LITERARY CRITIC AND PEDAGOGUE ONNIK SARKISIAN
1914, Sassoun – 1993, Los Angeles
ARA AHARONIAN
Benefactor Onnik Sarkisian was born in Sassoun in 1914. With the fate of exile, the two-year-old child became a wanderer, moving with relatives to Cilicia as a relatively safe place: first to Adana and then to Alexandretta (Sanjak).
In 1923, he settled with his relatives in Aleppo, where he received his primary education first at the Kilikian, then at the Haigazian schools. In 1926, the 12-year-old youth was sent to Cyprus, becoming one of the first students of the Melkonian Educational Institution. During those years, the young Onnik’s successful attempts at literary studies were discovered. After completing the secondary education cycle of the school in 1932, he returned to Syria.
In Aleppo, at the insistence of Mikayel Natanyan, an educational figure of the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU) of the time and an ADL benefactor, Sarkisian entered the teaching profession. He first left for Azaz (Syria), where the AGBU had an elementary school. After teaching the Armenian language there for about two years, he moved to Kesab in 1934, this time serving at the Franciscan school.
In 1938, he returned to Aleppo and continued his teaching career as an instructor of Armenian literature, successively at the Sahakian, Kilikian and Usumnasirats schools.
During this period, Onnik Sarkisian brought his union and social participation by becoming a member of the Aleppo AGBU Cultural Committee, while maintaining close literary ties with the relatively young Stepan Alajajian (secretary of the Writers’ Union of Soviet Armenia), as well as with the poet Zareh Melkonian.
In 1947, he was invited to the Melkonian Educational Institution as a general prefect and head of the literature club. During the following three years, many of the male and female students who studied under him at Melkonian would later dedicate themselves to national and social life in their respective communities.
In 1950, he came to settle in Beirut with his family and became a lecturer of Armenian and Armenian literature at the AGBU Hovagimian-Manoukian boys’ secondary school. In Beirut, with his ideological leanings, he entered the ranks of the ADL, assuming responsible positions.
In 1956, together with the poet Zareh Melkonian, he became the first editor of the Tashnag Cultural Union’s (TKU) “Shirak” literary monthly, and later served as chairman of the Tekeyan Cultural Union in Lebanon for a full decade.
During this period, he furthered his higher education by following the Armenian studies courses at Saint Joseph University in Beirut.
In 1957, he was invited as director of the newly opened AGBU Yervant Demirjian school in Beirut, while remaining as a visiting teacher at the Hovagimian-Manoukian school. Sarkisian would also bring his participation to the educational life of Lebanon of the time by compiling, together with Simon Simonian, the “Aragats” series of Armenian textbooks.
At the beginning of the 1970s, he became chairman of the AGBU Cultural Committee, as well as of the Vahram Papazian theatre troupe.
In this capacity, it fell to him in 1973 to invite the Armenian State Choir, under the direction of the distinguished conductor Hovhannes Chekijian, and the following year, under Sarkisian’s leadership, the AGBU Vahram Papazian theatre troupe travelled to the homeland, performing a series of presentations on the national stage.
An important manifestation of Onnik Sarkisian’s public life came when, in 1975, he assumed the chairmanship of Lebanon’s United Body for the 60th anniversary of the Great Genocide. It should be noted that the activities of this body also left a great echo in the foreign press.
During the years of the Lebanese civil war, Sarkisian continued his teaching career in Beirut, as well as his social activities, sometimes also taking part in inter-party bodies in his capacity as a member of the ADL Lebanon Regional Board.
In 1978, the benefactor was invited to North America as a keynote speaker to tour various communities for the events organised on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Vahan Tekeyan, which had been initiated by the TKU Central Board of the United States and Canada. The author of these lines also had the opportunity to enjoy the presence of his former Armenian language teacher.
In 1983, his position at the “Shirak” monthly was effectively entrusted to Dr. Vache Ghazarian, who would ably continue the editorship of the cultural monthly until his move to the United States. The editorship of the monthly was then entrusted to Haig Naggashian (1987-89).
Onnik Sarkisian was awarded the homeland’s “Mesrop Mashtots” order in Yerevan in 1986, as well as the “Khachatur Abovian” medal of the Ministry of Education of Soviet Armenia, in appreciation of his literary and educational activities.
In 1987, Sarkisian finally retired from the educational field, continuing his literary, journalistic, editorial and social activities.
A year later, in 1988, he came to settle in Glendale, with his eldest daughter, Sona. His frequent presence in the national bustle of the Los Angeles community would refresh the memories of the Middle Eastern diaspora centres for those who knew him; moreover, he was often surrounded by his former students who had settled in California.
At an advanced age, Sarkisian passed away at the age of 79, in April 1993, in Glendale. All three of Sarkisian’s daughters — Sona, Salbi and Maral — have supported the union life of the communities through their participation, while his granddaughter, lawyer Talin Yaghoubian, is the chairwoman of the AGBU Western America Regional Committee.
