Photo: Bir Zeit University
Albert Aghazarian, a Palestinian Armenian, passed away earlier this week. He was a polyglot and a true Jerusalemite, a profile of the Armenian Quarter in the Old City, “a walking encyclopedia of the Old City”. However, for me he was most of all the charismatic, witty and dynamic Director of Public Relations at Bir Zeit Univetsity, on the West Bank, where I worked as a young librarian 1982–1983. He held this position for a quarter of a century. With his personality he must have left an impression on every student and foreign correspondent that he came across.
In 1991, he became the spokesperson of the Palestinian delegation at the Madrid peace conference, alongside Hanan Ashrawi. It is telling that both spokespersons for the Palestinians during that important but unsuccessful peace conference were Christians from different denominations, backing up the head the delegation, Dr Haidar Abdel Shafi from Gaza.
Albert Aghazarian, in his mission in Madrid, was aided by his “first name familiarity with about one thousand of the journalists there”, as Penny Johnson, one of his former colleagues at Bir Zeit once put it in Middle East Report.
I remember meeting Albert Aghazarian in East Jerusalem again when I, at that time the Middle East correspondent of Svenska Dagbladet, covered a visit by Carl Bildt, Sweden’s foreign minister, to Jordan, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Albert was of course one of the Palestinian personalities from the civil society that the foreign minister had to meet. Who, after all, knew more about the history of the Old City in Jerusalem, and who was more committed to preserving its cultural diversity?
For those of you who wish to read more about Albert’s bio, here is his portrait in This Week in Palestine, published some years ago.
Albert Aghazairan would have deserved a documentary of his own. But since I have not found one, here is a short video clip with Albert in the Old City from 1991.
Rest In Peace.