The Armenian Weekly is powered by a small team, made up of a full-time editorial staff, designers, columnists, interns and columnists. In a world in which genuine community journalism from alternative media sources is increasingly hard to come by, we are deeply grateful to all those who contribute their time, energy and money to making this publication possible.
Editorial Staff

Pauline Getzoyan
Editor
Pauline Getzoyan is editor of the Armenian Weekly and an active member of the Rhode Island Armenian community. A longtime member of the Providence ARF and ARS, she also is a former member of the ARS Central Executive Board. A longtime advocate for genocide education through her work with the ANC of RI, Pauline is co-chair of the RI branch of The Genocide Education Project. In addition, she has been an adjunct instructor of developmental reading and writing in the English department at the Community College of Rhode Island since 2005.

Latest posts by Pauline Getzoyan (see all)
- Dr. Khatchig Mouradian inspires multiple audiences at NAASR - December 21, 2022
- Providence Homenetmen raises funds for wounded soldiers - November 21, 2022
- Providence Hamazkayin presents Susie Chakmakian “Telling Armenian Stories” - November 17, 2022

Leeza Arakelian
Assistant Editor
Leeza Arakelian is the assistant editor of the Armenian Weekly. She is a graduate of UCLA and Emerson College. Leeza has written and produced for local and network television news including Boston 25 and Al Jazeera America.

Latest posts by Leeza Arakelian (see all)
- KaleJunkie founder Nicole Keshishian Modic publishes first cookbook - October 25, 2022
- Friends, family and a forfeit define 2022 AYF Olympics basketball tournament - September 27, 2022
- FSU grad Nyrie Iskandarian publishes children’s book, Maya’s Shot - July 26, 2022
Staff Writer

Lillian Avedian
Lillian Avedian is a staff writer for the Armenian Weekly. Her writing has also been published in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Hetq and the Daily Californian. She is pursuing master’s degrees in journalism and Near Eastern Studies at New York University. A human rights journalist and feminist poet, Lillian's first poetry collection Journey to Tatev was released with Girls on Key Press in spring of 2021.

It's been over six weeks since #Azerbaijan closed the #LachinCorridor and blockaded #Artsakh. Gas and electricity s… https://t.co/vibVON7bSU - 6 days ago

Latest posts by Lillian Avedian (see all)
- The Region in Brief - January 25, 2023
- Schools, gas stations in blockaded Artsakh closed due to energy crisis - January 25, 2023
- The Region in Brief - January 18, 2023
Art Staff

Masha Keryan
Layout Designer
Masha is an artist currently located in Boston. Her childhood was split between Yerevan and Moscow. At the age of five, she returned to Yerevan and began her education at Pushkin School and art education at the Igityan Art Center, and spent her childhood summers in Stepanakert (Karabakh), a sobering postwar region in Armenia. Later, she continued her art studies at the Architect’s Society of Armenia in Yerevan, and in 2009, her family emigrated to Belmont, Mass. She has received her BFA in painting at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design.

Latest posts by Masha Keryan (see all)
- NA Speaker Ararat Mirzoyan Visits Boston Area, ARF Archives - July 24, 2019

William Terian
Illustrator
William Terian is the Armenian Weekly's senior artist and illustrator. He donates his talent to help the Armenian Weekly's print meet its artistic needs. Bill, as his friends call him, lives in Michigan, in a small, rural community outside of Detroit. He attended the Center for Creative Studies and worked for The Detroit News, as an illustrator. Years later, Bill went on to work for the Internal Revenue Service as an illustrator. He spent the next 32 years working for the federal government before retiring. Bill also served as a senior editor, photographer and writer for KTRA (Kensington Trail Riders Assoc.), an equine organization that sponsors equine events and activities. Bill was also a mounted police officer with Oakland County. Later, he went on to serve with the Livingston County Mounted Division. All and all, Bill says it’s been a great life, thanks to God. And he thanks his wife Araxie for agreeing to share his time with the community.

Latest posts by William Terian (see all)
Columnists

Stepan Piligian
Columnist
Stepan was raised in the Armenian community of Indian Orchard, MA at the St. Gregory Parish. A former member of the AYF Central Executive and the Eastern Prelacy Executive Council, he also served many years as a delegate to the Eastern Diocesan Assembly. Currently , he serves as a member of the board and executive committee of the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR). He also serves on the board of the Armenian Heritage Foundation. Stepan is a retired executive in the computer storage industry and resides in the Boston area with his wife Susan. He has spent many years as a volunteer teacher of Armenian history and contemporary issues to the young generation and adults at schools, camps and churches. His interests include the Armenian diaspora, Armenia, sports and reading.

Latest posts by Stepan Piligian (see all)
- Will Armenia answer the call for Artsakh? - January 25, 2023
- Stand with Artsakh: The struggle for freedom has never been so compelling - January 18, 2023
- Have we internalized the meaning of “Never Again”? - January 11, 2023

CK Garabed
Weekly Columnist
C.K. Garabed (a.k.a. Charles Kasbarian) has been active in the Armenian Church and Armenian community organizations all his life. As a writer and editor, he has been a keen observer of, and outspoken commentator on, political and social matters affecting Armenian Americans. He has been a regular contributor to the Armenian Reporter and the AGBU Literary Quarterly, “ARARAT.” For the last 30 years, Garabed has been a regular contributor to the Armenian Weekly. He produces a weekly column called “Uncle Garabed's Notebook,” in which he presents an assortment of tales, anecdotes, poems, riddles, and trivia; for the past 10 years, each column has contained a deconstruction of an Armenian surname. He believes his greatest accomplishment in life, and his contribution to the Armenian nation, has been the espousing of Aghavni, and the begetting of Antranig and Lucine.

Latest posts by CK Garabed (see all)
- A Reminiscence: John Najarian - February 19, 2020
- Uncle Garabed’s Notebook (Aug. 5, 2017) - August 7, 2017
- Uncle Garabed’s Notebook (July 22, 2017) - July 22, 2017

Harut Sassounian
California Courier Editor
Harut Sassounian is the publisher of The California Courier, a weekly newspaper based in Glendale, Calif. He is the president of the Armenia Artsakh Fund, a non-profit organization that has donated to Armenia and Artsakh $917 million of humanitarian aid, mostly medicines, since 1989 (including its predecessor, the United Armenian Fund). He has been decorated by the presidents of Armenia and Artsakh and the heads of the Armenian Apostolic and Catholic churches. He is also the recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.

Latest posts by Harut Sassounian (see all)
- Israeli TV spews repulsive Azeri propaganda against Armenia and Iran - January 30, 2023
- Azeris shoot themselves in the foot by blocking the Lachin Corridor - January 23, 2023
- How President Aliyev became the corrupt despot of Azerbaijan - January 17, 2023

Garen Yegparian
Asbarez Columnist
Garen Yegparian is a fat, bald guy who has too much to say and do for his own good. So, you know he loves mouthing off weekly about anything he damn well pleases to write about that he can remotely tie in to things Armenian. He's got a checkered past: principal of an Armenian school, project manager on a housing development, ANC-WR Executive Director, AYF Field worker (again on the left coast), Operations Director for a telecom startup, and a City of LA employee most recently (in three different departments so far). Plus, he's got delusions of breaking into electoral politics, meanwhile participating in other aspects of it and making sure to stay in trouble. His is a weekly column that appears originally in Asbarez, but has been republished to the Armenian Weekly for many years.

Latest posts by Garen Yegparian (see all)
- Drones for Armenia - November 15, 2022
- So Sad, Too Far Gone - November 7, 2022
- Pomposity to Mask Ineptitude - October 31, 2022

Yeghia Tashjian
Yeghia Tashjian is a regional analyst and researcher. He has graduated from the American University of Beirut in Public Policy and International Affairs. He pursued his BA at Haigazian University in political science in 2013. In 2010, he founded the New Eastern Politics forum/blog. He was a research assistant at the Armenian Diaspora Research Center at Haigazian University. Currently, he is the regional officer of Women in War, a gender-based think tank. He has participated in international conferences in Frankfurt, Vienna, Uppsala, New Delhi and Yerevan. He has presented various topics from minority rights to regional security issues. His thesis topic was on China’s geopolitical and energy security interests in Iran and the Persian Gulf. He is a contributor to various local and regional newspapers and a presenter of the “Turkey Today” program for Radio Voice of Van. Recently he has been appointed as associate fellow at the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut and Middle East-South Caucasus expert in the European Geopolitical Forum.

@yeghig
Regional analyst. PPIA graduate @AUB_lebanon/ @Forsvarshogsk Associate Fellow @IFI_AUB co @ArmenianWeekly Instructor IA @aust_lebanon #MiddleEast #SouthCaucasus
"peace" https://t.co/pz0JwndSXS - 1 day ago

Latest posts by Yeghia Tashjian (see all)
- The Husseyniyyun: Iran’s New Gamble in Azerbaijan? - January 25, 2023
- Book Review: The Armenians of Aintab - January 10, 2023
- Beyond the Blocking of the Lachin Corridor - December 22, 2022

Melody Seraydarian
Melody Seraydarian is a writer from Los Angeles, California. She is an active member of the AYF Hollywood “Musa Ler” Chapter. Melody also interns for the Armenian Bar Association and volunteers for various political causes and campaigns, while working on other writing and design projects.

Latest posts by Melody Seraydarian (see all)
- Anti-Armenian hate crimes displayed in Beverly Hills - January 30, 2023
- A Portrait of a Diaspora: A Discussion with Little Armenias Project Founder Ruben Koulaksezian - January 10, 2023
- A Story of Resilience: Inna Sahakyan’s Aurora’s Sunrise is making waves in the film world - November 2, 2022