WATERTOWN, Mass.— The Hairenik Association is proud to announce the appointment of the Antranig and Alice Karjian Hairenik Media Center in loving memory and living tribute to the legacy of two extremely proud Armenians, who were pillars of their families and carried in their hearts the genetic memory of Dikranagerd and Marash.
“I am beyond thrilled that the new, state-of-the-art Hairenik Media Center is named after Antranig and Alice Karjian. Their commitment to the Haireniks is inspiring,” said George Aghjayan, Chairman of the Central Committee of the Eastern Region of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF). “We at Hairenik cherish the sacred trust the Karjians and others have placed in us to pursue the highest standards of our 120+ year tradition and to continue to reach and inspire new generations of readers, listeners and viewers. We remain both humbled and honored by their generosity and vision.
An initiative of the Armenian Cultural Association of America, Inc., the Antranig and Alice Karjian Hairenik Media Center is in the final stages of construction on the fourth floor of the historic Hairenik Building. The goal of the fully equipped control room and studio will be to create cohesive and engaging audio and video content and amplify the voice of the Armenian Diaspora through visual storytelling.
Alice Mouradian and Antranig Karjian were first generation Armenians born to survivors of the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923. Their parents were born in Dikranagerd and Marash respectively.
They grew up with the acute loss of their parents’ family members and the deep-rooted pain of witnessing the horrors of the genocide through the deportation caravans to Syria. Over the years, the Mouradian and Karjian survivors migrated from Syria to Iraq where Alice and Antranig were born and raised. They attended Armenian schools and became passionate about Armenian language, literature and history.
Antranig and Alice met and married in Iraq. They created a traditional Armenian family and raised four daughters. They immigrated to the United States in 1980 where they lived in Ridgefield, New Jersey and became members of the vibrant Armenian community of Sts. Armenian Apostolic Church in Vartanantz. The Karjians have supported many church-affiliated organizations. Alice was an active member of the “Shakeh” chapter of the ARS and Antranig was a member of the Senior Citizens Club.
Since 1981, the Karjians had been longtime subscribers to the Hairenik and Armenian weekly and read the paper cover to cover. At the time when the Hairenik was a daily, they looked forward to his arrival and called the office in case of delay. They saved almost every edition of the journal, either because of the political relevance of an article or because of the literary significance of an essay or poem, and discussed with their friends and family the importance of what they had read in their beloved Hairenik.
Their love for the Armenian language and culture was evident in the way they lived and in the many ways they taught their daughters and grandchildren. In this way, they bequeathed to us the safeguard of our language, our heritage and our culture.
Antranig died in June 2014 and Alice in April 2021.
