[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 130 (Friday, August 1, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1659]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 IN RECOGNITION OF ASBAREZ-ARMENIAN DAILY NEWSPAPER'S 100TH ANNIVERSARY

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. ADAM B. SCHIFF

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 31, 2008

  Mr. SCHIFF. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize the 100th 
anniversary of the Asbarez-Armenian Daily Newspaper. Asbarez, which 
translates to `arena' in English, was founded on August 14, 1908 in 
Fresno, California, by seven dedicated members of the Armenian-American 
community: Aslan Aslanian, Bedros Hagopian, Levon Hagopian, Abraham 
Seklemian, Hovaness Kabadayan, Avedis Tufenkjian and Arpaxat Setrakian.
  Like its counterparts in other Diaspora communities, such as Hairenik 
in Boston and Aztag in Lebanon, Asbarez has chronicled the Armenian 
experience worldwide. Among other things, they have written about the 
dire conditions in the homeland under Imperial Russia and Ottoman 
Turkey, the calamity of the Armenian Genocide, the World Wars, the rise 
and fall of the first Republic, Soviet rule, the tragic 1988 
earthquake, the Karabakh ``Artsakh'' liberation and the independence of 
the Republic of Armenia.
  In the words of Edward Megerdichian, who worked at Asbarez from 1956-
1963, ``[Asbarez] was ninety percent voluntary, and everyone had a 
sense of ownership, a sense of community--that this is our paper and 
our lives are described in this paper.''
  During the 1970's Asbarez Publishing Company moved its operations 
from California's San Joaquin Valley to the Los Angeles basin. Since 
its inception, the circulation of the newspaper has grown from 1,200 
copies to thousands; it has become a formidable bilingual daily 
newspaper and a dependable source for information in the online 
community.
  It is my distinct honor to recognize Asbarez's unwavering commitment 
to inform and educate the public. I ask my colleagues in the U.S. House 
of Representatives to join me in congratulating Asbarez on their 100th 
anniversary.




                          ____________________