LOS ANGELES — Nerses Babayan is the son of Yervant and Rosine Babayan and the grandson of Archpriest Nerses Avak Kahana Babayan of Aintab. He was born in Aleppo in 1944 but moved to Beirut with his family after his father, Yervant Babayan, was invited to become the principal of the Tekeyan Cultural Association’s Vahan Tekeyan School. After his graduation from the Tekeyan School, he continued his studies at the AGBU Melkonian Institute in Cyprus. It is here that, as a teenager, he took his first steps at writing political articles for Arev Daily, published in Cairo. On his return to Beirut, he attended Haigazian College, and along with his studies, he started writing articles in Zartonk daily. Soon, he was invited to become the political section editor of the Ayk daily newspaper in Beirut.
To continue his higher education, Nerses moved to the United States and attended Boston College. He was invited to serve as assistant editor of the Armenian-language Baikar paper and the Armenian Mirror Spectator weekly. After his graduation from Boston College, he moved to Washington D.C. to complete his studies at John Hopkins University. Soon after graduation he settled in New York, to start a family and establish his own private consulting firm, catering to several Permanent Missions within the United Nations.
In spite of his preoccupation with his rapidly growing business, it is remarkable that he created time to continue writing articles about critical issues and challenges facing the Armenian communities in the Middle East, as well as in the United Sates of America. His articles, which appeared in Zartonk, Baikar, Nor Or and the Mirror-Spectator, were very much appreciated both for addressing critical and challenging issues in the Middle East and the United States of America, as well as for his unique style of writing.
Nerses will always be remembered for continuing and expanding the larger Babayan family tradition of community service and philanthropy towards the Armenian Church, Armenian schools, Armenian organizations, and the Armenian press.
Nerses inherited his love, respect and support for the Armenian Church from his grandfather, Archpriest Der Nerses Babayan, a Genocide survivor and one of the organizers and leading figures of the heroic self-defense of the Aintab Armenians. It was his grandfather Der Nerses, who led the Aintab Armenian deportees through the desert until they arrived safely in Aleppo. Yet, that was not all. When Catholicos Papken of Cilicia was informed that a few families had willingly stayed behind in Aintab, he commissioned the courageous Der Nerses to go back to Aintab and convince the families to leave Aintab and settle in Aleppo. Der Nerses accepted this challenging and dangerous mission. He selflessly left behind his young wife and his two-months-old firstborn son, Yervant, went back to Aintab to convince the families, and brought them to Aleppo. Thanks to Der Nerses Babayan’s courage and commitment a very dangerous mission was accomplished successfully.
Nerses’s love and steady support for Armenian schools and education was inspired by his father, Yervant Babayan, the legendary educator and dedicated principal of the TCA Vahan Tekeyan School in Lebanon for more than fifty years.
