On Tuesday morning, the 16^th of March our entire school gathered in the auditorium for an assembly. Yet this was not just any assembly, it was the most dreaded assembly of all. The assembly that all of us were praying not to happen, yet it did. It was announced that Melkonian shall close in June of 2005.  Just hearing these words was like somebody tearing a part of our hearts out! All the students were left in utter disbelief.  Many could not hold their tears back, and started embracing one another. They were not just crying to think that they wouldn’t graduate, but also for the fact that this school, this community, will diminish.  And why?!! Because a couple of people in New York feel that the school is not serving its purpose? Or is it because of the money?  We started questioning, ‘Who has the right to close this school down?’  Yes, maybe the AGBU has run it all these years, but does that mean that without properly looking at all the alternatives they have a right to close it? If not through education, then how shall we promote our heritage, our culture? What shall become of our race if we close this school down? This may sound like an exaggeration, yet once the AGBU has a right to shut this school down, what will be next. Where will it stop? What will the outsiders say? If the AGBU is not thinking about the Melkonian, at least let it think about its own prestige? All these years we have tried and tried to get the Armenian Genocide to be recognized and accepted by the Turks, and yet we’re killing the Armenian spirit ourselves. The Turks will laugh at us. We’re committing a white genocide ourselves!

Has the AGBU forgotten what AGBU even stands for? I always thought it was the non-profit Armenian General Benevolent Union, yet now as far as I’m concerned, not one single word can apply anymore.  Decisions are being made based on profit. Non-Armenians are being brought to an Armenian school in order to make a decision that they can not even begin to comprehend.  Which American understands what it is to be Armenian? Which American understands how important it is for us to be culturally educated and enrich our heritage? America hasn’t even recognized the genocide, yet we’re still sending Americans to assess our school?  How can they assess a school when they don’t even acknowledge or know our own history? It may be argued that a non-Armenian may provide a more objective point of view, but is that what we really need. I mean I’m not saying to take a Melkoniantsi to assess the school, but at least take an Armenian who will take the time to communicate with the students. What exactly did Gordon Anderson assess? I always though that the student body and staff make up the school, not just the figures. How can one assess Melkonian when he’s barely in contact with any of the students?  Melkonian is not just a school; it’s a community where we all live. We’ve all been separated from our parents and live under one roof as Armenians, as one! How many other schools can you find Armenians from all over the world living together as one? No matter where you go there are discrepancies, I’m not denying that problems don’t arise amongst us, yet when it comes down to it, its part of society. It’s what makes us learn to cooperate with one another.  And what happened to the ‘benevolent’ part of the organization? As far as the Webster’s Dictionary is concerned benevolent means ‘doing or inclined to do good; kindly; charitable.’  So somebody please explain to me in what way is the AGBU doing anything good or kind or even charitable by closing the Melkonian.  Where’s the kindness or good in taking away education, the most important aspect in our culture.  It’s said that the Melkonian is not serving its purpose and that money can go somewhere else where it’s of better use.  Yet who’s to say what’s ‘better’?  Who has the right to judge that one thing will function better then the other.  Even I who writes this article now do not have the right to judge one thing ‘better’ than the other.  Yet when no one has the right to judge, then no one has the right to take something away and justify it.  If money is the issue, I am sure that there are an extreme variety of ways in which Melkonian can still remain and not be an economic burden on the AGBU.  The AGBU has suggested to create the Melkonian Educational Center in Armenia. Yet who’s to say that this will work. Don’t get me wrong, I love Armenia, our motherland, but how many people will send their children to Armenia from European countries or even America for that matter. Everyone says that they’re Armenian and are proud to be Armenian but when it comes down to it many people will not send their children to Armenia.  If people really wanted to send their children to Armenia they would have by now because there already are many Armenian schools. Why are there very few Armenians of the Diaspora in the Armenian schools in Armenia?  And why is there such a large number of students from Armenia in Melkonian?  They obviously have come to Melkonian to be able to go to other places for universities. Then also we have to consider the fact that all the teachers will be Armenian because which outsider will go to Armenia to teach.  The Melkonian that exists now has a high level of education with the British system, but which Armenian will be able to teach with this system? It’s also worth mentioning the point that the AGBU itself states that many Cypriot Armenians have chosen to send their children to non-Armenian schools, yet the AGBU later writes that they have the idea of keeping Melkonian High School open for Cypriot Armenians. Please tell me how this will function if you yourself say that many Cypriot Armenians don’t attend there anyways?

I don’t deny that almost over the last century the AGBU has done a great deed for the Armenians for indeed it has, but why not continue its benevolence? In the AGBU’s report it gives an account of the history of the AGBU and gives the example of the Manoogian-Demirdjian School as a very successful school.  I personally am from Los Angeles myself and have many friends who have attended this school. I too had the choice of either going to Manoogian or Melkonian but I chose Melkonian.  What is it that makes Manoogian so successful but Melkonian is seen as unable to fulfill its mission? Is it just the figures that count? Simply because Manoogian has 950 students and it is self-supporting it’s considered successful? As far as I’m concerned numbers mean nothing in the long-term. Melkonian may only have 206 students this year, but each and every single one of those students have the Armenian spirit in them. Why is it that Manoogian’s students will be granted their right to education and Melkonian’s students will not?  And if you really want to look at the figures those 206 students come from all over the world. Each one of those students gain an experience in Melkonian that no other school, not even Manoogian can provide.  The Diaspora and the Armenians come together and when they graduate the Armenian spirit stays within them. I’m not saying that the students from Manoogian don’t have the Armenian spirit, but as an American Armenian I feel that I have the right to say that there are so many things that the American Armenians don’t know and will never really understand about Armenians from around the world. The American Armenians will live in their own world thinking that America is the best place to live and will never really understand the way of life of the Armenians in Armenia or in the middle east or anywhere else besides America for that matter.  There was a lot I didn’t understand in the beginning, but after living in Melkonian, in this extraordinary community, I learned things I would have never learned going to Manoogian. Also in the AGBU’s report it’s stated that ninety percent of all Armenians around the world are not enrolled in Armenian schools.  So why start closing schools down? We must do the opposite. We must do everything in our power to improve the situation of the school in order to promote the Armenian culture and heritage.  And if the AGBU is so concerned with language and our culture how can people who don’t even know Armenian be making decisions on the closure of a school. How can members that don’t know Armenian even be on the Central board of the AGBU?   

Finally what about the future of the students? Did the board not think of what shall happen to all the students that don’t have the opportunity to graduate here? Which students, besides the 6^th formers who will graduate next year and possibly the 4^th formers who will give their ‘O’ levels next year, will come back? And what shall become of the students that return to their own country? They obviously left for a reason. Most left a country in which they could have paid their way through education with a lot greater ease then by coming to Melkonian, but their parents were convinced that Melkonian would be the best for their child. Yet now they have to go back, to probably repeat another year, which they already may have repeated here.  All these students future has been played around with. We’re not toys that you can move them here and there, we’re all people with emotions and need to be treated as fairly as possible. As for the ones who will come back next year, what is to become of them? Yes this year’s 6^th formers will graduate, yet how can they succeed in a school where there’s no motivation. How can the students keep studying and enjoy themselves in a school in which is half empty and they know that will close?

On the contrary I’d like to add that the Melkoniantsi spirit still exists, please don’t forget that! After the announcement of the closure of the school all the students started protesting. We started shouting, ‘Melkonian merne!” and ‘Go east, go west, Melkonian is the best!’ We raised the Armenian flag and began singing Melkonian’s song. And we did get attention! Every single local channel in Cyprus came to see what the commotion was about.  The next day we lit candles for the Benefactors and again the local channels came to film us. We will fight until the end!

Yet if your decision still remains, a few years after the school has closed, even outsiders, non-Armenian will drive by our school and say, ‘Look this is the school that the Armenians closed themselves. These people always mourn April 24 for the Turks massacring them and they themselves closed down their own school. A school that was a home for all the orphans of the genocide. A school that was 79 years old, just one year before its 80^th anniversary.’ AGBU’s prestige will fall considerably and then they will see what they have done. It is not until after they have closed it down a feeling of deep remorse will come over them and they will see that they truly have committed a white genocide!