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LONGTIME AP CORRESPONDENT JOSEPH PANOSSIAN DIES
By BASSEM MROUE
Star News
http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20120328/API/1203280778?Title=Longtime-AP-correspondent-Joseph-Panossian-dies
March 28 2012
BEIRUT - Joseph Panossian, a longtime Middle East correspondent
for The Associated Press who covered transformative events from the
Lebanese civil war to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, has died, his family
said Wednesday. He was 74.
Panossian, who was undergoing chemotherapy for lung cancer, died March
13 in Armenia, where he had been living for the past three years,
said his wife, Annie.
He was described by colleagues as always ready with a joke to defuse
the region's stressful and often dangerous news events. Panossian
retired from the AP in 2007 after 45 years.
"Joe was by far the best Arabic linguist and translator on the staff,"
said Robert H. Reid, AP's Middle East regional editor. "He was devoted
to the AP and never would let illness, errands or, during the civil
war, shell fire keep him from coming to work and doing the best
possible job."
Born in 1937 in Jaffa in British-mandate Palestine, Panossian was
displaced to east Jerusalem following the creation of Israel in 1948.
He moved to Lebanon in 1951.
"His dream was that one day he would take me to Jaffa to show me the
place where he was born," his wife said. Jaffa is now part of the
Israeli city of Tel Aviv.
Panossian joined the AP in Beirut in the early 1960s and moved to the
Mediterranean island of Cyprus in 1976. He was based in Cyprus for
21 years, covering events including the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war and the
1985 killing of three Israeli citizens in the coastal city of Larnaca.
He returned to Beirut in 1997, and over the next decade he witnessed
the Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000 after an 18-year
occupation, the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik
Hariri and the departure of Syrian troops from Lebanon.
At the start of the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, Panossian spent
time in Qatar helping monitor Arabic media, using his knowledge of
local Arabic dialects.
"He loved his career," Annie Panossian said of her husband.
Panossian was also the editor of an Arabic-language bimonthly AP
cultural bulletin that had subscribers throughout the Arab world.
In 2009, Panossian moved to Armenia with his wife to be close to
their children.
He is survived by his wife, two sons and four grandchildren. He was
buried in the Armenian capital of Yerevan.
From: A. Papazian
By BASSEM MROUE
Star News
http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20120328/API/1203280778?Title=Longtime-AP-correspondent-Joseph-Panossian-dies
March 28 2012
BEIRUT - Joseph Panossian, a longtime Middle East correspondent
for The Associated Press who covered transformative events from the
Lebanese civil war to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, has died, his family
said Wednesday. He was 74.
Panossian, who was undergoing chemotherapy for lung cancer, died March
13 in Armenia, where he had been living for the past three years,
said his wife, Annie.
He was described by colleagues as always ready with a joke to defuse
the region's stressful and often dangerous news events. Panossian
retired from the AP in 2007 after 45 years.
"Joe was by far the best Arabic linguist and translator on the staff,"
said Robert H. Reid, AP's Middle East regional editor. "He was devoted
to the AP and never would let illness, errands or, during the civil
war, shell fire keep him from coming to work and doing the best
possible job."
Born in 1937 in Jaffa in British-mandate Palestine, Panossian was
displaced to east Jerusalem following the creation of Israel in 1948.
He moved to Lebanon in 1951.
"His dream was that one day he would take me to Jaffa to show me the
place where he was born," his wife said. Jaffa is now part of the
Israeli city of Tel Aviv.
Panossian joined the AP in Beirut in the early 1960s and moved to the
Mediterranean island of Cyprus in 1976. He was based in Cyprus for
21 years, covering events including the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war and the
1985 killing of three Israeli citizens in the coastal city of Larnaca.
He returned to Beirut in 1997, and over the next decade he witnessed
the Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000 after an 18-year
occupation, the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik
Hariri and the departure of Syrian troops from Lebanon.
At the start of the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, Panossian spent
time in Qatar helping monitor Arabic media, using his knowledge of
local Arabic dialects.
"He loved his career," Annie Panossian said of her husband.
Panossian was also the editor of an Arabic-language bimonthly AP
cultural bulletin that had subscribers throughout the Arab world.
In 2009, Panossian moved to Armenia with his wife to be close to
their children.
He is survived by his wife, two sons and four grandchildren. He was
buried in the Armenian capital of Yerevan.
From: A. Papazian