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Afrikyan family tree

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Family photos prompted Afrikyan to learn more about his family history

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The Afrikyans' inn takes you back to old Yerevan

“It is typical for us, Armenians, to have a family tree. And it is not accidental that when we gather around tables, we don’t forget to drink a toast for our forefathers. And I think it is good when people know the history of their families,” he says.

Armen Afrikyan himself is from the dynasty of the Afrikyans. During the 1829 Russian-Turkish war, his ancestors emigrated from Bayazet and Alashkert to Eastern Armenia. After that, they settled down near Lake Sevan, founding the village of Nor Bayazet.

“Our great grandfather was Abraham, who married Khanum and had 10 sons and one daughter by her. In 1830, the branch of my grandfathers moved from Gavar to Yerevan,” Armen says.

And still at the beginning of last century the Afrikyans did great things in Yerevan in the field of trade and industry. They owned a fabric store, a cotton press, wine and brandy factories. The contribution of the Afrikyans was great in the construction of the water conduit in Yerevan, which they did as charity.

In connection with the surname of the Afrikyans, Armen says that in 1842 Abraham’s name in the church records was changed to Aprik. His children were then referred to as the Aprikyants, and from 1870 they became Afrikyans. The Afrikyans lived and worked not only in Armenia, but also in Tbilisi, Baku, in Black Sea ports. As they say jokingly, from the shores of the Sevan they reached the coasts of Africa.

Armen Afrikyan says there is a gene sleeping in all of us that only needs to be awakened.

“Old photographs of the family had an influence on me and I began to study the history of the family. Nothing was spoken about our family for a long time during the Soviet years, because in 1922 my grandfathers were dispossessed of their property as kulaks and all their belongings were nationalized,” Armen says.

Armen began to collect documents connected with his family in 2002. He established that Matogh Agha of the Gavar branch of the Afrikyans received the title of prince in Gavar together with the Mamikonyans and the Bagratunis. The son of Arakel Agha became a nobleman in Russia.

“We have all those certificates. And now I consider myself to be of princely origin,” he says.

On the basis of the documents he had collected Armen Afrikyan made a family album and a family tree of the Afrikyan dynasty. The presentation of the album took place a year ago at the newly opened inn of the Afrikyans.

“Nine of the Afrikyan families wished to have a family album. I began to prepare albums for them as well. Then I understood that simply a service needed to be established that could help people to get to know their roots if they wanted to,” Armen says.

In 2006, he established the Afrikyan & Bianjyan Group Co. that restores the history of customers’ dynasty and family. During research work the company works at archives in Yerevan and abroad, applies to state bodies and nongovernmental organizations for information.

“We do huge work with representatives of a given dynasty, collecting memories, recording interviews, making photographs, studying archives,” Armen explains.

Family archives of a dynasty are arranged into “Dynasty Book”, “Photographs Book”, “Documents Book” and “Family Relics Book” sections.

Afrikyan says that the service is an expensive indulgence.

“Usually, when they inquire about the cost, we cannot answer. The final expense depends on the size of a given dynasty,” he says.

Within a year the organization received the largest order from the Yerevan Brandy Company in connection with the creation of an album dedicated to the 130th anniversary of the factory. Some $6,000-7,000 were spent on the work.

“It starts with Tairyan in 1877, then it was purchased by Russian merchant Shustov, then the factory was nationalized and was renamed “Ararat” Trust, and now it is named “Noy”. The work on the 130-page album lasted half a year,” Armen says. “It is fully of silver and bronze. It opens with the dynasty tree of the first owner Tairyan and ends with the dynasty tree of the current owner Gagik Tsarukyan.”

Today, the organization works on the family archive of well-known actor Mher (Frunzik) Mkrtchyan in an act of benevolence. They plan to organize a presentation of the album in February and gift the work to the Mkrtchyan Museum in Gyumri, the granddaughter of the actor who lives in Argentina and the Cinematographic Committee of the Russian Federation.

The family tree of the Afrikyans decorates one of the walls of the Afrikyans’ inn. The old “Erivan” bits and pieces seem to be completed here – old jars, documents, old newspapers and photographs, domestic items. Armen says that part of them belongs to his family, and he purchased the rest from different places.

An old Yerevan-style wooden balcony adorns the entrance to his inn. He managed to save that balcony when the old center of Yerevan was being bulldozed to clear the way for the construction of North Avenue.

“Hopeless people were throwing their old items away. We were picking up things that were useless for them and valuable for us,” Armen says, pointing at the cast-iron cooker near the inn entrance that belonged to last century’s mechanical plant of the Ter Avetikyans.

The Afrikyans inn is a place where one can feel the breath of old Yerevan. Everything here feels sort of warm and dear. The past and the present appear to converge here, which makes visitors think about their forefathers for a moment.