News

Sara Beberian Staff Writer Imagine a huge, beautiful canyon, with birds flying through it, and the wind whistling through the distance. This was an everyday reality for Sophia Marti (Tatian Spivakova), who grew up in a home overlooking a canyon in Artsakh that her family nicknamed the “Gate to Heaven.” The name was fitting, as the canyon was so beautiful ...

Staff Report A large collection of Armenian themed books and periodicals was received from the estate of the late June Shamshoian. Her daughter Janine Shamshoian Economides and husband Dr. Nicholas Economides made the generous donation in October of this year. The books will be incorporated into the Armenian Studies Program collection. June Shamshoian was born on August 22, 1927, in ...

Staff Report Prof. Barlow Der Mugrdechian, Berberian Coordinator of the Armenian Studies Program at Fresno State, discussed the newly published book, The Committee of Union and Progress: Founders, Ideology, and Structure, at a special presentation and kinetson on Saturday, November 6, 2021. The Committee of Union and Progress is volume 13 in the Armenian Series of The Press at California ...

Staff Report The Armenian Series of The Press at California State University, Fresno announces the publication of its fourteenth volume, Captive Nights: From the Bosphorus to Gallipoli with Zabel Yessayan. This new collection of translations from Zabel Yessayan’s (1878 – 1943?) internationally renowned body of work presents three of her least-known and most revealing stories: Meliha Nuri Hanum, The Veil, ...

Armenia’s Ambassador to the United States, H.E. Lilit Makunts (center) visited the William Saroyan House Museum on Sunday, October 24. Accompanying Amb. Makunts on the visit were Honorary Consul of the Republic of Armenia in Fresno, Mr. Berj Apkarian (left), and Prof. Barlow Der Mugrdechian (right). Ambassador Makunts attended the AMAA Annual Banquet in Fresno on Saturday, Oct 23.

Staff Report Patricia Peterson Hansen of Sacramento, California, has established a new Endowment Fund of $50,000 at Fresno State in the name of her late sister Helen Zevart Peterson. The Helen Zevart Peterson Fund will provide funding for programming musical performances and speakers in the Armenian Studies Program. Helen Zevart Peterson was born to Simon and Haiganoosh Peterson in Hanford, ...

Natalie Agazarian Staff Writer Artak Beglaryan, State Min-ister of Artsakh, has conducted a significant amount of research and dedicated much of his time serving the people of Artsakh. Mr. Beglaryan, who was in Fresno to speak at the annual meeting and banquet of the Armenian Missionary Association of America, held a conversation with Fresno State students on Friday, October 22, ...

Dustin Vartanian Staff Writer “The continued denial of the Armenian Genocide equals a continuation of the Genocide,” stated Prof. Barlow Der Mugrdechian. Evidence of the Armenian Genocide is plentiful: the population of Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire decreased by seventy-five percent after World War I. Thousands of Armenian churches existed throughout the Ottoman Empire, while only a handful remain ...

Michael Mazman Staff Writer On Friday, September 17, 2021, the Armenian Studies Program hosted Dr. Suren Manukyan, Fresno State’s 18th Kazan Visiting Professor in Armenian Studies, to deliver a lecture titled “Architects of the Armenian Genocide: The Top-Level Perpetrators.” This was the first of a three-part lecture series by Dr. Manukyan on the theme of “Perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide.” ...

  Arshak Abelyan Staff Writer One of the biggest challenges for the future of Armenia is the uncertainty of the leadership in the country following the Artsakh war in 2020. In the case of the Armenian political sphere, the solution can be simply labeled as unique. Dr. Nerses Kopalyan, an assistant professor-in-residence of Political Science at the University of Nevada, ...