Vazken Andréassian

The Armenian Scouts of the Homenetmen marched past Istanbul in 1918. Vazken Andréassian carries the flag

Vazken Andréassian ( Armenian Վազգէն Անդրէասեան ; * April 10, 1903 , † November 30, 1995 ) was a French engineer and scout of Armenian descent.

Life

Turkey

Andréassian and his parents lived in a village called Hazari (today: Anıl) near the city of Çemişgezek during the Ottoman Empire until the village was destroyed during the Armenian genocide in 1915. He describes the history of this village and its inhabitants in a three-volume work Hazariabadoum . In 1915 he was twelve years old and attended high school in Çemişgezek.

On June 13, 1915, the Turkish Jandarma deported the residents of the village and its surroundings; many of the displaced people died on the way to the Syrian desert . After the residents left their village, the empty houses of the Armenians were looted. The villagers fled to the nearby village of Akrag (today: Gözlüçayır), where Kurds and Armenians lived together. After the winter of 1915–1916, Andréassian left his Kurdish protectors and his parents and migrated to the Russian- occupied zone near Erzincan (ceasefire between Turkey and Russia from July 1916). There he found accommodation in a refugee camp. Here he made friends with the writer Vahan Totovents and soon moved on to Tbilisi .

For a short time Andréassian was enrolled in Etchmiadzin until the school was closed during the Russian Revolution. He finally reached Vladikavkaz . After the war he managed to reach Istanbul , where he hoped to find his family again.

The graduating class of the central school in 1923 with its director K. Kavafyan

In Istanbul, thanks to the help of the director Kegham Kavafian, he started school in the Armenian Central School . He received his diploma there in 1923.

France

Under pressure from the Turkish nationalists, the Allied troops left Istanbul in 1923, where they had been stationed as an occupying power since the end of the First World War. Many Christians followed her example. Andréassian set out for France and landed in Marseille .

Thanks to the help and support of the French Navy commander, Zadig Khanzadian, Andréassian was accepted into the Ecole Nationale des Arts et Métiers in Aix en Provence . He left school as a graduate engineer in 1927.

From then on, Andréassian worked at the Arsenal de l'Aéronautique, which was renamed soon after and has since been called Nord Aviation . He mainly worked on the construction of the prototype Arsenal VG-704 and was then used for the prototypes Nord Gerfaut and Nord 1500 Griffon . The Griffon became famous in aeronautics in February 1959 when it first reached the speed of 1643 km / h with the pilot André Turcat .

Andréassian was a scout from 1913: initially in the scout group of Çemişgezek, then, from 1918, as a member of the Homenetmen .

In July 1924 he founded the first French hometown group in Marseille. After the Second World War he was the commissar of the Armenian scout movement for all of France.

relationship

Andréassian was a brother-in-law of Vahan Cheraz and the cousin of the United States-based writers Jack Ardavazt Antreassian and Antranig Antreassian. He is the grandfather of the French hydrologist of the same name .

Fonts

Հայ սկաուտին առաջնորդը - Leader of the Armenian Boy Scout . The Hagopian printing house, Paris 1947, 312 pages, electronic book version here
Վահան Չերազ և իր երգն Հայաստանի - Vahan Cheraz and his song to Armenia . Druckerei Sevan, Beyruth, 1977, 544 pages.
Անդրանիկ - Պետրոս Մարզպանեան - Antranig, followed by Bedros Marzbanian . Doniguian printing house, Beyruth, 1982, 326 pages.
Հազարիապատում - Hazariabadoum - Volume I. Doniguian printing works, Beyrouth, 1985, 316 pages. electronic book version here
Հազարիապատում - հատոր Բ. Hazariabadoum, Volume II. C Doniguian, Beyrouth, 1984, 299 pages. electronic book version here
Հազարիապատում - հատոր Գ. Hazariabadoum, Volume III. Doniguian printing house, Beyrouth, 1994, 650 pages.
Hazari: Life and Survival of an Armenian Village after June 1915, 1995. Electronic book version in German here