Gharibian’s Study of Armenian Journalism a Valuable Resource
By Daphne Abeel – The Armenian Mirror-Spectator
Friday, May 11, 2012
Category:ArmeniaMedia
Special to the Mirror-Spectator
Jerair Gharibian, who died in 1991, made an important contribution to
Armenian culture in the Boston area, when, in 1980, he founded the
Boston Armenian Independent Radio Hour, which to this day broadcasts
news and commentary of interest to the Armenian community.
His widow, Yevgine Gharibian, who hosts the broadcasts, has now paid
further tribute to her husband’s legacy with the publication of
Armenian Journalism 1794-1977, written to fulfill his master’s degree
requirement at Boston University.
Gharibian had a rich and varied life as a writer and a journalist.
Born to Armenian parents in Baghdad, Iraq, in 1937, he began his
education there, but traveled later to London to study at a branch of
London University, where he studied industrial management. While in
London, he became a co-founder of the Armenian Revolutionary
Federation (ARF) Navasardian Committee.
In 1964, following his graduation, he moved to Tehran, where he lived
for 10 years, immersing himself in the social and political life of
the Armenian community there. He was particularly
interested in the education of young people and established a youth
biweekly magazine, Alik Badanegan, which was published under the aus-
pices of Alik daily, where he served as assistant editor.
In 1975, Gharibian was invited to the United States to assume the
position of executive secre- tary of the Armenian Youth Federation of
the ARF. It was at this time while he was attending Boston
University’s School of Journalism that he wrote his master’s thesis on
Armenian journalism.
This relatively short text is of archival importance to the Armenian
community, if for no other reason than for the tables which list the
publication of vir- tually every Armenian newspaper and periodical,
dating back to 1794, when the very first newspaper, Aztarar, was
published by a priest, Rev. Haratune Shmavonian in Madras, India. The
tables list not only the title of the publication, but the date and
place of origin, the publisher, the editor and the nature of its
content. This is an invaluable resource for anyone who is engaged in
research on many subjects touching on Armenian history, culture and
politics.
As Dr. Khachig Tololyan of Wesleyan University notes in his
introduction, “Both in the homeland and in the diaspora, Armenians
have made their history in contexts that gave the press an uncom- mon
centrality in political and cultural life; furthermore, the lack of
universities and of institutional documentation in stable archives
made the Armenian press the best record of social history available to
us. Jerair Gharibian’s book is a refer- ence guide and a history of
the Armenian press from 1794-1977, but it is also a study of the
tight- knit relationship between the Armenian press and its
heterogeneous contexts, from Madras to Yerevan, and Tbilisi to
Fresno.”
Tololyan also notes that even this first publication served as a kind
of political rallying point, a characteristic that is reflected in
contemporary publications, which are now, in large part, owned by
various political parties.
Ara Ghazarian, curator of the Armenian Cultural Foundation, has
contributed a foreword in which he, too, comments on the importance of
the publication as “the first historical, analytical work on the
history of Armenian journalism written in English.”
In his own introduction, Gharibian points to the unique role that
Armenian journalism has played in the history of the Armenian people.
“Only rarely does one come across a nation which has been compelled to
publish newspapers and periodicals with the survival of the people as
its primary concern.”
Of course, there could be no publication of any sort without the
invention of the alphabet and Gharibian reviews the creation of the
Armenian script by the Armenian monk, Mesrob Mashtots in 404 AD. The
first text to be translated into Armenian, not surprisingly, was the
Bible, but it was followed by original works in the fields of history,
philosophy and religion and hence “The Golden Age of Armenian
Literature” was born. In spite of the fact that Armenia was subject to
many invasions, creative writers continued to produce works, which
included songs, most notably by the troubadour, Sayat Nova.
In the 16th century, as Armenians began to emigrate to other lands in
order to escape oppression by invaders, new writers in the diaspora
began writing in the language of the common people (krapar) rather
than the literary language of the clergy (ashkharapar).
Subsequent to the founding of that first paper in Madras, the growth
of Armenian publications increased gradually through the 19th century.
Thanks to European demands that the Ottomans ease up on restrictions
placed on the Armenian community, education received a push and
parochial schools and colleges were established by Armenian
missionaries in Constantinople, Kharpert, Marsovan, Aintab, Marash,
Konia and Tarsus. In the mid 19th century, three important Armenian
newspapers were published, Masis in Constantinople, Huisisapayl in
Moscow and Ardziv, founded in Constantinople, but later moved to Van.
Ardziv, established by Bishop Megerdich Khrimian, played an especially
impor- tant role in exhorting Armenians to press for their freedom.
Especially in the years 1905-1914 leading up to the Genocide,
Gharibian notes that censorship of Armenian journalism by the Ottomans
was particularly harsh. Such words as “freedom, “rights,”
“revolution,” and “justice,” were routinely stricken from any
publications. Particularly taboo were the words “Hayastan” (Armenian)
and “Hairenik” (Fatherland).
With the extermination in 1915 of over 600 scholars, writers,
journalists and other intellectuals, journalism nearly ceased to exist
In Ottoman Turkey and it was at this time the Diaspora became the
haven for Armenian journalism Throughout the Middle East and in the
United States, wherever a significant population of Armenians
immigrated to escape persecution, new vehicles for journalism were
formed. including some in the Soviet Union, although these latter were
very much under the book of the Communist regime.
It needs to be pointed out that Gharibian was writing long before the
breakup of the Soviet Union and the formation of the independent
Republic of Armenia and his criticisms of and references to the Soviet
influence on the Armenian press no longer have the same validity as
they did at the time of his writing in the late 1970s.
Gharibian gives a thumbnail sketch of the importance of the Armenian
press in Middle Eastern countries such as Syria, Iraq, Iran and Egypt
and pays particular tribute to Lebanon which was the birthplace of
many outstanding Armenian journalists. The influence of Beirutis may
still be traced, for example, in the editorship of Azg, published in
Yerevan and headed by Hagop Avedikian, who was born in Beirut.
Papers were also started in France, Turkey and the United States where
the first publication was Arekag, founded in 1888 and published by
Haig Eginian in Jersey City, NJ.
Writing in 1977, Gharibian counted 52 Armenian periodical publications
in the US, including Hairenik, the organ of the ARF, and the Armenian
Mirror-Spectator, the publication of the Armenian Democratic Liberal
(ADL) Party. Both today, are located in Watertown, Mass. Gradually,
with succeeding generations of Armenians less able to read in the
Armenian language, there was an ever-increasing need to create an
Armenian press in English.
Gharibian notes that few editors of Armenian periodicals were trained
journalists, although that trend is changing both in Armenia and
abroad.
In his concluding chapter, Gharibian writes, “The future of the
Armenian-language press in the Diaspora is governed, however by
language and social factors. As assimilation by foreign cultures takes
its toll on those who can read the Armenian language, the need for
newspapers and periodicals printed in the Armenian idiom will continue
to decline. On the other hand, these same forces of assimilation may
give rise to a need for more publications in the languages of those
nations in which the Armenians have settled. But this in itself is
ruled by the ability of Armenian culture to survive under the attack
of foreign influence.”
Clearly, the rest of the story of Armenian journalism is yet to be
written. But there are signs of interest in the history of both
Armenian journalism and publication in general; witness the recent
exhibit at Harvard University’s Lamont Library of the history of the
Armenian book, organized by Prof. James Russell, which included books,
magazines and newspapers.
Copies of Armenian Journalism 1794-1977 may be obtained by contacting
[email protected] or by visiting the library at the National Association
of Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) in Belmont.