SHAHE GUEBENLIAN
The Times (London)
April 10, 2007, Tuesday
Shahe Guebenlian, journalist, was born on September 25, 1920. He died
on March 2,2007, aged 86
Reuters’ man in the Middle East who also laid the foundations for
the company’s commercial successes in the region
Shahe Guebenlian, known by colleagues, businessmen and politicians
alike simply as Gubby, worked for Reuters in the days when the agency’s
representatives were expected to be both journalists and salesmen. He
did both jobs well, occasionally brilliantly.
He covered the big stories in the Middle East and Africa during the
1950s and 1960s.
He had wonderful contacts in both regions and was on first-name terms
with many prominent people. His sources were legendary.
At the same time, as an innovative and wily businessman, he laid the
foundations for much of Reuters’ commercial successes in those areas.
His ability as a salesman in getting new subscribers for the news
and commercial services was never in doubt.
Some colleagues thought him overoptimistic about the speed and size
of the resultant revenue. But Guebenlian was forthright and unswerving
in his opinions.
He could be acerbic and thus could antagonise many of his colleagues
as well as rivals in collecting news or selling services.
His abilities were obvious even to the sternest critics, and many
who worked with him were passionate in their appreciation and loyalty.
Shahe Guebenlian was born in the ancient city of Adana in Turkey in
1920. He never lost his roots as an Armenian and like so many in that
community was a talented musician and a multilingual raconteur. He
was taken by his parents to Cyprus aged just 6 months, wrapped, so
he said, in a valuable rug. It was in Cyprus that the family became
British citizens.
Guebenlian was educated at Nicosia’s English School where he learnt
to play the viola and showed a talent for languages. By the end of
his life he spoke six well and had a smattering of three others.
Often in telling hilarious stories, based on fact or on his vivid
imagination, he would switch easily between the tongues.
>>From an early age he was fascinated by what was going on in Cyprus
and the world in general, and liked to write it down. By the age of
11 he was producing his own hand- written newspaper.
>>From 1948 to 1950 he edited the Cyprus Sunday Mail in Nicosia and
at that time became a stringer (part-time local correspondent) for
Reuters as well as for many other newspapers and news agencies. He
carried out several assignments for Reuters outside Cyprus and
impressed so much that in 1953 he was appointed to the staff as
special representative for the Middle East, where he successfully
sold both news and commercial services to several countries.
With his base in Cyprus he was involved in covering the Eoka
emergency. He did this with skill but not without being accused of
bias by all sides -the mark of a really successful reporter.
In 1957 he married Iris Russell, a highly regarded staff reporter for
the Daily Mail. They lived in a part of Nicosia known to the British
Army as "Murder Mile".
There was so much violence that they had to be careful when they
ventured out and were often in danger. But their home always provided a
haven and lavish hospitality to foreign correspondents and many others.
Guebelian was a member of the Reuters team that covered the Suez
invasion in 1956 and was involved in reporting much else in the
region. This included the trial, conviction and hanging in 1962 of the
Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, who had been located by the Israeli
secret service in Argentina in 1960 and brought to the country in
secret to stand trial for his crimes.
>>From 1963 until 1966 Guebelian held various senior administrative
positions in Africa. This also meant that he was responsible for
reporting the accession to independence of Kenya, Malawi and Zambia,
as well as various ministerial summits throughout the continent. He
introduced Reuters’ African service to Kenya and a number of other
countries.
In 1968 he was posted to London as manager for Africa, the Middle East
and later the Caribbean. He was thus in charge of trading operations
for Reuters media and commercial services for a large part of the
world. His final task before retirement was as publicity manager for
the whole company.
But he continued to serve Reuters as a consultant primarily on matters
concerning the developing world. He was also one of a panel selecting
candidates for the Reuters Foundation, which brought journalists from
all over the developing world to study at universities in Britain,
France and the United States.
Iris, to whom he was married for 50 years, survives him. They had
no children.