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ARMENIAN TRADE CAPITAL AS “WORLD-ECONOMY” – 2017-1

And the Challenges of the Industrial Era

Summary

Smbat Kh. Hovhannisyan

Key words – Armenian merchants, Armenian Trade Capital, New Julfa, Fernand Braudel, Global History, Time’s Rhythms, World-Economy, Civilization Challenges.

This article discusses issues of Armenian trade capital in the context of Fernand Braudel’s theory of civilizations. While this topic was subject to a great deal of research, most researchers have primarily discussed political and economic aspects of trade capital. New approaches provide the opportunity to discuss the topic from the point of view of theory of civilizations. The comparative method is one of these methods aiming at studying issues of Armenian history in the context of global history.

On the bases of works of French Annales School and particularly of Fernand Braudel’s theory, one can discuss activities of Armenian merchants in global dimensions. The same applies to Armenian international commerce, which flourished in the 16th-18th centuries.

In this paper, I discuss the problem in a broad context of the industrial civilization and rely on Braudel’s theory of global history, which is based on three fundamental (temporal and axiological) algorithms of history: political, economic, and civilizational. They set up the essence and rhythm of global history. For this purpose, I suggest consider the network of Armenian merchants as a “world-economy,” which was characterized by the following components: a/ A definite geographic space and boundaries of communication, that transform even if slowly; b/ Existence of a center such as a leading city (or cities); c/ Hierarchical structure.

The emerging system also served the purpose of recovering Armenian statehood by facilitating the move from a pre-Industrial society to an Industrial one. However, the successful completion of this mission was possible only through a adequate response to the civilizational challenges of the time. Among these, the three most important responses were: 1) moving from caravan and land commerce to an “oceanic” environment in accordance with the most up to date technologies of trade and economy; b) learning to use he newest banking technologies and discovery of new means of capital development; c) efforts of restoring national statehood on solid grounds in order to instigate the formation of the modern national state for the Armenians.

As further developments showed, Armenian merchants neither managed to drop the burden of tradition nor make sufficient radical transformations to their activities to adapt to new environment. Efforts to restore statehood did not bring about the anticipated result and no Armenian state was established.

ARTAXIAS I AND ROME’S POLICY IN THE ASIA MINOR (189-179 B.C.) – 2017-1

Summary

Ruben L. Manasserian

Key words – Rome, Armenia, Artaxias I, Pharnaces I, Hannibal, Titus Livius, Pontus.

The works of Polibius and of Liny don’t contain any data regarding contacts between Artaxias that had proclamed himself king of Great Armenia in 189 and Rome.

Titus Livius, pointing out the eastern peoples and cities which recognised roman Imperium in the years 184-188, emphaisizes that they all had inhabited the territories laying to the West of Taurus (cis Taurum montem incolunt – Tit. Liv. XXXVIII, 3, 7, 1). According to the Greek geographs (Strabo, XI, 14, 2), Taurus beginning into the north of Armenia (near the upper Euphrates) went down to the south up tu Mesopotamia, thus serving the natural bondary between Asia Minor and Armenia. The conclusion, therefore, may be drawn from these testimonies: unlike the kings of Asia Minor Artaxias avoided to establish relations with Rome and did not aspire to be recognized as a roman friend and ally.

2) Strabon’s and Plutarch’s data of the refuge given to Hannibal by Artaxias at his court (189-186) reflects the true fact. Having admitted that Hannibal Artaxias asserted his independent attitude towards Rome.

3) In 179 Artaxias took part in the conclusion of the peace treaty which put an end to the war between roman allies – Pergamus, Bythania and Cappadocia on the one hand and Pontus and Armenia Minor on the other. The latter were defeated. Artaxias is mentioned the first in the list of the neutral international subjects – participants of this peace treaty (Polyb., XXV, 2). As it is shown in article, the king of Great Armenia played the role of the principal guarantor of the piece treaty, i.e. he pledged to come out against each disturber of the piece. By such Artaxias resolved his strategical aims. He could prevent the threat of transgression of forces’s correlation by stronger site – roman clients’s coalition and could ensure the security of Pontus and Armenia Minor.

LITERARY METHODS – 2017-1

Summary

Sergey N. Sarinyan

Key words – method, exegetics, structuralism, mythology, poetics, philosophy, linguistics.

Methods of the formation of literature are double.
1. Creative method, which characterizes literary movements and trends, such as classicism, romanticism, realism, symbolism and naturalism.
2. Scientific method, which covers political, theoretical and historical issues in the literature.

This article is devoted to the systematization of literary methods from exegesis to semiotics. Methods are described following their origin, epistemological value and practical significance.

THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE ISSUE IN CHINA’S FOREIGN POLICY OUTLOOK – 2015-1

Summary

Mnatsakan A. Safaryan

Key words – China’s foreign policy, South Caucasus, Armenian Genocide, Armenian-Chinese relations, Chinese-Turkish relations, crimes against humanity.

The last decades have seen the growth of China’s international stature and influence. As studies of China’s foreign policy are thriving worldwide, many issues of China’s policy in the South Caucasus remain largely unresearched. In this connection it is cognitive to detect China’s approaches to the issue of the Armenian Genocide, in particular, in the view of the ongoing dynamic change in China’s attitude towards such crimes against humanity as the Holocaust and the Nanjing Massacre.

The July 2009 events in Urumqi sparked a reaction of Turkey’s government: Prime Minister Erdogan said that the events in Urumqi were like genocide. At the request of China’s authorities Turkey’s foreign ministry issued an explanatory statement, which was followed by intensive diplomacy between the two countries to ease the strained Chinese-Turkish relations. Prior to these events the issue of the Armenian Genocide has not been a matter of special academic research in China. To be precise, it received marginal coverage in China’s central media sources, in those cases when the issue was brought forward by the world’s prime media outlets. The issue of the Armenian Genocide in China’s academic research first appears in 2010-2011 period. Moreover, China’s stance on the Armenian Genocide acquired new quality. In February 2011 China’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Yang Jiechi visited the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial Complex in Yerevan and paid tribute to the victims of the Armenian Genocide. In reply to Anadolu Agency’s question China’s Foreign Ministry made a statement, saying that China is aware of the complexities of the historical problems between Turkey and Armenia and wants it to be solved through dialogue.

China’s evolving major power diplomacy has broadened its foreign policy outlook, which has brought the issue of the Armenian Genocide to the attention of China’s academic and social circles. The China’s diplomatic strategy is taking into account the nuances of regional situation in the South Caucasus and the neighboring areas. Despite the fact that the issue of the Armenian Genocide has gained its place in the toolbox of the Chinese diplomacy and is reflected in academic studies, the issue of the official recognition by China’s government is not on the agenda due to many factors. Firstly, China still pursues the notion of noninterference to some extent, at least for the time being. Secondly, the relations between Turkey and China are considered to be of high mutual importance, as both countries make use of the developing multipolar world. Nonetheless, Turkey’s nationalist policies, as well as the growing institutionalization of universal values in China may set the conditions for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide by China.

SAPIENTIA ILLUSTRIS HISTORIAE – 2016-4

Albert A. Stepanian
With Hellenistic cultural influence, the western canon of historiography – tragic and pragmatic histories – were introduced in Greater Armenia. The eminent intellectuals Methrodor of Scepsis and Artavazd II were the pioneers of this innovation. However, we have no evidence that this theoretic comprehension was developed by the subsequent historians – Mar Aba Katina, Priest Olymp, Bardetsan. Most probably, they compiled chronographies on events of the past and present of Armenian history.

HISTORICAL TRAJECTORY OF THE RIGHT OF NATIONS TO SELFDETERMINATION – 2016-4

From the Peace of Westphalia to Nagorno-Karabakh Problem

Summary

Tigran R. Yepremyan

Key words – Self-determination of nations, territorial integrity, sovereignty, Hugo Grotius, Peace of Westphalia, Peace of Utrecht, French Revolution, League of Nations, United Nations, Helsinki Final Act, Europe, Artsakh.

The paper aims to present the historical trace and the development of the idea of national sovereignty and the right of nations to self-determination from the Peace of Westphalia (1648) to Helsinki Final Act (1975). It tends to evaluate Grotius’ place in the context of the European enlightenment and the history of the formulation of the right of nations to self-determination. According to these approaches nations are constructed with common beliefs and organizational structures. Therefore, nations, i.e. the organized political communities, have the right to political self-determination. The Peace of Westphalia symbolized the transformation of the European-world order based on the hierarchical structures of medieval Christendom to the horizontal system of sovereign territorial states. The rising sense of national individualism was promoted by the Renaissance and Reformation. Meanwhile, the start of the secularization and its adjacent idea of self-determination entailed the principle of peaceful coexistence among legally equal members of international society, which found its fundamental expression in the Helsinki Final Act. Thus, socio-philosophical as well as geo-strategic incentives of the European nation building process are taken into consideration. In the time of the French Revolution new patterns of loyalty and national cohesion were created and new paradigms of identity formation emerged.

The paper offers a new interpretation of the historical trace and the logic of development of the idea of political self-determination and a comparative analysis of its enforcement history. Then, in the aforementioned context, it analyzes the case of self-determination of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (Republic of Artsakh), a successful European de facto state in the Eastern-most Europe. Therefore, one of the highly articulated features in the discourse of the Armenian leadership about Nagorno-Karabakh’s belonging to the European family and to the European international community is the notion that “Europe starts in Nagorno Karabakh.”

HISTORICAL AND DEMOGRAPHIC IMAGE OF WESTERN ARMENIA ON THE EVE OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Part seven: South-eastern districts of Bitlis vilayet

Summary

Gegham M. Badalyan

Keywords – Aznvatsdzor, Tatik, Khizan district, KhizanGyavrner, Shenadzor, Sparkert, Mamrtank, Upper Karkar, Sgherd city, Barvari, Vozm township, Shirvan Arvakh-Eruh.

The article presents the southeastern administrative units of Bitlis Vilayet: small districts (in Turkish – nahiye) of Bagesh city – Aznvadzor, Tatik, Parkhand, Khultik-Nagia and Shatakh, which were under the direct governor control, the province of Khizan in full (with central districts Khizan-Gyavrner, Shenadzor, Sparkert, Mamrtank and Lower Karkar), sanjak’s center with the same name – Sgerd city and Barvar province, Shirvan province, and Arvakh or Eruh under Sgherd’s governor control (in Turkish – mutasarrif), where on the eve of the First world war I Armenians made up the vast majority (50% or more). Such administrative units were Aznvatsdzor and Tatik (Baghesh’d central region), as well as Khizan’s districts – Shenadzor, Sparkert, Mamrtank. And in Parkhand and Lower Karkar Armenians constituted the majority of the population (above 70%). Unfortunately, in this part of the Bitlis vilayet one could also meet the areas cleared of Armenians that was a result of the influx of new nomadic Kurdish tribes from northern Mesopotamia in the 1st half of the 19th century. The Kurdish national movement, led by Bardkhan in the 1840s, and the Ottoman State’s powerful military retaliation in response also played no less negative role. Moreover, it was fatal also for semi-independent Armenian authorities surviving in these areas. As a result, many parts of the provinces Khizan and Tsgherd were filled mainly by Kurds.

THE ONE, WHO TURNS FAIRY TALE TO REALITY – 2016-4

In memory of Ruben Hovsepyan

Summary

Key words – Ruben Hovsepyan, genre obituary, translation, Gabriel Garcia Markuez, One hundred years of solitude, Sovietarmenian prose, magical realism Taguhi A. Ghazarian

In the article “The one, who turns fairy tale to reality” Taguhi Ghazarian gives the general description of Ruben Hovsepyan’s work. It is not classic obituary, but there we can see the main work and creation of the R. Hovsepyan. First of all the author of the article considers Hovsepyan as translator of Gabriel Garcia Markuez’s “One hundred years of solitude”. She thinks that this work had a great effect on Armenian magical realism and on literature of this period. There are also the question of Hovsepyan’s work’s “artistic” time and “ideological” time. Then we can see how Hovsepyan’s works were interpreted as works about Armenia and Armenians and how we can change this interpretation.

OBSERVATIONS ON THE ORIGIN AND INTERPRETATION OF THE TERM “POLITICAL CULTURE” – 2016-4

Summary 

Lyudvig G. Vardanyan Khachik A. Makyan

Key words – political culture, political system, political institution, politics, political consciousness, political orientation, political behavior.

The article deals with various questions of the origin and use of the term “political culture”, and the interpretation of the scientific concept. It presents the emergence of political culture, its separation as a kind of human culture associated with systemic knowledge about governance, policy and political life of society. The term “political culture” was first used by Johann Gerdeom in the second half of the 18th century, but in the modern Western political science literature it was first used by American political scientist Herman Finer. However, the theoretical basis and the complete concept of political culture were presented by American political scientists Gabriel Almond and Sidney Verba in the 50-60-ies of the twentieth century. The paper attempts to introduce various interpretations of political culture systematically.