From a young age, Vahan Chamlian has been guided by a principle that dictates that one has to take responsibilities in life.
As an Armenian, the preservation of our national identity and the strengthening of the Armenian Nation have been the driving forces to his success, both as a businessman and as an ardent believer in the advancement of Armenian education. That is what propelled him decades ago to become a critical pillar in the establishment of the Vahan and Anoush Chamlian Armenian School, which has played an integral role in advancing Armenian education and for almost 45 years has become home to thousands of Armenian students who have learned and spoken the Armenian language, while at the same time receiving a top notch education.
This past spring, Chamlian sat down with Asbarez Armenian Edition’s Nane Avagyan at his home in Fresno to discuss the genesis of the Chamlian School and to recount his literal rags to riches story of becoming one of the world’s most renowned businessmen in his field.
“My philosophy has been to build my personal life such that I can help my nation and humanity,” said Chamlian, whose national spirit was instilled in him by his family and was developed through attending Armenian school.
“When I was six years old, the boys in our neighborhood were cub scouts. They took me in their ranks and I late became a boy scout and thus my ties with my Nation were strengthened,” recounted Chamlian.
“You can never forget your national identity, because then you will have no identity to speak of,” Chamlian said with conviction. “The best thing in life is to be able to help, especially your nation.”
After moving to the United States from the Middle East, Chamlian embarks and buying and selling of used clothing. His passion for working and his immediate expertise in quickly propelled him and his business, Chamlian Enterprises Inc., to become the world’s largest dealer in secondhand clothes. With plants in Fresno, Los Angeles and San Lorenzo, Chamlian Enterprises Inc. employs more than 800 people and supplies his wares all over the world.
The secret to Chamlian’s success is his keen and unique ability to negotiate and befriend his business associates.
“I was working with charitable organizations such as the Salvation Army and Goodwill. I had developed warm and friendly relations with their representatives, basically because I was honest in my work and they, in turn, liked and trusted me,” explained Chamlian who added that from a young age his father had always advised him not to hate anyone.
His work ethic not only has brought him success in his business but also has earned him accolades from his colleagues, the U.S. government circles and officials, as well as various organizations that have awarded him with honors and medals, the highest of which was receiving the Ellis Island Medal in 2006.
“If I am very rich but my nation is need, what value do my holdings have? This means you are denying your existence and you must change your nationality,” said Chamlian.
It is with the deep understanding of serving one’s nation that drove Chamlian to play a crucial role in the establishment of the eponymous school.
Chamlian explained the genesis of what would become the Vahan and Anoush Chamlian Armenian school.
He recounted that one day he visited his friend Garo Haddad who had also invited the then Western Prelate Archbishop Yeprem Tabakian and long-time community leader Stepan Kabadayan, who proposed that Chamlian sponsor a classroom in the school, which was operating in a rented facility at the time. There, Haddad told him that he should sponsor not just one classroom but the entire school. Chamlian liked that proposal and went about purchasing the land and building what is now one of the preeminent Armenian schools in Southern California.
In 1983, His Holiness Karekin II, then the Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia personally officiated the blessing and renaming of the school—the Vahan and Anoush Chamlian Armenian School.
Anoush Chamlian, herself a trailblazer in the Armenian community, shared her husband’s penchant for helping his nation and, for more than 60 years, has been by his side as they became a definitive power couple. She has played an active role in the community as a member of the Armenian Relief Society Fresno Chapter and later has held leadership roles as a member of the ARS Regional Executive.
Chamlian recalls meeting Anoush for the first time in Beirut in 1953. That fateful meeting became the beginning of their loving and warm family, which he says is based on mutual respect, trust and love.
“I met Anoush for the first time in a hospital, where she was working in the obstetrics department and her uniform was covered in blood,” recalled Chamlian. “At that time I wasn’t thinking about marriage because I was too busy with work. However, with the encouragement of my adoptive parents I went on a date with Anoush, which was followed by a marriage proposal and 63 years of life together.”
Sometimes we get angry at events in our homeland and we criticize it. But our love for our nation does not subside. Complaining about national matters results from our love of the homeland. It means we are not indifferent to it.
For Chamlian Armenia’s independence was one his dreams. This prompts him to actively enlist in efforts to assist the newly-independent country. His large donation to the Armenia Fund, his separate involvement and contribution to road construction in Artsakh and his donation of a bullet-proof vehicle to the Armenian president, which he deems as a gift to Armenia, all make up the breadth of his contributions immediately after the independence.
One day, during the early days of independence, Chamlian was in Armenia and was visiting old friend the Catholicos who by then had ascended to become Karekin I, Catholicos of All Armenians. He recounts that while in Etchmiadzin, Armenia’s defense minister at the time Vazgen Sargsyan stopped by to meet with Karekin I and asked whether he would accompany him to the airport. The Catholicos brought Chamlian along. At Yerevan’s Zvartnots Airport, Sargsyan showed them a fleet of armored vehicles and tanks parked on the tarmac and explained that immediate funds were needed to release the much-needed hardware as Armenia was in the throes of the Karabakh war. Chamlian boarded his private jet, flew to Europe and returned that same night with $700,000 to cover the costs of the critically-needed equipment.
Chamlian lamented that he has not visited Armenia for many years. For him the events surrounding the 1996 presidential elections, when then president Levon Ter-Petrosian ordered tanks onto the streets of Yerevan, had disappointed him. However, those turn of events have not deterred his love for his country and he has continued to follow the developments in Armenia and assist in its advancement.
Asbarez’s Avagyan interviewed Chamlian before last spring’s popular movement in Armenia. It seems, however, Chamlian had a premonition.
“The young people can and should lead changes in Armenia. Only our new generation can topple the oligarchs,” said Chamlian about his vision for the future and before the movement in Armenia actually toppled the old regime. “All those changes must come about only in a peaceful manner… As they say [through] a white revolution.”
Chamlian is convinced that only through mutual love, respect and a collective effort will there be positive change in Armenia.
Chamlian said that he has accepted the invitation by Artsakh’s then state minister to visit the republic, only with one condition that our 3,000-year-old history be taught in Artsakh elementary schools so that the young minds are molded with the knowledge of our rich and triumphant history.
“Only by sowing the seeds of our national identity in our children we can hope to create the homeland of our dreams,” said Chamlian.
The Armenian Cause was embedded in him from stories he had heard at a young age from his father about the horrors his family experienced during the Armenian Genocide.
However, throughout the years he became convinced that in order for our national demands to come to fruition and for justice to be served to our nation we need a strong homeland and unified nation.
“Only the Armenian government and its leadership, through their actions, can create an atmosphere of trust that can become an inspiration for the entire Armenian nation to come together and engage in strengthening our homeland so that collectively we can regain our complete independence,” explained Chamlian.
He believed that we must continuously emphasize our national values in Diaspora and he believes that Armenian schools play a unique role in the task of strengthening our national identity. At the same time, Chamlian said, we must create ample opportunities for children and young people to meet each other and congregate around our collective ideals to create fertile ground for us to work together in realizing them.
“Our schools and community centers are the places where the opportunities increase for our young generation to come together and create families,” said Chamlian who called for proliferation of such centers in our community.
The advancement of the Armenian identity has also propelled Chamlian to become an arts patron and sponsor burgeoning artists and writes in Diaspora and Armenia.
His kinship to everything Armenian is reflected in the Chamlian residence, which among family photographs also includes artifacts and accessories that are uniquely Armenian. His support for the Armenian Church and its mission is visible in the myriad photographs of Catholicoi Karekin I and Aram I of the Great House of Cilicia that adorn the walls of his house.
He had even build a guesthouse on his property specifically for the late Catholicos Karekin I, who bestowed the “St. Mesrop Mashdots” Medal to Chamlian in 1996. Catholicos Aram I awarded Chamlian with the “Knight of Cilicia” medal.
Chamlian continues to dream about and work toward what he calls “a glorious Armenia.” His deeds and commitment only can become lessons to future generations.
