The Homenetmen Western U.S. Regional Executive announced this week that veteran members of the organization and community activists Mr. & Mrs. Zeron and Sona Titizian have been named the Honorary Presidents of this year’s annual Navasartian Games.

Heart to the Church, Soul to Homenetmen: The Devoted Journey of Zeron and Sona Titizian

Kessab is more than just a place on the map. It is memory, resilience, and the living spirit of Armenian identity. Hidden among the mountains, generations there were raised with the sound of church bells and the warmth of Armenian traditions. In Kessab, one learns to love their faith and nation before anything else. From those very roots grew the life philosophy of Mr. and Mrs. Zeron and Sona Titizian — a story of devotion that eventually crossed borders and oceans.

From Humble Beginnings to a Thriving Community: The Canadian Years
The Titizians’ journey eventually brought them from Kessab to Cambridge, Canada. At the time, Armenian community life there was still in its early stages. There were no organized institutions, no Armenian school, and no church. But for the Titizians, being Armenian was never simply an identity — it was a responsibility.

That sense of responsibility inspired their first mission: bringing Armenian youth together around the ideals of Homenetmen. To them, Homenetmen was far more than an organization; it was a school of discipline, identity, and service. Mrs. Sona still fondly remembers preparing for their first Victory Ball, making food with her sister in the small kitchen of their apartment. It was a time when things were built not through resources, but through dedication and love.

Faith and Identity as Foundations
As the Armenian community in that Canadian city slowly began to grow, Zeron Titizian took on another important mission: establishing a spiritual presence for Armenians in the area. Thanks to his persistent efforts, Armenian church services began to take place in a local Anglican church after regular services had ended. Those efforts eventually led to the founding of St. Nishan Armenian Church in 1983 — a lasting center of Armenian faith and identity in Ontario.

Los Angeles: Expanding a Mission of Service
Later, the Titizians moved to Los Angeles, hoping to raise their children in a stronger Armenian environment, surrounded by Armenian schools and community life. But the move did not change their mission — it only expanded it.

While growing their own business, they continued dedicating their time, energy, and resources to Armenian institutions and causes. From church-building efforts to supporting community and national initiatives, their presence became an important part of Armenian life.

A special place in their hearts was always reserved for Homenetmen. During the Navasartian Games, Zeron Titizian would watch the young Armenian scouts marching into the stadium and see in them the future and continuity of the Armenian nation.

“Homenetmen is my past, my grandchildren’s present, and the future of their children.”

Those words perhaps describe his life best.

A Lifetime of Recognition
After decades of devoted service, Mr. and Mrs. Titizian were honored as the Honorary Presidents of the 49th Navasartian Games and Festival of Homenetmen. The recognition reflects their lifelong dedication to Armenian community life and their meaningful contribution to preserving Armenian values and identity.

Zeron Titizian’s years of national and community service were also recognized through a Pontifical Encyclical bestowed by His Holiness Aram I, honoring his longstanding devotion to the Armenian Church, community life, and national service. The encyclical highlights his faithful service, his support of Armenian institutions, and his important role in preserving Armenian identity. More than a personal honor, it reflects a lifetime built around service and commitment to the Armenian people.

Today, the Titizians’ journey can best be summed up in the principle they have lived by for decades:

“My Heart to the Church, My Soul to Homenetmen.”

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From humble beginnings in a fractured family, Aram Saroyan, author of the most controversial one-word poem in history, charts an unforgettable journey through art, fame, and the 20th-century bohemian counterculture.

“Before I Forget: A Memoir (and Then Some)” is a powerful literary memoir by poet Aram Saroyan, son of William Saroyan, that reflects on a life shaped by art, fame, and a fractured family. Includes rare photos, stories, and a behind-the-scenes view of American cultural and bohemian life from the 1950s onward.

In “Before I Forget,” Saroyan remembers his beginnings in Manhattan, Los Angeles, London, and Bolinas. The son of the beloved author William Saroyan and step-son of Walter Matthau, he probes the fallout of his father and mother’s broken marriage and lessons gleaned in their wake.

Saroyan paints a series of scenarios that impacted his life: An eight-year-old is cast out on the comic sea of Beverly Hills in the fifties. A young man encounters fame working with photographer Richard Avedon and a revolving list of models, including Marilyn Monroe. A journey to nurture his own authentic, original literary voice finds love and support when least expected, balancing the prickle of critical controversy. Here is a multi-faceted artist’s valedictory.

The memoir includes 20 rare photos from the author’s personal archive and two narrative novellas that frame Saroyan’s life in literature with imaginative reflections and sharp emotional insight.

Kirkus Reviews says the book is, “One of the last living witnesses to the age of Jack Kerouac and the road trips of postwar American performance, Saroyan offers brief essays on the lives and loves of the era. . . . A vivid recollection of an age when every day could be a dream.”

Ellen Sander, author of “Hawthorne,” “A House in Bolinasand Trips,“ “Rock Life in the Sixties” says, “Aram Saroyan bullets the memoir formula the way he busted up poetics with his minimalist poems, on which, not so incidentally, he dallies in this resilient, often hilarious sketchbook of a brilliantly impudent multidisciplinary journey.”

Saroyan will be featured in Literary Lights 2026. Keep an eye on IAlA’s website and socials for the announcement. Support their work by purchasing the novel at their Bookshop.org storefront.

https://asbarez.com/before-i-forget-a-new-powerful-memoir-by-aram-saroyan/?fbclid=IwY2xjawRzM4VleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeH0v4E7p0sGGSZ1duX5IsJqksu0RzUKmXCc3KmAFSgRu3jFzSU6dgbuNMV0g_aem_4nf9t-SbJe_iZKZI1IvVeQ

Supporters gather at Congress Hotel in Yerevan to hear the Armenia Alliance’s socio-economic plan on Apr. 8

The parliamentary Armenia bloc said that it will not be “intimidated” after members of its Spitak headquarters were arrested on Thursday after the Anti-Corruption Committee raided those offices.

In a statement in response to what the bloc called was pre-election provocation, the Armenian government was accused of trying to obstruct its election campaign.

The Armenia bloc members and supporters were arrested on charges of alleged vote-buying.

The ACC said the head of the office donated money to one local resident and “together with other individuals” threatened another voter with violence.

The law-enforcement agency released the audio of secretly recorded conversations among the suspects not identified by it. They can be heard discussing financial issues and the need to have a “tough talk” with another person in case of an opposition victory in the June 7 elections. But they say nothing about vote bribes, reported Azatuyun.am.

The actions taking place in our office in Spitak [city] and the targeting of our teammates are not a surprise. Such a style of work of the law enforcement system has long become the signature of the current administration.

These actions once again prove that the authorities do not have public support and confidence in their own forces, and resort to such measures to ensure their reproduction.

What is happening is not a legal process, but another cheap attempt to hinder the normal work of our structures.

With similar methods, the authorities are trying to spread a climate of fear—but this only strengthens our conviction that the chosen path is the right one.

No search or arrest can change our political agenda. Our team knows what it is fighting for.

We call on our citizens to respond on [the] June 7 [parliamentary] to all illegal measures taken by the authorities, rejecting the authoritarian regime established in Armenia.

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David Babayan testifying in an Azerbaijani court during his sham trial

Former Artsakh Foreign Minister Davit Babayan, in an audio message transmitted from his prison cell in Baku, made an appeal to rights activists, sounding the alarm on continuing violations committed against him and other currently held in captivity in Azerbaijan.

“This is not a trial but an ethno-political vendetta against the past and future of the Armenian people,” Babayan said in the audio message transmitted to his family in Armenia by phone and made public on Thursday.

“All humanitarian, legal and international norms and their own legislation are being grossly violated,” he charged. “I call on fellow patriotic Armenians to unite and defend our rights because we are going appeal to the international court.”

In February, Babayan and four other former Artsakh leaders were sentenced to life in prison by an Azerbaijani court, following a sham trial that barred international legal and rights observers. Court appointed attorneys were appointed to represent the defendants.

Later that month, Babayan appealed the verdict. In the recording released Thursday he said the relevant paperwork for the appeal has “disappeared.” Babayan accused the Azerbaijani authorities of deliberately preventing him from appealing to an international tribunal such as the European Court Human Rights.

Below is the translated text and the audio recording of Babayan’s statement.

Dear compatriots, Armenians around the world, people of goodwill around the world, human rights activists, human rights defenders, journalists:

I am forced to appeal to you, because I simply have no other alternative. You know that we have been here [in Azerbaijani capital Baku prisons] for three years, legal proceedings are underway and, of course, with major violations. But the latest of those violations have been joined by another one: my letter of appeals to the [Azerbaijani] court of appeals here have disappeared, so that this case can also be reviewed in the court of appeals, and we want to appeal to an international court.

My lawyer informed me about it on May 7, saying that it is the last day to submit petitions. Of course, it was a surprise, because the last day was supposed to be February 25, and on February 23, I sent two petitions from the isolation ward, and one letter through the head of the isolation ward, with a request to send this. And all of that has disappeared, it’s gone! I had to write another letter, but I don’t know the answer. So, it’s not ruled out that they will try to prevent me from submitting my petitions to the court of appeals.

In addition, during the transfer from the isolation cell to the prison on April 21, my last speech in the court of first instance, on December 19, 2025, was also confiscated. This is also nothing more than a step to destroy all critical speeches. Therefore, I ask you all to accept this as information, to the international court—as a proceeding, and to the international community—for your information, because we really want to appeal to the international court.

Therefore, I call on all Armenians and people of good will to help us in this matter. I am doing this for the sake of justice, democracy, the protection of human rights, for the sake of true peace, and I believe this is the only way in this direction. Therefore, I would also ask you to demand, ask, that our last speeches be provided to you also on video, if they have not already been destroyed.

And now I would like to briefly present the judicial process. Who knows what will happen to me tomorrow, so that you are aware of what is happening in general. This trial that is underway [in Baku] is, of course, fabricated, all norms of humanity, justice, fairness, international law, their own legislation are being grossly violated. I call on our patriotic Armenians to unite and defend our rights, because we will petition to an international court. All their [i.e. Azerbaijan’s] arguments are fabricated, they are empty, they are very weak. This trial is not a trial, this is an ethno-political vendetta, an ethno-political lynching directed at the past, present, and future of our [i.e. Armenian] people.

There were so many of these abuses, violations, that even some lawyers have noted about it, stating that the time will come [when] they will be ashamed of all these violations. I would also say that it will be painful, because there are some ideas, some unwritten laws, written laws, related to faith, the violation of which, including especially knowingly, voluntarily and arrogantly, is never forgiven to anyone. I also quoted a saying from their Quran, where it says that God does not love arrogant and self-righteous, self-satisfied people, and this is very important. I think that had its effect.

There are so many of these violations [in the aforesaid trial] that sometimes it even reaches tragicomedy. For example, the first thing that catches the eye is that they wrote in the indictment that during my search, two metal objects were found, white and yellow; they are my gold necklace with a cross and a silver tzbekh; both are handmade. Now they note it as some kind of metal objects of white and yellow.

Then explanations of the so-called ‘witnesses’ are very interesting. A witness who first “recognized” me told me, “You are Vitali Balasanyan, I remember you well, you used to beat me, you used to torture [me].” Then everyone said that he was another person, but he did not rest. My defense attorney said that he was not him, he disrespected the defense attorney, considered him Armenian, then he saw that the situation had become complicated, he started to pretend.

The other one who “recognized” me was a man who was saying that I had tortured him in the winter of 1994 and was saying, “You haven’t changed at all, you’re the same two meters tall, with a golden beard, mustache and hair; you haven’t changed in any way.” He also pointing to us, was saying, “They beat us brutally in [19]93 and [19]92, we were hanging our heads down,” we were keeping them in that position for seven days, we were beating them with iron rods, some kind of sticks.’

I say, ‘Even bats, which have evolved for millions of years, can’t stay hanging for seven days in a row, how did you stay hanging [for seven days in a row]?’ Do you understand, in a normal court, at least three answers should be given to them: either these people should apologize, or they should be medically examined, maybe they have some problems, or they should be considered slander and sued.

Nothing happened. On the contrary, they were coming to all the trials, many, many other sessions, and they were being shown in the foreground, on their television.

It was also interesting that during the investigation, they brought and showed a picture of Davit Galstyan, an MP of the NKR [(Nagorno-Karabakh Republic] National Assembly, said that he was a famous mafioso, he was selling weapons. I said this person had nothing to do with it, then it turned out that this was another Davit Galstyan, the person called ‘Patron Davo.’ But the problem is that 73 people have already testified against that MP and allegedly saw him personally. When I told [them], they got confused, went. About two hours later they came [back], said that, ‘We have changed, you will say that you saved Davit Galstyan’s life.’

When they were accusing us of illegal economic activities, they were saying that unrecognized states are illegal entities, and having economic relations with them is a crime in itself. But what happened, during the trial, that simultaneous translation device was made in Taiwan. That is, they are trying ‘separatists’ using the equipment of a “separatist” country, but they say that it is impossible to maintain relations with these states. This is despite the fact that their leadership visited China twice in 2025 alone and announced there that it recognizes Taiwan as part of China.

I’m telling this based on facts, this is the situation. I think there is state, geopolitical hatred, I have also pointed this out in my speeches.

Ordinary people have nothing to do with it, people are normal everywhere, and we have really seen a lot of people here [in Azerbaijan], also very normal people who have treated us well. In general, there is no bad nation, for that I am grateful to all normal people. Therefore, we must tell the truth as it is. We want that there be justice; that is why we are presenting all this to the international community also.

Taking [this] opportunity, I would like to also thank all our friends who have been by our side during these years, both in the homeland and in the [Armenian] diaspora, and our friends in various countries around the world, who even have serious problems with each other. Europe, America are especially active, and that is very good.

Be strong! At the moment everything is still normal at us, in prison, etc. Thank you very much, because this struggle is not only for us, it is for justice, human rights, democracy.”

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