1995_12 Hye Sharzhoom Newspaper December 1995

              December 1995
Hye Sharzhoom
News—3
Sunday School Shaping the Future
By Jaqueline Arikian
Over the past three years, I
have had the opportunity to teach a
third/fourth grade Sunday School
class at St. Paul Armenian Church.
Teaching this class has been more
than preparing lessons and showing up to church at 10 a.m. to creatively teach a class to a group of
eight and nine year olds. It has
been a journey, a journey down a
road of cultural understanding, not
only for myself, but for my students as well.
Teaching an Armenian Sunday School class as a college student has been quite the experience.
Not only has it been challenging to
educate my students aboutreligion,
answering their many questions,
but it has been rewarding for me to
see them grow spiritually and culturally.
Each week, the students learn
about a Bible story which is taught
in many ways; through classroom
games, Bible readings, cassette
tapes, workbooks, and group discussions. Fortunately, the class
goes one step beyond teaching the
students Biblical stories, for it covers some historical Armenian
ground as well. Each Sunday, I
take the students up to church for
about 15-20 minutes. During the
time spent there, they become educated about the traditional customs
that take place every week during
the regular Sunday service. It is a
joy for me to see that they have a
natural curiosity about what they
are seeing while in church, wanting
to know more about what is going
on and why. It then becomes my
responsibility to explain to them
the significance of what goes on in
the church, and it is for this reason
that I see the spark they possess, the
spark for the Armenian culture.
It makes me proud to teach a
group of eager students about their
heritage. Not only do they learn
more about themselves by regularly attending class, but they gain
See TEACHER, Page 8
Armenian Studies Program
Spring '96
SCHEDULE OF COURSES
Armenian IB- Elem Arm
1110-1200 MTWF
ArmS 10- Intro Arm Studies
1010-1100 MWF
ArmS 108B- Arm History II
0910-1000 MWF
Arm 148- Masterpcs of Arm Lit
1310-1400 MWF
Weekend Classes (Fri & Sat only)
Fri 1710-2040, Sat 0910-1700
ArmS 10- Intro Arm Studies
2/2-2/17
ArmS 123 Arm Architecture
2/23-3/9
ArmS 120- Armenia Today
3/15-3/16
ArmS 120T- Armenian Genocide
4/19-4/20
Armenian Community of Peria: 400 Years in the Making
By Jacklin Gharibian
Approximately half of the
Armenian population in the world
lives outside of its homeland. Armenians have created new headquarters all over the globe, forming the Armenian Diaspora which
was mainly caused by the 1915
Armenian Genocide. They have
built communities in Greece,
France, India, Australia, Iraq, Italy,
Canada and (of course) America.
However, there exists an Armenian community in Iran that has
survived for the past 400 years.
No, I am not referring to New
Julfa (Isfahan), rather to a cluster
of villages, nearly 90 miles west
of New Julfa, called Peria (Pear-
e-a). "So what? Who cares?
What's the point?", one may typically ask. It is easy to underestimate what an unknown group of
individuals living in a remote part
of the globe could achieve. However, Perians (Armenians of Peria)
have not only endured living in an
exile and being treated as second-
class citizens, but they have survived to create a thriving Armenian community. Most importantly, Perians have been courageous enough to practice their
doctrine for nearly four centuries
without giving up their faith in
God. To this day, they remain
valorous Christians in a country of
Muslim nationalists.
"Who are these people, how
did they settle in Iran, and why?"
To discover the answers, we have
to journey back to the period of
Ottoman and Persian domination
of Armenia. In the early 1600's,
the Persians controlled the eastern
half of Armenia; while the Ottomans ruled over western Armenia.
At the time, the two empires played
the power game—each trying to
expand its jurisdiction over Asia
Minor which included Armenia.
In 1603; Shah Abbas I of Persia
launched an attack on Ottoman
lands, conquered Tabriz, fought
against the Turks to seize
Nakhichevan,
and, in 1604, he
captured
Yerevan. From
Constantinople,
Sultan
Muhammad sent
forces to fight
against the Persians. Because of
this, Shah Abbas
ordered the Armenians to pack
up and abandon
their homes. To
enforce his ruling, the Shah
commanded his
men to burn
down the Armenian homes—
this way, the Armenians would
have no choice but to leave. From
Armenia, they were forced to march
towards Iran. On their way, the
Armenians encountered another
obstacle; they had to cross the Araks
river—but there were no bridges
available and the Persians (having
learned that the Ottomans were in
the surrounding area) forced the
Armenians to swim across the river.
Old men, women and children
jumped into the freezing waters of
the Araks—only the fortunate few
successfully made it to the opposite side; the rest died as their bodies floated on the waves of the
Araks.
Finally, in the spring of 1605,
the Armenians were transferred to
Isfahan. Approximately, 25,000
families took this journey from 11
known regions in Armenia, such
transported to Peria. Peria had
rich soil and a climate that favored
the agriculturists. The Armenians
were reminded of their homeland
as they glanced over the heavenly
landscape of Peria. At the time of
settlement, Shah Abbas executed
careful politics, as he reasonably
sided with the Armenians at times
of conflicting instances with the
local Persians, and he even allowed
as Van, Kars, Alashkert, and
Manezkert The Persians burdened
themselves with this for a very
simple reason: Shah Abbas wanted
to improve the agricultural
economy of the Persian Empire,
and the Armenians (being advanced in this field) were the best
candidates to fulfill the needs of
the Persians. Of those who arrived
in Isfahan (New Julfa), some were
the Armenians to continue living
as Christians. However, Shah
Abbas believed that within time
the Armenians would automatically integrate with the local Persian population and adopt the Islamic way of life. Although this
scenario took place in certain Armenian communities, Perians
proved to contradict the Shah's
predictions, as they fought to main
tain their cultural and religious
identities. Several Armenians (of
Peria) were butchered to death for
refusing to become Muslims.
The population of Peria fluctuated along with the number of
villages that existed. People, over
time, moved away and some relocated from one village to another.
In 1851,4,949 people lived in 19
villages; by 1910 the population
increased by more than 200 percent (25 villages were populated
by 12,083 people). These figures
from the 20th century indicate that
Peria was a strong Armenian community outside of New Julfa. Interestingly enough, Peria was a
segregated community; no Muslims were allowed to reside in any
of the villages. At certain times,
the villages of Peria survived harsh
economic conditions, such as
droughts, by assisting one another
without depending on the Persians.
Hence Peria was a self-supporting, self-governing community
under the authority of the Muslims.
My 84-year-old grandmother,
Vartanoush Gharibian, was bom
in Mealagerd, one of the villages
of Peria. "In my time, things were
much better...they [the Persians]
didn't harass us as much as in the
old days," she stated. "During
Zella Sultan's time [1890's], Armenian men were forced to walk
on broken glass, in mud, with their
bare feet...".
My grandmother's generation
was fortunate to have lived in Iran
in the early 20th century; for at the
See Peria, Page 8