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THE IDEA OF THE INDEPENDENCE OF ARMENIA IN THE PROGRAM DOCUMENTS OF THE HNCHAKYANS (from 1888 to 1915) – 2022-3

Summary

Ashot A. Melkonyan

In the last decades of the 19th century the majority of the Armenian national-political organizations considered the liberation of Western Armenians as their priority within the framework of the Article 61 of the Berlin Congress of 1878. The Hnchakyan party, established in Geneva in 1887, in parallel with the liberation of Western Armenia from the Ottoman yoke, in their program adopted in1888 set a goal of achieving the freedom of the Armenians living under the rule of Russia and Persia, by creating a single liberal-democratic (Ramkapet) republic.

The analyses of the numerous program documents of the Hnchakyans, and especially the articles published in the “Hnchak” newspaper, as well as the study of the practical steps of the party, testify that the leaders of the party had a thorough understanding of the difficulties regarding the liberation of Western Armenia and achieving the distant goal of creating a socialist society. They perceived the idea of Armenia’s autonomy in the context of state independence.

The evasive behavior of the “Young Turks” in issues vital to the peoples of the empire forced many to refuse close cooperation with them. Moreover, while the bloody regime of Sultan Hamid II was in power, according to many Hnchaks, the idea of an independent Armenia should not have been removed from the agenda.

Although the distrust towards the Young Turks was great, the Hnchak party, after 1908 actually bypassed the program provision about creating of a unified Armenian state in the distant future and continued to adhere to the position of preserving the unity of the Ottoman Empire. However, starting from 1912 on the days of the Balkan war, the relations between the Hnchaks and the Young Turks were interrupted.

On June 15, 1915, during the First World War, 20 famous figures from the Hnchakyans party were hanged in Constantinople by the Turkish authorities on charges of intentions to create independent, autonomous Armenia and to alienate part of the imperial lands.

The Hnchak party warmly welcomed the proclamation of the Republic of Armenia at the end of May in 1918. As it is known, the attitude of the Hnchaks towards Soviet Armenia was never hostile. Regardless of the political system, they continued to perceive the Armenian SSR as their homeland, and its status in the Soviet Union as a national-autonomous state entity.

ABOUT ASSESSING THE PERSONALITY AND ACTIVITIES OF TIGRANES THE GREAT – 2022-3

Summary

On the occasion of the 2080th anniversary of the victory of Armenia in the battle of Aratsani in 68 B.C.

Ruben L. Manasseryan

The idea of Tigranes II the Great, widespread in historical works of general nature, as a conqueror, guided by the material interests of the ruling class – “landlords”, according to Y.A. Manandyan, and “slave owners” – private and land owners, according to G. Kh. Sargsyan, is not confirmed by data on the social system of Ancient Armenia and the facts regarding the foreign policy activities of the Armenian king. Large-scale private land ownership was not formed in Armenia; more precisely, it was decisively replaced by state property (ownership). The state, represented by the tsar, acted not only as the supreme owner of the land, but also as the direct exploiter of the communal peasantry in the localities. Armenia of the era of Tigranes the Great typologically belongs to the societies of the East, in which the state (the central apparatus and the provincial administration) is the form of existence of the ruling class (military nobility).

The foreign policy of Tigranes was initially aimed at repelling the threat emanating from the expansion of the great powers: Rome from the West, and Parthia from the East. Already in 92 B.C., during the Roman-Parthian negotiations, an agreement was reached on the future division of the Middle East between the two powers along the Euphrates River. They also considered concluding a military alliance against Armenia.

Tigranes assumed of uniting the political forces in the Middle East, interested in preventing the establishment of the dominance of Rome and Parthia. As a result, he united the Middle East into a great Hellenistic power. Rome, represented by a contemporary of Tigranes, greate political thinker M. T. Cicero, highly appreciated the personality and activities of the Armenian king. Cicero emphasizes the originality of Tigranes’ personality, “hic ipse per se vehemens fuit” – “and he was powerful in himself.”

“Vehemens” is a definition meaning a combination of mighty energy and physical strength. In addition to these properties of Tigranes, Cicero notes the steadfastness, unbrokenness of his fighting spirit (animus), his determination to achieve victory after the defeat during the first stage of the war – the loss of the capital, Tigranakert, the collapse of the state and the transition of the countries of the Eastern Mediterranean under the rule of Rome.

On the banks of the Aratsani River, Tigranes inflicted a heavy defeat on the Roman army of Lucullus. Comparing the tactical actions of the parties, the level of their losses, the subsequent course of action, it should be recognized that the Battle of Aratsani was a defeat of the Romans – a very difficult and bloody one, and a victory for the Armenians. Tigranes thwarted Lucullus’ plans to capture the capital of Armenia and conquer the country, turning it into a Roman province. This is the historical significance of the battle on the banks of the Aratsani in mid-September of 68 B.C.

Tigranes, as a political figure, is characterised by his ability of combining military and diplomatic means to achieve the goal. During 32 years in active politics, the struggle on two fronts against Rome and Parthia, he made neither a single serious miscalculation, nor a single mistake. His foreign policy is an example of expanding opportunities, expanding the socio-political base – the basis of his dominance, which was the self-governing Hellenistic policy in the Middle East. Accession in Syria in 83 was his biggest diplomatic success, which resulted in the formation of the largest Hellenistic power in the Middle East, and Rome for 15 years lost hope of conquering the Eastern Mediterranean. The most important diplomatic achievement of Tigranes was the prevention of a war on two fronts in 66, against the superior forces of Rome and Parthia, which concluded a military alliance against Armenia. The agreement with Pompey in 66 meant, first of all, the abolition of the Roman-Parthian alliance. Rome recognized the existence of the Armenian state within the borders from the Euphrates to the Kura and the Caspian Sea. The peace treaty was not a military capitulation of Tigranes – the Armenian troops were not subject to any reduction, disbandment, or captivity. These actions revealed such traits of Tigranes’ personality as the ability to calmly and quickly navigate difficult situations and make clear, unexpected decisions․ It was thanks to these qualities of Tigranes as a politician that determined the final result of his struggle – the salvation of Armenia from the threat of Roman and Parthian conquest. And the result, as you know, is the main criterion in evaluating a statesman.

The activity of Tigranes represents an exceptional milestone in the history of the Hellenistic world. The existence of the state was based on the political interaction of the Armenian and Greek-Syrian societies. The principle of unity and coexistence of peoples representing the Eastern and Greek civilizations was the basis for the existence of Tigranakert, which was possible because the alienation between the peoples, between the Hellenes and the “barbarians”, as well as the alienation between the eastern communities of the city, was overcome. Two monuments were erected close to each other – both symbols of the two civilizations of the West and the East. A Greek theater was erected in the city, and a large Paradise was founded outside the city. Their coexistence reveals the world[1]historical role of Tigranakert as a center of unity and interaction between the cultures of the Hellas and the East, the Western and the Eastern civilizations. The Greek theater and the Eastern Paradise embody opposite ideas about the place of man in the world and about his destiny. In the combination of these two symbolic structures, two fundamental ideas of the West and the East were compared: the freedom of the individual (citizen) and the world harmonious whole, including a person as its constituent element.

Objectively, thanks to the efforts of Tigranes a socio-psychological inter[1]ethnic situation was formed, which was supposed to contribute to the formation of the consciousness of belonging to a new supra-ethnic spiritual community among various peoples, their unity based on the priority of universal ethical ideas. However, the coexistence of the ethnic communities in Tigranakert went not along the path of unity and harmony, but along the path of mutual alienation and deepening hostility between them – between the Hellenes and the “barbarians”.

PROBLEMS OF TEACHING THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE TOPIC IN ARMENIA – 2022-3

Summary

In the context of value orientations

Harutyun T. Marutyan

The memory of the Armenian Genocide is one of the pillars of Armenian identity and, as such, has an important role in the Armenians’ value system. More than this, it is also one of the important tools for building the given value system through education.

One of the important ways of keeping that memory alive is teaching the subject of genocide in schools. The teaching of the subject of the
Armenian Genocide within the curricula in schools in Armenia is mainly included in “Armenian History” classes in the 8th and 11th grades and, as such, mainly provides cognitive information.

Cognitive knowledge is, as a rule, formed by providing information about the period, stages, developments and course of events characterizing
the phenomenon and is directed at the past. In other words, the information to be provided is knowledge about the past. However, this path is not
effective, in today’s reality, in terms of confronting the student with moral and other dilemmas in his/her life.

Several topics are put forward in the article and, by emphasizing them, it is possible to endow teenagers and young adults with positive value orientations and an identity based on the revered memory of the genocide. Those that stand out are (1) the self-defense battles fought by Armenians during the World War I and the Armenian Genocide; (2) humanitarian resistance, when the cause of Armenian salvation became, for the Armenians who took refuge in or near the places of exile, the spur to stimulate their organizational activities as well as those of already existing Armenian communities. As a result, effective rescue mechanisms were
formed (“One Armenian for one gold coin”); (3) manifestations of different forms of non-violent resistance: self-sacrificing strong internal family bonds, selfless mutual assistance between relatives and friends, acquaintances and strangers and reaching out to one another, sharing last pieces of bread and various things that testify to high moral values; (4) highlighting the role of organized Armenian self-help, Armenian organizations, benefactors of the Armenian nation, the Armenian press, Armenian teachers and ordinary Armenian people in the work of saving Armenians; (5) using accepted practical international standards to rate the Turkish “salvation” of Armenians; (6) the resurrection of the role of the great internal force of resistance that the survivors of the Armenian Genocide have established within the powerful Armenian diaspora that numbers many millions; (7) including the reading and analysis of stories and memoirs concerning the human destinies of victims, those who resisted and survivors within the school education system and creating a digital database of victims and survivors; 8) considering the Armenian Genocide to be the result of the inhuman ideology, which has a lot in common with similar ideology during the Second World War; (9) knowledge of the main episodes of the history of other genocides, which will enable teenage Armenian boys and girls to strengthen their awareness of the need to fight against them, allow them to observe the Armenian Genocide in a wider context and to realize its patterns and characteristics in the context of the world history.

The article justifies the early resolution of the issue of creating a course “Basic issues of the Armenian Genocide” and teaching it in public schools and centers of higher education.

TEXT AND ONTOLOGY – 2022-2

Metaphysics of Mutual Penetration in Hovhannes Tumanyan’s and Avetik Isahakyan’s poetry

Naira V. Hambardzumyan
The infinity of the text is formed in the domain of the author’s balanced energy although it is possible to break that balance and emerge into the domain of everlasting changes and movement of a language, creating the dynamic utterance of the text, which ensures the passability of its form [as modus], implementing and realizing the process of structural formation of the text in the domains of the assumed boundaries and intersecting forms. The form is itself a visual-spatial image or symbol and is related to the text-author conversation in the context of subconscious + utterance + form = content; therefore, spatial image + form domain is considered as a boundary because in the ontological domain the same text is created as [Word + Word + Word + Word + ∞ = thought] reality, undergoing changes (or not). In this context, the structural possibilities of the text and the changes conditioned by it, as an unstable whole, are opposed to the part-whole unity, creating incoming and outgoing abstractions where the part relates to the whole, interpreting the text as a heteropolar structure. These actions and relations enable viewing the text as a cosmic microsystem in the domain of its integrity.

 

CREATIVE PARALLELS: F. DOSTOEVSKY-RAFFI-E. TEMIRCHIPASHYAN – 2022-2

Summary

To the 200th anniversary of the birth of Fyodor Dostoevsky

Petros H. Demirchyan
The influence of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s personality and his work on the development of Russian and world literary-scientific thought is enormous. Of course, Armenian literature is not an exception with its two historically formed branches The article refers to the case of two original authors representing the above-mentioned branches of Armenian literature: Raffi (Hakob Hakobyan, s/o Melik) and Yeghia Temirchipashyan, who in that sense, we consider, need more comprehensive, complete elucidation. At the heart of the monitoring mainly is the problem of the relationship between the national and the universal of literature, which gives the opportunity to examine the work of a national writer in interaction with world great minds. There can be no doubt that Raffi’s famous works, being the most powerful expression of the life and destiny of the Armenians, provided him with the right of being called “The Armenian national novelist” (A. Chopanyan). Nevertheless, Raffi’s work was also viewed in the broader context of the world literature of his time. He created characters,
which, under the national image and essence expose the soul and psychology of the human being in general. In this sense, the character Godfather Petros of the
“The Diary of a Khachagogh (Cross-thief)” with an equally cruel philosophy that contradicts the irrational laws of a society that undermines the very essence
of the human being: “I am like an evil spirit must punish people’s injustices only with injustices…” directly relates to Dostoevsky’s question in which the
essential thing is whether there is a goal that justifies the right to punish the perpetrator by depriving him of his life. F. Dostoevsky, by Raskolnikov, the
hero of the novel “Crime and Punishment” raises the issue of Conscience. Some of Raffi’s heroes are also forced to commit evil – murder and they try to
justify it with the idea of self-defense having a natural historical basis. However, in many cases, the problem goes beyond that and enters the field of
defense of the people and the homeland. In the novel “Samvel”, Samvel kills his parents because they betrayed the most important sacred things – the nation
and the homeland.

In creative parallels of F. Dostoyevsky and Raffi the issues of crime, punishment, conscience and human relations, national history, search for ways of the future are also crucial.

As for F. Dostoevsky-Y. Temirchipashyan creative parallels, at least two key factors can be considered here: the similarities between the personal nature and biography of the writers and the dominance of the Philosophy of Suffering, which, in fact, had a profound effect on their work. But divine providence finally decided, as if in spite of all this, at least in the last years of the life of great writers, to open a window of consolation before their sufferings. And just as Anna Snitkina for Fyodor Dostoevsky, likewise Ellen Nissen for Yeghia Temirchipashyan were real “guardian angels”, they were able to keep, preserve and comfort their suffering souls and hearts.

The mentioned circumstances, as a whole, give grounds to speak about not only the national, but also the universal standards and values of the creative thinking of F. Dostoevsky, Raffi and Ye. Temirchipashyan.

Taner Akçam, The Young Turks՚ Crime Against Humanity – 2022-2

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.

“SECRET” AS A PRINCIPLE AND THE MAIN PURPOSE OF A LITERARY TEXT – 2022-2

Summary

Ovik G. Musaelyan (Stepanakert)
This article discusses a number of fundamental problems concerning the internal relations of a literary text and affecting the role of the “secret code” in the process of its perception. This process of perception takes into account the fact that  literary creation itself is a closed system, and internal structural relations are
essential in assessing the value of a fiction. Regardless of the story structure, meaning and content of the fiction, these relationships are its key part, uniting the main structural elements and typological features of the text. At the same time, these relations determine the possibilities, boundaries and aesthetic criteria of the
metaphysical perception of art. Each significant fiction carries a secret that has not been fully revealed, the presence of which makes literary creativity accessible
mainly at the highest levels of intuition. The deeper the mystery is the more layered the creativity. This principle operates not only in fiction, but also in all other genres of art, revealing the originality of each artwork and emphasizing its features. This analysis is based on aesthetic, cultural, psychoanalytic theoretical generalizations of samples of classical and modern art and aims to give a more reasonable idea of the role and significance of the phenomena under consideration.

YEGHISHE CHARENTS: IN THE CRUCIBLE OF POLITICAL STRUGGLE OF 1937 – 2022-2

Summary

(On the occasion of 125th birth anniversary)

David V. Gasparyan
Inhumane treatment of the First Secretary of the Central Committee of Communist (Bolshevik) Party of Armenia Amatuni with Yeghishe Charents led to the death of the latter. During the work of A. Khanjian as the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the C(B)PA there was a question of sending the poet to Paris for treatment by the decision of the Zakkraikom. But the murder of Khanjian on July 9, 1936 turned everything upside down. It was believed that Charents was under the patronage of Khanjian, who was declared an enemy of the nation and was persecuted.

On November 16, 1936 the NKVD authorities decided to investigate the case of Charents, charged under the articles 67 and 68 of the Criminal Code of the Armenian SSR. He is accused of being one of the leaders of the anti-revolutionary, nationalist group of writers “November”. Charents categorically denies all charges, defends himself and gives explanations. From the same political positions, Charents was harshly criticized at the general meeting of Armenian writers on April 17-21, 1937.

Despite all this, in the last years of his life, the free creative element of Charents produced some great poetry, as well as works that show the real picture of
brutal political violence. In 1935-1937, Charents created more than in previous years. His creative life lasted 25 years – 1912-1937. The discovered pages of the works of those years are collected in three large volumes: “Unpublished and unfinished works” (1983), “Newly-appeared pages” (1996), “The Book of Remnants” (2017), to which new books can be added, because the unpublished pages of the poet’s oeuvre have not yet been fully studied. Each part of this heritage is a historical document of its time.

Hence, authorities come and go, but the spirit-creators, regardless of the official attitude towards them, come and stay. There was Pilate, who crucified Jesus Christ, and there was Amatuni, who sentenced Yeghishe Charents to death. The mythical power of the people’s faith resurrected Christ, and the genius of Charents, after 17 years (1937-1954) of prohibition, unveiled the unpublished legacy of the poet and made him a national heritage.

ANALYSIS OF THE CASE OF ATTACK ON HOLY SAVIOR CATHEDRAL OF GHAZANCHETSOTS IN SHUSHI – 2022-2

Summary

From the point of view of international principles of protection of cultural property during war

Armine H. Tigranyan
Since the start of the war on September 27, 2020, the Azerbaijani armed forces have openly targeted the Armenian cultural heritage of Artsakh, violating not only its international obligations, imposed by various conventions, but also the generally accepted customary international norms for the protection of cultural heritage.

In this article, on the example of the shelling of the St. Ghazanchetsots Church in Shushi by Azerbaijan, an analysis of the principles of protecting cultural heritage during the war, military necessity, differentiation, prevention and proportionality is presented.

The international protection of cultural heritage from the dangers of war refers not only to the protection of territories occupied after armed conflict or in
peacetime, but also to not harming during the hostilities themselves. The problem is that despite the fact that cultural monuments are considered inviolable in time of war and their destruction by the enemy is not permissible, international law provides some counterarguments, therefore, as there are “permissible” rules that “legitimize” attacks on heritage during war.

Azerbaijan, referring to these norms, is trying to “justify” the attack on the Ghazanchetsots Church on October 8, 2020, even shifting the blame to the Armenian side.

The analysis of the four principles for the protection of cultural property in the event of armed conflict, considered in this article, led to the conclusion that the armed forces of Azerbaijan were obliged to ensure that the object to be attacked was not a cultural property, and would refrain from attacking the Ghazanchetsots Church and others values. Moreover, the principle has also become customary, according to which cultural heritage is the property of humankind, and regardless the fact of its origin, and religious and cultural significance, it must be protected. The Azerbaijani armed forces were required to take precautionary measures when attacking Ghazanchetsots, which would allow to remove the valuable objects of movable heritage, as well as to relocate people to a safe place.

It is obvious that Azerbaijan did not give advance warnings and required time before the start of the attack, which it was obliged to do in accordance with
customary international law or in accordance with the principles of The Second Hague Protocol of 1999 and the Geneva Convention, which it accepted as a nation state. Azerbaijan was obliged to assess in advance even the possible accidental damage to valuables, the loss of which could be much significant compared to the expected military advantage.

In addition, according to the laws of wartime, the principles of differentiation and proportionality were to be applied, which were also violated. In
this sense, the shelling of the church could not have been an urgent military necessity and the only way to be carried out at that time. And besides, it could not
provide Azerbaijan with such a military advantage that could adequately neutralize the criminal attack.

We can say with confidence that the destruction of the church, of course, could not give Azerbaijan any military benefit. Instead, its cultural overtones were
taken into account here, which was a blow to the Armenian identity since the damage to the cultural structure cannot be assessed only in terms of material
damage – internal ideological value is also important. With this step, Azerbaijan manifested intolerance towards the inalienable right to cultural rights, and that step was aimed at cultural alienation.

Two accurate blows inflicted by the armed forces of Azerbaijan on the dome of the church proved that this was a targeted attack. We can say with confidence that according to the Second Protocol to The Hague Convention of 1954, the attack is regarded as a war crime, where both the initiator and the perpetrator, as well as those who did not prevent it, are subject to criminal prosecution and can be condemned both at the international and national levels.

The Azerbaijani side still continues to deny the reality, even after the case of shelling of the Ghazanchetsots Church was recognized as an illegal attack motivated by intolerance and racial hatred and has already been condemned by the International Court of Justice in The Hague on December 7, 2021. Decisions
adopted in Strasbourg, No. 2391 “On the humanitarian consequences of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict” of PACE of September 27 and No. 2582 “On the destruction of the objects of cultural heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh” of March 10, 2006, also characterized this attack as a part of an ongoing state policy based on deliberate illegal ethnic cleansing.