Survivors

Yervant Zorian

Dr. Yervant Zorian is the chief architect of Synopsys Inc., a company that has approximately 10,200 employees worldwide. He is also president of its Armenian subsidiary, which employs 700 people. The company was founded in 1986 and grosses $2.2 billion today. It develops semiconductor design software as well as predesigned blocks and design-for-manufacturability solutions, such as self-test and self-repair blocks for semiconductor chips.
Pioneer of self-repairing chips and pillar of Armenia’s IT industry
English

Vahe Berberian

“I won’t join the revolution unless I can dance,” he says, echoing the words of Emma Goldman. His long, white braids, ear piercings and goatee make him one of the most recognizable men in the Armenian world.
Lebanese-Armenian artist stages one-man cultural revolution
English

Nora Armani

“The word ‘Armenia’ had a most sacred connotation in our extended family. It was as though we grew up in its shadow. It was a word that encompassed our entire life to the core of its very essence,” says New York-based actress Nora Armani. “Every time I visit Armenia I feel revitalized, my homeland strengthens me. I am multilingual and I perform in many languages, including English, French, Arabic, Italian, Turkish and even Russian, but it is essential to have the opportunity to perform in Armenian; visiting Armenia offers me the exceptional opportunity to perform and live in my mother tongue.”
Actress and filmmaker: “By supporting the youth, we give them wings”
English

Vartkess Knadjian

As current owner and chief executive officer of Backes and Strauss, the oldest diamond company in the world designing and producing luxurious timepieces and jewelry, Vartkess Knadjian leads an exciting life, splitting his time between Geneva and London. Compared to his ancestors’ odyssey, however, Vartkess’s life seems almost uneventful, but only because the family’s story reads as if it had been penned by a best-selling suspense novelist.
Owner and chief executive officer of the world’s oldest diamond company on his family’s remarkable odyssey
English

Michel Mossessian

Creating spaces where people feel like they belong is how Michel Mossessian describes an architect’s ultimate challenge. Born into an Armenian family whose turbulent past has scattered generations of its members across several continents, he is enabled and inspired by this familial adaptability to carry out projects in different countries and cultures.
French architect channels family's experience into fluid designs
English

Vera Anush Nazarian

Vera Anush Nazarian, the founder and CEO of the INICIAR for Global Action Foundation, has been serving as adviser to the Permanent Mission of Armenia to the United Nations for the past seven years. She holds a Master’s Degree in Human Rights from Columbia University and specializes in women’s rights. She has devoted her life to assisting vulnerable communities and humanitarian work in Armenia and Argentina.
Adviser to Armenia’s permanent mission to the UN: “It’s an honor and a privilege to serve my Armenia, my motherland, my nation.”
English

Kim Kashkashian

Born into an Armenian-American family in Detroit, Michigan Kim Kashkashian rose to global stardom as one of the world’s leading classical musicians, considered by many to be the most gifted viola player anywhere, bar none. In 2013 she received a Grammy Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo for her recording of “Kurtag and Ligeti: Music for Viola,” following several nominations in previous years and other prizes such as the 2001 Cannes Classical Award for a Premiere Recording by a Soloist with Orchestra.
Violist and descendent of Genocide survivors fights hunger with music
English

Yetvart Tomasyan

For over 20 years, the Istanbul-based Aras publishing house has been addressing the Turkish public on the subjects of Armenian history, literature and art. Its founder Yetvart Tomasyan has found his own formula for dialogue with Armenia’s neighboring nation.
The spirit of the Armenian community in Istanbul
English

Nubar Alexanian

Whether portraying the age-old world of New England fishermen in his “Gloucester” series, crafting wonderfully revealing portraits of celebrities like Colin Powell or depicting sensitive olive tree stalks in Yalova, Turkey, Nubar Alexanian’s photographs are at once fragile and tough – a soft and serene interplay of light and shadow that is the rarest of pleasures.
American documentary photographer revisits his ancestors’ “Scars of Silence”
English

Shant Mardirossian

Near East Foundation (NEF) Board Chairman Emeritus Shant Mardirossian was born in Beirut, Lebanon. In 1969 he moved to Woodside, Queens with his family. He recalls briefing his fourth grade class on the Lebanese Civil War in their weekly current events discussions: that’s when he realized he had a passion for history and Middle Eastern affairs.
Chairman emeritus of Near East Foundation
English

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