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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.

WESTERNIZATION IN HELLENISTIC AND EARLY MEDIEVAL ARMENIA – 2017-4

Albert A. Stepanyan
Transformation of natural epic history to artificial rationalistic-pragmatic and metaphysic history occurred in Armenia under the impact of Hellenistic social and intellectual experience. During long centuries, Hellenism (with different intensity) was immanent to Armenian history. Two waves of it are trans parent. The first covered 3d -1st centuries B.C. and gained its obvious results from the reforms of Ar ta shēs I (189 – 160 B.C.), the founder of Artaxiad dynasty. It reached its heights in the 1st century, under Tigran II and his son Artavazd II. As to the second wave, it gained efficiency starting from the 4th century A.D. and was aimed to combine axiological systems of Hellenism and Christianity. Hellenistic Christianity made the core of the new paradigm of Armenian culture, which came to maturity in the Golden Age (5th – 7th cc.).

THE NATIONAL IMAGE OF CENTRAL AND EASTERN PROVINCES OF TAYK IN THE END OF 16TH CENTURY – 2017-4

Summary

G. M. Badalyan

Key words – Tayk, Gurjistan vilayet, Sergi Jikia, Banak Nahiyah, Karshim Nahiyah, Liva of Panaskert, toponyms, personal names, indigenous Armenian characteristics, chalcedony, Islam.

A remarkable document from Ottoman period composed in the end of 16th century, which is known as “A Spacious List of Taxes of Gyurjistan Vilâyet”has a great importance for the study the historical demography of Tayk. This unique document was kept in the Eastern manuscripts department of the State Museum of Georgia. The context of the manuscript was published in 1947 by prominent Georgian turkologist Sergi Jikia (a propose, the same author has published the Georgian version of the same document in 1941). Needless to say, that the above mentioned manuscript contains many materials on the historical issues of Armenians and Georgians from this period. As we know, in the second half of 16th century the Ottoman Empire gradually subdued the north-western parts of Armenia and Samtskhe Princedome that contains the south-western parts of Georgia (in Georgian საათაბაგო- saatabago). In this region has been created the GyurdjistanVilâyet. The southern part of the last one contains many districts (with their main centers) of Great Armenia’s Tayk Province, such as Olti-Ughtiq, Mamrvan (Nariman), Kamkhis-Kaghamakhik, Panaskert, Banak (Panak, in Georgianბანა-Bana), which were located in Olti (historical Boghkha) brook’s whole pond of the river Tchorokh. Immediately after the Ottoman conquest, a detailed inventory was made here, such as the registration of the number of residents and the economic situation. “The spacious list of taxes of Gyurjistan Vilâyet” is particularly important because it contains almost all the important statistical information as on populated, as well on depopulated areas of the territory. In fact, in each area are noticed the detailed names of the male gender, which were paying the ispenj (25 akche). In the end of 16th century in the area that we are interested has been existed two liva ( districts) – Banak and Olti, which in turn were divided into nahiyah-cantons. The Banak Liva was consist of three small districts: the formal Banak (in Turkish Nısf-ı Penek), Kamkhis (in Turkish Kâmhis) and Panaskert, which had 109 settlements (14 of which were inhabited and the data are missing about 12 of them). The examination of names shows that in the above mentioned three districts have been registered 1974 people, which were representing the whole family, and 1850 (93.7 percent) of them were Armenians. In fact, the names often indicate a presence of Orthodox (Chalcedonian, in source “gürcü”, that is – Georgian) Armenians, which is quite a common phenomenon in Tayk and Upper Armenia. “A Spacious List of Taxes of Gyurjistan Vilâyet ” is also valuable in another point: it fully reveals the unitive policy of Ottoman Empire. If in the mentioned period the new created GyurjistanVilâyet’s population was almost consist of Christians (Armenians and Georgians) in 100 percent, and then only two centuries later, most of them were forcibly converted to Islam and lost their national identity.

METAIZATION IN THE LITERATURE AND THE PROSPECTS OF ITS RESEARCH – 2017-4

Summary

Elena O. Etaryan

Key words – self-referential literature, self-reflection, metafiction, meta-language, meta-narration, meta-description, creating illusions and disillusioning methods of metaization.

The subject of the study of this article is the phenomenon of metaization in literature, which became widespread in the 1960s of the 20th century and most often is used to describe techniques in postmodern literature and experimental literature. It should be noted that the study of this phenomenon also involved Russian formalists and structuralists, up to deconstructivists. Our research highlights the problems associated with the term “metaization”, namely, the diversity in its use, including the problems associated with defining and delineating its techniques (such as narrator’s comments, intertextual links, mise en abyme (story in story), refraction in the narrative, irony plays, textual contradictions, metalepses, paratexts, etc.). The studying of the functions of metaization takes the central place in our article. The conclusion of the article indicates the prospects of researching the subject of our article.

THE PROBLEM OF POSSIBILITY OF PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY – 2017-4

Summary

Davit R. Mosinyan

Key words – history, past, present, philosophy of history, discipline, possibility, historical process, development.

The problem of possibility of philosophy of history is ultimately related to those conditions in which the philosophy of history is thought to be a scientific discipline. This issue logically precedes the philosophy of history as a historical fact. So the main question here is what is the subject of philosophy of history: on the one hand, it studies history, but on the other hand, history seems to be possible through the philosophy of history. The main thesis of this article is that history did not always exist, at least, history in the modern sense. So, the philosophy of history is not a reference to what has already happened or history itself, but rather is a reflection to itself, which in turn means that the philosophy of history exists independently of history and is most connected with the worldview..

WHO IS THE ARMENIAN? – 2017-4

Summary

Key words – Armenia, identity, coherent vision, identity crisis, the principle of justice, bourgeoisization, social ideology.

The main tragedy of modern Armenian society, which turned out to be a whirlpool of internal and external complex and contradictory processes, is the lack of a vision of coexistence together with universal human content. In order to turn the national goals into a political plane, Armenia must become a tempting social environment that will attract Armenians as a magnet. This is hampered by the fact that in Armenia today there are no minimum conditions for the formation of a national environment of coexistence, that is, the formation of common interests and aspirations of an individual, society and state based on the principle of justice, which gives each of them a clear clear vision of a common future. On the contrary, a hedonistic society was formed in modern Armenia. And the younger generation, brought up by such a society, is infected with the same diseases. Overcoming the crisis of self-identification in modern Armenian society by creating a vision of a common future means the formation of the new ideal of Armenia that will fight against the general bourgeoisization of the country. This vision presupposes the existence of a social ideology. Only in the process of formation of internal equilibrium, a new perception of one’s own identity arises, in which the national memory turns into a totality of trembling modern biorhythms.

RECORDS ABOUT THE HISTORY OF DEPORTATIONS AND MASSACRES – 2017-4

Massacres at Ras al-Ain

Summary

Aram A. Andonian
Publication, introduction and notes are prepared by Mihran A. Minassian
The previously unpublished testimony of Aram Andonian, writer, historinan, editor
and national-cultural figure from Constantinople, the survivor of the Armenian genocide, is presented in the first part of the publication. It describes the situation and massacre of the deported Armenians at Ras al-Ain concentration camp. The name list of organizers and implementers of this massacre with specific crime ascribed to each person is given in the second part of the publication.

Ras al-Ain is considered as the second largest slaughterhouse after Deir ez-Zor. According to Aram Andonian, about 70,000 Armenians have been massacred there, not including the number of tens of thousands of people who died as a result of epidemics and famine.