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  • Gharibians Study of Armenian Journalism a Valuable Resource

    Gharibian’s Study of Armenian Journalism a Valuable Resource
    By Daphne Abeel - The Armenian Mirror-Spectator
    Friday, May 11, 2012
    Category:ArmeniaMedia

    Special to the Mirror-Spectator


    Jerair Gharibian, who died in 1991, made an important contribution to
    Armenian culture in the Boston area, when, in 1980, he founded the
    Boston Armenian Independent Radio Hour, which to this day broadcasts
    news and commentary of interest to the Armenian community.

    His widow, Yevgine Gharibian, who hosts the broadcasts, has now paid
    further tribute to her husband’s legacy with the publication of
    Armenian Journalism 1794-1977, written to fulfill his master’s degree
    requirement at Boston University.

    Gharibian had a rich and varied life as a writer and a journalist.
    Born to Armenian parents in Baghdad, Iraq, in 1937, he began his
    education there, but traveled later to London to study at a branch of
    London University, where he studied industrial management. While in
    London, he became a co-founder of the Armenian Revolutionary
    Federation (ARF) Navasardian Committee.

    In 1964, following his graduation, he moved to Tehran, where he lived
    for 10 years, immersing himself in the social and political life of
    the Armenian community there. He was particularly

    interested in the education of young people and established a youth
    biweekly magazine, Alik Badanegan, which was published under the aus-
    pices of Alik daily, where he served as assistant editor.

    In 1975, Gharibian was invited to the United States to assume the
    position of executive secre- tary of the Armenian Youth Federation of
    the ARF. It was at this time while he was attending Boston
    University’s School of Journalism that he wrote his master’s thesis on
    Armenian journalism.

    This relatively short text is of archival importance to the Armenian
    community, if for no other reason than for the tables which list the
    publication of vir- tually every Armenian newspaper and periodical,
    dating back to 1794, when the very first newspaper, Aztarar, was
    published by a priest, Rev. Haratune Shmavonian in Madras, India. The
    tables list not only the title of the publication, but the date and
    place of origin, the publisher, the editor and the nature of its
    content. This is an invaluable resource for anyone who is engaged in
    research on many subjects touching on Armenian history, culture and
    politics.

    As Dr. Khachig Tololyan of Wesleyan University notes in his
    introduction, “Both in the homeland and in the diaspora, Armenians
    have made their history in contexts that gave the press an uncom- mon
    centrality in political and cultural life; furthermore, the lack of
    universities and of institutional documentation in stable archives
    made the Armenian press the best record of social history available to
    us. Jerair Gharibian’s book is a refer- ence guide and a history of
    the Armenian press from 1794-1977, but it is also a study of the
    tight- knit relationship between the Armenian press and its
    heterogeneous contexts, from Madras to Yerevan, and Tbilisi to
    Fresno.”

    Tololyan also notes that even this first publication served as a kind
    of political rallying point, a characteristic that is reflected in
    contemporary publications, which are now, in large part, owned by
    various political parties.

    Ara Ghazarian, curator of the Armenian Cultural Foundation, has
    contributed a foreword in which he, too, comments on the importance of
    the publication as “the first historical, analytical work on the
    history of Armenian journalism written in English.”

    In his own introduction, Gharibian points to the unique role that
    Armenian journalism has played in the history of the Armenian people.
    “Only rarely does one come across a nation which has been compelled to
    publish newspapers and periodicals with the survival of the people as
    its primary concern.”

    Of course, there could be no publication of any sort without the
    invention of the alphabet and Gharibian reviews the creation of the
    Armenian script by the Armenian monk, Mesrob Mashtots in 404 AD. The
    first text to be translated into Armenian, not surprisingly, was the
    Bible, but it was followed by original works in the fields of history,
    philosophy and religion and hence “The Golden Age of Armenian
    Literature” was born. In spite of the fact that Armenia was subject to
    many invasions, creative writers continued to produce works, which
    included songs, most notably by the troubadour, Sayat Nova.

    In the 16th century, as Armenians began to emigrate to other lands in
    order to escape oppression by invaders, new writers in the diaspora
    began writing in the language of the common people (krapar) rather
    than the literary language of the clergy (ashkharapar).

    Subsequent to the founding of that first paper in Madras, the growth
    of Armenian publications increased gradually through the 19th century.
    Thanks to European demands that the Ottomans ease up on restrictions
    placed on the Armenian community, education received a push and
    parochial schools and colleges were established by Armenian
    missionaries in Constantinople, Kharpert, Marsovan, Aintab, Marash,
    Konia and Tarsus. In the mid 19th century, three important Armenian
    newspapers were published, Masis in Constantinople, Huisisapayl in
    Moscow and Ardziv, founded in Constantinople, but later moved to Van.
    Ardziv, established by Bishop Megerdich Khrimian, played an especially
    impor- tant role in exhorting Armenians to press for their freedom.

    Especially in the years 1905-1914 leading up to the Genocide,
    Gharibian notes that censorship of Armenian journalism by the Ottomans
    was particularly harsh. Such words as “freedom, “rights,”
    “revolution,” and “justice,” were routinely stricken from any
    publications. Particularly taboo were the words “Hayastan” (Armenian)
    and “Hairenik” (Fatherland).

    With the extermination in 1915 of over 600 scholars, writers,
    journalists and other intellectuals, journalism nearly ceased to exist
    In Ottoman Turkey and it was at this time the Diaspora became the
    haven for Armenian journalism Throughout the Middle East and in the
    United States, wherever a significant population of Armenians
    immigrated to escape persecution, new vehicles for journalism were
    formed. including some in the Soviet Union, although these latter were
    very much under the book of the Communist regime.

    It needs to be pointed out that Gharibian was writing long before the
    breakup of the Soviet Union and the formation of the independent
    Republic of Armenia and his criticisms of and references to the Soviet
    influence on the Armenian press no longer have the same validity as
    they did at the time of his writing in the late 1970s.

    Gharibian gives a thumbnail sketch of the importance of the Armenian
    press in Middle Eastern countries such as Syria, Iraq, Iran and Egypt
    and pays particular tribute to Lebanon which was the birthplace of
    many outstanding Armenian journalists. The influence of Beirutis may
    still be traced, for example, in the editorship of Azg, published in
    Yerevan and headed by Hagop Avedikian, who was born in Beirut.

    Papers were also started in France, Turkey and the United States where
    the first publication was Arekag, founded in 1888 and published by
    Haig Eginian in Jersey City, NJ.

    Writing in 1977, Gharibian counted 52 Armenian periodical publications
    in the US, including Hairenik, the organ of the ARF, and the Armenian
    Mirror-Spectator, the publication of the Armenian Democratic Liberal
    (ADL) Party. Both today, are located in Watertown, Mass. Gradually,
    with succeeding generations of Armenians less able to read in the
    Armenian language, there was an ever-increasing need to create an
    Armenian press in English.

    Gharibian notes that few editors of Armenian periodicals were trained
    journalists, although that trend is changing both in Armenia and
    abroad.

    In his concluding chapter, Gharibian writes, “The future of the
    Armenian-language press in the Diaspora is governed, however by
    language and social factors. As assimilation by foreign cultures takes
    its toll on those who can read the Armenian language, the need for
    newspapers and periodicals printed in the Armenian idiom will continue
    to decline. On the other hand, these same forces of assimilation may
    give rise to a need for more publications in the languages of those
    nations in which the Armenians have settled. But this in itself is
    ruled by the ability of Armenian culture to survive under the attack
    of foreign influence.”

    Clearly, the rest of the story of Armenian journalism is yet to be
    written. But there are signs of interest in the history of both
    Armenian journalism and publication in general; witness the recent
    exhibit at Harvard University’s Lamont Library of the history of the
    Armenian book, organized by Prof. James Russell, which included books,
    magazines and newspapers.

    Copies of Armenian Journalism 1794-1977 may be obtained by contacting
    [email protected] or by visiting the library at the National Association
    of Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) in Belmont.

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