DEATH OF RAOUL ASLAN

Raoul Aslan was one of the most popular Austrian actors in the 1920-1950 period.

He was born Raoul Aslanian on October 16, 1886, in Salonica (Thessaloniki), then part of the Ottoman Empire (now in Greece). His father Charles Aslanian was a tobacco salesman from Edirne (Adrianopolis) of Armenian origin, and his mother came from an Italian family that had moved to Egypt. His younger brother was the actor Didier Aslan (1894-1978).

Aslan’s mother tongue was French, as was customary among the upper middle classes of the Ottoman Empire at the time. He was brought up by a Viennese governess and moved to Vienna with his mother in 1896 to attend school.

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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.

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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.

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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….

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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.

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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.

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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 …

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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.

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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

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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.

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