Monthly Archives: Հուլիսի 2020

THOMAS CARLYLE AND HIS ESSAY “ON HISTORY” – 2020-2

Summary

Gevorg A. Tshagharian
The article examines the historical perceptions of Scottish thinker and writer Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) in the light of the emergent historiographical concepts of the era. Herein, it reappraises, in typological manner, the author’s peculiar contribution to the European historiography and humanities of the 19th century, entirely free from the radical-ideological colourings. An attempt is made to observe Carlyle’s comprehension of the past on the background of the further metamorphoses of historical thought. With this end in view, the translation and scrupulous annotations of Carlyle’s essay “On History” (1830) are tended to provide insights into the apprehension of the author’s historical conception.

Thomas Carlyle’s first essay on history presents some of his innovative approaches on the activity which was to engage him from the 1830s onward. It maintains that the recording of history is one of the activities which defines us as human beings; that history must involve society and other provinces of thought as a whole, and not be restricted to chronicles of historiographers or annalists; that history in all its inscrutable mystery can never be thoroughly apprehended. The essay also presents Carlyle’s pioneering distinctions between, on the one hand, narrative and action and between the artisan and the artist, on the other. Carlyle challenges the notion that history is “Philosophy teaching by Experience” and argues that because “History is the essence of innumerable Biographies”, neither the recording of historical experience, nor the drawing of philosophical truths from that experience is an easy task. Carlyle suggests that the historian should approach history not with the theoretical aspirations of philosophy but with the eye of faith, which recognizes the infinite mystery in History.

There is, Carlyle argues, “a fatal discrepancy between our manner of observing” events “and their manner of occurring”. While man inevitably conceive of history as a “Narrative” (a “successive” series of events), it is in reality an “Action” (a “simultaneous” group of events, related to each other not just by linearity but by “breadth” and “depth”, “Passion and Mystery”). The historian best able to embody the “Action” of history is not the “Artisan”, who works mechanically with discrete phenomena, but the “Artist”, who works with a sense of the organic whole.

THE AGE OF ASHOT III THE MERCIFUL – 2020-2

Part II: Struggle for preserving of the unity of Armenian kingdom

Summary

Arman S. Yeghiazaryan-Doctor of Sciences in History
The late 960s and the first half of the 970s became the most difficult and decisive stage of the reign of Ashot III the Merciful. The Armenian kingdom at the peak of its power was in great danger, since the Byzantine Empire at this stage showed ambitious plans for conquest in the East. The main goal of Byzantium was to conquer countries and territories, stretching from Cilicia to Palestine, and in its activities, on the one hand, it enjoyed the support of the armed forces of Bagratid Armenia, and on the other hand tried to conquer more new territories of Armenia and contribute to a split within the country.

Byzantine politics aimed at the conquest of Taron-Turuberan in the west of Great Armenia, the western areas of the Ayrarat province, and in the future, the Vaspurakan kingdom. Pursuing its policy of expansionism, Byzantium sought to maximize the problems between the Armenian local feudal lords and the central authority of the Bagratids, as well as the ambitions of some Armenian nobles. Unfortunately, the emperors were able to achieve their goals, which, on the one hand, reduced the territory of the kingdom of Armenian Bagratids, and on the other hand, the fragmentation of the united kingdom weakened its ability to resist, making it more vulnerable to neighbors.

The loss of Taron was the result of Byzantine pressure on the rulers of this region and occurred in the context of the aggravated Arab-Byzantine conflict. Under such conditions, the rulers of Taron were forced to cede their domains to Byzantium, in exchange receiving new possessions and honorary titles from the empire.

Through the efforts of the Byzantine court, the king of Vaspurakan also decided to confront Ashot III in church and confessional matters and sought to the dominate position in Armenia. But after the annexation of Taron, he abandoned his claims.

Ashot III did not conform with the current situation, as a result of which relations between the Armenian kingdom and Byzantium became tense. In the age of John Tzimiskes reign Armenian-Byzantine relations were settled, moreover, as a result of considerable military assistance from the Armenian king to the emperor of Byzantium, they even trmporarily acquired features of a military alliance.

Despite Byzantium succeeded in annexing Taron, but Ashot III managed to prevent its further advancement. But the empire was waiting for a convenient opportunity to achieve its goals.

As a result of Byzantine intervention in the affairs of the Armenian kingdom in 875, Mushegh, the ruler of the Kars fortress and the Vanand region, proclaimed himself king. Ashot III was forced to acknowledge the fact, recognizing the reign of his brother Mushegh in exchange for his submission to the Ani throne.

The spiritual life of the kingdom in the studied period was not calm either: the kingdom again faced the danger of the spread of Chalcedonism, but this challenge was neutralized.

CONCEPTUALIZING THE ARMENIAN QUESTION IN THE 21TH CENTURY – 2020-2

Part one. The formation of the Armenian Question

Summary

Ruben A. Safrastyan-Academician of NAS RA
Nowadays, various characterizations are given to the Armenian Question. Thus, for instance, it is mentioned that the Armenian Question has undergone changes at the current stage and is a matter of recognizing and condemning the Armenian Genocide. There is another approach, according to which the Armenian Question has two stages;

the first is the stage of recognizing and condemning the Armenian Genocide, and the second is overcoming the consequences of the Genocide, that is, the stage of territorial claims. Proponents of the last viewpoint insist that the Armenians must invest all their efforts to successfully overcome the first stage, that is, to fight only for the recognition and condemnation of the Armenian Genocide, and after having successfully completed it to launch the struggle for the elimination of the consequences of the Genocide.

In our opinion, these viewpoints cannot be guidelines for our further struggle. We believe that, as in the past, today the essence of the Armenian Question has not changed. It is an awareness of the necessity to restore the United Armenian statehood in the Armenian Highland, to recreate Armenia, and to realize appropriate actions towards this direction. It is important to emphasize that the borders of the Armenian Highland and Armenia are not the same, as the borders of the former, as a naturalgeographical environment, are unchanged, yet the borders of Armenia are subject to compression and expansion, as it is a historical-ethnic phenomenon.

In our opinion, though the recognition of the Armenian Genocide is part of the Armenian Question, however, neither does replace it, nor should it be viewed as the first stage of the final solution of the Armenian Question. We think that a simultaneous struggle should be led towards the recognition, condemnation of the Armenian Genocide, and for a just solution to the Armenian Question.

Assessing the results of the first three and a half decades of the internationalization stage of the Armenian Question, it should be emphasized that in 1914 it was possible to achieve a certain result only when it was succeeded in establishing a geopolitical equilibrium between the Great Powers. The equilibrium was established after long negotiations. It was based on the fact that, as Roderick Davison, a well-known American orientalist, once pointed out, none of the negotiating parties – the European powers and Russia, appeared to be the losers, and everyone got what they strived for. However, even that modest step remained on paper, as the Ottoman Empire taking advantage of World War I canceled the treaty.