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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.

THE GREAT TRAGEDY OF HOVHANNES KAJAZNUNI – 2016-4

Part one. From smenovekhov distortions to Stalin’s persecution

Summary

Ararat M. Hakobyan

Keywords – smenovekhovstvo, N. Ustrialov, NEP, H. Kajaznuni, Armenian Question, reconstruction, national inclination, ARF Dashnaktsutyun, Kh. Mughdusi, A. Ghazaryan, pro-Soviet position, backstroke.

Hovhannes Kajaznuni’s name in Armenian political history is sometimes identified not with his position of the first Prime Minister of the First Republic of Armenia, but with the brochure “ARF has nothing to do”, published in Bucharest in 1923, which, together with the added word “else” of the Bolshevik propaganda machine has been used as a kind of anti-Dashnak “manifesto” for 70 years.

At critical moments of history, even the most confident politicians may be in despair, it’s quite common in world history and in the history of Armenia as well. This is evidenced by the desire of reconciliation and acceptance of the Soviet regime in the 1920s. Hovhannes Kajaznuni and some other figures fell in this trap, expressing desire to get away from the ARF Dashnaktsutyun, to return home and take an active part in its reconstruction. It was an expression of the ideology of reconciliation with Bolshevism typical for Smenovekhovtsy – Russian émigré circles in the Armenian reality.

Hovh. Kajaznuni thought that in the new conditions the ARF Dashnaktsutyun should leave the political arena and the main role should be given to the Armenian Communist Party, so that the country was restored with the help of the Soviet state and the Armenian issue was resolved. But A. Ghazaryan, who saw the salvation of the Armenian people only by Russia, supports the view that ARF Dashnaktsutyun has much to do to rebuild the country, solving the issue of refugees and other issues. The book by Kajaznuni was an attempt to review the vibrant and fruitful activity of ARF Dashnaktsutyun in 1914-1923, followed by his controversial assessments and conclusions. Most of Kajaznuni’s judgments about historical events were based on assumptions. In fact, to return home and rejoin his family he needed a “political pass”, and the Bolsheviks that were preparing the “self-destruction” of ARF Dashnaktsutyun, needed this book entitled “ARF Dashnaktsutyun has nothing to do”.

k entitled “ARF Dashnaktsutyun has nothing to do”. However, since his arrival in Armenia the public security organs closely followed Kajaznuni, even his daily personal life. Dark clouds gradually deepened overhead Kajaznuni, especially in the 1930s.

On July 28, 1937 People’s Commissar of Internal Affairs Kh. Mughdusi signed a warrant for the search of Kajaznuni apartment and his arrest. On December 5, 1937 the NKVD troika ASSR signed the death sentence against Kajaznuni, the former prime minister and an active member of the ARF Dashnaktsutyun, with the confiscation of personal property. But on the advice of the prison doctor, who diagnosed tuberculosis, the execution of the sentence was postponed. A short time later, on January 15, 1938 Hovh. Kajaznuni, the first Prime Minister of the First Republic of Armenia died in the prison hospital at the age of 70 years.

As a result of the application of well-known methods of Soviet intelligence, many political opponents were affected by smenovekhovstvo’s ideology and gave speeches and wrote books in favor of reconciliation with the Bolsheviks, among them Snar Snaryan (Narinyan), Sahak Chitchyan, Arshak Ghazaryan, Gerasim Atajanian Harutyun Budaghyan, Sahak Torosian and others, most of which subsequently suffered the tragic fate of Hovh. Kajaznuni.

THE LEGAL STATUS OF ARMENIANS IN FRESNO COUNTY (1880-1920) – 2016-4

Summary

Hasmik M. Yesayan

Key words – discrimination, nativism, restrictive covenants, immigration policy, natives, “undesirables”, racial classification, citizenship.

This article makes an attempt to investigate the legal status of the Armenians settled in Fresno, California in the 1880-1920s in the context of national policies of the United States. The Nativism, an Anglo-Saxon influential movement, formed in 19th century was aimed at maintaining racial purity, and the United States government adopted a variety of different laws for that purpose. The most essential of these laws was the law on refugee citizenship, which was accompanied by discussions about the ethnic origins and the refugees deprived of the rights came across serious obstacles in all of the legal and social fields and the immigration restricting laws of 1921-1924s, which resulted in significant reduction of the Armenian immigration to the United States, including California, Fresno.

The article discusses the origin and the reasons of the national discrimination against the Armenians in Fresno County, caused by nativism, as well as the inter-ethnic relations between the Armenians and the natives. It reveals the restrictive covenants, which were aimed at «undesirables», including Armenians. These laws created complications and obstacles for the Armenians in their new homeland, Fresno.