age of 68.

He was born Harutiun Guleserian on March 5, 1868, in Aintab. After attending the local Vartanian School in 1885-1889, հe continued his studies at the Armash Seminary for the next seven years and graduated in 1896. He was ordained celibate priest in 1895, adopting the ecclesiastic name of Papken, and subsequently received the degrees of archimandrite (1896) and archimandrite superior (1897). He was a preacher in Constantinople for a year and then was appointed locum tenens of the diocese of Samsun.

Read more

BIRTH OF JAK IHAMLYAN

Jak Ihmalyan was a Turkish Armenian painter, political activist, and university teacher who lived most of his life outside Turkey due to political repression.

He was born in Istanbul on June 30, 1922. He developed his connection to art at a young age, influenced by his father Garbis, who was also a painter. He started his studies of painting in 1936. After completing a private Catholic secondary school in 1936, he enrolled at Lycée Saint-Joseph and later graduated from Haydarpaşa high school. In 1942-1944, he studied at the Istanbul State Academy of Fine Arts.

Read more

BIRTH OF ARAM MERANGULIAN

Composer and musician Aram Merangulian hand an important role in Armenian folklore music with the creation of the orchestra of popular instruments of Armenia.

He was born on June 8, 1902, in the village of Tshegna of the district of Goghtn (Nakhichevan). He directed several amateur groups in 1922-1926. He studied the tarr (1926-1928) and composition (1937-1942) at the Yerevan Music Conservatory. In 1927 he founded the ensemble of popular instruments of the Radio and TV of Armenia and directed the group for the next forty years. The ensemble was called after him following his death. Famous singers like Hovhannes Badalian, Ruben Matevosian, Norayr Mnatsakanian, Ofelia Hambardzumian, Varduhi Khachatryan were among the soloists in the ensemble.

Read more

BIRTH OF ARKADY TER TADEVOSYAN

Arkady Ter-Tadevosyan [pronounced as Der-Tadevosian], also known by his nom-de-guerre Komandos, was a military leader of the Armenian forces in the first Artsakh war and best known for commanding the capture of the town of Shushi in 1992.

Ter-Tadevosyan was born Artush Tadevosyan in Tbilisi, capital of Georgia, on May 22, 1939. After graduating from a high school in Tbilisi, he decided to become an officer. He attended military school in Baku and Leningrad (nowadays St. Petersburg). He served in Afghanistan and continued his military service in Leninakan (modern-day Gyumri), East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Belarus, and Yerevan. He was also a lecturer at the Armenian State Agrarian University.

Read more

BIRTH OF GARNIK KALASHIAN

Garnik Kalashian had a short, but intense life both as a poet and a public person.

He was born on May 16, 1885. He graduated from the Nersisian School of Tiflis in 1906. He participated in the activities of the local Armenian Literary of Society and the literary circle led by Hovhannes Tumanian, called “Vernatun” (Cenacle). In 1907, he became an auditor in the Commercial Institute of Moscow. He was proficient in half a dozen languages.

Kalashian established close ties with the revolutionary students at the Lazarian College of Moscow and participated in demonstrations, while he also distributed pamphlets….

Read more

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