“HEROES APPEAR IN TIMES OF TROUBLE …”

On March 31, on the same day as Artsakh hero Arkady Ter-Tadevosyan, Karo Kebabjian, the founder-president of the International Academy of Armenian Black Belts and the official representative of Nagorno Karabakh in the Middle East, passed away. Many close friends of these two noticed that day. “One liberated Shushi, the other was improving it.” Karo Kebabjyan was one of the devotees who came to the world with a certain mission. From the beginning to the last days of his life, he devoted himself to his nation, to the idea of ​​its perpetuation and prosperity, and to its realization.

Karo Kebabjyan used to say, “Just as the sun encapsulates warmth, light and fire, so an Armenian encapsulates the people of Artsakh, the Armenians and the Diaspora.”

Also, “Heroes appear in times of trouble. Even if the heroes are not ready, the day gives birth to them.”

Kebabjyan’s grandparents were from Sebastia, a noble family in Cilicia. He is a descendant of the the Lusinyan dynasty (his last name was changed to Kebabjyan during the massacres for security reasons). The whole family was massacred during the Genocide; only the grandmother survived, who was tortured and thrown among the killed relatives …

Karo Kebabjyan was born in 1957, in Lebanon. The fire of justice was burning in him from an early age. He had the feeling that he was born to be useful to those in need. He soon understood the direction of his mission: he will deeply master Chinese martial arts, which has a unifying potential, will spread among Armenians around the world. At that time “wushu” was still a secret, there were no martial arts schools. The father was against it at first. He agreed only after swearing on Dro’s gun that his son would use the knowledge he received to serve the nation, the needs of his people. Karo managed to go to China to get acquainted with wushu masters and master martial arts with their help.

Then he became a member of the International Organization of Black Belts, in 1974, he became the coach of the Middle East Black Belts Organization, then the champion of the Middle East. He immediately started training Armenian youth. He opened centers in different places of the Diaspora, directing his trained specialists to other Armenian colonies to train Armenian youth.

In those years, the well-known master of “wushu” Kebabjyan taught martial arts in 7 Armenian schools in Lebanon, trained physically fit young people who heroically showed themselves in self-defense battles.

Years later, he was to carry out the same activity in Armenia, bringing in coaches from the Diaspora and involving them in this work. In 1976, he founded the International Academy of Armenian Black Belts and set out on the cherished task of developing and disseminating martial arts in the Homeland. In the early 90s, thanks to his efforts, the Wushu Federation was founded in Artsakh, which became a powerful sports center.

Master Karo’s activities are not limited to this. For 22 years he was the permanent representative of Artsakh in the Middle East, he represented Artsakh with dignity, he spared no effort and energy to strengthen the Artsakh-Armenia-Diaspora trinity by consolidating the potential of Armenians around the world. He was implementing large investment programs in Artsakh. He has stood by the Armenian military since the days of the Artsakh liberation war. Upon learning of the April war, he immediately rushed to Artsakh with his son, 27-year-old Artur. During the last wars, he was on the front line. He organized a large amount of aid and delivered it to the fighting boys…

I had this short briefing with Karo Kebabjyan in 2019, on the initiative of the International Kung Fu Federation, with a break during the days of the International Kung Fu Competition sponsored by Karo Kebabjyan in Yerevan on June 7-9. I was thinking of meeting again on occasion, learning more about this powerful man, and only then writing down my interview. Unfortunately, the next interview did not take place …

And before that, Karo Kebabjyan’s words said during the April four-day war were prophetic. “I am in Artsakh, I will stay until the end, until permanent peace is established on our land. This was a clear wind that they blew, telling us: “Wake up, there will be a storm.” There was a war that was more destructive and full of losses, during which the former freedom fighter was at the forefront again. He was able to bring a lot of help to the Homeland.

Q: Mr. Kebabjyan, please tell us about your activity, about your successes already registered today. Where did you start?

A: First of all, let me say that I am the first Armenian from the Diaspora to go to China and master Chinese martial arts 45 years ago, I started to develop it in the Armenian communities of the Diaspora, from 1974 in Lebanon, Syria, the USA, France, Greece, and then in Soviet Armenia, then in Artsakh. Through the International Academy of Armenian Belts, we presented and disseminated Chinese martial arts, of course, combining it with the Armenian reality, the spirit of the Armenian just struggle.

The important thing is not the tree you planted, but the fruit of the tree. Let me say that in 2001 I was the sponsor of the Wushu competitions. We celebrated our 25th anniversary here.

I am more proud not of my years of work, but of my students in the Diaspora, in Armenia, especially in Artsakh, with my third, fourth, fifth generation coaches. Thanks to the coaches I sent during the Artsakh war, the Artsakh Wushu Federation operates there today. About 5-6 thousand children trained during this period. I speak about all this with great pride, because today we have not only international gold medalists, masters of martial arts, but also heroes of our nation. One of our students is Marat Petrosyan, a recipient of the 1st degree Order of the Battle Cross, who hit 5 tanks and 1 HMM during the three days of the April war. What greater honor could there be?

Q: What do martial arts give to the young generation? How does he prepare for military service, possible combat operations?

A: First of all, what is the meaning of the army, the force, the justice? We must train, strengthen ourselves, use our strength to preserve our Motherland, nation and culture. So, the psychology of Wushu and the description of the Armenian army, the Armenians are very close. What was the struggle between Hayk, Bel, evil and good in Ararat, if not martial arts? Here is the birth of martial arts in the Ararat Valley. In Japan, karate is considered a national martial art because it is short and fast. The Koreans accepted Taekwondo because they are a mountain people, their legs are strong. We, Armenians, created the Armenian martial art, which is the most powerful, the Aryan, fed by the energy of the sun. Decades ago we founded it in Armenia, in Artsakh, today it has deep roots, it serves to strengthen our army. When we were creating our army in the 90s, I opened martial arts centers in 27 villages and cities of Armenia. And I said the same thing to the children. “We must train, become stronger, we must train from the age of 7, at the age of 18 you must proudly go to the Armenian army to serve.” In other words, we have been educating children psychologically since then with limited resources. Thank God, we have an army today, all kinds of specialists, but in those early days my whole concern was to train at least 10-20 children in each of the villages and cities of Armenia. The important thing is not to hit, the important thing is to become spiritually strong. This is the power of martial arts. When I founded the Union of Armenian Belts, my motto, which I introduced in my students, was Ayb-3: “Healthy body, Awake mind, Honest soul”. Far from all kinds of “isms”, far from political games, far from wrong philosophies, sects, far, far away. This trinity was the basis of my life, my birth, I managed to pass it on to my students. To do this I may have been born and, thank God, I did and I succeeded.

I have been with the army since 1990. The army is my basis. Look, this is me (he shows one of his photos during the Artsakh liberation war on his cell phone). Our army is the most important! I have always cooperated with the army. I try to facilitate the work of our army with these martial arts schools.

… Artsakh-Diaspora-Armenia: this is a vital connection, a vital one. I am one of the few Armenians who live in three places: Diaspora, Armenia, Artsakh. I was able to prove the secret and power of that trinity not only with words, but also with my life. Today I have moved hundreds of families to Armenia from the Diaspora. I think a lot about the settlement and strengthening of Artsakh. The strongest point of our international academy today is in Artsakh, because Artsakh is today and always endangered, not France or the United States, do you understand? That is why we are carrying out our most powerful work in Artsakh today. But this must be a body and a bone, that is, every Armenian child must have an olive branch and a pistol under his pillow, because we have no other choice. We love culture, we love church, we love prayer, we love doing good. Our enemy loves blood. So now we have to use force for self-defense, but I say again, there is force, there is just force. Our strength is based on justice to protect our homeland, our family, our culture. So I have dedicated my whole life to this work. For example, during the 30-year fratricidal war in Lebanon, our Armenian armed detachment remained in the Armenian districts for 10 years, defending the right of the people, their families to life. If we did not defend ourselves, we would be massacred there as well. The same in Syria. The same in Kessab. We saw what happened. Wherever an Armenian is in the world, he must be organized and ready to fight. This does not mean that we only believe in war or weapons, not everything. But this is still a part of our lives, unfortunately.

– We must prevent the new genocide.

-Yes! He was interviewed on French television. I said, you do not even need to go deep for a long time, to do historical examinations. The fact is this. In 1915, the Turks committed genocide in Western Armenia, the second genocide was committed against the people of Artsakh. The Sumgait and Baku massacres were the beginning. They would reach the people of Artsakh. The Armenian said, “No, there is no other slaughter.” That’s why we turned to self-defense.

The world was unfair to us. We gave tens of thousands of fighters to the French army to liberate Cilicia, and the French army, which was supposed to protect us, tied the cotton under the horses’ hooves and left Marash. This is what my grandmother told me, she was an eyewitness. He says that the next day the Turks came, burned us and broke us. ” We gave 600,000 troops to the Russian army, 200,000 of which disappeared. There is not a single town or village in Armenia and Artsakh that does not have a khachkar dedicated to the heroes killed in the Patriotic War. What did we get in return? We were left with a small Armenia with countries gnashing their teeth on all sides. We must learn lessons. Once we joined the Diaspora, Armenia, Artsakh and were able to defend ourselves. We have to gather our minds and become fists again. We are obsessed with small issues and gossip, we forget the most important, the most important, the most important issue of national existence, the future of the nation. We must return to our roots and unite…

Here is such a message from a noble Armenian, a broad-minded and struggling man who still had a lot to do for his loving nation…

By KNAR TADEVOSYAN

Photos by Karo Kebabjyan and the family album