10 Lebanese-Armenians Who Have Gained Recognition Around the World
On September 21, 1991, the people of Armenia voted in a referendum to proclaim independence from the Soviet Union, announcing the establishment of what is known today as the Republic of Armenia.
In November of the same year, Levon Ter Petrosyan was elected Armenia's first President.
However, the Armenian history goes some five thousand years back in time. An ancient civilization, which people traded and mingled in the Phoenicia Land of our ancestors, and there has been an active Armenian presence in Lebanon for over a century now.
In today's Lebanon, and for decades, the Armenians constitute one of the country's prominent communities and a vital part of our nation.
According to Minority Rights Group International, there are 156,000 Lebanese-Armenians in Lebanon, which constitutes approximately 4% of the general Lebanese population. But, of course, numbers in Lebanon are always up for debate.
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Prior to 1975, and to a large extent to this very day, Beirut was a center of Armenian culture with multiple media outlets and businesses maintaining strong ties with the Armenian diaspora.
Just shy of Armenia's 28 years of independence, we wish to acknowledge some of our notable Lebanese-Armenians who have taken both cultures into the diaspora and have made us proud through their achievements across almost every sector.
#1 Anis Garabet
A Lebanese-Armenian Engineer, born on May 5th, 1952, in Beirut, Anis Garabet migrated in 1972 to the United States with his family.
In 1978, he earned a B.S. in Civil Engineering from the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) and in 1980, a Master’s Degree in Seismology from the University of Southern California (USC).
In 1982, he earned the Professional Engineering license from the State of California. In 1989, he joined the staff of NASA’s space shuttle program working for Rockwell International.
He received an award from Columbia’s first mission astronauts John Young and Robert Crippen for successfully testing the Thermal Protection System for the space shuttle.
#2. Haroutune K. Armenian
The need for institution building and paradigm shift in health services in Armenia from Voice Of Armenians TV New York on Vimeo .
Haroutune K. Armenian is a Lebanese-Armenian Medical Doctor born on June 18, 1942, in Beirut.
A Professor Emeritus at Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Armenian currently serves as President and Dean of the College of Health Sciences for the American University of Armenia (AUA) and has done so since 1997.
He has received numerous awards throughout his distinguished career for his research, and more specifically for studying the effects of the Lebanese Civil War at the population level, as well as his research on cancer and psychopathology.
He has published more than 100 journal articles in prestigious international publications on various subjects relating to epidemiology and public health.
#3. John Dolmayan
John Dolmayan, born in Beirut in 1972, is a Lebanese-Armenian-American songwriter and drummer.
He joined the famous heavy metal band System of a Down in 1997 and he recorded five albums with the band: System of a Down (1998), Toxicity (2001), Steal This Album! (2002), Mezmerize (2005), and Hypnotize (2005).
When the band went on hiatus in 2006, Dolmayan teamed up with the band's guitarist and vocalist Daron Malakian and formed a new band called Scars on Broadway , which recorded their eponymous debut album in 2007 and 2008.
In August 2009, Scars on Broadway traveled to Iraq for a USO tour across the U.S. army bases.
#4. Serouj Kradjian
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An internationally renowned pianist, accompanist, and composer, Serouj Kradjian was born in Lebanon to Lebanese-Armenian parents in 1973.
He moved to Toronto, Canada, as a teenager, and went to pursuing music studies at the University of Toronto, where he received a B.A. in Piano Performance.
He completed his postgraduate studies at the Hochschule für Musik in Hanover, Germany and then resided for several years in Madrid, Spain.
It is then and there that he founded and directed the Camerata Creativa, and where he met his future wife, the also very-famous Isabel Bayrakdarian, an opera singer born in Lebanon.