Commercial Printing Office :: ARMENIAN HISTORICAL MONUMENTS

Commercial Printing Office 1911 — 1914 yy․

Turkey / Cilicia / Aintap / Aintap

Historical Introduction
1911 y․

Commercial Press (1911 to 1914). This printing-house, which had a small hand press, was founded on Supurju Avenue on 18 March 1911 by Avetis Khanzetian & Comp., which was established in 1909 and carried on trading business (its members were Avetis Khanzetian, Toros Pyulpyulian, Khoren Varzhapetian, Hakob Gappenjian and Nazar Geverian, who were graduates of Vardanian College of Aintap). Prior to its foundation, Nazar Geverian went to Aleppo in order to gain further knowledge about printing business and “...brought another press which was slightly larger than the first one and was operated by foot.” The printing-office had Armenian, Turkish and French letters the types of which “...are modern and more splendid than those of K. T. College.” The Commercial Press stopped its activity after the outbreak of WW I, when its Director left for America to escape military service. Apart from invitations, visiting cards, posters, documents of the Ottoman Bank and other commercial papers, it also published the Poster of Cilician Seminary («Կիլիկյան ճեմարանի հայտագիրը», 1912, 1914); a bull by Catholicos Sahak Khapayan II (1902 to 1939); The General Statutes of the Union of Vardanian College Graduates («Հիմնական կանոնագիր Վարդանեան ընթացաւարտից միութեան»), 1913; two booklets in the Arabic script entitled Golera and Aghze Tyutyuklu Mikroplar as well as the “Hagigat” religious journal (1914).

Պողարեան Գ., Այնթապականք, հ. Ա, Պէյրութ, 1974, էջ 18, 20-21: The “Hagigat” was published in the Commercial Press. Սարաֆեան Գ., Պատմութիւն Անթէպի Հայոց, հ. Բ, Լոս Անճէլըս, 1953, էջ 292: Abrahamian Emma, Printing-Houses Throughout the Armenian Homeland, in: "Vardzk", 2012, N 6, pp. 14-15.