Category: 2023

Archbishop Pargev Martirosyan leads Artsakh soldiers in prayer (Facebook)

There was a time when our beloved church was the face of the liberation struggle for Artsakh. Who has forgotten the image of strength, wisdom and determination displayed by Archbishop Pargev Martirosyan, appointed the first Primate of the newly-formed Artsakh diocese in 1989? He was a constant presence throughout the wars in Artsakh from 1991-1994 and in 2020 until his retirement due to health problems in early 2021. Martirosyan represented the two most important attributes for military and diplomatic success – unity and hope. 

Most Armenians in the diaspora had little functional knowledge of Artsakh prior to the liberation movement in the late 1980s. The independence declarations of Artsakh and Armenia occurred within 19 days of each other in 1991, but they were a study in contrast in their aftermaths. Armenia was liberated within the vacuum left by the collapse of the Soviet Union, while Artsakh was attacked by Azerbaijan and forced to defend its rights. While Armenians waited for media reports of the conflict during those fateful years, our perceptions were influenced by the constant presence of Archbishop Martirosyan, whose blend of patriotism and spiritual guidance drew comparisons to Ghevont Yeretz and Karekin Hovseptiantz. His selfless leadership and sacrificial humility brought the church’s role into focus. With no disrespect intended, most Armenians have limited knowledge of his successor. The church has assumed a much lower profile in the last several years, to the detriment of our people. In times of crisis, hope generates motivation, and through our faith, the church can be the bedrock of hope.

The cause for Artsakh has always been about the God-given right to self-_expression_. Military conquests and human rights atrocities can never remove this fundamental truth. The liberation struggle began as a defense of self-determination and human rights and blossomed into a journey of building a nation. It is remarkable what the people of Artsakh have accomplished in isolation and a lack of political recognition. Our world contains many so-called democracies whose citizens would envy the progress of Artsakh. 

The Armenian church has always occupied a unique role in the nation. One of the most iconic pictures taken prior to the miraculous tri-battles of 1918 that enabled life for Armenia as we know it was a gathering of soldiers at Holy Etchmiadzin participating in a blessing service by Catholicos Gevorg V. Before the liberation of Shushi in May 1992, Pargev Surpazan blessed the Armenian troops, then led them to Ghazanchetsots Cathedral for a prayer for the fallen soldiers. It was the first time since 1920 that a prayer had been heard in the Cathedral. That moment was a merging of faith, self-determination and hope, as witnessed at Avarayr and Sardarabad. 

In 2011, I visited Ghazanchetsots Cathedral in Shushi and experienced its beauty. When I walked into the cathedral that morning, there were several dozen of our brave Artsakh soldiers praying in the sanctuary before heading to the line of contact for their duty to the nation. They understood the role of the church in our survival. I believe they succeeded largely because of the unity of our souls, for our faith and the nation.

If the church had a vital role in the Artsakh struggle in the past, shouldn’t that role be even more crucial today? People are suffering. The behavior of Azerbaijan has degenerated from despotic and oppressive to genocidal. There is no difference between the horrific crimes of murder and deportation committed by Talaat to the pitiful actions by Aliyev to starve an entire population. As Artsakh faces a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions, the church has a responsibility to provide visible leadership.

Archbishop Martirosyan possessed what I will call “humble visibility.” His service was loved and respected, because he lived with his people through every day of the struggle. Humility in the service of God and the faithful is the hallmark of faith and nation. I met such a man a few years ago in Armenia. Father Aram, from the Berd region, is a man of the people. We met in the border village of Chambarak that was building a new medical clinic at that time. He was an associate of the late Jack Medzorian and his wife Eva, who have been humanitarian and economic activists in the region for decades. Father Aram is involved in all aspects of the betterment of the lives of the local people, from a spiritual foundation to education and livelihood. He seeks no tribute or praise – only to see his beloved flock prosper. He embodies what Armenians currently seek in their church leadership. Many of you also know of the dedicated work of the late Father Dajad Davidian who, after retiring from his pastoral work in the eastern diocese, spent years in Armenia organizing youth in the church. He gave the church astounding credibility among the first generation after the fall of Soviet rule. 

These examples and others have one major theme in common. Their ministries are not clouded in hierarchy or a lack of public visibility. Their work is with the people within their spheres of influence. The struggle for Artsakh needs an active church willing to go beyond the walls of protocol or tradition. Our church must lead civil protests with the laity. Too often our church limits its work to safe, internal activities. Fundraising for Artsakh is noble, but is not the priority at this time. 

The Armenian church has invested a substantial amount of resources into the World Council of Churches (WCC). Last year, Catholicos Aram I of the Great House of Cilicia was elected as one of the presidents of the WCC representing the Oriental Orthodox churches. This is a great honor and position of influence for our church. The churches of the WCC have many humanitarian vehicles and often conduct backchannel diplomacy when a nation’s political environment is volatile. It is not unreasonable to expect support from WCC members for Artsakh through active engagement in ending the blockade. 

Perhaps a prerequisite for this approach would be the visible unity of the two Catholicoi. It is common practice for the Catholicoi of Holy Etchmiadzin and Cilicia to unite in times of crisis or need, such as the 1988 earthquake and the 100th commemoration of the Genocide. Visible and sustained public united efforts would trickle down to integrated action on a diocesan level. Our activities today are so decentralized that their impact is minimal. If the mayor of Paris can go to Berdzor, why can’t Aram I and Karekin II, together with 25 bishops? How about a sustained

presence of the church at civil protests and diplomatic influence through sister churches? 

The political environment in Artsakh and Armenia should be an opportunity for the church to provide the kind of leadership that will contribute to ending the blockade and maintaining the strength of our people. The church has been criticized for being self-centered, aloof and passive in times of national crisis. This is an opportunity to alter that perception and contribute to the national struggle. This is not new – it is the tradition of our church.

Protesters hold letters outside of White House reading, “120,000 Reasons” (Photo: Sona Gevorkian)

Hundreds of protesters took to Washington, D.C.’s streets on Friday, Sept. 1 to kick off the Armenian Revolutionary Federation’s (ARF) “SOS Artsakh” global call to action to demand government intervention to end Azerbaijan’s nearly nine-month blockade of Artsakh.

Marchers of all ages gathered in front of the Renaissance Washington, D.C. Downtown Hotel, the headquarters of the annual AYF Olympics, at 1:30 p.m., to walk to Lafayette Park across from the White House nearly a mile away.

“We are approaching nine months since Azerbaijan began its genocidal blockade of Artsakh. Food shortages across Artsakh, a reported death by starvation, fainting episodes due to waiting for hours in bread lines, water supplies being cut, miscarriages due to bad nutrition, electricity being cut,” said AYF-YOARF Central Executive member Areni Margossian, before leading the marchers toward Lafayette Park.

“For nine months, the international community and the United States along with it have remained largely indifferent, so we gather here today to send an SOS, to make our voices heard, to show our support for Artsakh, show that they are not alone and that we will stop at nothing to fight for the freedom of Artsakh and its security,” Margossian continued.

Protesters carrying signs, banners, and Artsakh and Armenia flags walked down the middle of New York Avenue chanting slogans aimed at U.S. President Joe Biden including, “Biden: Stop the second Armenian Genocide,” “Biden: Break the blockade” and “Biden: End U.S. aid to Azerbaijan.”

Gevik Atakhanian of Cresskill, New Jersey was motivated to march to end the consequences of the ongoing blockade. “We are still suffering, and nobody is doing anything about it,” Atakhanian said. “We have to get our message across somehow. I don’t know how long those people are going to suffer.”

The day before the march, the U.S. State Department issued a press statement on the humanitarian situation in Nagorno-Karabakh. The five-sentence statement conveyed the department’s deep “concern about the deteriorating humanitarian conditions in Nagorno-Karabakh resulting from the continued blockage of food, medicine and other goods essential to a dignified existence.” It included a “call to immediately re-open the Lachin corridor to humanitarian, commercial and passenger traffic.” 

“Officials from Baku and representatives from Stepanakert should convene without delay to agree on the means of transporting critical provisions to the men, women and children of Nagorno-Karabakh – including additional supply routes – and resume discussions on all outstanding issues,” the statement reads. “Additional supply routes” likely refers to Azerbaijan’s proposal to deliver supplies to Artsakh through Aghdam. Artsakh authorities have rejected this offer, stating that it would normalize the continued blockade of the Berdzor (Lachin) Corridor.

ARF Eastern Region Central Committee chair Ani Tchaghlasian responded to the statement’s implication that Artsakh can negotiate with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s regime to end the ongoing blockade.

“We do not accept this,” Tchaghlasian said. “President Biden, we are here to tell you – you can stop this genocide. You must stop this genocide. We are here to tell you that we will hold your administration personally responsible for this genocide.”

“Your so-called interests in the South Caucasus do not trump our right to live. They do not trump the right of 30,000 children to live in liberty in their millennia-old homeland. We are here to tell you, this is enough!” Tchaghlasian continued during her speech in front of the White House. 

ANCA executive director Aram Hamparian said that Biden must stop “both-siding genocide.” 

“There is the victim and the aggressor, and Azerbaijan is the guilty party. That’s why our president and State Department are so hell-bent for ‘peace’ that would integrate Artsakh into Azerbaijan, which we all know is a death sentence for the Artsakh population. A genocide. A second genocide. President Biden knows it. Ilham Aliyev knows it. The world sees it, and it is up to us to stop it,” Hamparian said. 

AYF-YOARF Central Executive member Alec Soghomonian also chided the Biden administration for its inaction “at the expense of Armenian lives.” He said the U.S. has “aided and abetted Baku by sending military aid and refusing to enforce Section 907,” referring to the provision in the United States Freedom Support Act which bans direct U.S. military aid to Azerbaijan. 

In 2022, the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that while the State Department has provided certified presidential waivers of Section 907 annually to Congress, it has failed “to provide Congress with all required information – such as the impact of aid on the military balance between Azerbaijan and Armenia.”

Soghomonian rallied the crowd, beseeching, “Act now! Wake up from your complacency! This blockade cannot become the new normal. We have all grown accustomed to chanting, ‘1915 never again!’ Unfortunately, 1915 is here. It is up to us to stop it.”

Speaking on behalf of the Armenian Relief Society, Eastern United States, Karine Shamlian said that schools should have opened for the fall in Artsakh, among them the ARS Sosseh kindergartens which have been closed due to the blockade. “Today, on September 1st, the ARS would have once again opened its doors and welcomed a new generation of students in its kindergartens, as the first day of school would have begun,” Shamlian said. “Unfortunately, kindergartens will have to remain closed, and due to this blockade, we are unable to provide the necessary back-to-school items or even give the access to education, depriving students of a basic human right.”

“It is our moral duty to stand up and advocate for the rights of those who cannot speak for themselves,” Shamlian said. “We must insist that the world does not turn a blind eye to the suffering of the innocent, for silence in the face of injustice is complicity.”

Hamazkayin Eastern United States representative Dr. Aline Baghdassarian also focused on the 30,000 children living under blockade in Artsakh and subjected to the genocide-by-starvation. She expressed hope that “our children will firmly stand on the shoulders of the people who have thrived for millennia.”

“Our children will remain deeply rooted in our faith, our culture, history and struggle for existence and independence. Only then can we build our future on solid ground,” Dr. Baghdassarian said.

The protest included the participation of Archbishop Vicken Aykazian of the Diocese of the Eastern Armenian Apostolic Church of America, as well as Rev. Asadour Minassian of St. Mark Catholic Church, Wynnewood, Penn. and Rev. Hovsep Karapetian of St. Mary Armenian Church, Washington, D.C. After leading the crowd in the Hayr Mer, or the Our Father, Archbishop Aykazian turned his attention to the president of the United States.

Archbishop Vicken Aykazian, Rev. Hovsep Karapetian and Aram Hamparian, pictured l. to r. (Photo: Sona Gevorkian)

“Mr. Biden, do you hear me? I’m sure you hear me. You are the first president of the United States to recognize the Armenian Genocide, for which we are grateful. Mr. President, we beseech you. Please do not foresee the second genocide of the Armenian people, because we will not forget. We will never forget,” Archbishop Aykazian said.

“You have to know that every single Christian church in this country has been standing up and sending letters to the White House, the State Department and many other people,” he added. “They are with us. We are not alone.”

Protesters hold the Armenian flag outside of the White House (Photo: George Aghjayan)

Mer Hooys girls and staff

Mer Hooys is a non-profit orphanage in Yerevan bringing hope to at-risk girls. The program provides girls from Armenia an education, a safe place to live and psychological support. The girls in the program come from disadvantaged backgrounds, some having dealt with sex work, addictive behaviors and domestic violence. 

Mer Hooys, meaning “our hope,” takes in girls between ages 9-18 and teaches them how to develop tools for a future career outside of the program. Girls that enter the program come “from extremely impoverished families, and either have been, or are in imminent danger of being, placed in boarding schools, crisis facilities or foster care,” according to their website.

Adrienne Krikorian, who is from California, co-founded the program in 2012. “The program is designed to bring young girls from disadvantaged backgrounds, meaning from families that are either a single parent, unemployed parent, no parents living where they’re living, [or] with a grandparent or a relative who can’t really take care of them,” Krikorian told the Weekly. “The idea is to get them out of that environment and into an environment where they’re living full time, going to school [and] getting educated. Education is our number one priority.”

Mer Hooys focuses on girls exclusively, because when boys turn 18 they either enter the army or go into the priesthood. Girls don’t have those options, and as Krikorian says, many “end up on the streets or in human trafficking.” 

Some men who leave Armenia for Russia to make money form new families there, forcing the wives or daughters they leave behind to support themselves financially, sometimes through sex work. According to the U.S. Department of States 2023 Trafficking in Persons Report, “As reported over the past five years, human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Armenia, as well as victims from Armenia abroad. Armenian women may be exploited in sex and labor trafficking and forced begging within the country.”

Mer Hooys allows these girls another option to continue their education and learn skills to build their careers. The current class at Mer Hooys is made up of 20 girls. They all reside at Mer Hooys full-time and take classes, including English. They each have different passions like carpet making, music, management and more. 

Several of the girls in the program attend universities in Yerevan, commuting from the center to classes every day. The Mer Hooys staff supports their education through donations. Many of the girls hold jobs outside of the center. 

Krikorian says a majority of the girls also enter the program with post traumatic stress disorder – “you don’t see it, but it’s there.” Mer Hooys employs psychiatrists to address these and other mental illnesses. 

During my visit to Mer Hooys, the girls put on a performance with singing, poetry, dancing and more. They often giggled with one another and silently peered at the guests. They were eager to get to the end of the performance so that they could invite the guests to do Armenian dances with them. 

Mer Hooys girls and staff

Mer Hooys has several sisters in the program, to avoid separating siblings. Yet it is near impossible to tell who is related, because all the girls share love and close bonds. They call each other sisters, and the older girls make sure the younger ones are taken care of. The girls even look out for the one boy in the center – Jeko, their pet dog.

Some graduates return to Mer Hooys as assistant teachers. One of the graduates returned to Mer Hooys after getting her degree to teach computer lessons. “She worked with us and taught the girls how to use Word, Excel and how to find their class lessons on the computer. We want our graduates to feel valued, but we also don’t want them feeling like they have nowhere to go,” Krikorian said.

Mer Hooys allows graduates over the age of 18 to stay in the house for as long as they need. Residents live independently in their own section of the Mer Hooys building, where they cook their own food while also taking care of the younger girls.

The graduates spoke with excitement as they showed me around their living quarters. They made jokes about their cooking and how some of them have more culinary skills than others. They were very proficient in English and asked many questions, especially about what college life is like in the United States. 

Out of the 12 girls in the very first graduating class, 90-percent are living in safe environments, many are married, more than half of them went to university, seven of them graduated from university and two of them have master’s degrees.

Mer Hooys takes the girls on excursions during the summer, such as a recent trip to Dilijan sponsored by the Society for Orphaned Armenian Relief. The girls brought a speaker to listen to music on the journey, despite some adult objections, and sang along with joy to Armenian pop music during most of the trip.

They also go on shopping trips. On a recent shopping trip, Krikorian gave each of the girls $20, which they used to buy T-shirts, shoes and bags. Krikorian was especially surprised to see the joy on a younger girl’s face when she ran out of a store with a pair of shoes designed like Crocs and her excitement to use the leftover money to buy charms for the shoes.

The girls spend their spare time having cooking competitions, playing board games like UNO and playing in the outdoor playground. 

The girls at Mer Hooys are filled with spirit and love. The Mer Hooys building provides a safe space for them to live, but the girls bring out the best part of the program: hope.

Rev. Dr. Avedis and Dr. Arpi Boynerian

One of the loveliest relationships starts in the hearts of a man and a woman, who love each other and are each other’s shining stars. Their love moves them to give their best to build a meaningful and lasting relationship – one that moves away from living a self-centered to the other-centered life.

The other-centered life, focusing on one’s spouse and adding value to their life, is an important ingredient of a successful marriage. Selflessness bears fruits of contentment, mutual respect, understanding and fulfillment. It is the foundation of a marriage, as a husband and wife encounter life’s many joys and difficulties. It is vital to support the marriage relationship and, as a community, feel responsible to protect it against everyday challenges. 

We are grateful to God for the Armenian clergy of the New England churches, who see the importance of supporting the marriage relationship as a church and community and keep it thriving and fulfilling.

We are happy to announce that we will resume our annual couples’ gathering and have our first meeting on Thursday, November 9 at 6:00 p.m. at St. Stephen’s Armenian Apostolic Church, 38 Elton Ave., Watertown, Mass. 

We encourage all couples to attend.