News

Evelyn Demirchian Staff Writer Award winning author, journalist, and Fresno State alumnus Mark Arax returned this academic year to fill a position named after his former mentor, the Roger Tatarian Chair in the Department of Mass Communications and Journalism. Arax, who also graduated from Columbia University, forged a name for himself as a top investigative reporter for the Los Angeles ...

Tamar Karkazian Editor The month of April is a solemn time for Armenians around the world, as they come together to commemorate the Armenian Genocide. This year ASO decided that the goal would be to not only remember the Armenian Genocide, but to also honor the 1.5 million Armenians who died. Fifteen students served as members of the Genocide Commemoration ...

Andrew Esguerra Staff Writer On Wednesday, April 7th, Dr. Sergio La Porta, Haig and Isabel Berberian Professor of Armenian Studies at Fresno State, explored connections between the works of famed nineteenth century Armenian poets Bedros Tourian, Daniel Varujan, and Eghishe Charents to the medieval Italian poet Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), the author of the Divine Comedy. The three parts of the ...

Tamar Karkazian Editor The Armenian Genocide holds a special place in our hearts—every April Armenians come together to commemorate the loss of 1.5 million Armenians. Something that many Armenians connect to remembrance of the Armenian Genocide is the Armenian Martyrs Monument at Tsitsernakaberd. So it was a great honor to have Dr. Hayk Demoyan, Director of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute ...

Armen Arikian Staff Writer Thirty-six uniquely shaped symbols represent the Armenian alphabet. St. Mesrop Mashtots is honored and remembered as the father of the Armenian alphabet, created in 406 AD. How did Mashtots manage to organize and discover the written Armenian language? Independent scholar Serge Mouraviev, a French-Russian philosopher, presented his lecture, “The Secret of Mashtots’ Yerkatagir” at the University ...

Ruzan Orkusyan Staff Writer It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words and Matthew Karanian’s presentation “The Armenians of Jerusalem: A Photographic Journey” certainly proved this. He gave a magnificent photographic tour of the Armenian quarter of the walled Old City of Jerusalem as well as some of the other quarters within Jerusalem. Each photo captured the ...

Staff Report Armenian Studies Program Coordinator Prof. Barlow Der Mugrdechian announced the establishment of a new “Armenian Series,” at a celebration of new directions and publications held by The Press at Fresno State, on Friday, April 15th, in the 3rd Floor Peters Ellipse of the Henry Madden Library. Provost and Vice-President for Academic Affairs Dr. William Covino and Madden Library ...

Andrew Esguerra Staff Writer Putting a catastrophe into words is a monumental challenge. The Armenian Genocide nearly led to the physical and intellectual extinction of the Armenian people. Its systematic and sadistic destruction of life left the first generation of Armenian writers who lived through the tragedy too scarred to even put their experience on paper. The week of April ...

Armen Melidonian Staff Writer Dr. James Russell, Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies at Harvard University, spoke on “Misak Medzarents: Songs of Freedom, Defiance, and Joy” on Wednesday, March 16th, as part of the Armenian Studies Program Spring Lecture Series. Much of the Western Armenian poet Medzarents’ work is a reflection of his life experience. Medzarents was born in 1886, in ...

Ruzan Orkusyan Staff Writer The 96th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide has passed and yet some still deny its very existence. Nonetheless, Armenians remember, honor, and fight for recognition every year. This year, as for the past forty years, the Armenian Student Organization at Fresno State, in cooperation with the Armenian Studies Program, decided to participate in that cause by ...