Tag Archive for: This Week in Armenian History

DEATH OF MAGHAKIA [MALACHIAH] ORMANIAN

Archbishop Maghakia Ormanian was a remarkable figure of the Armenian Church in turbulent times at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century.

Boghos Ormanian was born on February 23, 1841 in Constantinople. After learning the first letters, in 1851 he was sent to Rome, where he pursued studies at the convent of St. Gregory, belonging to the Antonine Congregation, and then at the Vatican. He returned to Constantinople in 1866 and became secretary of the Antonine Congregation, while a year later he was designated principal of the Antonine School in Rome. In 1868 he obtained a master degree in philosophy, theology, and Church law, and became a member of the Theological Academy of Rome, as well as teacher of Armenian at the College of the Propaganda Fide.

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DEATH OF GRIGORI ARUTINOV

Grigori Arutinov (known as Grigor Harutiunian in Armenian) was the first secretary of the Communist Party of Armenia for sixteen years (1937-1953), the longest tenure in the history of Soviet Armenia, coinciding with the Stalinist repression and World War II.

Arutinov was born in Telavi, in eastern Georgia, on November 7, 1900. He was admitted to the local Russian gymnasium in 1911 and joined the Bolshevik party in 1919.

After the establishment of Soviet power in Georgia (1921), he became the head of the propaganda department of the Telavi district committee of the Communist Party. He studied at the Karl Marx Institute of National Economy in Moscow (1922–1924).

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DEATH OF ASHOT NAVASARDIAN

Ashot Navasardian was a Soviet Armenian dissident who founded the Republican Party of Armenia on the eve of the second independence of Armenia.

He was born in Yerevan on March 28, 1950, and graduated from the Faculty of Law of Yerevan State University. In 1968 he became a member of the underground National Unity Party, which advocated for the secession of Armenia from the Soviet Union. He was imprisoned three times for his criticism of the Soviet regime and the promotion of his ideas and sentenced to a total of 17 years of prison and 5 years of exile, of which he spent 12 years in prison and exile, having been released before the sentence terms of his second and third imprisonments. He was finally freed in 1987, and he continued his activities as a member of the council of the Union for National-Self Determination (1988-1989).

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DEATH OF LUTHER SIMJIAN

Լuther Simjian was born in Aintab (Cilicia) on January 28, 1905. He lost his mother when he was only a few months old; his father later remarried and had two daughters. The family fled to Aleppo during the Genocide and only returned to Aintab in 1920 during the brief French mandate over Cilicia. Simjian’s stepmother and half-sisters were killed in Marash. Eventually he escaped to Beirut and then came to the United States via France at the end of 1920. He first settled in New Haven, Connecticut, where he lived with an uncle and graduated from Booth Preparatory School.

Simjian began working as a technician at the photography lab of the Yale School of Medicine. In 1928 he founded and became the first director of the photography department, which he headed until 1934.

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DEATH OF ARMAN KOTIKIAN

Arman Kotikian, a poet and translator, was mainly known as an actor with a half-century on Armenian stages.

He was born Arakel Kotikian in Trabzon (Trebisonda) on September 27, 1896. After elementary studies in the nearby village of Elevi, where his family lived, he moved to Trabzon to live with his brother and continued his studies at the local Armenian school. Only him, his brother and sister, out of their huge family, survived the Armenian Genocide.

After the occupation of Trabzon by Russian forces in 1916, Arman Kotikian was devoted to the gathering of orphans, participated in the creation of an orphanage-school in the building of the Girls’ School in Trabzon,…

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DEATH OF SARKIS DARCHINIAN

There are lesser-known names who do the hard work of documentation to construct the building of history. Sargis Darchinian took that role for the Armenian community of Georgia.

Sargis Darchinian was born on September 5, 1947, in Tbilisi (Georgia). He graduated from school in 1966 and, simultaneously, from sculpture and modeling at technical school. In 1967 he started working at the jewelry factory as designer and engraver.

He started photography during his adolescence, and gradually went into documentary photography, contributing to various Georgian publications. In the early 1970s, he met Alexander Arutiunov, a well-known Armenian photographer of Tbilisi, and, following his advice, focused on photography of architectural and historical type, as well as օf “urban types.”

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DEATH OF ARMENAG SHAHMOURADIAN

Armenag Shahmouradian had huge success in Paris as opera singer, but he became more famous as one of the most conspicuous representatives of the musical school founded by Gomidas Vartabed.

He was born on April 7, 1878, in Mush (Western Armenia). His singing talents as a member of the church choir, which he joined at the age of eight, attracted the attention of Bishop Nerses Kharakhanian. The bishop took him under his wing and sent him to the Seminary of the monastery of St. Garabed in Mush to get his education, but the narrow confines of the monastery were not suited for the young boy, who returned home quite soon.

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BIRTH OF ARCHBISHOP KHOREN KALFAYAN

Archbishop Khoren Kalfayan, also know by the literary surname of Nar Bey, was a well-known literary and public figure in the second half of the nineteenth century.

He was born in Constantinople on September 6, 1831. Along with his brother Ambrosius Kalfayan, he was sent to the convent of St. Lazarus of the Mekhitarist Congregation of Venice, where he received his education.

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BIRTH OF TATEVIK SAZANDARIAN

Tatevik Sazandarian was an operatic mezzo–soprano who became a well-known soloist at the Yerevan Opera Theater and then a longtime teacher at the Komitas Conservatory.

She was born in Khndzoresk, in Siunik, on August 20, 1916. She grew up in Baku, where she sang as a soloist in the school choir from the age of ten. She moved to Moscow in 1932 and sang in several amateur performances. She began performing in concerts in 1933 and studied at the musical and drama studios of the Armenian Cultural House of Moscow…

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DEATH OF BELLA (TARPINIAN) DARBINYAN

Between the 1960s and 1980s, Bella Darbinian was at her peak as one of the most well-known singers of Armenia, with her fame firmly established in the Diaspora.

Bella Darbinian was born on February 10, 1936, in Kirovakan (nowadays Vanadzor). Her actual last name was Kuznetsova (her father was Russian and her mother Armenian). When she started her musical career, she considered more appropriate to use an Armenian name and used the straightforward translation of her surname (Russian kuznets = Armenian darbin-tarpin “blacksmith”).

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