News

Staff Report The William Saroyan Society held its annual William Saroyan Story Writing Contest Awards ceremony on Thursday, April 12, at the Woodward Park Regional Library. The theme for this year’s contest was “Coming Home.” Barlow Der Mugrdechian of the Armenian Studies Program was the featured speaker at the event, and as he addressed the award winners, parents, and friends, ...

Staff Report Singer Gor Mkhitarian performed in concert at the Armenian Community Center of Fresno on Saturday, March 17. Mkhitarian, who composes and sings his own original songs, performed a series of hits from his recent CDs, Episode and Gor. Among the songs performed were a 12c. folk-song, Sarer, a revised version of a Gomidas Vardapet composition, Shogher Jan, and ...

Staff Report Glendale, CA (United Armenian Fund) – The United Armenian Fund’s 142nd airlift arrived in Yerevan on March 17, delivering over $11 million of humanitarian assistance. The UAF itself collected $10 million worth of medicines and medical supplies for this flight, most of which were donated by the Catholic Medical Mission Board ($8.7 million); AmeriCares ($1.3 million) and C.P. ...

Staff Report Edward Minasian’s new book, Musa Dagh, has just been published in the last week of April. The book is sub-titled “A chronicle of the Armenian Genocide factor in the subsequent suppression, by the intervention of the United States government of the movie based on Franz Werfel’s The Forty Days of Musa Dagh.” Musa Dagh is the first book ...

Staff Report (Office of the Governor of California, Sacramento) Proclamation by the Governor of the State of California Between the years 1915 and 1923, during the chaos of World War I, over one million Armenian men, women and children living within the Ottoman Empire’s borders were killed; forcing hundreds of thousands of Armenians to flee to foreign countries after being ...

Staff Report Prof. Hideharu Nakajima, President of the Japan Armenia Friendship Association, has recently published The Armenian Genocide: The History and Culture of the Armenian People (Akashi Shoten CO., Ltd., April, 2007). Prof. Nakajima dedicated this book to the “memory of over a million innocent Armenian victims killed by the brutal, systematic massacres ordered by the Turkish government [in] 1915.” ...

Staff Writer Carina Karakashian graduated from Fresno State in May 2005 with a B.S. in Business Administration with an option in the Legal Environment of Business and a Minor in Armenian Studies. As a student, she was very involved in the Armenian Students Organization, as a member for all four years, and as treasurer for one year, as well as ...

Sarah Soghomonian Staff Writer Gianeh and Ovanes Arakelyan are a musically gifted sister and brother duo, who have trained and performed with critically acclaimed musicians throughout the world. Now they are passing their knowledge on to students at their newly opened music academy in Fresno. The Academy of Classical Music and Art (ACMA) at 4932 N. Cedar Ave. offers classes ...

Staff Report Name: Alex Johnnie Bunch Major: Psychology Why did you pursue an Armenian Studies Minor? The Armenian Studies Minor was one of the major reasons why I chose to move to Fresno and complete my first college degree here. I personally feel that having a good working knowledge about your history and background simply makes you a better person. ...

Sara Cohan Education Director, The Genocide Education Project “We cannot maintain the moral force we need to take action against the genocide going on in Darfur, if the Administration continues to equivocate about the genocide against the Armenians.” -Representative Adam Schiff, March 2007 Representative Schiff’s warning resonates clearly in the minds of Armenian Americans. We are born, live and die ...