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THE REBELLION OF ARARAT IN 1926-1930 – 2014-3

In the context of the cooperation of AR Federation and Khoyboun and regional developments

Summary

Aram S. Sayiyan

So far unknown pages of the cooperation among AR Federation and Khoyboun in the period of Ararat rebellion in 1926-1930, which was Kurdish people’s national liberation struggle, are discussed in this article based on newly discovered archival records and the handling of the materials. We have shown AR Federation’s comprehensive political, organizational and ideological support to the Kurdish movement, which secured its spread and success from 1927 to mid-summer 1930. The article unlocks the secret agreements among Ar Federation’s eminent figure Ruben (M. Ter-Minasyan) who has arrived to Teheran in 1929 and Iran’s court minister Temurtash, strengthening Armenian-Kurdish military cooperation and securing the Iranian authorities’ support.

Denying unfounded hypotheses spread by the Soviet historiography, the author of the article proves that it was not the Turkish army’s role that was decisive in the defeat of Ararat rebellion, but the Soviet Union’s support to Kemalist Turkey. Soviet Union’s overt political blackmail against Iran in August 1930 broke Reza Shah’s insistence and led to the termination of assistance to the rebels by small Ararat’s pathways.

THE RELEVANCE OF TRADITION – 2014-3

Basic elements of Hans-Georg Gadamer’s” universal hermeneutics” concept

Summary

Achot V. Voskanian

In his “Truth and Method” H.-G. Gadamer contra posed the concept of “universal hermeneutics” against the analytic methods prevailing in the humanities during the sixties of the last century. This paper is an attempt to present the basic elements of this concept in a systematic way. Special attention is paid to the notion of “Bildung” (the German for “education as a formation”). For Gadamer “Bildung” is first of all a formation, in which the result and the process are combined. It is not confined to the external goal of a simple knowledge transfer, since the formation of an individual passing the path to knowledge is itself the main goal. Since the implementation of the Humboldian concept of “Bildung” in the University of Berlin the classic education in humanities was seen as a universal value. Contemporary debates about the nature of university education (the paper considers the views of J. Habermas, M. Naumann, Jean-François Lyotard, on that matter) show the relevance of controversy, as reflected in the title of the main book of H.-G.Gadamer.

JOURNALIST AND INNER ADDRESSEE IN ARMENIAN MEDIA TEXTS – 2014-2

Summary

David V. Petrosyan

The presence of the inner addressee in relations between the journalist and the addressee is usually ignored by researchers. Especially in analytical and journalistic materials the dialogue of the author with the inner addressee adds notable nuances to the text. By means of the inner addressee the author gets the possibility to cleave its intellectual-spiritual world, enter some polyphony in the process of submitting of his own ideas and intentions. The inner addressee can be considered as microshape of the audience. Indeed, thanks to him the text within itself becomes a kind of meeting place for the author-journalist and author-audience and thus provides the meeting of the author with external audience.

AN UNSIGNED WORK UNDER THE SEAL OF LER KAMSAR – 2014-2

Song of satirist between two spellings

Summary

Haroutiun L. Kurkjian

The article presents and identifies a writing published in the early twenties’ soviet-armenian press, as belonging to the talentuous underground satiric author Ler Gamsar. Persecuted, exiled and very soon condemned to silence, Ler Gamsar has somehow, in this satiric page, managed to express his disapproval about the ‘Abeghian’ orthograph reformation imposed to the Armenian language by a soviet governmental decree.

The ‘fatherhood’ of the writing is confirmed by comparison with other preserved samizdat pages of Ler Gamsar, regarding their contents and the humoristic/satiric language tools typical for him.

HOVHANNES  ODZNECI, THE EDITOR OF ARMENIAN “CANON BOOK” – 2014-2

Summary

Garnik A. Harurtunyan

In this article we turn to a brief examination of the Catholicos Hovhannes Odznetci’s (717-728) activity while the process of creating the Armenian Canon Book. The 32 canons added to the Canon Book concern different aspects of social life, as well as the hey presume ‘handling’ of various ritual issues and questions related to teaching principles that could have arisen through the centuries of the Armenian Church History. Beside composing the Armenian Canon Book, Hahvannes Odznetci compuled within one miscellany canon groups of independent and translation character. Each canon group has a list and preface written in front of it. One may learn about all this information in the author’s Colophon. We have also examined the characteristic features of manuscript groups of the miscellany Armenian Canon Book which have come down to our days through more than 200 manuscripts.

 

ISLAMIZATION AS EXPERIENCE AND DISAPPEARANCE – 2014-2

Summary

Ishkhan G. Chiftchyan

Forced Islamization of the Armenians before and during the Genocide led to two main results: on the one hand, physically survived generation changed religion and national identity, and now, after 100 years, it is on the lookout, searching for ways to return and to self-determination. On the other hand, it lost itself in this experience and disappeared being deprived of religious and national identity. There have been temporary and voluntary Islamizations that made possible to return to their original identity after some time. Any largescale study concerning the problems of Islamized Armenians on the territory of Turkey and beyond it has not been carried out, which makes the present attempts quite complicated. Even the descendants of the victims had great difficulty trying to address the issues of the existence of Islamized Armenians. Meanwhile, the total delay still harms the common cause.

BYZANTINE ANONYMOUS FOLLES STRUCK FROM 969 TO 1092 AND THEIR CIRCULATION IN ARMENIA – 2014-2

Summary

Hasmik S. Hovhannisyan

An irregular group of copper coins (follis) was struck in Buzantine Empire between 969 and 1092. They are known in scientific literature as “Anonymous Folles”, on which the image and the name of the emperor were replaced by the busy of Jesus Christ. The obverses of all Anonymous Folles depict Christ and the reverses have Greek legend, different types of crosses or Virgin orans effigy.

The series started during the reign of John Zemisces (969-975) and continued until the monetaryreform of Alexius I (1081-1118), in 1092. Simultaneously with the anonymous types, Constantine X (1056-1067) restarted the minting of folles that bear the image of the emperor.

Since the 19th century, the Anonymous Folles have been in the limelight of numismatists, who offered various modifications to its attribution and chronology. Their classification, chronology and the role in the economic life have been a subject of disputes among researchers up to present.

The Anonymous Folles are iconographically divided into classes in alphabetical sequence. The chronology of these classes has been difficult to establish. The research is partly based on overstruck coins in order to attribute each class to a particular emperor. Many Anonymous Folles were overstruck on older coins that were withdrawn from circulation, which helps to establish the chronological sequence of classes.

The copper coins of the Byzantine Empire were widespread in Armenia, the proof of which are the large amount of the folles found during archeological excavations and accidental finds. They contain precise data on the geography of the findings and their archeological milieu.

Anonymous Folles were in wide circulation in Armenia for a long time. Although the minting of these coins was stopped in Byzantium, their circulation continued in Armenia; event at the time when it was under Seljuk authority. These coins are a reliable source and rich material for the research on the economic, political, cultural and other spheres of that period.

HOVSEP ORBELI AND THE RESEARCH PROBLEM OF THE ARTSAKH KHACHKAR’S ANTHROPOMORPHIC RELIEVES – 2014-2

Summary

Hamlet L. Petrosyan

The anthropomorphic relieves of the Artsakh khachkars are the unique manifestation in the culture of khachkars. It is not occasional, that young Hovsep Orbeli paid special attention to the suc composistions during his scientific trip to Khachen in 1909, and he wrote the separate article dedicated on this matter. The researcher only decribed thirteen setips, and tried to find out the sources of their origination, time, as well as the images’ identity considering them as the unique display of the Armenian culture. However, later, while studying the sculptural images again, Orbeli tried to display them as manifestation of the “Albanian” culture. This circumstance was taken by Azerbaijani researchers as a chance for their attempts to “albanization” the khachkars of Artsakh.

In the present aricle the ceration chronology, the main themes and images and the folk roots of the anthropomorphic composition are presented on base of examination of the more than hundred khackars, as well as the reasons of considering them as “Albanians” by Orbeli are revealed.

HEIDEGGER’S ONE-LEGGED REPENTANCE – 2014-2

Summary

Ashot V. Voskanian

Heidegger’s short-lived cooperation with the Nazi regime has its theoretical roots in his philosophical concept of “overcoming metaphysics”. In social terms, metaphysics was identified with the technology oriented European modernity, represented by the “Americanism” and “Bolshevism”, which, according to Heidegger, were “gripping Europe in a vice”. However, Heidegger’s almost immediate disappointment in the National Socialism didn’t reconcile him with the liberal alternative of the postwar world order. Instead, he committed himself to the development of the “new way of thinking”, designed to pave the way for the future “non metaphysical” world.

HRANT MATEVOSYAN’S NOVELLA “TASHKENT” – 2014-2

Parallels in Typology

Summary

Zhenya A. Kalantaryan

Hrant Matevossyan’s novella “Tashkent” is discussed in the light of comparative analysis of the writer’s earlier works, Russian rural prose (in most general fearures), and “The Sound and the Fury” by William Faulkner. The parallel with Faulkner’s novel is of typological character and refers to the poetics of the above mentioned works, particularly the principle of depicting the same phenomenon from different characters’ perspectives and the stream-of-consciousness narrative technique. The performed analysis allows to appreciate “Tashkent” as one of the best and highly artistic examples of 20th-century fiction.