Yesenia Fuentes and Benjamin Kirk Special to Hye Sharzhoom Florence Elaine Hamparson was known to have a big heart. As a third and fourth-grade teacher at Turner Elementary School, she was regarded as an impactful educator who loved her students. She had a lot of love for furry friends and was an avid square dancer. Strong in her Christian ...

Staff Report The Armenian Studies Program awarded scholarships to fifty-seven students from thirty-five different endowment or scholarship funds for a total of $90,000 for the academic year 2022-2023. In addition to providing needed financial support, the scholarships en-courage students to pursue Minors in Armenian Studies and to enroll in the various course offerings. We ask our students and our supporters ...

Hannah Paloutzian Staff Writer “Art symbolizes goodness,” said Yervant Gojabashian. “Painting, literature, and music awaken the beauty in the world, especially for the young generation and that brings about peace and love to the whole world.” On Thursday, April 13, 2023, the Armenian Studies Program held an opening reception for Armenian artist Yervant Gojabashian’s exhibition, “Gojabashian: Blessed Hands of the ...

Staff Report The 11th Annual “Genocide Awareness Week,” sponsored by the Rosenbluth Family Charitable Foundation, was held April 17-21, 2023, at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona. “Genocide Awareness Week” is a series of lectures, exhibits, and storytelling by distinguished survivors, scholars, politicians, activists, artists, humanitarians, and members of law enforcement. This week-long event seeks to address how we, as ...

Natalie Agazarian Editor “The sound of the music, the lights, the atmosphere… you find yourself singing along to every word, dancing with the people around you. Other times, you are just standing in awe, taking it all in. It’s a feeling of being completely immersed in the moment, and nothing else matters except the music and the experience,” said Michael ...

Staff Report Dr. Armen Sargsyan, Rector of Artsakh State University and Dr. Saúl Jiménez Sandoval, President of California State University, Fresno signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on December 7, 2022. The MOU outlined the possible ways in which Artsakh State University and Fresno State could develop and carry out collaborative research and education activities that are desirable, mutually beneficial, ...

Eddy Thurber Staff Writer I studied abroad in Armenia for the Fall semester of 2022, together with four other Fresno State students, and had the time of my life. Travel is always exciting no matter where you go, but my semester in Armenia was particularly productive and meaningful for me, both as a student and as an Armenian. I learned ...

Christopher Petrosian Staff Writer “How do survivors and their families retain a belief in justice when atrocities go unpunished?” asks Dr. Jerry Burger, an expert in social psychology, in his book The Shadows of 1915. Dr. Burger along with his colleague and friend Dr. Robert Vartabedian, were guest speakers for the Armenian Studies Program Spring Lecture Series on Friday, February ...

Eddy Thurber Staff Writer Groundbreaking testimony. On January 23, 2023, the Armenian Studies Program at Fresno State hosted renowned historian Ara Sarafian to speak on his new publication, Remembrances: The Assassination of Talaat Pasha (Gomidas Press, 2022). This is the first English translation of Soghomon Tehlirian’s memoir as related to Vahan Minakhorian and is a firsthand account of Tehlirian’s role ...

Christine Pambukyan Staff Writer “As I immersed myself in the literature and explored primary sources from Ankara to Aintab to Yerevan, it became clear to me that forced displacement, rhetoric used by the Turkish state to fend off international accusations of the Genocide and the potential Armenian demands for reparations in their eyes was a tactic in the systematic and ...