UCLA's Armenian Students' Association Hosts Political Speakers' Panel

By: GK

The Armenian Students’ Association at the University of California, Los Angeles executed an event greatly missing in its style on a campus where most of the students are passionate in getting involved with politics. The ASA, for the first time in many years, organized a Political Speakers’ Panel with Armenian-American representatives actively involved in today’s politics locally and nationally.

Areen Ibranossian - Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa's reelection campaign manager, Haig Kartounian - Deputy District Director for Congressman Adam Schiff, Ardashes Kassakhian - Glendale City Clerk, and Larry Zarian - the first Armenian-American Mayor of Glendale visited UCLA on April 8th, 2009 to share their stories on how and why they became involved with politics. Additionally, the panelists answered students’ questions and enthusiastically encouraged the young Armenians at UCLA to get involved in their own communities.

The panel began with a light-hearted question and answer. The question being something along the lines of: What do you get when you put two Armenians together in a room? As Kassakhian, a UCLA alumnus mused: “About three political parties and five opinions on the same issue.”

While the Armenian politicians sitting before a UCLA student audience may have differed in opinion and party, they had each achieved notable things in their lifetime. Larry Zarian mobilized the Armenians in Glendale in order to become its first mayor - a difficult feat considering there were fewer Armenians in Glendale at the time he ran for office. Zarian was also the first Armenian-American to serve on the city council in the City of Glendale. As a veteran politician, it is no surprise that Zarian has strong feelings about Armenians’ role in the Genocide recognition issue.

“There is no one on the inside to fight for us. Every time we want recognition, we can’t go to an Armenian. We always depend on ‘odars’,” he stated. “We don’t have a lobby because there is no unity.”

Kassakhian, who started out his political career by walking a candidate’s dog while volunteering, played a huge role in UCLA history as a student. While he was on the ASA board, there was an attempt to establish an Ottoman-Turkish Studies Chair at UCLA with a $1.5 million grant from Turkey; this was under the precondition that the department would “maintain close and cordial relations with academic circles in Turkey.” Under the auspices of Dr. Richard Hovannisian, Kassakhian said that the students took on the Turkish lobby, harassing the chancellor and rallying the Armenian student population in order to win the David and Goliath battle.

This making-of-history can explain why Kassakhian is passionate about students getting involved in today’s issues, namely Genocide Recognition under the Obama regime, because his experiences as a college student have self-taught him the power of a young, passionate individual.

“Given the state of the environment, let’s give Obama time to do that,” Kassakhian said, immediately following up with a question to the audience: “What are you guys doing?”

Areen Ibranossian’s humble beginning included washing dishes while volunteering. The time he spent before moving up to become Mayor Villaraigosa’s re-election campaign manager was characterized by campaign hopping that he describes as similar to problem solving.

Kartounian began as an Armenian Youth Federation member. “Politics grew on me,” he said and continued to note that “the Armenian community’s interests or concerns are not different than other communities’ interests or concerns.”

Some of those interests included translating pamphlet information about candidates for non-English speaking Armenians in the community. Kassakhian undertook this challenge in 1999 while working on Raffi Manougian’s campaign. His crew ended up translating the pamphlets themselves, thereby increasing the Armenian vote in that particular election.

After short and impressive introductions, the panelists began advising and encouraging students to get involved by drawing from their past experiences to inspire the Armenian-American students.

“Politics is like show business for ugly people,” Ibranossian bluntly stated. “Once you’ve worked on a campaign, it’s not hard.”

Zarian mentioned the time he pressured Los Angeles Times to call the Armenian Genocide ‘genocide’ in the paper.

“If we can do it with L.A. Times, I believe we can do it at a higher level. We must speak with one voice,” he added.

The evening concluded with encouraging words from the gentlemen regarding the youth getting involved in politics. The majority of them admitted to getting excited over the Armenian youth taking initiative and getting involved.