Armenian History Research Articles

From the Editor

From the Editor José Brunner The five articles that appear in this issue of History & Memory all address the tension or ambivalence that is inherent in commemorations of the past. While commemorative endeavors are selective, evoking a particular aspect of the past that is considered significant for the present and thought to hold a lesson for the future, the past itself is far more complex than the story that is told about it in the present, and there is always more than one cause in the present that can be served by the past. Sooner or later, a number of conflictual and contradictory stories emerge, which undermine each other’s claim to exclusivity. The politics of the past therefore point to the plurality of memory, to its openness and variability, rather than to the well-defined and demarcated significance of a legacy. Jan C. Jansen traces the struggles over the commemoration of Emir ‘Abd al-Qadir, the most prominent leader of the nineteenth-century Algerian resistance against the French colonial invasion. Was ‘Abd al-Qadir, who united Arab tribes to fight Christian invaders in the 1830s and ended up controlling large parts of central and western Algeria, the first Algerian anticolonialist nationalist? Or, since he made deals with the French invaders and later, in Syrian exile, maintained links with France, was he a leader whom the French could commemorate by erecting a “statue of the defeated”? As Jansen shows, from the days following World War I to Algerian independence, the ambiguities and contradictions in ‘Abd al-Qadir’s politics enabled both sides, colonialists and anticolonialists, to seek to establish a specific image of the national hero that would serve their own purposes. Andrew Demshuk examines another fierce battle over the commemoration of a historical figure. Taking us to the heady days when the Third Reich gave way to a communist regime in East Germany, he discusses the intense dispute in Leipzig over the remains of Johann Sebastian Bach—whether they should be placed in a new mausoleum to be built on the ruins of the Johanniskirche, where he had been buried, or transferred to a new shrine in the Thomaskirche in time for the 200th anniversary of [End Page 1] his death in 1950. Demshuk shows that all concerned were keenly aware that the debate on the proper resting place for Bach’s bones was in fact a struggle over the shape of Leipzig’s postwar urban landscape. How does one welcome visitors to a Holocaust museum? How can a Holocaust museum be hospitable? This is the provocative question Rachel E. Perry confronts in her essay on Michal Rovner’s Living Landscape, a video installation that covers an entire wall at the entrance to the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum. Rather than scenes of persecution and extermination, Living Landscape shows everyday scenes from prewar east European Jewish life, thus introducing a space for life, joy, community, youth and family into the dark rooms of a museum, in which mass death is depicted and remembered. Drawing on the work of the French philosophers Emmanuel Levinas and Jacques Derrida, Perry argues that in creating a kind of “twilight zone” Living Landscape not only offers hospitality in a Holocaust museum, but also problematizes the very notion of hospitality. Jo Laycock examines memoirs by Armenians who had followed Stalin’s invitation to leave their diaspora communities in order to “repatriate” to the Soviet Republic of Armenia, but returned to the diaspora when they realized that instead of a warm homecoming, Soviet Armenia offered poverty, isolation and repression. Laycock shows that although all these memoirs resonate with the overarching Armenian national narrative of suffering and survival, they also expose divisions both between homeland and diaspora and within the diaspora. Thus they not only reaffirm traditional conceptions of Armenian identity but also problematize standard narratives of Armenian history and belonging. Finally, Roland Burke turns our attention to postage stamps, a medium of commemoration that rarely features in the literature on historical memory. Analyzing the United Nations’ international program to commemorate the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights on stamps, he shows how the hundreds of stamps, issued by around 120 states in the course of more than...

"They can live in the desert but nowhere else": a history of the Armenian genocide

They Can Live in Desert but Nowhere Else: A History of Armenian Genocide, by Ronald Grigor Suny. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2015. 490 pages. $35.Professor Ronald Grigor Suny is distinguished scholar and well-published historian. He is known for his body of work specializing in Armenian history and affairs. The title of book comes from conversation that American ambassador Henry Morgenthau reported he had with Ottoman interior minister Talat Pasha in early August 1915 (p. 269-270), which Suny purports to show that Talat had solved Armenian problem in particularly brutal manner. The introduction presents Professor Suny's thesis is roundabout manner, which is to explain that Young Turks (the alleged perpetrators of had an affective disposition that allowed them, indeed in their minds required them, to eliminate whole peoples (p. xx). Essentially, Suny argues that Young Turks' cognitive and emotional state demonstrated by their observed behavior and actions in 1915 proves genocide. While this kind of argument may be suitable for forensic psychologists, historians rarely attempt it because of dictum that correlation does not prove causation.They Can Live in Desert but Nowhere Else is narrative presentation that begins with history of early kingdom of Armenia and moves through 19th century with an explanation of evolving political, economic, and social relationships between Armenians and Ottomans. Suny then discusses rise of Armenian revolutionary committees and how Young Turks' rise to power and counterrevolution affected these relationships. This takes over half book and sets up reader's understanding of Young Turks' affective disposition to regard Ottoman Armenians with fear and distrust. Chapter Seven is titled War (pp. 208-45) and contains fine description of how and why Young Turks went to war as well an explanation of ideological fissures within Armenian revolutionary committees and Ottoman Armenian polity. Chapter Eight, Removal (pp. 246-80), deals with academically contentious period of January through June 1915 and presents Suny's view of decision to relocate Ottoman Armenians from eastern Anatolia. The lens though which Suny frames his understanding of relocations comes primarily from American Ambassador Henry Morgenthau's diary (39 of 134 chapter endnotes), which was published after these events, in 1918 after United States entered war against Central Powers, as well as from information contained in Raymond Kevorkian and Taner Akcam's books.In Chapter Nine, (pp. 281- 327), Suny presents heart of his case. Here he asserts that that fear and profound sense of insecurity compounded by defeats and Allied threats, combined into a toxic perception of all Armenians as an internal subversive force allied to Russians (p. 281). He also repeats Akcam's fallacious conclusion that the allegations of an Armenian revolt in [Ottoman] documents . . . have no basis in reality but were deliberately fabricated (p. 282) as factual statement of evidence. Later in chapter Suny asserts that relocation camps in Euphrates valley were way stations toward extermination (p. 314) but presents no archival sources to support this. Chapter Ten, Orphaned Nation (pp. 328-49), concludes historical narrative with events of 1918-23, including 1919 show trials and Armenian assassinations of surviving members of Committee of Unity and Progress. Suny's final chapter, Thinking about Unthinkable: Genocide (pp. 350-365), summarizes his thoughts and juxtaposes work of Raphael Lemkin (the international lawyer who coined term genocide) into narrative.There is nothing new in this book for scholars or for those familiar with extant literature. The book is derived exclusively from previously available secondary materials. …

Armenian narrative XIII - early XIV ages as a source of history Second and Third Crusades

This article analyzes the evidence of Armenian historians XIII - early XIV ages regarding events of Crusades 1147 - 1149 years and 1189 - 1192 years; defined the specific tradition of writing history, which was characterized by medieval Armenian chronicler. Based on the study of sources found confidence level posts Armenian narratives, their degree of objectivity and informative. Analysis of evidence of medieval Armenian authors, relating to the eastern casing written sources on the history of the Crusades, allows us to trace the evolution of the views of historians who lived and worked during the given period of source; allows you to compare the degree of reliability and the level of informativeness Armenian and Latin works, figure out the contradictions and mutual interdependence in conceptions of authors, which were inherent in radically different traditions historiography. Armenian historians, like other eastern authors (eg, Byzantine, Arab, Syrian, etc.), starting to write his works do not set ourselves as the primary objective laudatory description crusading movement, and considered it solely within the native, Armenian history. Given these facts, not surprisingly, the outline of the Second and Third Crusades covered them fragmented, and many episodes of the military-religious actions have a brief compilation is limited actual dry character. Despite certain qualitative characteristics of medieval Armenian narratives are predominantly auxiliary character in the coverage of various aspects of the history of the Crusades mid - late twelfth century. Because we have not opened any other pictures of military-religious actions, opposite the west. Their number is not enough in order to reflect the full fabric of the events of the second and third military campaigns in Western chivalry East and outshine an enormous amount of information in their Latin chroniclers, even in its most subjective, biased and insufficiently critical.

Reconstruction of the ‘Armenian Homeland’ Notion

This article explores the way paved for the reconstruction of the ‘Armenian homeland’ notion. It considers the emergence of modern ‘national’ history of Armenians, the settlement of the Armenians in the South Caucasus or Transcaucasia, the liquidation of the (Caucasian) Albanian Catholicosate and the impact of the change of the church identity of the monophysite Caucasian Albanians living between the Kur and Araz Rivers on the change of their ethnic identity as factors instrumental in this reconstruction. The examination of this process is especially important for understanding the factors, which played a crucial role in the construction of the Armenian Republic in the South Caucasus in 1918 and its territorial claims.

The Marble of Armenian History: Or Armenian History as World History

Originally his “installation” lecture as the first holder of the Richard Hovannisian Chair of Modern Armenian History, Aslanian’s essay argues that Armenian history is best studied not as national history but as part of world or global history with its interactive methodology that relies upon and studies interactions, encounters, and connections in world history.

Some epigraphic and archaeological documents from Western Anatolia during the late Ottoman period

The focus of this article is on the post-medieval archaeological heritage of İzmir, especially during the 19th century. The material selected consists of Armenian inscriptions from İzmir and its close environs, since there is a paucity of archaeological scholarship for the Armenian community of the Ottoman Empire. The paper is based on the survey of sixteen Armenian inscriptions across nine locations in and around İzmir, with discussion of the Armenian material culture of the Late Ottoman Period, as well as transcription and translation of these inscriptions, although a history of Armenia in general is outside the scope of the article. As Armenian grave markers can be taken as active interventions in social relations, this paper offers a potential for reconstructing the social complexities of late Ottoman İzmir.

THE “NEW DICTIONARY OF THE HAYKAZIAN LANGUAGE” WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF FORMATION OF ARMENIAN LEXICOGRAPHY

The Armenian printed lexicography originated in the beginning of the 17th century, and also, in the mid of the 18th century the work of three Mkhitaryan priests G. Avetiqyan, Kh. Syurmelyan and M. Avgeryan named the “New Dictionary of the Haykazian Language” was published in Venice (v.v. 1–2, 1836–37). The dictionaries of the Old Armenian language that were printed throughout the Armenian history certainly originated from the well–known NHD, such as the dictionaries formed by St. Malkhasyants, N. Buzandatsi, L. Khachatryan, R. Ghazaryan, L. Hovhannisyan.

Opening cultural heritage in the age of OAI-PMH: finding Armenia in the OATD discovery service

Purpose – Open Access Theses and Dissertations (OATD) distinguishes itself from other ETD databases by providing immediate access to theses that are freely available online. The Republic of Armenia is a small geographical area in Central Asia with a population of only three million, yet an estimated total of five to seven million people of Armenian ancestry live outside of Armenia. What knowledge of Armenian cultural heritage can be discovered by searching OATD for open access theses that relate to Armenian history and culture?. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – The OATD database was searched for the terms Armenia or Armenian. Discovered thesis records were exported into citation management tools and analysed for subject content, year of publication, institutional repository source, and a determination of whether Armenia was a primary or secondary topic. Access to theses was also tested to verify their open access. The remaining thesis records (n=152) were exported into an Excel spread sheet for numerical analysis and graphic production. Findings – From the records getting enhanced metadata (n=152), slightly more (52 per cent) were master's theses. Nearly two-thirds (63 per cent) used the Republic and culture of Armenia as a primary theme. English was the predominant author language (85 per cent) with Portuguese and French represented less than 5 per cent. World history and social sciences research were the most represented subjects. Most open access theses on Armenia or Armenian culture date from after 2000. All enhanced records, along with their abstracts and direct links, are available in a searchable RefWorks shared folder. Originality/value – The OATD database was evaluated for scholarly representation of a particular country and culture.

Culture and Classroom Communication: A Pilot Study in the Post-Soviet Republic of Armenia

Using participant observations and informal interviews, the study examined whether and how classroom communication in Armenia reflects Armenian culture and history, including the Soviet influence for close to seven decades and Armenia’s transition from one socio-politico-economic system to another, followed by internationalization of education and globalization. Findings of the study revealed three major themes that have impacted the classroom communication style: courtesy, immediacy, solidarity. While consistent in some ways with Soviet communism, these themes may have also been influenced by Armenia’s traditional and family-centered culture and history which predate Soviet communism, as well as by internationalization of education and globalization.

Managing Strategic Changes Through DEEP Reforms: A View from the Perspective of U.S.–Armenia “Smart Power” Cooperation

Education is a systematic process of forming the fundamental ability to think analytically, incorporating both basic and specialized knowledge. Therefore, in the armed forces of leading countries of the world, the field of military education and personnel management is regarded as a primary factor for ensuring the efficiency of the defense security system and the combat capability of the military.Defense education reforms are a significant part of the overall reforms being implemented in the defense security sector in Armenia that are helping bring both more credibility and accountability into the Armenian Armed Forces and the National Security System on the whole. The importance of defense education has grown significantly within recent years due to the introduction of sophisticated new armament systems. Current military standards demand a new level of requirements for both soldiers and officers, and military professional education is one of the most important tools to help prepare highly qualified personnel who will be capable of implementing different tasks in the rapidly changing atmosphere of the modern battlefield.The cause and the essence of these innovations are not only due to hard power subsystem dynamics, but also require accepting the fundamentally new orientation in thinking about security that is not exclusively based on threat assessments and a presumed hard power response, as was the case in the past. Over the past decade, after the Prague NATO Summit, Armenia has employed comparative analysis and innovative decision making to smoothly turn its defense security thinking toward a goal-oriented approach that synthesizes both soft and hard security dimensions within one holistic smart power-oriented defense security policymaking system. The other important dimension of these improvements is a gradual transition from an obsolete apparatchik mode of Stalinist-style military governance of the Ministry of Defense to a modern leadership and management culture characterized by the redistribution of powers between defensepolicy institutions and military bodies and the delegation of power and duties to lower tiers in the hierarchy.In the United States, the system of professional military education (PME) must meet certain basic requirements, namely that it should be comprehensive, systemic, consistent, realistic, effective, and unanimous in concept, terms, goals, challenges, and opportunities. The U.S. system is familiar to me, due to my five and a half years of Defense, Army, Air Force, and Navy Attache service as well as having held academic fellowships at the Defense Language Institute in San Antonio, Harvard University's National Security Program, the National Defense University, RAND, and the Marshall Center for Security Studies. PME training places constant tension on the mind, will, and body, giving great attention to physical fitness and its major role in service activity of all categories of personnel.The Early Stages of Armenia's Defense Education Sector DevelopmentThe formation of Armenia's armed forces coincided with what was probably the most difficult and stressful period of modern Armenian history: the transition from a Sovietstyle totalitarian regime to independent national statehood oriented around the values of liberal democracy. Drafting the main design of the Armenian Army simultaneously with the establishment of Armenian independent statehood became a challenge that needed to be addressed precisely, given the conditions of extreme uncertainty that characterized the dynamics of the post-Soviet system of global, regional, and national security. It was a matter of great responsibility and commitment for me to be ordered by the leadership of the newly born Ministry of Defense to develop the Basics of Military Policy of the Republic of Armenia, published in 1992 as the first military-political national document outlining the doctrinal content and strategic caliber of an independent Armenia. …

PhallicKhiarcharms

There are seven silver and brass charms called khiar (“cucumber”) in the Armenian History Museum’s collection of amulets. They originated in Moks, Gyavash and other regions of Western Armenia and in Yerevan (Eastern Armenia) in the 19th century. These ornamented charms with pendants and chains are prismatic and cylindrical in shape. They are hollow and are supposed to have written prayers inside them, though only one paper is preserved.Like the plant itself, these khiar-s symbolize the phallus with its connotations of fertility, fruitfulness, renewal, rebirth, revival. These objects are also believed to give protection from evil spirits and the evil eye.Owing to these meanings women used to wear khiar-s, believing that the objects would protect them from harm and help them to have children. In popular beliefs it was common to ascribe preternatural power to parts of the human body. And the most important parts were the endings — head, feet, hair, nails and phallus, which embodied the idea of growth and ini...

Immigration, Immigrants, and the Rights of Canadian Citizens in Historical Perspective. Bangarth, Stephanie D. Voices Raised in Protest: Defending Citizens of Japanese Ancestry in North America, 1942–49. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2008 Caccia, Ivana. Managing the Canadian Mosaic in Wartime: Shaping Citizenship Policy, 1939–1945. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2010 Champion, C.P. The Strange Demise of British Canada: The

Immigration, Immigrants, and the Rights of Canadian Citizens in Historical Perspective / Bangarth, Stephanie D. Voices Raised in Protest: Defending Citizens of Japanese Ancestry in North America, 1942–49. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2008 / Caccia, Ivana. Managing the Canadian Mosaic in Wartime: Shaping Citizenship Policy, 1939–1945. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2010 / Champion, C.P. The Strange Demise of British Canada: The Liberals and Canadian Nationalism, 1964–68. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2010 / Iacovetta, Franca. Gatekeepers: Reshaping Immigrant Lives in Cold War Canada. Toronto: Between the Lines, 2006 / Kaprielian-Churchill, Isabel. Like Our Mountains: A History of Armenians in Canada. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2005 / Lambertson, Ross. Repression and Resistance: Canadian Human Rights Activists, 1930–1960. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005 / MacLennan, Christopher. Toward the Charter: Canadians and the Demand for a National Bill of Rights, 1929–1960. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2004 / Roy, Patricia E. The Triumph of Citizenship: The Japanese and Chinese in Canada, 1941–67. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2008. Un article de la revue International Journal of Canadian Studies / Revue internationale d’études canadiennes (Miscellaneous: International Perspectives on Canada) diffusée par la plateforme Érudit.

Azerbaijan's Prospects in Nagorno-Karabakh

1 Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Vol. XXXIV, No.4, Summer 2011 Azerbaijan’s Prospects in Nagorno-Karabakh Alec Rasizade* It is impossible to understand the historic hostilities and territorial claims in this part of the Caucasus (as well as the current stage of the conflict) without a view of history of the region and an understanding of the more recent developments. Let us begin with historical facts. Historical developments from: 4th century to 1988 The national identity of the region of Nagorno-Karabakh in the Caucasus is disputed between the Azeri and Armenian historians: it is populated by Caucasian Albanians or indigenous Armenians who lived there between the rivers Kura and Araxes. (The medieval Caucasian Albania should not be mistaken for the modern Balkan Albania). They name this province historically either Aran (Caucasian possession of the Persian Empire) or Artsakh (the tenth province of the ancient Kingdom of Armenia). Karabakh is a Turkic name given to the plain between the two rivers by the nomads who migrated here from Central Asia in the 11th century, literally it means the Black Garden, while Nagorno is a Russian word meaning Highland. Therefore, Nagorno-Karabakh means the Upper (mountainous) part of Karabakh (Haut-Karabakh in French), which had been inhabited by either Albanian or Armenian mountaineers, but not by the Turkic tribes who settled since their arrival in the grasslands of Lower Karabakh. This division has remained intact to the present day: Armenians live in the Upper Karabakh, while Azeris (the descendants of those Turkic tribes) populate the Lower Karabakh. *Alec Rasizade has earned his doctorate in modern history from Moscow State University and works at the Historical Research Center in Washington. In the intervening years he was a professor of history at Azerbaijan State University in Baku, then worked at the USSR Academy of Sciences in Moscow, the Harriman Institute of Columbia University in New York, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. He is the author of more than 60 scholarly publications, including two monographs: The Truman Doctrine (Baku: Academia, 1980) and Turkey in the System of NATO (Moscow: Nauka, 1990). Email:rasizade@juno.com 2 Christianity spread to Transcaucasia in the early 4th century, while Albania, the Christian kingdom that existed on the territory of modern Azerbaijan before the arrival of Turkic tribes, disappeared since then. After the partition of Armenia between Byzantium and Persia in 387, Artsakh became part of the Kingdom of Albania, but in 469 Albania itself became a Persian satrapy under the name of Aran. Albania is a Latin name for this country, its native name is unknown, for Albanians lacked a written language. We know them mainly through Armenian chronicles. As for Armenia (which is also a Latin name for the native Hayastan), after the creation of Armenian written language by Mesrop Mashtotz in the 5th century, a rise of Armenian culture began in Artsakh/Aran, which remained under the Persian rule until the Arab invasion of the 7th century, which broke Albania into several small principalities, some of them rapidly Armenized in the face of coercive conversion into Islam enforced by the Caliphate. In this period of Arab conquest, the political and cultural life in Aran/Artsakh did not cease and in the 8th century a distinctive local Christian culture was shaped, as opposed to Islamization of surrounding nations, including the Turkic ancestors of modern Azeris who arrived in the region three centuries later. Albanian monasteries, churches and towns of Aran acquired an Armenian significance marked by khachkars, the stone crosses, before the arrival of Azeris. Thus Christianity helped to preserve the native identity of Aran/Artsakh from an absorption by the powerful Muslim empires that dominated the Caucasus. Proceeding from these historical facts, Armenian ideologues insist that the Muslim Azerbaijan cannot be considered a successor to the Christian Albania culturally nor linguistically, and claim that only the Christian Armenia is a genuine heir to Albanian heritage including the area of Aran/Artsakh.2 This is the pivotal principle of Armenian historical claim to Nagorno-Karabakh. Azeri ideology claims the same area as the historic province of Albania, which existed on the territory of modern Azerbaijan. Armenians...

O genocídio armênio e seus reflexos na literatura

The history of Armenia in the 20th century is marked by a tragedy: the genocide of approximately 1,500.000 inhabitants of Turkish Armenia by the Ottoman Empire. The goal of this paper is to analyze two main consequences of the Armenian genocide in Armenian literature, namely, the transition from modern (1850-1915) to contemporary literature (1915-), and the formation of Armenian contemporary literature in Diaspora. While Armenian modern literature is largely characterized by militant engagement, aiming to instruct the popular masses so that they could fight for political and social justice and forindependence, Armenian contemporary literature produced in Diaspora deals mainly with questions concerning cultural identity of Armenian descendants that were born in Diaspora. We exemplify these trends with excerpts from texts written by two modern authors (Raffi and Daniel Varujan) and two contemporary ones (William Saroyan and Michael J. Arlen).

Historical dictionary of Armenia

This Dictionary paints a compelling portrait of Armenia and its people. While other works on Armenian history require multiple volumes, this resource captures a vast amount of history in just one. By broadly covering the early history and focusing on more recent events, the author provides readers a way to unravel many of the complexities that arise in the study of this intricate country and its, sometimes confusing, history.

Osmanlı Ermenilerinin 1915’teki Tehciri: Bir Değerlendirme

This article criticizes the subjective approches adopted by the historians in dealing with the events of 1915 and also the lack of consistency in the interpretations of the conflict between the Muslims and the Armenians. The author makes evaluations about the way the subject is handled in the light of archival documents. The evaluations are based on the closing of the Armenian Committees on 24 April 1915, the arrests of the leading political figures and also about how these events are handled both by the Turkish and Armenian historians. In his assessments of the arrests of April 24, 1915 the authors argues that the state had only aimed at taking under control the activities of the revolutionaries, and the assertions that the arrests of these political figures was a preparation for the process to exterminate the Armenians is groundless. It is also argued in this article that the decision of relocations has been taken as a legal security measure and that the Armenian uprisings were the principle reason for this decision to be taken. Also discussed in this article are the number of people relocated and the ratio of deaths which took place during the marches of the convoys to the designated locations in southern parts of the Ottoman Empire. The author emphasising the importance of studying the events of 1915 on the basis of the archival documents welcomes the letter of the Turkish Prime Minister to the President of Armenia to the effect that an historical commission consisting of historians and other experts from two countries should be established to study the developments and events of 1915 not only in the archives of Turkey and Armenia but also in the archives of all relevant third countries.

A Hero and a Homeland for Armenians in America: Photography and the Construction of Cultural Memory

Both portrait and landscape, historical scene and contemporary monument, and, ultimately, both engraving and photograph, this image contains the keys to a significant story from modern Armenian cultural history. In the years following World War I hundreds of Armenians immigrated to the United States, where through the creation of objects such as this picture, they reconstituted their community, emphasizing the longevity of their history, their unity as a minority culture, and their identity as a diaspora.

An Important Source of Information about Islamized Armenians

The history of Armenians has been accompanied with struggles against forced Islamization. The Islamized Hamshen-Armenians are of particular interest in this regard. The present article provides solid evidence about Islamized Armenians in general and those in the village of Khevak in particular, making reference to new sources of information that confirm the ideas stated.

Von den Kreuzfahrerstaaten in das Königreich Georgien

[From the Crusader Towns among Georgian Empire]. Since the V/VIth century Georgians were present in Antioch on Orontes. In its environment, especially in the Black Mountains, Georgian Monastries and Hermitages were founded, some of these communities lived and worked until 1268 the Mamluks conquered Antioch. Those Georgian monastries must have been the link between the Crusader States and the Georgian Kingdom. There are valid indications that the rise of the Georgian Kingdom and the expansion of the Crusader States were mutualy noticed. In context with the First Crusade, King David the Builder profited from the Islamic power's weakness, caused by the exploits of the Crusaders. On the other side, the newly established Crusader States took advantage of Georgia's growing strength. Ansellus, the Chapter's Cantor of Holy Sepulchre and William of Tyrus praised the Georgian Kingdom as a forward bastion of Christianity in Near East. There must have been even some sort of collaboration between the Kingdom of Georgia and the Crusader States. This is clearly shown in the Crusader's fights against Ilgazi of Mardin. In 1121 King David engaged a great Islamic alliance, commanded by I.Igazi in the valley of Didgori, near Tbilisi. A detailled description of this battle is handed down by the Latin chronicle of Walter the chancellor. Due to its author and the Armenian historian Matthew of Edessa, some hundred Frankish knigths had reinforced the Georgian levies. The Latin chronicler assures, that some participants of the battle had told him about its progress. We can conclude that these eyewitnesses were from Antioch. In the late XIIth century Prince Bohemund III aimed to confirm the relations between the principality of Antioch and the Georgian Kingdom by a project of marriage. According to Latin documents only, in the early XIIth century the Georgian kings planned a crusade for liberating the Holy Land. The Papacy and the Franks in the Crusader States had heard about this plan and they hoped for an alliance against the Aiyubides in Syria and Egypt during the fifth (1217-1221) and sixth crusade (1228-1229). Papal letters to the king of Georgia were first brought to Antioch and from there, probably with the help of Georgian monks, deliverd to the Caucasus. Antioch's role as a link to the Georgian kingdom ended with the Mongol invasions. But this dramatic situation also opened new geographical and political horizons. News from the Caucasian world, up to then transmitted via Antioch and Cyprus to the Latin West, came now directly to the Occident.

The history of Armenia: from the origins to the present

PART I: Origins and Formation * Dynasties and the Geopolitics of Empire: The Ervanduni and the Artashesian Dynasties * Culture, Language, and Wars of Religion: Kings, Marzpans, Ostikans * PART II: Transformation and Transplantation * The Bagratuni Kingdom and Disintegration * The Kilikian Kingdom, the Crusades, and the Invasions from the East * PART III: Sultans, Tsars, and Tyrants * Armenia under Ottoman and Russian Rule * The Armenian Genocide * PART IV: Perils of Modernization and Globalization * The Republic of Armenia: The First Republic * The Leninist-Stalinist Legacy: Seventy Years of Soviet Rule * Independence and Democracy: The Second Republic