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In Memoriam: Roupen Barsoumian (1937-2013)
By Avedis Hadjian // November 21, 2013 in Obituaries
Roupen Barsoumian, a loyal friend, brother, and Armenian, unexpectedly
left us a week ago. A resident of New York for more than four decades,
he was one of the last representatives of the post-genocide,
second-generation Aleppo-Armenian teachers and community leaders,
whose personal virtues and extraordinary intellectual stature was
unknown to many due to his modesty.
Roupen Barsoumian
He was one of the founders of the New York branch of Hamazkayin, an
organization he served tirelessly for more than four decades. A close
friend of American-Armenian writers, such as Hagop Garabents and
Jirayr Attarian, Roupen once half-jokingly said they told him not to
write, `so we have a reader,' in recognition to his sharp literary
critic's eye.
The proud son of Ayntap Armenians, his first language was Turkish.
When he was five years old, he returned home crying from his first day
at school, as he had been unable to understand his classmates and they
had not understood him. `Ermenice konuĊ?urlar, yavrum' (`They speak
Armenian, my child') his grandmother had told him. He left this world
mastering Armenian as very few do, a language he revered. One of his
greatest concerns was the restoration of the classical or Mashtotsian
orthography in the homeland, a goal he pursued without being deterred
by the considerable obstacles for its accomplishment. The unhealed
wound of his life was his brother Hagop Barsoumian's kidnapping and
disappearance in unknown circumstances in Beirut, during Lebanon's
civil war.
Until the last days of his life, the fate of his brother weighed on
his soul. Orphaned at an early age, Hagop, Roupen, and their sister
Silva (currently living in New York) spent their childhood and teenage
years at Aleppo's `Badsbaran.' Always surrounded by friends and loved
by them for his unconditional generosity of the Ayntap Armenian, fate
had it that he parted alone and orphaned.
Roupen passed away without any moral debt and left us indebted to him.
We hope he joins his brother and his two friends, who left us a year
ago'Aris Sevag, one of his closest friends in New York, and Bedros
Hadjian, a friend and colleague from their youth in Aleppo. They were
all devoted Armenians, who kept the torch of Armenian culture burning
and passed it on to the new generations. Fundamentally, in the purest
sense of the word, they were good men. God bless Roupen's soul and
give solace to his family and loved ones.
http://www.armenianweekly.com/2013/11/21/in-memoriam-roupen-barsoumian-1937-2013/
By Avedis Hadjian // November 21, 2013 in Obituaries
Roupen Barsoumian, a loyal friend, brother, and Armenian, unexpectedly
left us a week ago. A resident of New York for more than four decades,
he was one of the last representatives of the post-genocide,
second-generation Aleppo-Armenian teachers and community leaders,
whose personal virtues and extraordinary intellectual stature was
unknown to many due to his modesty.
Roupen Barsoumian
He was one of the founders of the New York branch of Hamazkayin, an
organization he served tirelessly for more than four decades. A close
friend of American-Armenian writers, such as Hagop Garabents and
Jirayr Attarian, Roupen once half-jokingly said they told him not to
write, `so we have a reader,' in recognition to his sharp literary
critic's eye.
The proud son of Ayntap Armenians, his first language was Turkish.
When he was five years old, he returned home crying from his first day
at school, as he had been unable to understand his classmates and they
had not understood him. `Ermenice konuĊ?urlar, yavrum' (`They speak
Armenian, my child') his grandmother had told him. He left this world
mastering Armenian as very few do, a language he revered. One of his
greatest concerns was the restoration of the classical or Mashtotsian
orthography in the homeland, a goal he pursued without being deterred
by the considerable obstacles for its accomplishment. The unhealed
wound of his life was his brother Hagop Barsoumian's kidnapping and
disappearance in unknown circumstances in Beirut, during Lebanon's
civil war.
Until the last days of his life, the fate of his brother weighed on
his soul. Orphaned at an early age, Hagop, Roupen, and their sister
Silva (currently living in New York) spent their childhood and teenage
years at Aleppo's `Badsbaran.' Always surrounded by friends and loved
by them for his unconditional generosity of the Ayntap Armenian, fate
had it that he parted alone and orphaned.
Roupen passed away without any moral debt and left us indebted to him.
We hope he joins his brother and his two friends, who left us a year
ago'Aris Sevag, one of his closest friends in New York, and Bedros
Hadjian, a friend and colleague from their youth in Aleppo. They were
all devoted Armenians, who kept the torch of Armenian culture burning
and passed it on to the new generations. Fundamentally, in the purest
sense of the word, they were good men. God bless Roupen's soul and
give solace to his family and loved ones.
http://www.armenianweekly.com/2013/11/21/in-memoriam-roupen-barsoumian-1937-2013/