"Alo, My Name is Harut": The Creation of a Cartoon Alter Ego

By Richard Davitian
Bruinboy88@ucla.edu

A peculiar cartoon character depicting a traditional Armenian man has been taking over the web in recent years. The character's name is Harut and it seems as though every other day someone is posting the infamous video of him doing the Armenian dance. The mastermind behind the craze goes by the name Hayk Manukyan.

Manukyan came to the States from Yerevan, Armenia when he was seven years old. At a very young age his mom put him into art, acting, and singing classes. But the class he held onto the most was art.

Manukyan spent his entire academic career in public American schools. "I think it really helped me get used to being in America quicker," he said.

During our meeting, he recalled a fond memory from his childhood: “One thing I remember from when I was 10 years old is when we got a home video camera. I was so excited. My sisters and I would write shows and make videos. Then, during birthdays, everyone would come over and watch the tapes. It’s pretty much what I do now but on a bigger scale. It’s something I always had a passion for.”

His uncle was an animator working for the Soviet Union, and he worked on many famous cartoons. Manukyan believes he received his talent genetically from his uncle.

Manukyan was mostly self-taught in animation. For the purposes of learning to draw, he took several life-drawing classes.

“When I was 14 years old, I sent Disney my artwork, which was mostly cartoons and paintings. I told them that I hope to work for them, but they wrote back a letter saying “nice try” because, according to them, I was too young and had the wrong idea about animation similar to most beginner animators. People don’t realize: it’s not only about drawing cartoons – you have to be a really good artist and use that to draw cartoons,” he explained.

When he sent them his portfolio, they sent him back a huge packet of all the things he had to learn. This may have been very appropriate considering that “the top person I would want to emulate and follow in their footsteps is Walt Disney,” he said.

After high school, Manukyan was hired as an animator. For two years he worked on big movies such as “Alvin and the Chipmunks” and “The Hulk.” During those two movies, he never made a single Harut cartoon or video.

He now works in Glendale at a big studio with a more secure job. “Today I am pretty happy with where I am with my career because it gives me more time to concentrate on other aspects of my work,” he said.

Manukyan has always been interested in animation mostly because “animation is like acting, except it is done with drawings.” He believes that the work he did at a younger age was of a more serious nature.

“Most of my stuff was about the Armenian genocide and it was dark and dramatic. But when I started making videos for the web, I wanted to do shorter, more light-hearted videos,” Manukyan explains. He began doing comedic shorts and it ended up being a success. He does a lot of planning beforehand. “With my YouTube videos, a lot of the comedy is in the editing and in the planning.”

Moolt is the name of his website, which in Russian, means “cartoon.” When he first started creating cartoons, he was working at a job where his talent and creativity were held back. He got frustrated and used his creativity to start his first cartoon called “Sweet Mother of Vartan.” People fell in love with it, and he started making more cartoons after working.

He began his first cartoon in 2005 and then started working on videos of himself less than a year ago. There are a few characters that Hayk works with in his cartoons. There is Vartan, Harut, Abo, Karo, and Harut’s friend, John.

He also noticed that on YouTube, people created videos of themselves talking about life. Therefore, he started making videos of himself using the Harut character and voice. These videos also became a great success.

“Most of my comedy is based on Armenian situations, humor, and characters, and because of that it makes it original to other people.”

He thought his fans were mostly Armenian, but when he opened up a fan page on Facebook, he found that many of his fans belonged to different races and countries outside of the United States.

Interestingly, his favorite comedians are those from the past such as Charlie Chaplin and Lucille Ball. “I think there was a little bit more skill involved back then, and the reason I say that is because today most comedians try to make you laugh by shocking you or performing vulgar comedy. That takes skill too, but it’s a lot easier.”

“I have this ultimate goal in life to make a Sasountsi David movie. I believe that all the things that I’m doing today are mostly leading me to that. I am using YouTube to grow and establish myself as an entertainer in order to somehow reach that goal. The more people know about me and my work, and the more that I can prove that I can entertain people, the more chances I have of achieving that goal.”

Manukyan hasn’t made Harut cartoons in a long time. The new one Manukyan is currently working on is more like the old “Number Twerve” cartoon. He is also going to introduce a lot more characters.

“These new cartoons are based on my real life, so Harut is going to be based on me. There will also be a grandpa, grandma, mom, dad, and a couple of sisters,” Manukyan revealed.

He is excited about the new project that he is undertaking and will continue doing the videos as long as people enjoy watching them.

UC Regents Increase Univeristy Fees, California Students Fight Back

By Andre Arzoo
Andrearzoo@berkeley.edu

The University of California’s ruling ‘Board of Regents’ has approved a proposal to raise UC “fees” (tuition), by $2,500 (32%) – taking effect Spring 2010 for the 2010-2011 school year.

The beginning of November has marked the transfer of state budget restraints from the shoulders of the State of California, and taxpayers, to the backs of California students and their families, who are busy struggling to receive a proper education while balancing the financial requirements it entails.

Unfortunately, the 229,000-strong UC student body is left to pay increasingly more from their pockets for an education system, and state, that is in financial crisis, while at the same time, high level income citizens are free from their tax obligations of supporting the state in such dire times. In other words, while the state struggles to manage this financial crisis, with the lack of proper state assistance from the federal government, the Universities of California, and their student bodies, are left to manage this financial storm on their own – a duty that should rather be moved into the hands of major businesses who profit not only from tax breaks, but from the students themselves, through the consumer material & necessities they purchase throughout their college years.

There have been comments, however, by State Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, stating that she “would push for higher taxes, possibly on higher-income residents, to finance education and that “the state could face $20 billion shortfalls during each of the next five years.” Statements without action, though, are empty promises made only to sway the dissatisfaction and popular dissent among Californians.

“Our hand has been forced,” UC President Mark Yudof told reporters after the vote. “When you don’t have any money, you don’t have any money.” He added, “We’re being forced to impose a user tax on our students and their families. This is a tax necessary because our political leaders have failed to adequately fund public higher education.” (Reported the Associated Press, CBS, and BCN)

The UC President has declared the necessity of a $913 million increase in state funding next year, alongside the student fee increases, in order to continue operating the UC system, which consists of 10 campuses throughout the state.

In 1960, tuition fees were practically non-existent. However, by 1985 they had reached $722, and now, will reach $10,300 in 2010 – close to triple the cost back in 2000, with no sign of these increases halting anytime soon:

“I can’t make any ... promises,” President Yudof commented to reporters regarding the possibility of raising student fees yet again if the state fails to provide the necessary funding he has requested.

Ironically, the University of California public school system was established with the intention of being an institution that provides both quality and affordable education for the public at large, originally without tuition, or what they have now cleverly dubbed “fees,” but now have been raising these fees year on year since the universities’ establishment.


The resistance from California students to the increase, prior to and following the UC Regents’ approval, was emphasized in mass demonstrations throughout California’s Universities, e.g. UCLA, UC Berkeley, and UC Davis, to name a few.

The demonstrations reached such degrees; where students blocked, for three hours, the UC Regents from leaving their meeting at UCLA, where students barricaded themselves in campus facilities for days, such as Campbell Hall at UCLA and Wheeler Hall at UC Berkeley, expressing their outrage, and where local law enforcement was called in to suppress the students, where cases of excessive force being used by law enforcement against students was reported:

David Valenzuela, who graduated three months ago from UCLA, said he was on campus supporting friends when police pepper-sprayed him. “I didn’t even get a warning. My face was on fire,” said Valenzuela, 23.

Ayanna Moody, a second-year prelaw student, said she feared she might have to attend a community college next year. “I worked so hard to be at one of the most prestigious universities. To have to go back, it's very depressing,” she said. Administrators “already cut out a lot of our majors and programs. I’d rather they cut some of their salaries.”

Toni Mendicino, a UC Berkeley secretary and spokeswoman for the Coalition of University Employees, called the decision “an outrage” and said it would severely impact students. “Obviously the regents are not interested in learning about how the fee hike is impacting students’ lives. If they were here on campus, they’d talk to people who will now be dropping out of school because they cannot afford to go here anymore,” Mendicino said.

So what does the state, and our beloved governor, have to say about all this?

Governor Schwarzenegger laid blame of the UC crisis on the failure of U.S. legislators to properly reform legislation regarding state collection and allocation of taxpayer revenue. He explained the increase in student’s fees as a necessity due to the current financial debacle: “This is the time to look at our budget system and tax system. The Legislature should be sitting there right now fixing it. In the meantime, students have to suffer,” Schwarzenegger said.

To read more, please visit www.armenianamerica.wordpress.com

Defending the Armenian Faith in Georgia

By Andre Arzoo
Andrearzoo@berkeley.edu

Armenian students and activists gathered in Central Yerevan, Armenia’s Republic Square and marched toward the Georgian Embassy in protest of the Georgian Government’s intentional neglect of the numerous ancient Armenian Churches within its borders, as well as its restriction against officially registering the Armenian Apostolic Church as an active diocese in today’s Georgian State where several hundred-thousand Armenians reside.

The demonstration against the Georgian Government’s policy was an active and outspoken response to the recent collapse of a wall of the ancient ‘Mughni Surp Gevorg’ Armenian Apostolic Church, on November 19, 2009 in Tbilisi, Georgia – illustrating the tragic consequences of such policies of discrimination & religious intolerance.

The damage and collapse caused by the lack of maintenance and upkeep was to such a degree that nearby buildings were also damaged within the Sololaki District of the Georgian Capital (The Georgian Times). Surp Gevorg Church remains closed due to its critically deteriorating condition, and unfortunately, is not the only Armenian Church suffering from such circumstances in Georgia.

The ancient Armenian ‘Surb Norashen Church’, also located in Tbilisi, Georgia, dates back to 1467 A.D. and was closed off from any religious activities in the 1930’s by the then Communist Government, and instead, was used as a book depository much like many other religious sites at the time.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the newly Independent State of Georgia purposely neglected returning the Armenian church to the Armenian Apostolic Church Diocese in Tbilisi - gating off the church, destroying ancient Armenian tomb stones, and boarding up the church instead.

Chairman of the Armenian Center of Cooperation in Georgia, Karen Elchyan, has categorized this process as “Georgian-ization,” where the government has intentionally isolated & boarded up Surp Norashen Church; restricting public access, encircling it with concrete walls displaying Georgian Crosses, and initiating a campaign to annex Norashen to the neighboring Georgian Orthodox Church, claiming it as one of its own.

A U.S. State Department’s Global Report in November 2005, describing the state of religious freedom in the Georgian Republic, declared:

“Many problems among traditional religious groups stem from property disputes. The Roman Catholic and Armenian Apostolic Churches have been unable to secure the return of their churches and other facilities that were closed during the Soviet period, many of which later were given to the Georgian Orthodox Church by the [Georgian] State...the prominent Armenian church in Tbilisi, Norashen, remains closed, as do four other smaller Armenian churches in Tbilisi and one in [the region of] Akhaltsikhe.”

Among the 29 Armenian Churches functioning in Tbilisi in the beginning of the 20th-Century, only 1 remains active. Many analysts and members of the Armenian Community in Georgia view this as an attempt to completely assimilate or drive out what remains of this centuries old ethnic-Armenian population.

What is needed now is decisive action within the Armenian Diaspora today by petitioning their influential community leaders, such as the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), the Armenian Assembly of America (AAA), Homenetmen Youth Organizations & Armenian Student groups, who are active within the Armenian-American Community, as well as other communities, so as to lobby their respective governments for support.

Our worldwide Armenian network not only has the access but also the resources and potential determination to rally their respective host countries toward pressuring the Georgian Government to not only protect and rehabilitate centuries old Armenian Churches, but to also register the Armenian Apostolic Church, and other active religious groups, as legal religious entities within today’s Georgian Republic.

The several hundred thousand strong Armenian Community in Georgia deserves the same rights of religious and ethnic tolerance as their brethren enjoy elsewhere, let’s not take our rights and good fortune for granted.

Join us in reversing the Georgian Governmen’s campaign by signing the following petition urging the Armenian Apostolic Church, ANCA, AAA, and other influential organizations within the Armenian Diaspora to lobby their respective governments to mobilize and take action in defense of our ethnic and religious heritage: www.PetitionOnline.com/DefendAM/petition.html

Visit the following website for more information about this and relating issues at: http://armenianamerica.wordpress.com/

The Screams of Adana Remembered

By Shahane Arayi
Shahanem@ucla.edu

Adana 1909 – Centennial Memorial of Adana Massacres, an event sponsored and hosted by the Glendale Public Library, and presented by Abril Bookstore, attracted over two hundred Armenians and non-Armenians to the Glendale Public Library on October 11, 2009 in memoriam of the massacres of Adana.

Elizabeth Grigorian, head of Armenian Outreach at the Glendale Public Library, welcomed the guests and introduced the Master of Ceremonies, Arno Yeretsian. Yeretsian, the director of Abril Bookstore, explained the importance of reassessing events in our peoples’ past to better appreciate the present. He vividly portrayed the fact that today, Armenians and people of all nationalities have the freedom to walk down the street without fear of murder and rape, a state our people were forced to endure. Sometimes, it is important to remember the horrific past in order to cherish the freedoms we take for granted living here in Los Angeles.

“Adana in Memoriam” – a multimedia presentation inspired by the writings of Siamanto and Zabel Yesayan, was presented. Siamanto, who was executed on April 24, 1915, and Yesayan both wrote about the Adana massacres. Yesayan collected identifications of many Armenians, and gathered many orphans. The presentation included translations of Siamanto taken from “Bloody News from My Friend” by Peter Balakian and Nevert Yaghlian and from translations of Zabel Yesayan from “Writers of Disaster” by Marc Nichanian. The presentation was screened and produced by Armen Zeitounian and Berjouhi Minasian.

After an emotion-filled introduction, Yeretsian introduced historian Garabed Moumjian, who presented a lecture titled “Adana Events 1909: Reconstructing a Definite Historiography.” Moumjian’s lecture concentrated on the uniqueness of Cilicia relative to the rest of historic Armenian cities in terms of geography and prosperity, and its significance in proving that the massacres weren’t simply the inevitable result of an uprising or war, but the systematic disposal of a prosperous, Christian civilization. Moumjian ended his lecture by urging historians and students alike to take advantage of our resources to write a more objective history of Cilicia.

Ara Sarafian, a historian from England, was introduced by Yeretsian to present his lecture on “Collecting, Collating, and Bearing Witness to the Adana Massacres of 1909: The Testimony of Hagop H. Terzian.” He noted that today there is a great interest in Turkey to look back in time. “We have a common history; our Adana’s past is also a Turkish past,” he stated. The organizers of the Cilicia massacres promulgated the Turkish people against the Armenians through propaganda filled with lies, such as Armenians spreading excrement on a mosque door and other anecdotes of the sort. The Adana massacres were carried out by “neighbors,” and friends. Even though the Armenians saw the Muslim people slowly turn against them and start to bear arms, they could have never imagined what was to come. The Armenians never thought that they would be murdered and that the government would allow it to happen.

Terzian was in Adana in 1909 and wrote the first systematic theses from the Armenian side in 1912. Sarafian read part of Terzian’s theses during the second massacre, which was a detailed account of the massacres in churches and schools. The attacks were so horrifying that it was difficult for anyone to comprehend the extent of what had happened, even after the massacres were over.

Father Barrett Yeretsian was invited to the stage where he first told his family’s stories of Adana, followed by a prayer. After the prayer, survivors of the Adana Massacres were invited to the front and were each given a red rose. Guests were then invited to go to the main floor of the library where the opening reception of the Centennial Exhibit took place. It is titled “The Destruction of Armenians of Adana, 1909” – a rare photographic record by Ernst Jackh.

Sayat Nova Dance Company Performs "Power in Rhythm"

By Alexan Yerevanian
Ayerevan@ucla.edu

The Sayat Nova Dance Company, a non-profit volunteer dance ensemble based in Boston, Massachusetts, presented “Power in Rhythm,” a series of traditional and allegorical dances that reflect Armenia’s rich cultural heritage and national pride, on November 8, 2009 at the Glendale High School Auditorium.

Over sixty members of the company performed such dances as the traditional “Yamar Yan,” which featured women in elaborate costume, and the energetic “Lernabar,” part of a lively suite of dances performed to the tune of the Zourna and Dhol. The troop opened the two and a half hour performance with a modern number, featuring the dancers, dressed in black, in perfect synchrony under a dazzling display of lights. Guest singers Michael and Hovhannes Shahbazyan occasionally accompanied the dancers on stage, weaving through them as they sang.

The mood of the evening was somber at times, with dances depicting the deportations of the Armenian Genocide of 1915. The evening culminated with a nationalistic fervor, including a dance depicting the liberation of Artsakh, in which a lone dancer representing Karabagh was rescued from villains with whips and knives by a marching brigade carrying the Armenian flag, and a finale which featured the entire company dressed in military uniform. The company was met with thunderous applause and a standing ovation as they received gifts, flowers, and congratulations from a moved audience.

The Sayat Nova Dance Company, which takes its name from the famous 18th century Armenian bard, was founded in January 1986 by director Apo Ashjian and is dedicated to the “Preservation and Promotion of Armenian Culture through the art of dance.” The company regularly tours the United States, and has performed in Armenia twice, including a sold-out performance at the Yerevan Opera House. Director Apo Ashjian is also the founder of the Abaka Armenian School for Performing Arts, which teaches Armenian dance to children ages 3-16.

Dr. Vartan Gregorian Named "Professional of the Year"

By Christina Der Sarkissian
Chrisdersark@ucla.edu

On November 7, 2009, Dr. Vartan Gregorian was honored “Professional of the Year” by the Armenian Professional Society.

Dr. Vartan Gregorian is the twelfth president of Carnegie Corporation of New York, and has previously served for nine years as the sixteenth president of Brown University. The Carnegie Corporation is a philanthropic organization founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1911, geared towards spreading education and knowledge. His profound effect on both the Armenian and American community is immeasurable and keen. An educator to thousands, hero to many, and admired by more, Dr. Gregorian’s legacy and astute insight will forever remain a part of education reform and progressive thought.

Gregorian was born in Tabriz, Iran, and went to high school in Lebanon. He then attended Stanford University, where he majored in history and humanities in 1958. He was later awarded a Ph.D. in humanities and history in 1964 from Stanford.

Gregorian has taught at many prominent schools such as University of Pennsylvania, Stanford, and UCLA. He has also held countless positions ranging from the founding dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science at the University of Pennsylvania, to the president of the New York Public Library. Obama recently appointed Gregorian to the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships, which is America’s most prestigious program for leadership and public service.“These types of honors are expected as you grow more educated,” Gregorian said. His proudest moment was when an elementary school in Providence Rhode Island was named after him.

On November 7, Gregorian addressed many issues in public education that both students and educators face today. He also spoke about his views regarding what it means to be an Armenian in America and the challenges we face to maintain our identity.

In his autobiography The Road To Home: My Life And Times, Gregorian discusses his past experiences and how they shaped him to be the unique and prominent figure he is today. “Usually, I wouldn’t discuss family business in public. However, if you don’t write your own history, somebody else is going to write it for you,” said Gregorian.

“I am happy to be here at a community who form the backbone of Armenian-American communities,” Gregorian said. He spoke of the importance of maintaining a strong cultural identity while taking advantage of American foundations, instead of deteriorating them, in order to enhance your opportunities as a bilingual speaker.

Gregorian also spoke about the abundance of information available for us to use at full advantage. “The most important thing is the communication of knowledge. We are [in] the age of knowledge,” he said. However, because each individual has access to infinite libraries of knowledge, there is a bigger burden on us to be much more critical thinkers. “Critical thinking is essential for personal liberation. We have resources in America and no excuses to be illiterate… with all the books we have, all the libraries, you cannot be ignorant unless you choose to be,” he said. Gregorian also warned us to be cautious of the subtle manipulation of media and its tremendous influence on the public.

Gregorian is a strong advocate for the unity of science and humanities in higher education. “Specialization is a part of source development in our civilization… we have a collapse of unity of knowledge into hundreds of sub-organizations and tens of sub-civilizations,” Gregorian said. “At Stanford,” he added, “the discovery of sciences is a quest to give meaning to the universe and all the laws. Science is liberating to men and women; it is finding the meaning of life.” He also proposed the idea of interdisciplinary practice (formerly known as “freshman clusters” at UCLA), where a group of professors in different subjects would come together to collectively teach a year-long theme, combining the sciences and humanities to give students an overall picture.

Gregorian has touched the hearts of thousands of students, educators, and intellectuals alike. Those that are lucky enough to have had Gregorian as their professor, colleague, or leader, know well enough the immense impact his work and service has done for educational reform. Incidentally, my father was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to take a class taught by Prof. Gregorian at University of Pennsylvania. He recalls the professor’s charisma, kindness, and intellectual insight as strong qualities everyone admired. Gregorian’s incredible dedication and generous contributions to academia has inspired thousands to succeed and thrive on the importance of knowledge in an age of information.

Every Mother's Worst Nightmare

By Lara Kuyumjian
Lara88.Bruin@ucla.edu

1 year, 5 months, 3 days…

That’s exactly how long Zanni Meguerian hasn’t seen or heard from her beloved children.

On July 2, 2008, the lives of three children and two families changed forever. Meguerian’s former husband, George Sulahian (or Silah), promised to take his two children, Alex, now 13, and Zaven, now 10, for a weeklong summer cruise aboard the Disney ship for a court appointed visit. Meanwhile, his brother John Silah, former husband of Christine Jeanbart, was supposed to take his son Greg, now 11, for a weeklong summer vacation. Both fathers failed to return the three boys to their mothers.

The cruise tickets were paid for but never even used. According to Meguerian, her former husband had no intention of going aboard the ship. “It was just a cover-up story so that he could get his hands on the children’s passports. I knew something was wrong; things just didn’t feel right, so I never gave him the passports. And after 15 hours of not getting any calls from my kids, I knew something was definitely wrong,” explained Meguerian.

Meguerian went with her instincts and immediately called the police, but to no avail. “They weren’t helpful in the beginning, telling me that I have to wait about a week before reporting missing kids. I couldn’t believe it,” said Meguerian. She emailed her children, left them voicemails (their phones had been turned off), and incessantly called her former husband… but again, to no avail.

What makes this parental abduction so disturbing is the fact that the criminal activities of the fathers have other people searching for them as well. George and John Silah were involved in large scale scams against people in their own community from which they have allegedly scammed over $5 million dollars. Both fathers may have been involved in selling fake identities to people entering the country illegally, as there were shredded fake documents, immigrant applications, and passport photos found in their Westchester home. These con artists gave people hope, motivating them to invest in their schemes, but ended up taking their money, leaving them with nothing. Needless to say, this angered many of the victims. Over 40 violent messages were left on the Silah brothers’ voice-mails, filled with threats on their lives.

It is clear that these brothers are on the run, both from the law and from possible killers ready to seek revenge. Both mothers are worried sick that if their abducted children are found by the wrong people, then their children would be in harm’s way. “My former husband and his brother have conned so many people and have ruined so many lives that I’m very afraid that if any one of the scammed victims finds them, they might retaliate by hurting the children,” explains Meguerian.

This fear has caused much pain, worry, and heartache to the mothers. “I wake up hyperventilating at night, wondering: Are they safe? Are they healthy? What have they been doing for an entire year? Did they miss out on a whole year and half of school?” said Meguerian.

She’s trying to go about her daily life, checking her email a hundred times a day, hoping for a miracle. “It’s an awful feeling, knowing that there’s nothing more you could do to find your children, but I can’t destroy myself. I need to stay healthy and sane; when my kids come back, they need a healthy mom to take care of them,” explains Meguerian. She regularly stares at a text message her elder son Alex has sent her about two years ago while she was on a business trip that reads, “I really miss you mom.”

Federal warrants have been issued for the arrest of the men. But finding them has proved to be very difficult. George and John Silah are conjectured to have altered their appearances to avoid detection and are using fake identities, since their own paperwork had been found shredded.

Evidence suggests that the boys were taken through Mexico, and then further south all the way to Guatemala, in the Rio Dulce area. The Association for the Recovery of Children (ARC) is also actively involved in this case. Both mothers have been using the media relentlessly to assist them in finding their children and have appeared on various news stations such as CBS, NBC, KTLA, Fox News Channel, and also on MSNBC. They were both interviewed by Dr. Phil and appeared on his television program.

Unfortunately, there haven’t been any new significant developments these past couple of months, but the mothers believe that they will find their children. “I believe it’s only a matter of time,” states Meguerian, “My faith gets me through it because I know God has a plan. He is keeping my children safe and will one day return them to me.” Meguerian and Jeanbart are on a crusade to find their sons and nothing will stand in their way.

To learn more about the abducted Silah children and donate to the ARC for this cause, please visit www.FindTheSilahChildren.com.

A Commander, A Hero, A Brother: Chronicling the Plight of UC Berkeley Alumnus, Monte Melkonian

By Angela Amirkhanian
Amirkhaniana@hotmail.com

He was independent, intelligent, very curious, extremely daring, and analytical. Without hesitation, Markar Melkonian began recounting his brother’s long and difficult road. “We would go for walks and have long discussions. Out of memory, he would reconstruct history and tell me what happened to him, one thing after another, very systematic. It was important for him to do that,” Melkonian recalled about a national hero, his younger brother, Monte Melkonian.

In a bright university conference room, surrounded by books and tapes, Melkonian remembered his childhood and relationship with his brother. They grew up in a small county near Fresno.

As children, their family’s Armenian heritage was never discussed. Melkonian recalls his grandmother speaking in Armenian and Turkish about daily activities and other various subjects, but never about the genocide that they had survived, since “it was considered shameful to be a victim.” “I remember seeing Armenian women who were victims of the genocide with tattoos [a sign of slavery and servitude] on their chins,” remembers Melkonian.

On June 12, 1970, the Melkonian brothers and their family visited their ancestral town of Merzifon, Turkey. 13-year-old Markar and 11-year-old Monte saw their ancestral house, the church that had been turned into a cinema, and met the family that lived in the same home that had been taken away from Melkonian’s ancestors over 50 years ago. Years later, the Melkonians learned that the only reason the Armenian family currently lived there [in Merzifon] was because they secured their safety and well-being by identifying all the Armenians in the town to Turkish authorities during the genocide.

It became clearer in high school how daring Monte really was. At the age of 15, Monte traveled to Southeast Asia, where he stayed at a Buddhist monastery in Korea, met student radicals in Japan, and learned martial arts. “He was like a dry sponge when it came to his environment, always learning new languages and cultures” said Melkonian.

Monte graduated from UC – Berkeley in three years, majoring in ancient Asian history and archeology. Monte was an inclusive person who went to great lengths to find out about his ethnic heritage. He was interested in unique cultures and always tried to draw connections and commonalities between Armenians and other ethnicities.

After graduating college, Monte traveled to Iran, where he taught English and participated in the movement to overthrow the Shah. “He was quick on his feet and always ready for change,” said Melkonian. In 1978, he traveled to Beirut to fight against the various factions in the Lebanese Civil War. Monte was also a member of the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA), where he carried out international operations. After his arrest in 1981, Monte was sentenced to six years in prison for possession of falsified papers and carrying an illegal handgun.

During this time, the brothers did not see one another for 8 years. However, they kept a regular correspondence through letters. Markar recalls his mother being very apprehensive while getting pieces of news from everywhere about her youngest son.

While in Lebanon, Monte met the woman he would eventually marry. Melkonian experiences a flashback to Monte’s joyous wedding at the monastery in Geghart, in what was then known as Soviet Armenia. Melkonian, the best man at his brother’s wedding, remembers the first toast of the night honoring “those who are no longer with us.”

Monte was finally on Armenian soil. He soon realized that the Soviet Union was dangerous to the Armenian people. He also saw the fate of Karabagh as vital for the security of the Armenian nation. Monte believed that if Azerbaijan succeeded in deporting Armenians from Karabagh, they would easily do the same in other regions of Armenia.

Monte Melkonian became a commander to almost 4,000 men in the Karabagh War. He first joined a volunteer brigade, and then rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the budding Armed Forces of the Republic of Karabagh. He not only fought in the Shahumian region - north of Karabagh - for three months, but also restructured Karabagh’s defense forces, disciplined soldiers, walked them to one victory after another, and gained honor and support from civilians.

June 12, 1993 marked the final day of the hero’s journey. To this day, the 35-year-old’s cause of death is speculated. Melkonian reconstructs Monte’s death during battle in his memoir and biography My Brother’s Road: An American’s Fateful Journey to Armenia. He is convinced that his brother died in a chance encounter with Azeri fighters. “I bent over backwards to reach a conclusion regarding his cause of death. I reconstructed the scene, collated different testimonies, skepticisms, inspected physical evidence at the point it took place, spoke to survivors, doctors, an Azeri prisoner of war, and so on,” explains Melkonian.

One of the reasons Melkonian wrote the book was to clear up misconceptions. “It was a labor of love,” he admits. Published in different versions, editions, and languages, Melkonian used his own experiences, interviews with others in various languages, journals, documents, film footage, and archives to accurately narrate the story of an ordinary child who grew up to become a freedom fighter in Armenia.

Melkonian, now a Philosophy professor at California State University – Northridge, is also one of the founders of the Monte Melkonian Fund, a non-profit fund which provides support to needy children and their families in Armenia. Many children who benefit from the fund are refugees who have suffered physical or psychological trauma or have lost their parents.

Today, Monte Melkonian’s heroism affects the lives of many. He remains a national hero, with schools, hospitals, roads, and a museum named after him, as well as a military academy where men aspire to become a revolutionary soldier like Monte Melkonian.

Monte was once asked, “How do you see Armenia’s future?” and he responded with “Without corruption and just.” Would the revolutionary be proud of Armenia now? “Respect who we are; we are no better or worse than anyone else,” Melkonian explained. “That was Monte’s spirit.”

My Experiences as a Superstar Undergrad Part II: NYC

By Angela Mujukian
Ladybruin24@ucla.edu

“Taxi!... 1st Avenue and 27th Street, Bellevue Hospital, please.” It was one year later and I found myself just as I was before at 7 am, Hello Kitty pen in one hand, blue notebook in the other, and a red Bellevue ER polo with khaki pants and black Vans. Except this time, I wasn’t commuting to UCLA, I was hitching a cab in New York City.

I had no idea what I was getting myself into, but I was ready to embark on a new adventure in a big city. I was doing a medical internship at one of New York City’s famous hospitals, Bellevue Hospital Center.

After leaving school one week early to start the program, I was majorly stressed during finals week. I had to watch all of my lectures online, study, and on top of it all, attend a mandatory orientation week all day 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. The end of the week came and I found myself in the hospital taking my two final exams in Organic Chemistry and Life Sciences 2 back to back for 6 hours. I was relieved that it was over by 9 p.m., and was excited for my Catheterization Laboratory shift the next morning.

It was my first shift and I did not know what to expect. I put on a set of scrubs, a pair of gloves, and a mask. I couldn’t step into the room without putting on this heavy body suit to protect myself against the x-rays and huge machinery. Even though I knew I might see something gross, I ended up watching surgeons place a battery pack inside a person’s heart. I was amazed at the whole procedure, but what was even more gratifying was that the surgeon allowed me to stand literally 6 inches away from the chest and explained every procedure as he thawed and burned the skin away and located the exact place in the chest cavity (heart) that the pack would go. I felt so privileged that the surgeon would stop every now and then to explain to me everything that was going on.

Even though I was working 6 hour shifts approximately 3-6 times a week, I wanted to absorb all the experience and learning that I could, so I always volunteered for extra hours. I knew that I had no idea when I would be back in New York City and wanted to make the best of it all.

My next shift was the Operating Room. This time I had to put on scrubs, slippers, and a hair net. My jaw dropped when I saw my first open-heart surgery. The beautiful God-given muscular organ pumping oxygenated and deoxygenated blood in and out was breathtaking. Everything I had learned since elementary school just came to life in my eyes. The Superior Vana Cava and the Aorta was as visible as the eye can see!

It was not until the 2nd week that I was introduced to the love of my life: Adult Emergency Services (AESI). When I walked into the unit, the world literally stopped moving. I was in a daze while everything else seemed to be revolving around me. Everything I ever dreamt of, everything I ever heard or read about, even everything I ever saw on TV, came to life. Doctors were busy giving orders; everyone in scrubs, running around helping patients, essentially saving lives. This ended up being my favorite shift, and I found myself running back to it so many times, even if I was on another shift.

One of the craziest things that happened during this trip was when I was on a Social Work shift passing by the Adult Emergency Services; a triage nurse asked if I could do an EKG on a patient. For a second I thought I should get another volunteer from that unit, but I just decided to do it instead. As the results were printing out, I went crazy in my head when I saw the PQRST like never before, and I knew this patient was Tachycardic. I immediately rushed over to the nurse and handed her the EKG results, she instantly showed the attendee who was on board. One of the teams then hooked up the patient to the monitors and astonishingly this patient’s heart was beating 200 beats per minute! I realized that if I had decided to wait for another volunteer to come and participate instead of me, the time that would have passed by could have been enough to place this patient in a great deal of danger.

Everything in general was a crazy, once-in-a-lifetime experience that I will undoubtedly never forget. I even got to witness two autopsies, one which had maggots crawling all over the body with a leg chewed off. Riding an ambulance for a day with an EMT, splinting a patient’s sprained finger, irrigating a patient’s wound after surviving a motorcycle accident, and even seeing what ring worms looks like. One of the most challenging things to see was a patient die in the trauma room after a nurse is hovering over him doing chest compressions after failing to successfully defibrillate him. This allowed me to learn that sometimes doctors are not able to save a life, but actually witness a tragedy that they must somehow overcome.

It feels like the entire experience lasted as long as a blink of an eye. I met amazing people whom I will never forget and I made lasting friendships and connections. Even now that the program is done, Bellevue is still there. All of the staff and residents are continuously working all day every day, and I truly miss the cycle. More than anything you gain from the program, besides the medical terminology and the valuable experience, are friendships and connections with amazing people who have interesting stories from all over the world.

Raffi Kassabian: A Leader. A Litigator. A Lecturer.

By Emily Bagdasarian
Ebagdasarian@ucla.edu

Few names within the younger generation of the Armenian community resonate more strongly with notions of hard-work and leadership than that of Raffi Kassabian. Kassabian has consistently been a leader in the Armenian-American community, beginning with his early years at Mesrobian High School, where he served as the President of the Associated Student Body, and eventually as the President of the UCLA Armenian Student Association (ASA), the largest ASA of the top 25 universities in the United States. Specifically, under his ASA tenure at UCLA, Kassabian was able to not only inspire countless new students to become involved with the organization, but also successfully build a strong coalition with other on-campus ethnic and activist organizations to advance recognition of human rights and to further the Armenian Cause.

After securing a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication Studies and Political Science, Kassabian began law school at Southwestern, where he excelled in his studies, ranked in the top 5% of the first year class, and subsequently transferred to UCLA School of Law. While law school is a formidable enough endeavor for most, Kassabian simultaneously clerked for Warner Bros. Legal Department, assisted teaching Communication Studies 101: Freedom of Speech and served as Executive Officer for the UCLA Armenian Graduate Student Association (AGSA).

This year, Kassabian will be returning to UCLA for a third time, not as a student, but as a lecturer in the Communication Studies Department, where he will be teaching his very own course titled Communication Studies 168: Free Speech in Advertising. This four unit upper division course will be offered during the 2010 winter quarter and will be open to students from all majors.

The objective of this course is to explore the First Amendment and commercial speech (“speech that does no more than propose a commercial transaction”). Specifically, the course will focus on political and campus advertisement, as well as vice product advertisement (e.g. tobacco, alcohol, and gambling ads). “Freedom of speech is a cornerstone of our democratic society,” said Kassabian. “What makes this area of the law so complex, but at the same time extremely fascinating, is the fact that freedom of speech must sometimes give way to other competing interests, such as the health and well being of consumers,” Kassabian added.

Communication Studies 168 will be of particular interest to students who are interested in applying to law school. “I would like to educate students about the First Amendment, but I also want to give them an opportunity to experience what a typical day in law school is like,” said Kassabian. “The classroom experience in law school is entirely different from an undergraduate class - the reading is driven almost entirely by case law, students aren’t just expected to memorize facts, but to apply rules of law to hypothetical fact patterns. This course, like any law school course, will teach students how to think like a lawyer.”

In addition to giving his students a taste of their future law school career, Kassabian will bring his experiences from the law firm to the classroom. Kassabian currently practices business litigation as an associate attorney at Lurie & Park where he has litigated matters against major figures, including the famous pop star “Rain” and the Staples Center.

Aside from his practice and teaching career at UCLA, Kassabian remains involved in the Armenian American community. He is currently active with the Armenian National Committee Western Region (ANC-WR), the largest Armenian American grassroots community organization in the Western United States, where he leads the ANC’s Legal Research Task Force.

UCLA undergraduates are not often presented with the opportunity to learn from someone who is qualified and experienced, but who also retains a genuine element of relatability. Let us be sure to appreciate this opportunity.

Lecture for Communication Studies 168 will be held on Mondays between 5:00 p.m. and 7:50 p.m.

ASGCC Students Leading Glendale Community College

By Lilit Melik-Bakhshyan
Lilitmelik@yahoo.com

ASGCC, which stands for the Associated Students of the Glendale Community College, is the student government of Glendale Community College. The whole organization consists of five different committees: the Administration Committee, the Finance Committee, Campus Activities, Campus Relations, and the Campus Organization. Each committee has its own obligations and priorities within different aspects of the Glendale Community College. ASGCC consists of a president, five vice presidents (one per committee), three senators, and one representative.

Every week on either Tuesdays or Thursdays, the Activities Committee holds an activity from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. The planned activities differ each week, so that all the students may be satisfied. The past spring semester was filled with a variety of fun activities, such as the Arts and Crafts day. Students were provided with a variety of beads and strings where people came and made friendship bracelets. Another one of ASGCC’s activities included passing out free school supplies, such as notebooks, pens, highlighters, etc. Also for St. Patrick’s Day, Irish food was prepared; there were games and Irish music played the entire day. Free Hug Day is another one of ASGCC’s most successful activities. It is a proven fact that hugging reduces stress, induces sleep, rejuvenates people, and so on. All the organized activities are for the students so that they will enjoy college outside of their study zone. A blood drive was also held in concord with Providence hospital.

ASGCC is a great experience in the lives of the students attending Glendale Community College. “The purpose of associated students is to serve as student representatives, and to be sure that the students’ interests are protected.” said Ovsana Khachikian, President of ASGCC. The organization has a great impact on the students who are in the organization. “It is an opportunity to grow as a leader, to learn how the institution operates, and to make great friends,” stated Khachikian.

Poetry: Ximena

By Sebastian Milla
Fluffyisgod@gmail.com

I’ve fathered a daughter
She has no brothers or
Mother, her hands have
A porcelain gleam
The sun in her eyes refracts
Every color like the moon at night
When she bathes in the water
I am her father she will
Have no lover
As long as I have
Pen and page

My daughter is a muse
She robes herself in the
Waning hearts of men
On mountains high
In between mountains
She plants all her
seeds among them
The skin on her bones,
White as snow,
Cold to touch yet
Soft to hold
They eat her whole,
Golden locks and all
My daughter the
Painted girl

Late at night I made
Love to a mother
I ate her flower petals
And knew
That the ink that spilled from
Her would find it’s way to
flood my arteries
flood my veins
Though my heart to my aching
Fingertips to
Flood my pen
Flood my page
It kept on flowing until she came
To a full, and sudden
Stop.

Poetry: Nomad with Shackles

By Alex Minassians
Alexminassians@gmail.com

I think you may have mistaken me for someone else.
I am not this person you have pieced together in your mind,
In your heart.
I do not want these things which you desire to have:
A family, to settle down in one location,
An everlasting fairytale.
I am a drifter, my mind has shown me the way to the four corners of this corner-less earth.
My travels have shown me art, and culture and a profound new meaning to the term life,
Death.
Life is merely the path to death.
No man can turn back for we are all facing the same direction.
I would rather spend my life
Living in turmoil than
Resting in peace
This is why I believe you to be mistaken.
My life and yours,
Our paths do not inter-twine yet they have the same bearing.
And to that I must say that I do not want you,
To chain you to my life,
To restrain your potential to live.
Life is painful, death is peaceful,
And I do not want us to die today.

Poetry: He Takes a Drag

By Sara Ajemyan
Laydeblue@hotmail.com

He takes a drag

One tilt, two stares.
Half moon, she drops.
Head rolls back, baffled;
He exists.

Nature overrides,
Control yourself!
He takes a hit,
He knows how to hold it.

Momentary foul play,
He’s new to it,
I could tell.

“My life is full of these moments,” he pleads.
She keeps from laughing.

She holds out,
Come into my warmth,
I will take care of it.

Get me, don’t stop.
This could be it,
The end of longing.

Question the end,
Not the beginning.
Is this the midst?

Keep it going,
Keep it loud,
It’s never loud enough.

There’s a fire inside,
Keep the frenzy going.

Facebook Status Update: Feel the Greatness of Facebook

By Talin Gharibian
Abnertalinga@sbcglobal.net

“What self-respecting college student isn’t on Facebook?” may initially seem like an absurd question. Sift through your mental inventory of friends, however, and you will probably be able to count the result solely with one hand.

There must be at least a little bit of substance and value in something so popular, right? Even though that premise may often be wrong, in this case, it’s remarkably right.

The beginning of this monolithic corporation was quite humble, after all. Created only 6 years ago, it was the brainchild of a Harvard undergraduate. He wanted to create a database of college friendships.

Mr. Zuckerburg went above and beyond his initially plain aim. The social network of Facebook now boasts over 22 million active users, more than half of which are in high school or college. It is the nation’s 6th most-visited website, according to the tracking firm ComScore.

Facebook’s most accessible positive attribute is that it provides the ability to network socially. It helps break down barriers between employers/colleagues and employees as it allows connections to be built on new “non-professional” levels.

Most people find it difficult to maintain strong connections between friends and family over a large geographic distance. Letters have become obsolete and the telephone incompatible with a high-paced lifestyle; staying in-touch with Facebook is the new low-key alternative. According to a current CSUN student from London, “It [Facebook] is amazing; I can chat with my cousins in Paris all the time without any inconvenience.”

Facebook not only allows for the reinforcement of social relations with existing friends, but also the direct creation of new ones. Users can search for old friends, stumble upon them through mutual friends, and even make completely new ones (conveniently enough according to city, college or interests). It especially allows users to stay in the know regarding happenings, as ‘event invitations’ have completely replaced any other form of notification.

Facebook users may not only project any idea they have into this “world” but also control what ideas others have of them. The popularity of the site is rooted in its privacy; users have the ability to control/specify what audience sees what information. It is the 21st century providing an easy, efficient way to constantly change social masks.

The new Facebook Global Happiness Index measures the mood of the country based on how many times a day users utilize common words such as “happy,” “good,” “angry,” or “tragic.” Adam D.I. Kramer, creator of the index, said that this could be the first step in reorienting the nation’s sense of self-worth. Perhaps it is a better model for social progress. It shifts attention from measures of economic performance to the psychological health of the country (which is in turn useful regarding the economy).

Expectedly, any monolithic corporation would focus a tremendous amount of effort upon consumer analysis. As you may or may not know, Facebook uses information its members provide in order to direct advertising (yes - that is why you keep seeing hangover pill and stress management class advertisements). This ever-efficient method results in increased consumerism, which in turn results in a stronger economy (or at least a more aware public), which in turn is more beneficial.

One of the most groundbreaking new developments in Facebook utilities is the Marketplace, or free classified advertising available to the public (divided into the categories of Housing, Jobs, For Sale, and Other). This is particularly helpful for new businesses and those attempting to sell online services. The businesses that utilize Facebook report an increase in revenue, contrary to the ones that do not.

There is a great benefit in connecting the social and business realms. “The advantage of having classifieds linked to a social network is that you know something about the seller,” said an analyst at Forrester Research. In this case, you are less likely to be a victim of fraud through someone you know.

Rivaling Marketplace in new usefulness is Facebook’s new feature of directly linking or tagging others within status updates, particularly for businesses. Andrew Huang, a product manager at Facebook who developed this new feature, said it would enable users “to talk about their real-world connections” and “interact with each other more.” This will also allow businesses to monitor what others are saying about them, in turn emphasizing improvement. Customers feel a personal connection, which fuels an increase in business. “It is a great way to interact one-on-one and build a relationship with our customers,” says Alice Shin, the Kogi BBQ truck’s creative director. This mobile company of Korean cuisine has 4,300 followers on Twitter and 2,150 on Facebook. They use Facebook to post specials, discounts, and daily shifting locations.

All in all, Facebook’s benefits extend to so many varying realms of modern existence. Its positive attributes most clearly outweigh its negative ones. If you are skeptical, just try to imagine your social life without its existence. That gentle pang in your stomach says you agree -- though perhaps that was aided by the mention of the basically-holy Kogi truck.

Facebook Status Update: Choose Facebook Only If You Dare

By Roy Akaragian
Ardsman@hotmail.com

Are you one of the tens of thousands of people who go on Facebook or Twitter every day to update statuses, take quizzes, or play with pointless SuperPoke Pets or animals, most probably on a farm? Well then, let me inform you that you are wasting countless hours of your time. Sure, I agree that Facebook is a pretty cool website -- I use it myself, but there are a lot of downsides that people should pay more attention to. Almost everyone using this website is on it for at least two hours a day without even realizing it. All that accumulated waste could have been geared toward a useful activity, like studying for an exam, or a more entertaining activity like watching the Lakers humiliate their opponents.

You’ve probably heard from the news about stalkers and child molesters using the internet as a major weapon. As if this wasn’t bad enough, Facebook practically takes all the information posted about you and puts it right into the lap of anyone willing to search for your name. Within a matter of minutes, anyone can figure out what school you attend, where you work, and where you were last Saturday night at 10 o’clock…

To make matters worse, college counselors and employers now have Facebook as well, and won’t hesitate to do a background check on you before they give out valuable scholarships or jobs to potential candidates. One inappropriate profile picture is all it takes for your dreams of the right college or line of work to vanish. Just to make everyone aware, pictures from Facebook will even appear on Google images, and you can’t even avoid this happening by putting your profile on private. If you want to see what shows up, just try and Google yourself!

Always remember that the things you do now can affect you in the long run. So try avoiding pictures of those crazy nights you had as a freshman, because once they go up, they may never get deleted. In April of 2009, researchers from Cambridge University discovered that even after pictures were deleted off of Facebook, their direct links were not broken, and they were still available on Facebook servers.

I understand the values in being able to connect with other friends and being able to chat with them, but Facebook is so cluttered with other applications and distractions that you end up wasting most of your time instead of gaining any true value from them. If you really need to talk to friends about anything important, then just text or call them. I am sure we would all benefit from speaking to people once in a while rather than just staring at a screen and letting our fingers do all the talking.

Facebook just makes everything so much more impersonal these days. Even birthdays don’t mean anything like they used to. You can have everybody on Facebook say great things to you, but it soon becomes a mass repetition of lines straight out of a Disney Movie about how all your wishes should come true. The depreciation of sentimentality is astounding! Just like Myspace that came before, Facebook and Twitter has become a competition about who seems to be more popular by getting more friends or followers. This is when you have people with five hundred friends, but they never leave their homes and have absolutely no social skills in the real world. It really is socially endangering.

If you take a second and look at the big picture here, technology can cause as much harm as it does benefit. This is why we need to limit our use and realize when we have gone too far. I do not doubt that Facebook can be useful for finding old friends or sharing a few funny statuses and pictures, but when people start getting addicted to these programs and wasting all of their time, it becomes a case in which someone must intervene. There is no such thing as a short session on these websites because once you start, you are always looking for something to post, something to comment on, or something to play.

I'M A VIRGIN... I SWEAR

By Kiso Pogosyan
Kisopogos@gmail.com

There are many ethnicities, Armenian being one of them, with cultural traditions that place great emphasis on the bride-to-be’s virginity before marriage. But what truly makes one a virgin? Is it just having an un-popped cherry? Or does it go deeper than that (no pun intended)…

On my quest to find out what Armenian men considered to be “wife-material,” I asked many of them what they expect from their pure wives-to-be. A very memorable response, from someone who shall remain unnamed, was, “I want to be my wife’s first. I want her to be completely inexperienced -- no hand-jobs, no blow-jobs, no anal sex, no intercourse -- you know, a total virgin.” I probed, “But what if she IS a virgin, and has given hand-jobs and blow-jobs?” The response I received, “Then, she’s not really a virgin, but more of a slut.”

W-O-W.

I find it amazing and utterly stupid that the majority of Armenian men hold this belief. I’ve heard from you guys (and all across rap music as well) that you want a “Lady in the street, but a freak in the bed.” Well, that’s great – cause most of us actually are freaks (in more ways than one). But must we release our inner sexual goddesses till after we’ve got the ring on our finger?

Please, please, puh-lease rid yourself of this stupid mentality. Our bodies are designed in a way for us to start having these sexual desires and urges at a young age, just like men. Plus, as the clichéd saying goes, practice makes better. And you do want us to be good in bed right?

Anyways, the narrow-mindedness of Armenian men isn’t really the topic I’d like to start discussing… moving along.

I don’t have a problem with women having pre-marital sex. Love has no boundaries and life is short. So if you want to bone someone, then why not just do it? Forget judgmental people; you should be your own judge.

But what I absolutely do have a problem with, is women who find themselves doing everything imaginable, anal sex included, so long as the form of intercourse that will undoubtedly make them impure, isn’t tried till after holy matrimony. Besides falling victim to societal norms (if you could even call them norms), it’s just pathetic. Just f*** the guy -- trust me, he wants it as badly as you do.

But what do we find happening instead? Hymenorraphy.

Hymenorraphy, better known as hymen reconstructive surgery, is becoming more and more popular. It is a surgical procedure in which the remnants of the hymen are sewn together and inserted as part of the vaginal wall, creating an illusion that the woman in question is technically a virgin. And if there are no hymen remnants left (since you’ve got a bad case of the hornbug), health care providers insert a gelatin casing filled with a blood-like substance about a week prior to your honeymoon, causing you to bleed when you have sex “for the first time” with your newlywed husband.

W-O-W.

Seriously people? Has it really come to this?

Well, these are my thoughts on the matter. But thankfully, none of this really applies to me, cause I’m a virgin… I swear.

Armo Overboard: From Uncharted Territory to an Armenian Community

By Matevos Nazarian
Mattnazarian@gmail.com

A writer, model, contractor, mechanic, plumber, boxer, businessman, salesmen, student, and comic are all sitting outside a coffee house. Now this is not the beginning of a joke, but a riddle. In what cosmos, state, or nation can all these different types of men, which have virtually nothing in common, sit for hours a night, three nights a week, and talk as if they have everything in common? If you don’t feel like figuring out the riddle, I’ll tell you the answer. All of us sitting at that coffee shop are Armenian, and that fact alone is the only thing we need to bring us together.

I was born in Cleveland, Ohio, but my primary upbringing was in Sedona, Arizona. I dubbed Sedona “the whitest place in America.” It’s a small town consisting mostly of rich elderly people. Everything in town closes at 9 p.m. and the police patrol the streets like some Gestapo troop; so of course, any attempt at an underage party is inevitably busted. If you wish to hang out at a mall, go to a club, or find something fun to do as any ordinary high school student, a minimum two hour long drive to Phoenix is required.

My immediate family and I were the only Armenians in Sedona; thus, any friends I had were completely American. While Armenians in other cities were attending weddings and baptisms on weekends, mine turned into drinking beer in whatever empty parking lot my friends and I could find. On Sunday mornings, when all Armenians were heading to church, I was usually nursing a hangover.

When I reached my senior year of high school, after attending 12 years of Sedona public schools, I wasn’t much of what you would call an ideal “Armenian youth.” Furthermore, I was forgetting how to speak, read, and write Armenian. When I speak Armenian, it doesn’t sound pleasant to the ear when paired with my thick American accent. Growing up as an Armenian in a white town did have its perks though. I used the foreignness of being Armenian to entice girls at my school into thinking I was something exotic, and by the end of my four years of high school, I was either known as “Armenian Chocolate” or “The Big Armenian” (I am 6’8” and 300lbs).

To sum it up, I became the average first generation adolescent who was slowly forgetting where he came from. All my friends at school knew me as the Armenian, yet Armenians viewed me as a rather tall completely Americanized Armenian. I was unhappy about this, and like most people my age, I was always struggling to find my identity.

As soon as I received my diploma from Sedona Red Rock High, I jumped into my old ’89 coup and drove to Phoenix. I had grown tired of small town life and was craving to be a part of the Armenian community in Phoenix. I was more than happy to be thrown into uncharted territory.

My first day in Phoenix, I met up with an Armenian named Mgrdich and he took me to a coffee shop that all of his Armenian friends regularly hung out at. In time, his friends also became my friends. Names such as Varouj, Yervant, Sevag, and Andranik filled the contacts’ list in my cell phone that used to contain names like Michael, John, and Chris. I started to speak, eat, listen, and love everything Armenian. Slowly, the void I had always felt in my life was finally beginning to be filled. Although I didn’t grow up in similar circumstances as they did, they still accepted me because at my core, I was proud to be Armenian.

Entrenching myself within the Armenian community for two years has shown me what the true meaning of being an Armenian is. It’s not all dinner dances and backgammon. Brandy and a couple of cigarettes solve any disagreement. The new friends I’ve made are now turning into life-long friends.

In essence, to be Armenian is wonderful. As long as his forefathers come from a certain region of the world, a small-town boy from Arizona who used to feel lost and confused could always find friends and family to make him feel at ease, and at home.

On Healthcare Reform

By Michael Kiaman
Michael.kiaman@gmail.com

Relax, I’m not a Socialist… I just need to see a doctor.

And so we begin again. Another conversation about a serious topic has been taken over by political lobbyists aiming to confuse and scramble efforts to bring about substantial change to a problem that is only getting worse over time. The truth is, we need healthcare reform in our country and after suffering the wrath of the Bush Administration for eight years, we now have a real opportunity to bring about a new look to healthcare in our country.

I remember being infused with a sense of deceit during the course of the recent Presidential campaign when I would hear Republican Presidential nominee John McCain gloat about how our healthcare is the envy of people around the world. I have never heard something so far from the truth. The fact is that our scientific advancements in treating people are the envy of people around the world, while our ability to prevent disease is actually the laughing stock.

Perhaps this brings up an interesting question: are we better at treating disease than any other country because that’s all we do? It seems at times we are larger proponents of treating a disease rather than making sure we prevent it. This concept is costing us billions of dollars and is one of the inconvenient truths not brought forth by some of these individuals crying foul on the current debate on healthcare reform.

I do give the far right hypocrites in our senate (that enjoy healthcare provided by tax-payers) some credit in their ability to campaign on fear. “Socialized medicine” is the new tune they are punching down the throats at just about every media appearance. Socialized medicine? Healthcare advocacy groups now have to defend themselves against accusations of being socialists? This is where I lose complete respect for the far right and at times feel that the 60 votes the Democrats have in the Senate isn’t enough of an indication to the Republican Party that they need to change their platform. If you are so adamant about that viewpoint and so concerned that universal healthcare is an indication that we are becoming Socialists, then why do you insist on maintaining close relationships and providing aid to (in your viewpoint) Socialist nations like England, France, and Austria. The charge is ridiculous and fortunately we live in an age of increased transparency with information more readily available to concerned citizens via the Internet. That is a tool Democrats did not have in 1993, the last time this effort was pushed forth.

Here is a pop quiz for opponents claiming that this effort is going to break the bank. How much is it costing us to not have universal health coverage? The reality is that healthcare bankruptcy accounts for about half of all bankruptcies in the country. If it was any other issue causing this amount of an economic burden, we would have declared it a national emergency and would have addressed it immediately, but not with healthcare. With healthcare we need more time, more studies, and more politics to take a simple fact that is comprehendible to secondary school Economics student and dilute it just enough so that we can make a deal for our buddies over at the insurance companies. The same ones that have made adsorbent promises and dumped millions of dollars to make sure the current (more profitable) system stays in place for their future gains.

The big hold up now on delivering on Obama’s campaign promise is the public option. There is a major point that I think is being lost in all the back and forth. While I don’t think it’s wise to have exclusively nationalized healthcare coverage, I think it’s wise to have it as an option. Whether healthcare advocates like it or not, these insurances companies generate billions of dollars in tax revenue and provide employment for a large portion of our workforce. The idea has always been to improve the system with change, not necessarily do a complete overhaul. Failure of these huge corporations will ultimately leave a job loss burden on an economy that is already ailing. However, the public option brings about a very important check to private companies. Having competition that is in part regulated by the government will provide the oversight needed to make certain that insurance companies price their services competitively.

In basic principle, understand this notion by taking Subway Restaurants as an example. When Subway wants increase its profit margin, it can do one of two things. It can either lower its expenses on goods, which means quality will suffer or it could increase its price on the items it sells, which means the consumers will pay more. This is exactly the concept that has become a burden on our healthcare. For a healthcare provider to generate billions of dollars of profit, it must do one of two things. It must either provide less care (or deny care when needed) or increase the price on health insurance. But the ultimate cost of this game is not about a sandwich at Subway, it’s about your health.

Dear Diary

By Anonymous

Dear diary,

Today I couldn’t help but to wonder where my life is going! A few years ago I was on top of the world, so motivated, so happy, and so excited to move forward. I had the map of my life drawn in front of me, so beautiful! But now, I’m in my early 20’s and I am feeling down. I feel so lost and helpless. I think I have lost my confidence from within and I am afraid to show it and seek help. I am too proud to show weakness; I am the strong one, I solve my own problems, I deal with it myself because I am capable of it. How can I show me falling back while I have always been the crying shoulder for others?

Career or Love? I do not know which one is real and which will make me happy anymore. When I was much younger, I had decided to marry at the age of 30 because first, I must built a strong career; second, I must declare my independence; and third, gain success before building a family. And I had decided to choose a husband who holds an equivalent (or even higher) position in his life. I wanted the picture-perfect image of that successful couple.

That plan is more like a fairy tale now. I have been seeking for that so-called thing called love. I have been through them all, the ultimate gangster, the forbidden “odar”, the fober-ish hardworking boy ready for marriage, the bad boy with tattoos who is on his path to becoming a doctor, the ten out of ten scaled youngster, and many more.

Yet, I am still single. I have been hurt and I have been the heartbreaker. Every relationship somehow ends up going down the drain. Maybe it’s our fault; maybe we have really high standards or maybe we should never let go of our guards. Maybe as we girls mature into women, the boys still, unfortunately, remain boys. I have no intention of stepping all over the male species, but I’d just like to throw this question out there: WHERE ARE ALL THE MEN???

As I take my baby-steps towards that ideal future, I keep failing as I keep on falling. Med-school, Student Loans, ex-boyfriends, and sleepless nights - it just seems so impossible and far away. Maybe I should just give up and find Mr. Rich rather than Mr. Right (haha, just kidding)! I am trying to ponder as to how I can be the good loving mother, wife, daughter, sister, friend, and a successful surgeon. Maybe I am superwoman in training!

I must say with pride that after every fall, I get up and take another step. Slowly but surely, I move forward; I cannot go any other direction. I am young, I am healthy, and I have the PERFECT imperfect family and friends that I love, and of course, my laptop. I have so much to be grateful for and no matter where life takes me, I will always be ME, and that’s something that no one can take away from me. I have learned that ups, downs, fears, and doubts are all a part of life and I am finally living. After all, Bon Jovi says, “doubting is believing.”

See the Protocols Through the Eyes of the Future

Compiled by Niyiri Manougian
Niyirianaghchig@aim.com

The next few months will be momentous for our people. The ratification process seems to have slowed down, which shines a ray of hope for the future of our Nation—yes our; I claim it as my own even though I have never set foot on Armenian soil, Historic or otherwise. All we can do is wait for updates on the news, hoping that the actions of a few will not annihilate the sacrifices of the past, for the future.

So the protocols passed. Ratification is the next step. Here is what some of the Armenian youth from SoCal had to say about them.

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“Time and time again, through the last five to six thousand years, our ancestors proved themselves repeatedly and defended the Armenian nation and its national rights when tyranny and blood-thirsty regimes attempted to rid away the world of Armenians. Here, today, we have the resources and the ability to read about the heroics such as 451 "Vartanants" battle, the self-defense of the Genocide era (1890-1915), the battles of 1918 (Sardarabad, Gharakilise, Pash-Abaran), the most recent Armenian independence of 1991, and Artsakh (Nagorno-Kharabakh) war of 1994. I do not want my children and the future Armenian generations to remotely come close to reading about October 10, 2009, the date where the Republic of Armenia sold its land, its people, its traditions and customs, its history, its culture, and its Identity. To say the least, these “Protocols” are the continuation of the Genocide that started before the 1900’s and its denial sadly continues.”

~Saro Haroun, 21, UCLA~



“We must understand that even though we have opinions, Armenia isn’t entitled to consider them. It is wrong to go out of our way and politicize these opinions by telling Armenia what it can or cannot do. In order to influence a nation about political issues, we must first be participants of that political process, or else we will create more problems than solutions. Aren’t we in enough disagreement with the Republic of Armenia due to the fact that we chose to be part of the Diaspora rather than a citizen of Armenia itself? I hear my friends complain about the faults of giving up our historical rights towards Western Armenia with the signature of the protocols, but haven’t we as a Diaspora given up those rights already just by living here? We are too busy embellished in that old idea of creating a “New Armenia” here. We must never forget that we already have an independent Armenia. If we fail to participate in the political processes there, Armenia might as well proceed with choices that would fall contrary to our interests.”

~Garen Kazanc, 20, Cal Poly Pomona~



“As active as I am in the Armenian community, I have always disagreed to the idea of members of the Diaspora being involved with issues concerning the government in Armenia; but the issue with Serzh Sarkisyan and the Armenia-Turkey protocols is something that I cannot allow myself to be silenced on. I am all for bettering Armenia, but I strongly feel that making relations with Turkey and re-opening the border is not the way to do it. Are we going to allow Turkey to officially refuse the Genocide and make it impossible for ourselves to lay any future territorial claims on land that belongs to Armenia? If so, we are handing our history, existence, and future to people who have already taken what is ours.”

~Angela Amirkhanian, 22, CSUN~



“I was fortunate to have a copy of the protocols given to me BEFORE I knew what the ‘Armenian People’ thought about it, so I was able to form my own opinion. I read it and thought that it was revolutionary and could bring forth a lot of good changes made in our country, including economic and social growth. Yet, I couldn’t help feeling a bit uneasy. It was like the mental scar of the genocide was reminding me not to trust the Turks. I saw how the protocols were dangerous, though I would like to say that some of what was said at the protest was a bit too biased, too hateful. We needed to voice our side of the topic, and we did. As far as Serj Sarkissian goes, we didn’t vote for him (by we, I mean both the residents of Armenia and the Diaspora). I didn’t expect anything less.”

~Patrick Bidkhanian, 17, UCI~



“Having been to protests every year, for over ten years now, I've sort of developed a sense of what emotions Armenians collectively exude during these events. But this time the air was different; the emotion and the attitude of the crowd was definitely more gutsy, hopeful, and aggressive in the most proactive sense. For the first time the sense of despair did not seem to overcome the crowd, although still present. I was genuinely left with a feeling that there is a fight to be had; a fight to be won.”

~Ani Khodaverdian, 20, UCLA~

An End to the Debate of Eastern V.S. Western Armenian

By Jano Boghossian
Janoboghossian@ucla.edu

Mesrob Mashdots invented the Armenian alphabet in 406 AD. The language spoken in the fifth century is certainly not the one we currently speak. Classical Armenian is the oldest written form of our language, and as every language inevitably does, it evolved through time to the two current dialects of today. Instead of treasuring the rich and diverse language that we speak, there is a constant debate as to which one of the two dialects, Eastern or Western Armenian, is the “proper” dialect.

In reality, neither dialect is more “proper” than the other. Both stemmed from Classical Armenian, and for centuries the language evolved into hundreds of regional dialects. These dialects were narrowed down to two by the early 19th century - Eastern and Western Armenian. Both dialects have traces of Classical Armenian in them. For example, Western Armenian retained the original Mesrobian grammar, but the pronunciation of the letters changed. Meanwhile, Eastern Armenian retained the original pronunciation of the letters, but they changed the grammar and orthography. The gap in the dialects grew even farther during the Soviet era when Eastern Armenian switched from Traditional Armenian Orthography to Reformed Armenian Orthography in the 1920s.

We have to accept that neither dialect is spoken in the way Mesrob Mashdots intended, but we also must acknowledge that languages evolve over time. Whatever the people speak eventually becomes the accepted language. An example could be American English versus English spoken in England. There are many differences between the two, but both are accepted and acknowledged as English.

The modern Armenian language, also known as Ashkharapar, contains the two current dialects; it came about in the late 18th century. Ghevont Alishan, a Mkhitarist monk from the monastery of San Lazarro in Venice is credited for the modernization of Western Armenian. The golden era of Western Armenian culture, including its rich literature, vocabulary, poetry and music, began during the 19th century with Dikran Tchoukhadjian, the founder of Armenian opera. Some examples of Western Armenian contributors include Gomidas Vartabed, Ghevont Alishan, Mgrdich Beshigtashlian, Bedros Tourian, Siamanto, Taniel Varoujan, Rupen Sevag, and Vahan Tekeyan to name a few. This golden era thrived until the Armenian Genocide, when it abruptly ended with most of these intellectuals being killed.

Eastern Armenian was used for the first time in literature in 1841, when writer Khachadour Abovian published Verk Hayasdani. Fortunately, the Eastern Armenian language did not suffer the tragedy in 1915 as it lived on even through the Soviet era with names such as Hovhannes Tumanian, Avetik Isahakian, Silva Kaputikian, Yeghishe Charents, Baruyr Sevag, Hovhannes Shiraz, and many others. Eastern Armenian has the advantage of continuously developing with time, because it is the language of the Republic. There is a foundation for the language to thrive since it is being used in the institutions in Armenia, giving it the opportunity to modernize with the times.

On the contrary, Western Armenian is not spoken in Armenia. The golden age of Western Armenian culture ended in 1915. Subsequently after the genocide, there were not any major advances in Western Armenian, because a large portion of the intellectuals, poets, and writers were massacred, leaving the common folk without any leadership in those fields. Even though there were many Armenian schools in the Diaspora, there were no major institutions left to provide the advancement of this dialect. The main centers for Western Armenian culture were in Constantinople, Vienna, Venice, and partially Tbilisi. Without a firm institution to back the advancement of this dialect, it faced endangerment.

Some speakers of Eastern Armenian argue that their dialect is the “correct” and “proper” dialect because it is the one spoken in the Republic of Armenia. This argument is flawed because it is based on a historical event that could have easily gone the other way. Western Armenian could have been the language of another Armenian republic, and Eastern Armenian would have been the dialect spoken in the Diaspora. In the same way that there is no “correct” dialect of Spanish, English, or Arabic, there is no “right” and “wrong” dialect of Armenian. Both are correct and accepted wherever they are spoken.

Eastern Armenian has the luxury of being spoken in the Republic as the national language, with no fear of it becoming extinct. Diasporan Armenians struggle to keep Western Armenian alive because it is not under constant development. Therefore, Armenians should not debate over which is “proper” and “correct,” but rather should embrace this as an example of how diverse and rich our language truly is.