We will persevere to save the Melkonian

Sir,

On January 14, I attended the ‘hovihankist’ (requiem) for the Melkonian brothers and then the meeting and discussion organised by the Cyprus Alumni Association of the Melkonian school.

It was depressing to hear about the recent court decisions, but the discussion was useful and it was encouraging to see previously divided groups willing to work together on this issue. There is still a small ray of hope but only if our local community and the diaspora come together on this issue and lobby the AGBU, the EU, and the Cyprus government.
After the meeting, I joined a small group of alumni who entered the grounds of the MEI to pay respects to the founders and place some symbolic flowers at the Tamparan (statues of the founders). We prayed the ‘Hay Mer’ (our Lord’s prayer) loud enough so that the birds in the trees turned to listen. Then we sang the School’s Anthem with passion and so much feeling that the eyes of Garabet Melkonian filled with tears… We stood silently and watched his tearful eyes… we were speechless! What will we say to our children and grandchildren? How will we explain to them that we allowed this school to close?

Then someone said let’s go. Just as we turned our backs to his eyes, Garabet whispered ‘Please promise you will not forget our generosity and our wishes as expressed in our various wills.’ Each of us made a personal silent promise. One day we will open a new Melkonian in Cyprus and we will fulfil Agha Garabet’s desire to preserve Western Armenian language and heritage by offering day school and boarding school higher education to Armenians living in the diaspora.

Parsegh Zartarian, Nicosia

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.