B. Kaligian: Notes from a Weekly Subscriber of 60 Years

By Barkev Kaligian

The Armenian Weekly—and the Hairenik Weekly before—it have been a part of my life since joining the AYF at the age of 12. (Although the minimum age for joining the AYF at the time was 13, the Sarafian brothers, Vahe and Bob (Berge) talked me into joining since they needed a sixth member for the Newton “Zeitoun” Chapter touch football team.)

Once hooked, I subscribed to the Hairenik Weekly and even had it sent to me when I was in the army from 1948-52. During that period, either in 1951 or 1952, I remember an appeal that was made by then-editor Jimmy Tashjian for funds to aid the wife of Dr. Lepsius, who had been so helpful to the Armenian cause.

Upon discharge from the army and enrolling at the University of Massachusetts, the Weekly followed me there and to wherever I went after that. In fact, I became so attached to it that I’ve kept almost all of my copies since 1952.

The period that stands out the most in my mind is the mid-60’s when our leaders finally woke up to the fact that as bad as the Soviet Union was for the Armenian people, it still allowed Armenians to maintain their ethnic identity, language, and culture, and even offered education to the masses. On the other hand, our real enemy, Turkey, which had removed the Armenians from their ancestral homeland of 3,000 years through deportation and genocide, and had been doing its best to remove any sign of the Armenian from Anatolia, was having a free lunch.

Once we woke up to this fact, and with a change in editors, the Weekly went from being an 8-page publication to a 16-page newspaper, since there was so much to catch up on. During this short period, with the Weekly going from a strong right wing publication to an extreme left wing, under the editorship of Laura Tosoonian the paper really livened up, especially with an occasional quote from Che Guevara.

I was especially impressed with the policy that was adopted by the Weekly to hire, as editors, young journalists who then put their idealism to work. Without the responsibility of a family to support, morally and financially, they could devote their time and effort to moving the Weekly forward, each in his or her best way. They really made their mark, some staying in the position for as long as five years. By giving this kind of responsibility to the younger generation, the Weekly really tied them to the Armenian scene.

And there were so many individuals who contributed over the years and are still contributing columns and articles. However, I can’t think of anyone who has been more devoted to the Weekly than Tom Vartabedian, who not only contributed a weekly column over the many years, but in his retirement has expanded his contribution by interviewing so many Armenians in the community who have made their contributions to other organizations. In addition to all this, his annual AYF Olympics special insert is mind boggling.

As long as we have people like this to contribute to the Weekly, it can’t help but improve. We just have to do a better job selling it.