Meltha Magazine Online

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1996, Volume 2, No.1(5) page 9-10

THE JUBILATION

Dr Sargis Osipov

On 24 July that was the 50th anniversary of Mr. Sargis Osipov, the founder and publisher of the Meltha Bulletin. All his friends and relatives congratulated Dr. Osipov on this wonderful occasion and wished him good luck and success in all of his pursuits. Over these 50 years he has made a lot of things, and the many of them have gained him recognition.

In schooling, then at college, in the military service, at work or in the scientific field, in trade union, and in the Assyrian national organizations, or anywhere else, Dr. Osipov proved to be very industrious and diligent, just a man of many talents and good honesty as well.

Out of the medical college in 1971 Dr. Osipov took a job of surgeon in the 20th children's hospital in Moscow. Two years later he was called up for the military service. He served in the rank of senior lieutenant in the Air Forces of the Soviet Union. In 1975 he undertook medical research work, and 4 years later he received Ph.D. for the research work on children's leukemia immune therapy. This work gained him a Lenin Komsomol Prize for making the best grade in the field at the time. Since 1979 Dr. Osipov worked in the National Cardio logical Research Center of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR. There he established a Laboratory of Clinical Immunology. In 1987 he received a degree of Doctor of Medical Sciences for the research work on the Immunology of Arteriosclerosis and Coronary Heart Disease. Since 1988 Dr. Osipov was the head of the branch of research coordination work as well as he was the scientific secretary to the Cardio logical Expertise Council of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR. In 1989 to 1990 he organized scientific exhibitions "Cardiology in the USSR " in Prague, Bratislava and Munich. Allover those years he was engaged in the trade union for medical professional staff climbing to a member of the presidium of the Moscow city trade union committee in the end.

Dr. Osipov is the author of over 100 scientific articles and monographs, has made five inventions, participated to many international :congresses and symposiums.

Since the Moscow Assyrian Association 'Hayadta" was set up in 1988, he has been a member of the Board. In fact he took part in putting on the Assyrian Congress of the USSR, then he was assigned vice-president of the Assyrian Congress of the USSR. In 1991 [}e participated to the Assyrian National Congress in Modesto, California, where he was assigned vice-president as well. In 1993 he organized and held the 6th venue of the ANC.

In 1994 Dr. Osipov set up an editorial staff for the Meltha Bulletin and therefore due to his great efforts we have had 5 issues of the Bulletin in circulation already .

50 years have passed and there are a lot of things to be proud of, a lot more to remember, to rejoice, and probably some to regret. But anyway he has a lot to say to his people as he does.

Meltha Staff

In Place of Confession

In ups and downs of the human history many peoples, many nations have known all the bitterness of refugees, immigrants or settlers. But the unluckiest people above all are those who have been deprived of their Father land (apartheids).

And who are we? Do we have a home for us? Even though we can enjoy equal rights within our citizenship to a country of our permanent residence, we cannot be either Americans, or Australians, or Russians, or Arabs. And if we are united in one nationality, then is it fair for our little nation to have over 20 fatherlands but none we would like to call Assyrian. And even if we discount 50% of the Assyrians living in the Western Europe countries now, then will the Assyrians in Urmia, Haseke or Turabdin be able to call Bet Nahrein their Fatherland?

In my life it happened all along that I could not stand being called a man of no fatherland. In endless stories my grandfather and grandmother told me as boy there was so much about the beauty of Urmia so that I was seemingly connected to my fatherland I never saw before, but I felt it dear with all my heart. So I even mentally can sense every stone on its dusty and scorched roads, every branch of the trees in its beautiful gardens, every drop in its resourceful wells. Tchar-bash, Guytapa, Ardishai... when I use these toponymics, I begin to long for the life I could have had in those places. I guess it is some homesick again. Maybe it is my fatherland indeed or is it not?

My parents were born in Tbilissi. I was born there, too. I was 18 when I left my native town. In the following years I felt homesick just like my parents did before. This is what we call a nostalgic fascination of the past. Every time I receive somehow some news about Tbilissi I feel great pride. As much as I feel sad when I have learned about some terrible episodes from its history. My favorite tunes of Tbilissi keep singing in my head when I'm sad, or joyful. Maybe it is my fatherland, or is it not?

I have been living in Moscow since I was 18. I did my schooling, worked, married, had my children also there. Actually I finished the Russian school. I shaped myself as I grew older like a man, physician and scientist in one of the best cultures of the world indeed. In fact I cannot go on without moral and spiritual traditions of the Russian culture. When my son at 16 ran out of home to join the people on the barricades outside the Russian Parliament in August 1991, I was crying for joy. It never occurred to me then that I might just as well lose my son that night. I was thinking of his future as well as of the future of Russia. Maybe, it is my fatherland as well or is it not? J

Or maybe I am a man without fatherland at all? We all have been over this for 2,600 years now. But we are still Assyrians. We have kept our own language. We have walked along with our Favor for His Aramaic words were addressed to us. He de- fended us before His Father, so we feel it our duty to justify His confidence. God saved us our national identity and gave us our faith, and we must return to those swamps our ancestors once turned into Eden. We shall walk their way there after all.

Dr. S. Osipov