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THE TIME OF CONSTATATION – 2013-2

Ex re the re-edition of Grigor Beledian’s novels

Summary

Haroutiun L. Kurkjian
The present essay attempts to analyze several prose works of diasporan author Grigor Beledian. The th ree works presented here, his first novels, “Semer” (“Thresholds”), “Harvadze” (“The Blow”) and “Nshan” (“Mark”), have been republished recently in a single tome by publisher Sarkis Khachents (Printinfo) in Armenia.

The article first examines G. Beledian’s first two decades of literary production, both prose and poetry (free verse), with which the reading public, not only in Armenia but also in the diaspora, is often unfamiliar, and which has not been sufficiently studied, in order to reveal the maturation process of the author’s choice of themes and prose technique.

The study then addresses the three aforementioned novels.

In conjunction with the critique of the works itself, the study seeks to appraise the “Beledian phenomenon” in contemporary Armenian literature, especially in the Diaspora. In this context, it is necessary to note that in the Middle Eastern communities, literary creation, especially in prose, stagnated during the half century following their establishment, due to the overbearing dominance of traditional stereotypes and the social and cultural isolation inherent to such communities, rendering them incapable of partaking in the international literary movements of their era. In contrast, the first generation of Armenian Diaspora authors in Europe had achieved notable success in the same domain.

G. Beledian’s work in the form of novels, the outcome of a highly personal literary conception and language, bridges the gap between the traditional literary practices of the past referenced to above and the contemporary world, creating a series of literary murals of unprecedented expanse and depth, personal testimony from the collective past of those Middle-Eastern communities.

THE PROBLEM OF FRAGMENTATION IN THE FIRST REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA – 2013-2

Part one. The raising of political purpose about fragmentation’s overcoming and first steps of its implementation

Summary

Karen P. Hayrapetyan
Since the first days of formation of the Republic of Armenia, the authorities faced a number of problems arising from the fragmentation of the Armenian people that had to be solved. The task to solve the problem of fragmentation was first brought up for discussion by the authorities of the Republic of Armenia at the Second Congress of Western Armenians in February 1919. The main political tool for solving the national question was the strengthening of the Republic of Armenia. the rest of the Armenian territories must have been united around the Republic of Armenia. A number of important historical decisions have been taken by the authorities of the Republic of Armenia in order to solve the problem of fragmentation. The most important of these decisions was the declaration of United Armenia

THE PROCESS OF BAGRATUNIS’ GEORGIAN KINGDOM FORMATION – 2013-2

Part II: The shape of independent historical perspective of the all-Georgian Kingdom.

Summary

Arman S. Yeghiazaryan
In the 9th century the tendency of the spread of superiority of the Curopalacity of Kgharjk over Georgia was emphasized.

The main goal of curopalate of Kgharjk Atrnerseh Bagratuni was to achieve the dominant position among the South Caucasus Chalcedonians with the perspective to include them in a joint kingdom led by Kgharjian Bagratunis. At the same time Atrnerseh tried to seize the throne of Armenian King Smbat I, but failed

In the last years of Smbat I, the weakening of the Armenian kingdom led to broad perspectives for the Kingdom of Abkhazia and the Curopalacity of Kgharjk. The Abkhazats kingdom, which was far from the dynamic events of those times, became gradually stronger and took over Georgia after a couple of years.

During the reign of Atrnerseh in the Curopalacity of Kgharjk, there was one more reputable prince named Gurgen Bagratuni, who successfully withstood the Abkhazian king, conquered the lands neighboring his principality also spread the Chalcedonian faith in the Albanian kingdom.

 

HISTORY AND RIGHT – 2013-2

The poorness of Pierre Nora’s ”facts” against the law of criminalization of the Armenian Genocide’s denying

Summary

Armen Ts. Maruqyan

It is shown in the article that the arguments about the Jewish Shoah and unique nature of the “law of Geyso” of the eminent historian, founder and president of the organization “Freedom for history” Pierre Nora, who is involved in political manipulations against the acceptance of law of the criminalization of Armenian Genocide’s denying on January 23, 2012, are not able to stand against scientific criticism. If Nora is against “memorial laws”, then he must be also against “Law of Geyso”, in other case there is no difference between these two genocides.

As to the statement of Nora about the idea that the acceptance of “law of Geyso” was the moral duty of France, as that country had some role in the Jewish holocaust, then the policy of France after the I World War can prove that this country has the same moral duty also for the Armenian Genocide.

The point of view of Nora about the limitation of retroactive effect of laws only for Holocaust is directly contrary to the “United Nations’ Convention of November 26, 1968 about not to apply any the period of limitation over war crimes and crimes against humanity”. By this document the international law of not to apply the principle of time limitation for all cases without exception for the crimes, including the UN Convention on Genocide of 1948, was put into circulation.

To the misgivings of Nora to judge the past by the criteria of the present and to make the history of mankind become a history of genocides the author of the article indicated that, first, independently of the application of the definition of “genocide” the Armenian Genocide was qualified by the Entente powers, including France as a “crime against humanity”. Already in 1915 what happened with the Armenians was considered a crime, based on the Convention of Hague in 1899 about “laws and customs of war” and particularly, on the “spirit of the laws of humanity” of Martens’ reservation, that is, it was estimated to be a crime only based on the existing international legal norms.

In addition, in accordance with the United Nations Convention of 1948 about the “Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide”, to qualify a massacre as a genocide it is necessary to prove that the intention of the organizers of this crime has been to completely or partially destroy the group as such. It is shown in the article that this provision is equally applicable to both the Armenian Genocide and the Jewish Holocaust cases.

THE OVERCOMING THE VICTIM OF GENOCIDE’S COMPLEX IN THE PERIOD OF KARABAKH MOVEMENT – 2013-1

Summary

Harutyun T. Marutyan
In the coares of soviet power not any attempt was made to overcome the complex of genocide’s victim, buy also the government’s actions had some intention to cultivate that consciousness. The situation change by the beginning of Karabakh movement in February, 1988, which was the first one in the series of national-democratic movements formed on the territory of ex-USSR. It had some peculiarities inclusive of the fact that after Sumgait Events the “sleeping” memory of the Genocide “woke up” immediately and gradually became the most significant and decisive factor. The attempt to overcome the crisis of the end ok 20th century was combined with the struggle for the overcoming the crisis of the beginning of the 20th century, one of the displays of which was that the symbol of the victim asking for justice and compassion conceded its place to the image of warrior, who had come to the realize that the national goals are to be carried into effect only by standing on the path of struggle.

The release of Ramil Safarov who murdered Gurgen Margaryan, and the fact that he was honored to become national hero of Azerbaijan did not contribute to revive the “victim complex” (though the ones who had taken those measures probably expected that it would do), nut only strengthened the change that had occurred twenty years ago in Armenian self-consciousness. It’s also remarkable that the activity channeled to the recognition and condemnation of the genocide has been recently supplemented by demands of recompense and consequently by actions directed to it, which represent the problems in a more systematic way. The latter is also considered to be one of the signs of overcoming the “victim complex”

IRANIAN WOMAN’S CHARACTER REFLECTED IN FINE ARTS – 2013-1

Summary

Mandana M. Sepasi
Aim of the study is the comparison of woman’s portrait in the paintings of Iranian women or men. The study shows that the pictures of women in men’s works are desirable, descriptive, and figural; whereas women painters are more meaningful, allegoric and fictional; they paint females’ characterizations and implicit and mental meanings as beauty and elegance. But the women paintings are based on female experience and view; women painters try to show main problems of women’s life; however, men without paying attention to these matters present women in imaginary and fantasy atmospheres. The study of women paintings shows that they try to decrease visual views of male standpoint. They resist on becoming the subject of men’ paintings and they use new techniques in paintings to create gaps in male mental effects and functions in culture.

AS A MIRROR OF THE ARMENIAN ENGLISH SPEAKING WRITER’S BIOGRAPHY – 2013-1

Leon aven Surmelian’s “98.6°”

Summary

Arpi S. Muradyan
The novel of L. Z. Surmelian “98.6°” that we are going to discuss in this article has been published in the USA in 1950, and in Armenian – in 2005, in Yerevan by Aram Arsenyan’s translation. The title implies human body’s normal temperature, and the novel is the artistic reflection of the writer’s illness and the process of his painful treatment of four years.
Practicing literary criticism’s contemporary achievements and making synthetic analysis of some facts of writer’s biography, the author of the article substantiates that despite the absence of Armenian entourage and Armenian characters, the novel is psychological – autobiographical by its genre. The novel’s central character – Irishman Daniel Moore’s prototype is the author himself, who has been in some marginal existential state, but overcame the death threat with stubborn commitment. The novel’s structure, actions, the systems of characters and images performing them, artistic peculiarities are examined with the wide application of thesis of the author’s theoretical work “Techniques of Prose: Measure and Madness”.

ELGIN GROSELCOSE AND HIS “ARARAT” NOVEL – 2013-1

Armenia of the beginning of the 20th century through the eyes of the American writer

Summary

Albert A. Makaryan, Svetlana R. Tumanyan
The present article is devoted to the novel Ararat by Elgin Groseclose, which was published just the week before World War II broke out, and which, as Warren French put it, “provides the best epitaph fr the tarnished age of modern Imperialism”. We have tried to reveal the peculiarities of the seemingly complicated plot, to analyze the author’s intentions in the depictions of the Armenian Genocide and the Russian Revolution, to disclose the symbolic meanings of the biblical mountain and to expose the way to salvation that the author offers the humanity.

HISTORICAL-CULTURAL PECULIARITIES OF THE PROCESS OF ETHNIC CONSOLIDATION OF ARMENIAN PEOPLE – 2013-1

Aleksan H. Hakobyan
The migration paths of Hayk’s descendants on Armenian Upland as described by Movses Khorenatsi vividly remind the routes of the first Biaynian kings who conquered the territory of the future Biaynili (Urartu) kingdom in a few decades. This is a new argument to support the hypothesis of H. Karagyozyan and M. Katvalyan, according to whom the formation of the Armenian ethnos has happened bt ethnoconsolidation-ethnomixation of all the various Indo-European and non-Indo-European tribes that inhabited the kingdom of Urartu-Biaynili (=Armenian Upland), and not by ethnoseperation (immediate separation of Armenian language carriers from the Indo-European language community) or by ethno evolution (which means gradual absorption of other inhabitants of the Urartu kingdom by the small Armenian-speaking tribe). The process of ethno consolidation of Armenian people was a result of ethno integration of multi-tribal Urartu kingdom and was completed in mid-7th century B.C. The later formed Armenian legend about the descendants of Gayk shows that a leading role in this process was played by Biaynians themselves, although the language of the newly formed ethnos (with the self-designation – endonym of Hay- Hayo- Armenians) was an Indo-European one namely, the Armenian language spoken by the relative majority of the population of the multi-tribal Biaynian kingdom. Combined with other evidences in historical sources, this legend also shows that the kingdom of Urartu was not “destroyed” by anyone; rather it continued to exist as ‘Eruandean Armenian Kingdom”, which was conquered only by Achaemenid Iran.