Mandy Estrada Staff Writer It is uncommon to find a scholar with the ability and capacity to read Armenian, Persian, and Russian and who can conduct research on primary documents in those languages. Among the few with this knowledge, is Dr. George Bournoutian, who has been voted as “Outstanding Professor” for six years in a row at Iona College for ...

Chris Tozlian Staff Writer They sat there, 18 students, for hours at each meeting, at times watching films that were produced 50 years before the birth of some in the audience. The films came from different time periods, different cultures, each having a different theme. Many were fantastic, a few were not, and a couple simply seemed to make no ...

Staff Report The awards were based on an audience survey taken during the Film Festival and during Dr. Dickran Kouymjian’s Armenian Film class. Best Film 1st Piano Director: Nika Shek 2nd The Lighthouse Director: Carissa D. Vanitzian 3rd Tie Dark Forest Director: Roger Kupelian The Hadjian Story Director: Denise Gentilini Best Director 1st Nika Shek, Piano 2nd Roger Kupelian, Dark ...

Staff Report Sacramento—The California Assembly yesterday passed Senate Joint Resolution (SJR)1 (Poochigian, R-Fresno), which was the final legislative hurdle for the State Legislature to officially designate April 24, 2003, as the “Day of Remembrance of the Armenian Genocide” and request the United States Congress to also commemorate the Armenian Genocide. The bill passed both the Assembly and Senate this week ...

Staff Report Representatives of Habitat for Humanity Armenia visited Fresno State to meet with students and to raise awareness about their organization. Volunteers Vartan Tovmasyan, Gohar Palyan and Santa Cruz Habitat for Humanity office manager Larissa Printzian visited Barlow Der Mugrdechian’s Introduction to Armenian Studies and Armenian Language courses on Wednesday, April 23. Tovmasyan introduced students to the Global Village ...

Dr. Dickran Kouymjian A remarkable Greek-American-Armenian adventure began in December 2002 when Armenian Studies was called to a meeting with Richard Jackson, President of the American College in Thessaloniki, Greece. It was Pres. Jackson’s second visit to our campus and as Barlow Der Mugrdechian and I found out, our President, John Welty, had visited Thessaloniki along with Dr. Berta Gonzalez ...

Staff Report A monument to the prominent Armenian composer Komitas, commemorating the victims of the 1915 Armenian genocide, was inaugurated April 24 in central Paris. The six-meter high monument was unveiled on the banks of the Seine, by Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoe. The idea of erecting this monument was born in the early 1980s, but it began materializing in 2001, ...

Sevag Tateosian Editor On Thursday, March 13, members of the Armenian Students Organization (ASO) along with advisor Barlow Der Mugrdechian teamed up with K.V.P.T. (Valley Public Television) in an effort to raise pledge funds for the operation of the station. K.V.P.T. is the public television station serving the San Joaquin Valley. This was the first time that the ASO helped ...

Gevork Aristakesyan Staff Writer On Wednesday, March 5 the Armenian Studies Program and the Armenian Students Organization hosted a special presentation by Neery Melkonian of NK ARTS. NK ARTS is a non-profit organization that was started by Melkonian in the spring of 1999, to introduce the rich culture of Nagorno-Karabagh (Artsakh) to the world. Nagorno-Karabagh is an independent republic in ...

Ingibjörg Thorisdottir Special to Hye Sharzhoom In December of 2002 Ingibjörg Thorisdottir was trying to put something about William Saroyan and the Armenians on public radio in Iceland and so contacted Dr. Dickran Kouymjian for suggestions. He sent them. She then asked if the radio station could interview him, and after agreeing, Professor Kouymjian was interviewed for about an hour. ...