Survivors

Varujan Pambuccian currently heads Romania’s Parliamentary Commission for IT and Communications, but his list of accomplishments also includes more than 600 amendments to the country’s legislative code, a Ph.D. in physics and mathematics from the University of Bucharest and recognition as a person who has dedicated his life to serving society.

The meeting place is always the same – the Ara Сafé in the heart of Istanbul. As the owner slowly makes the rounds, even the regulars fall silent and contemplate the legendary figure. Ara Güler is one of the most accomplished documentary photographers of the 20th century and the founder of photojournalism in Turkey. His photographic legacy amounts to over two million stories told.

León Carlos Arslanian’s fame reaches far beyond the Argentinian Armenian community. A lawyer and a former judge, he presided over the historic Trial of the Juntas. He served as Argentina’s minister of Justice, as minister of Justice and Security of the Buenos Aires province and as president of Buenos Aires’ Institute of Criminal Policies and Security.

An outstanding career in the Lebanese Armed Forces enabled General Panos Manjian to become a state minister. He inherited his knack for the military from his ancestors: Panos’s father, grandfather and even great-grandfather were all warriors. The Manjian family comes from Musa Dagh — a region that became famous for the courageous self-defense force organized in the summer of 1915.

My grandfather, Yegishe Astvatsaturian, fled the Genocide in 1915 and came to Baku, the capital of modern-day Azerbaijan. Yet for him, and many other Armenian families, the horrors followed him across borders in the early 20th century and returned to haunt us yet again in modern times.

Arturo Sarukhan is a Washington, DC-based strategic consultant with a 22-year-long diplomatic career in the Mexican Foreign Service. Between 2007 and 2013, Sarukhan served as Mexico’s ambassador to the United States, leading one of the most important embassies in Washington and representing over 100 million residents of Mexico as well as the 35-million strong Mexican-American Diaspora.

The people of Lebanon have mixed feelings about the 11th president of their country, in office from 1998 to 2007. Some accuse General Émile Lahoud of being too pro-Syrian, others claim that his focus on defending his country came at the expense of the economy. But everyone agrees on one thing: it was mostly thanks to Lahoud that the bloody civil war in Lebanon came to an end in October of 1990.

The works of Moscow-born artist, curator, writer and teacher Archi Galentz have appeared at over 70 international exhibitions and won multiple awards. A recurring theme in his art is the issue of Armenian identity and its evolution over time, from the collapse of the Soviet Union to the establishment of the independent Armenian republic. Galentz is a founding member of the “underconstruction” group, which brings together Armenian artists, and a member of the Art & Cultural Studies Laboratory.

Bea Ehlers-Kerbekian has performed on both German and international theater stages for 25 years, and is currently on tour with her solo performance in Germany, Armenia and Turkey. She has received numerous awards for her theater projects and dramatic art, including those bestowed by the Moscow International One Man Show Festival and the Artavazd Armenian Theater.

Prominent Russian orientalist Mikhail Piotrovsky, the head of St. Petersburg’s State Hermitage Museum for over 20 years, was born in Yerevan. His interest in the Orient is no accident.