AGBU NICOSIA CELEBRATES ITS HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY THE CYPRIOT ARMENIAN COMMUNITY COMES TOGETHER TO HONOR THE PAST CENTURY On Saturday, October 25, 2014, AGBU Nicosia celebrated its hundredth anniversary with an evening of speeches, tributes and performances. The event took place at the AGBU Club in Nicosia and was attended by prominent members of the Cypriot Armenian community, including Archbishop Nareg Alemezian, Vartkes Mahdessian, representative of the Armenian community in the Cyprus House of Representatives, and Benon Sevan, the former head of the United Nations Oil-for-Food Program, along with other political and religious figures. The celebration was organized by the AGBU Clubs cultural committee and headed by Maggie Haladjian Eskidjian, who began the evening with a welcome speech and introduced the Sourp Asdvadzadzin Church Childrens Choir. The concert was followed by performances by two young musicians, saxophonist Garen Zartarian and violinist Lucy Hovhanessian. Following the performances, Hampig Mardirossian, editor of Khosnag Magazine in Beirut, delivered a speech outlining the history of AGBU both in Cyprus and internationally. In particular, he highlighted AGBUs humanitarian aid campaign, discussing the various projects that AGBU has spearheaded to assist Syrian and Iraqi Armenians and to foster development in education and healthcare in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. The celebration concluded with a ceremony to honor members who have served the AGBU Nicosia community for more than fifty years and a reception for the dozens of guests who came to celebrate the communitys milestone. The event drew people of all ages, but of the veteran members of the community, Eskidjian had a special message: I fondly remember all of these lovely faces who brought light to our community through with their hard work and energy. They would organize cultural programs and gatherings during which all of us-young and old-would participate. Todays Cypriot Armenian community numbers between 3,000 and 3,500 people and is centered in Nicosia, with smaller groups scattered across the island in Larnaca, Limassol and Paphos. Though the existence of the community dates to the Byzantine period, the majority of todays Cypriot Armenians are descendants of Armenian genocide survivors who fled from Cilicia. In the twentieth century, Cyprus was home to the AGBU Melkonian Institute, the only Armenian boarding school in the diaspora. Before it closed in 2005, the school attracted young Armenians worldwide and produced generations of men and women who went on to lead their communities throughout the diaspora. Established in 1906, AGBU (agbu.org) is the worlds largest non-profit Armenian organization. Headquartered in New York City, AGBU preserves and promotes the Armenian identity and heritage through educational, cultural and humanitarian programs, annually touching the lives of some 400,000 Armenians around the world.
Posted on: Mon, 12 Jan 2015 09:28:49 +0000
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