While most, scratch that, all research begins with Google, I became acquainted with Arlene Francis from this magazine’s list of notable Armenians in the Summer 2010 issue. I researched hundreds of world-renowned persons with Armenian backgrounds and she was one of the most interesting individuals I encountered. I was baffled by the fact that I had not heard of her. I desperately wanted to write about the woman who challenged the notion of the ideal woman’s persona in the United States, the woman who inspired women in television for decades to come, the woman who has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. But for this article, before I read even a single word written about her in the magazines, before I read her books, before I flew to San Francisco to talk to her son, before I called Betty White, before everything… I watched her shows. I began my research on Arlene Francis on YouTube where the Third Most Recognized Woman in the United States during the 1950s (this is according to Newsweek Magazine and TV Guide) has found a renewed career a decade after she passed away. With one click, I was introduced to Arlene Francis as a panelist on a television series called What’s My Line?”

Paul Chater lost his father in a tragic accident in 1853 on the Hoogley River when he drowned while trying to save the life of another person. Two years after the loss of his father, Paul Chater’s mother, Mariam, died leaving behind 13 children. Paul was only eight and, in addition, he had two younger and more vulnerable siblings: Sophie was six and Joseph had just had his fourth birthday. Throughout Paul’s life, Sophie and Joseph were particularly special family members.

Stability came into Paul’s life through the stabilizing effects of education. Despite being born in 1846 to Armenian parents in Calcutta and being baptized in its Armenian Church, Paul was not sent to the Armenian College. In 1855, he was admitted to La Martiniere School for Boys, where he excelled academically and recreationally. He was both a prefect and captain of the cricket team. During the course of his final examinations at La Martiniere, he passed the special examination of the India Survey Department. However, he never entered the Survey Department in Calcutta and instead turned away from what was a clear and certain career path that would have kept him in Calcutta. The teenager had been persuaded by his sister Hosannah, who was based in Calcutta, to go and live in Hong Kong with their eldest sister Anna, who had married into a respected Armenian family of Madras – the Jordans.

Paul landed in Hong Kong on the evening of April 1, 1864, just as the sun was setting in the harbor. What a beautiful sunset it was! He cast his eyes on that rocky, and in some places inhospitable, island, unaware of the illustrious future ahead of him. The early years in Hong Kong were frugal, exciting, and occasionally lonely. But opportunities came his way and he seized them all. Other members of his family from the Armenian community of Calcutta were already established in Hong Kong. Paul’s eldest brother, Marcar, was in partnership with Anna’s husband, Jordan Paul Jordan, and they were doing very well as brokers. Their daughter Mary had married Gregory John Malcolm Manuk (originally an Armenian from Calcutta) in 1863. Gregory too was now in Hong Kong establishing himself as a successful merchant and agent. Paul needed commercial experience and so, rather than take the easy way of going into business with his brother and brother-in-law, he got himself a job in a bank. Within a year of arriving in Hong Kong, he was head-hunted by Victor Kresser, the manager, and John Griggor, the accountant of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. Nevertheless, he turned them down. One can only guess how different his life would have been had he accepted their offer. Instead, he observed and learned enough within two years of his arrival to branch out on his own as a broker.

A detailed biography of General Silikov and his photograph appeared in the Soviet press for the first time during the 70th Anniversary Celebration of the Battle of Sardarapat. This became possible only because his son, Georgy Silikov, who repeatedly petitioned the Armenian State authorities to rehabilitate his father, finally received notification from the Supreme Court of the dismissing the sentence due to unproven charges. Although restored to his rightful place in the military history of Armenia, in the beginning of World War I no one would have imagined that Silikov’s illustrious career would ever include the least hint of scandal.

At the end of October, 1914, Russia declared war on Turkey in response to an Ottoman attack on the Russian coastline on the Black Sea. The military campaign was progressing well for Russia, evoking an unprecedented enthusiasm amongst the Armenian population and high hopes among its political leaders. Over the course of two years, Russian troops succeeded in controlling nearly the entire territory of Western Armenia. In spite of this and other military successes, an extreme political crisis ensued due to the severe economic situation, the indecisiveness of the government, and disagreement among the ruling elite, which opened the way for Russia’s Bolshevik revolution. The Armenian front disintegrated and the Russian troops beat their retreat. A hastily formed Transcaucasian Government, acknowledged by no one and torn apart by internal opposition, was unable to control the political situation on the ground in Armenia.

At the time of the revolution in Russia, separate national military subdivisions already existed in Armenia, and as the Chief-of-Front, Lebedinsky wrote that the Armenian battalions were “the best troops among the operating units of the Caucasian front.” Military headquarters made a decision to establish a national military corps. The Armenian National Council, operating in Tiflis, instructed General Foma Nazarbekov to form Armenian units. The experienced captain demonstrated outstanding organizational abilities and by January, 1918, managed to form an efficient corps consisting of two divisions and auxiliary support units. General Areshov was appointed the Commander-in-Chief of the First division, and General Silikov of the Second.

In 1973, Parajanov was imprisoned. The bouquet of indictments was very colorful – from homosexuality to parasitism. He was beaten in prison before they understood the reason for his conviction – “He has raped a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU).” The prisoners apologized to Parajanov and their “leader” told him: “We hate communists, but have always raped them with words. You have done it in practice.” Parajanov became inspired and thought about a follow up: to be honest he had raped ten, no twenty, no a hundred, no in fact three hundred members of CPSU. The respect for him grew in prison in proportion to the number of “raped” communist.

In 1968 Parajanov shot one of his most profound and paradoxical films, The Color of Pomegranates. It is really a surprise that the film ever got distributed. However, the final version was not Parajanov’s. The director Sergei Yutkevich was assigned to complete the film, removing the erotic paradoxes and the text of Hrant Matevosyan. State officials told Parajanov sadly: “It’s a pity that we can’t remove Sofico Chiaureli, a famous Georgian actress who plays the young Sayat Nova, from the film. How come a woman acts the role of a man in your film?”

How could he explain that the spirit is genderless, that all the differences between people are simply superficial and have nothing in common with objective reality?

The ghost of his mother that visited Soghomon Tehlirian, the genocide survivor, imposed the same disquieting question. Both heroes made the same choice – to be! To become a “sword of punishment” against immorality and inhuman cruelty. In the eyes of the law, Hamlet and Soghomon both committed crimes, while in matter of fact – they punished criminals. This thin line between the form of an action and its essence is illuminated in Tehlirian’s words: “I have killed a man, but I am not a murderer.”

On June 2 and 3, 1921, the court of jurors of Berlin’s regional court – heard testimony in the murder case of Talaat Pasha, Turkey’s former Minister of Internal Affairs and one of the organizers of the Armenian Genocide; an act committed by Tehlirian. The court’s verdict of acquittal demonstrated the victory of human spirit over the letter of law. This was evident from the defense and prosecuting attorney’s closing arguments, recorded in the trial transcripts.

The author of this new visual narrative was the architect Alexander Tamanyan. He developed the new master plan for the capital city of postwar Armenia, and it’s because of him we have a modern national architectural school as well as the buildings that have become the landmarks of Yerevan.

Vazgen I was the 130th leader of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Head Patriarch and Catholicos of all Armenians.