It is difficult even to imagine that during ceremonies, general membership meetings or public events we will no longer hear Comrade Ara’s sharp and proud voice, his inspiring words and his rousing calls. He was a worthy son of one of our party’s leaders, Comrade Baylak Aharonian, under whose breath he received his national-patriotic upbringing.
Comrade Ara was born in Tripoli. He received his primary education at the local Krimian-Nuparian School, and his secondary education at the AGBU Hovagimian-Manoukian School. He attended Haigazian College in Beirut, then the American University of Beirut. I knew Comrade Ara from my youth. We worked together in the ADL’s Beirut Chapter. While still a student at the AGBU Beirut Hovagimian-Manoukian School, he was already engaged in national service.
Fresh in my memory is his dedicated activity within the compound of the Tekeyan School during the days of the Lebanese civil war, when we stood guard there. He would take on every sacrifice to reach everyone in need in the heavily Armenian-populated neighborhoods, often exposing himself to physical dangers.
The Lebanese civil war caused him to settle on these shores in 1976. Here, in America, he completed Northridge University, choosing digital electronics as his specialty. Alongside his profession and career, and even more than them, he gave his soul, his abilities and his time to the nation and the party, often also sacrificing his family. Comrade Ara’s role, spanning decades, in the strengthening of the ADL’s Western America Chapter and especially its rejuvenation is undeniable, as he was the founding leader of the ADL Armenakan Youth Movement.
For many years he was an active member of the Regional Board of the ADL’s Western America Region. His party-devoted activity and his political and ideological vigor elevated him to leadership positions, making him a member of the ADL Central Board. Alongside his organizational talent, Comrade Ara Aharonian shone especially through his journalistic and party-scientific works. He devoted himself entirely to intellectual work. He presented the forgotten pages of the party’s history, its heroic figures and their equally heroic deeds in full detail, with meticulousness and historical accuracy. Through the biographies of the ADL’s immortal figures, he passed on to generations numerous examples of pride and encouragement.
The fruit of Comrade Ara’s tireless research and diligence were works forming part of the ADL’s comprehensive history — in 2001, the book “Heroic Figures of the ADL” dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the ADL’s founding, which was also published in translation in English and Spanish. In 2006, on the occasion of the ADL’s 85th anniversary, the first volume of Comrade Aharonian’s book “The Path of the Benefactors” was published, and in 2014, on the occasion of the ADL’s 90th anniversary, the second volume of the same was published. Now, at this moment, we realize how greatly Comrade Ara’s absence will be felt in this field, and we are likely faced with the difficulty of finding a worthy successor to continue his work.
Comrade Aharonian was a committed figure in the pursuit of the Armenian Cause. For many years he led the ADL Armenian Rights Council, within the scope of whose activities he carried out important pro-Armenian work with American local bodies and state and political figures. Within this scope, important works were the publications “The Republic of Mountainous Karabagh” and “The Challenges of the Republic of Armenia,” published in Armenian and English.
We shall continue the ideological path in which he believed and which he served throughout his entire conscious life.
Kevork Haleblean
