Creative Commons/ by Gibson Claire McGuire Regester

While it dates back thousands of years, with notable authors including Hovaness Toumanyan and Gostan Zarian, Armenian literature has largely remained overlooked by the international community, but that might be changing in 2012, when Armenia’s capital city Yerevan will hold the title of  UNESCO World Book Capital.

Granted by the International Publishers Association (IPA), the International Booksellers Federation and the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, Yerevan is the 12th city to be designated World Book Capital after cities such as Madrid, New Dehli, Montreal and Beirut.

“It is the first city of the post Soviet space to be granted that title,” Alexis Krikorian, director of IPA Freedom to Publish program said in an email interview, adding that the title is an initiative which aims at fostering books and reading culture.

“Yerevan built an exciting programme focusing on freedom of expression, copyright, literature and activities for children who will be tomorrow’s readers, authors and publishers. This latter aspect (activities for children) was of particular importance.”

There’s also a symbolic twist - 2012 will mark the 500th anniversary of the first Armenian printed book in Venice - “Urbathagirq” or “Friday Book” published by Hakob Meghapart.

The designation comes at a crucial time in Armenian literary history - with publishing and reading numbers having declined steeply and steadily since the Soviet collapse. According to an article by Armine Ghazarian in the Armenian newspaper Yerkir,the number of books in public libraries in Armenia had, at the time of the article in 2005,  decreased by 2.4 million since independence from Soviet rule.  The number of library users had decreased by almost 500,000.

“There are only five bookstores in the Armenian capital,” Krikorian said. “In the last days of Soviet Armenia, the largest dailies had print runs of around 100,000. Nowadays, the largest dailies have print runs of around 5,000. The average book print run is 500.”

Nairi Hakhverdi, an Armenian author originally from the Netherlands who is now living in Armenia says that as far as she can see, the publishing industry is at an all-time low in the country.

“In the Soviet Union, books were published one after another and sold like hot cakes, as the saying goes,” she said.  “Now the authors have to pay for their own publication and hardly anyone buys their books. The industry is practically dead and I don’t think it’s because of the incursion of the internet, but because nobody cares enough to invest money into it.”

Hakhverdi, who recently published a translation of Aksel Bakunts’ “The Dark Valley,” feels the literary culture in Armenia is divided into two groups - the old and the new.  Where the old was considered good during the Soviet Union, taught in school and studied by academia, the new seems to be less afraid of the internet and more involved in literary culture in other parts of the world, she said.

On top of this divide, Hakhverdi cites a gender problem - whereas national treasures like Hovaness Toumanian and Khachatur Abovian are praised, women literary figures are largely ignored.

translation by Shushan Avgayan/AIWA/illustration by ianyanmag

“Even a praised poetess like Silva Kaputikyan does not have a statue or street in her name, let alone such giants as Shushanik Kurghinian and Zabel Yessayan,” she said.

Aram Pachyan, an award-winning Armenian author originally from Vanadzor, echos Hakhverdi’s sentiments.

Armenian literature is in a state of crisis, he says.

“At most, books receive a 500 circulation print, but hardly 50 of copies are read by the public,” he said in an Armenian-language email interview that has been translated, adding that the crisis is further aided by the fact that established works by Armenian authors do not get circulated outside of Armenia.

“Armenia today lives in a political blockade, we don’t have any ties to Europe, we live in the condition of closed borders, and our language is not English, French or Spanish, which is spoken by the world’s general population. Also, a very big problem exists - established Armenian literature isn’t systematically translated; a writer/translator relationships seems nonexistent.”

Hakverdi references the apathy towards Armenian literature in general as to why contemporary literary culture is barely there.

“Where in richer countries like Europe and America new authors are churned out and turned into bestselling authors almost on a daily basis, contemporary Armenian authors are practically unknown to their own people and completely obscure to the rest of the world,” she said.

While Armenian literature hasn’t seen a substantial amount of translations, notable translators include Alice Stone Blackwell, who translated numerous Armenian poems and even published an anthology of her translations, and author Ara Baliozian, who has translated books by Gostan Zarian among others.

Pachyan,the 2010 recipient of the Youth Prize of the President of Armenia, hopes that 2012 will bring new bookstores to the city and new books to the libraries in Armenia.

“I’d like our city to have one of the world’s best bookstores,” he said.

Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia holds the current title of world Book Capital, while Buenos Aires will take it for 2011.

Resources

Online  and Offline Armenian Literary Resources, recommended by Nairi Hakhverdi

1. Inknagir - Anthology of Contemporary Armenian Literature

2. The Armenian Poetry Project -  sponsored by the Armenian Students’ Association of America and created by poet and journalist Lola Koundakjian

3. Haybook - Electronic books in Armenian or in translation about Armenian culture.

4. Abril Bookstore

5. Berj Bookstore

6. Narek.com -

Further Reading

“18-33: Modern Armenian Prose,” an anthology of 13 young Armenian prose writers, including Pachyan, Lilit Karapetyan, Mariam Sariyan and Sargis Hovsepyan was published in 2009 by the Hamazkayin Armenian Educational and Cultural Association.

“I just bought a postcard written in what looks like Armenian sent from what is now Lviv to what is now Chernivtsi (in what is now Ukraine), sometime between 1905 and (I’m guessing from the stamp) the end of the First World War/Austrian rule of Galicia,” mdonley posted.  “What does it say?”

While the poster originally assumed the card needed an Armenian translation (and responders suggested the same), there were some doubts on the thread as to whether this was written in Armenian script.

One suggested Yiddish with Latinate names. Another “messy Greek,” and even stenography, the art of writing hidden messages. The last poster brought up Gabelsberger shorthand, common in Germany and Austria, circa 1817.

what language was this postcard written in?/by mdonley/creative commons (click to enlarge)

Lviv held the greatest concentration of Armenians in Ukraine in the mid-1600s, approximately one-tenth of the total population, according to the Encyclopedia of Ukraine.

The larger Armenian communities exercised self-rule on the basis of a common-law system called the Armenian Statute, which was approved in 1519 with minor changes by the Polish king Sigismund I the Old and remained in force until 1780–1. The Armenians brought an organization of charitable and ecclesiastical brotherhoods to their communities in Ukraine.

the postcard in question/by mdonley/creative commons (click to enlarge)

The Armenian Cathedral in Lviv was first built more than 700 years ago, said to be modeled after the Cathedral of Ani in the ancient Armenian capital of Ani.

Downtown Lviv (Ukraine)/Wikimedia Commons

The Armenian alphabet, created in the 5th century by Mesrop Mashtots, an Armenian monk, is generally thought to have been modeled after the Avestan and Greek alphabets, with “supplemented letters from a different source or sources for Armenian sounds not found in Greek,” according to Avedis Sanjian’s entry in “The Word’s Writing Systems.”

While many have thrown their guesses in the hat, now it’s your turn - what language do you think the postcard was written in, and most importantly, what does it say? Leave your guess below.

When we hear the word, it’s used to the refer to the parents of a child’s friend, the neighbors across the street, basically anyone who is not Armenian, either ethnically or ideally.

There is nothing endearing about these things and this is the problem right from the start. We establish what is different, strange or odar relative to being Armenian. The negation of being Armenian defines what being odar is. We do not let them define themselves, we do it for them. Being Armenian is seen as a positive or affirmative claim, its negation, not Armenian, is a negative claim. The word structure itself gives a message that not being Armenian is a bad thing giving rise to the imagery of non-Armenians as strange, foreign, and alien.

Armenian Medical Librarians/Creative Commons/by cjgberg

Not being Armenian however does not translate to the opposite of being Armenian. This misconception, one of the most popular trip ups in logic because I can still be non-Armenian but be extremely similar to an Armenian. It will rarely be the case, if at all, that a culture might be the opposite of the Armenian culture.

Many Armenians seem to have this polarizing view of Armenian life and the lives of the dirty and corrupt odars.

The assumption that an odar’s family values or morals are at odds with those of an Armenian are absurd.
This stark view of odars as the antithesis of anything and everything Armenian translates smoothly from simply a culture’s knee-jerk reaction into ethno-nationalism and xenophobia. It has gone from the strange American neighbors down the street to Armenia’s neighbors next door, Turkey and Azerbaijan.

The first thought that might come to mind is that Armenians are Christian, Turks and Azeris are Muslim.

What’s your point? More often than not, the non-religious aspects of one’s culture deeply influence religion and even if the religion is alien to the area local cultures throughout the world have a history of, for lack of a better word, perverting religion. “Pure” religion is a myth, just as a “pure” ethnicity is and it is important to remember that Armenians lived in the Ottoman, Russian and Persian Empires for centuries, alongside Azeris as well. It would be ignorant to think that neither the Armenians, Turks or Azeris rubbed off on each other or shared anything in common. So if you could, go out and meet some Turks or Azeris and familiarize yourself with their food, dances and music and I guarantee you will be pointing out similarities left and right. This isn’t just for Armenians but Turks and Azeris just the same because the better read you are culturally, your misconceptions about each other are bound to disappear.

Friendly truckies, near Kurdemir, Azerbaijan/Creative Commons/by Robert Thomson

The most common role the odar plays is that on the individual and family level. Nonetheless, this culture of literal identity theft has plagued the Armenian community for far too long. Mixed marriages are still taboo and if you would like to define being Armenian as living up to an ideal, well that is going to largely leave out Armenian members of LGBT community. It is difficult for many Armenian families to accept non-Armenian members into the flock as well as those who are from the LGBT community. Somehow they don’t live up to the ideal Armenian and for that reason they can be labeled as an odar, an undesirable of sorts. Even the most trivial things like simple fumbling with the language or unfamiliarity with the church badaraks or the food are points of condemnation.

Why do we meet other cultural practices and traditions with such hostility? I suppose this clannish behavior is the result of a history of discrimination and alienation, leaving Armenians to hide in their shells. We fall into an Us v. Them mentally pushing away anything and everything that is not considered familiar or acceptable. If we simply surround ourselves with loyal friends and family, we will ultimately be safe. Yet, for students at universities, 9 out 10 victims of sexual assault know their attackers. We have drawn ourselves into a false sense of security, stemming from immigrants arriving from the old country.

You meet another Armenian, you welcome them like family and although in the in the beginning of the 20th century Armenian on Armenian violence occurred, it was relatively low. Many of those immigrants couldn’t imagine hurting another Armenian but today the crime rates between Armenians has risen dramatically. It might very well have been the fact that there was a lot of crime in the earlier part of the century but it was kept from public view. Nonetheless, we have documentation of the crimes being committed today and it is our responsibility to do something about it.

We have mobsters, drug dealers, and gangs and these are topics that make headlines in the Armenian community. So when it happens, how do Armenians respond? They say “They are just some bad eggs, doing amot things” and “They’re all good boys” so Armenians are forgiven for their transgressions, odars are not. The community responds by doing what it always does, try to save face. Armenians have always had a desire to keep their reputation as a hard-working, family-oriented model minority, producing children who will go on to be lawyers, doctors and business executives.

We do all of this at the expense of the problems in the Armenian community and simply sweeping these problems under the rug does not make them go away. The victims of gang violence, bad drug deals, mob hits and everything else are all casualties of our cultural arrogance and our self-righteousness. This is where a scapegoat is needed because these nice Armenian children would never do this if they went to an Armenian school, raised in an Armenian home. The odar serves as the poster child of everything bad with the world, drugs, alcohol, unstable home life and so on. They are the reason we don’t need to ask ourselves if we are the problem or if we are doing something wrong.
There is no consensus on what it is to be Armenian but conveniently enough, there is a consensus on what “isn’t Armenian.”

We have built ourselves a house of cards in an earthquake zone but continue to proclaim it is entirely safe to live there. We stand adamant to the fact that we, Armenians, could do something wrong and that odars are strange and dangerous. Earthquake after earthquake, questions keep being asked about how sound the house is and we attribute these earthquakes as coincidences and bad luck. These are not outliers, they are not anomalies, there is a clear statistical pattern that has presented itself and the conclusion we come to is that Armenians are not all that superior and are as flawed as everyone else and that odars just the same.

When we are able to see others for who they are instead of what we think them to be, it’ll be for the better. It may seem cliché, because it is, but people more commonly cite our differences, not our similarities. When we recognize that we all seek nourishment, friendship and love, it will be much easier to build long lasting relationships and connections with those across the street, in another town or another country. Trust me. Seeing is believing.

Below you will find various photography that captures the life and times of Armenia found through Flickr, all using a Creative Commons license. It is interesting to note, that only one of these photographs was taken by an Armenian photographer, making up a nice collection of shots of the country and giving Armenia a little more variety than a series of century old churches or mountains.

While you look through the photos, be sure to join our group on Flickr and add your photos to the pool - based on submissions, photographs from the pool will be featured on the site.

A 106-year-old Armenian woman sits in front of her home guarding it with a rifle, in the village of Degh, near the border of Azerbaijan. 1990. Creative Commons/United Nations Photo/by Armineh Johannes

Sevan Highway sign in Armenia It says, from top to bottom, Noraduz, Sevan, Yerevan, Martuni./Creative Commons/by Tommy and Georgie

Yerevan Streets/Creative Commons/by debs-eye

Typical Armenian goodies/Creative Commons/by debs-eye

Creative Commons/by elem

Coffee Shop, Yerevan/Creative Commons/by elem

Khachkars at Noraduz/Creative Commons/by debs-eye

Smoked fish, Lake Sevan, 2007/Creative Commons/by Arthur Chapman

Old couple at Tetoo Jur/Creative Commons/by Tommy and Georgie

Noraduz/Creative Commons/by Rita Willaert

Taking a break, Armenia/Creative Commons/by Maks Karochkin

Creative Commons/by dlia_4erez_v

Dropped fruit, courtyard of Parajanov Museum/Creative Commons/by cjgberg

Traditional Armenian dolls, Vernissage Market/Creative Commons/by Rita Willaert

Creative Commons/by dlia_4erev_v

License plates/Creative Commons/by katypearce

The author on his journey in Armenia/ © Avo John Kambourian

What makes someone leave home, walk away from his or her life, friends, family, work, school and become a traveler? Seven months ago, fresh out of quitting art school and returning to community college, I saw my future ahead of me: dark, bleak and distant. This future entailed a transfer to a decent university and becoming what I believed to be a normal person. Since I only needed one semester, endless months lay ahead of me, with nothing to do except work and be bored of the same thing; I knew I would never have to opportunity to take a chance as I did then.

I chose to go to Armenia for four months, not just for fun, but to finally see and taste the motherland from her roots. I remember one of the big things going on before I left was the Armenia-Turkey Protocol situation. I personally don’t side with anything unless I know its true purpose, so I decided that I would keep my eyes open while I was in Armenia.

After being there for a few weeks, living with a host family, making new friends, and mingling with a lot of the everyman, I decided to ask around. Of course I did run into much bias, as is relevant with every Armenian cause, and a lot of opinions on Turkey rather than what trading openly with Turkey can do for Armenia. I realized that there is a huge difference between these thoughts and what could really happen. We can really speculate all we want, but really what could we predict? Absolutely nothing.

I suppose this argument is dead. The protocols subsided around the big remembrance day of April 24th when the recently apathetic masses in Armenia picked up the torches and started burning Turkish flags on the march to the genocide memorial in Yerevan. As soon as I saw these acts, I was immediately disgusted, enough to not even take part in the march. Not to put myself on a high horse here, but what the hell are we doing? What are these types of people in Armenia and around the world thinking as they desecrate the flag of not just another country, but Armenia’s neighbor! I’m sure this doesn’t sit well with anyone, not only the Turks, hell, this even aggravates me.

Armenia through Avo's lens/ © Avo John Kambourian

What is home? What is Homeland? Does home mean where your parents live? Does homeland mean where your ancestors are from? If that’s the case my home is in Turkey. Am I Turkish? Armenian? Ottoman? American? What am I? I sat through countless arguments in Armenia about the rightful return of our lands from the Turkish government. To these people names are everything, aren’t they? For generations and generations, people have moved around the world, from place to place, from land mass to land mass, but a lot of that movement has been forgotten. At one point we all settled, put our bags down, and called a place home. Don’t get me wrong, I love being Armenian, I love my heritage, the food, the music, the dancing, the weddings, the language, and oh yes it would be so sweet to have a place to call our homeland, but it’s much bigger than that.

Our homeland is in our hearts and our minds, but we have a place to reference too: Armenia. If you really want to make a difference I strongly urge you to look at that piece of land and shed some light on it, because it needs you. Don’t make excuses and whine about the pain and suffering our people went through, those pains have long subsided and passed.

Let’s be realistic. Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) needs us; Gyumri, Spitak, and Javakhk need us. You can export and import all the goods and supplies to and from Armenia you want, but the greatest source of import for Armenia is its Diaspora’s influence.

"Tatik yev Papik" or "We Are Our Mountains" in Stepanakert, Nagorno-Karabakh Republic./© Avo John Kambourian

Armenia herself also has a lot to give, a lot more than anyone could possibly imagine.

Different people are inspired in different ways- the artist might bring back techniques, the businessman could bring home income from his ventures, and the traveler such as myself brought back mental development and concentration on my efforts back home.

Armenia helped me focus on what I wanted for my life. I met new people, built new habits, and eliminated a few  rotten ones. But I learned, most of all, that life doesn’t begin at any certain point, it continues constantly, and it is indeed what you make of it.

Armenia will always be with me in my dreams.  Whether I realize it or not, it’s a part of me.

• An Armenian woman just said she likes my bag…..time for a new bag

This likely comes from someone deep rooted in the heart of an Armenian-infiltrated city in Los Angeles ( Glendale, I’m obviously looking at you). And while I’ll be the first to admit that there is an entire segment of the Armenian population who needs serious lessons in style, I find this comment to be tip toeing on unfair. Just take the compliment and run. No need to reveal xenophobic tendencies over social networks.

• Is it me or do the majority of older Armenian women look like bridge trolls?

I laughed. I’m sorry. Listen, Armenians have distinctive features; prominent noses, bushy eyebrows, etc. And Armenian women work very hard. Very very hard. In fact, many of them work much harder than Armenian men and so, all that cooking and cleaning and scrubbing and child rearing while possibly maintaining  full-time jobs (and not to mention gossip and coffee dates) takes its toll ok? And so does age. And this is the only explanation I can come up with between chuckling at the fact that someone actually said this. So take that.

by Thomas Frederick/Creative Commons

• If I lived in Armenia I would be married right now with 2 kids age 6 and 4 and be the perfect housewife.

This seems like a gross generalization, however traditional conservative perceptions of women in Armenia and their fight to break free from these expectations are an ongoing struggle. Photographer Sara Anjargolian, who spoke to ianyan earlier this year regarding “How We Live,” her  photo exhibition on poverty in Armenia,saw it first hand:

“Poverty has a disproportionate affect on women who are alone in Armenia,” Anjargolian said. “In Armenia, there’s still an old school traditional perspective about women who are no longer married or divorced, kind of like, they’re sort of done with, or nobody is going to want to marry them.”

Anjargolian has also seen the struggle of women in Armenia to carry their traditional roles while transitioning into careers, entrepreneurship and the work force.

“Women have been able to move with the times, life in Armenia for women is definitely harder.”

A blogger at the Women’s Resource Center of Armenia website also covered these issues in Armenian - a rough translation follows:

A woman  must remain modest, classy, be a listener, be someone who doesn’t constantly disagree, a helper, keep up the household,  a nun,  a good learner, have a good marriage and kids and so on, the blogger writes. And if she doesn’t, her entire family will start talking about where things went wrong.

And I would also like to point out that this isn’t particular to women in Armenia, but more or less Armenian women who also must deal with these issues no matter where in the world they are as summed up by “Reflections of an Armenian Woman” where proof that these expectations still exists live in the comments, particularly the first one, where I was called a “raving feminist” who writes “mindless liberal posts.” It was truly a compliment.

I’d like to end with posing a question to Armenian women - is this how life is like in Armenia? Are women still treated this way? What are your experiences like as an Armenian woman in Armenia or for that matter, elsewhere? What are modern challenges that Armenian women face? Any and all answers welcome.

fruit is an essential part of raw vegansim, a diet followed by 90-year-old ex-POW Vaghe Danielyan of Armenia/by Liana Aghajanian

He’s an ex-prisoner of war, hasn’t seen a doctor in 40 years and recently crossed over to his 90s, but raw vegan Vaghe Danielyan is as strong as ever.

The nonagenarian who switched to a raw vegan diet after his wife Nina handed him the book “Raw Foodism,” by fellow Armenian Arshavir Ter-Avanesyan in 1963 lectures on raw vegansim in Russia, pens columns in the Armenian press and does yoga and runs daily, according to a report publishing in the Global Post by journalists Nataliya Lozhkova and M. Comins:

Since his conversion 47 years ago, Danielyan has eaten only raw vegetables, fruits and grains, while lecturing on raw veganism in Russia and penning columns in the Armenian press. He also does yoga and runs daily.

Like many raw vegans, Danielyan believes his diet is a panacea to many of today’s illnesses. He claims that cooked foods contain toxins that cause chronic disease. “I haven’t seen a doctor in over 45 years,” Danielyan said.

Some doctors concur, stating that raw veganism does wonders after five or more years. However, little research has been done on the subject and scientists are divided on the diet’s actual benefits.

Danielyan recounts his transformation as weight loss followed by “internal cleansing.” Ceasing to ingest toxins from cooked foods, he said, the body begins to excrete stored poisons through the skin and the intestines.

“First, I lost my extra weight,” he said. “Then my body started cleansing itself. I had all these pimples and rashes. But I was glad, because I knew my body was nursing itself back to health.”

Danielyan’s diet also gave him newfound energy. “I woke up and felt like I could fly,” he said. “I felt like I had to run.” Even today, Danielyan still runs two miles per day, half of his previous average.

While vegetarian or vegan statistics in the South Caucasus don’t exist, the number of people who follow plant-based diets are few and far in between in a region where meat is an integral part of the diet and culture. In the U.S.,  7.3 million follow a vegetarian-based diet, with 1 million of those being vegan according to a study conducting by the Vegetarian Times. In the United Kingdom, three percent of 3,000 people surveyed were found to be completely vegetarian according to a Vegetarian Society 2009 survey.

Arshavir Ter-Hovannessian, an Armenian-Iranian pioneer of raw veganism

Arshavir Ter Hovannessian, the Armenian-Iranian author of “Raw-eating, or, A New world free from diseases, vices and poisons“   is incorrectly referred to as Arshavir Ter-Avanesyan in the Global Post’s version.  The first part of the book was published in 1962, writes Hovannessian (frequently referred to as “Aterhov”) in a preface of the 2nd edition.

“The most ignorant person can clearly perceive that, instead of freeing people from disease, the medical science that is based on cooked foods and poisonous drugs leads mankind into a multitude of serious ailments, from which all other living creatures are immune,” he continued.

“I appeal to all true humanitarians to raise their voice and by their continual demands invite the authorities to take immediate steps to put the principle of raw-eating into practice. The time is ripe for action.”

Danielyan, who is Armenia’s oldest runner  still dreams of sailing the world hopes to help as many people he can to live healthy lives.

Read the full story complete with slideshow here.

Related Posts:

Being an Armenian Vegetarian: One of These Things is not Like the Other

The Khohanotz: A Vegan Guide to Armenian Lent

Review: Voice of the Voiceless

It is so much more.

Where it’s at weddings, funerals or even just a Friday night dinner, to Armenians, food is an essence of their being, of their culture and a big majority of what life is all about: to share a mouth watering smörgåsbord of dishes that can satisfy everyone at the table, and sneak some laughs and conversation in between.

Joie de vivre as the clever French like to say. The joy of living.

lahmajune carts are loaded before being put in the oven at A. Partamian Bakery/ by Liana Aghajanian

Just as we enjoy this certain joie de vivre ourselves, we love nothing more than to spread it to the masses of non-Armenians whose love affair with food clearly only scratches the surface.

“Eat,” we say.

“Eat and be merry.”

“You’re not hungry?”

“The only cure for that is to eat more.”

When there’s food in the belly, an Armenian is at peace.

And so it shouldn’t come as a surprise, that on a inconspicuous road in mid-city Los Angeles, sits a 62-year-old Armenian bakery full of  all the lahmajunes, boregs and paklavas you can manage to stuff your face with that has customers of all backgrounds traveling far and wide just to get a taste and take some home.

What might surprise you however, is that all the  delicacies that you will find brewing in the gigantic ovens at A. Partamian Bakery are actually prepared by two childhood friends from Zacatecas, Mexico. While the back story of how Leon Partamian’s family gifted the bakery to his ‘boys’ after he died unexpectedly three years ago is interesting in itself, there’s a bigger tale to be told here.

Jose Gonzalez prepared dough for lahmajunes - the bakery's signature dish. /by Liana Aghajanian

One where tapatio sauce and halvah live together in peace, while the same can’t be said for the real world outside the bakery.

Conchas and other Mexican pastry specialties at A. Partamian Bakery/ by Liana Aghajanian

I first discovered A. Partmanian’s Bakery when I penned a piece for the newly relaunched Ararat Magazine about relations between Armenians and Hispanics in the past, present and future which covered ground from the deadly confrontations in the Los Angeles school systems to interviews with bi-ethnic Armenian-Hispanics on how similar both cultures are to each other.

In the last week, I also contributed a blog post on Onnik Krikorian’s Caucasian Knot about my perspective on Armenian and Azeri relations. It joined the ranks of posts by others - both Armenian and Azeri voices - and created a discussion on where we are, where we were, and how we can all move forward.

Both in my research and in my thoughts during and after the pieces were published, I began to think about a topic that interests me and baffles me at the same time: peace through progress.

While there are so many people on every which side to make this a reality, people who clearly understand the bigger picture, who realize that vengeance  and grudge-holding are steps in the wrong direction, there are still many who wont except these ideals.

I used to think that the power for change lay in the hands of a new generation of youth with open minds and open hearts, but a few experiences are starting to prove me wrong.

I was recently told that my Caucasian Knot piece sounded like  “a bunch of Hippy B.S.”

Low blow.

“I don’t want to be friends with Turks or Azeris regardless of cultural similarities,” my critic told me. “I want revenge for 700 years of oppression.”

Discussion didn’t aid the matter.

The only path to Armenian freedom, lay in the use of weapons, I was further schooled.

On my Facebook feed, I came across a conversation about terrorism and The Lisbon Five, a group of Armenian men who stormed the Turkish Embassy in 1983, blew up the building, killing themselves in the process.

A commenter wondered if that was any different to Islamic extremists. He questioned if that was the answer.

I began to smile.

Just then, as quickly as those men stormed that Embassy, I read the next line of his comment.

“If we all just went to war and killed all the Turks, I’d be down with that.”

I don’t know the answers or what the future holds, I just know that attitudes, comments and perceptions like this are doing nothing to help matters. Nothing.  Thousands upon thousands of years of civilization, of bloodshed, of violence, or destruction, and humans still haven’t learned. But I suppose that’s the nature of the beast.

Perhaps food is the answer.

Small dinner parties organized all over the globe where people can leave their egos in the umbrella box by the door and remember their humanity in between bites of dolma and sips of wine. A meeting place where  no matter how different you are, no matter what biases you might have, at the dinner table - you’re all equal, and starting over with a blank slate.

If all else fails, at least your appetite will leave satisfied.

If that sounds like too big of an undertaking, stop by A. Partamian Bakery when you’re in Los Angeles. And while you’re there,  try to decipher if the lahmajune you just ate was made with Armenian or Mexican hands and  more importantly, if it makes any difference.

Hint: It doesn’t.

Francisco Rosales prepares lahmajune at A. Partamian Bakery

Silence, Oil on panel, Private Collection. Courtesy Ana Bagayan

Los Angeles-based artist Ana Bagayan’s detailed and delectable illustrations evoke more emotion than meets the eye. From her haunting portraits of soul searching girls to her surreal depictions of animals, Bagayan,  who was born in Armenia and  moved to America in 1990 has a talent can be seen even before her paintings are finished - she regularly posts sketches and works in progress on her blog.

she took some time out between traveling to answer a few questions about art, inspiration and animals.

Q. Why did you decide to pursue art and illustration?

A. It was the only think I was really interested in since I was a child so it was a natural choice when I had to decide on a major in college.

Q. Your art work reminds me a lot of another favorite artist of mine, Margaret Keane. How did you develop your style? What influenced you?

A. Keane has been a big influence in the pop surrealism genre, which is what I fell into when I started showing in galleries. It was the type of art that I was into at the time and some of my instructors at Art Center were also showing in the same scene so the influence came from being surrounded by the art and artists that I enjoyed while I was still learning to paint.

Q. What impression do you hope to leave on people who view or buy your art work?

A. Well, hopefully, a positive one. I’m open to allowing the viewer to make up their minds as to what the images are about and create their own narrative.

Q. Do you have any favorite pieces that you’ve painted?

A. My favorite was Critters. Aside from me enjoying painting animals, and fur, and shadows, that piece was different than what I had been working on previously and opened my eyes to exploring a more naturalistic environment in paintings.

Critters, Oil on Panel, Private Collection. Courtesy Ana Bagayan

Brothers, Oil on panel. Courtesy Ana Bagayan

Q. I notice that on your blog, you have a very creative and cute little logo on the right hand side that says “Ana and Ara” in Armenian. Do you plan to do any Armenian illustrations or do you ever use Armenian-influenced themes in your painting?

A. Some years ago I did a show based on my soviet-influenced school books. You can see the show here: http://www.laluzdejesus.com/shows/previousshows/2005/bagayan.htm

Q. Animals seem to be a common running theme in your paintings - any reason behind it?

A. Animals are universal. Any culture can relate to the animal kingdom, while only a small number of people can relate to the figures I paint. They’ve been used in fables, stories and painting since the beginning of time to portray human characteristics and behaviors for that reason.

Unexpecting, Oil on panel, Private Collection. Courtesy Ana Bagayan

Q. Besides your art work, what other interests keep you busy? I got through obsessions every so often.

A. Currently, my obsession is collecting music. I also like traveling and taking short road trips. It keeps my mind fresh and inspired. Any opportunity to get out of Los Angeles should not be ignored.

Q. What plans do you have for the future?

A. In the near future, my next show will be at FB69 Gallery in Muenster, Germany. It will be a solo drawing show. I also have multiple group shows coming up in the next two months. Check my blog for updates on the show, I will be announcing them closer to the events.

a screencap of the front page of the online version of the Glendale News-Press, now in Armenian

With Armenians making up almost 30 percent of Glendale’s population according to the 2000 U.S. Census, many of them recent immigrants, Times Community Editor Dan Evans wanted to offer something more to the community. So when Google Translate added Armenian to its impressive language lineup, he jumped at the chance to give it a try - adding a widget on the homepage of the Glendale News-Press, translating all the Glendale news that’s fit to print to Armenian in seconds.

“It was fairly spur of the moment,” said Evans, in an email interview. “We launched a new platform for our website this month, and we’re still playing around with different things, seeing what works and what doesn’t.”

Evans, who also oversees the Burbank Leader and Crescenta Valley Sun newspapers, both part of Los Angeles Times Community News along with the News-Press wanted to offer the translation widget as a means of reaching out Armenians in Glendale and bridging them to their local paper, which has an estimated 73,000 readership.

“I’ve heard many people say the paper is not particularly useful to them, or that we only focus on crimes committed by Armenians,” he said. “Putting the translation widget on our site is a small step, but one I hope leads to more conversation on how the paper can better serve the Armenian community.”

The paper has recently published  a few Armenian related stories, including one about the Verdugo Views Theater, built by M.G Khodigian, who left Armenia in 1900 to settle in Glendale and another on Glendale’s crop of Armenian boxers.

The News-Press also published coverage of the Armenian Festival, which celebrated the Armenian Relief Society’s centennial anniversary, written by yours truly.

The translation feature has received positive response, although their hasn’t been too much reaction according to Evans.

“The short answer is that I’m still learning,” he said. “I hope that by placing the translation widget on the website, I can help spark a conversation.”

The News-Press might be the first English-language newspaper to utilize the Armenian translation widget, but Evan definitely recommends community newspapers whose readership includes a particular ethnic group to try it out.