Author Archives: Admin

INDIVIDUALITY OF ARAM MANUKYAN AS THE DRIVING FORCE OF HISTORY-MAKING – 2017-4

Summary

Armen S. Asryan

Key words – Aram Manukyan, individuality, unshakable will, nation, power, Armenia, political figure, republic, prudence, decisiveness, responsibility, consistency.

In the histories of many nations, including that of Armenia, individuals appeared periodically and had significant impact on the development of the history, becoming the driving force of it. In the newest history of Armenia that very person was Aram Manukyan (Sargis Hovhannisyan 1879-1919), the biggest national and political figure of 20th century, who is remembered as the founder of the First Republic of Armenia. This statement fist of all refers to his activities in 1918, a fatal period for the nation of Armenia. Aram Manukyan, in fact, was the sole executive of Yerevan province, which occupied a considerable territory of Eastern Armenia. At the end of 1917, after the fall of Russian empire, Transcaucasia and Eastern Armenia were separated from Russian empire and were left alone against Turkey, giving the latter an opportunity to bring about its pan-Turkish objectives. One of the objectives was the occupation of Transcaucasia. Undoubtedly, it would include the genocide of the Armenians of Eastern Armenia as well. The urgent creation of powerful government and armed forces became a necessity. The fact that it was Aram who was entrusted with the leadership of Yerevan province in that critical period distinguishes him from other political figures of the time.

Aram, who can be characterized as a person of great endurance, unshakable will, decisiveness, consistency, prudence and strategic thinking, was able to get together skillful military leaders, political and social figures and organize new governmental bodies. With their help, he also created efficient military formations, suppressed Тatars’ mutiny and anti-state activities, resolved many other vital problems during short period of time. In May, which was a fatal month, he played an important role in the organization of triumphant battles of Sardarabad and Aparan, which made the reshaping of the independence possible. Holding several offices in the government, Aram by all means contributed to the strengthening of the republic. Hence, he can be viewed as the founder of the First Republic of Armenia and a driving force of the history.

THE BABYLONIAN SATRAPY IN THE ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEM OF ACHAEMENID PERSIA – 2017-4

Summary

Hovhannes G. Khorikyan

Key words – Herodotus, Xenophon, the city of Babylon, Babylonia, Darius I, Satrapy, politics, Assyria,data, Mesopotamia, «the rest of Assyria»,the BehistunInscription.

Ancient greek author Herodotus writes about the IX Satrapy that Babylon and the rest of Assyria rendered to Darius a thousand talents of silver and five hundred boys to be eunuchs.

The Babylonian or IX satrapy was the richest province and the economic center of Achaemenid Empire. The IX satrapy consisted of two subdistricts: the city of Babylon with its suburbs and «the rest of Assyria» toward the north. In other words, this province of Achaemenid Persia included the Lower Mesopotamia: the province of Babylon and the territory of ancient Assur. Moreover, the northwestern vast part of Assyria was within Armenian satrapy. The article concludes that IX satrapy was not a stable administrative unit and its borders were subject to change.

Many important and wrinkled issues on the administrative policy and historical geography of IX Satrapy were examined in the article, the elucidation of which is of great importance for the study of the history of Achaemenid Persia.

THE VERSIONS OF KHORENATSI AND SEBEOS ON THE FALL OF ASSYRIA – 2017-4

Summary

Ruslan A. Tsakanyan

Key words – Assyria, Babylon, Urartu, Armenian Highland, Movses Khorenatsi, Sebeos, Sophena, Ałdznik, Nebuchadnezzar II

n this article an attempt is made (on the basis of the “Babylonian Chronicles” and Armenian medieval historians Movses Khorenatsi and Sebeos) to restore political situation in the Armenian Highland at the end of VII century B.C. In his monumental work M. Khorenatsi mainly preferred Greek sources. Hence originates the “Median” version of the fall of the Assyrian state. But M. Khorenatsi obviously possesses with other sources also, according to which the fall of Assyria was considered from the point of view of Babylon. Moreover, M. Khorenatsi himself does not deny the existence of this fact – “For the deeds of the father Nabuchadnezzar were written down by the supervisors of their annals …”. Here the conclusions are more than clear: under the hand of M. Khorenatsi there were two versions according to which the first Armenian king was crowned not by Nabopalassar or Nebuchadnezzar, but by the Midian king “Varbakes”-Cyaxares. And in the study of Sebeos we meet only the “Babylonian” version, where the above mentioned events are bound to Babylonia. The records of Sebeos are similar to the “Babylonian Chronicles”. Of the latter, we know that during the Assyrian-Babylonian conflict (626-605 B.C.), the Babylonian army, led by King Nabopalassar and Nebuchadnezzar, the heir to the throne, appeared at least three times on the borders of the Armenian Highland. Perhaps they moved further into the highlands – in 609 B.C. in the Izalla area, in 608 B.C. in Bet-Hanuniya and in 607 B.C. “to the district of Uraš/rtu” or “to the district of Sea (in the basin of Lake Van or Lake Hazar (?))”.

ON THE QUESTION OF THE ASSESSMENT OF A. MIKOYAN AS A PARTY-STATE ACTOR – 2017-4

Summary

Ararat M. Hakobyan

Key words – A. Mikoyan, post, nostalgia for 1937, Bolshevik, facts, decree, Communist Party, episode, Karabakh, self-determination, independence.

Recently, the issue of renaming streets, monuments, memorial plaques or other neighborhoods named in memory of several party and state figures of the Soviet era has become the subject of discussions at the social and even governmental levels in Armenia. One of the publicly discussed topics is the issue of placing a statue of Soviet and state figure Anastas Mikoyan in the center of Yerevan. Among the party and state figures of the Soviet era there were people whom the Armenian people valued and respected. However, for decades, the Armenian society as a whole has negatively treated A. Mikoyan because of the indifference of the latter toward the national interests of the Armenian people. Separate documents and materials presented in a number of episodes in this publication indicate the non-Armenian activities of Mikoyan. Thus, only the Armenian Bolsheviks, along with A. Mikoyan, who was the secretary of the Committee in Tbilisi at that time, boycotted and did not participate in the East Armenian Congress considering it a “nationalistic enterprise”. Then, in December 1919, while addressing his pro-Turkish theses to V. Lenin, Mikoyan considered a mistake the Declaration on Turkish-Armenia, adopted by the Soviet government of Russia: according to this declaration, Western Armenians were given the right to free self-determination. In his opinion, it was playing into hands of “Armenian nationalists”. A. Mikoyan believed that the Armenian bourgeoisie cherished insane hopes to “seize a part of Turkey”, and its sponsor – the Entente’s imperialists wanted to rob Turkey and make it a new colony.

Similarly, Mikoyan’s attitude was negative in the issue of the annexation of Karabakh and Zangezur to Armenia.

In addition, he was against the Armenian delegation led by L. Shant to hold talks and sign a peace treaty with Soviet Russia.

And finally, in 1937, A. Mikoyan, already a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of CPSU, who arrived in Armenia at the height of political repression that fell to the share of the Soviet state, has a certain responsibility for expanding the lists of innocent Armenians executed and expelled by hundreds.

Thus, the facts cited above give grounds to conclude that any attempt to perpetuate the name of A. Mikoyan in Armenia is simply immoral (unacceptable).

KAREN JEPPE’S MISSION OF SALVATION. A COMPREHENSIVE VIEW – 2017-4

Summary

Ashot N. Hayruni

Key words – Karen Jeppe, Urha, Genocide (Mets Yeghern), Johannes Lepsius, German Eastern Mission, Humanism, children, religious propaganda, ateliers.

This article is a new attempt to fully cover the work of Karen Jeppe, a woman who, unlike many other friends of the Armenian people and humanists, not only raised her voice of protest against the Turkish genocidal policy and informed the civilized world about it, but also undertook a specific mission of salvation and dedicated her whole life to that mission.

The activity of Jeppe in the Armenian children’s home of Urfa before the First World War is described in the first part of the article. In 1902, thanks to the publications and presentations of Aga Meier Benedictsen, the friend of the Armenian people, Agе Meyer Benediktsson, the founder and the head of the Danish Committee for Assistance to Armenia, young Karen Jeppe learned about the terrible situation of Armenians who survived the massacres in the 1890s and, against the will of their parents, she decided to go to Armenia and devote herself to the needs of the Armenian people. Jeppe informed Benediktsson of her decision and when she learned that J. Lepsius was looking for a teacher for an orphanage in Urfa, she addressed to the latter and received his consent. On October 4, 1903, she left for Urfa, where she soon became the de-facto head of this institution.

In 1915, when the mass eviction of Armenians began, Karen Jeppe temporarily sent most of the children from the orphanage to their relatives to spend the summer holidays. The staff of the orphanage tried to do their best to save local Armenians from persecution. After the first arrests in Urfa, Jeppe regularly provided information to the American and German consuls in Aleppo about the continuing illegality, urging them to use their influence in support of the Armenians. At the same time, Jeppe harbored many innocent Armenians in her home who were threatened with death.

In the fall of 1917, when the government no longer pursued the surviving Armenians as before, Jeppe sent the Armenians hiding in her house to the south of Urfa to Arabs where they could be safe. She also temporarily sent her two foster children to a Kurdish leader and left for Europe in December … to return soon.

THE ONE WHO BLESSED LONELINESS – 2017-4

Summary

Ruben S. Angaladyan

Key words – Ara Shiraz, exhibition, talent, responsibility, artistic life, artist of the sixties, composition of a sculptural portrait, real beauty, Armenian culture.

The works by sculptor Ara Shiraz that are presented in the National Gallery of Armenia from November 18, 2017 until the end of the year, bear the stamp of an artistic personality. Clay and wax in his works seek and find the power of his mind, the blood of his tribe, the warmth of the soul striving for the future. In his work he puts a higher level of analysis than are just the justice or beauty. Ara Shiraz saw in Armenia not only the old history, not only the greatness of the spirit, but also shortcomings and imperfections. He was true to this artistic logic of development, a stony landscape open before the winds, he could argue until he was almost to death with the Time itself, that is, with Armenia itself. So he passed away, with anxiety for his country, for the future and for his culture!

Therefore, the works of Shiraz, in which contemporaries are represented, convince, inspiring confidence in our souls, that although his creative path was unexpectedly and quite early completed, this difficult path was passed to the end. It’s time for a deep understanding of his multi-layered work. It’s time for Ara Shiraz to take his rightful place in the Armenian culture, beginning from the 60s of the 20th century to the first decade of the 21st century.

THE CHALLENGES OF TURKISM AND ISLAM IN KAZAKHSTAN – 2017-4

Summary

Narek A. Mkrtchyan

Key words – Kazakhstan, Russia, nation building, national identity, Islam, Turkic Identity, securitization, Turkism .

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, many Central Asian leaders approached the nation building process as an innovative idea to their states. Former communist leaders also relied upon the discourse of nationalism to achieve public consent and to legitimize the continuity of their regimes with strong patrimonial features. Indeed, the groundwork and basis of national ideas were formed during the Soviet Union, which as the architect of national ideas in the Central Asian region created union republics based on ethnic belonging. Moreover, it would provide unique national space for the formation of cultural-national identity aimed at destroying the overarching Islamic identities. In this context, it is quite interesting to focus on the paradigm of Kazakhstan’s nation building in the post-Soviet era. The Kazakh paradigm of nation building is a result of multidimensional responses to the challenges of post-Soviet history. Kazakhstan stands out among other post-Soviet countries as an example of inter-ethnic understanding, which provides not only rational but also inclusive ideas of the collectivity of diverse ethnic commonalities. In the present article, the issue under scrutiny is the challenges of Islam and Turkism in the post-Soviet Kazakhstan. President Nursultan Nazarbayev came to pursue an ambitious project of nation building, which contained components of patrimonial use of authority, ethnicizing and civic policies with emphasis on western style administration. The ethnic and civic approaches of nation building policies of Kazakhstan are unique not only in terms of multiculturalism and political stability but also for addressing Turkic and Islamic challenges. The breakdown of the Soviet Union left an ideological vacuum in Central Asia. This situation contained serious challenges and risks concerning possibly filling the vacuum with Islamic ideologies. Nevertheless, Kazakhstan did not provide Islamic responses to the challenges of post-Soviet realities; instead, it tried to overcome traditional/tribal relations and to establish innovative tendencies for the development of national ideas. Next, for the government of Kazakhstan, the exclusion of radical Islam became one of the most strategic priorities of nation/state building processes. To this end, the Nazarbaev administration pursued a policy of “securitization of foreign Islam” to keep Kazakstan far from the external influence of radical/political Islam and have balanced relations with the Christian Russia. Compared to other Central Asian countries Kazakhstan is more open to the world. To maintain the balance of power among Russia, China, Iran, United States, European Union and Turkic states the Nazarbaev administration proclaimed about Kazakhstan’s multi-vector foreign policy.

ARMENIAN LEXICOGRAPHY FROM THE SECOND HALF OF THE XVIII CENTURY AND THE COLOPHONS OF THE ARMENIAN MANUSCRIPTS – 2017-4

Summary

Khachik A. Harutyunyan

Key words – scribes, lexicography, word formation structures, historical lexicology, Classical Armenian, Middle Armenian.

Armenian manuscripts are rich in colophons which provide abundant material for dictionaries covering different periods of the development of Armenian language. In this article, we examine the relationship between Armenian dictionaries and colophons, which we present in three groups: a. words, which are known to dictionaries only from the colophons. b. words, which are known to dictionaries in one example, but the colophonsgive other testimonies. c. words attested in dictionaries, the older usages of which we find in the colophons of the Armenian manuscripts. A number of new words that are not attested in Armenian dictionaries is also presented with the study of their formation structures.

THE SOCIAL-PSYCHOLOGICAL MANIFESTATIONS OF GENDER – 2017-4

Summary

Marine D. Ghazaryan

Key words – “The Humbles”, qoqur, love, sex, gender, psychological identification, woman, waiting, dream, reality, inner drama.

The Armenian diaspora writer Hagop Oshagan had a number of significant principles, to perceive and illustrate reality, one of which was based on the absolutization of sex. The best examples of viewing literature in this regard, is the collection “The Humbles” (1920). In “The Humbles” Oshagan mostly created characters of a certain human type – that of the poor, the wretched, and the mad, ones who he called with the generalized name of qoqur. Qoqurs are individuals, who due to mental, physical impairments, or by the whim of fate have become qoqurs from within. Qoqurs, created by Oshagan, are mainly men deprived of assumed male traits. The society was not willing to give these men a wife, and this is where their drama unfolds. As every society has certain cultural norms that shape the gender relations in the society, we have interpreted Oshakan’s characters, behavior from socialcultural aspects. At the beginning of the 20th century when in the scientific vocabulary there was no distinction between “sex” and “gender” terms, on the example of his heroes the writer shows the gender is related to society expectations and is not just a biological issue. Although gender was mentioned back in different works written in the 1300s, however the terms “gender” and “sex” were coined in the scientific terminology in 1950s. Whether Oshakan was aware of them or not is difficulat to say since there is no word “gender” in any of the stories. But the fact that the author realized the difference between biological and psychological sexes is obvious. This fact allows us to claim that the ability to depict the unconscious aesthetically is typical of Oshakan as a writer.

FOLLOWING THE TRACES OF RENDERINGS OF A FAMOUS TALE – 2017-4

Summary

Albert A. Makaryan
Astghik V. Soghoyan

Key words – tale, code, symbol, plot, Ch. Perrault, Brothers Grimm, “Little Red Riding Hood”, Hovh. Tumanyan, “Karmrik” (The Reddish) , H. Paronyan, “The Red Varduk (Rosette)”.

The article is dedicated to the study of versions and elaborations of rendering-translations of the worldwide known tale “Little Red Riding Hood”. It examines the folklore versions of the tale (“Stab Peter’s Hardships”, “Grandmother’s Story”) and elaborations by Charles Perrault and Brothers Grimm. But the main emphasis of the study is put upon genius humorist writer Hakob Pa¬ron¬yan’s free translation-rendering carried out on Charles Perrault’s version. It is stated that each of the versions bears its philosophy of time and place and the internal stamp left by the interpreter or by the author. Hakob Paronyan, for instance, staying close to the main plot and ending of the original version adapts the work to the Armenian child’s taste and psychology and by using certain lingo stylistic peculiarities and changes, transmits national color to the notable tale, eliminating the existing sexual subtext.