Students, faculty and staff crowded around Hahn Plaza on Thursday afternoon, excitedly circling a stage adorned with traditional Armenian carpets in anticipation of the opening ceremony kickstarting USC’s inaugural Armenian History Month.

As the opening speaker, USC Armenian Students’ Association Vice President Mane Berikyan, a junior majoring in international relations and Russian introduced USC’s inaugural celebrations of Armenian History Month.

Daily headlines, sent straight to your inbox.

Subscribe to our newsletter to keep up with the latest at and around USC.

“Over the course of the month, we will be hosting a series of events to honor the rich cultural heritage, history and contributions of the Armenian American community,” Berikyan said.

President Carol Folt was also in attendance, delivering her remarks and sharing her excitement for the inaugural celebrations. 

“We’re coming together today as one Trojan family. And we’re going to celebrate the heritage of Armenian Americans on this campus, in this region of the country and, of course, in the world,” Folt said.

Folt addressed the recent challenges faced by the Armenian population, saying that “the last few years have been very, very difficult with the catastrophic events taking place.” 

Folt’s remarks come not long after the University was embroiled in controversy last September for partnering with the Yunus Emre Institute to host Hasan Murat Mercan, ambassador of Turkey to the United States, at the Türkiye conference. Protestors — who believed Mercan to be complicit in an ongoing Armenian genocide — demonstrated outside Annenberg Hall for several hours.

In the aftermath, letters exchanged between USC and Los Angeles officials following the protests revealed the University cut ties with the Yunus Emre Institute amid the fallout. A Daily Trojan investigation unearthed communications between ASA, Annenberg, Folt and Dean Willow Bay as well as L.A. City Council President Paul Krekorian. 

Mkrtych Gabrielyan, a sophomore majoring in accounting, felt that the University was taking a step in the right direction by choosing to celebrate Armenian History Month.

“I feel proud because, for the first time in a while, the [USC] community gives us more recognition than we have gotten in the past, especially after protesting for certain issues that USC might have overlooked at first,” Gabrielyan said. “I feel recognized for the first time in a while.”

Following Folt, Institute of Armenian Studies Director Shushan Karapetian took the stage. She spoke on the unbreakable fortitude of the Armenian people in persevering through the atrocities they have suffered.

“I present the people dispersed across several empires as subjects holding on to their ethnoreligious and ethnolinguistic identities, of people who experienced the most unthinkable crime of genocide, of premeditated erasure, of elimination, destruction, but willed itself back from the ashes, determined not just to survive but to add value to the world,” Karapetian said.

Karapetian also praised the Armenian people for their contributions to development and innovation throughout the world.

“I tell [my students] that the Armenian story is a multilocal one, in which so many of the innovations and developments have come from Armenians outside of the historic homeland,” Karapetian said.

Karapetian then shared the story of Armenian baker Hovhannes “Ivan” Ghevenian Sagoyan, who invented the Melonpan, a popular Japanese sweet bread snack.

“Just last semester, a Korean student in my Armenian heritage class at USC discovered that it was an Armenian baker who created the popular Japanese sweet bread, Melonpan,” Karapetian said. 

After escaping to China from Russia after the Russian Revolution, Sagoyan moved to Japan and began his own bakery, where he invented the popular snack.

The opening ceremony concluded with traditional dance and music performances by the Lernazang Ensemble. According to Berikyan, the ensemble’s mission is to teach and promote traditional Armenian music in L.A. 

“With a greater mission to decolonize Armenian aesthetics, Lernazang seeks to revive and reconceptualize Armenian heritage,” Berikyan said.

Gabrielyan said his favorite part of the opening ceremony was the dance performances.

“Music and dance is one of the few things that doesn’t need translation,” Gabrielyan said. “It is something you can simply look at, embrace and understand.” 

The opening ceremony is only the beginning of the month-long celebrations for Armenian History Month. Berikyan encouraged listeners to join her in the events planned throughout April, extending invitations to the Armenian Cultural Showcase and Armenian Genocide Lecture taking place in the following weeks.