Book Review: A Story of Four Generations

“Our side meant the ARF, those who viewed the Soviet Union as an illegal occupant of an independent Armenian homeland. ‘The other side’ meant the Ramgavars and the Hunchakians, those who accepted Soviet Armenia as their homeland….Tulare was a patchwork of friends and other friends who were potential enemies, because no one knew what would come when the tears of the people dried.”

In this complex environment, Kaspar thrives, first working in a barber shop but eventually buying land and establishing a family. He has four sons, and of them Richard, who prefers reading to more masculine pursuits, is distinguished by his academic abilities and his desire to chronicle the history of the Armenian people. It is this Hovannisian who will make an important reputation as a scholar, the author of the important four-volume work, The Republic of Armenia. For decades, Richard Hovannisian would be — and still is — a respected figure at numerous academic conferences, managing to found a chair of Armenian studies at the University of California where he taught Armenian history.

It is his son, Raffi, the author’s father, who charges into the arena of Armenian politics. Early on, he joined the Armenian Youth Federation (AYF) and as a teenager at Palisades High School, he was quickly recognized as a leader.

His son describes him as follows: “Raffi was a natural leader, which is to say that he achieved power quite without trying. The depth of his voice, the mysterious sense of national purpose — the very qualities that helped him navigate the social labyrinth of Pali High also distinguished him in the AYF. Raffi was elected vice president and then president of the Simon Vratsian chapter [Vratsian had been the prime minister of the short-lived first Republic of Armenia in 1920], and he proceeded, as was his nature, to out-do himself.”

Raffi’s ambitions carry him from Berkeley and a law degree eventually to Armenia, where he, astoundingly, gives up his US citizenship in order to run in the elections there. When Levon Ter-

Petrosian was elected as president of the newly independent Armenia in 1991, he appointed Raffi as his foreign minister. The complexities of Raffi’s political career, his struggles to become an Armenian citizen are covered in detail.