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By Ed Ackerman eackerman@psdispatch.com
Pittston Sunday Dispatch Editor

A rocket propelled grenade slams into the terrace outside of the bedroom window of the apartment he and his wife share in West Beirut, Lebanon. It makes a much louder sound than the routine gunfire to which they’ve become accustomed.

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The cover of The Thirsty Enemy depicts John Markarian in his bombed-out office in Beirut.

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John Markarian discusses his upcoming book-signing with Anne Bramblett Barr, librarian at the West Pittston Library.

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A half-dozen members of the Communist Militia, all brandishing AK 47s, pound on the door in the middle of the night.

The scene is repeated over and over throughout a seven-year period, with armed militia representing the Mourabitoun, Saiqua, Druze, Fatah, Kurds, PPS (Partie Populaire Syrienne) and Syrian army. One night, a group storms in with fixed bayonets, their leader ripping the phone line out of the wall and threatening their lives.

Abu Abed, a powerfully built militia leader nearly as broad as he is tall, with a .45 on each hip, who speaks with a mechanical voice box because his own was lost in battle, becomes an ally in smuggling tons of food through armed blockades in order to feed thousands of refugees.

These are just some of the events which make the book “The Thirsty Enemy” read like an adventure novel.

But “The Thirsty Enemy” is not a novel. It is a memoir, the life story of John Markarian, of West Pittston.

Markarian, the 92-year-old retired college president and Presbyterian minister who occasionally preaches at First United Presbyterian Church on Exeter Avenue, has resided with his wife Inge on Susquehanna Avenue since 1987. He will discuss his recently published book and autograph copies at a “Meet the Author” event on Sunday, Nov. 22, at 7 p.m. in the Sunday school room of First United Presbyterian Church.

According to the book’s cover, “The Thirsty Enemy” is “a story in which a growing faith in God and awareness of purpose in life meet to form the adventure. The primary setting for the book is the city of Beirut. It tells about the beginning steps in the creation of an institute of higher learning and finds its theme in seven years of war, giving a drink to the thirsty enemy.”

Electing to remain in Beirut for the purpose of protecting Haigazian University, of which he was founding president, John Markarian and Inge manage to survive a seven-year period of war, during which life was cheap on the streets of West Beirut, by inviting groups most would label “terrorists” to sit down and talk over coffee.

Markarian, who has a doctorate in theology, took inspiration from an Old Testament proverb and repeated in the New Testament Epistle of Paul to the Romans: “If your enemy is hungry, give him something to eat, if he is thirsty give him a drink for by so doing you will heap burning coals upon his head.”

Interwoven throughout the book are Markarian’s personal memories of spending time as a young man living in West Pittston and being trained in a family member’s Oriental rug business, of working as an accountant for a public utility, of graduating with two degrees from Lafayette College and going on to Princeton Theological Seminary and of, in 1955, accepting a challenge to launch a new university program in Beirut.

At 92, John Markarian is an avid tennis player and golfer.