the 100th Anniversary of the Homenetmen in Constantinople--Master Hagop Kapoudjian

    One of the greatest textile artists, carpet designers, and textile restorers, master weaver, Hagop Kapoudjian, (c. 1870-1946), was also a key figure and one of the founding pillars of Homenetmen.
 
    Homenetmen (Armenian: Հ.Մ.Ը.Մ. pronounced [ˈhɔmɛnetmɛn], an acronym in Armenian for Հայ Մարմնակրթական Ընդհանուր Միութիւն, meaning 'Armenian General Athletic Union' is a pan-Armenian diasporan organization devoted to athletics and scouting. Homenetmen’s credo is "Raise Yourself and Raise Others with You…" (Armenian: Բարձրացի՛ր, Բարձրացո՛ւր, Partsratsir Partsratsour). 
 
    Mr. Kapoudjian was the first, and greatest, master of the Kum Kapi school of silk and metal (gold and silver thread) carpets, and a restoration specialist. His family moved to Constantinople (Istanbul) during the persecution of Armenians under Ottoman rule where he studied Persian rugs and soon after, had his own signature style. 

   After WWI, Kapoudjian moved to Paris where he became renowned for restoring knotted carpets and where he worked on several of Gulbenkian’s rare carpet collections. He continued his weaving and repair work in the French capital, and died there.
 
    Kum Kapi was a village of Armenian population wherein pure silk rugs with extraordinary quality were woven in the 19th century. Although it is a fishing village in the present day, Kum Kapı workshops, near the Great Palace of Ottoman Sultans, produced rugs that rivaled the Hereke Imperial Workshops producing woven rugs of amazing quality.

    During the beginning of the 20th century, two master weavers of Kum Kapı and their workshops were active--Hagop Kapuciyan (Kapoudjian), known colloquially as “Rotund (Fat) Hagop” and Zareh Penyamin, the greatest of the Kum Kapı masters.  
 
    Kapoudjian, coming to Constantinople from Kayseri, a central Anatolian town, established his first looms in Kum Kapı where he initially took 16th century Iranian Carpets and rugs with compartments as models, but innovated the designs by adding distinguished features.
 
   Homenetmen was founded on November 16, 1918, in Constantinople (present-day Istanbul). The idea of a pan-Armenian sports association had been promoted for a number of years by an avid athlete and soccer player, Shavarsh Krissian, who started publishing the Armenian language sports periodical Marmnamarz, in 1911, with the financial support of brothers Levon and Krikor Hagopian and through the encouragement of Hovhannes Hintliyan, and the writer Hagop Sirouni.
 
    On May 1, 1911, the Armenian Olympiad, Navasartian Games, were launched and in 1912, Hintliyan published a pioneering article in Marmnamarz about Robert Baden-Powell and the scouting movement. Soon, thereafter, a great number of Armenian scouting groups were established. In 1913, the third pan-Armenian Olympiad was held, presided by Komitas, and for the first time a number of Armenian scouts also took part. Armenian sporting activities eventually halted due to the onset of World War I and the demise of Shavarsh Krissian as a victim of the Armenian Genocide.
 
   On November 16, 1918, a formative constituent assembly was held in Constantinople (Istanbul) to launch the "Armenian General Athletic Union and Scouts" by a collective of 7 prominent members--Krikor Hagopian, Levon Hagopian, Dikran Koyian, Carlo Shahinian, Haig Jizmejian, Vahram Papazian, and Jirayr Korasanjian, with the active support of writer Hagop Sirouni.
 
    The pan-Armenian association was recognized as the sole Armenian athletic union on December 16, 1918 with the formation of the first Homenetmen Executive Committee. Four Homenetmen chapters were soon opened in various Constantinople neighborhoods. Vahan Cheraz founded the scouting chapter of the association.
 
    On July 20, 1920, the founding members of Homenetmen were officially invited to the independent Republic of Armenia to share their expertise regarding athleticism and scouting with the Republic's government. The Homenetmen Executive Committee sent Vahan Cheraz, Dikran Khoyan, and Onig Yazmajian to the meeting. Although initially successful in their efforts to spread Homenetmen’s athletic and scouting movement within Armenia, Homenetmen later was banned from Armenia after the Bolshevik takeover of the Free Republic of Armenia and the forced creation of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1921.
 
    In 1922, the Homenetmen chapters in Constantinople were also forced to close their doors under Kemalist Turkish persecution, with the organization's leaders being forced into dispersion throughout the world.
 
     Homenetmen, at 100 years, has survived and grown exponentially around the globe and in Armenia, becoming one of the largest and most resilient Armenian organizations in the world. It has consistently produced generations of citizenry of high character, promoting the fine tenets of athleticism, scouting, and activism, Raising Themselves and Raising Others…