Month: February 2019

LONDON—More than 1,000 Armenians in four cities in the Diaspora took part in a first ever survey led by a team of academics, researchers and experts. This pilot phase of an ongoing larger project aims to provide a snapshot of the contemporary Diaspora.

The Armenian Diaspora Survey (ADS) is a new initiative launched and funded by the Armenian Communities Department of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and carried out under the auspices of the Armenian Institute in London.

“We have initiated this study to fill a critical gap in our knowledge of the Diaspora, to have evidence-based understanding of the multilayered and diverse aspects of diasporic life in our times,” said Dr. Razmik Panossian, Director of Gulbenkian Foundation’s Armenian Communities Department.

In May and June 2018 four teams conducted the survey and interviews in Boston, Cairo, Marseille and Pasadena. These cities were chosen to provide variety for the initial phase, as well as for their community history and characteristics. A set of other cities are in the process of selection for survey this year.

“We asked people about their thoughts on identity and related issues of belonging as Armenians and as citizens of different states,” explained Dr. Susan Pattie, who led the pilot project. An international advisory committee, a dedicated team and 12 field work researchers were involved in the project, which took about 18 months to develop the methodology, research tools, fieldwork preparations, survey administration and data processing.

For institutional and community leaders in the Diaspora, as well as policy-makers in Armenia, ADS provides valuable research-based information as to what the issues and thinking in the Armenian communities are today and how to serve their needs.

The data and the knowledge gained from the survey will be available to scholars as a resource for further research.

Some initial findings stand out in the first stage of the research. These are only preliminary results from the pilot phase of the survey in four cities.

The overwhelming majority of the respondents consider the continuation of the Armenian diaspora as important and meaningful space—94 percent marked as “fairly” to “very” important. Along these lines, 84 percent of respondents thought it was important to help diaspora communities in the Middle East. This is significant as traditionally the Genocide and the Republic of Armenia have been the focus of funding, study or discourse in the Diaspora. The respondents showed interest in all of these, but considered the diaspora equally important. Armenia is “fairly” and “very” important to 90% of respondents and 75 percent have visited the country at least once, while 93 percent intend to visit.

Respondents said that Armenian language, history and religion were important to themselves and to Armenian identity generally—but variations appeared between the cities and further questions revealed broad variations in practice.

Even as ADS respondents in the four cities seem to be more active than perhaps a broader population of Armenians, 73 percent claimed no active affiliation with any Armenian political organization. However a majority said they were active in other Armenian organizations such as the AGBU, Hamazkayin and others.

Predictably, Christianity is considered an important part of Armenian identity—for Apostolic, Evangelical and Catholic respondents across the four communities. While only 14-16% attended church weekly or monthly, 70 percent felt it is important to be married in an Armenian church. Some 43 percent of respondents felt that women should be ordained in Armenian churches, while 30% had no opinion on the matter.

“Armenians in each community expressed the need to be listened to. They welcomed the opportunity to discuss their experiences, expectations and hopes as individuals and as Armenians,” explained Dr. Pattie. Many ways of being Armenian were reflected in the responses and for those who took part. “Expressing this diversity within a common bond was most important,” Dr. Pattie added.

The survey will continue in 2019 with a new set of selected cities. In the meantime, the results of the pilot survey are being studies and analyzed, which will be shared with the public and will be made easily accessible in the coming months. Click for further details.

GLENDALE—On January 10, the newly elected Regional Committee of Homenetmen Western United States started off the year by holding its Annual Christmas Party at the City of Glendale’s distinguished Phoenicia Restaurant. The event was attended in full capacity with more than 200 attendees including those of Homenetmen’s Regional Committee, community leaders, members, and supporters of the Armenian American community in the region.

Appropriately, the Christmas Party began with the Archbishop of the Western Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America, His Eminence, Moushegh Mardirossian, delivering the invocation and Holy Message hope, peace and prosperity to those present and longevity to Homenetmen as the Armenian American community’s second home.

Archbishop Mardirossian’s holy message was followed by Homenetmen Western Region’s Chairperson, Hagop Tufenkian, whose message of Homenetmen’s rich vein and stature over the last hundred years will no doubt continue and grow in leaps and bounds in the next one hundred years, and that “our work is never done,” but in continuous transformation to the better. He urged his committee members to strive to do better and encouraged supporters to join in to ensure Homenetmen’s future shines bright in perpetuity.

With the New Year full steam ahead, the Homenetmen Western U.S. Regional Executive Committee is ready to face the challenges that lie ahead and the successes that beckon to be reaped.

Having decades of experience in Homenetmen, each individual committee member brings unsurpassed knowledge and experience to help propel this venerable organization farther than ever before. With its volunteer base of at least 700 members and supporters, Homenetmen’s 6,000 members can rest assured that this well-loved institution is on a trajectory with one aim, to achieve greater acclaim and succeed unimpeded. Only a well-traveled, storied and ubiquitous organization like Homenetmen can accomplish all that it has to date and be around to share its unique story. After celebrating its centennial just a few short months ago in Armenia, Western United States and everywhere else Homenetmen has found a permanent home, all of it was and is possible simply because Homenetmen’s whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Guests who took part in the festivities included Homenetmen Central Executive Member, Vigen Davidian, past Honorary Presidents Hamlet and Greta Chraghchian, Varant and Hoori Melkonian, Bedig and Mary Fermanian, Vicken Apelian, Sarkis Nourian, Gagik Gevorkian, Andy Andonian, Shant Haytayan, Sarkis and Sousy Kitsinian, current exemplary Homenetmen member Koko Balian, past exemplary Homenetmen members Jasik Jarahian, Zakar Chorbajian, Koko Megerian and Berdj Djamdjian, Homenetmen Executive Committee Members Hagop Tufenkjian (Chairperson), Sevag Garabedian (Vice Chair), Raffi Varjabedian, Taline Ghazarian, Anita Derderian, Hrach Galoustian, Jhanclod Vartanian, Souzy Ohanian, Harout Momjian, Nora Tchaparian, Siamanto Avakian.

Homenetmen Western U.S. Regional Executive extends its sincere gratitude to Phoenicia Restaurant for their great accommodations and food, past Honorary Presidents, Sarkis Pastry for the delectable desserts, Super King Markets for donating the beverages, long time Homenetmen members, supporters and generous donors.

Our special gratitude goes to Varant and Hoori Melkonian for sponsoring the event.

The Armenian Educational Foundation (AEF) is helping shape Armenia’s future by supporting students studying in technical fields.

AEF’s newest educational program in the burgeoning Information Technology field is its Armath Engineering Laboratories located in village schools in cooperation with Union of Advanced Technology Enterprises (UATE). With the help and generosity of AEF members and donors, Armath Laboratories started working in four village schools, Hadrut, Qajaran #1, Choratan, and Dilijan #4 in January 2019. These new labs were in addition to previously funded Armath Labs in Darbas and Stepanakert #4 schools. Three more labs are planned for 2019, including one in Lorut village school, which will bring the total number of schools which have Armath labs funded by AEF to nine. To date, AEF has committed over $77,000 to fund these nine Armath laboratories.

In addition to sponsoring Armath Labs, AEF has sponsored numerous programs related to the IT/Engineering fields. The AEF established Computer Information Science degree program at Artsakh State University; provides full tuition scholarships to university students studying in technical and engineering fields; and provides computers & printers to village schools and training for their teachers.

In Armath labs students are introduced and learn basic programming, animation, microcontroller programming and robotics, 3D modeling and working with UAV and control Systems. The students participate in different technology camps and have the opportunity to compete on a national level and participate in the DigiTec Expo, the largest tech expo in the region. The goal is to motivate students to pursue engineering and IT degrees and ultimately fill over 2000 job vacancies in the sector in Armenia. In addition to technical training students also learn how to collaborate and work in teams for technical camps and competitions. Additionally, during these competitions they get to meet and communicate with leading IT professionals and get guidance and advice from them.

Al Cabraloff, AEF Board member and Computer Committee member stated: “AEF’s computer in village school program and now sponsoring Armath Labs opens the world to the children living in remote villages. There might be the next Bill Gates sitting in that village classroom.”

For more information follow AEF on Facebook

BY GAREN YEGPARIAN

What’s going on in Nakhichevan? It worries me. Not the at-best-misleading “news” (several weeks ago) emanating from Azerbaijan that they took control of territory that had been in Armenian hands. Even if that were true, it would be an insignificant blip, and, it’s not true.

What worries me are more substantive issues. What’s happening with the population of the area. In one source, there’s a reference to its having grown from 307,200 in 1991 to 410,100 in 2011. That’s HUGE. Think about it, a one-third increase in the number of people in the span of less than one generation? But is it true? Or, equally, is it true that huge numbers of people fled that so-called “autonomous republic” after the Armenian side won in Artsakh? I recall some statistics that purported the region’s population had been halved as a result, but half of what?

Why does population matter anyway? The more people are there, the more that can be marshalled to arms should a conflict erupt on the Republic of Armenia’s southwestern flank where this now-devoid-of-Armenians region lays.

Turkey is the root of my concerns. Plans for a railroad connecting the Nakhichevan and Turkey have been put forth, but no action has been taken since 2012. That’s good news. But the very fact that a project such as this lingers and festering is cause for concern. A railroad would enable faster delivery of military needs to our enemies in case of a conflict. As it is, the Turkish military is said to have an actual presence in Nakhichevan. This is hardly a surprise. Couple this with the incident referenced above when Azerbaijan took some action, perhaps the real intention was to probe for Armenian weakness. That was not an isolated incident. Every so often, they take such action. But the Turkish presence there is “unofficial” since formalizing such a condition would intrude on Russia’s perception of its space. Despite this, Turkish media occasionally report plans to build a Turkish base in Nakichevan. This, too, is likely a probe to see what reactions are elicited.

All this is possible because of a land swap between Iran and Turkey under the Tehran Convention, of 1931. This gave Turkey an 11 mile (18km) common border with Nakhichevan. Ostensibly, this came about as a result of the Kurdish rebellion that preceded it. Because Kurds were crossing the border from Iran, Turkey wanted a more controllable border. Even an Armenian source cites this. Supposedly, the land swap was not to gain a common border with Nakhichevan for pan-Turkic reasons. But it baffles me why people cannot conceive that Turkey wanted the land swap for both reasons – the Kurdish and Nakhichevan benefits it bestowed.

Of course the pan-Turkist Kemal Ataturk would not publicly state the Nakhichevan angle. Would you? But it is what anyone with that expansionist, Turkist mindset would do. It’s completely rational.

Meanwhile, a border wall between Iran and Turkey is under construction by the former and was scheduled for completion in Spring of 2019. I do not know what to make of this. Supposedly, Iran welcomes its construction, but I don’t see why it would. That’s very shortsighted and Tehran usually thinks very long term.

We must heighten our awareness of Nakhichevan. Happily, Yerevan officialdom seems to be aware of the importance of this front. But more public, especially Diasporan, awareness is important so that if the time should come when trouble starts, we can be of more assistance. Also, it would help us spread the word in government circles worldwide that Turkey likely has nefarious plans for the Republic of Armenia via Nakhichevan.

Let’s start reading and spreading more news about the place-of-the-first descent (of Noah’s ark) as the region is named (Nakh-eech-e-van).