Tag Archive for: This Week in Armenian History

DEATH OF SOGHOMON TEHLIRIAN

“Tehlirian acted as the self-appointed legal officer for the conscience of mankind,” thought Polish law student Raphael Lemkin and started his quest to establish an universal jurisdiction to pursue the crime of what he would call “genocide.” Soghomon Tehlirian, who liquidated Talaat Pasha, one of the masterminds of the Armenian Genocide, is considered a national hero by Armenians.

Tehlirian was born on April 2, 1896, in the village of Nerkin Bagarij, in the region of Erzinga. He studied at the village school, then at the Protestant school of Erzinga (1905-1906) and at the Central School of Erzinga (1907-1912).

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DEATH OF PARSEGH (GANATCHIAN) GANACHIAN

The best known of Gomidas Vartabed’s “five disciples” and an accomplished composer and choirmaster himself, Parsegh Ganachian is also known as the author of the arrangement for the Armenian national anthem “Mer Hayrenik.”

He was born in Rodosto (Oriental Thrace, today in Turkey) on April 17, 1885. He was the son of a shoemaker, and at the age of three, his family moved to Constantinople, where he received his primary education at the elementary school of Gedikpasha. During the massacres of 1896, the Ganachians moved to Varna, in Bulgaria, where the young Parsegh continued his studies at the local Armenian school and studied music theory, violin, and conducting with violinist Nathan Bey Amirkhanian.

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DEATH OF CARDINAL GREGORIO AGAGIANIAN

Cardinal Gregorio Agagianian was the foremost Armenian figure of the Catholic Church in the twentieth century, and rose to world fame when in the papal elections of 1958 and 1963 he was about to become the first non-Italian head of the Church in almost 450 years.

Ghazaros Agagianian was born in Akhaltsikhe, in the historical region of Javakhk (now in Georgia), on September 18, 1895. His family was part of the local Armenian Catholic community. After studying at the seminary of Tiflis, he went to Rome, where he studied at the Urban College of the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (now Pontifical Urbaniana University) and was ordained a priest in 1917 with the name of Gregorio (Krikor).

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BIRTH OF HOVSEP PUSHMAN

Hovsep Pushman was a well noted painter in the New York in the 1930s, when his contemplative still lifes and sensitive portrait of women reached very high prices.

Pushman was born on May 9, 1877, in Diyarbekir, where his family was in the carpet business. He showed early artistic ability. At eleven, he was the youngest student ever admitted to the Imperial School of Fine Arts in Constantinople.

In 1896, the Pushman family emigrated to the United States and settled in Chicago, where Hovsep studied Chinese culture, immersing himself in Asian art, and began to teach…

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DEATH OF SETRAK BARKHUDARIAN

Sedrak Barkhudarian was born on March 21, 1898, in Haftvan (Iran). He studied at the Nersessian Lyceum of Tiflis (Tbilisi) and graduated from the Faculty of History and Literature of Yerevan State University in 1928. He led archaeological campaigns in 1932-1937 as a researcher at the State Museum of History of Armenia. His discovery of Urartian inscriptions in the Lake Sevan area (Gegharkunik) became the basis for the valuable monograph The Country of Velikuhi (1933). Two years later, he published the book The Classes of Antiquities in Soviet Armenia and the Importance of the Their Conservation, a first of its kind.
The prolific historian, who was also the author of important articles about Armenian medieval history, passed away on May 8, 1970, in Yerevan.

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DEATH OF HRACHIA KOCHAR

Writer Hrachia Kochar, a survivor of the Armenian Genocide, became one of the official voices of Stalinism, but at the end of his life, mounting on the wave of national rebirth in Soviet Armenian, produced the most durable works of his literary career.

He was born Hrachia Kaprielian in the village of Kumlubujakh, situated on the foot of Mount Nepat in the district of Bagrevand (Western Armenia), on February 1, 1910. His mother died on the road to exile in 1916, and he was able to cross into Eastern Armenia with the rest of the villagers, finding shelter in the village of Vagharshapat. His father Kochar (Kocho), who fought along General Antranig, died in 1918.

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BIRTH OF KEVORK MESROB

Kevork Mesrob was a longtime teacher as well as prolific author and public servant both in the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria.

His real name was Kevork Der-Mesrobian and he was born on May 1, 1881, in Bardizag. He studied at the local Nerses-Shushanian and then at the local American high school. Then he was admitted at the Seminary of the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which he finished in three years instead of the usual six (1899-1902).

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BIRTH OF SEIRAN KHATLAMAJIAN

Seiran Khatlamajian is considered one of the founding fathers of the abstract art movement in Armenia.

He was born on April 20, 1937, in the village of Chaltyr near Rostov-on-Don. His parents were dispossessed landowners. Since childhood, Seiran was fascinated by drawing and at the age of 14 started his studies at the children’s art school in Rostov-on-Don. He entered the Mitrofan Grekov School of Art in 1953 and graduated in 1959 with honors.

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BIRTH OF ARTAK MOVSISYAN

Artak Movsisyan was a young and prolific historian of the post-Soviet generation in Armenia who made an important contribution to the study of ancient history.

He was born on April 10, 1970, in the city of Abovian. After graduating from the local No. 7 school, he served in the Soviet..

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BIRTH OF VARTAN GRIGORIAN

Historian by vocation and administrator by destiny, Vartan Gregorian went from a difficult childhood to becoming one of the most respected intellectuals in America.

He was born on April 8, 1934, in Tabriz (Iran). His father was mostly absent. His mother died when he was six and his father later remarried. Vartan and his younger sister were raised by his maternal grandmother.

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