Category Archives: REVIEWS

Tessa Hofmann, Der Genozid an den indigenen Christen des Osmanischen Reiches: Armenier, Griechen, Syro-Aramäer/Assyrer/Chaldäer։ eine ausführliche Dokumentation mit drei Modulen von je neun Unterrichtseinheiten

Summary

Gerayer A. Koutcharian (Berlin, Germany)
Doctor of Natural Sciences

In Germany and beyond, the philologist and genocide scholar Tessa Hofmann is considered an expert on the genocide of the Ottoman Christians, which was also the first large-scale genocide of the 20 century. In my review of Tessa Hofmann’s most recent work “The Genocide of the Indigenous Christians of the Ottoman Empire” (2024), I emphasize that the book serves a dual purpose: it serves as a very comprehensive introductory reading on the course and methods of the Ottoman – Young Turk and Kemalist – genocide of over three million indigenous Christians (Armenians, Greek Orthodox Christians, Syro-Aramaeans, Assyrians and Chaldeans) in the Ottoman Empire and in northwest Iran, which was temporarily occupied by the Ottomans in 1914 and 1918. In the second part of her book, she presents three modules, each with nine teaching and learning units for school lessons on genocide.

Until now, there have been no such handouts in Germany, where the largest diaspora of Turks is located (with the exception of the federal states of Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt, where they are now out of print). A special feature of the book is also its inclusive approach, which includes all Christian victims and illustrates the interactions between the acts against Greek Orthodox, Armenian and Syro-Aramaic Christians. An extensive bibliography as well as contributions by Roy Knocke (Director of the Lepsius House in Potsdam) on Johannes Lepsius and two associations of members of Turkish descent on coming to terms with the past and the culture of remembrance round off this extremely remarkable book, which will hopefully find its way into German schools.

REFERENCES

Hofman T’., Qristoneay bnik joghovurdneri tseghaspanut’yune’ Osmanean kaysrut’ean mej: Hayer, yoyner, siriats’i-arameats’iner /asoriner/, qaghdeats’iner. Manramasn vaveragrut’yun- baghkatsatc 3 masits ev usutsman 9 miavorits’. Vaylersvist’-Meternikh, “Haze ev K’eohler” hrat., 2024 (in Armenian).

“Memories of the past” / Z. Yeolian; Compilers: A. Azizyan, A. Simonyan; Yerevan, “Lusakn”, 2023, 612 pages.

Summary

Mher A. Harutyunyan
Ph.D. in History

The articles of Zakar Yolyan, one of the foremost figures of the Armenian National Liberation Struggle and ARF leader of the first quarter of the 20 century, mostly published in the press, formed the bases of a large book of memoirs of this socio-political and state figure, initiated by Aghasi Azizyan and Ashot Simonyan.

The relevance of the memoirs, summarized in a separate collection by Z. Yeolian, is due to the author’s desire to rethink the past, to draw lessons from history and to outline the sequence of correct steps respectively. As an active participant or witness of important political events of the time, Z. Yeolian provided reliable and as impartial as possible testimonies and memoirs. His knowledge came not only from his close ties with ARF leaders in Baku and Zangezur, but also from his frequent contacts with leaders of the Bolsheviks and other socio-political currents. Thanks to this and especially to the fruitful activity in Zangezur, which, in fact, is reflected in the work of Z. Yeolian in his voluminous memoirs, many events and names of heroes were saved from inevitable oblivion and have now become an inexhaustible source of inspiration and imitation for the present and future generations.

Z. Yeolian’s vivid and lively memoirs preserve the former industrial centre of the Caucasus – Baku, in the social, political and cultural life of which the role of the numerous Armenian populations was significant. The author’s unique testimonies are not only about the ARF, but also about other Armenian parties and foreign political movements, organizations and figures, as well as their connections, and represent important material for our historiography.

Remarkable archival materials extracted from the National Archives of Armenia and other sources, as well as valuable information about his personal life and family members significantly enriched the content of the book.

Thus, summing up, it can be stated that the reader is presented with a valuable book, which has scientific, historiographical and primary source value and is intended to contribute to the full study and rethinking of the history of the Armenian nation in the first quarter of the XX century.

REFERENCES

1. Azizean A., Arkhivayin vaveragrer Jemal P’ashayi spanut’ean masin, “Vem”, T’ (ZHE) tari, t’iv 3 (59), 2017 (In Armenian).
2. «Ants’eali yusher»/Z. Yeolean; Kazmoghner, A. Azizean, A. Simonean; Ar’ajabani heghinak, A.Simonean, Grakhos, A. Yakobean, Yer., “Lusakn”, 2023 (In Armenian).
3. Arts’akhi yev Zangezuri hay azgabnakut’yan zinvats ink’napashtpanut’yan patmut’yunits’ (1918- 1920 t’t’.). Vaveragrer yev hushagrut’yunner / Kazm., M. A. Harut’yunyan, “Kachar” taregirk’, Girk’ 15(179-190), Shushi, «Kachar» gitakan kentroni hrat., 2021 (In Armenian).
4. Giwlkhandanean A., Yeghap’vokhakan demk’er, “Hay’renik’” amsagir, Boston, 1936, N 6 (In Armenian).
5. Zohrabyan Ed., Yolyanner. Vaveragrakan vipak: Khmb., A.M. Aristakesyan, Yer., «Sovetakan grogh», 1988 (In Armenian).
6. HAA, F.47, ts’.2, g.365, t’.267 (In Armenian).
7 .HAA f.105, ts’.1, g.2805, t’.97 (In Armenian).
8. HAA, F.198,ts’.1, g.39,t’.30 (In Armenian).
9. HAA, f. 252, ts’. 2, g. 34 (In Armenian).
10. Hakhverdyan S., Gorisi amp’op’ patmut’yun, Yer, “Zangak-97”, 2005.
11. Hushamatyan ankakhut’yan. Hayastani hanrapetut’yan 1918-1921 t’t’. petakan gortich’nerĕ, kazmets’ Mayk’l Babayanĕ, Yer., 2019 (In Armenian).
12.”Vani razmakan gortsoghut’yunnerĕ (1915 t’. april-mayis)” t’argm., A. Ashkhatuni, “Alik” orat’ert’ (T’ehran) 2 Yunis 1954 t’., N 120. (https://tert.nla.am/archive/NLA%20TERT/Aliq%20Tehran/1954/1954%28120%29.pdf) (mutk’, 26.12.2023), 3 Yunis 1954 t’., N 121, ej 2 (https://tert.nla.am/archive/NLA%20TERT/Aliq%20Tehran/1954/1954%28121%29.pdf) (mutk’, 26.12.2023), 6 Yunis 1954 t’., N 122, ej 1-2 (https://tert.nla.am/archive/NLA%20TERT/Aliq%20Tehran/1954/1954%28122%29.pdf) (mutk’, 26.12.2023):
13. Vardanyan S., Tohmanunner: Gorisi taratsashrjan: Khmb., V.V. Zadayan, Yer., “Arants’ hrat.”, 2015 (In Armenian).
14. P’ampuk’ean Ye., H Y Dashnakts’ut’ean tcatskanunnerĕ bararan. andznanunner, teghanunner, t’uanshanayin tsatskagrer, Yer., “Lusakn”, 2023 (In Armenian).
15. Staryy i novyy Goris/Staryy i novyy Goris/ Sen Oganisyan; [per. na russkom T. Barsegyan; Per. po-angliyski S. Avetisyan; gl. red. S. Oganesyan; Foto: P. Pogosyan i dr.], Yer., “Naapet”, 2018 (In Russian).

Suren S. Abrahamyan

Analytical research material one of the significant names of the modern Armenian poetry-three books of Hakob Movses “Notes” was published in 2015, 2017 and 2018. The notes, which are voluminous as well as relevant in terms of the mastered world and the Armenian aesthetic thought, the development of the contemporary Armenian poetry, music, and social thought. The worldview of Hakob Movses’ notes, as complex as it is and has a spiritual understanding of the concept that versatile material, be it world or Armenian poetry, philosophical and artistic systems, social perception or other issues, is considered from the perspective of the poet’s experience, which comes from the sphere of cultural issues of the modern world.

The main question is the examination of Movses’ worldview, philosophical-aesthetic understandings, which have the same structure and hierarchy of questions in all three poem books of “Notes”. The interpretative center, from which Moses’s thought originates, presupposes a metaphysical beginning, from which the worldview of the writer and the aesthete originates and ends as a whole. This is the basis of the analysis of the article, which is the innovative basis of Movses’ poetry, which is also one of the problems of the experience of modern Armenian aesthetic thought.

Alexander Khatisyan. unpublished works, letters, materials and documents, prepared by Vladimir Harutyunyan

Ararat M. Hakobyan

A collection of memoirs and documentary materials dedicated to Alexander Khatisyan, published thanks to the hard work of Professor Vl. Harutyunyan, complements the scientific, literary and memoir heritage of a major Armenian statesman and diplomat. 

Ararat M. Hakobyan

Honored Historian Yervand Pambukyan, a grateful and distinguished historian of Armenian historiography, as a result of many years of diligent and painstaking research work, has put together and put on the reader’s table a valuable dictionary work, “Dictionary of pseudonyms of AR Federation (Dashnaktsutyun). (personal names, toponyms, numerical codes)”, which is unique in its kind. We are confident that this dictionary can play a very useful role in the future for a deeper and more comprehensive study of the history of the Dashnaktsutyun party in particular, and in a broader sense it will be valuable for the research of the history of Armenia of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. 

(Hovhannisyan S. , The Annales School and the Ways of Writing History, Yerevan, “Sargis Khachents • Printinfo, 2022, 312 pp.)

Davit R. Mosinyan

The monograph titled “The School of Annals and the Ways of Writing History” by Smbat Hovhannisyan is an attempt to comprehend new methodologies of history in the Armenian environment. The work refers to the exposition of the history and logic of the Annales school, which plays an important role in the Western historiography.

Summary

Jürgen Gispert, Armenien gestern und heute – „Die Aschen der Opfer schlagen in unseren Herzen“. Zu einer Theorie der armenischen Memorialkultur, Leipzig, Eudora-Verlag, 2022, 492 S

Ashot N. Hayruni

A new extensive and valuable monograph (492 pp.) published in Leipzig titled “Armenia yesterday and today – ‘The Remains of the Victims Beat in Our Hearts’. On a theory of the Armenian Memory Culture” by the German ethnographer and Armenologist Dr. Jürgen Gispert provides the German-speaking reader with comprehensive information about the spiritual and cultural values of the Armenian people, their past and the present, including the contemporary challenges they are facing with, the overcoming of which is paramount for the preservation of the Armenian state and national identity.

The book begins with the coverage of the events that took place in the recent years, particularly after the “Velvet Revolution” and the previous realities, which, by continuously deepening the gap between the people and the authorities, ultimately culminated in the change of power. In particular, the author focuses on the irregularities, vote rigging and fraud that took place during the election process during the history of the Third Republic, the difficult social situation of the republic’s population and the lack of trust in the public sphere towards the socio-economic policy of the authorities, as well as the various realities that undermined the former intra-societal unity, including the influx of individual sects from the West after the collapse of the USSR and their divisive activities.

Afterwards, the author reflects upon the Armenian History, by outlining essential events from pre-historic, ancient, medieval, modern and contemporary Armenian history, especially focusing on those important events that shaped the course of history. The reader is thoroughly familiarized with the Armenian Genocide and its consequences. Detailed information is given about Armenian khachkars and Armenian culture in general. The systematic destruction of Jugha khachkars by the Azerbaijani authorities around 20 years ago is also outlined. Such criminal systematic destruction, as Gispert points out, had not even taken place during the invasions of Shah Abbas and Tamerlane. Further expanding on this subject, the author presents many facts about the course of events and consequences of Azerbaijan’s current anti-Armenian policy. The massacres of Sumagait and Baku, the destruction and usurpation of Armenian culture in the occupied regions of Artsakh are covered thoroughly and are presented in a new light, as a consistent continuation of the Turkish-Azerbaijani genocidal policy.

The author covers in detail the history of the emergence of the Artsakh question, thoroughly refuting the false theses as presented by the Azeri government that Artsakh supposedly belongs to Azerbaijan. At the same time, the author presents a detailed study of the history of Azerbaijan and the emergence of the Azerbaijanis as an ethnic group, which takes place only after 1918. The author juxtaposes the above fact of the newly emerged Azeri state and ethnicity with the reality of a thousand-year history of Armenian Artsakh, pointing out that Azerbaijan from the viewpoint of historic rights, as well as from the standpoint of modern international law has no legitimate right to claim Artsakh as its own.

The above noted monumental study by Gispert has not only academic, but also political value taking into consideration the fact of how much efforts and material resources are spent by Azerbaijan and Turkey to create a distorted public opinion in the West about Armenian heritage, culture and identity. The work contains, apart from the text itself, many valuable maps and photographs. We really hope that patrons would be found who would sponsor the translation and publication of this valuable work in Armenian, English and other languages.

Summary

The Armenian Genocide and Ethnic cleansing in the Ottoman Empire

Armen C. Marukyan
The value of Akçam’s work lies in the fact that a large number of Ottoman archival documents, which are difficult to access for non-Turkish professionals, corroborate information known from other sources and adding additional details. However, it should be noted, that the Turkish historian does not always interpret impartially, analyzing the Ottoman archival documents circulated by him, moreover, his judgments sometimes directly contradict the information in the documents quoted by him.

Criticizing the historians who promote the Turkish official version, Akçam tries to present himself as an impartial historian, but his adoption of a conventional stance on fundamental issues of the history of the Armenian Genocide shows that in practice he is acting as a secret suspect of the crime against the Armenian people. Akçam’s approach differs from the official Turkish denial historiography in that, instead of so-called “hard denial”, he promotes “cautious suspicion” or “unnoticed denial”. Using the term “Armenian Genocide” and condemning the crime, the Turkish historian casts doubt on the motives of the Armenian Genocide, noting that the policy was not racist or nationalistic, that the “state interest” of the empire was the basis of the Armenian Genocide.

Akçam tends to see Armenians as a “threat” to the integrity of the Ottoman Empire, to eliminate which the Young Turks resorted to so-called “social engineering”, which means elements of a policy of genocide against Armenians: extermination, forced deportation, Islamization and assimilation. Thereby, Akçam in fact repeats the approaches of the official Turkish historiography that denies and falsifies the Armenian Genocide, which justifies the criminal policy towards the Armenian people based on the nationalist ideology of pan-Turkism.

Akçam’s various judgments on the motives of the Turkish authorities for committing the Armenian Genocide suggest that either he has not yet made a final decision or in this way he tries to hide the real motives, at the same time raising doubts about the criminal intention to commit the Armenian Genocide, which is the main component of qualifying that crime. Is it a coincidence that Akçam concludes his work with the assumption that, regardless of how we qualify the extermination of Armenians from a legal point of view, it is first and foremost a moral recognition that it was not an unjust act worthy of moral reproach? The Turkish historian is thus trying to transfer the issue of the Turkish state’s responsibility for the Armenian Genocide to a purely moral field, as the discussion of this issue in the legal or political spheres will inevitably lead to processes of responsibility and compensation that are absolutely unacceptable for the Turkish state.

Assessing the works of T. Akçam published in different languages on some issues of the history of the Armenian Genocide, as well as his introduction into scientific circulation of unpublished Ottoman archival documents, nevertheless, we believe that Armenian specialists should have taken part in the process of translating and republishing these books in Armenia . Otherwise, it turns out that we share the biased judgments of the Turkish historian on fundamental-conceptual issues, as well as the approaches and conclusions that are almost identical with the views of the official Turkish historiography denying the given crime.

Knarik A. Abrahamyan
The article is dedicated to the analysis of Albert Makaryan’s collection “In the fields of literary criticism”. The author has classified t􀴣 ree main thematic directions such as the teaching problems (Khachatur Abovyan, Derenik Demirchyan), the questions of the writers that mainly cover the new period (Ghevond Alishan, Khoren Ghalfayan, Petros Duryan and others) and feedback on literary thought (Hrant Tamrazyan, Suren Danielyan).

Along with the problems of teaching in a methodological perspective (what to teach, how to teach and what to pay attention to) Albert Makaryan also presents remarkable literary observations. On the one hand they are related to Khachatur Abovyan’s novel “Wounds of Armenia”, on the other hand to Derenik
Demirchyan’s short story “The Redundant”. We have also noticed that these reflections on the teaching problems are not unique. Let us remember his articles devoted to Petros Duryan, Aksel Bakunts, Gurgen Mahari in scientific periodicals.

In pure literary articles we notice the preference given to Western Armenian writers. It should not be forgotten that in the publications of the books of Taguhi Shishmanyan and Zabel Yesayan, Albert Makaryan has a significant role in terms of both composition and donation of analytical pages.

And here in the assessment-reviews dedicated to literary critics Hrant Tamrazyan and Suren Danielyan interesting experience on conducting professional dialogues is presented.

The conclusion is that in all cases Albert Makaryan has shown his scientific and philological discipline.

Based on the analysis, the conclusion was drawn: in all cases, Albert Makaryan showed scientific and philological disciplinary literacy.

Seyran Grigoryan, Vahagn Davtyan’s Poems, Yerevan, Armav Publishing House, 2021, 458 pages

Summary

Zhenya A. Kalantaryan
The review analyzes and evaluates the peculiarities, principles and criteria of
the method used by S. Grigoryan–the author of the mentioned book. It is observed
that Grigoryan necessarily takes into account both the time of writing the poem and
the time the poem covers, trying to uncover the linkаgе between the past and the
present. One of the important merits of the monograph is the search for the bases of
the structural and lexical layers of the poems in historical and folklore sources.
According to the literary critic, Davtyan builds his poems mostly on a folklore
basis, as a result of which poems reflect the folk worldview.

The article comments on the comparisons made by the author of the book with
the historical and folklore sources of the poems, as well as similar works by
previous poets. It is noticed that some cases of stylization, imitation, repetition
revealed by the literary critic, according to his own observation, Davtyan used for
his own interpretation of the material, thus bringing his personality onto the
material.

The critique assesses S. Grigoryan’s comprehensive approach in revealing
both inter- and intra-genre features of the poems. The author of the monograph
examines the poems and comes to convincing conclusion comprehensively
drawing from all the branches of philology, including the history of literary history,
literary theory, literary criticism, textualism, etc. The monograph is deemed to be a
noticeable contribution to modern Armenian literature.