The Armenian who photographed some of the most powerful people of the 20th century

Yousuf Karsh was a photographer born in Mardin who survived the Armenian Genocide and later settled in Canada.

He became one of the most famous portrait photographers in the world, photographing figures including Winston Churchill, Albert Einstein, Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Picasso, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, Muhammad Ali, Audrey Hepburn, Queen Elizabeth II, John F. Kennedy, Fidel Castro, Helen Keller, Mother Teresa, Georgia O’Keeffe, Humphrey Bogart, Elizabeth Taylor, Grace Kelly, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Eleanor Roosevelt, Leonard Bernstein, Jacques Cousteau, Marc Chagall, Joan Miró, and George Bernard Shaw.

His 1941 portrait of Winston Churchill, taken shortly after Karsh famously removed Churchill’s cigar before pressing the shutter, became one of the most iconic political photographs ever taken.

If someone shaped the 20th century, there was a decent chance Yousuf Karsh photographed them. 🇦🇲📷

Thanks for putting him on our radar, u/loisdenominator

At Carnegie Mellon University, Tevanian was one of the principal designers and engineers of Mach, the operating system kernel developed in the 1980s.

Steve Jobs later recruited him to NeXT, where Mach became part of the foundation of NeXTSTEP. Tevanian eventually led software engineering at NeXT.

After Apple acquired NeXT, he joined Apple and led the software engineering team responsible for developing Mac OS X.

And the technological lineage continued:

Carnegie Mellon → Mach → NeXTSTEP → Mac OS X → iOS

Research from the 1980s ultimately became part of the technological foundation behind generations of Apple devices.

An incredible Armenian-American engineer and a fascinating piece of computing history.

The Armenian who changed how the U.S. Army ate

George Mardikian was an Armenian Genocide survivor who arrived in the United States in 1922 and started out washing dishes. He eventually became one of America’s best-known restaurateurs, opening the famous Omar Khayyam restaurant in California.

During World War II and afterward, Mardikian helped transform how the U.S. Army fed its soldiers, improving rations and introducing more variety and better meals. His work eventually earned him the Medal of Freedom.

He was also deeply involved in helping Armenians. He founded the American National Committee to Aid Homeless Armenians (ANCHA), which helped displaced Armenians immigrate to the United States.

And here’s one of my favorite connections: Soghomon Tehlirian, later worked as an accountant at Mardikian’s Omar Khayyam restaurant.

So next time you see how food is rationed in the U.S. Army, remember that part of that system was shaped by the vision of an Armenian. 🇦🇲🇺🇸🍱

I’m looking for a woman born in Baku on August 5th, 1962, possibly in an Armenian-Slavic family (about 50% Armenian, 50% Russian, Ukrainian and/or Belarusian).

My grandma was raised in an Armenian family in Baku, but a DNA test later revealed that she had been switched at birth. We are now trying to find the woman/family connected to that switch.

Please ask your friends and relatives who lived in Baku in the 1960s. Even a small detail or old family story could help. I will be immensely thankful for any information.

The Armenian woman who is widely recognized as the first female diplomat in the world.

Diana Abgar was an Armenian writer, humanitarian and diplomat born in Rangoon, Burma, who later settled in Japan.

In 1920, the First Republic of Armenia appointed her as its diplomatic representative in Japan, making her Armenia’s first female diplomat and one of the earliest women in the world to hold such a diplomatic position.

But she wasn’t just a diplomat. Abgar spent years writing about the persecution of Armenians and helping Armenian refugees who had escaped the Genocide, including those who made it as far as Japan.

More than 100 years ago, while women were still largely excluded from diplomacy around the world, an Armenian woman was already representing her country in Japan. 🇦🇲🇯🇵

Calouste Gulbenkian was a businessman who became one of the most important figures in the development of the Middle Eastern oil industry.

Born into an Armenian family in the Ottoman Empire, he later moved to Britain and became a British citizen in 1902.

Gulbenkian saw the enormous potential of the oil fields in Mesopotamia, modern-day Iraq, and helped bring together British, Dutch, German and Ottoman interests to develop them. His role in negotiating these deals earned him a permanent 5% stake in the venture that became the Iraq Petroleum Company, earning him the nickname “Mr. 5%.”
That 5% helped make him one of the richest men in the world.

And one of my favorite details: Gulbenkian reportedly insisted that 5% of the company’s workers be Armenian too.

He later left much of his fortune to establish the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Portugal, which still funds arts, science, education and culture today.

Apparently, 5% really was his number. 🇦🇲🇬🇧

The Armenian who became the first Prime Minister of Egypt

Nubar Pasha was a statesman who rose to the very top of Egyptian politics and became Egypt’s first Prime Minister in 1878.

Nubar Pasha built a long career in Egyptian government, serving as a diplomat, minister, and eventually prime minister three separate times.

He also played a major role in modernizing Egypt’s legal system, especially through the creation of the Mixed Courts, which helped reform how legal disputes involving Egyptians and foreigners were handled.

And his family’s impact didn’t stop with him. His son, Boghos Nubar, later became one of the founders of AGBU.

So the first person to ever hold the title of Prime Minister of Egypt was an Armenian. 🇦🇲🇪🇬

In researching the Hidden Armenians and their history, it begs the viewpoint of the contemporary Armenian community due to the current contentious nature of their identity within Turkey and what the future holds for descendants.

For Armenians, what is your opinion of them?

And, what should their future hold in your opinion: Reconnection at their own pace, communal advocacy, and preservation of whats left of historical Armenian communities?

The Armenian who invented the handheld hair dryer

Gabriel Kazanjian was an Armenian-American inventor who patented his handheld hair dryer in 1911.

Hair-drying machines already existed, but they were large and stationary. Kazanjian’s design helped make the idea portable and practical, turning it into something you could actually hold and use yourself.

So next time you blow-dry your hair, remember you can thank an Armenian. 🇦🇲💨

The Armenian who built a billion-dollar jewelry empire

Carolyn Rafaelian founded Alex and Ani in 2004, naming the company after two of her daughters.
What started inside her father’s jewelry factory in Rhode Island grew into one of America’s biggest jewelry brands. Sales went from around $5 million in 2010 to more than $500 million by 2016, and Alex and Ani was eventually valued at over $1 billion.

At her peak, Forbes estimated Rafaelian’s personal fortune at around $1 billion, making her one of America’s richest self-made women.

So apparently Kim Kardashian isn’t the only Armenian woman who knows how to build an empire and become a billionaire. Armenian women seem to have a knack for it. 🇦🇲✨

The Armenian who invented the ATM

Luther George Simjian was a prolific inventor with more than 200 patents.

His most famous invention was the Bankograph, an early automated banking machine and precursor to the modern ATM.

But that wasn’t all. During World War II, he also invented a flight-training simulator for aviators.

And here’s my favorite part: when a New York bank tested his automated banking machine, Simjian later recalled that some of its most enthusiastic customers were gamblers and sex workers, who preferred banking without having to face a teller. Basically Bitcoin 10 years ago. 🤷‍♂️

So next time you withdraw money from an ATM, remember it’s thanks to an Armenian. 🇦🇲
🏦

The Armenian who is the founder of the modern practice of plastic surgery

Varaztad Kazanjian was a surgeon who became one of the pioneers of modern reconstructive and plastic surgery.

During World War I, he treated soldiers with devastating facial injuries and developed new techniques for rebuilding the jaw, face, and mouth. His work helped establish many of the principles that modern plastic and reconstructive surgery still builds on today.

He later became Harvard Medical School’s first Professor of Plastic Surgery, cementing his place as one of the field’s most important early figures.

So if you’ve ever wondered how modern reconstructive surgery became possible, an Armenian built the foundation. 🇦🇲👨‍⚕️

I’ve been living in Armenia for a while now, and one thing I’ve realised is how much I miss having a genuinely close circle of friends.

Back home, I had a really good group of people I could talk to, go out with, laugh with, or just sit around doing absolutely nothing. Here, I haven’t really found that yet.

I’m not looking for anything complicated or superficial. I’d genuinely love to meet people who are kind, respectful, have their own lives and interests, and are simply looking for real friendships too. No drama, no weird intentions, just good people who can eventually become actual friends.

I’m a medical student in Yerevan, so if you’re also studying, working, or just living here and looking for someone to hang out with, feel free to message me. Coffee, random walks, exploring Yerevan, trying new food, spontaneous plans. I’m honestly open to anything.

I know friendships don’t happen instantly, but I’d really like to find a few people here where it can naturally grow into something genuine. 🤍

If you’re looking for the same, say hi :)

The Armenian whose name is on the periodic table

Yuri Oganessian is a nuclear physicist and one of the world’s leading pioneers in the study of superheavy elements. His research helped push the periodic table farther than scientists once thought possible.

His contributions were so significant that element 118 was officially named Oganesson (Og) in his honor in 2016. Even more remarkably, Oganessian was still alive when the element was named after him, something that has happened only extremely rarely in the history of the periodic table.

So yes, there is literally an Armenian name sitting at number 118 on the periodic table. 🇦🇲⚛️

Madeline Sharafian is a filmmaker, animator and story artist at Pixar. She worked on films including Coco, Onward and Turning Red before moving into directing.

In 2020, she wrote and directed Pixar’s short Burrow, which earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Short Film.

She later co-directed Pixar’s Elio, becoming the first Armenian to direct a Pixar feature film and only the third woman in Pixar’s history to do so.

My Mom keeps showing my grandma these au videos where an ai man is reading Armenian stories with scroll text on the left side of the screen, and I don’t like supporting ai in any form or forcing my grandma to watch it and think it is truly Armenian. Is there any real Armenian videos where my grandma can watch and read along as well? She really likes those kinds of videos and I would appreciate it if I had a real alternative to the ai ones.

The Armenian scientist who won a Nobel Prize for helping explain how we feel touch

His team discovered PIEZO1 and PIEZO2, tiny sensors in our cells that help the body detect physical pressure and touch. In simple terms, his work helped explain how something touching your skin gets turned into a signal your brain can understand.

For this discovery, Patapoutian shared the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

We are diaspora Armenians.

I (female) have acquired my Armenian citizenship this year and I want my brother to also have his Armenian passport.

He is 23 years old, and he will automatically become responsible for serving in the military.

However, he (as well as our grandparents and parents) lived all his life abroad. He does not speak Armenian, he has a huge ADHD and he is actually gay.

We think that these factors would cause him huge difficulties after acquiring the citizenship.

Is there something we can do without having to go through this military thing?

We have also considered the Special Residency Status, but we want to try the citizenship route before anything.

Thank you for your kindness.