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HISTORICAL AND DEMOGRAPHIC IMAGE OF WESTERN ARMENIA ON THE EVE OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE – 2016-2

Part five: the province Mush of Bitlis’ Vilayet

Summary

Gegham M. Badalyan

Keywords – Taron, the city of Mush, Chhur-Chukhur, ZiaretHandrez, Aghdzhan-Kosur, St. Karapet, Srbots Arakelots monastery, surb Hovhannes monastery in Egrdute, Havatamq Mountains, Serokov Mountains, Seghansar, Baghlu melikate.

A serie dedicated to Bitlis is going to begin with this article about Mush city and Mush province, which was the most densely populated by Armenians vilayet in Western Armenia. Mush Province was one of the most populated provinces of Western Armenia. On the eve of the Armenian Genocide, their number was greater than 95,000 (including the city of Mush). It was about 37% of all Armenians of Bitlis Vilayet, and 68% of the provincial population. Moreover, without taking into account the population, the Armenians were to ¾ of Mush province. In this respect, Mush was also one of the most populated provinces of Western Armenia. Armenians have been distributed in 111 rural settlements of the province, in 33 of which the population was more than 1000 people. While in Ahdzhan, Avran, Ziaret and Vardenis there were from about 2000 to 3000 people, and in Norshen and Tsronk – 4000 Armenian residents. Even more Armenians were in Hasgegh (5,000 inhabitants), which was, one might say, the largest rural settlement in Western Armenia. The article also separately presented the city of Mush, Taron’s 3 famous monastery – SaintKarapet, Saint-Apostolic, and Saint Hovhannes of Eghrdut. The article also referred to the Upper Chkhur that was the eastern part of the historic Taron and by administrative division subordinated to the governor of Bitlis. The article also referred to the Armenian semi-independent melikate Baghlu, which survived until the 40s of the 19th century.

ARMENIAN OFFICERS IN THE RYAZAN CONCENTRATION CAMP IN 1920-1923. – 2016-2

Combined martyrology

Summary 

Avag A. Harutyunyan

Key words – First Republic of Armenia, Ryazan concentration camp, sovietisation, expulsion, prisoner, Armenian army, Armenian officer, Tovmas Nazarbekyan, Movses Silikyan, justification.

After the Sovietization of the First Republic of Armenia, the Bolshevik government carried out mass arrests of Armenian officers – up to the generals, sending them to the concentration camp of Ryazan.

Here are published some registration cards, forms, lists, protocols of imprisoned Armenian officers, documents concerning their release from the concentration camp and the rehabilitation lists.

There are many memoirs of contemporaries and research documents regarding the number and the further fate of the exiled Armenian officers. But the full story of Ryazan epopee is not properly investigated due to the lack of some necessary documents.

Studying the history of the Armenian officers odyssey is important also in terms of a comprehensive understanding of the history of the First Republic and its armed forces.

We are confident that this publication will be very useful for a full study of the history of Armenian officers’ Ryazan martyrology.

WIKILEAKS REVELATIONS – 2016-2

The work of the A.R.Federation in Armenia according to the 1993-2010 diplomatic reports of the U.S. Embassy in Yerevan

Summary

Khachik S. Ter-Ghukasyan, Kiro A. Manoyan

The article is based on certain cables published by WikiLeaks, sent from U.S. embassies, with the aim of revealing and analyzing the reports and evaluations received by the U.S. State Department about the Armenian Revolutionary Federation. The article is limited to the general classification of the revealed documents and based on those, to some reflection, without any final and sharp conclusions. The authors have aimed at collecting the reports cabled to Washington from the U.S. Embassy in Yerevan, which could also be published as a separate volume.

CULTURE AND PROXIMITY – 2016-2

Cultural Awareness in the Context of Media Experience

Summary

Mariam M. Karapetyan

Key words – cultural Awareness, Mass Culture, Mosaic Culture, Cultural Journalism, Cultural Proximity, Creativity, Modernity.

The article examines the problem of proximity of culture and modernity. The article focuses on the significant issue of the effectiveness of the bond of culture and cultural journalism on one hand and modernity on the other: how exactly do the Armenian TV channels produce contemporary cultural references or are they involved in the media production of modernity at all? And if they are, what kind of verbal and textual means do they use? The main question relates to the possible role of cultural journalism in overcoming the cultural alienation for Armenian society. Cultural journalism is presented as a sector of creativity with market issues. Explores the cultural journalism and two characteristic features of the modern world, relations of consumerism and creativity in the armenian context. An attempt was made to think about the media’s “mediation mission” possible “auxiliary content” (contexts of idea implementation, contexts of semantic perceptions) production, that can contribute to the creative and constructive words’ update. Particularly, the production of meanings of “culture’s mobility”, “variety”, “hypothetical situation”, “authorship” is addressed to the culture illustrating media. Theoretical inquiries are presented along with a number of practical ways to solve them.

THE AREA OF THE TEXT – 2016-2

Part two. Text and external context

Summary

Slavi Avik-M. Harutyunyan

Key words – theatre, cinema, performance, recipient, text, external context, Yuri Lotman, text area, imaginary world, reality, pseudo reality, spectator, mysteries, stage.

The types of mutual relations of text and external context are analyzed in the article. The external context is taking part in the forming of text’s gist process and that’s why its features and any changes within it can affect on the perception and evaluation of the artwork. Parallel to this, the opposite phenomenon is analyzed: how the text in its turn affects the context, participates in its forming process. The texts of various forms of art affect the process of forming of “living environment”, as well as they affect each other. While the problem of “text and external context” is researched, the phenomenon in which the creator of the artwork tries to blur the boarders between the artwork and the external context is also analyzed. The research of the penetration method of real life events into the art is made with the examples of the theatre, the cinema and the fiction literature. And finally, it is shown that the wide penetration of the life into the art causes the boarders between the real world and the imaginary word to become even more blurred. And not only the art becomes the reflection and formulation of the real world but the reality also starts to reflect the art which has a huge influence on the life in the modern mass culture by forming a system with particular esthetic statements and also moral, socio-political and similar standards, a system of ideas and assessments.

THE EPITAPH OF CLERK GHUNKIANOS ASHTARAKETSI AND HIS LITERARY MERIT – 2016-2

Summary

Arsen E. Harutyunyan

Key words – epitaph, manuscript, copyist, ordination, customer, art of copying, monument, seal.

Archbishop Ghunkianos Ashtaraketsi, a cenobite of St. Etchmiadzin, a prominent clerk of the second half of the 18th century, the notary, encyclicalist of the catholicoses of Simeon I Yerevantsi (1763-1780) and his successor Ghukas I Karnetsi (1780-1799), the “det” of the city of Yerevan (controller, overseer), is one of the most proficient spiritual figures of the Armenian church. The literary merit of clerk Ghukianos is presented by around ten cursive manuscript writings (N 2, 1880, 2289, 2499, 2646, 2652, 3281, 7424, 10853) generally preserved at Mashtots Institute of Manuscripts.

The names of some of the initiators of the above-mentioned manuscripts prompt that Ghukianos used to be one of the most prominent and talented scribes of his time to whom the responsible work of writing the manuscripts was entrusted by the respective persons. For example, by the order and under the Catholicos Hakob V Shamakhetsi (1759-1763) Ghunkianos wrote the manuscript N 2646 in 1761 which the record of the manuscript testifies about.

The annals on ordaining Ghunkianos Ashtaraketsi spiritual degrees is best manifested in the ordination lists of the catholicoses Simeon and Ghukas of N 2882 manuscript of “Chronicle of ordinations” (N 2882) preserved in Matenadaran after Mashtots. Among them the register compiled by Catholicos Simeon is an important and trustworthy document in regard with the biographies of St. Etchmiadzin friary of the second half of the 18th century. According to the register Ghunkianos Ashtaraketsi was ordained a deacon under the Catholicos of Simeon Yerevantsi in 1763, a monk in 1771, a preceptor (abuna, vardapet) in 1772 and under Ghukas Karnetsi Ghunkianos he was granted a degree of an bishop in 1781. After three years in 1784, Ghunkianos, usually mentioned as a “clerk”, was granted an “ultimate wand” which is, perhaps, dignifying with a title of archbishop.

“Gavazanagirk” (chronicle of kings and patriarchs) is an inseparable part of a literary merit of Ghunkianos Ashtaraketsi continued by the latter on the order of Catholicos Simeon, a work commenced by Avetik Tigranakertsi still in the beginning of the 18th century and later replenished by Hakob Shamakhetsi (1743). Gyut Aghanyants took the ordination list of Catholicos Simeon from the mentioned work. N 1492 manuscript “Digest” of Matenadaran after Mashtots contains the very work of author-writers Avetik Tigranakertsi, Hakob Shamakhetsi, and then Ghunkianos: N 7424 manuscript of Matenadaran (written in 1743, 1751, 1763 in Etchmiadzin), as well as N 6243 manuscript later copied by the clerk of mahdesi (pilgrim of Jerusalem) Hambardzum Harutyunyan in Alexandropol in 1847 also have the same context.

The circular or octagon seal bearing the name of Ghukianos Ashtaraketsi has preserved in a series of manuscripts of Matenadaran mainly written in Etchmiadzin (N 704, 710, 874, 1100, 1546, 1576, 2182, 2289, 2340, 8763, 9563 etc.) on which it was usually mentioned: “SERVANT OF CHRIST, PRECEPTOR GHUNKIANOS” (ՔՐԻՍՏՈՍԻ ԾԱՌԱՅ ՂՈԻՆԿԻԱՆՈՍ ՎԱՐԴԱՊԵՏ); they are mainly dated by the years of 1760-1780. This fact also testifies about the high position and status of a leading notary in the face of Ghunkianos in the Holy See of St. Echmiadzin.

It is noteworthy that Ghukianos died at the end of the 18th century from the plague epidemic. According to the inscription of his recently found cradleform gravestone in the monastic cemetery of St. Etchmiadzin it took place on February 6 of 1798. His mother rests in the same cemetery and where, according to her gravestone epitaph, she is the mother of; “…the lord Ghunkianos, the clerk of the God-descended throne” «…պետին Ղունկիանոսի, Աս տուածաէջ գահիս գըրչի…».

THE PROSE OF H. MATEVOSIAN AND V. SHUKSHIN – 2016-2

In the context of socio-political life of the time

Summary

Ulyana A. Kostanyan

Key words – village prose, human relations, main character, rural life, contrast, context, rural world, hero, literary critic.

The article considers the matter of two writers’ depiction of the socio-political problems of their time, becoming the eternal issues of history and existence. In paralel with the eternal problems they also depict numerous social problems of the village, discuss the difficult life of villagers earning money heavily and overcoming great difficulties.

CIVILIZATIONAL ENVIRONMENT AND NARRATIVE ART – 2016-2

Hrant Matevosyan and Sergei Dovlatov

Summary

David V. Petrosyan

Key words – civilization environment, bells lettres, H. Matevosyan, S. Dovlatov, totalitarianism, literature, freedom to create, author, narrator, F. Braudel, archetypal symbol.

Based on the novels “Hangover” by H. Matevosyan and “Reserve” by S. Dovlatov, the article discusses the relations of political environment and narrative art, which develop in a very interesting way in parallel to the creation of the text. The comparative study was conducted in the context of civilizational time. Both stories are built around the principle of fragmentation, full of events (in a short period of time) that lead the story to the impasse. H. Matevosyan and S. Dovlatov overcome this problem by means of metaphysical self-contemplation: the narrative ends with the help of the archetypal symbols in the territory of a long civilizational duration.

The subject of the relation of civilizational environment and narrative art, represented by H. Matevosyan and S. Dovlatov, also has the possibility of other hypertext analysis that can lead the researcher towards new discoveries.

THE METAMORPHOSIS OF THE FOOL IN THE PROSE OF HRANT MATEVOSYAN – 2016-2

The story of “Our Clan of the Fools” in parallel with the novel “The Lord”

Summary

Ala A. Kharatyan

Keywords – Hrant Matevosyan, M. Bakhtin, “Our Clan of the Fools”, fool, trickster, master, essence, collective memory, metaphor, discourse, text, metatext.

The article explores the development of the metaphor of the Fool in Hrant Matevosyan’s works. The metaphor of the Fool is interpreted as self-identity in “Our Clan of the Fools”. The article observes the transformation of the Fool into a cultural hero, in the context of the self-identity, which has brought to the perception of the character as the trickster mythologeme. The article has scrupulously shown that the carnival image, provided to the public, is only a surface of the Fool character. Another novel by the writer, “The Lord”, is analyzed as the sequel of “Our Clan of the Fools”, where the hero’s personality makes efforts to transform into master. According to Hr. Matevosyan’s concept, the Fool expresses the collective identity, he is a king player, the inverted king, not the king or the authority or the lord, but the artist. The peasant embodies the identity of “we” and the longing to become a king always makes the base of the existence of the Fool, who would never become a King or a Lord. The author comes to a conclusion that “Our Clan of the Fools”, as the recreated image of the history, is Hr. Matevosyan’s discourse about the history, where two different invisible formations and times are compared.

PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY OF HRANT MATEVOSYAN – 2016-2

Summary

Vazgen H. Safaryan

Keywords – time-space, the ratio of strength and weakness, nation-state and imperialism, local and universal civilizations, cultural unity and continuity.

With the perception of history as a chronological unity, Hrant Matevosyan views the artistic completeness of the human image in the general dynamics of national characteristics and its development. In this context some personal features such as strength and vulnerability are being exposed, which relates to the nature of the civilizations, its political-military and cultural essence and in the context of the complexity of assertion of Armenian identity. The historical philosophy acquires artistic qualities in the depictions of the wanderings of blind King Trdat, the mythology of continuous extermination of the enemy by Gayl Vahan, the symbol of political-military failures and the equivocality of cultural eternity which is observed in the characteristics of Bagratuni tiger and the city of Ani, as well as in the strivings of stableman Mesrop for understanding the history. In this respect the history obtains educational role despite the subjectivity of the fact-text qualitative transition, where the issue of statehood and national ideology as well as the connections with empire civilization and primary cultural place of Armenians acquire significant role. In his ethnological pursuits and the movement from the past to the future Hrant Matevosyan, like his predecessors, observes the obscurity always striving to discover the historical– cultural foundation of national existence.