Garbis boyajian biography books
Ethiopian Armenians in their own Words
"Some people don't come to church vertically. Only horizontally," Vartkes Nalbandian said with a laugh.
Vartkes is among a small handful of people keeping Ethiopia's Armenian community alive. Despite a fall in numbers from a peak of 1,200 in the 1960s to less than 100 people today, the Armenian school, church and social club still open their doors.
"There is more to a community than just statistics. We are proud of the Armenian contribution to Ethiopia. It's worth fighting for," said 64-year old Vartkes, the church's fulltime acting archdeacon since the last priest left in 2002.
But given the shrinking numbers, the fight can feel daunting.
Armenian goldsmiths, traders and architects were invited to settle in Ethiopia more than 150 years ago by Emperor Johannes IV. Buoyed by the ties between Ethiopian and Armenian Orthodoxy, the community thrived.
After the Armenian Genocide in 1915, Haile Selassie, Ethiopia's regent who later became emperor, opened his arms to the Armenian people even wider, adopting 40 orphans as wards of court. In return, the Ethio-Armenians proved fiercely loyal.
One trader used his European connections to buy arms for Ethiopia's resistance movement against the Italian occupation during World War II. Others ran an underground newspaper. Several gave their lives in service of their adopted homeland.
"Those were the best days," said 61-year old Salpi Nalbandian, who runs a leather business with her brother Vartkes and other family members. "We were valued members of the court. We made the crowns the emperors wore on their heads. We were not like the Italians, we weren't invaders. We contributed."
But the community's fortunes have changed through the years.
Ethio-Armenians had their property and businesses confiscated when the communist Derg seized power in 1974. Many families left then, fearing for their lives. The Nalbandians The photo galleries make this commitment to a true recreation particularly palpable. The introductory page to the first photo gallery, “Families,” after citing how photography became closely associated with Ottoman Armenians in the 19th century and reached the farthest corners of the empire by the early 20th century, emphasizes how photographs from that period reached Houshamadyan—often from private family collections from all over of the world, mainly in digital form, thus turning these photographs into sacred fragments from a destroyed world. The author notes, “Each [photograph] is the glowing reflection and legacy of a particular family’s lost life. At the same time, each photo is a microcosm, a unique sample of the collective fate that befell the Ottoman Armenians. Life and Catastrophe…” [4] Such a study of a centuries-old national and communal life not only enriches the sources of our historical, sociological, and cultural understanding, but awakens our senses and memory. This approached is outlined in the second segment presented in this article. The author cites literary works that testify to this effort to recreate, and are closely associated with the sacramental value of remembrances. It is in this context that Krikor Beledian’s “Semer” [Thresholds] and Norair Atalian’s “Kapuyt Yerznka/Erzincan” [Blue Yerznka/Erzincan] are quoted. And the introduction to the first photo gallery concludes with the following statement: “To remember and to reconstruct our past lives based on these memories, and to never forget the Great Catastrophe.” This living presentation of fragments from a past is, concomitantly, scientifically valid; that is, unlike other publications of the same nature, it reveals the inception, identity, and trajectory of the featured artifacts, documents, and photographs. Yet this scholarly approach to documentation is at the same time sensory-emotional. It’s never commemorative, ceremonious, and superficial, as that would no Author: Ani Apikian, 03/01/2025 (Last modified: 03/01/2025) - Translator: Simon Beugekian. This page was prepared collaboratively with the “Armenika” periodical of Athens. These materials were provided to us by Araxi Apelian-Kolanian. Araxi’s father, Hagop Apelian (1900-1978), hailed from Balıkesir. He was the son of Garabed Apelian and Ebrouhi Apelian (born Arabian in 1872). In 1920, the Greek army entered Balıkesir, and the city was placed under Greek rule. But as the Greco-Turkish War continued, Greek forces began retreating gradually. On November 6, 1922, Turkish forces recaptured Balıkesir. Until the outbreak of the First World War, the population of Balıkesir was between 15,000 and 20,000, including 1,000-2,000 Greeks and about 3,500 Armenians. The city’s Armenian community had a representative on the city council. Garabed Apelian was one of the prominent Armenians of the city and played an important role in community life. When the Armenian Genocide began in 1915, Garabed was able to send his family to Konya. But back in Balıkesir, the authorities arrested him and two of his relatives. All three were hanged. His family, who had found safety in Konya, survived the Genocide. Hagop attended the local American school. In 1 Migliorino, Nicola. "Bibliography". (Re)constructing Armenia in Lebanon and Syria: Ethno-Cultural Diversity and the State in the Aftermath of a Refugee Crisis, New York, Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2008, pp. 224-237. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780857450579-039 Migliorino, N. (2008). Bibliography. In (Re)constructing Armenia in Lebanon and Syria: Ethno-Cultural Diversity and the State in the Aftermath of a Refugee Crisis (pp. 224-237). New York, Oxford: Berghahn Books. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780857450579-039 Migliorino, N. 2008. Bibliography. (Re)constructing Armenia in Lebanon and Syria: Ethno-Cultural Diversity and the State in the Aftermath of a Refugee Crisis. New York, Oxford: Berghahn Books, pp. 224-237. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780857450579-039 Migliorino, Nicola. "Bibliography" In (Re)constructing Armenia in Lebanon and Syria: Ethno-Cultural Diversity and the State in the Aftermath of a Refugee Crisis, 224-237. New York, Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2008. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780857450579-039 Migliorino N. Bibliography. In: (Re)constructing Armenia in Lebanon and Syria: Ethno-Cultural Diversity and the State in the Aftermath of a Refugee Crisis. New York, Oxford: Berghahn Books; 2008. p.224-237. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780857450579-039 Copied to clipboard ******
Araxi Apelian-Kolanian Collection – Thessaloniki
In Balıkesir, Garabed Apelian was a jeweler and a jewelry merchant. He owned two or three jewelry shops in the city. Garabed and Ebrouhi had three sons and one daughter – Yeprem, Hagop (Araxi’s father), Sarkis, and Adrine. Like many Armenians living in Balıkesir, Garabed and Ebrouhi were Turkish speakers. Their four children, however, attended Armenian schools, and consequently, alongside Turkish, spoke Armenian. Araxi remembers that in Thessaloniki, Ebrouhi would always try to speak Armenian to her grandchildren; while her son Hagop (Araxi’s father) would occasionally recite proverbs in Turkish, prefacing them with “Turks are terrible, but they have great proverbs.”Bibliography