AYF Junior Seminar 2011

By Meline Topouzian

Sunshine, rain, wind, and humidity. The weather couldn’t be more perfect. Twelve chapters, 200 Juniors, 70 Seniors, and many luxury buses pulling up to Camp Lutherlyn in Prospect, Pa. on Memorial Day weekend can only mean one thing: Once again, AYFers from the Midwest to the East Coast are ready to reconnect with each other on Friendship Way, and excited for the best Junior weekend of the year, Junior Seminar. The weekend was going to be a little bit of an adventure for everyone as it was time for the AYF to get “Back to the Basics.”

Untitled-1 copy — Phil Nigon gives his speech at Junior Seminar during flag lowering.

“Back to the Basics” was the theme for this year’s Junior Seminar and the educationals did just that: Refresh all of us on the importance of the fedayis, Karabagh, Der Zor, the AYF, and the ARF. The lecturers included Ara Surenian, who talked about Musa Dagh, Levon Attarian and Khatchig Mouradian about Der Zor, Zohrab Khaligian about Armen Garo, and Dikran Kaligian about the rise of the Armenian political parties. Of course, we were also very lucky to have Josh Tevekelian in charge of the LITs again this year, a very enjoyable experience on both ends. Zohrab Khaligian also put together a second educational for the younger campers regarding the significance of the ARF’s khoumps. He had the campers reenact the khoumps by splitting off into groups and working in teams to complete various activities as they hiked. Sosse Beugekian gave an education about female fedayis, which became a very nice, new, and interesting topic of discussion among the campers. Even us Ungers and Ungerouhis were learning!

Of course, it never hurt for the counselors to have a little fun as well. While CJC was playing the Alphabet Game with the campers, some Seniors decided to spice things up a bit. On a hot Sunday afternoon, after waiting in anticipation for the game to finish, with water balloons in hand, counselors surrounded the basketball court and sabotaged the activity with an early Vartavar celebration. The campers got really into it, and it was a nice way to wrap up the educationals for them.

As always, the Juniors took advantage of free time by spending more time with new friends. The soccer field and basketball court were full of competition. However, “Esheg” seemed to captivate the largest audience for a second year in a row: Throughout free time, the Seniors would launch surprise attacks with water balloons, until they met their match with a couple of Juniors who countered with cups and bottles.

The Saturday Night Talent Show turned out to be one of the most entertaining talent shows I’ve witnessed at Jr. Seminar. Detroit had converted the YMCA song into the AYF song, New Jersey hosted a very funny Armenian Olympics, Boston reenacted meetings with Karekin Njdeh, Chicago acted out moments of Njdeh’s first girlfriend, Providence founded the AYF logo, Philly and D.C. collaborated and dressed an Unger as a grandmother, Worcester took us back to their first meetings, North Andover remixed Kesha with AYF, and Racine impressed everyone with a song they had written about the AYF’s creation.

The Sunday Night Dance was the highlight of Seminar. With Raffi Rachdouni, Raffi Massoyan, and Shant Massoyan on stage, it was impossible not to dance. Following the Armenian music was the DJ who turned the place into a rave. However, the night could not have been concluded without heghapokhagan songs. It is a good thing the Juniors behaved the whole weekend in order to go past midnight with heghapokhagan.

The following are the lecturers in this year’s Junior Seminar, and topics they presented: Antranig Avedissian, “Dialogue and the ARF”; Sosse Beugekian/Tamar Kanarian, “Female Fedayis”; Zohrab Khaligian/Tamar Kanarian, “Khoump (Younger Group),” “Armen Garo (Older and Middle Groups)”; Ara Surenian: “Musa Dagh”; Lala Demirdjian, “The Fedayi Movement: Artsakh”; Dikran Kaligian, “The Rise of the Armenian Political Party”; George Aghjayan , “The AYF and the Role of Hai Tahd”; Khatchig Mouradian/Levon Attarian, “Der Zor”; Anthony Deese, “AYF Fundamentals”; the Central Hai Tahd Committee, “Dzidzernagapert and the Armenian Provinces”; the Central Junior Council, “Alphabet Game.”