The New York Chapter of Hamazkayin was founded on May 5 of 1967 at New York University’s Lop Student Hall, in the presence of 55 young people. New York Community accepted the foundation of the new chapter with great enthusiasm and encouraged its activities. Moreover, for fifty years without a break, we kept and preserved the cultural heritage entrusted to us and didn’t spare any effort to pass it to the next generation.
The 50th anniversary is the fruit of all our exertions, boundless dedication, and unshakable faith.
Putting aside the full list of our achievements, we should note that in the last fifty years, 2311 people actively participated in our cultural events. The 1591 of them, that is the 69%, were young boys and girls. 614 people participated in the choir, 405 people in the theater activities and 842 young people took part in recitation and knowledge competitions. The festival was the result of their collective efforts. The idea, planning and the realization of the Festival belongs to the founding member Dr. Hrant Markarian. He edited the Houshamadyan consisting of 145 pages and the statements, clarified the press conference materials, provided the participants of the press conference and of cultural events, and successfully created Khrimian Hayrig’s personage in the play telling about his life.
The program dedicated to the 50th anniversary pursued two objectives. The first objective was, within our struggle for national survival, to celebrate the anniversary of our cultural association, and to remind about our concerns for Armenian longevity. The second was the four-day program, which was a response to the four-day April War instigated by Azerbaijan last year, to destroy Artsakh.
Azerbaijan resorted to demoniac war, but we spread light through our celebration. We state that Artsakh has indisputable rights and a mission in history. We support Artsakh and its security is our supreme duty. Therefore, we donate all the proceeds of the festival to provide Artsakh with special life-saving devices, which stop bleeding.
The three events of the four-day program took place at Pashalyan Hall of Surp Lusavorich Church and the fourth was in the Armenian Center.
We express our gratitude to the spiritual pastor of the Surp Lusavorich Church, Father, Priest Mesrop Lagisian, and the ARF Armen Garo Committee, which provided their halls for our events. Special thanks to Lalique Vartanian for her exclusive support. We send our deep gratitude to Tamar Lagisian and Zenob Tomagian for the photographs.