Day: June 25, 2024

Sima Setian Pariseau, 56, and Dylan Pariseau, 27, pillars of the St. Gregory Armenian Apostolic Church community of Indian Orchard, Massachusetts, died last week, victims of an apparent murder-suicide.

“Sima was a quiet leader, a rock, a beacon — a steadying force we all need in our lives,” Tanya Garibian, chairperson of the St. Gregory Church Board, said in the Weekly. “Her warm smile had the remarkable ability to reach out and hug and comfort you from afar. This quiet strength and compassion were the hallmarks of her character. Dylan, her mini-me, carried that same light, humility and love within him.”

Police found Sima and Dylan in the basement of their home with gunshot wounds on the morning of June 18, Wilbraham Chief of Police Edward Lennon told the Weekly. Peter Donaldson, Sima’s domestic partner, was found on the first floor of the house with self-inflicted gunshot wounds. The Wilbraham Police Department was responding to a call from a person “known to the family” who was “concerned about their wellbeing.” Donaldson had suffered with depression for several months leading up to the incident, according to a group of Sima’s friends. 

Sima leaves behind a legacy as a community leader and vice chair of the Board of Trustees of St. Gregory. The church described Sima as the “epitome of strength, our moral compass and a compassionate leader. She was admired for her critical thinking and never backed away from difficult decisions,” in a statement celebrating her life. As a member of the Board of Trustees, Sima organized and led many of the church’s major events — including on June 16, when she was last seen wearing a ‘Kitchen Helper’ apron and serving food alongside Dylan at the church’s Father’s Day picnic. 

“Sima’s entire life was built around loving and comforting others and doing good while she was here on earth,” Garibian said, describing Sima and her family as the “backbone” of the church. “She loved Saint Gregory church — the people, the culture, the history and the Christian outreach. Dylan was following in her footsteps, always there to lend a hand and offer support with humility and grace.”

Sima was the latest in a long line of leaders of St. Gregory from the Setian family. The Setians were among the 26 charter families who founded the church in 1934. Sima’s father Harry Setian was honored at the church’s 90th anniversary celebration this April for his years of volunteer service, and her brother Bedros is a deacon at the church.

Click to view slideshow.

Nayiri Baljian Bell, the principal of the St. Stephen’s Sunday School whose father was the pastor of St. Gregory for 19 years, recalled seeing Sima’s face “glowing with pride” as she watched her father receive the award. “I’m sure his face was glowing with pride when he saw her doing all that she was doing,” Baljian Bell said. 

Growing up, Sima would babysit Baljian Bell and her brother, and she would later babysit Sima’s niece and nephew. She still calls Sima’s parents “Uncle Harry and Aunt Liz” and lovingly remembers “Uncle Harry’s pilaf.” “In a small place like Springfield, with a small Armenian community, these people are your family,” she said.

Baljian Bell reflected in a conversation with the Weekly on the importance of intergenerational ties, like those of the Setian family, in keeping small Armenian communities alive. “Sima had an outsize impact, in many ways like her parents. She was a workforce, a positive influence. She was always moving, always working, always serving, and that’s exactly how I remember her parents,” she said. 

St. Gregory’s 90th anniversary celebration at the Wilbraham Country Club, April 14, 2024

As her parents aged, Sima took charge of their medical needs, ensuring they attended all their appointments and providing them with daily support. Indeed, service was interwoven with Sima’s life. She was a long-time employee of Baystate Medical Center as a medical coding specialist as well as a recent coding specialist at Massachusetts General Brigham Hospital. She was also a volunteer with the Hampden County Court Appointed Special Advocate program, where she aided youth in the foster care system. 

Her son Dylan followed her footsteps into the medical field. He received a bachelor of science degree in biology and chemistry from Keene State College in 2019. He worked as a research associate at Moderna Therapeutics and a senior research associate at Verve Therapeutics. 

During the Father’s Day picnic, Garibian jokingly called Dylan the AARP guide, after observing him helping elderly members of the community, whether by assisting them down the stairs into the church hall or walking them from their cars to the picnic grounds. His humble smile spoke for him as if to say, “That’s just me. That’s who I am, and that’s who I’ll always be.”

“At a tender age, he was supportive, humble, and like Sima, always flying under the radar, changing the world and helping people one by one. Today, they soar with the angels,” Garibian said. 

A wake will be held for Sima and Dylan on June 26 from 2-6 p.m., followed by a funeral on June 27 at 11 a.m. Both will be held at St. Cecilia Parish, 42 Main St., Wilbraham, Massachusetts 01095.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions in Sima’s name may be made to St. Gregory, the Court Appointed Special Advocates of Hampden County or Survivors Empowered, a nonprofit organization that supports survivors of gun violence and the family and friends of shooting victims. Memorial contributions in Dylan’s name may be made to the David Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the Baystate Health Foundation or Survivors Empowered. 

Message from the St. Gregory Church community

By Tanya Garibian, chairperson of the St. Gregory Church Board

With heavy hearts, we at Saint Gregory Armenian Church in Indian Orchard, Massachusetts, honor the lives of our beloved Sima Setian Pariseau and her sweet son Dylan Pariseau. In our moment of profound grief, we also find an opportunity to celebrate two lives that truly embodied all that is good about Armenians and radiated love, kindness and unwavering faith.

Sima was a quiet leader, a rock, a beacon—a steadying force we all need in our lives. Her presence was unique and irreplaceable. Her warm smile had the remarkable ability to reach out and hug and comfort you from afar. This quiet strength and compassion were the hallmarks of her character. Dylan, her mini-me, carried that same light, humility and love within him.

St. Gregory Church Board

Tragically, both Sima and Dylan were taken from us through an act of senseless violence — a brutality not one of us can understand. This dark action might have taken their lives, but it did not kill their souls. It is up to us to ensure that their spirit continues to shine brightly. We cannot allow this tragedy to beat us. Instead, we must honor their memory by pushing forward as their brothers and sisters in Christ, carrying on the mantle of our church and all that was so important to them.

Sima’s entire life was built around loving and comforting others and doing good while she was here on earth. She and her entire family are the backbone of Saint Gregory Armenian Church in Indian Orchard. Someone wrote on Facebook that she and her family were synonymous with the church altar. It is so true! She loved Saint Gregory Church — the people, the culture, the history and the Christian outreach. Dylan was following in her footsteps, always there to lend a hand and offer support with humility and grace.

I recall during last Sunday’s Father’s Day picnic, I joked with Dylan that he was the AARP guide, because if you stopped and took a moment to take in the day, you saw him reaching out to our elders who needed help or support — whether it was assisting them down the stairs into the church hall or walking with them from their car to the picnic grounds. He smiled back at me with complete humility — his smile spoke for him, as if to say, “That’s just me; that’s who I am and that’s who I’ll always be.” At a tender age he was supportive, humble, and like Sima, always flying under the radar, changing the world and helping people one by one. Today, they soar with the angels.

Sima and Dylan’s love extended to everyone — best friends and neighbors alike. They had a way of projecting love and kindness to everyone around them, near and far. As we remember them, we can only learn from their example and carry their lessons on like a torch — passing it on like in a relay, from person to person, to keep their beautiful spirits burning and their memories alive.

There is a huge hole in our hearts. My own heart feels so empty, left with just a thin outline of its former self. Yet, in this emptiness, we can find the strength and the will from God to continue what Sima and Dylan wanted: a vibrant Armenian church, our pews packed, a world full of peace, lighting up the world with compassion, giving back, loving one another and being kind and gracious every day.

As we remember Sima and Dylan, I reflect on a Bible verse that so perfectly encapsulates their lives and legacy: “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”  — Psalm 34:18. This verse is a reminder that even in our deepest sorrow, God is with us, just as Sima and Dylan’s spirits will always be with us.

We must now step in and fill the gaps they so quietly filled for us. Let us honor Sima and Dylan not by retreating into sorrow and anger, but by overwhelming the darkness of this tragedy with the light of their spirits. Their spirits will now and forever live in the hearts of each of us, and they will be the whisper of comfort we all feel every time we sit in a pew of our church home. We must carry their legacy forward, embodying the love, kindness and compassion that they so generously shared with the world.

Thank you, Sima and Dylan, for being our guiding lights. May your spirits continue to inspire us, and may we always strive to live as you did — with love, humility and an unwavering commitment to doing good.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions in Sima’s name may be made to St. Gregory’s Armenian Church, 135 Goodwin St., PO Box 51064, Indian Orchard, MA 01151 or at www.saintgregoryarmenianchurch.org.

Amen.

Author information

Lillian Avedian

Lillian Avedian is the assistant editor of the Armenian Weekly. She reports on international women’s rights, South Caucasus politics, and diasporic identity. Her writing has also been published in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Democracy in Exile, and Girls on Key Press. She holds master’s degrees in journalism and Near Eastern studies from New York University.

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In the process of writing an article for the Armenian Weekly’s 90th anniversary magazine, I seriously dove into the archives. I knew I would be amazed by the articles I was looking for in order to write that article, and indeed I was. What really surprised me, though, were all the other gold nuggets I stumbled upon in the process. There is a wealth of history about our community and our people in these archives. It was good to be reminded of articles I had read but long forgotten. It was even better to see and read articles published before I was a reader of the Weekly and, more so, before I was born. 

It seems to me that we should honor this 90th anniversary by reviewing some of the gems in the archives and maybe even reprinting some of them. I will start by launching this column, and hopefully, it becomes regular. But it should not be my column only. If that was the case, you would only see articles that spark memories or resonate with me. It would be a richer experience to see what articles prompt a response from others.

I will begin with an article that reflects on the current conflict with Azerbaijan, which resulted in the loss of Artsakh and has us all worried about the intentions of Azerbaijan and Turkey with regard to the Republic of Armenia. As many have noted, it is an existential moment for our nation.

As we know, this conflict stems back to the early days of the Soviet Union. Nakhichevan and Nagorno-Karabakh were given to the Azerbaijan SSR when they should have been part of the Armenian SSR. We all know what happened after the Soviet Union fell and the Azeris began a pogrom against the Armenians in Sumgait. They turned their aims toward doing the same in Nagorno-Karabakh, but the Armenians there fought back, gained independence (that no one recognized). They lived freely in their own ancestral lands until late 2023.

October 1, 1964, issue of the Armenian Weekly

There was an article entitled, “Karabagh Acts: Armenian Protests to Moscow,” in the October 1, 1964, issue of the Armenian Weekly. The article was on the front page and was a reprint of an article that was first published in the September 25, 1964, Christian Science Monitor. The opening paragraph read:

In a petition to Soviet Premier Khrushchev, signed by 2,500 representatives of the community, some 200,000 Armenians from the Autonomous Region of Karabagh and four adjacent provinces in Soviet Transcaucasus, have bitterly complained about “unbearable conditions of life.” Foremost amongst these complaints is the charge that the local rulers who are Azerbaijanis — a Turkic people with kinship and religious ties with the Turks in Turkey — are usurping their power vis-à-vis the Armenians. 

Back in 1964, when I was just 11 years old, I would have not known anything about Nagorno-Karabakh. I also did not know about Nakhichevan or Azerbaijan. I did have a burgeoning interest in geography and was beginning to question what communism was versus the way the United States was governed. I wanted to know and understand the differences. I distinctly recall looking at a map of the region and being proud to see Armenia. I also recall noticing that Nakhichevan was disconnected from the Azerbaijan SSR by Armenia SSR. I did wonder how and why that happened. Little did I know.

Back in those days, the Armenian SSR was a mysterious place to many of us. Yes, they were Armenian, and that was to be appreciated. But they were also communists, and that was bad.

The article is worth reading to put the current situation in a historical perspective. I like that it was first published in a non-Armenian newspaper. I believe the Christian Science Monitor was a respected newspaper back in that time.

So what did the Karabakhtsis want?

The petition culminates in a virtual demand to render “a prompt decision” and reincorporate Karabagh and all adjacent Armenian regions into the Republic of Soviet Armenia, so as to thereby be “attuned to Lenin’s policies of nationalities.”

Wow! I wish Khrushchev had granted their request. The article states, “the Kremlin is known to have dispatched to the scene the Armenian military star Marshal Bagramian, along with a Russian military observer, to investigate.”

What was the result? According to the article, “…no corrective steps have apparently been initiated thus far.” Clearly, no corrective steps were ever initiated. 

What is the lesson? The same one Khrimian Hayrig told the nation in 1878.

Author information

Mark Gavoor

Mark Gavoor is Associate Professor of Operations Management in the School of Business and Nonprofit Management at North Park University in Chicago. He is an avid blogger and oud player.

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As part of a broader research project titled “National Defence Industry: From an Enabler of Turkiye’s Pursuit of Strategic Autonomy to a Bridge between Turkiye and Europe,” in May and June 2024, the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) and the Center for Foreign Policy and Peace Research (CFPPR), supported by the Centre for Applied Turkey Studies (CATS), published two reports titled “From Client to Competitor: The Rise of Turkiye’s Defence Industry” and “Adapting Security: The Intersection of Turkiye’s Foreign Policy and Defense Industry.” In the first report, authors Sıtkı Egeli, Serhat Güvenç, Çağlar Kurç and Arda Mevlütoğlu explain how Turkey’s development of its defense industry has aligned with its ambitions to achieve strategic autonomy. The authors in the second report highlight how Ankara’s defense interests have reflected the international political system and have been used by Turkish decision-makers to help their country navigate global politics. As such, the authors argue that new defense partners reflect Ankara’s desire to diversify its defense-industry ties and to find alternatives to the Western suppliers that had been “unreliable in the past.” 

The path toward modernization of the Turkish military 

After the end of the Cold War, Turkish decision-makers adopted a “top-down” strategy that capitalized on the dramatic shift in international arms production. Turkey aimed to look eastward to cooperate with China and Russia as its threat perception changed. 

In the second half of the 1990s, Turkey became a prominent Israeli arms purchaser. There were numerous factors behind this. First, Israeli weapons were a high-tech and credible alternative to NATO weapons. Second, unlike Europe and the U.S., Israeli arms purchases were not conditioned to Turkey’s domestic developments (democratization, human rights, minority rights…). Third, Israel and Turkey’s foreign policies overlapped in critical areas in the Middle East, aiming to contain Syrian and Iranian interests. Finally, deep relations with Israel were expected to be rewarded by pro-Israeli lobbying groups in the U.S. to counter the Armenian and Greek lobbies, the report argues.

From 2004 onwards, Turkey decided to abandon the joint venture model with foreign (mainly Western) partners in favor of local prime contractors to pursue indigenous products and solutions. Several homegrown solutions proved to be attractive among export customers for the following reasons.

First, they were used for “counter-terrorist” operations against PKK fighters in Turkey and cross-border operations in Syria and Iraq. Turkey’s army accumulated military experience fighting Kurdish guerillas in the mountains and urban environments. 

Second, Turkish defense products were not offered (or limited by) political strings when engaging with arms exports to different countries.

Bayraktar TB2 of the Turkish Air Force (Wikimedia Commons)

Third, the Turkish government realized that its arms products were exerting a mix of both soft and hard power in its immediate neighborhood. In doing so, Ankara had the opportunity not just to take advantage of arms exports to advance its foreign policy objectives, but also to establish a military foothold in countries such as Qatar, Azerbaijan, Libya and elsewhere. In 2020, the Turkish TB2 UAVs were crucial in turning the military balance of power in Libya, Idlib (Syria), Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) and Tigray (Ethiopia). Additionally, these UAV exports bolstered Turkey’s image in several Eastern European NATO member states, thus increasing Ankara’s leverage in the Atlantic Alliance. 

These accomplishments were also pushed by Turkey’s diversification of arms deals but had certain limitations due to Western pressures. 

In 2013, Ankara announced the Chinese FD-2000 system as a winner of the tender for its long-range missile program. This was a major turning point in a NATO-member state. However, this decision sparked opposition from NATO members and especially the U.S. who opposed the integration of their missile system into a Chinese system. Under pressure, Turkey canceled the deal and announced that it would seek an indigenous solution to meet its long-range missile requirement. In 2017, Turkey decided to purchase the Russian S-400 air defense system. This triggered a heated debate among NATO members about Turkey’s foreign policy and defense alignment. The deal resulted in the ousting of Turkey from a project to jointly build the F-35 jets, causing Turkish firms to lose many billions of dollars.

However, Turkey’s main source of military pride became its UAVs (drones). The International Crisis Group says that Turkey started developing drone systems in 2000. In 2004, the Turkish Presidency of Defense Industries offered large tenders to the private sector for the first time in an effort to boost domestic drone production. This decision was a reaction to domestic threat perceptions, mainly from PKK and Western sanctions. The companies that first benefitted from the 2004 investments are among the top UAV producers today. By 2023, the Baykar company employed more than 3,600 people, and as of September 2022, it could produce over 200 TB2 (Bayraktar drones) per year. 

“Following decades of reforms and investments, Turkey’s defense industry is emerging as a serious player in international defense markets,” the report reads. Turkish UAVs symbolize the country’s increasing footprint in the neighboring regions, mainly in the Eastern Mediterranean, South Caucasus and Ukraine. The performance of Anka and Bayraktar TB2 UAVs in cross-border operations in Syria and Iraq and neighboring countries such as Azerbaijan and Libya drew the attention of many countries. By the end of 2023, Turkey exported UAVs to more than 30 countries. In Africa alone, Turkey’s UAV exports are closely aligned with its diplomatic, trade and security initiatives, which some Turkish defense analysts refer to as “drone diplomacy.”

However, despite the booming turnover and increasing export figures, the Turkish defense industry suffers from brain drain, as many highly-skilled engineers migrate to Western countries.

The multipolar world order and the expansion of Turkey’s defense industry 

The geopolitical shifts in the early 2000s, which led to an increasingly multipolar world order, have allowed Ankara to acquire weapons from multiple suppliers. For the first time, Turkey’s defense industry and its exports were used to help orient the country’s foreign policy objectives. Turkey started exporting weapons and UAVs to UAE, Qatar, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Georgia and Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan became a leading customer of Turkish defense products, as the Turkish-Azerbaijani military cooperation is closely aligned with Turkey’s wider foreign policy objective to balance Russia in the South Caucasus. In short, the “prospects for export orders began to exert an influence over foreign policy.”

Bayraktar ground control station on a mobile platform (Wikimedia Commons)

Meanwhile, Turkey’s long-term ambition to establish a self-sufficient and indigenous defense industry has led to considerable industrial growth and increased Ankara’s strategic autonomy by reducing the influence of Western suppliers, the report argues. This argument is also backed by Russian expert Pavel Shlykov, who writes in his article “The State of Strategic Hedging: Turkey’s Foreign Policy and Relations with Russia” that Turkey’s foreign policy diversification was a reflection of the reduction of technological dependence of the Turkish military complex from 70% to 30%. From 2000 to 2020, the number of Turkish companies working on the government’s defense contracts increased from 50 to more than 1,500. Over the same period, Turkish arms exports increased from $248 million to $3 billion. Shlykov, quoting the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), mentions that from the mid-2010s, Turkey reduced its arms purchase by 60% and from the U.S. by around 80%. Moreover, the expansion of financial, trade and military-technical partnerships with Russia and China became the core component of the strategic autonomy, which in return reduced Turkey’s economic and military dependence on the West.

Reflections

To conclude, the geopolitical shifts in the global system have provided opportunities and challenges for Turkish defense industrialization. As this industry was heavily dependent on the U.S. and European imports during the Cold War era, this dependence lessened after the fall of the Soviet Union and the transition towards a multipolar world order, which we are experiencing now. This diversification was also triggered by the U.S. and partial European arms embargoes on Turkey following the invasion of Cyprus and the incursion into northern Syria against Kurdish fighters. These sanctions compelled the Turkish defense sector to innovate and seek alternative sources of imports.

By the 2010s, as the AKP consolidated its power and grew in confidence, Turkey began exerting influence in the Eastern Mediterranean, Levant, South Caucasus, the Balkans and the North and Horn of Africa. This foreign policy activism moved in parallel with Turkey’s military industry development, which was a “top-down” strategy. Turkey’s strategic autonomy in its foreign policy is a clear manifestation of the reduction of arms from the West, the development of indigenous weapons and the opening of new arms markets.

Author information

Yeghia Tashjian

Yeghia Tashjian is a regional analyst and researcher. He has graduated from the American University of Beirut in Public Policy and International Affairs. He pursued his BA at Haigazian University in political science in 2013. In 2010, he founded the New Eastern Politics forum/blog. He was a research assistant at the Armenian Diaspora Research Center at Haigazian University. Currently, he is the regional officer of Women in War, a gender-based think tank. He has participated in international conferences in Frankfurt, Vienna, Uppsala, New Delhi and Yerevan. He has presented various topics from minority rights to regional security issues. His thesis topic was on China’s geopolitical and energy security interests in Iran and the Persian Gulf. He is a contributor to various local and regional newspapers and a presenter of the “Turkey Today” program for Radio Voice of Van. Recently he has been appointed as associate fellow at the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut and Middle East-South Caucasus expert in the European Geopolitical Forum.

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