Armenian Athletes Celebrate Culture

Ten thousand people celebrated the annual Navasartian Games on Sunday at Birmingham High School in Van Nuys, an event that has captivated the Southland’s Armenian community for 26 years.

The competition, first held after the Armenian holocaust of 1918, aims to build character and strength of mind through sportsmanship, organizers said.

More than 3,500 child and adult athletes competed for eight consecutive weekends, beginning May 5. Sunday marked the final day.

Most competitors came from California, Arizona, Utah and Nevada. All are part of the Armenian General Athletic Union & Scouts, or Homenetmen, an international sports group founded for orphans of the massacre of Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Turks in 1918, said Steve Artinian, an organizer of the event.

The organization has helped hold together Armenian culture and consciousness after the diaspora spread the community across the globe. Some 800,000 live in Southern California.

“The Los Angeles area is the best place,” Artinian said. “We have the largest Armenian population in the world here outside of Armenia.”

Winners are crowned in basketball, volleyball, soccer, track and field, ping pong, tennis, swimming and golf. But the games are as much a cultural as an athletic event, sponsors said.

The event reflects the strength of the tightknit Armenian community in Southern California, said John Kahwajian, who heads one of the San Fernando Valley’s Homenetmen chapters.

“It shows we can work together,” he said while standing in front of a popular shish kebab booth. “My two kids are competing. With events such as this, they feel more Armenian than American, because they’re so involved in the community.”

Sareen Tavidian, 8, played basketball, but her team did not qualify for the championship match Sunday. Nevertheless, she called it a learning experience.

“Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose,” she said.