1988_03 Hye Sharzhoom Newspaper March 1988

              March 1988
Hve Sharzhoom
Page 7
Vartanantz Remembered
by Greg Eritizian
Staff Writer
The religious feast of St. Vartanantz was
just recently celebrated this February in both
the Armenian Apostolic (Orthodox) and
Armenian Protestant Churches. Its date was
Thursday February 11 this year but the feast
may have been observed on the following or
previous Sunday, for practical purposes. This
feast is dedicated to General Vartan
Mamigonian and the soldiers martyred during
the battle of Avarair in 451 A.D., which was
a holy war of the Armenians against the
Sasanian (Dynasty) Persians who were trying
to force the conversion of the Armenians
from Christianity to Zoroastrianism (fire
worship) in order to homogenize their
empire.
The prelude of this particular war with the
Sasanian Persians has its roots in the conflict
of the two "super powers" of the world, the
Roman and Persian Empires, during the later
4th century A.D. During the 360's Armenia
became the battle front between the two
powers. The Armenian kingdom (Arshaguni
Dynasty) of this era under King Arshag
however pledged its allegiance to the Roman
Emperor Julius for the reason that Rome had
been a Christian empire since the proclamation of Christianity by the Roman
Emperor Constantine in 323. The Armenians
also shared the same faith, being the first
Christian nation in the world in 301 A.D.,
through the evangelization of St. Gregory the
Illuminator.
Because Jie Persians were Zoroastrian, it
was to the Armenian religious and political
advantage to ally themselves with the
Romans. During the Roman-Persian battles
of 363 A.D., Rome's Eastern advance was
halted by the Persians at the border of the
Tigris river. A treaty was signed partitioning
this natural border giving all Armenian lands
west of it to the Romans and all the land east
of it to the Persians. This treaty was
concluded in 384. This treaty meant however
that an overwhelming majority of Armenian
lands and population became subject to the
Persian rule.The Persians allowed the
Armenian monarchy to exist as an
autonomous branch of the Persian empire,
which usually but not always granted
religious tolerance. The Armenian throne
however was finally abolished in 428 by the
Persians upon the recommendation of the
Armenian nobles.
The governing system, known as the
Nakharar system, continued but now one of
the Nakharars was chosen as Marzban
(governor) and was responsible to the Persian
king. In order to consolidate his empire,
King Yazdigert II of Persia decided that his
empire should be homogeneous in religious
beliefs. King Yazdigert JJ also thought he
would obtain favor by glorifying the God of
Zoroaster by abolishing the "false creeds" of
Christianity and bringing the followers to the
true God. The King at first did not want to
use military force and the sword to convert
the Armenians, not because he ws a nice
guy, but because the land of Armenia was
rich and the population acted as a buffer zone
between Persia and the Byzantine, Eastern
Roman Empire). To help convince the
Armenians to convert, oppressive property
and personal taxes were imposed on them.
At Artashat in 449 the Nakharars and
prominent clergy held a council to decide
their religious fate. The council decided that
they would keep their Christian faith even
though torture and death. King Yazdigert II
became furious and called the Nakharars, led
by Vartan Mamigonian and Vasak Siuni, and
other dignitaries to the Persian capital of
Ctesiphon, and gave the delegation an
ultimatum. They were to kneel to the Great
Sun God, or else their families would be
kidnapped and the Persian army would wreak
havoc demolishing the churches and the
country. The delegation did bow down and
agreed to convert their countrymen in order to
buy time from the king. On the way back to
Armenia, 700 Zoroastrian magi were sent
with them as missionaries. However, these
700 missionaries were beaten and clubbed by
The Armenian Film Foundation
with the Cooperation of the Armenian Studies Program
of California State University, Fresno
Cordially Invites You To A
Benefit Premiere Showing
of three of
J. Michael Hagopian's
new film productions
MANDATE FOR ARMENIA
CILICIA... REBIRTH
Excerpts from LEGACY
Sunday, April 17,1988
at 4:00 p.m.
Chamlian Stables
7583 North Van Ness Blvd.
Fresno, California
Donations: $10.00 per person
Reception following showing.
Tickets available at the door.
a band of Armenian peasants led by Ghevond
the priest. The Armenians now armed
themselves and prepared for the inevitable
invasion of the Persian army. The Armenian
Army consisted of three regiments headed by
Nershapuh, Vasak and Vartan who had the
rank of general in the Persian army and
whose family had a tradition of military
leadership. Vartan was victorious at first, but
he could not obtain help from other Christian
Byzantines because of their fear of King
Attilla the Hun.
In the course of the early battles in 450,
Vasak and his 40,000 troops broke away
from the Armenian regiments and siezed
Armenian lands for the Persians. They
demolished many Armenian churches,
kidnapped many clergy and Mamigonian
nobility, exiling them to Persia. In response,
General Vartan retreated and sent an appeal to
the Persian king that Armenians would
accept Persian political and economic rule
and become loyal to the Persian throne
providing they could retain their Christian
faith and worship freely. The King accepted
this proposal however in the spring of 451
and the Persians resumed the offensive. The
Armenian army had four wings consisting of
66,000 men. The Persian army on the other
hand consisted of 300,000 soldiers including
an elephant herd carrying and iron tower with
archers and observations posts. On May 26,
451, the eve of Pentecost, General Vartan
prepared his troops for battle by reading to
them from the Bible followed by a sermon
from the priest Ghevond who then baptized
those soldiers who were receiving religious
instructions and then offered the Holy
Communion to the army.
It was on the plain of Avarair where these
two armies clashed. Although the fighting
was fierce, because of the nature of the
combat, mainly one on one, except for the
archers. 1,036 Armenians were killed and
3,544 Persians were killed. However many of
the Armenian Nakharars perished including
General Vartan. Because of the fall of Vartan
Mamigonian,  the  troops  lost organization
and without his leadership fled. The Persians
had strategically won the battle but the
Persian king had sent the Armenians a notice
that if the army discontinued fighting, the
Persians would permit free Christian
worship. King Yazdigerd II did fulfill the
promise that time but more than likely didn't
send troops to religiously persecute the
Armenians again because he was suffering
other military defeats on the northern portion
of his empire and couldn't sacrifice tying up
his troops in Armenia.
The Armenian spirit however was not
dampened because Vahan Mamigonian,
Vartan's nephew, continued to lead the
Armenians in guerilla warfare against the
Persians until the Armenians regained
autonomy in the Persian Empire. This was
after he had been previously militarily and
politically humiliated by the Persian empire.
Armenian became autonomous under Persian
rule in 485 with Vahan Mamigonian ruling
as head governor of Armenia from 485-505.
The Armenian monarchy however wasn't
reinstated until 885 with the Bagratid
dynasty. The Persian Empire fell in 652 and
this was followed by Arab domination of
Armenia.
Armenians remember Vartanantz and the
martyrs because if they had succumbed to the
wishes of the Persian king (conversion to
Zoroastrianism), Armenians would more than
likely not be a Christian people today. They
probably would have been forced to convert
to Islam as did the Zoroastrian Persians after
the Arab invasions during the 7th to the 9th
centuries.
Go to
Church!
The William Saroyan Committee has recently been spearheading efforts
to honor the late author through historical landmarks and other activities.
In the photo at left, Ben Amirkhanian, Chairman of the Saroyan Committee
is speaking athe festivities marking the placing of a plaque at the home on
El Monte avenue, inwhich Saroyan lived from 1921 to 1927. To the left of
Amirkhanian is Al Garbedian a frequest participant in Saroyan events.
The plaque honoring Saroyan is seen to the right of the picture.
Fourth Annual
Sponsored by The North Fresno Merchants Assn.
Alliance for the Arts and The Fresno Bee
Ben Amirkhanian, Chairman
920 East Yale
Fresno, CA 93704
Home (209) 229-7866
Bus  (209) 222-4481
1988
Sunday, May 1-
April 15-May 30
May 2 Deadline
May 10 and 11
Saturday, May 21
Monday, May 23
Concert
3:00 pm Dedication of the Saroyan
Monument SW
corner Courthouse Park
Gallery 25 Saroyan art exhibit
May 8- Special reception 2:00-5:00 pm
Gallery hours 1:00-3:00 pm Fridays
1:00-4:00 pm Saturdays
1:00-6:00 pm Sundays
William Saroyan Writing Contest
"The Human Comedy", motion picture
9:30 am to 11:30 am in the Tower Theater
$1.00 per student and chaperone
William Saroyan Walk at 10:00 am
7:00 pm-8:30 pm Saroyan-in-the-Park-Band
Admission Free, Woodward Park.