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The Armenian Reporter | May 30, 2009 National Diaspora Ministry seeks to establish a “national council” to link Armenia and the diaspora n Continued from page role in facilitating Armenia-diaspora relations through the program. Extolling the vision of Gerard L. Cafesjian, founder and chairman of the board of CS Media, the participants spoke highly of the public forum that bridged 12 time zones and brought together leaders in Armenia and the United States, as well as Moscow. “This adds responsibility,” Mr. Abramyan said. “It is important for such communication to be facilitated because we can work out not only what has happened but also what needs to be happening.” He said it allowed teamwork, which was essential to success. Voluntary dedication Mr. Abramyan noted that the Union of Armenians in Russia had branches in 640 Russian cities. “Today the Diaspora Ministry is working closely with those branches, and that is very important for us. We, in turn, feel at home at the ministry in Yerevan. If something is not quite as it ought to be, we go ‘home’ and discuss matters as family.” Ms. Hakobyan noted that there are some 2 million Armenians living in Russia. The 640 structures throughout Russia are “mechanisms through which we can speak and work with our Armenian communities. To be able to run this enormous structure is something only a man with extraordinary means could accomplish,” she said. Ms. Hakobyan added: “We often think some people are obligated. I want us to develop the consciousness and mentality that in the diaspora every Armenian who dedicates himself or herself to Armenians, Armenia, the homeland has no obligation; he or she is doing so out of desire, the call of his or her conscience, or out of spiritual necessity. And I think [more] people like Ara Abramyan really exist in our diaspora existence, and glory and honor to them. Because it is only in this way that we can move forward with the enormous potential of the diaspora to help the homeland.” Saturday schools in Siberia Ms. Hakobyan spoke of the various activities of the Union of Armenians in Russia. Gerard L. Cafesjian, president of the Cafesjian Family Foundation and founder of CS Media, with President Kocharian. File photo: Photolure. “The first is maintaining Armenian identity in the Russian environment. Since the establishment of the ministry, we reached an agreement with Mr. Abramyan and we are supporting the establishment of Saturday schools. Particularly, in faraway Siberia, we have already established six schools together. I find the most important work that is being done is in education,” Ms. Hakobyan said. Another “set of questions for which we are very thankful to Mr. Abramyan is his effort to move his capital toward Armenia. He has gathered around him some very good Armenians, very capable boys, who are likewise making their investments in Armenia, in education, science, and creative associations.” Ms. Hakobyan added that Armenia “seeks to create an economy based on knowledge, and we are doing everything so that education and scholarship develop, as they should, because the basic resource of the Armenian people is people. We must invest as much money and means on human resources as possible to be able to export intellectual products.” She said she is thankful to other diaspora organizations that are contributing to Armenia’s knowledge economy. “I must mention the AGBU, whose Central Executive Board, headed by Berge Setrakian, decided to create a virtual college. Together with Yerevan State University, they have created the college, which will focus on Armenian studies. This means our mothers sitting at home can push a button to help them teach their Ara Abramyan is the founder of Soglasiye, a leading investment firm in Russia. He has extensive interests in the Russian diamond industry and is involved in developing intellectual property. Born in Yerevan, Mr. Abramyan earned a degree in economics from Yerevan State Agricultural Institute. In the wake of the first Armenia-Diaspora Conference, held in 1999 in Yerevan, Mr. Vahe Karapetian in Burbank, l., discusses a point with Ara Abramyan in Yerevan. children Armenian and Armenian history.” An umbrella organization Ms. Hakobyan noted Mr. Abramyan’s efforts “to bring together our diaspora organizations worldwide.” Mr. Abramyan established the World Armenian Congress in Moscow in 2003 as an umbrella organization. The presidents of Russia and Armenia at the time, Vladimir Putin and Robert Kocharian, were present for the opening session. The congress brought together Armenian organizations from former Soviet republics and eastern Europe, but the major organizations of the West declined to participate. In the ensuring years, Hranush Hakobyan (see profile and interview in the Nov. 22, 2008, edition of the Reporter) is Armenia’s first Diaspora Minister. Born in Gavar, near Lake Sevan, she holds degrees in applied mathematics, political science, and law. In the late Soviet period, she served as the head of Armenia’s Komsomol, the youth organization of the Communist Party. She was elected to the Soviet Armenian parliament, and reelected repeatedly to independent Armenia’s National Assembly, where she has headed the Standing Committee on Health, Social Services, and Ecology (1994–96) and the Standing Committee on Science, Education, Culture, and Youth Affairs (2003–2008). From 1996 to 1998, she was Armenia’s minister of social security. She is co-founder of the Armenian American Wellness Center in Yerevan, to which she devoted her time as a volunteer beginning in 1997. f Abramyan invited the founding congress of the Union of Armenians in Russia in June 2000. The congress now has 640 branches throughout Russia. In 2003, he invited the founding congress of the World Armenian Congress. Among his awards are the Order of St. Constantine the Great and the Order of St. Gregory the Illuminator. He is a UNESCO goodwill ambassador. f the congress has sponsored various activities, including activities related to the international recognition of the Armenian Genocide. She said it “is a very complex process, and in developing our Armenia-diaspora approach, we examined matters very carefully with the leadership of the Union of Armenians in Russia and agreed that we must truly create a national council: a state body headed by the president of the republic. With Ara Arshavirovich [Abramyan] we reached an agreement that he would slow down the process of the World Armenian Congress and we would join forces to create a national council, which can have great political, moral, and historical significance.” A note of caution Speaking from Burbank, Mr. Karapetian extolled Mr. Abramyan’s virtues. He said, “I know Ara’s mentality well: he follows through. And now that there is a Diaspora Ministry, the cooperation of the Union of Armenians in Russia with the ministry will be a great boon to Armenia. In Yerevan, from left, Radik Martirosyan, Hranush Hakobyan, Ara Abramyan, and Alina Khachatryan participate in a discussion of Armeniadiaspora relations. “We have many organizations throughout the diaspora, of different sizes, capacities, and types. I am sure that the minister’s efforts will help bring them closer together as a united force for the future, including the formation of the national council, but also the resolution of our national issues. “Let me add that the enormous former Soviet space is different from France and from Armenia. The president, Serge Sargsian, noted clearly that each area needs to be seen on its own terms. We cannot pretend the U.S. community, the Middle Eastern community, and the community in France are the same. The diaspora needs to be known community by community.” A smaller world Mr. Karapetian praised the founders of CS Media – the Cafesjian Family Foundation and the Sargsyan family – for establishing the Armenia-diaspora bridge represented by Armenia TV and USArmenia TV. He went on to say that he believed in the concept of a national council. “Such a council was formed in 1905 by Catholicos Gevorg V, and Boghos Nubar Pasha was the chairperson of the council. He went on, in 1906, to establish the AGBU.” The council existed at the time of the first Armenian republic, in 1918, but today, “when we have this sort of technology to communicate with the homeland, we must use these means. Tomorrow will be late,” he said. “It is important to know the diaspora, and not to rush into anything,” Mr. Karapetian concluded. Ms. Hakobyan said she shared Mr. Karapetian’s joy that Armenia TV and USArmenia TV “create every opportunity for the world to become smaller, and sitting side by side, we can examine Armenia-diaspora relations.” f Vahe Karapetian (see profile in the November 8, 2008, edition of the Reporter) is an entrepreneur and philanthropist. If you’ve ever grabbed a bite from one of the catering trucks that park outside office buildings and public parks, you may have Mr. Karapetian to thank. He built the first such truck at his house. He now employs scores of workers, mostly Armenians, building custom trucks and also running a fleet of catering trucks. Born in Lebanon, he moved in 1946 to Armenia, where he graduated from the polytechnic university. He moved to the United States in 1968. He played a pivotal role in building Alex Pilibos and Sourp Garabed Church – the Armenian private school and church in Hollywood. He is a major donor to the Armenia Fund and a member of the council of Armenia’s Diaspora Ministry. f
The Armenian Reporter | May 30, 2009 National Geoffrey Goshgarian wins PEN Club award for translation of Hagop Oshagan’s Remnants New York – Geoffrey Goshgarian’s English version of an extract from Hagop Oshagan’s The Remnants was one of eight translations honored with a PEN Club translation fund award at a ceremony in New York on May 19. Mr. Goshgarian, a freelance translator, was educated at Yale and UCLA. He has to his credit sixteen book-length translations from French and German, including Louis Althusser’s writings. He is the author of To Kiss the Chastening Rod. Mr. Goshgarian began englishing Oshagan’s 1,500-page novel cycle in the 1990s. His translation of part of the first novel in the cycle was originally intended for inclusion in a projected multivolume work on modern Armenian literature by Marc Nichanian, then professor of Armenian studies at New York’s Columbia University. The translation was “consigned to limbo,” Mr. Goshgarian told the Reporter, “when, after publishing the first volume in the series in English with Gomidas Press, Professor Nichanian unexpectedly decided to produce the rest of his study in his native French.” [An excerpt from Mr. Goshgarian’s work in that first volume appeared in the Reporter’s editorial for April 18, “Remembering the Cilician massacres of 1909.”] “Except for a short passage published in Ararat in 1998 and another released by the online journal Words without Borders in December of last year,” he added, “my translation [of Oshagan] would probably still be moldering in the same closet in which reams of Armenian prose and poetry that I’ve translated have been languishing for more than a decade if Nanor Kebranian and Taline Voskeritchian hadn’t taken an interest in it last year.” Ms. Kebranian, a native of the Armenian village of Anjar, Lebanon, who was educated in the United States and Britain, is currently writing her doctoral dissertation at Oxford University on Oshagan and Armenian penological literature, while teaching Armenian literature Handling the brain drain Alina Khachatryan, host of the Hairenik-Spiurk (Homeland-Diaspora) program on Armenia TV, on May 24 asked Radik Martirosyan, the president of Armenia’s National Academy of Sciences, how the academy was using diaspora support to help Armenia reach its declared goal of becoming a knowledge-based economy. Mr. Martirosyan noted that early support for the academy helped the academy and its members simply survive. For example, Ara Abramyan, president of the Union of Armenians in Russia, would donate funds to provide heat to some of the academy’s institutes. He also donated computer technology and supported the publication of books. Now, Mr. Martirosyan said, Mr. Abramyan has established the Fund for the Development of Scholarship at the academy. The two men co-chair the fund’s board of trustees. Donors include Gagik Tsarukian, a member of parliament who heads the Prosperous Armenia Party. One project of the fund is to award prizes for the best scholarly work of the previous year. “Awards have gone to scholars whose work has appeared in the world’s most respected journals and collections,” Mr. Martirosyan said. He added that many of the winners were “representatives of the younger generation.” Speaking from Burbank, Calif., over a split screen, Arayik Ghazarian noted that many young Armenians had moved permanently to places like Silicon Valley, where “their brains serve the progress of science and technology in the United States.” He asked whether the National Academy of Sciences was doing anything “to draw these people to Armenia periodically – where perhaps one day they will see a future for themselves” Mr. Martirosyan said the academy had decided to elect prominent scholars who live abroad as foreign members of the academy, and in that way make them part of Armenia’s scholarly community. In late November 2008, the academy elected 78 scholars from the Armenian diaspora, all at once, as foreign members. The scholars came from 16 different countries, though they included 14 members of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Hagop Oshagan in Aleppo, 1948. Avedis Shahinian, Photo Derounian. – including a course on Oshagan – at Columbia. Ms. Voskeritchian, a native of Jerusalem and Oshagan’s granddaughter, is a literary translator in her own right who also teaches writing at Boston University. “On Nanor and Taline’s urging and with their very considerable help,” Mr. Goshgarian said, “I submitted an extract from The Remnants to the PEN Club, which, in coordination with Columbia’s Literary Translation Center, has since 2003 been promoting what it considers to be competent English translations of first-rate works of literature by awarding grants to their translators. The fact that Oshagan’s text has been singled out for an award means that I can now translate enough of it to bring an English translation of at least one novel in the cycle into the realm of possibility.” While the $3,000 PEN award cannot cover the costs of translating a full-length work of fiction, it often attracts publishers or sponsors who can. It remains to be seen whether a major Anglo-American trade publisher or university press will now take the risk of putting out an English version of a work by a novelist who is virtually unknown to Anglophone readers and wrote in an “exotic” language such as Armenian. Considered the foremost Armenian novelist by many Armenian literary critics in the diaspora, Oshagan (1883-1948) is also a chronicler of Ottoman Armenia’s modern political, social, and literary history. His life’s story reflects the tragedy of his people. Born and raised in Bursa, a predominantly Turkish city with a big Armenian population located not far from Istanbul, he worked, before the first World War, as a teacher in various Armenian schools in nearby villages, including his parents’ native Sölöz, one of the many Armenian-speaking villages in the Bursa region founded in the late sixteenth century by settlers from the Armenian provinces. In the same period, in 1902, he had a run-in with the Ottoman authorities that led to a short stint in the Bursa prison. He made his literary debut shortly before the war, joining four of his peers – Daniel Varoujan, Gosdan Zaryan, Aharon and Kegham Parseghian – in founding the short-lived literary journal Mehyan [Pagan Temple] in Constantinople. He managed to elude the April 1915 roundup of prominent Armenians in the Ottoman capital that marked the beginning of the Genocide, and lived underground there through the war; arrested by the Ottoman authorities on at least seven different occasions, he managed to escape each time. While the experiences of these years go altogether unmentioned in his work, including his autobiographical writing, it is not hard to measure their impact on him from his wife’s accounts of his nightmares and panic-stricken cries and friends’ remarks about the tears and even paralysis that mere mention of that period brought on in him. In the last year of the war, Oshagan escaped to Bulgaria, returning to Allied-controlled Istanbul Radik Martirosyan. The academy had set some conditions in advance of the election, Mr. Martirosyan said. The scholars had to agree “(1) that they would come once a year to Armenia, participate in our annual meeting, and present a scholarly report; (2) that they would be in contact with our local scholars and discuss areas of possible cooperation; (3) that they would help one young scholar from Armenia to go to their institution or another institution for further training; and finally, (4) that they would participate in our peer review process.” f at war’s end to teach in various Armenian schools until 1924. He left Turkey for good in that year to spend the last 25 years of his life teaching Armenian literature in diaspora communities in Cyprus and Palestine. He died suddenly during a visit to Aleppo in 1948, on the eve of a planned pilgrimage to the killing fields near Der Zor. Oshagan’s writing falls into two main periods: 1922-34 and 1938-44. In the second, which he spent in the Armenian monastery in Jerusalem, he produced a monumental, 10-volume work of literary history and criticism, Panorama of Western Armenian Literature. His major fiction was written in Cyprus in the first. At the center of it stand a trilogy of novels, Sentenced to 101 Years, based in part on his 1902 experience in a Turkish prison, and his masterpiece, The Remnants, in which characters from the prison trilogy reappear. The Remnants recreates the history of Ottoman Armenian society by way of the depiction of life in an Armenian village, modeled after Sölöz, and a Turkish prison, a metaphor for Ottoman society as it was experienced by the Armenians. It begins with a kind of mythological account that traces the history of a single family from the late seventeenth century on, and then zooms in, in a more realistic mode, on the worsening relations between Turks and Armenians in the Hamidian and Young Turk periods. The novel cycle was to culminate in a fictional treatment of the Genocide, specifically, the 24 hours during which Bursa’s population was deported and annihilated. But Oshagan’s attempt to write the Genocide led to a psychological and physical collapse that manifested As part of the May 24 Hairenik- Spiurk (Homeland-Diaspora) program on Armenia TV, host Alina Khachatryan showed a video clip recalling the arrest, trial, and sentencing of six Armenian pilots in Equatorial Guinea. A delegation headed by Ara Abramyan, who is the president of the Union of Armenians in Russia and a UNES- CO goodwill ambassador – went to Equatorial Guinea and secured the release of the pilots. Ms. Khachatryan spoke of the mission as an example of the Russian-Armenian diaspora coming to the aid of Armenian diplomacy. Mr. Abramyan, who was in the studio, said, “Wherever there are Armenians, we must take care of each other, look after each other. This was a victory for all our compatriots. We have influence and we will not let our innocent compatriots suffer in vain.” He said Armenians “use 3 percent of the diaspora’s potential. If we look at Russia – and I don’t want to talk about the United States, which is the most powerful nation on earth and we have high expectations of our compatriots there – we are just starting to work in this way: to become more respectful of each other, to work in an organized fashion, to realize our potential, to help each other, to raise hope, to raise ethical standards. It should become fashionable to love the homeland.” itself in a first heart attack in 1934. Fearing that it would cost him his life, he abandoned his plan to finish the work. The Remnants is thus a fiction about the impossibility of recreating the whole of the Armenian experience in a fiction, an impossibility that leaves its trace throughout the text. The power of the whole novel cycle ultimately comes from the art with which, against its author’s original intentions, it stages its own failure. That self-deconstructive turn, together with the constant experimentation with language characteristic of all Oshagan’s writing, help make The Remnants a peculiarly modern work of fiction and a fitting reflection of the Armenian experience that should long since have earned Oshagan a place in a constellation of internationally known writers such as Proust and Joyce, William Faulkner and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. That it has not is due to the fact that it is still available only to people who read Western Armenian. In fact, until the publication, a few months ago, of Mr. Nichanian’s captivating book about The Remnants, Entre l’Art et le Témoignage, which includes generous selections from the novel cycle in Mr. Nichanian’s French translation, only a tiny fraction of any of Oshagan’s work had seen translation into any language. By awarding The Remnants and his translator a prize, the PEN Club has served notice of its conviction that, almost eighty years after Oshagan’s magnum opus first appeared, it is time for Armenians to share one of their best writers with the rest of the world. f Saving Armenian pilots in Equatorial Guinea One of the freed pilots welcomed home in Yerevan. Mr. Abramyan said that in Russia in the 1980s, it became fashionable to have a library. “I read little Russian, but I had a good Russian library,” he said. In the same way, he said, “it should become fashionable to care for the homeland. It’s not useful for me to sit in Russia and criticize. If I have something to say, we can come to Armenia and sit down with our leaders, with the Diaspora Ministry, and work things out.” Speaking over a split screen from Burbank, Calif., Arayik Ghazarian added, “There is a view among Armenian-Americans that holding a U.S. passport, they enjoy protection. An incident like the one with the pilots shows that people with Armenian passports, too, can enjoy protection, and that instills confidence.” Vahe Karapetian, the businessperson and philanthropist, also speaking from Burbank, added, “Our home is the world. Our hearth is Armenia.” f
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