Tamar Wasoian (Syria and Armenia) will be at PEIA as an International Peacemaker arriving on Thursday, September 22 and departing late Sunday, September 25.

Tamar Wasoian

Tamar Wasoian

Dr. Tamar Wasoian is an Armenian educator and theologian from Syria. She began her seminary education at Near East School of Theology in Beirut, Lebanon. After completing her education she was appointed as the Youth Worker and became responsible for Sunday Schools in the Armenian Evangelical Church in Syria. As the Republic of Armenian declared its independence from the Soviet Union, the Armenian Missionary Association started its mission work in the Armenian homelands. Called to ministry in her homelands, she joined the church team and was in charge of the Christian Education ministry in the Republic of Armenia and Mountainous Garapagh. In 2001 she joined the McCormick Theological Seminary to complete her MTS degree after which she returned to teach and minister in Armenia. Tamar then pursued her Doctoral degree from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Religious Education and Congregational Studies. She currently lives in Chicago and teaches both at McCormick Theological Seminary and Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary.  Armenian history, communal traditions, faith and identity are at the core of Tamar’s fields of interests and expertise. She is actively involved with the Armenian community and she is on the steering committee of Syria Lebanon Partnership Network of the Presbyterian Churches (USA), and the Middle East Task Force. Tamar is a descendent of Armenian Genocide survivors. Her grandparents escaped the 1915-1918 killings of the Armenians, Greeks and Assyrian Christians in Asia Minor by Ottoman Turkey and were relocated in Aleppo. Unfortunately while Armenians are commemorating the centennial of the Genocide, the Syrian Armenian community is reliving the horrors of the pogroms all over again. Tamar will be speaking about the Armenian presence in Syria, the haunting memories of a past unacknowledged Genocide and the current survival story of her people in Syria.

Read more about the PEIA Peacemaking Taskforce.