Embattled Vicken and Nora Hovsepian attempt to salvage their widely discredited asset Arch. Hovnan Derderian of Western Diocese

BY APPO JABARIAN
Managing Editor
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Since 2011, the Khrimian Hayrig Award was given by the ANCA-WR to worthy recipient clerical figures like Archbishop Barkev Martirossian, Primate of the Diocese of Artsakh, and Very Rev. Joseph D. Matossian, Minister to the Union of the Armenian Evangelical Union of North America, who have dedicated their lives in service to the Armenian Nation and Cause, in the spirit of the award’s inimitable namesake.
However, to the surprise and shock of several community members in Western U.S. Armenian National Committee of America – Western Region (ANCA-WR) Chairwoman announced that Arch. Hovnan Derderian, Primate of the Western Diocese of the Armenian Church of North America, will be honored with the same award at this year’s Annual Gala Banquet.
By reading the press release carefully, one can easily detect the fingerprints of Nora Hovsepian, Esq. who increasingly sounds like embattled Arch. Hovnan Derderian’s defense attorney in the Armenian American public opinion court. One wonders, is it possible that Mrs. Hovsepian is positioning herself as hers and her husband Vicken Hovsepian’s protégé Hovnan Derderian’s real-life defense attorney in a possible future legal proceeding pertaining Derderian’s ever-growing litany of wrongdoings? See the Aug. 12, 2019 Armenian Church Reform Special Report titled “Twenty-Plus Reasons Why Hovnan Derderian’s Time Has Come to End” at the following link: http://www.armenianlife.com/2019/08/16/twenty-plus-reasons-why-hovnan-derderians-time-has-come-to-end/

Hovsepian’s press release states: “His Eminence Archbishop Hovnan Derderian graduated from the theological seminary of the Cilician Catholicosate in Bikfaya, Lebanon in 1975.”
According to reliable sources, Derderian has never graduated from the seminary in Lebanon. He was expelled because of illegitimate sexual acts breaking his celibacy vows. He was also a notorious gossiper and innuendo disseminator within the seminary. By Honoring such a discredited clergy – a notoriously immoral, liar, and thief like Derderian, ANCA-WR’s Nora Hovsepian is desecrating the Armenian Apostolic Church, ruining the reputation of ANCA throughout the world and committing blasphemy against Christian religion.
The press release continued: “In 1990, Very Rev. Father Hovnan Derderian was elected Primate of the Diocese of the Armenian Church of Canada, whereupon he was elevated to the rank of Bishop and later as Archbishop.”
Does Nora Hovsepian know that the proposed honoree Derderian was caught red-handed in embezzlement of funds in Canada from a fund especially set-up to assist Armenia- and Artsakh-based widows and fatherless children? It’s interesting to note that the proposed honoree was expelled from his position as primate of Canada Diocese?
In 2003, Derderian was forced upon the Western Diocese as their new primate while the unwitting Western Diocese parishioners and supporters were clueless about Derderian’s many wrongdoings in Canada and Lebanon. Hovsepian’s misdeed is a blatant and shameless disregard of the Armenian community’s outrage against a persona non-grata like Derderian who has hijacked the Diocese seat for another term by openly breaking the By-Laws of the Diocese. And who were Derderian’s potential co-conspirators? Non other than attorney Joseph Kanimian and Commissioner-Judge Adrienne Krikorian.
Renowned public speaker, investigative journalist and an expert on the By-Laws of the Armenian Apostolic Church Vosgan Mekhitarian, wrote after the Western Diocesan Assembly of May 2016: “Considering that the re-election took place a year before the primate’s term has expired, which is very unusual in our Church life, this step gives us the opportunity to state that the 2016 Assembly of Representatives has plundered the 2017 Diocesan Assembly’s constitutional rights and responsibility to elect a primate. Has there ever seen anything like this …? What a comedy! This a clear violation of the By-Laws of the Western Diocese!
One wonders, how did attorney Joseph Kanimian, Diocesan Council President in 2016 and Diocesan Council Vice President Commissioner-Judge Adrienne Krikorian (current Diocesan Council President) wittingly or unwittingly allowed themselves to become accomplices in a serious violation of the Western Diocese’s By-Laws? Why did they and continue to act as blind, deaf, and mute? Is it because they did not and do not want to see, hear, or speak? (For the sake of transparency, here’s my proposal being presented publicly yet again to Kanimian and Krikorian, in favor of public transparency and accuracy: If any parts of this article are erroneous, please send a written request for correction to the editorial offices of USA Armenian Life via email to usarmenianlife@gmail.com and cc this writer at appojabarian@gmail.com).
Mr. Mkhitaryan further added that right around the same time as the 2016 Diocesan Assembly, the “Homeland Protection Fund,” which has been under Derderian’s control announced that “to date has donated approximately $500,000 to the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin.”
“Brief analysis: The money has been transferred and the position of primate has been guaranteed. We should let the reader reach his own conclusion in regards to this latest comedy,” added Mekhitarian.
According to Mr. Mekhitarian’s information, one can conclude that, in order to ensure his re-appointment (rather than re-election) at the 2016 Diocesan Assembly in Las Vegas, Hovnan Derderian has simply sent his ‘gift’ to Karekin II of Etchmiadzin expediently.
Fast-forward to 2019. One wonders, in order to receive The Khrimian Hayrig Award, what set of promises has Derderian made to, and what reciprocal awards will he ‘gift’ to Dr. and Mrs. Vicken and Nora Hovsepian?
Furthermore, how much will Derderian ‘donate’ to Vicken Hovsepian’s bank by way of depositing millions of dollars belonging to the Western Diocese? Where have been deposited the multimillion-dollar funds of the Western Diocese Endowment Fund? Are they all deposited at Hovsepian’s bank? If so, then, for Derderian, that would be a effective way to bribe and make a last-ditch attempt to rescue his tarnished reputation through a high-profile organization like ANCA-WR at the expense of the organization itself.
“The Khrimian Hayrig Award represents an acknowledgment of exemplary service and devotion to the Armenian people by a religious leader. Archbishop Derderian for decades has personified this special type of commitment to the Armenian Nation and has collaborated closely with the ANCA-WR to advance the Armenian Cause,” remarked ANCA-WR Chair Nora Hovsepian, Esq.
Contrary to Derderian’s treacherous undermining the Armenian Nation and its Cause through covert support of the now-infamous anti-Armenian Turkish Protocols, His Holiness Khrimian Hayrig, Catholicos of All Armenians unlike Derderian, led a valiant political struggle in support of the Armenia Nation and its Cause.
ANCA-WR gala banquet shouldn’t serve as the venue for any kind of award to Derderian. The most appropriate venue is non-other than Ankara’s ottoman-style presidential palace of Turkish Dictator Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in presence of all the archenemies of Armenians ‘The Turkish Grey Wolves’ and their infamous leader Hasan Oktay who is in close collaboration with The informant of Istanbul Arch. Aram Ateshian who is a close ally of Arch. Hovnan Derderian and anti-Christian and anti-Armenian Karekin II and his blood-brother Arch. Yezras of Moscow.
The press release mentioned that “Recognizing the importance of cultivating and maintaining strong ties between the youth and the Church, Archbishop Derderian has also taken active steps to establish and expand numerous Saturday schools and Sunday schools, as well as an expansion of the Armenian Church Youth Organization, and the Nerouj program for youth empowerment and strengthening connections of young professionals with the Church.”
Contrary to Nora Hovsepian’s misrepresentations, it is under Derderian’s watch that the Armenian youth participation in community and church activities has dwindled and now sadly, according federal and state government sources, over 18,000 Armenian youth are now either imprisoned, or have become gang members, or become drug-addicts causing irreparable damage to themselves, their families, their people and their national church in Western U.S. and beyond. Nowadays, more than anything the Armenian church under Derderian and his business associate Manouk Markaryan is serving more like funeral parlor than anything else. One can imagine the level of management under Derderian when the embattled primate has ‘proudly’ appointed Pastor Markaryan as his personal advisor and official spokesman of Western Diocese disregarding the fact Pastor Markaryan has been officially declared a “liar” in a U.S. Court by Judge Hammock. According to recently revealed documents from the archives, Markaryan was also caught as a thief by the late Pastor Vardan Tadevosyan of St. John Garabed Armenian Church
in Hollywood.
In the press release, Hovsepian also falsely claimed credit for the 166,000 strong March for Justice in Los Angeles on the occasion of the centennial of the Armenian Genocide when in fact with or without her, her husband and Derderian, the Armenian people were ready anyway to take it to the streets in April 2015. And then she boasted about her autocrat husband Vicken Hovsepian teaming up with the autocrat of Western Diocese Derderian conspiring to hijack community leadership through the ill-vised establishment of the Pan Armenian Council of the Western United States.
Commenting on the formation of the Pan Armenian Council of Western United States, Cal State University, Long Beach, Political Science Prof. Z. S. Andrew Demirdjian stated: “Self-perpetuating oligarchy is the thing of the past. We live now in the 21st century with the aim of abolishing the old ways of the 17th-18th-century schemes of running social, business and government affairs. We need to be represented by elected members of the community by means of a popular vote so that each citizen would have the power to replace, when the need arises, the deadwood representatives serving on the council. Without democratic elections, the Pan Armenian Council of Western United States leaders would be considered illegitimate representatives of the Armenian community by hijacking the prerogative of every Diaspora Armenian’s unalienable right to vote for their preferred candidate. Those who are guided by strong convictions of democratic principles would abhor the camouflaged usurpation of power by a small group of ego-driven, self-serving individuals.”
The cronies of the Hovsepians also boast that Derderian is a primary asset for the fledgling fundraising efforts for Armenian American Museum when in fact a number of potential major benefactors, upon seeing Derderian’s name in the letterheads and brochures, have decided to abstain from making any donations until Derderian resigns from the Armenian American Museum Board and The Western Diocese in general.
Recently Hovnan Derderian was forced to seek funds from outside United States because members of the American Armenian community who have become keenly aware of his real persona, have started holding off on making any kind of donations to the Western Diocese and any other communitywide project or organization that Derderian is involved in.
The press release also stated: “The Khrimian Hayrig Award represents an acknowledgment of exemplary service and devotion to the Armenian people by a religious leader. Archbishop Derderian for decades has personified this special type of commitment to the Armenian Nation.”
Let us not be surprised if a number of past worthy recipients of Khrimian Hayrig Award choose to return their awards upon learning of Hovsepian’s decision to present such an award an unworthy and discredited recipient like Derderian.
A consultant for the World Bank, Canadian Int’l Development Agency (CIDA), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the United Nation Development Agency (UNDP), the Government of China and the Foreign Affairs Ministry in Nagorno-Karabakh; a graduate of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government in Public Administration specializing in Ethical Leadership, an international consultant and trainer on Good Governance, Ethical Leadership, Anti-corruption education and social accountability, Garbis Korajian stated: “Few weeks after forming the undemocratic and shameful, ‘Pan-Armenian Council of Western United States’ by ARF’s Viken Hovsepian and Western Diocese’s Arch. Hovnan Derderian and their cronies, Nora Hovsepian’s ANCA-WR announced that Arch. Derderian will be honored with the ‘Khrimian Hayrig Award.’ Unfortunately, using the name of our beloved Khrimian Hayrig to honor and decorate individuals like Hovnan Derderian is shameful and unacceptable. The glorification and decoration of such undeserving recipients, who have very shady past is like awarding the medal of freedom to former Zimbabwean President, Robert Mugabe, who took one of the most prosperous African countries and turned it into one of the most corrupt and the poorest in the world. If ANCA’s Hovsepian does not watch out her behavior and continue to aggrandize the likes of Derderian, the ANCA’s good name and reputation will plummet among its supporters and sympathizers, such as myself. As a last note, our organizations have to stop such ‘monkey-business’ and honor only deserving Armenians, who have unequivocally served their communities. “
I am very confident that Khrimian Hayrig of blessed memory must be turning in his grave upon seeing his good name and holy memory desecrated at the hands of individuals like Vicken and Nora Hovsepian.
Apparently, the mistakes, committed day after day, by Vicken and Nora Hovsepian’s camp are causing Vicken Hovsepian’s own pyramid within the ARF-WR Tashnag Party to begin collapsing or, in the best scenario, continue drowning deeper into a political quicksand.