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EQUIVALENCE IN LITERARY TRANSLATION

The article is dedicated to the examination of the issues related to the equivalence of the Armenian and English translations of Paruyr Sevak’s literary compositions translated by Dora Sakayan whose multi-layered and comprehensive approach, deep understanding of the context and the skillful analysis make her translation remarkable.

For a translator, literary translation is a challenging path that requires studying the author’s entire creative path, deeply understand, perceive the very spirit of the original text and only then reproduce its most accurate expression of it based on her own thoughts, feelings, emotional-expressive inner world and experience in accordance with the language and style of the original.

Literary translation cannot set clear principles of comparison. The translator should make the right choices, thus remaining faithful to the original and reaching out to the target language reader.

Considering that translational problems in fiction are diverse and multifaceted, it is extremely important to adopt a correct and clear strategy for providing solutions.

The issue should be viewed from an epistemological perspective as different cultures and languages make sense of and share the same epistemological foundation, building their systems from the standpoint of the general cognition of the given society.

Thus, the problem of equivalence and its study have been and remain the key issues in translation studies to which various linguists have addressed and continue to explore. And despite the work already done and the achievements made, it remains a relevant object of study.

THE FORMATION OF THE ANTI-ARMENIAN CONCEPT OF “WESTERN AZERBAIJAN” IN POST-SOVIET AZERBAIJAN

After the 44-day Artsakh war in 2020, Azerbaijan uses the process of normalization of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations not to achieve long-term peace, but to impose its vision of the future of the region on Armenia, simultaneously applying the entire set of tools of both military and diplomatic pressure.

Under these conditions, the anti-Armenian concept of “Western Azerbaijan”, which had been constructed by the state since the 1990s but had limited significance and application before the 44-day war, was brought out of its marginal status and endowed with new strategic importance and uses. The visit of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to the building of the so-called “Western Azerbaijan Community” organization on December 24, 2022 and his extensive programme speech marked the new role of the “Western Azerbaijan” concept in Azerbaijan’s strategy towards Armenia. Since 2022, this concept has begun to be actively exploited by the state in the process of solving both external and internal problems facing Azerbaijan after the war, becoming the cornerstone of a new large-scale anti-Armenian campaign.

The article examines the historical roots of the territorial notions and ambitions underlying the anti-Armenian concept of “Western Azerbaijan”, examines the prerequisites for the formation of the anti-Armenian concept of “Western Azerbaijan” in post-Soviet Azerbaijan and the main stages of its development, and reveals the main goals, spheres, and tools of the state’s application of the concept after the 44-day Artsakh war.

A MAJOR ACHIEVEMENT OF EUROPEAN ARMENOLOGY

Contemporary Armenian studies were enriched in 2024 by a valuable new German-language publication, co-authored by distinguished Armenologists, German Professor Tessa Hofmann and Norwegian Dr. Winfried K. Dallmann. The substantial volume, titled “Das geopolitische Schicksal Armeniens. Vergangenheit und Gegenwart” (“The Geopolitical Fate of Armenia: Past and Present”), is original and highly significant from multiple perspectives. First and foremost, the book presents a comprehensive history of the Armenian people from the earliest times to the present day. Importantly, it provides scholarly and compelling interpretations of issues related to different historical periods, issues on which the perspectives of foreign researchers at times lacked objectivity. Secondly, the work is structured two parts and comprises eighteen chapters. The first part presents the millennia-long history of the Armenian people up to the declaration of independence of the Third Republic of Armenia, while the second part, consisting of eight chapters, covers the events of the following thirty-five years. This testifies to the authors’ recognition of the importance of the modern period, marked by both triumph and tragedy, challenges, victories and defeats, as well as a host of unresolved issues. Central of this era lies the Artsakh conflict and the developments directly related to and surrounding it.

Another important merit of the book is the fact that the narrative is thoroughly mapped out. In other words, when presenting Armenia across different historical periods, the authors include corresponding maps, which make the material more concrete and render the authors’ conclusions and generalizations more compelling and irrefutable.

The work, which offers a comprehensive account not only of Armenia and the Artsakh conflict but also of the history of the Armenian diaspora, serves as a unique encyclopedia or textbook for anyone seeking deep and thorough knowledge of these subjects, as well as of the regional and international developments that have unfolded in these contexts.

TRACING ARMENIAN MANUSCRIPTS PRESERVED IN BAKU

About 31,000 Armenian manuscripts are preserved in state, church, and private collections in the Republic of Armenia and various countries around the world. However, some manuscripts remain uncatalogued or unknown, including those preserved in Baku.

During the period from the 1940s to the 1970s, several Armenian scholars conducted research on Armenian manuscripts housed in collections in Baku, the capital of the Azerbaijan SSR. In the late 1940s, Vazgen Hakobyan studied manuscripts held at the Central City Library, named after Lenin, and the Nizami State Museum of History. Later, Levon Khachikyan examined Armenian manuscripts in the Republican Manuscript Depository of the Academy of Sciences of the Azerbaijan SSR and the Central City Library named after V.I. Lenin. His research resulted in a handwritten catalogue of these manuscripts, which is now preserved in an archival collection bearing his name at the Matenadaran.

The findings of these scholars are supplemented by manuscript microfilms kept at Matenadaran and the Korneli Kekelidze Georgian National Centre of Manuscripts, as well as archival materials and scholarly records. These sources and related literature collectively document twelve Armenian manuscripts, two Georgian manuscripts, and a silver plaque from another Armenian manuscript that was previously housed in the capital of the Azerbaijan SSR. The colophon data on these manuscripts, their provenances, and their movements — considering the formation of manuscript collections in Azerbaijan — provide a more comprehensive understanding of their trajectory.

NATURE, CULTURE AND INTELLIGENCE AS FACTORS OF LANGUAGE DIFFERENCE

The article raises the question of whether the emergence of national languages is based on three key factors: nature or the climatic conditions in which a given ethnic group lived, as well as culture and knowledge. In this context, the interrelation and interdependence between linguistic and conceptual worldviews are examined. The linguistic picture of the world is the image of reality in the consciousness of a given ethnic group, which is reflected through language, individual episodes of which still preserve people’s experiential ideas about the creation of the world. The conceptual picture of the world is constantly changing, reflecting the results of people’s cognitive and social activities. The article attempts to answer to answer the question of how the linguistic picture of the world is formed in people’s  consciousness. The word is considered in its dual nature, which, depending on the historical course of a given language, the national and cultural peculiarities of depicting the world, its conceptual core and linguistic meaning, differs from language to language. Various contents are embedded in the concept: conceptual, verbal, emotional, cultural, etc. This is the reason why languages “mean” different words for the same concept, so the interlingual combination of concepts contributes to the emergence of national and international components in the content of the conceptual system of different nations. “Seeing” and “naming” the world are in the domain of interconditioning the intellectual and the spiritual. For these theoretical observations, words denoting time in old forms of Armenian, Russian, English, German and French languages were considered.

THE FUNDAMENTAL COMPONENTS OF OUR IDENTITY

The article examines the interrelation of language, history, and culture as essential components of collective identity. These domains do not function in isolation but form an integrated system of memory, symbolism, and values that ensures the continuity of community existence.

From a phenomenological perspective, history reveals the temporal depths of collective experience, language organizes and mediates processes of thought and communication, while culture embodies traditions and simultaneously generates new meanings. The Armenian experience illustrates that the vitality of historical memory, the symbolic power of language, and the continuity of cultural values serve as crucial sources of resistance against oblivion, fragmentation, and assimilation. In the context of current situation, the distortion of history, the commodification of languages, and the marginalization of culture threaten the foundations of identity, reducing it to superficial diversity.

The article argues that scholarship must counter these processes by adopting integrative methodologies that unite linguistic, historical, and cultural perspectives. This approach is not only epistemological but also ethical, becoming a form of resistance to oblivion, standardization, and distortion. Thus, the humanities acquire existential significance, serving as a preventive and constructive force for the preservation of identity and the possibility of future coexistence.

THE PERCEPTION OF THE CONCEPT OF SADNESS IN VAHAN TERIAN’S POETIC LANGUAGE

In the Linguistic Consciousness of the Contemporary Armenian-speaking Society

The article is devoted to the description of the linguistic and cultural specifics.

The emotional experiences impact all aspects of life and are considered to be one of the forms of reflection, cognition and assessment of objective reality. The Sadness refers to the basic emotions that nominates emotions and feelings.

The object of our research is the emotional concept of Sadness, its representation in the poems of V. Teryan and in linguistic consciousness of Armenian society. To analyze the concept of Sadness in the linguistic consciousness of society, we conducted an associative experiment, which involved studying the associations that arise in connection with the concept of the emotion of Sadness. More than 100 people took part in the associative experiment: they had to give associations for the word Sadness.

THE LEGAL AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS OF THE ARMENIANS IN GREATER SYRIA (XVI-XIX CC.)

This article presents a detailed analysis of the legal status of Armenians in Bilād al-Shām (Northern Country or Land, Greater Syria) as a dhimmī and a constituent part of the Armenian millet, as well as their socio-economic status as a ra‘iyah in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries of Ottoman rule.

The evolution of territorial and social governance systems was a direct result of the necessity to administer the conquered regions and populations.

The state classified the population according to religious affiliation, rather than ethno-linguistic identity. Consequently, the non-Muslim population of the empire, which constituted approximately 40 percent of the population in the mid-sixteenth century, was divided into three religious communities or millets: Greek Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic, and Jewish․

LOSSES OF THE ARMENIAN PEOPLE IN TRANSCAUCASIA IN 1918

Based on the documents of the “Union of Compatriotic Associations” of Tiflis

After the outbreak of World War I, first in Western Armenia, Kars province and Batumi okrug, and in 1918 in Transcaucasia, as a result of the implementation of the genocidal policy against Armenians, hundreds of thousands of people who had escaped massacres and violence became refugees. Some of them found shelter in Tiflis. Soon several compatriot associations were established here, the purpose of which was to provide material and moral support to their compatriots.

In order to increase the efficiency of their activities these associations united on 1 March 1918, creating the “Union of Compatriotic Associations”. In the spring of 1918, the Turkish military offensive began, which lasted until the autumn of the same year. These events had tragic consequences, especially for the Armenian population. Hundreds of thousands of Armenians from Yerevan, Baku, Elizavetpol and partially Tiflis provinces, as well as Kars and Batumi provinces became victims of the devastating Turkish offensive.

Tens of thousands of Armenians were slaughtered by Turkish troops and local Tatars and Kurds supported by them, hundreds of villages were completely destroyed, and tens of thousands of people became refugees fleeing death. In fact, the Turkish government continued the state-organized genocide of Armenians, but now against the Armenian population outside the Ottoman Empire.

In 1918, the “Union of Compatriotic Associations” decided to appeal to the representatives of the allied countries with a request to stop the Turkish discord and robberies. In order for the submitted appeal to give an accurate picture of the situation in each Armenian county, it was decided to entrust the “Union of Compatriotic Associations” to compile brief reports on the situation in their regions.

From 25 to 29 November 1918 the associations of Karabakh and Zangezur, Alexandropol, Shemakha and Gokchi, Akhalkalaki, Lori, Pambak, Akhaltsikhe, Ganja, New Bayazet, as well as the security committee of Gohtan county submitted the required reports to the central council of the “Union of Compatriotic Associations”. They summarized information on human and material losses, as well as other acts of violence known at the time.

HISTORICAL AND STRATEGIC FOUNDATIONS OF MILITARY CONSTRUCTION IN ARTSAKH

This review examines Mher Harutyunyan’s monograph «Military Construction in Artsakh, 1991–2006», which provides a foundational historical and strategic analysis of the military-institutional development of the Republic of Artsakh during its formative post-Soviet period. The monograph offers a multidimensional exploration of the establishment, consolidation, and doctrinal evolution of the Defense Army of Artsakh (DAA), framed within the geopolitical and security challenges posed by Azerbaijani aggression.

Key thematic directions addressed in the monograph include: the institutionalization of armed forces and defense governance (1992–1994), the development of military infrastructure and logistics under resource-limited conditions, the training and professionalization of officer corps through both domestic and international frameworks, and the implementation of territorial defense and fortification strategies in the post-ceasefire period (1994–2006).

The review highlights the author’s effective use of primary sources, including classified archival materials, official publications, military press, and personal testimonies, many of which have gained unique historiographic value following the forced displacement of Artsakh’s population in 2023.

Particular attention is paid to the book’s conceptual contributions to the understanding of military construction as a key component of state-building under conditions of political non-recognition and existential threat. The monograph is not merely a descriptive chronology but a systematic and theoretically informed analysis that interfaces military history with national security studies, conflict theory, and institutional resilience.

The review underscores the work’s relevance for academic disciplines such as military history, political science, and strategic studies. It also notes its potential utility for policy planners and defense professionals concerned with the design of adaptive and context-specific national security strategies, especially in contested regions.

In light of its methodological rigor, originality, and applied analytical insights, the monograph represents a significant contribution to the evolving field of post-Soviet military transformations and de facto state studies.