''Asbarez'' ( "Arena") is an Armenian-American bilingual daily

newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as poli ...

published in

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian diaspora, Armenian communities around the ...

and English in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. It was the official newspaper

Armenian Revolutionary Federation The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (, abbr. ARF (ՀՅԴ) or ARF-D), also known as Dashnaktsutyun (Armenians, Armenian: Դաշնակցություն, Literal translation, lit. "Federation"), is an Armenian nationalism, Armenian nationalist a ...

newspaper for the

Western United States The Western United States (also called the American West, the Western States, the Far West, the Western territories, and the West) is List of regions of the United States, census regions United States Census Bureau. As American settlement i ...

until a 2020

schism A schism ( , , or, less commonly, ) is a division between people, usually belonging to an organization, movement, or religious denomination. The word is most frequently applied to a split in what had previously been a single religious body, suc ...

in the Central Committee of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation in the Western United States.

History

Fresno

In 1907, several

Fresno, California Fresno (; ) is a city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County, California, Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley (California), Central Valley region. It covers a ...

residents — Aslan Aslanian, Bedros Hagopian, Levon Hagopian, Hovaness Kabadayan, Abraham Seklemian, Arpaxat Setrakian and Avedis Tufenkjian — "were in unanimous agreement that such a newspaper was absolutely necessary to serve the needs of the growing immigrant community of

." After much debate, the name ''Asbarez'' ("Arena" in Armenian) was selected, and the newspaper began publication in 1908. An

editorial An editorial, or leading article (UK) or leader (UK), is an article or any other written document, often unsigned, written by the senior editorial people or publisher of a newspaper or magazine, that expresses the publication's opinion about ...

in the first issue stated that "The school, the

Church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

, community organizations all have their role in satisfying the national, spiritual and social needs of the Armenian people. Equally, if not more important, is the role of the press, news and the newspaper

Los Angeles

By the 1970s, the concentration of Armenians in California shifted from the Central Valley to

Los Angeles County Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles and sometimes abbreviated as LA County, is the most populous county in the United States, with 9,663,345 residents estimated in 2023. Its population is greater than that of 40 individua ...

. Instead of creating a second newspaper in Los Angeles, those attending the

moved the ''Asbarez'' operation to Southern California in 1970 and launched a regular

English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

section. The newspaper first printed in the

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

neighborhood of

before moving to Glendale. The newspaper launched a website in 1994. The newspaper moved to Little Armenia in 2008.

Ownership controversy

In December 2020, the

's highest body, the Bureau, appointed a new Central Committee in the Western United States, citing the limitations created by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

as reason for the appointment without the calling of a convention. In contravention to this decision, a separate assembly convened and elected a body which claimed to be the legitimate Central Committee of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation in the Western United States. The splinter group took control of the bank account and various movable and immovable properties of the Western Region, including ''Asbarez''. In April 2022, the newspaper ''Oragark'' was established as the new official publication of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation in the Western United States.

References

External links