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THOMAS CARLYLE’S “ON HEROES, HERO-WORSHIP, AND THE HEROIC IN HISTORY” – 2020-3

Part one: the motives and prerequisites

Summary

Gevorg A. Tshagharyan
The article examines the perceptions of heroic and hero-worship in Victorian age. The subject of special focus are the prerequisites and stimuli for the appearance of these terms, their manifestations and development on the background of the mental climate of the époque. In this vein, an attempt is made to examine Thomas Carlyle’s theory of the hero and the heroic within the framework of the intellectual and theoretical assumptions of the time under consideration.

In each of four consecutive years, from 1837 to 1840, T. Carlyle delivered a series of lectures in London. Each lecture series was a great success, and the last of the four produced one of the most famous books of the author, “On Heroes, HeroWorship, and the Heroic in History”.

T. Carlyle became interested in heroes and hero-worship early in his career. In the 1831 essay on “Schiller”, for instance, he declared that “great men are the Firepillars in this dark pilgrimage of mankind; they stand as heavenly Signs, everliving witnesses of what has been, prophetic tokens of what may still be, the revealed, embodied Possibilities of human nature”.

The heroic was a central element in Carlyle’s thinking and was to become, after several anticipatory treatments in various essays and occasional reviews, the leading principle of all his later social theory. The subject was also a major Victorian preoccupation, widely shared by Carlyle’s fellow Victorians who, said Edmund Gosse, turned “admiration” from “a virtue into a religion, and called it Hero-Worship”. In this sense, one of the reasons for the enormous vogue of heroworship is the cult of enthusiasm. For hero-worship, in the words of its major prophet, is “infinite admiration”, and the worshiper an enthusiast who “can love his hero or sage without measure, and idealize, and so, in a sense, idolize him”. This perception marks a striking reversal of the rationalistic attitude in the previous century. When D. Hume and E. Gibbon submitted the heroic to the cold glance of reason, they aimed to see it as a mask to hide selfish ambition or else a patent form of fanaticism and delusion. But when enthusiasm became a virtue, the Romantic Victorian eye brought with it the power to see men as a hero and the heart to respond with appropriate worship.

T. Carlyle’s 1840 lectures were, therefore, an incursion into the mainstream of Victorian thought, and his theory of the hero in some ways was merely the final, high doctrine in a movement which had been for some years under way. Carlyle’s originality lay not so much in his choice of subject matter as in the depth and seriousness of his treatment and the imaginative richness with which he invested it.

T. Carlyle also set out to counter certain fashionable contemporary attitudes in which history was considered mainly as an impersonal play of forces. According to such views, great men were, as James Anthony Froude remarked, “the creatures of their age, not the creators of it, scarcely even its guides”. In line with egalitarian sentiments, the individual leader was judged no differently from his fellows, and was seen to be merely in a position to hasten a development which would have eventually taken place without him. Carlyle sought to counteract such prevailing notions in his 1840 lectures and to posit instead the view that (in Froude’s words) “every advance which humanity had made was due to special individuals supremely gifted in mind and character, whom Providence sent among them at favoured epochs”. Hence, at a time when the Bible and the Church were no longer able to satisfy the religious instincts of many Victorians, the heroic and heroworship, like nature and great men, could be welcomed as another manifestation of the divine spirit working in the world.

Thus, when the Victorian period began, all the prerequisites for hero-worship were present: the enthusiastic temper, the conception of “great man”, the revival of Homeric mythology and medieval ballad, the popularity of W. Scott and G. Byron, and the living presence of Napoleonic soldiers and military leaders. In the fifty years after 1830 the hero-worship was a dominant factor in English culture.

THE KURDISH ISSUE AT THE PARIS PEACE CONFERENCE – 2020-3

The Mystery of Sherif Pasha

Summary

Aram S. Sayiyan
After the overthrow of the Young Turks’ power, the Ottoman Committee in Geneva, using Sherif Pasha’s ambition and childishness, managed to include him in the Ottoman delegation to the Paris Peace Assembly, and then nominated him in the position of the head of the non-existent Kurdish delegation, so that, as a counterbalance to the Armenian Issue, he would raise the Kurdish question, thus gaining the opportunity to reduce the demands of the Armenians.

However, Sherif Pasha soon began to play an independent political game, trying to become the Emir of Kurdistan with the help of the English. In order to guarantee itself from a possible double game by Sherif Pasha, the Ottoman government organized the sending of telegrams of complaints from Kurdish organizations in Istanbul and influential Kurdish tribesmen in Western Armenia to Paris to prevent allies from declaring him ruler of Kurdistan.

Though Sherif Pasha’s demands at the Peace Assembly were of no importance to Great Britain, especially since the British knew very well that there was no real Kurdish force behind him, not even a delegation, and, what is more probable, they knew about the real purpose of the Turkish game of appointing Sherif Pasha as the head of the non-existent Kurdish delegation by the Ottoman Committee, Great Britain realized that the real owners of the situation in Western Armenia were the Kurds, yet the Armenians made up a negligible percentage there. As for the Republic of Armenia, it could not ensure its security on its own, and there was no question of liberating Western Armenia by own forces. In this historical period, the only force that could resist the Kemalists inside the country were the Kurds, thus ignoring them would mean gifting them to the Turks. Therefore, in such conditions, Great Britain planned to create a Kurdish state in the territory of Southern Armenia in order to make a buffer zone between the Kemalists and its sub-mandate colony Iraq.

Along with the strengthening of the Kemalists, the British decided to unite the Armenian-Kurdish delegations, so not only Poghos Nubar Pasha, but also the Republic of Armenia had to accept the Kurdish claim, because of which the Kurds, instead of being punished like the Turks, were equated with the Armenians. Moreover, Sherif Pasha cynically stated that the Kurds had suffered a lot during the war, including from the Armenians. All this was done on the one hand to free the Kurds from the influence of the Ottoman authorities, and on the other hand to support the plans of Great Britain interested in the Armenian-Kurdish alliance, which were aimed at suppressing the growing Kemalist movement. Although such a policy was criticized by some Armenian circles, who accused both of the Armenian delegations of ceding part of the six vilayets to the Kurds, but the whole problem with it was that the Kurdish delegation had no role in resolving the territorial issues. The claim of the six vilayets turned into the so-called “Little Armenia” plan: to divide Southern Armenia and the Kurdish-populated territories into French and British zones.

According to various sources, Sherif Pasha resigned from the post of head of the Kurdish delegation in the spring of 1920, giving way to grievances between Kurds and Turks, but in our opinion, these were just occasions. Whereas the reasons were deeper, they did not depend on Sherif Pasha at all. They were two: in the spring of 1920, the Kemalists and the Bolsheviks became so powerful that they turned into a real threat to the British hegemony in the Middle East. The real owners of the country in Turkey were the Kemalists, who were joined by most of the Kurdish tribes in Western Armenia.

Combining these geopolitical realities, we come to the conclusion that the presence of Sherif Pasha would not change anything in the Kurdish part of the Treaty of Sèvres, as first the military-political situation had changed completely not in favor of the Kurds (as well as the Armenians), then the Kurds were disunited and there was no real power behind Sherif Pasha. Experienced British officers and diplomats were convinced that the Republic of Armenia would not be able to resist the Bolsheviks in the future, the only force that could do that was the Kemalists in the event of unification with the Kurds of Western Armenia. In this light, the presence of Sherif Pasha in the Peace Assembly in the spring of 1920 had lost its meaning. Neither the Ottoman delegation nor the British needed him anymore.

Thus who, after all, was Sherif Pasha? An Ottoman official who, according to his secretary, Galib Bey, carried out the task of the Turkish government, or an adventurous person who pursued the coveted goal of becoming Emir of Kurdistan being used by all interested parties for their own purposes and eventually thrown out? Analyzing his actions and expressed thoughts presented in the article, it can be concluded that the second version is more probable.

THE REIGN OF CATHOLICOS KHACHIK I ARSHARUNI – 2020-3

And the Armenian-Byzantine church confrontation at the end of the 10th century

Summary

Vardan A. Aleksanyan
In the last quarter of the 10th century Armenia took the path of political, economic and cultural development. Constructive relations were created between the political and religious authorities of Armenia. The Armenian Church contributed to the efforts of the Bagratids to strengthen the state.

Having ascended the Patriarchal throne, Khachik I Arsharuni (973-992) overcame the bifurcation of spiritual power and unified the Armenian clergy around the Catholicosate. He undertook construction activities, improved the spiritual center of Armenia – Argina. Khachik Arsharuni created new dioceses and episcopal thrones in Nakhijevan and Tashirk. The foundation of new dioceses strengthened and expanded the spiritual borders of Armenia. Due to the increase of the Armenian population in Northern Syria, Cilicia and Cappadocia, it became necessary to establish episcopal thrones, which were designed to satisfy the spiritual needs of the Armenians living there. By creating dioceses outside the borders of Armenia, Catholicos Khachik Arsharuni promoted the unification of Armenians and prevented the assimilation of Armenians in a foreign ethnic environment. The expansion of thegeography of the Armenian Church contributed to the growth of a sense of national identity, the immunity against encroachments on the Armenian national identity strengthened.

At the end of the 10th century Byzantine expansionary policy aimed at the assimilation of Armenians intensified. The Armenian population was subjected to violence by the Greek clergy of Sebastia and Melitina, which forced the Armenians to adopt the Greek faith. Under Khachik, Armenian-Greek religious correspondence and theological polemic resumed. In their letters, the metropolitans of Sebastia and Melitina urged the Armenian clergy to accept Chalcedonism. Referring to the teachings of the fathers of the Universal Church and the position of the first three ecumenical councils, the Armenian scholars in their letters thoroughly refuted the principles of the Greek belief and justified the correctness of the Armenian Monophysite faith. In the letters which were saved in the composition of the medieval Armenian historian Asoghik and in the Book of Letters, the Armenian clergy manifested a single unyielding position. The Armenian clergy were more indomitable against Byzantine challenges than the political authorities.

THE POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE ARMENIAN ISSUE – 2020-3

From Berlin to Sèvres

Summary

Samvel A. Poghosyan
The Armenian Issue became a subject of discussion in international diplomacy in the international agreements adopted at the 1878 San Stefano Conference and the Congress of Berlin. Until 1918, the subject of the Armenian Issue was Western Armenia, which bore the country name “Armenia” in international diplomatic documents. This proves that before the declaration of independence of the Republic of Armenia formed in the South Caucasus in 1918, the issue of exercising the rights of the Armenian nation bearing the title of the country of Armenia already had an international political status.

Armenian aspirations were aimed at establishing Armenia’s autonomy, which would eventually lead to independence. And international diplomacy was satisfied with promises of reforms and changes. The geographical borders of Armenia (Western Armenia) were specified in the documents submitted by the Armenian delegation to the Congress of Berlin in 1878, and especially in the May 1895 reform program. The plan presented to the sultan by the great powers on May 11, 1895, clearly marked the borders of Armenia (Western Armenia) within the six vilayets that covered most of the Armenian territories of the Ottoman Empire.

On the eve of World War I, when the task of partitioning the Ottoman Empire began to be on the agenda of the great powers, their diplomatic struggle ended with the signing of a Russian-Turkish agreement on Armenian reforms. On January 26, 1914 (February 8), in Constantinople, the Grand Vizier Said Halim Pasha and the Russian Chargé d’Affaires Kostandin Gulkich signed a Russian-Turkish agreement on Armenian reforms. According to that agreement, Armenia (Western Armenia) was divided into two regions: a) Sebastia, Erzurum, Trabzon and b) Bitlis, Van, Kharberd, Diyarbakir. In other words, Trabzon was added to the six vilayets of Western Armenia.

Armenia’s independence on May 28, 1918, and the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I brought the vision of a United and Independent Armenia to the diplomatic agenda. At the initial stage of the Paris Peace Conference, it was discussed as a “Great Armenia” project, including Armenian Cilicia, but later, in the Treaty of Sèvres signed in 1920, it was turned into a “Little Armenia” project, including most of the provinces of Van, Bitlis and Erzurum, and a part of the province of Trabzon with access to the Black Sea.

On August 10, 1920, in Sèvres suburb of Paris, a peace treaty was signed between the allied states and the Ottoman Empire, which established Armenia’s sovereignty over the mentioned territories, and the decision to determine the final border between the Republic of Armenia and the Ottoman state was left to US President W. Wilson. The Arbitral Award issued by the latter as of November 22, 1920 is still the only legal document clarifying the Armenian-Turkish state border.

POLITICAL SCIENCE AS A BRANCH OF SCIENCE – 2012-3

Some considerations upon the science examining the politics

Ludvig G. Vardanyan
To distinguish political science as science or discipline it is important to lay down the goals and questions that make it defferent from the other social and humanity disciplines, as well as substantiate its real place in the scientific system.

The political science is complicated by its special subjectof research. In general, social-political science can study the regularities and tendencies of such and such sphere of life as well as its seperate institutions. main issues, facts, phenomena. Thraditionally, the value of the political science is determined by the ability of exploring the cause-effect relationships in the society. That means that these abilities or opinions may become a base and give the opportunity to precieve the repeatability of the events. defining as a result some “objective” and always reproducing forms between politics and life’s other aspects’ inter-dependence, some modes of human behavior, state organization methods and so on.

Political science is examined in this article to wide extent, as a general theory of politics, at the same time it is considered to be a totality to different disciplines, which coheres by the general object of the research. Each scientific sphere or discipline has its own conceptual framework and research tools. Nevertheless two types of knowledge can be differed: empirical and theoretical and each of them has its particular methods of research. It is justified in this article that political science is particular by its nature and may show up also as “empirical” science, which is certainly to be discussed and substantiated in the sequel.

THE PROBLEMATICS OF “OPEN HERMENEUTICS” AND W. DILTHEY’S CONCEPTION OF HERMENEUTICS – 2015-1

Summary

Romik Kh. Kocharyan
This article considers three meanings of the “open hermeneutics” and demonstrates that two aspects of the first meaning are present in Dilthey’s theory in such a way, that the second aspect is in the basis of the first, and, moreover, his conception appears to us as just the embrio of the second meaning, which later was completed by H. G. Gadamer’s conception of philosophical hermeneutics. In Dilthey’s conception the possibility of being of human sciences is self-understood by epistemological inquiry, and his conception of hermeneutics is formulated as the universal methodology of human sciences. The goal of Diltey’s methodological reflection is to understand and interpretively explicate the calling and truth of human sciences. He defined the own subject, experience and method of these sciences, in contrast to natural sciences. In his viewpoint, the goal of human sciences is not the establishing of general laws and concepts, but the understanding and interpretively revealing of the uniqueness of the individual phenomena as such. The subject of understanding is composed of three classes of expressions of life: the first is presented by concepts, judgments, and more complex structures of thought, the second class consists of actions, the third – of expressions of lived experience, the latter is just the preferable subject of understanding, and according to these classes there are elementary and higher forms of understanding.

THE HISTORICAL BASIS OF THE “MYTH OF ARMENOSE” AND OF THE LEGEND ABOUT ARAMANYAK – 2018-3

Summary

Sargis G. Petrosyan
According to Strabo, companions of the legendary ancestor and the eponym of the Armenians, i.e.Armenos, once settled downpartlyin Sispiritis, partly in Qalakhene and others-outside of the Armenian highland-in Adiabene (in the
North-East of Mesopotamia). Until now there has been no genuine comparativehistorical approach in assessing the information about Thessaly Argonaut Armenos. The theme of Armenos, in our opinion, is inseparably linked with the Armenian ancient stories about Aramanyak, which is connected both with the origin of husbandry and the ancient Armenian ethnos. The fact is that the IndoEuropean husbandry tribes played a dominant role in the formation of the ancient Armenian ethnic community. Ancient Armenian stories mention that Hayk, ethnarch of the Armenians, after the birth of his elder son Aramanyak, goes to the land of Ararad.

At the end of the VIII Millennium BC in the basin of the Western Tigr is the culture of the first settled down farmers and cattle breeders was formed. Within this region, at the foothills of the Armenian Tavros in the future Armenian district Angeltun the early agricultural settlement of Chayonyou is situated. The excavations of Chayonyou revealed poly residues of cultivated plants– wheat, peas, lentils and vetch.

GAREGIN I HOVSEPYAN. THE BLESSED PATRIARCH AND GREAT SCIENTIST – 2020-1

Part IV: National-public activity in 1914-1917

Summary

Sargis R. Melkonyan-Candidate of Historical Sciences
In the previous parts of our study dedicated to Garegin I Hovsepyan, which were published in the issues of 2018 (N 1 (61), 2 (62), 3 (63)) of journal “Vem”, we thoroughly presented his student years and the programs of the great scholar and church leader for the reformation of the Armenian Church. The current publication, continuing a series of our articles on Hovsepyan, we present to the reader the national-public activities of Garegin Hovsepyan in 1914-1917 as the Head of the General Committee of Fraternal Assistance of St. Etchmiadzin and as the rector of the Gevorgian Theological Seminary.

ector of the Gevorgian Theological Seminary. During the years of the First World War, due to genocide and deprivation of the homeland of Armenians organized by the Turkish government, many refugees from the western provinces of Armenia found their salvation in St. Etchmiadzin. For organizing the salvation and care of these refugees and orphans in December 1914, by order of Catholicos Gevorg V Surenyants, the General Committee of Fraternal Assistance was established in Etchmiadzin, which from September 1915 to August 1916 was led by Archimandrite Garegin Hovsepyan. Under his leadership, the committee implemented the following activites.

1. From the staff of the Teaching Department of Gevorgian Seminary a separate department of specialists was organized, which was supposed to deal with the salvation and research of the cultural values of the Armenians preserved during the genocide.
2. For providing refugees with clothing the Work House was opened, thanks to which many refugee women were provided with jobs.
3. A school for refugee children was opened adjacent to the parish schools of Vagharshapat.

In the article, we presented especially in detail the travel and collection of donations of Garegin Hovsepyan in St. Petersburg and Moscow in the spring of 1917 for preserving Gevorgian Seminary and taking care for orphans. In this regard, we have published an unpublished document, in which Hovsepyan presents the results of his trip to Catholicos Gevorg V Surenyants.

During this journey for the first time to St. Petersburg and for the second time to Moscow, Garegin Hovsepyan was able to collect the necessary amount, with the help of which it was possible to ensure the work of the Gevorgian Theological Seminary before its closure due to the war, and then due to the revolution.

THE UNPUBLISHED MEMORIES OF TOVMAS NAZARBEKYAN – 2020-1

Military operations on the Caucasus Front from July 1914 to April 26, 1916
Copy-book 5 and 6: from August 14, 1915 to December 31, 1915

Summary

Ruben O. Sahakyan-Doctor of Historical Sciences
In the 5th and 6th notebooks of his memoirs, General T. Nazarbekyan describes the military operations that took place on the Caucasus (Russian-Turkish) Front from August 14, 1915 to December 14.

The commander again revisits the examination of the issue of the tragic retreat of July 1915. According to him, the retreat caused great discontent among the Armenian society. News was spread that the Russian government wanted to liquidate volunteer groups, as well as refusing to give autonomy to Western Armenia. The discontent of the Armenian public and political circles was further heightened when they learned that the Russian authorities were taking effective steps to resettle the Alashkert Valley with Russians and Cossacks. This tendency became clearer under the newly appointed Viceroy and Commander-in-Chief of the Caucasus Army Nikolay Romanov-Jr. Moreover, he was taking steps to win over the Kurds fighting against the Russian army on their side. Whereas, the Kurds remained loyal to the Ottoman Empire, and more precisely, the war was a convenient occasion for them to plunder and “cleanse” the territories from the Armenians.

On November 18, 1915 the brigade of Th. Nazarbekyan was reorganized into the 2nd Caucasian Rifle Division. Th. Nazarbekyan describes the large-scale fortification works being carried out at the defense sites occupied by the Caucasian 4th Army Corps. Rumors were circulating within the troops that the units would be wintering at the locating sites, so they were thoroughly being prepared for it. Barracks, bathhouses, canteens, warehouses, etc., were being built.

In fact, Commander of the Caucasian Army, General N. Yudenich was preparing for the Erzrum (Karin) capture operation and the news of a hibernation on the spot were misinformation intended to deceive the enemy and not to reveal the offensive operation in advance. N. Yudenich was in a hurry to seize Erzurum as it became known that the Allies – the British and the French, had decided to finally halt the Gallipoli landing operation, the ultimate goal of which was was the capture of Constantinople. It was clear to N. Yudenich that the Ottoman troops stationed in the straits would be directed against the Russians in the spring of 1916, so he decided not to delay but to seize Erzrum – the last powerful Turkish stronghold in Western Armenia.

Th. Nazarbekyan notes with regret that the advancement of the division led by him was accompanied overcoming many obstacles, especially emphasizing the harsh climatic conditions and the almost non-existence of shelters, in the result of which not only humans but also pack animals suffered.

A VALUABLE CONTRIBUTION IN SHANT STUDIES – 2020-1

Summary

Ashkhen Ed. Jrbashyan-Candidate of Philological Sciences
The review addresses the main issues related to the new edition of the National Armenian Educational and Cultural Fund “Levon Shant. The Man and the Work”, dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the outstanding writer. The article gives a clear idea of the content, topics and structure of this publication. The members of the editorial board (Vachagan Grigoryan, Serzh Srapionyan and Vartan Petrosyan) placed in this book the memories of the people of different generations about Levon Shant; the authors give original, noteworthy assessments of his political and pedagogical activity. In addition, the publication contains valuable excerpts from outstanding literary works dedicated to Shant, which characterize and generalize the literary heritage of the great writer and playwright.

Particularly important are those articles and materials that are published in Armenia for the first time. The reader gets a fairly complete picture of Levon Shant as a writer, politician and educator.

The most valuable material, published in this book, is the autobiographical exposition of Levon Shant, recorded by Vardges Aharonyan in the USA from the lips of an already elderly writer. The reader gets informed about Shant’s childhood and youth, about the years of his studies in Etchmiadzin, about the periods of his stay in the Caucasus and Europe, about well-known political events and about some significant episodes of his life related to his formation as a writer. Many of these facts are well known, but the assessments of L. Shant himself, his worldview and experiences give great value to the autobiographical narrative. The reader makes sense about the environment of Constantinople, Tiflis and its cultural atmosphere, the life of large and small European cities and, finally, the years of the First Republic, which became crucial for the formation of Shant as a person and politician.

We can insist that this publication is a valuable contribution to the Shant studies.