News

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 ...

Prof. Barlow Der Mugrdechian, Prof. Sergio La Porta, and the Armenian Studies Program would like to thank the donors, authors, and publishers for the following books, periodicals, videos, and archival gifts, either offered personally, or to the Program. Maggie Goschin, Ararat-Eskijian Museum, Mission Hills, CA, for a copy of Armenian Churches of Iran and Armenian Treasures in Romania. Armenian Churches ...

Careen Derkalousdian Staff Writer “This book [The Rise of the Western Armenian Diaspora] tells the story of how Istanbul became the world’s largest Armenian intellectual and demographic center in the aftermath of mass migrations caused by a civil war – a rebellion in the Ottoman Empire that took place in the seventeenth century,” stated Dr. Henry Shapiro. On Thursday, January ...

Benjamin Kirk Communications Specialist College of Arts & Humanities When the late Ralph Shabazian learned about the Armenian Studies Program at Fresno State in early 2016, he knew he wanted to be a part of helping students explore their heritage to help share the Armenian story. Shabazian never learned the Armenian language. However, he had a keen interest in the ...