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Right from the start, Saroyan cut a wide swath up and down Broadway.
Recalling those early days of Saroyan, Publisher Bennett Cerf wrote:
"One night I introduced him [Saroyan] to two sisters-very pretty and
alert girls they were... Bill was staying at the Great Northern Hotel,
where I had gotten him a room. After we all got home, Margaret [one of
the girls] called me up, highly amused. She said, 'Your friend William
Saroyan just called me up and demanded that I come down and spend the
night with him, and I said, 'Mr. Saroyan, I'm not that kind of girls.
I'm a respectable girl.' Then he said, 'What difference does that
make. Don't tell me you're going to turn down an invitation to spend
a night with William Saroyan!' Margaret concluded, 'I couldn't get
angry at him. He was so ridiculous. When I told him I wouldn't dream of
coming down, he said, 'You wouldn't? Then what is your sister doing!'
Typical Saroyan."
23 reads In his memoirs ("At Random") Bennett Cerf, head of Random
House, wrote the following about the early fame days of William
Saroyan in the '30s:
"Bill had never been east [New York] in his life. He came from the
great vineyards of Fresno, California. He was a natural, an absolute
natural-the cockiest young Armenian that ever lived-and he charmed
everybody. He had never been to a show on Broadway, and the first
thing we did was take him to the theater because he said he wanted to
be a playwright. It was a very amusing evening. The play was "Ceiling
Zero" and Osgood Parker was in it, a superb actor, father of Tony
Perkins. Those were the early days of flying commercial flying, and
the locale of "Ceiling Zero" was an airport. After the first act-it
was quite a hit and the lobby was crowded-we walked for a breather,
and I said to Bill, "Well, what do you think of a Broadway show?"
expecting him to be bowled over. Bill said, "So, that's a Broadway
show. For God's sake, I could write a better one than that in
twenty-four hours." That was his reaction to the first play he ever
saw on Broadway-this hick from the vineyards of Fresno. But he did it!
In 1939 he had not one, but two successful plays produced-"My Heart's
in the Highlands" and "The Time of Your Life", for which he declined
the 1940 Pulitzer Prize. He was an amazing man.
22 reads Sohaemus/Sohaemo was the twice Roman client king of
Armenia. Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (180 AD) appointed Gaius Julius
Sohaemus king of Armenia. He was an Emesene aristocrat from Syria
who served as a Roman client king of Armenia. He was an aristocrat
of Assyrian, Greek, Armenian, Medes and possibly of Berber, Roman
ancestry.
Iamblichus, novelist and contemporary of Sohaemus, called him Arsacid
and Achaemenid, and a descendant of the Median Princess Iotapa. Little
is known on Sohaemus' family and early life prior to his becoming king
of Armenia. In 144 AD Sohaemus succeeded Aurelius Pacorus as king
of Armenia. He was a contemporary of Roman Emperors Antoninus Pius,
Marcus Aurelius, Lucius Verus and Commodus. Not much is known about
his first reign (144 to 161).
24 reads Between 585 B.C. and 1375 AD Armenia had five royal dynasties:
Yervandian (585 B.C. to 200 B.C); Ardashesian (189 B.C. to 31 AD);
Arshagouni (66 AD to 428 AD); Pakradouni (885 AD to 1045 AD), and
Roupinian (1080 to 1375).
22 reads A major reason for hostility toward Byzantine Armenians
was the Armenian impulse to local autonomy and their will to remain
distinctly Armenian. In no other region of the empire did the
inhabitants have a tradition of being so well armed and prone to
rely on themselves and their own family groupings and notables. The
intractability of the Armenians was one of their hallmarks during
Byzantine and Arab rule.
18 reads Armenian soldiers in the Byzantine army were a close-knit
and detached group. They often lived in their own neighborhoods and
acted in unison in riots. Their distinctiveness was supported by their
religion. At least 17 commanders-in-chief of the Byzantium armies
were Armenian; and most of the soldiers serving in Byzantium-occupied
Armenia were Armenian. They often joined the Armenian army when
nakharars rose against the occupying Byzantium rule.
23 reads While Byzantium was a multinational empire, the two leading
ethnic groups were the Armenians and the Greeks. The latter dominated
the bureaucracy and the Church while the former dominated the army. The
Armenian elite were Hellenized in culture and in religion. Of the many
Byztanine emperors who were of Armenian origin, it's difficult to find
a single emperor who assisted fellow Armenians in their homeland. Many
members of the Armenian elite claimed to be descended from ancient
Armenian dynasties or nakharar princely families. Despite their
assimilation into the Hellenic culture there was always anti-Armenian
prejudice throughout the thousand years the empire lasted.
19 reads Haig Manoogian taught film making to director Martin Scorsese
at New York University. The famed Italian-American director dedicated
"Raging Bull" to his teacher, who had just died before the release
of the film.
28 reads Upon Sultan Selim the Grim's commission, Sinan undertook
extensive work to rebuild Jerusalem. He overseered the construction and
repair of the city walls and gates. He installed a water supply system,
including many sabil roadside fountains and restored the Western Wall.
The latter is considered the most complete and finest city wall built
anywhere in the world in the 16th century (length 3,800 metres, with
towers about 4,325 metres). The Armenian architect also designed the
Damascus Gate, to this day the major entry point to the Old City. But
Sinan's main achievement was the redesign of the interior and exterior
of the Dome of the Rock, and replacing the walls of the sanctuary with
glazed porcelain tiles from Iznik. ("Illustrated History of Jerusalem"
by Meir Ben-Dov).
32 reads While some people believe that the first Christian edifice
in the world is the Monastery of St. Anthony in the eastern desert
of Egypt, the historical reality is claimed by the Monastery of
St. Echmiadzin which was built in 303 A.D.
Traders from Armenia frequented the Indian subcontinent as early as
2000 BC. Winding their way along tortuous mountains and following the
Silk Road through Iran and Afghanistan they headed to India for the
spices, muslin, and precious stones. ("The Daily Star", Dhaka, Sept.
4, 2006)
40 reads In "The Emergence of Modern Turkey" (1962), British historian
Bernard Lewis wrote that Turkey had killed 1.5 million Armenians
in 1915.
However, in his revised (2002) version of the book, he replaced
Armenian "holocaust" with "slaughter" and changed the 1.5 million to
"according to estimates, more than a million," and a concluding remark
that an "unknown number of Turks who also died in the putative struggle
for possession of a single homeland." What changed between 1962 and
2002? Lewis entered politics and decided to take sides for economic,
professional, and personal reasons. The historian's interests lay
with the Turkish government, not historic truth.
24 reads During the Second World War the British War Office
intelligence branch (MI-9) hired Nubar Gulbenkian to create a secret
operation to escort British survivors of the Dunkirk debacle from
France to Spain.
Gulbenkian was in his thirties, wealthy and an official in the neutral
Iranian legation in London. He had sought out British agents and
volunteered to carry out undercover assignments in foreign countries.
Disguised as a traveling salesman, he hired, in the southern French
city of Perpignan, garage owner Michel Pareyre who successfully
escorted British escapees over the Pyrenees to Spain. ("Secret Tales
of WWII" by William B. Breur).
30 reads The self-wringing sponge named Quickie was invented by
PETER VOSBIKIAN... LUTHER SIMJIAN invented the ATM, military flight
simulator, and the postage meter... ALBERT KAPIKIAN invented the
Rotravirus vaccine injector... ROGER ALTOUNIAN invented the pressured
inhaler and sodium therapy... PETER TER-POGOSSIAN was one of the
fathers of positron emission tomography (PET) scanner, It was the
first functional brain imaging technique... RAYMOND DAMADIAN invented
the MRI machine... JIRAYR TEZEL invented the hair transplantation
device... VARAZTAD KAZANJIAN is the father of plastic surgery... HAMPAR
KELIKIAN invented the limb restoration surgical technique... ARA
and BARON DARZI co-invented the minimally invasive robot-assisted
surgery... Cybernetic communication expert HAIG KAFAFIAN designed
aircraft control and missile guidance systems... EMIK AVAKYAN invented
the text to speech to microfilm... ALEX MANOOGIAN is responsible for
the single-faucet design (Delta)...
ARDASHES AYKANIAN invented the bendy and spoon straw, the firm form
of Tupperware, the blue strip on car windshields... RUEN ESKERJIAN
invented an anti-aircraft gun during WWII... SEMYON KIRLIAN is the
inventor of high-voltage photography... HARRY TOROSSIAN invented the
ice cream cone and the Melba toast... HARRY K. DAGHLIAN Jr. was part
of the Manhattan Project during WWII.
59 reads OSCAR H. BANKER (ASADOOR SARAFIAN) of Chicago is one of the
most prolific American inventors. He invented helicopter controls
for Sikorsky helicopters and the first practical car automatic
transmission. His design is now the standard worldwide... Armenian
MELIK TANGIEV of the Soviet Union designed the first oil platform in
open sea (the Caspian)... In 1916 STEPHAN STEPANIAN of the US designed
the first ready-mix concrete trucks... ED ISKENDERIAN invented (1963)
the hydraulic racing camshaft... BORIS BABAYAN is the father of the
Soviet superconductor... ARTHUR H. BULBULIAN invented the oxygen mask
(A-14) for the US Air Force in 1914... ARDEM MIKOYAN, the younger
brother of Soviet President ANASTAS MIKOYAN, is the co-inventor of the
MiG fighter... Mathematician LEONID KHACHIYAN invented the system which
solved linear programming problems-considered intractable until then.
33 reads Armenia-based astronomer VICTOR HAMPARTSOUMIAN was one of
the founders of theoretical astrophysics. He did most of his work
at the Pyuragan Observatory in Armenia... GIACOMO LUIGI CIAMICIAN,
an Armenian-Italian scientist who was nominated nine times for the
Nobel Prize, is the father of the solar panel and a number of solar
energy applications...
In 1954 Dr. EDWARD KEONJIAN, microelectronics guru, designed
the first solar-powered, pocket-sized radio transmitter... AVEDIS
TEVANIAN was the chief software technology officer and senior VP of
software engineering at Apple Computers. He was a pioneer in creating
cross platform development environments used worldwide... ALEXANDER
KEMURDZIAN, founder of space transport engineering, designed the
first Moon and Mars Rovers. In the 1940 he also designed the first
remote vehicle.
27 reads CHRISTOPHER DER-SEROPIAN was given the first claim patent
for the color of the US dollar in 1954... In 1949 RICHARD DONCHIAN
developed the trend-timing method of futures investing and introduced
the mutual fund concept in money management... HOVHANNES APKAR ADAMIAN
made significant improvements to the principles of B/W and color TV
broadcasting... The world's first and most-sophisticated radio-optical
telescope was built by Paris Herouni in 1960. It was named the Herouni
Mirror Radio Telescope... GREGOR GURZADIAN of Armenia was a pioneer in
the construction and use of small space telescopes-20 years before the
Hubble. He made UV and X-Ray observations on the sun through his space
telescope... Dr. ARA MIRZOYAN, formerly of the Pyuragan Observatory in
Armenia and now director of the Galaxy Company there, led a team of
Armenian scientists in 2012 to make the largest Cherenkov telescope
in the world. The 560-tonne HESSE II (High Energy Cosmic Gamma Ray
Astronomy) telescope has 875 mirrors and every one of them has the
word ARMENIA written on it. The telescope has an area of 600 square
metres. The observatory was located in Namibia because atmospheric
conditions are most advantageous in that region of South Africa.
38 reads The Armenian soldiers, like the Persians, made a point of
locating the head of the enemy's army and to kill him. Medieval
Armenian historian Pavstos Puzant reports a whole series of such
tactics, killing 21 Persian commanders-in-chief in 21 consecutive
victorious battles. Even if inflated, Puzant's account demonstrates
how much emphasis the Armenian military leaders put on specific
tactics. Targeting the enemy's commander-in-chief required credible
intelligence in advance, especially since the commander-in-chief was
always protected by elite bodyguards.
30 reads The cavalry was the main striking force of the ancient and
Medieval Armenian armies. As well as the elite cavalry, there was a
light cavalry. The army had an infantry, archers, shield-bearers,
slingers, special mountain troops trained to roll rocks on the
enemy. Armenians were among the first to use iron horse armor. When
attacking forts or defensive positions, the army had iron hooks to
help soldiers scale the enemy's walls and large leather shields to
protect their backs from rocks thrown from above.
38 reads After the decline of the Arshagouni kingdom (428 AD), the
Mamigonian clan invariably headed the national liberation wars-in
450-51 AD, 481-484, 571-572, 747-753, 772-775-against Byzantium, the
Persians, and the Arabs. The Mamigonians ran a first-class war school
where experienced military men passed, from generation to generation,
the valuable experiences they had gained on the battle field.
The famous General Nerseh (called Narses in Byzantium) had an
equally-skilled brother, Hrahad (Aratius in Greek). The brothers
descended from the prominent Gamsaragan nakharar (princely) family.
Years before commanding the armies of Byzantium, Nerseh and his brother
won a stunning victory over Belisarius and Sittas-the superstars of
the Byzantium military.
28 reads The root cause of the military effectiveness of the
Medieval Armenian princes and their armies was their fiercely
independent nature. This caused the Byzantines to adopt hostile and
counterproductive measure to quell the traditionally self-reliant
spirit of Armenians whom they ruled in Western Armenia. The
shortsighted Byzantine policy resulted in the fall of the Armenian
Pakraduni dynasty and the eventual defeat of the Byzantines at the
hands of the Seljuk Turks in Manazgerd. Some disenchanted Armenian
soldiers fought on the side of the Turks in that battle, along with
various other national groups.
24 reads Roustam Raza's (1780-?) real name was Rostom Khachaturian. He
was born in Tiflis to a family from Artsakh. At the age of seven,
he was kidnapped by Tatars and sent to Egypt where he was sold
seven times.
In 1780, Sheik El-Bakri of Cairo, gave 18-year-old Rostom as a present
to Napoleon who had just landed in Egypt. Rostom became the French
general's bodyguard and took part in every Napoleonic battle until
1814 when Bonaparte was exiled. Napoleon bestowed him with the Legion
of Honor medal. Rostom was featured in a number of paintings which
depicted Napoleon at war. A few years after marrying a Mademoiselle
Douville in a Paris suburb, he returned to the Caucasus and enlisted
in the Russian army to take part in the Russo-Persian War to liberate
Eastern Armenia. The army was led by General Madatov (Madatian).
Following the Russian victory, Rostom lived in Shushi for a while. He
was buried in the same Paris suburb where he was married. His memoirs
were published in 1866.
62 reads Prof. Agop Martayan, an Armenian linguist, introduced the
Latin alphabet to Turkey and was in charge of the conversion of Ottoman
Turkish to modern Turkish. In gratitude, Ataturk nicknamed him Dilacar
("the one who unlocks the language). Whenever his name is mentioned in
Turkish books, he is identified as A. Dilacar. When he died in 1978,
Turkish media called him Adil Dilacar. As they have done with many
other Armenians who have contributed to Turkey, Prof. Martayan's
Armenian origin remains secret in the country.
84 reads Edgar Manas, an Armenian from Istanbul, composed the national
anthem of Turkey. Turkey covers up his national identity.
32 reads Emir Mirza Chul Gurna (1592-1656) of India was the son
of wealthy Armenian merchant Mirza Iskenderian. He was a senior
officer in the Mughal army during the latter's invasion of India
under Emperor Akbar.
He led the Mughal army in many victories. Gurna was a governor (Bengal
and Lahore), senior government and military officer. An extremely
rich man, he was also a benefactor, poet, and singer. Among his many
benevolent works for Armenians, he donated 6,000 rupee to the Armenian
Patriarchate in Jerusalem. His contemporaries said that the Mughal
emperors owed thousand battle victories to Emir Mirza Chul Ghurna.
38 reads Sinan (1490-1580), known as Maymar Sinan (Architect Sinan)
was born in Caesaria (Gesaria). His name was Armen Sinanian. After
graduating from military school, he became a senior officer in the
Yenicheri army (kidnapped or adopted children of non-Muslims). After
participating in the Balkan and Iraq wars, he was appointed chief
architect of the Ottoman army. He built 360 structures-131 mosques,
55 schools, 19 mausoleums, 7 libraries, three hospital, 14 imarat, 8
bridges, 5 aqueducts, 17 khans, 31 palaces, 35 bathhouses, warehouses
and city walls, including that of Jerusalem. In 1563 when Sultan
Selim II ordered the deportation of Caesaria Armenians to Cyprus,
Sinan asked the sultan to rescind his order. The sultan ignored
Sinan's pleading but allowed Sinan's relatives to remain in Caesaria.
41 reads Armenians have played in developing Christian
architecture. Austrian historian Strzygowski has written: "The Greek
genius of St. Sophia and the Italian genius of St. Peter's only
realized more fully what the Armenians had originated."
40 reads As is well known, Armenians provided invaluable assistance
to the Crusaders. Pope Gregory, referring to the Armenian aid to
Europeans, wrote (1304): When in the past princes and Christian armies
proceeding for the recovery of the Holy Land, no nation and no people
were so prompt or so full of zeal as the Armenians to lend to their
aid, whether in men, in horses, in provision, or in council. With all
their forces and with the greatest gallantry and fidelity, they came
to the aid of the Christians in their holy wars."
39 reads Apart from the military contribution to Byzantium, Armenians
also controlled trade. Byzantine-Armenian merchants could be found
all over in Italy. In Ravenna there were so many Armenians that a
section of the city was called Armenia.
The military genius of Byzantium was represented by generals who were
Armenian by birth. Scores of Armenians were the rulers and military
commanders of the empire...Emperors Maurice, Heraclius, John Tzimses,
Basil I and II, so was Empress Theodora. Some of the more famous
funerals were Bardanes (Vartan), Nerses (conquered Italy and Spain),
and John Corcuas who fought against the Arabs.
45 reads Historian Louis Adamic in "A Nation of Nations" (1944)
refers to the early Armenian settlers and says, "In 1619, the Poles,
and their fellow workers of German and Armenian origin went on a
strike. They demanded the right to vote and full equality with the
other colonists...In a tiny community this was equivalent to a major
rebellion, indeed the first consciously political upheaval in America
for the purpose of extending rights to the common man. In it men of
different backgrounds acted jointly against injustices for the first
time in the New World."
37 reads There's evidence of an Armenian on the Virginia coast as early
as 1618-1619, at least a years before the landing of the Pilgrims in
Plymouth. He was called Martin the Armenian. Around the same time,
Capt. John Smith brought a number of foreigners, among them many
Armenians, who were, according to Smith's report, preferred over the
"vagabond gentlemen English colonists wearing silk and shunning work."
In Smith's accounts, the Armenians were hard workers and were skilled
in the manufacture of pitch, tar, glass, beads and soap ash, which
the English colonists used as currency in trading with the Indians.
34 reads >From the 11th to the 15th centuries Armenians migrated in
large numbers to various countries in Europe, Asia and Africa. In
Transylvania they built two cities, Elisabethopolis and Armenopolis.
In Russia they acted as intermediaries in trade and helped in the
westernization of the country. Similarly, Armenians were the first
to enter China as traders. Armenian King Hetum visited the Great Khan
in 1255-before Marco Polo. The first church in China was an Armenian
church built in 1562. Armenians were also the first to translate the
Bible to Chinese.
37 reads In the 11th century a large number of Armenians settled
in Egypt because of the Seljuk Turk invasion of Armenia. Historian
Philip Hitti wrote: "The prosperity which Egypt enjoyed under the
first caliphs in Cairo and later under the two viziers of Armenian
origin, is prosperity worthy of Pharaonic or Alexandrian Age."
33 reads Seven Fatimid (Egyptian) Viziers were Armenian. The most
famous among them was Badr el Gamali. His kin built Babel el-Futuh,
Bab el-Nasr and Bab el-Weila. His son was the governor of Jerusalem
when the Crusaders invaded the Holy Land. Fatimid and Memeluke armies
employed Armenians as heavy armored cavalry. After the fall of Cilicia,
many Armenian soldiers became mercenaries in Egypt and elsewhere in
the Middle East, some became generals.
35 reads Charles Dedeyan was a highly-popular Sorbonne professor
of comparative literature. In "The Tender Hour of Twilight"
writer/editor/publisher Richard Seaver, a student of Prof. Dedeyan
in the '50s, wrote: "The only exception to the doddering professor
generalization was a youngish professor by the name of Charles
Dedeyan. Comparative literature was his domain, and he was clearly in
love with his wide-ranging subject. His hour vanished in a trice, and
he invariably, having kept us on the edges of our seats, finished with
a flourish that, like the last scene of the serial movie, announced
the exciting subject of next week's episode."
31 reads Count Mikhael Kuduzov (1745-1813), an Armenian general
and field marshal in the Tsarist army, is contender to Armenian
Generalissimo Suvorov as the greatest military officer in the Russian
army. His mother's last name was Peglmishyan. He participated in the
two Russian-Turkish wars in the late 18th century and later in that
century was ambassador to Ottoman Turkey. He led the Russian army in
several battles against Napoleon, including at Borodino, near Moscow.
He shattered the French forces in battles in Poland and Prussia. In
1811 he became a count and prince a year later. During the Second
World War the Soviet Union introduced medals in his name.
59 reads Generalissimo Alexander Suvorov (1730 to 1800) is considered
to be Tsarist Russia's greatest military leader. His mother was
Hripsimeh Manougian of Astrakhan. Recent research reveals that his
father-although thought to be of Swedish origin, was also Armenian. In
1780 Gen. Suvorov, along with Catherine the Great, participated in the
inauguration of the Armenian Saint Catherine Church of St. Petersburg.
Suvorov was also entrusted with the liberation of Armenia. He was also
instrumental in settling 12,600 Crimean Armenians to Don in Ukraine.
He subscribed to Shahamir Shahamirian's "New Notebook"
pamphlet. His son (Arkady Suvorov-1784-1811) and his grandson
(Alexander Suvorov-1804-1882) were also famous generals. A total
of ten descendants of Generalissimo Suvorov became generals in the
Russian Army. The generalissimo had the distinction of never having
been beaten in the battlefield.
51 reads Turkey's Cankaya Presidential Palace in Ankara was
confiscated from the Ghasabian Armenian family, although Turkey
claims the memorial palace was donated by the citizens of Ankara to
Mustapha Kemal Ataturk. After its confiscation, the building was
auctioned and eventually became the property of a Turk. A Turkish
government decree and the National Security Council forbid any mention
of properties illegally taken from non-Turks. The land on which the
Incirlik Military Base (near Adana) is built belongs to an Armenian
family. The land was confiscated during the Genocide. The base hosts
the largest number of US soldiers in Turkey.
Father Philip Caraman, born in London 1911, was the son of an
Izmir-born Armenian merchant and banker who had fled Ottoman Turkey
during the Hamidian Massacres. Caraman, hailing from a devoutly
Catholic family, became a Jesuit. His two sisters became nuns. He
was appointed editor of "This Month" Jesuit magazine which was about
to fold. Father Caraman revived the magazine and attracted famous
writers such as Graham Greene, Muriel Spark, Evelyn Waugh and Edit
Sitwell to write for the publication. He also directed the conversion
of Alec Guinness to the Roman Catholic Church and remained the actor's
spiritual guide the rest of his life. One of Caraman's books-"The Lost
Empire" was made into a movie ("The Mission") with Robert de Niro
and Jeremy Irons. Caraman, who died in 1998, spoke seven languages,
in addition to Armenian.
52 reads The first Armenian settlers in Fresno were Evangelicals
who mainly came from Marzvan, Armenia. Mardiros Yanukian, a native
of Marzvan, made his home in Fresno in 1878. Escaping the horrors of
Ottoman Turkish misrule, he changed his name to "Normart" ("new man"
in Armenian). By 1890 there were some 1,000 Armenians in Fresno.
57 reads Rupen Minassian settled in California during the Gold Rush
of the 1840s. He then joined Mormon leader Brigham Young and became a
farmer in Utah. Later, as a landowner, he bought silver mine, changed
his name to Rupen Minas and became a pioneer in sugar manufacturing
in Fresno.
53 reads Nikita Fyoderovich Baliev -his Armenian name Mgrdich
Asdvadzadoor Balyan-was the creative and artistic director of the
famous Moscow cabaret "the Bat" (1908-1920). After the Russian
Revolution, he moved to Paris and created new shows. He later took
his theatre group to South America, Hollywood and New York. He died
of a fatal stroke in a New York taxi in 1936. He was born in Erzurum
in 1877.
50 reads King Ardavazt (ruled 56 B.C. to 34 B.C., died 34 B.C.). Son
of King Tigran II ("the Great"), he fought for the elimination of
Greater Armenia's independence on Rome. The defeat of the Romans
in the battle with the Parthians near Carrhae in 53 B.C, and the
Parthian-Armenian alliance strengthened the independence of Greater
Armenia. Ardavazt recovered Sophene and Cilicia (Little Armenia)
which Romans had wrested from Armenia. In 37 B.C. he refused to
participate in a Roman attack on the Parthians. Three years later
the Romans invaded Armenia and through deceit abducted him and his
family to Egypt, where Cleopatra and her paramour Marc Antony beheaded
him. Ardavazt was a historian and dramatist.
43 reads Anna Melikyan is the owner/director of Magnum Studios of
Russia .. .
Armen Oganesyan is the CEO of Voice of Russia . . . Marganta
Simonyan is the chief editor of "Russia Today" . . . Veronique
Nishanian is chief designer at Hermes . . . Donna Kalaydjian is sales
vice-president and publisher of "Cosmopolitan". . . Valerie Toranian
is editor-in-chief (French edition) of "Elle" magazine . . . Vartan
Sirmakes is the chairman and co-owner of Frank Muller, a luxury watch
brand . . .Sassoune Sirmakes is the owner of Swiss Quastos watchmakers.
52 reads Born in Tbilisi in 1842, Alexander Mantashev (Mantashian)
was an oil tycoon. He owned the Tiflis Central Commercial Bank and
funded the Baku-Batumi oil pipeline in 1907-the world's longest at
835 kilometres. From 1899 to 1909 his company's fixed capital (by
volume) was the largest industry in the Russian Empire. Along with
12 like-minded people he funded the Armenian Charitable Society in
Caucasus and donated 300,000 rubles for the building of the Nersessian
spiritual academy. He also donated 250,000 rubles to Echmiadzin for
the residence of the Catholicos. Mantashian hand-picked 50 talented
young Armenians and sent them to study at the best universities in
Russia and in Europe. Among them were Gomidas and Stepan Shahumyan. He
also donated the St. John the Baptist Church in Paris, on Jean Goujon
St. to the Armenian community. The construction of the church cost
1,540,000 francs. He received the Legion of Honor from the president
of France. Mantashian died in St. Petersburg in 1911. He was buried
in the Armenian cathedral in Tbilisi. In 1933 Lavrenti Beria, a Stalin
henchman, destroyed Mantashian's grave.
65 reads Armenian Inventors
Gabriel Kazanjian invented the hair-dryer machine in 1908.
The automatic transmission for cars was invented (1931) by Asadoor
Sarafyan. An Armenian Genocide survivor, Sarafyan was forced by his
American boss to change his name to Oscar Banker.
Arthur Bibulyan was granted license (No. 2.348.108) for inventing an
oxygen mask for US Air Force pilots .
Stephan Stepanian invented the truck mounted with concrete drum mixer.
Luther Simjian invented the ATM, the military flight simulator,
and the postage meter.
Peter Vospikian invented the self-wringing sponge mop ("Quickie")
Ed Iskenderian invented the hydraulic racing camshaft.
Albert Kapikyan invented the rotavirus vaccine.
Roger Altounyan invented the pressured inhaler and sodium therapy.
Michel Ter Pogossian invented the PET scanner.
Varaztad Kazanjian (a doctor serving with the US forces in WWI)
is the father of plastic (cosmetic) surgery.
Jirayr Tezel invented the first hair transplantation device.
Raymond Damadyan invented the MRI machine .
Emik Avakyan is the inventor of the text to speech microfilm.
Boris Babyan invented Soviet Union's first super-computer.
107 reads The Turkish gossip machine-specially the one's operated by
enemies of the current government-whispers that Prime Minister Recep
Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul are of Armenian origin. Meanwhile,
Erdogan's allies claim the leader of the opposition party is of
Armenian descent.
55 reads The Crusader era witnessed numerous marriages between Cilician
Armenian royalty/nobility and Crusade leaders. Baldwin of Le Bourg
married Morfia, daughter of the wealthy Gabriel of Melitene (Malatya);
Hetoum I's sister Stephanie married Henry I of Cyprus; another sister
(Maria) married John of Ibelin, count of Jaffa. Hetoum's daughters
Sibyl and Euphemia married Bohemond VI of Antioch and Julian, count
of Sidon respectively; a third daughter (Maria) married Guy of Ibelin
(son of Baldwin) and seneschal of Cyprus. Hetoum's fourth daughter
(Rita) married an Armenian Lord of Sarvantikar.
Five Armenian proverbs:
The hen that lays most cackles most.
Even if he were the sun he wouldn't dry your handkerchief.
Nobody will give the pauper bread, but everybody will give him advice.
The cat couldn't reach the meat: "It's Friday," she said.
Better die standing than live crouched.
54 reads Madam Mathild Manukyan operated half-a-dozen brothels in
Istanbul in the '80s. The famous madam, who died in 2002, was one of
Turkey's biggest taxpayers. Every year she received an annual prize
from Ankara for her contributions to the public coffers. She also
had substantial real estate holdings. Following her death, her son
took over the corporation.
62 reads Harry Altounian was an automotive genius and an expert in the
mechanics of the Porsche cars in the '50s and the '60s. He was also
a close friend of actor Steve McQueen. When McQueen was preparing
to shoot the "Le Mans" racing movie in 1970 he asked Altounian to
maintain the various Porsches McQueen drove during the shoot.
58 reads Turkey has registered harissa at UNESCO as a Turkish
dish. Harissa is an Armenian dish. Wheat, the main ingredient of
harissa, has been an Armenian crop since time immemorial. Armenians
were preparing harissa when Turks were still roaming the dusty and
barren flatlands of Central Asia. As well, harel means "to stir" in
Armenian. Anyone familiar with the delicious and filling harissa knows
that stirring the pot is integral to harissa preparation. Meanwhile,
Georgia is trying to get the pitcher, wine making and apiary recognized
as Georgian inventions.
58 reads In 1989 astronaut James Bagian (born in 1952 in Philadelphia),
offspring of an Armenian from Trebizond, took off from Cape Canaveral.
He made 30 circuits around the globe and covered 3 million and 219,000
kilometers. The flight lasted four days, 23 hours and 41 minutes.
66 reads In 1909 Artem Katsian participated in the first aviation
contests in Germany.
59 reads Around 18,500 Armenians served in the US Army during the
Second World War.
69 reads Mother of Prince Talal bin Abdul Azis al-Saud was
Armenian. She was a survivor of the Genocide of Armenians. She was
also the mother of Princes Mishal, Mitab and Nawaf. Prince Talal
was the father of Prince Al-Waleed, the billionaire (born 1931)
with investments around the globe.
66 reads Traders from Armenia frequented the Indian subcontinent
as early as 2000 BC, according to "The Daily Star" (Sept. 4, 2006)
of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Winding their ways along the tortuous mountains
and following the Silk route through Iran and Afghanistan the Armenian
merchants traded in spices, muslin and precious stones.... They finally
settled in the subcontinent during the reign of Mughal Emperor Akbar
when he offered them freedom of trade, religion and exemption from
taxation. They were also allowed to enter areas where foreigners were
banned. One of the emperor's wives was Armenian. Their adopted son
(Miraz Zul Qumain) was a governor, poet and singer. Abdul Hai, chief
justice of the emperor and Domingo Peres, the emperor's interpreter,
were also Armenian.
63 reads The music critic "Financial Times" (Oct. 10, 2003) wrote:
"The Sabre Dance is probably as good a piece as any to represent
Khachaturian: brash, rhythmic, colorful and above all accessible. Do
not expect the angst of Shostakovich or the cosmopolitan flair of
Prokofiev.
...Khachaturian's music was rooted in his Armenian heritage. This makes
him different, it is sometimes said, from other Russian [!] composers
who incorporate folk song into artistic efforts: with Khachaturian,
the folk element is at the heart of his language..."
81 reads There are several million Romas (Gypsies) in occupied
Western Armenia.
They are derogatorily called Chingana by Turks. Armenians call them
Posha/Bosha in the Republic of Armenia. Although the Romas are not
recognized as a minority in Turkey, legislation discriminate against
them in no uncertain terms. Article 4 forbids settlement in Turkey to
persons who have no ties with Turkish culture, as well as anarchists,
spies, Roma and persons deported from Turkey. Other Turkish legislation
stipulates that nomads and Roma are to be settled in sites designated
by the Ministry of Health and Social Assistance. The legislation
explicitly prevents Roma from entering Turkey as immigrants. Poshas
first settled in Armenia in the 11th century.
300 reads In 654 AD when Byzantian Emperor Constans II threatened to
pillage Armenia, Catholicos Nerses III and Sparabed Mushegh Mamigonian
begged him not to. Ignoring the Armenian pleas, the emperor led 20,000
soldiers to Dvin and placed Maurianos as governor of Armenia.In all
the churches of Dvin, the Chalcedonian Christology (Dyophysitism),
which Armenians had rejected for two centuries, was preached and
mass was celebrated. The catholicos, bishops and nakharars received
Holy Communion with the emperor. After the departure of the emperor,
Theodore Rshtuni, former chief "nakharar," made an alliance with the
new caliph in Damascus. With Arab help he drove the Byzantines out
of Armenia. The caliph made Rshtuni ruler of Armenia.
67 reads The accordion, invented in Vienna, was patented in 1829 by
Cyril Demian, an Armenian. Austria's capital hosted the month-long
13th International Accordion Festival in 2012 from late February to
late March.
52 reads Armenian proverbs:
The donkey's tomb is the wolf's stomach.
Pigs never see stars.
A man who picks big stone does not mean to throw it.
Debt ends by paying, sin by weeping.
Seven mothers-in-law walk together; they say there's nobody to talk to.
Slap according to the face.
61 reads Those familiar with the myth of two Chinese princes (Mam and
Ekon) who supposedly founded the Mamigonian dynasty, would find its
Indian version as interesting. According to Zenob/Zenobias, one of
the first desciples of St. Gregory the Illuminator, two Hindu princes
(Gissaneh and Demeter) had conspired against Dinakspall, the king
of Kanauj.
Upon the discovery of the plot, which meant death to the princes, they
fled to Armenia. They were welcomed to the country by the king and
the population. In 149 B.C. King Valarsaces (the brother of Artaces
the Great) allotted them and their followers the province of Daron,
where they built a city called Veeshab-dragon in Armenian. The Hindu
refugees also went to Ashdishad, where they set up statues of the gods
they worshipped in India. When Armenia converted to Christianity, St.
Gregory erected-on the site of the most important Hindu temple--
a monastery where he deposited the relics of St. John the Baptist
and Athanagineh the martyr. The monastery-now known as St. Garabed
of Moosh-once again became an Armenian pilgrimage site in 2011.
54 reads Russian poet Valeri Prousov has said: "Armenian is the
unknown beauty of languages." Armenologist Schultz of Hungary has
said: "The Armenian language has 40,000 root words, while many other
languages' root words don't exceed 10,000." When Armenologist Soltex
of the United States and French Armenologist Feytie suggested to
the UN to adopt Armenian as an international language, they said :
"We are certain that if there is a language which can offer the exact
meaning of words , it's the Armenian language. We suggest that it be
given preference, rather than Esperanto."
67 reads Caro Lucas, who died in 2010, was the "Father of Iran's
robotic sciences." He introduced new multi-disciplinary graduate
courses (biological computing, general systems design, advanced
socio-cognitive systems) and conducted courses in electrical and
computer engineering, management, psychology, arts and architecture,
finance and economics. He also founded the Institute for Studies
in Theoretical Physics and Mathematics (ISRF). Lucas authored or
co-authored about 825 conference papers. 332 journal papers and
edited many book. He was also keynote speaker at 190 national and
international events.
45 reads According to some Turks, the name of the city of Urfa has
Turkish origins. Here is their fantasy version. God sent a swarm of
mosquitoes to torment Nimrod, the king who wanted to kill patriarch
Abraham. The mosquitoes flew up Nimrod's nose and started chewing on
his brain.
Nimrod ordered his men to hit his head with wooden mallets, shouting
"Vur ha, vur ha!"(Hit me, hit me! In Turkish) and that's how the city
was called Urfa. The fact that Abraham is a legendary figure and that
Turks showed up in the city more than 4,000 years after Abraham is
neither here nor there to the Turkish falsifiers of history. After all,
these same people refuse to identify King Apkar V as Armenian.
54 reads Eight-years-old Carlo William of Armenian origin will be
the lead in the French language "St. Judes of Ontario" movie. Carlo
is a student at the Nareg Armenian School in Lavalle, Quebec. He is
fluent in Armenian and in several other languages.
40 reads Vladimir Bedrossian is the new deputy-mayor of
Moscow. Previously he was in charge of the city's social security
department.
39 reads Krikor Mazloumian of Antcherti, Cilicia, opened late in the
19th century, Hotel Ararat--Aleppo's first hotel with individual rooms
and beds. The hotel was soon patronized by bankers, foreign notables,
adventurers, archeologists and writers. Hotel guests were intrigued
that the hotel's all-Armenian staff addressed the owners as "baron."
They , too, began to call the Mazloumians Mr. Baron or simply Baron.
When the family decided to build a modern hotel, they named it Baron's
Hotel. The three-storey hotel opened in 1911. During the Genocide of
Armenians the Mazloumians took in novelist Krikor Zohrab, poet Vartkes,
Yervant Odian, and Aram Andonian.
81 reads The Sarkies brothers (Martin, Aviet, Tigran and Arshak from
Julfa, Iran) founded the Sarkies Brothers Properties in Southeast Asia.
Martin, an engineer, built the Eastern and Oriental Hotel in Penang
(Malaysia) in the early 1880s. The brothers also built the Strand
Hotel in Rangoon (Burma/Myanmar). Martin and Tigran founded Raffles
in Singapore (1887) by converting an old bungalow into a 10-room hotel.
They named it after Sir Stamford Raffles, founder of modern Singapore
in1819. The Singapore Sling, a cocktail of gin, cherry brandy, lemon
juice and soda, was first mixed at the hotel's Long Bar in1903. The
Strand, the Eastern and Oriental and Raffles-still operating-are
considered national monuments.
64 reads Plato, in his "Republic," gave a different version of the
legend of King Ara Keghetsig. According to Plato, Er was an Armenian
or the son of Armenios, a native of Pampylia. He was slain in battle,
and ten days later, when the bodies of the dead were gathered already
rotting, his body seemed to be unaffected by decay. On the 12th day,
as he was lying on the funeral pyre, he returned to life and gave
an account of what he had seen in the other world. Plato also wrote
that Socrates had told him: "Our wisdom comes from Er of Armenia,
the secrets of immortality."
75 reads As early as the 11th century Turkish invaders had begun to
change Armenian place names. First, they translated their meaning into
Turkish: Dantsout (place with a lot of pear trees) into Armoudlou;
Aghpyourashen (village of springs) into Kyankendi; Garmrig (red)
into Kezelja; Dzaghgatsor (flower ravine) into Darachichek, etc.
38 reads The ancestors of the Armenians in Poland came from Crimea
where they were so numerous that, in certain medieval Oriental maps,
Crimea was called "Maritime Armenia." Starting in the 11th century, and
especially during the Mongol invasion, they settled in the provinces
of Podolie and Galicia. They were welcomed by the local Ukrainian
Orthodox population. In the second half of the 14th century the two
provinces were annexed by Poland.
38 reads Although some mistakenly believe the first Christian edifice
is the Monastery of St. Anthony in the eastern desert of Egypt, the
title actually belongs to the Monastery of St. Echmiadzin which was
built in 303.
43 reads Five Armenian proverbs:
Cats in gloves can't catch mice.
He makes dice with his father's bones (i.e. cruel)
The rich man will have iced water even in hell.
An uninvited guest sits on a thron.
An experienced devil is better than an inexperienced angel.
36 reads "The Book of Whispers" by Varujan Vosganian won the best
novel in Romania title in 2010. Mr. Vosganian is also vice-president
of the Romanian Writers Union.
33 reads Hovhannes Mouradgian held the key position of interpreter at
the Swedish Embassy in Constantinople in the mid-1700s. The Mouradgian
family later changed its name to Mouradgea d'Ohsson to make it sound
Swedish. The senior Mouradgian's son and grandson Ignatius Mouradgea
d'Ohsoon and Abraham Constantin d'Ohsson, are well known by Swedish
historians. Ignatius wrote a number of books on the history, religion
and customs of the Ottoman Empire. Abraham Constantin, a diplomat,
represented Sweden in Spain, Holland and Germany. Jean Anastasi,
an Armenian merchant from Damascus, also served as Swedish Consul
General in Egypt from 1828 to 1857.
26 reads Armenian King Abkar of Edessa (reign from 4 B.C.-AD 7 and
AD 13-50) suffered from leprosy. Upon hearing of Christ's miracles,
he sent an artist to Palestine to paint Christ's portrait. Dazzled by
the radiance of Christ's face, the artist was unable to paint. Christ
washed His and dried it on a towel which retained an impression of His
features. When it was presented to Abkar, he was cured. The Holy Towel
was rescued from the Muslim-controlled Edessa by Emperor Constantine
VI (reign 780-97). The Holy Towel could reproduce itself when placed
in contact with another piece of cloth thus a number of Holy Towels
came into being.
30 reads
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Quotes page By author
http://www.keghart.com/quotes
Right from the start, Saroyan cut a wide swath up and down Broadway.
Recalling those early days of Saroyan, Publisher Bennett Cerf wrote:
"One night I introduced him [Saroyan] to two sisters-very pretty and
alert girls they were... Bill was staying at the Great Northern Hotel,
where I had gotten him a room. After we all got home, Margaret [one of
the girls] called me up, highly amused. She said, 'Your friend William
Saroyan just called me up and demanded that I come down and spend the
night with him, and I said, 'Mr. Saroyan, I'm not that kind of girls.
I'm a respectable girl.' Then he said, 'What difference does that
make. Don't tell me you're going to turn down an invitation to spend
a night with William Saroyan!' Margaret concluded, 'I couldn't get
angry at him. He was so ridiculous. When I told him I wouldn't dream of
coming down, he said, 'You wouldn't? Then what is your sister doing!'
Typical Saroyan."
23 reads In his memoirs ("At Random") Bennett Cerf, head of Random
House, wrote the following about the early fame days of William
Saroyan in the '30s:
"Bill had never been east [New York] in his life. He came from the
great vineyards of Fresno, California. He was a natural, an absolute
natural-the cockiest young Armenian that ever lived-and he charmed
everybody. He had never been to a show on Broadway, and the first
thing we did was take him to the theater because he said he wanted to
be a playwright. It was a very amusing evening. The play was "Ceiling
Zero" and Osgood Parker was in it, a superb actor, father of Tony
Perkins. Those were the early days of flying commercial flying, and
the locale of "Ceiling Zero" was an airport. After the first act-it
was quite a hit and the lobby was crowded-we walked for a breather,
and I said to Bill, "Well, what do you think of a Broadway show?"
expecting him to be bowled over. Bill said, "So, that's a Broadway
show. For God's sake, I could write a better one than that in
twenty-four hours." That was his reaction to the first play he ever
saw on Broadway-this hick from the vineyards of Fresno. But he did it!
In 1939 he had not one, but two successful plays produced-"My Heart's
in the Highlands" and "The Time of Your Life", for which he declined
the 1940 Pulitzer Prize. He was an amazing man.
22 reads Sohaemus/Sohaemo was the twice Roman client king of
Armenia. Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (180 AD) appointed Gaius Julius
Sohaemus king of Armenia. He was an Emesene aristocrat from Syria
who served as a Roman client king of Armenia. He was an aristocrat
of Assyrian, Greek, Armenian, Medes and possibly of Berber, Roman
ancestry.
Iamblichus, novelist and contemporary of Sohaemus, called him Arsacid
and Achaemenid, and a descendant of the Median Princess Iotapa. Little
is known on Sohaemus' family and early life prior to his becoming king
of Armenia. In 144 AD Sohaemus succeeded Aurelius Pacorus as king
of Armenia. He was a contemporary of Roman Emperors Antoninus Pius,
Marcus Aurelius, Lucius Verus and Commodus. Not much is known about
his first reign (144 to 161).
24 reads Between 585 B.C. and 1375 AD Armenia had five royal dynasties:
Yervandian (585 B.C. to 200 B.C); Ardashesian (189 B.C. to 31 AD);
Arshagouni (66 AD to 428 AD); Pakradouni (885 AD to 1045 AD), and
Roupinian (1080 to 1375).
22 reads A major reason for hostility toward Byzantine Armenians
was the Armenian impulse to local autonomy and their will to remain
distinctly Armenian. In no other region of the empire did the
inhabitants have a tradition of being so well armed and prone to
rely on themselves and their own family groupings and notables. The
intractability of the Armenians was one of their hallmarks during
Byzantine and Arab rule.
18 reads Armenian soldiers in the Byzantine army were a close-knit
and detached group. They often lived in their own neighborhoods and
acted in unison in riots. Their distinctiveness was supported by their
religion. At least 17 commanders-in-chief of the Byzantium armies
were Armenian; and most of the soldiers serving in Byzantium-occupied
Armenia were Armenian. They often joined the Armenian army when
nakharars rose against the occupying Byzantium rule.
23 reads While Byzantium was a multinational empire, the two leading
ethnic groups were the Armenians and the Greeks. The latter dominated
the bureaucracy and the Church while the former dominated the army. The
Armenian elite were Hellenized in culture and in religion. Of the many
Byztanine emperors who were of Armenian origin, it's difficult to find
a single emperor who assisted fellow Armenians in their homeland. Many
members of the Armenian elite claimed to be descended from ancient
Armenian dynasties or nakharar princely families. Despite their
assimilation into the Hellenic culture there was always anti-Armenian
prejudice throughout the thousand years the empire lasted.
19 reads Haig Manoogian taught film making to director Martin Scorsese
at New York University. The famed Italian-American director dedicated
"Raging Bull" to his teacher, who had just died before the release
of the film.
28 reads Upon Sultan Selim the Grim's commission, Sinan undertook
extensive work to rebuild Jerusalem. He overseered the construction and
repair of the city walls and gates. He installed a water supply system,
including many sabil roadside fountains and restored the Western Wall.
The latter is considered the most complete and finest city wall built
anywhere in the world in the 16th century (length 3,800 metres, with
towers about 4,325 metres). The Armenian architect also designed the
Damascus Gate, to this day the major entry point to the Old City. But
Sinan's main achievement was the redesign of the interior and exterior
of the Dome of the Rock, and replacing the walls of the sanctuary with
glazed porcelain tiles from Iznik. ("Illustrated History of Jerusalem"
by Meir Ben-Dov).
32 reads While some people believe that the first Christian edifice
in the world is the Monastery of St. Anthony in the eastern desert
of Egypt, the historical reality is claimed by the Monastery of
St. Echmiadzin which was built in 303 A.D.
Traders from Armenia frequented the Indian subcontinent as early as
2000 BC. Winding their way along tortuous mountains and following the
Silk Road through Iran and Afghanistan they headed to India for the
spices, muslin, and precious stones. ("The Daily Star", Dhaka, Sept.
4, 2006)
40 reads In "The Emergence of Modern Turkey" (1962), British historian
Bernard Lewis wrote that Turkey had killed 1.5 million Armenians
in 1915.
However, in his revised (2002) version of the book, he replaced
Armenian "holocaust" with "slaughter" and changed the 1.5 million to
"according to estimates, more than a million," and a concluding remark
that an "unknown number of Turks who also died in the putative struggle
for possession of a single homeland." What changed between 1962 and
2002? Lewis entered politics and decided to take sides for economic,
professional, and personal reasons. The historian's interests lay
with the Turkish government, not historic truth.
24 reads During the Second World War the British War Office
intelligence branch (MI-9) hired Nubar Gulbenkian to create a secret
operation to escort British survivors of the Dunkirk debacle from
France to Spain.
Gulbenkian was in his thirties, wealthy and an official in the neutral
Iranian legation in London. He had sought out British agents and
volunteered to carry out undercover assignments in foreign countries.
Disguised as a traveling salesman, he hired, in the southern French
city of Perpignan, garage owner Michel Pareyre who successfully
escorted British escapees over the Pyrenees to Spain. ("Secret Tales
of WWII" by William B. Breur).
30 reads The self-wringing sponge named Quickie was invented by
PETER VOSBIKIAN... LUTHER SIMJIAN invented the ATM, military flight
simulator, and the postage meter... ALBERT KAPIKIAN invented the
Rotravirus vaccine injector... ROGER ALTOUNIAN invented the pressured
inhaler and sodium therapy... PETER TER-POGOSSIAN was one of the
fathers of positron emission tomography (PET) scanner, It was the
first functional brain imaging technique... RAYMOND DAMADIAN invented
the MRI machine... JIRAYR TEZEL invented the hair transplantation
device... VARAZTAD KAZANJIAN is the father of plastic surgery... HAMPAR
KELIKIAN invented the limb restoration surgical technique... ARA
and BARON DARZI co-invented the minimally invasive robot-assisted
surgery... Cybernetic communication expert HAIG KAFAFIAN designed
aircraft control and missile guidance systems... EMIK AVAKYAN invented
the text to speech to microfilm... ALEX MANOOGIAN is responsible for
the single-faucet design (Delta)...
ARDASHES AYKANIAN invented the bendy and spoon straw, the firm form
of Tupperware, the blue strip on car windshields... RUEN ESKERJIAN
invented an anti-aircraft gun during WWII... SEMYON KIRLIAN is the
inventor of high-voltage photography... HARRY TOROSSIAN invented the
ice cream cone and the Melba toast... HARRY K. DAGHLIAN Jr. was part
of the Manhattan Project during WWII.
59 reads OSCAR H. BANKER (ASADOOR SARAFIAN) of Chicago is one of the
most prolific American inventors. He invented helicopter controls
for Sikorsky helicopters and the first practical car automatic
transmission. His design is now the standard worldwide... Armenian
MELIK TANGIEV of the Soviet Union designed the first oil platform in
open sea (the Caspian)... In 1916 STEPHAN STEPANIAN of the US designed
the first ready-mix concrete trucks... ED ISKENDERIAN invented (1963)
the hydraulic racing camshaft... BORIS BABAYAN is the father of the
Soviet superconductor... ARTHUR H. BULBULIAN invented the oxygen mask
(A-14) for the US Air Force in 1914... ARDEM MIKOYAN, the younger
brother of Soviet President ANASTAS MIKOYAN, is the co-inventor of the
MiG fighter... Mathematician LEONID KHACHIYAN invented the system which
solved linear programming problems-considered intractable until then.
33 reads Armenia-based astronomer VICTOR HAMPARTSOUMIAN was one of
the founders of theoretical astrophysics. He did most of his work
at the Pyuragan Observatory in Armenia... GIACOMO LUIGI CIAMICIAN,
an Armenian-Italian scientist who was nominated nine times for the
Nobel Prize, is the father of the solar panel and a number of solar
energy applications...
In 1954 Dr. EDWARD KEONJIAN, microelectronics guru, designed
the first solar-powered, pocket-sized radio transmitter... AVEDIS
TEVANIAN was the chief software technology officer and senior VP of
software engineering at Apple Computers. He was a pioneer in creating
cross platform development environments used worldwide... ALEXANDER
KEMURDZIAN, founder of space transport engineering, designed the
first Moon and Mars Rovers. In the 1940 he also designed the first
remote vehicle.
27 reads CHRISTOPHER DER-SEROPIAN was given the first claim patent
for the color of the US dollar in 1954... In 1949 RICHARD DONCHIAN
developed the trend-timing method of futures investing and introduced
the mutual fund concept in money management... HOVHANNES APKAR ADAMIAN
made significant improvements to the principles of B/W and color TV
broadcasting... The world's first and most-sophisticated radio-optical
telescope was built by Paris Herouni in 1960. It was named the Herouni
Mirror Radio Telescope... GREGOR GURZADIAN of Armenia was a pioneer in
the construction and use of small space telescopes-20 years before the
Hubble. He made UV and X-Ray observations on the sun through his space
telescope... Dr. ARA MIRZOYAN, formerly of the Pyuragan Observatory in
Armenia and now director of the Galaxy Company there, led a team of
Armenian scientists in 2012 to make the largest Cherenkov telescope
in the world. The 560-tonne HESSE II (High Energy Cosmic Gamma Ray
Astronomy) telescope has 875 mirrors and every one of them has the
word ARMENIA written on it. The telescope has an area of 600 square
metres. The observatory was located in Namibia because atmospheric
conditions are most advantageous in that region of South Africa.
38 reads The Armenian soldiers, like the Persians, made a point of
locating the head of the enemy's army and to kill him. Medieval
Armenian historian Pavstos Puzant reports a whole series of such
tactics, killing 21 Persian commanders-in-chief in 21 consecutive
victorious battles. Even if inflated, Puzant's account demonstrates
how much emphasis the Armenian military leaders put on specific
tactics. Targeting the enemy's commander-in-chief required credible
intelligence in advance, especially since the commander-in-chief was
always protected by elite bodyguards.
30 reads The cavalry was the main striking force of the ancient and
Medieval Armenian armies. As well as the elite cavalry, there was a
light cavalry. The army had an infantry, archers, shield-bearers,
slingers, special mountain troops trained to roll rocks on the
enemy. Armenians were among the first to use iron horse armor. When
attacking forts or defensive positions, the army had iron hooks to
help soldiers scale the enemy's walls and large leather shields to
protect their backs from rocks thrown from above.
38 reads After the decline of the Arshagouni kingdom (428 AD), the
Mamigonian clan invariably headed the national liberation wars-in
450-51 AD, 481-484, 571-572, 747-753, 772-775-against Byzantium, the
Persians, and the Arabs. The Mamigonians ran a first-class war school
where experienced military men passed, from generation to generation,
the valuable experiences they had gained on the battle field.
The famous General Nerseh (called Narses in Byzantium) had an
equally-skilled brother, Hrahad (Aratius in Greek). The brothers
descended from the prominent Gamsaragan nakharar (princely) family.
Years before commanding the armies of Byzantium, Nerseh and his brother
won a stunning victory over Belisarius and Sittas-the superstars of
the Byzantium military.
28 reads The root cause of the military effectiveness of the
Medieval Armenian princes and their armies was their fiercely
independent nature. This caused the Byzantines to adopt hostile and
counterproductive measure to quell the traditionally self-reliant
spirit of Armenians whom they ruled in Western Armenia. The
shortsighted Byzantine policy resulted in the fall of the Armenian
Pakraduni dynasty and the eventual defeat of the Byzantines at the
hands of the Seljuk Turks in Manazgerd. Some disenchanted Armenian
soldiers fought on the side of the Turks in that battle, along with
various other national groups.
24 reads Roustam Raza's (1780-?) real name was Rostom Khachaturian. He
was born in Tiflis to a family from Artsakh. At the age of seven,
he was kidnapped by Tatars and sent to Egypt where he was sold
seven times.
In 1780, Sheik El-Bakri of Cairo, gave 18-year-old Rostom as a present
to Napoleon who had just landed in Egypt. Rostom became the French
general's bodyguard and took part in every Napoleonic battle until
1814 when Bonaparte was exiled. Napoleon bestowed him with the Legion
of Honor medal. Rostom was featured in a number of paintings which
depicted Napoleon at war. A few years after marrying a Mademoiselle
Douville in a Paris suburb, he returned to the Caucasus and enlisted
in the Russian army to take part in the Russo-Persian War to liberate
Eastern Armenia. The army was led by General Madatov (Madatian).
Following the Russian victory, Rostom lived in Shushi for a while. He
was buried in the same Paris suburb where he was married. His memoirs
were published in 1866.
62 reads Prof. Agop Martayan, an Armenian linguist, introduced the
Latin alphabet to Turkey and was in charge of the conversion of Ottoman
Turkish to modern Turkish. In gratitude, Ataturk nicknamed him Dilacar
("the one who unlocks the language). Whenever his name is mentioned in
Turkish books, he is identified as A. Dilacar. When he died in 1978,
Turkish media called him Adil Dilacar. As they have done with many
other Armenians who have contributed to Turkey, Prof. Martayan's
Armenian origin remains secret in the country.
84 reads Edgar Manas, an Armenian from Istanbul, composed the national
anthem of Turkey. Turkey covers up his national identity.
32 reads Emir Mirza Chul Gurna (1592-1656) of India was the son
of wealthy Armenian merchant Mirza Iskenderian. He was a senior
officer in the Mughal army during the latter's invasion of India
under Emperor Akbar.
He led the Mughal army in many victories. Gurna was a governor (Bengal
and Lahore), senior government and military officer. An extremely
rich man, he was also a benefactor, poet, and singer. Among his many
benevolent works for Armenians, he donated 6,000 rupee to the Armenian
Patriarchate in Jerusalem. His contemporaries said that the Mughal
emperors owed thousand battle victories to Emir Mirza Chul Ghurna.
38 reads Sinan (1490-1580), known as Maymar Sinan (Architect Sinan)
was born in Caesaria (Gesaria). His name was Armen Sinanian. After
graduating from military school, he became a senior officer in the
Yenicheri army (kidnapped or adopted children of non-Muslims). After
participating in the Balkan and Iraq wars, he was appointed chief
architect of the Ottoman army. He built 360 structures-131 mosques,
55 schools, 19 mausoleums, 7 libraries, three hospital, 14 imarat, 8
bridges, 5 aqueducts, 17 khans, 31 palaces, 35 bathhouses, warehouses
and city walls, including that of Jerusalem. In 1563 when Sultan
Selim II ordered the deportation of Caesaria Armenians to Cyprus,
Sinan asked the sultan to rescind his order. The sultan ignored
Sinan's pleading but allowed Sinan's relatives to remain in Caesaria.
41 reads Armenians have played in developing Christian
architecture. Austrian historian Strzygowski has written: "The Greek
genius of St. Sophia and the Italian genius of St. Peter's only
realized more fully what the Armenians had originated."
40 reads As is well known, Armenians provided invaluable assistance
to the Crusaders. Pope Gregory, referring to the Armenian aid to
Europeans, wrote (1304): When in the past princes and Christian armies
proceeding for the recovery of the Holy Land, no nation and no people
were so prompt or so full of zeal as the Armenians to lend to their
aid, whether in men, in horses, in provision, or in council. With all
their forces and with the greatest gallantry and fidelity, they came
to the aid of the Christians in their holy wars."
39 reads Apart from the military contribution to Byzantium, Armenians
also controlled trade. Byzantine-Armenian merchants could be found
all over in Italy. In Ravenna there were so many Armenians that a
section of the city was called Armenia.
The military genius of Byzantium was represented by generals who were
Armenian by birth. Scores of Armenians were the rulers and military
commanders of the empire...Emperors Maurice, Heraclius, John Tzimses,
Basil I and II, so was Empress Theodora. Some of the more famous
funerals were Bardanes (Vartan), Nerses (conquered Italy and Spain),
and John Corcuas who fought against the Arabs.
45 reads Historian Louis Adamic in "A Nation of Nations" (1944)
refers to the early Armenian settlers and says, "In 1619, the Poles,
and their fellow workers of German and Armenian origin went on a
strike. They demanded the right to vote and full equality with the
other colonists...In a tiny community this was equivalent to a major
rebellion, indeed the first consciously political upheaval in America
for the purpose of extending rights to the common man. In it men of
different backgrounds acted jointly against injustices for the first
time in the New World."
37 reads There's evidence of an Armenian on the Virginia coast as early
as 1618-1619, at least a years before the landing of the Pilgrims in
Plymouth. He was called Martin the Armenian. Around the same time,
Capt. John Smith brought a number of foreigners, among them many
Armenians, who were, according to Smith's report, preferred over the
"vagabond gentlemen English colonists wearing silk and shunning work."
In Smith's accounts, the Armenians were hard workers and were skilled
in the manufacture of pitch, tar, glass, beads and soap ash, which
the English colonists used as currency in trading with the Indians.
34 reads >From the 11th to the 15th centuries Armenians migrated in
large numbers to various countries in Europe, Asia and Africa. In
Transylvania they built two cities, Elisabethopolis and Armenopolis.
In Russia they acted as intermediaries in trade and helped in the
westernization of the country. Similarly, Armenians were the first
to enter China as traders. Armenian King Hetum visited the Great Khan
in 1255-before Marco Polo. The first church in China was an Armenian
church built in 1562. Armenians were also the first to translate the
Bible to Chinese.
37 reads In the 11th century a large number of Armenians settled
in Egypt because of the Seljuk Turk invasion of Armenia. Historian
Philip Hitti wrote: "The prosperity which Egypt enjoyed under the
first caliphs in Cairo and later under the two viziers of Armenian
origin, is prosperity worthy of Pharaonic or Alexandrian Age."
33 reads Seven Fatimid (Egyptian) Viziers were Armenian. The most
famous among them was Badr el Gamali. His kin built Babel el-Futuh,
Bab el-Nasr and Bab el-Weila. His son was the governor of Jerusalem
when the Crusaders invaded the Holy Land. Fatimid and Memeluke armies
employed Armenians as heavy armored cavalry. After the fall of Cilicia,
many Armenian soldiers became mercenaries in Egypt and elsewhere in
the Middle East, some became generals.
35 reads Charles Dedeyan was a highly-popular Sorbonne professor
of comparative literature. In "The Tender Hour of Twilight"
writer/editor/publisher Richard Seaver, a student of Prof. Dedeyan
in the '50s, wrote: "The only exception to the doddering professor
generalization was a youngish professor by the name of Charles
Dedeyan. Comparative literature was his domain, and he was clearly in
love with his wide-ranging subject. His hour vanished in a trice, and
he invariably, having kept us on the edges of our seats, finished with
a flourish that, like the last scene of the serial movie, announced
the exciting subject of next week's episode."
31 reads Count Mikhael Kuduzov (1745-1813), an Armenian general
and field marshal in the Tsarist army, is contender to Armenian
Generalissimo Suvorov as the greatest military officer in the Russian
army. His mother's last name was Peglmishyan. He participated in the
two Russian-Turkish wars in the late 18th century and later in that
century was ambassador to Ottoman Turkey. He led the Russian army in
several battles against Napoleon, including at Borodino, near Moscow.
He shattered the French forces in battles in Poland and Prussia. In
1811 he became a count and prince a year later. During the Second
World War the Soviet Union introduced medals in his name.
59 reads Generalissimo Alexander Suvorov (1730 to 1800) is considered
to be Tsarist Russia's greatest military leader. His mother was
Hripsimeh Manougian of Astrakhan. Recent research reveals that his
father-although thought to be of Swedish origin, was also Armenian. In
1780 Gen. Suvorov, along with Catherine the Great, participated in the
inauguration of the Armenian Saint Catherine Church of St. Petersburg.
Suvorov was also entrusted with the liberation of Armenia. He was also
instrumental in settling 12,600 Crimean Armenians to Don in Ukraine.
He subscribed to Shahamir Shahamirian's "New Notebook"
pamphlet. His son (Arkady Suvorov-1784-1811) and his grandson
(Alexander Suvorov-1804-1882) were also famous generals. A total
of ten descendants of Generalissimo Suvorov became generals in the
Russian Army. The generalissimo had the distinction of never having
been beaten in the battlefield.
51 reads Turkey's Cankaya Presidential Palace in Ankara was
confiscated from the Ghasabian Armenian family, although Turkey
claims the memorial palace was donated by the citizens of Ankara to
Mustapha Kemal Ataturk. After its confiscation, the building was
auctioned and eventually became the property of a Turk. A Turkish
government decree and the National Security Council forbid any mention
of properties illegally taken from non-Turks. The land on which the
Incirlik Military Base (near Adana) is built belongs to an Armenian
family. The land was confiscated during the Genocide. The base hosts
the largest number of US soldiers in Turkey.
Father Philip Caraman, born in London 1911, was the son of an
Izmir-born Armenian merchant and banker who had fled Ottoman Turkey
during the Hamidian Massacres. Caraman, hailing from a devoutly
Catholic family, became a Jesuit. His two sisters became nuns. He
was appointed editor of "This Month" Jesuit magazine which was about
to fold. Father Caraman revived the magazine and attracted famous
writers such as Graham Greene, Muriel Spark, Evelyn Waugh and Edit
Sitwell to write for the publication. He also directed the conversion
of Alec Guinness to the Roman Catholic Church and remained the actor's
spiritual guide the rest of his life. One of Caraman's books-"The Lost
Empire" was made into a movie ("The Mission") with Robert de Niro
and Jeremy Irons. Caraman, who died in 1998, spoke seven languages,
in addition to Armenian.
52 reads The first Armenian settlers in Fresno were Evangelicals
who mainly came from Marzvan, Armenia. Mardiros Yanukian, a native
of Marzvan, made his home in Fresno in 1878. Escaping the horrors of
Ottoman Turkish misrule, he changed his name to "Normart" ("new man"
in Armenian). By 1890 there were some 1,000 Armenians in Fresno.
57 reads Rupen Minassian settled in California during the Gold Rush
of the 1840s. He then joined Mormon leader Brigham Young and became a
farmer in Utah. Later, as a landowner, he bought silver mine, changed
his name to Rupen Minas and became a pioneer in sugar manufacturing
in Fresno.
53 reads Nikita Fyoderovich Baliev -his Armenian name Mgrdich
Asdvadzadoor Balyan-was the creative and artistic director of the
famous Moscow cabaret "the Bat" (1908-1920). After the Russian
Revolution, he moved to Paris and created new shows. He later took
his theatre group to South America, Hollywood and New York. He died
of a fatal stroke in a New York taxi in 1936. He was born in Erzurum
in 1877.
50 reads King Ardavazt (ruled 56 B.C. to 34 B.C., died 34 B.C.). Son
of King Tigran II ("the Great"), he fought for the elimination of
Greater Armenia's independence on Rome. The defeat of the Romans
in the battle with the Parthians near Carrhae in 53 B.C, and the
Parthian-Armenian alliance strengthened the independence of Greater
Armenia. Ardavazt recovered Sophene and Cilicia (Little Armenia)
which Romans had wrested from Armenia. In 37 B.C. he refused to
participate in a Roman attack on the Parthians. Three years later
the Romans invaded Armenia and through deceit abducted him and his
family to Egypt, where Cleopatra and her paramour Marc Antony beheaded
him. Ardavazt was a historian and dramatist.
43 reads Anna Melikyan is the owner/director of Magnum Studios of
Russia .. .
Armen Oganesyan is the CEO of Voice of Russia . . . Marganta
Simonyan is the chief editor of "Russia Today" . . . Veronique
Nishanian is chief designer at Hermes . . . Donna Kalaydjian is sales
vice-president and publisher of "Cosmopolitan". . . Valerie Toranian
is editor-in-chief (French edition) of "Elle" magazine . . . Vartan
Sirmakes is the chairman and co-owner of Frank Muller, a luxury watch
brand . . .Sassoune Sirmakes is the owner of Swiss Quastos watchmakers.
52 reads Born in Tbilisi in 1842, Alexander Mantashev (Mantashian)
was an oil tycoon. He owned the Tiflis Central Commercial Bank and
funded the Baku-Batumi oil pipeline in 1907-the world's longest at
835 kilometres. From 1899 to 1909 his company's fixed capital (by
volume) was the largest industry in the Russian Empire. Along with
12 like-minded people he funded the Armenian Charitable Society in
Caucasus and donated 300,000 rubles for the building of the Nersessian
spiritual academy. He also donated 250,000 rubles to Echmiadzin for
the residence of the Catholicos. Mantashian hand-picked 50 talented
young Armenians and sent them to study at the best universities in
Russia and in Europe. Among them were Gomidas and Stepan Shahumyan. He
also donated the St. John the Baptist Church in Paris, on Jean Goujon
St. to the Armenian community. The construction of the church cost
1,540,000 francs. He received the Legion of Honor from the president
of France. Mantashian died in St. Petersburg in 1911. He was buried
in the Armenian cathedral in Tbilisi. In 1933 Lavrenti Beria, a Stalin
henchman, destroyed Mantashian's grave.
65 reads Armenian Inventors
Gabriel Kazanjian invented the hair-dryer machine in 1908.
The automatic transmission for cars was invented (1931) by Asadoor
Sarafyan. An Armenian Genocide survivor, Sarafyan was forced by his
American boss to change his name to Oscar Banker.
Arthur Bibulyan was granted license (No. 2.348.108) for inventing an
oxygen mask for US Air Force pilots .
Stephan Stepanian invented the truck mounted with concrete drum mixer.
Luther Simjian invented the ATM, the military flight simulator,
and the postage meter.
Peter Vospikian invented the self-wringing sponge mop ("Quickie")
Ed Iskenderian invented the hydraulic racing camshaft.
Albert Kapikyan invented the rotavirus vaccine.
Roger Altounyan invented the pressured inhaler and sodium therapy.
Michel Ter Pogossian invented the PET scanner.
Varaztad Kazanjian (a doctor serving with the US forces in WWI)
is the father of plastic (cosmetic) surgery.
Jirayr Tezel invented the first hair transplantation device.
Raymond Damadyan invented the MRI machine .
Emik Avakyan is the inventor of the text to speech microfilm.
Boris Babyan invented Soviet Union's first super-computer.
107 reads The Turkish gossip machine-specially the one's operated by
enemies of the current government-whispers that Prime Minister Recep
Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul are of Armenian origin. Meanwhile,
Erdogan's allies claim the leader of the opposition party is of
Armenian descent.
55 reads The Crusader era witnessed numerous marriages between Cilician
Armenian royalty/nobility and Crusade leaders. Baldwin of Le Bourg
married Morfia, daughter of the wealthy Gabriel of Melitene (Malatya);
Hetoum I's sister Stephanie married Henry I of Cyprus; another sister
(Maria) married John of Ibelin, count of Jaffa. Hetoum's daughters
Sibyl and Euphemia married Bohemond VI of Antioch and Julian, count
of Sidon respectively; a third daughter (Maria) married Guy of Ibelin
(son of Baldwin) and seneschal of Cyprus. Hetoum's fourth daughter
(Rita) married an Armenian Lord of Sarvantikar.
Five Armenian proverbs:
The hen that lays most cackles most.
Even if he were the sun he wouldn't dry your handkerchief.
Nobody will give the pauper bread, but everybody will give him advice.
The cat couldn't reach the meat: "It's Friday," she said.
Better die standing than live crouched.
54 reads Madam Mathild Manukyan operated half-a-dozen brothels in
Istanbul in the '80s. The famous madam, who died in 2002, was one of
Turkey's biggest taxpayers. Every year she received an annual prize
from Ankara for her contributions to the public coffers. She also
had substantial real estate holdings. Following her death, her son
took over the corporation.
62 reads Harry Altounian was an automotive genius and an expert in the
mechanics of the Porsche cars in the '50s and the '60s. He was also
a close friend of actor Steve McQueen. When McQueen was preparing
to shoot the "Le Mans" racing movie in 1970 he asked Altounian to
maintain the various Porsches McQueen drove during the shoot.
58 reads Turkey has registered harissa at UNESCO as a Turkish
dish. Harissa is an Armenian dish. Wheat, the main ingredient of
harissa, has been an Armenian crop since time immemorial. Armenians
were preparing harissa when Turks were still roaming the dusty and
barren flatlands of Central Asia. As well, harel means "to stir" in
Armenian. Anyone familiar with the delicious and filling harissa knows
that stirring the pot is integral to harissa preparation. Meanwhile,
Georgia is trying to get the pitcher, wine making and apiary recognized
as Georgian inventions.
58 reads In 1989 astronaut James Bagian (born in 1952 in Philadelphia),
offspring of an Armenian from Trebizond, took off from Cape Canaveral.
He made 30 circuits around the globe and covered 3 million and 219,000
kilometers. The flight lasted four days, 23 hours and 41 minutes.
66 reads In 1909 Artem Katsian participated in the first aviation
contests in Germany.
59 reads Around 18,500 Armenians served in the US Army during the
Second World War.
69 reads Mother of Prince Talal bin Abdul Azis al-Saud was
Armenian. She was a survivor of the Genocide of Armenians. She was
also the mother of Princes Mishal, Mitab and Nawaf. Prince Talal
was the father of Prince Al-Waleed, the billionaire (born 1931)
with investments around the globe.
66 reads Traders from Armenia frequented the Indian subcontinent
as early as 2000 BC, according to "The Daily Star" (Sept. 4, 2006)
of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Winding their ways along the tortuous mountains
and following the Silk route through Iran and Afghanistan the Armenian
merchants traded in spices, muslin and precious stones.... They finally
settled in the subcontinent during the reign of Mughal Emperor Akbar
when he offered them freedom of trade, religion and exemption from
taxation. They were also allowed to enter areas where foreigners were
banned. One of the emperor's wives was Armenian. Their adopted son
(Miraz Zul Qumain) was a governor, poet and singer. Abdul Hai, chief
justice of the emperor and Domingo Peres, the emperor's interpreter,
were also Armenian.
63 reads The music critic "Financial Times" (Oct. 10, 2003) wrote:
"The Sabre Dance is probably as good a piece as any to represent
Khachaturian: brash, rhythmic, colorful and above all accessible. Do
not expect the angst of Shostakovich or the cosmopolitan flair of
Prokofiev.
...Khachaturian's music was rooted in his Armenian heritage. This makes
him different, it is sometimes said, from other Russian [!] composers
who incorporate folk song into artistic efforts: with Khachaturian,
the folk element is at the heart of his language..."
81 reads There are several million Romas (Gypsies) in occupied
Western Armenia.
They are derogatorily called Chingana by Turks. Armenians call them
Posha/Bosha in the Republic of Armenia. Although the Romas are not
recognized as a minority in Turkey, legislation discriminate against
them in no uncertain terms. Article 4 forbids settlement in Turkey to
persons who have no ties with Turkish culture, as well as anarchists,
spies, Roma and persons deported from Turkey. Other Turkish legislation
stipulates that nomads and Roma are to be settled in sites designated
by the Ministry of Health and Social Assistance. The legislation
explicitly prevents Roma from entering Turkey as immigrants. Poshas
first settled in Armenia in the 11th century.
300 reads In 654 AD when Byzantian Emperor Constans II threatened to
pillage Armenia, Catholicos Nerses III and Sparabed Mushegh Mamigonian
begged him not to. Ignoring the Armenian pleas, the emperor led 20,000
soldiers to Dvin and placed Maurianos as governor of Armenia.In all
the churches of Dvin, the Chalcedonian Christology (Dyophysitism),
which Armenians had rejected for two centuries, was preached and
mass was celebrated. The catholicos, bishops and nakharars received
Holy Communion with the emperor. After the departure of the emperor,
Theodore Rshtuni, former chief "nakharar," made an alliance with the
new caliph in Damascus. With Arab help he drove the Byzantines out
of Armenia. The caliph made Rshtuni ruler of Armenia.
67 reads The accordion, invented in Vienna, was patented in 1829 by
Cyril Demian, an Armenian. Austria's capital hosted the month-long
13th International Accordion Festival in 2012 from late February to
late March.
52 reads Armenian proverbs:
The donkey's tomb is the wolf's stomach.
Pigs never see stars.
A man who picks big stone does not mean to throw it.
Debt ends by paying, sin by weeping.
Seven mothers-in-law walk together; they say there's nobody to talk to.
Slap according to the face.
61 reads Those familiar with the myth of two Chinese princes (Mam and
Ekon) who supposedly founded the Mamigonian dynasty, would find its
Indian version as interesting. According to Zenob/Zenobias, one of
the first desciples of St. Gregory the Illuminator, two Hindu princes
(Gissaneh and Demeter) had conspired against Dinakspall, the king
of Kanauj.
Upon the discovery of the plot, which meant death to the princes, they
fled to Armenia. They were welcomed to the country by the king and
the population. In 149 B.C. King Valarsaces (the brother of Artaces
the Great) allotted them and their followers the province of Daron,
where they built a city called Veeshab-dragon in Armenian. The Hindu
refugees also went to Ashdishad, where they set up statues of the gods
they worshipped in India. When Armenia converted to Christianity, St.
Gregory erected-on the site of the most important Hindu temple--
a monastery where he deposited the relics of St. John the Baptist
and Athanagineh the martyr. The monastery-now known as St. Garabed
of Moosh-once again became an Armenian pilgrimage site in 2011.
54 reads Russian poet Valeri Prousov has said: "Armenian is the
unknown beauty of languages." Armenologist Schultz of Hungary has
said: "The Armenian language has 40,000 root words, while many other
languages' root words don't exceed 10,000." When Armenologist Soltex
of the United States and French Armenologist Feytie suggested to
the UN to adopt Armenian as an international language, they said :
"We are certain that if there is a language which can offer the exact
meaning of words , it's the Armenian language. We suggest that it be
given preference, rather than Esperanto."
67 reads Caro Lucas, who died in 2010, was the "Father of Iran's
robotic sciences." He introduced new multi-disciplinary graduate
courses (biological computing, general systems design, advanced
socio-cognitive systems) and conducted courses in electrical and
computer engineering, management, psychology, arts and architecture,
finance and economics. He also founded the Institute for Studies
in Theoretical Physics and Mathematics (ISRF). Lucas authored or
co-authored about 825 conference papers. 332 journal papers and
edited many book. He was also keynote speaker at 190 national and
international events.
45 reads According to some Turks, the name of the city of Urfa has
Turkish origins. Here is their fantasy version. God sent a swarm of
mosquitoes to torment Nimrod, the king who wanted to kill patriarch
Abraham. The mosquitoes flew up Nimrod's nose and started chewing on
his brain.
Nimrod ordered his men to hit his head with wooden mallets, shouting
"Vur ha, vur ha!"(Hit me, hit me! In Turkish) and that's how the city
was called Urfa. The fact that Abraham is a legendary figure and that
Turks showed up in the city more than 4,000 years after Abraham is
neither here nor there to the Turkish falsifiers of history. After all,
these same people refuse to identify King Apkar V as Armenian.
54 reads Eight-years-old Carlo William of Armenian origin will be
the lead in the French language "St. Judes of Ontario" movie. Carlo
is a student at the Nareg Armenian School in Lavalle, Quebec. He is
fluent in Armenian and in several other languages.
40 reads Vladimir Bedrossian is the new deputy-mayor of
Moscow. Previously he was in charge of the city's social security
department.
39 reads Krikor Mazloumian of Antcherti, Cilicia, opened late in the
19th century, Hotel Ararat--Aleppo's first hotel with individual rooms
and beds. The hotel was soon patronized by bankers, foreign notables,
adventurers, archeologists and writers. Hotel guests were intrigued
that the hotel's all-Armenian staff addressed the owners as "baron."
They , too, began to call the Mazloumians Mr. Baron or simply Baron.
When the family decided to build a modern hotel, they named it Baron's
Hotel. The three-storey hotel opened in 1911. During the Genocide of
Armenians the Mazloumians took in novelist Krikor Zohrab, poet Vartkes,
Yervant Odian, and Aram Andonian.
81 reads The Sarkies brothers (Martin, Aviet, Tigran and Arshak from
Julfa, Iran) founded the Sarkies Brothers Properties in Southeast Asia.
Martin, an engineer, built the Eastern and Oriental Hotel in Penang
(Malaysia) in the early 1880s. The brothers also built the Strand
Hotel in Rangoon (Burma/Myanmar). Martin and Tigran founded Raffles
in Singapore (1887) by converting an old bungalow into a 10-room hotel.
They named it after Sir Stamford Raffles, founder of modern Singapore
in1819. The Singapore Sling, a cocktail of gin, cherry brandy, lemon
juice and soda, was first mixed at the hotel's Long Bar in1903. The
Strand, the Eastern and Oriental and Raffles-still operating-are
considered national monuments.
64 reads Plato, in his "Republic," gave a different version of the
legend of King Ara Keghetsig. According to Plato, Er was an Armenian
or the son of Armenios, a native of Pampylia. He was slain in battle,
and ten days later, when the bodies of the dead were gathered already
rotting, his body seemed to be unaffected by decay. On the 12th day,
as he was lying on the funeral pyre, he returned to life and gave
an account of what he had seen in the other world. Plato also wrote
that Socrates had told him: "Our wisdom comes from Er of Armenia,
the secrets of immortality."
75 reads As early as the 11th century Turkish invaders had begun to
change Armenian place names. First, they translated their meaning into
Turkish: Dantsout (place with a lot of pear trees) into Armoudlou;
Aghpyourashen (village of springs) into Kyankendi; Garmrig (red)
into Kezelja; Dzaghgatsor (flower ravine) into Darachichek, etc.
38 reads The ancestors of the Armenians in Poland came from Crimea
where they were so numerous that, in certain medieval Oriental maps,
Crimea was called "Maritime Armenia." Starting in the 11th century, and
especially during the Mongol invasion, they settled in the provinces
of Podolie and Galicia. They were welcomed by the local Ukrainian
Orthodox population. In the second half of the 14th century the two
provinces were annexed by Poland.
38 reads Although some mistakenly believe the first Christian edifice
is the Monastery of St. Anthony in the eastern desert of Egypt, the
title actually belongs to the Monastery of St. Echmiadzin which was
built in 303.
43 reads Five Armenian proverbs:
Cats in gloves can't catch mice.
He makes dice with his father's bones (i.e. cruel)
The rich man will have iced water even in hell.
An uninvited guest sits on a thron.
An experienced devil is better than an inexperienced angel.
36 reads "The Book of Whispers" by Varujan Vosganian won the best
novel in Romania title in 2010. Mr. Vosganian is also vice-president
of the Romanian Writers Union.
33 reads Hovhannes Mouradgian held the key position of interpreter at
the Swedish Embassy in Constantinople in the mid-1700s. The Mouradgian
family later changed its name to Mouradgea d'Ohsson to make it sound
Swedish. The senior Mouradgian's son and grandson Ignatius Mouradgea
d'Ohsoon and Abraham Constantin d'Ohsson, are well known by Swedish
historians. Ignatius wrote a number of books on the history, religion
and customs of the Ottoman Empire. Abraham Constantin, a diplomat,
represented Sweden in Spain, Holland and Germany. Jean Anastasi,
an Armenian merchant from Damascus, also served as Swedish Consul
General in Egypt from 1828 to 1857.
26 reads Armenian King Abkar of Edessa (reign from 4 B.C.-AD 7 and
AD 13-50) suffered from leprosy. Upon hearing of Christ's miracles,
he sent an artist to Palestine to paint Christ's portrait. Dazzled by
the radiance of Christ's face, the artist was unable to paint. Christ
washed His and dried it on a towel which retained an impression of His
features. When it was presented to Abkar, he was cured. The Holy Towel
was rescued from the Muslim-controlled Edessa by Emperor Constantine
VI (reign 780-97). The Holy Towel could reproduce itself when placed
in contact with another piece of cloth thus a number of Holy Towels
came into being.
30 reads
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress