Author Archives: Admin

THE AFFIRMATION OF JUSTICE IS THE BEST POLICY – 2011-4

Summary

Manuk A. Harutyunyan
After the tectonic changes that have taken place over the past 20 years in Armenia, it is necessary to clarify as to how the notions of social justice have been altered and what are the comprehensible criteria for justice today.

The urgency of the issue of social justice does not mean that is possible to return to the Soviet understanding of equality. As a matter of principle the liberal approach, which is connected to the formal equality of rights, is also unacceptable, because it does embrace the conditions for its realization. We are convinced that Armenian society is ready for a new understanding of justice, for the comprehension of “just development;” for the poor, protection, for active and enterprising people, support by the state and for the wealthy, laws. The new understanding of social justice can and should be grounded upon the linkages of social-national solidarity, guarantees and responsibility.

Thereby, the main slogans for Armenia’s systematic modernization are patriotism, democracy, justice.

TAGUHI SHISHMANYAN-THE LOST METEOR OF THE WESTERN ARMENIAN LITERATURE – 2010-4

Summary

Albert A. Makaryan

The article is dedicated to the printed and unprinted literary heritage of the prematurely de ceased daughter of the famous novelist Tserents, Taguhi Shishmanyan MelikAzaryants (pen nam e Miss Menik – 1859-1885). This authoress was not only her father’s virtuous “muse-daughter”, “gu ar dian-angel”, but also a shrewd thinker whose unprinted letters and memoirs contain infor mat ion of an inestimable value: on the one hand, they give the full depiction of Tseresnts’s life and literary wor ks, his public and political activity, present the history of the creation of his works; on the other hand, they reveal, specify and proofread the literary portrait of this or that thinker and revive the epoch.

The article also thoroughly analyzes the specific pattern of “little prose” entitled “A Meteor of Spring” written by the talented authoress and which has been preserved up till now. Just after the pub l ication (1883) this work has received great attention by the literary workers, such as Arpiar Arpi aryan, Mateos Mamuryan, Ervand Otyan, etc. This work is still of great interest for the modern A rmenian literature not only as a newlyopened road to short story genre, but also as an observation of man-woman relationship…

THE PROBLEM OF THE LEGITIMACY OF THE BORDERS OF THE AZERBAIJANI REPUBLIC – 2010-4

Summary

From the Viewpoint of Self-determination and the Principles of Territorial Integrity

Alexander S. Manasyan
All the three state formations which have emerged in Transcaucasus with the name “Azerbaijan” since 1918 have developed through an evasion or violation of principles of self-determination and territorial integrity of the two fundamental principles of the international law. In 1918 the Azerbaijani Democratic Republic (ADR) was established by the Turkish regular army without the implementation of the principle of self-determination. ADR did not have recognized and/or internationally confirmed the borders. In 1920 the 11th Red Army of the Soviet Russia subverted the ADR established by the Turkish army and founded the Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic (AzSSR). The principle of self-determination was not implemented in this case either. This time the principle of self-determination was violated with the justification that AzSSR was established as a non-national, an international republic. On this very grounds, Nagorno Karabakh and Nakhijevan were alienated from the Soviet Armenia and annexed to nonnational AzSSR. Nakhijevan was annexed to AzSSR with the status of a territory under AzSSR protectorate and has maintained this status by the Kars agreement which is active up till now. In 1991 Baku refused to be the successor of AzSSR and became the successor of ADR which was established by the Turkish army and disappeared without having legitimate borders. The newly independent Azerbaijani Republic also emerged through a violation of principles of territorial integrity and self-determination both because it restored a statehood which was deprived of borders and was not recognized de jure, and because it could not be established in the territory of AzSSR in 1991 when the Kars agreement was active and NKR had declared its independence. This was obvious in 1991, and Baku did not declare any borders, while they ought to declare their borders. The Azerbaijani Republic, if examined from the viewpoint of principles of self-determination and territorial integrity, is an illegal formation.

THE URBAN CULTURE OF YEREVAN -2010-4

Summary

Part 1: The transformations of the Social Culture in the Soviet and Post-Soviet Yerevan

Aghasi Z. Tadevosyan
As the capital city of the Soviet republic, Yerevan has acquired and performed some important functions. Among the imperative functions, the first was the transformation of the Armenian national culture to the Soviet Armenian one, the second was the integration of the Armenians with the Soviet Union, and the third, blocking the western bits and pieces by the Soviet Armenian national culture. In accomplishment of especially the latter task, an active role was given to close male groups in the neighborhoods. Due to the formation of open youth and intellectual social groups in the center of Yerevan, this uni-dimensional feature of urban culture was partially broken in 1970-1980s. Today, the realization of new functions of Yerevan is incomplete and the social culture of the post-soviet period is searching for and changing the discourses, related to the spatial organization of the city. Although this process is resisted by the close groups of nowadays, especially some oligarchic groups, who deem the public space of the city as an exclusively business environment, it steadily progresses due to the new open youth environments.

ABOUT THE PROBLEM OF THE CITY FORMATION IN ARMENIA – 2010-4

Summary

An Attempt of a socio-culturological analysis of the Early Bronze Urbanism

Artak V. Gnuni
In the IV-III Millenniums B.C. the Armenian Highland was included in the area of the Shengavit (Kuro-Arax) archaeological culture which occupied about 1.5 ml. sq. km. It spread from the Northern Caucasus to Syria and Palestine, from the North-West Iran to the Tauros Mountains. It was characterized by some similarities in handcraft, architecture, beliefs. These factors led to the activation of the relations between the communities, and, as a result, to the formation of a common historical-cultural area. This created favourable conditions for the social development of the society, and, eventually, for the decay of the Primitive Society.

Urbanism was one of the most important socio-cultural phenomena on the stage of the decay of the Primitive Society.

In the Early Bronze Age the process of urbanism was proceeding very actively in the Armenian Highland, including the whole region of the Shengavit cultural area.

Some settlements of the Shengavit culture had almost all signs of the early cities; therefore, they had the principal functions of the early cities, being the agricultural, trade-handcraft, cultural-ideological, military-political centers.

THE PHILOSOPHICAL CONTEXT OF THE AZGAJIN CHOCHER (NATIONAL BIGSHOTS) BY HAKOB PARONYAN – 2010-4

Summary 

Aram G. Alexanyan
Although the examiners of the works by Paronyan have highly evaluated his work “Azgayin Chocher” (“National Bigshots”), in reality its philosophical deep background has not been revealed, giving ground for numerous misinterpretations. These can be edited only by defining the circles of Paronyan studies. In the article it is being revealed that the work “Azgayin Chocher” (“National Bigshots”) is mainly created on the basis of the Ancient Greek philosophy of morality and the urgency of examining Paronyan’s work is being stressed. Particularly, essential similarities are being revealed, when Paronyan’s viewpoints are being examined in the context of Socrates’, Plato’s, Aristotle’s, and Plutocrat’s science of morality. Thus, in the work “Azgayin Chocher” (“National Bigshots”) Paronyan, in assonance with Plutocrat, defined his moral ideal via the concrete historical material and via the examination of the characters’ behavour. Here, the perception specialty of the human essence is also being manifested, which was set in the tractates of the ancient Greek philosophers.

A STATE LEVEL RAISED FALSIFICATION – 2010-4

“Goris-2010: the Annual Year of the Absurd Theatre”: the Political Drivel of Razik Mehtiyev, the President Recruitment Manager of Azerbaijan

Summary

Babken H. Harutyunyan
The RA president Serj Sargsyan gave a speech in front of the Diaspora correspondents on October 16 of this year, making an appeal to bring the true Press to the attention of the world society. His speech evoked a state of rage in the authority circles of Azerbaijan, and on October 29, R. Mehtiyev, the president recruitment manager of Azerbaijan, came up with an article, not only trying to take under suspicion and to deny the theses of the RA president’s speech, but also the achievements of the Armenian historiographical mind.

In the present article, on the factual material it is being shown that in the person of R. Mehtiyev the Azerbaijanian historiography, while examining the Armenian issues, makes falsification and leads a policy of artificially falsifying the simplest issues.

In the article such questions are being examined as the problems of the Azerbaijani being new-comers and formation time questions, the impossibility and drivel of the Caucasian Albans being the ancestors of the Azerbaijani, Strabon’s and other authors’ deliberate information falsification by R. Mehtiyev, the emergence of the geographical and governmental region name “Azerbaijan” from the Iranian Atur-Patakan, the problem of the Turkish falsifications of the Armenian place-names of the Eastern Armenia caused because of the Muslim bends, Vararakn village’s preceding the Khanqyand barracks and residence, the genocide committed by the ancestors of the Azerbaijani, the Ghzlbash tribes, in the Eastern Armenian at the beginning of the XVII century, the emigration of the Armenians forced by the Christian states in the second half of the XVIII century and in the first 30 years of the XIX century, the fact of Nagorno Karabakh being a part of the historical Armenia, the place-name Ejmiatsin having no connection with the “Uch-Muazin” invention, the circumstance of giving Ejmiatsin the name “Uch-qilisa”, the real picture of the Persian Armenians after the 1826-1828 Russian-Persian War, the real picture of the Nagorno Karabakh population in the XVIII century and at the beginning of the XIX century, the NKAO demographical problems, the so-called “Genocide of Khojalu”, the legitimacy of the Armenians’ self-determination of Nagorno Karabakh.

HOW COULD THE ARMENIAN LITERATURE ACCEDE TO THE WORLD LITERATURE ENVIRONMENT? 2010-4

Summary

Haroutiun L. Kurkjian
This essay examines the conditions of possibility for the Armenian literature to accede to the world literary environment. It treats preferentially the qualitative factors, ignoring the objective ones: politic, economic or administrative (public relations, organization of translations and publication markets).

A series of attempts follow to define the intrinsic, qualitative criteria permitting such an opening of national (this term including here “ethnic” acceptation as well) literatures:

1. National cultures, in spite of periodic waves of “internationalization”, continue their way vigorously, preserving their originality, while opening to leading world cultures and integrating some of their most universal elements.

2. Works in national literatures that are potential candidates for an opening indeed draw part of their nurture in the national cultural soil, but very promptly overstep it, acceding to a kind of a global, universal “legibility”.

3. In these literatures, such an access to the world level usually is not realized by works of popular, “folkloristic” type; but, mostly, by works that express a strong and culturally “extraverted” personality.

4. Then, in a given national literature, valuable works are not, or not obligatorily at all, characterized by any “national” contents. The mere fact that they are written in the given language is enough to indicate their belonging to the corresponding literature and culture – a language being itself, ipso facto, a bearer of national style and spirit.

The present essay, moreover, distinguishes between two specific situations framing the Armenian literature: the national statehood and the diasporian dispersion; having, for each of them, corresponding conditions of possibility for an access to the world literature.

Another major thesis, such an opening should be realized not only by works of foreign-language authors of an Armenian origin, but exclusively by works initially written in Armenian (i.e. translated from an Armenian original text); and more specifically by works that, in a bound of creativity, promote the mother tongue towards a new, original quality…

THE EXPROPRIATION PROCESS OF THE ARMENIANS IN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE IN THE YEARS 1915-1923 – 2010-3

Testifications, Facts and Documents

Summary

Anahit Kh. Astoyan
The acquisition of the Armenian people’s individual and collective property was one of the objectives of the Armenian Genocide committed by the Ottoman Turkey. To plunder the property of a whole nation, first of all there was a need to make the Armenians’ property dispossessed. For this purpose, without the admission of the Ottoman Empire, the Young Turk Government published in press “The Law of Eviction” on June 1, 1915, after which, on June 10, 1915, the project of “The Law of Abandoned Property” was given to the discussion of the Ottoman Parliament which related to the abandoned property management of the deported Armenians from the places populated with Armenians in the Western Armenia and the Ottoman Empire. It was accepted on September 26, 1915. Thus, the apparent plunderage and robbery of the Armenian mobile estate, mansions, and their whole wealth became legal which was already being applied in the entire Ottoman Empire region. Simultaneously, on September 13, 1915, the Young Turk Government also announced the second law, composed of 11 articles, and on October 28, the third one, composed of 25 articles, according to which, as if, it intended to normalize the problem of the abandoned Armenian estate, to clarify the rights of the proprietors, and the organization of the form and manner of the commissions. In reality, the most important purpose of these was to suspend the massive robbery and to fill the state fund.

The problem of the Armenian abandoned property plunderage was not confined only to these three laws. A number of telegrams, indications, orders, circulars and instructions from the government followed.

The Armenian massacres were accompanied by the plunderage of the Armenians’ mobile and real estates, about the Governments’ planning of which there are testifications of the survivors, reports of the foreign diplomats who functioned in the region of the Ottoman Empire, and they can also be found in the Turkish sources. All these certify that the expropriation of the Armenians was an important factor in the program of the Armenian people’s extirpation.

Becoming the owner of the mobile and real estates of the Armenians, the Young Turk authorities also confiscated the deposits of the Armenians stored in the Ottoman Banks and Insurance Companies.

Not only material goods, but also human lives became subjects of auction. The Turkish Government became the proprietor of huge sums also by selling the Armenian women and children.

Under the suppression of the Entente countries on January 8, 1920, the Turkish Government cancelled “The Law of Abandoned Property” and rendered a decision to give the properties of the Armenians back to the owners and pay their losses, but notwithstanding the promises of the authorities, the process of expropriation of the Armenians also continued in the years 1921-1923.

Foreign countries also gained from the general plunderage of the Armenians. The money paid by the Armenians to the foreign insurance companies in gold made a part of the abandoned properties. These insurance companies, by means of not realizing their financial responsibilities to the Armenians, appropriated their money.

By exterminating the Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire, the Young Turk authorities filled in their empty state fund, paid the enormous military expenses and paid back the significant part of the country’s external debts. The wealth plundered from the Armenians continued to save Turkey within the republic circle as well, by saving the Turkish State from numerous financial alarms. By this crime, incomparable in its scale, the Turkish authorities removed their rivals from the economic sphere, and made up their national capital by means of acquiring their wealth, individual mobile and real estates.

The author of the publication, based on material facts and reliable information, proves that the calculation of the Armenian material losses made in the Armenian demands presented at the Paris Peace Summit (equivalent to as of 1919 made up in total 14.589.460.000 milliard Francs) does not reflect the overall image of the Armenians’ losses at all. According to the approximate calculations based on documentations, the total sum of the material losses of the Armenians of only the State of Sebastia made 70.250.000 Ottoman gold. The bands belonging to the “Special Organization” alone acquired 4.500.000.000 gold due to the plunderage of the property of the Armenians. According to the German sources, during the year 1916 Turkey transferred to Berlin and put into the German Banks as foreign currency 100 million gold Marks out of the plundered and exterminated means from the Armenians.

The aforementioned and a lot of other undeniable facts come to prove that the basis of the Turkish economy generated in the future decades is the confiscated property from the Armenians.