Vartan Matiossian's New Book, "The Politics of Naming the Armenian Genocide," Just Published by I. B. Tauris

I.B.Tauris, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing, has announced the publication of the inaugural book in the Armenians in the Modern and Early Modern World series by Dr. Vartan Matiossian titled The Politics of Naming the Armenian Genocide: Language, History and ‘Medz Yeghern’.

Dr. Vahram Lalayan’s Book on Narekatsi Published Posthumously by Society for Armenian Studies

The Society for Armenian Studies has posthumously sponsored the publication of Dr. Vahram Lalayan’s book “Mystical Perception of the Book of Lamentations by Grigor Narekatsi in the 13th – 18th Centuries.” Dr. Lalayan was a medieval theologian and the head of the Department of History at Grigor Narekatsi University in Artsakh. He was killed by Azeri forces in Meds Tagher village in Hadrut during the 2020 war.

I.B. Tauris Launches a New Book Series titled Armenians in the Modern and Early Modern World

I.B. Tauris (an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing) announced the launch of a new series titled Armenians in the Modern and Early Modern World. Prof. Bedross Der Matossian will serve as the series editor. Recent decades have seen the expansion of Armenian Studies from insular history to a broader, more interactive field within an inter-regional and global context. This series responds to this growth by promoting innovative and interdisciplinary approaches to Armenian history, politics, and culture in the period between 1500-2000. Focusing on the geographies of the Mediterranean, Middle East, and Contemporary Russia [Eastern Armenia], it directs specific attention to imperial and post-imperial frameworks: from the Ottoman Empire to Modern Turkey/Arab Middle East; the Safavid/Qajar Empires to Iran; and the Russian Empire to Soviet Union/Post-Soviet territories.

Reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of the field, the series welcomes proposals from scholars in Ottoman/Turkish Studies, Iranian Studies, Slavic Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, Mediterranean Studies, and disciplines of History, Political Science, Anthropology, Literature and Sociology, among others. Topics and themes include, but are not limited to, the following areas: Trade and economy; Cultural Production; Political History; Gender; Intra and Inter-religious relations; Diaspora; Genocide; Nationalism and Identity formation; and Democratization.  The series will publish monographs and edited collections. All proposal and manuscripts are subject to rigorous peer review. Der Matossian commented: “It is an honor to serve as the editor of this exciting series. We have excellent books in the pipeline. With the support of a highly qualified Advisory Board, I am confident that we will be able to advance the field of Armenian Studies from an interdisciplinary perspective.”

The forthcoming books in the series include The Politics of Naming the Armenian Genocide: Language, History and ‘Medz Yeghern’ by Vartan Matiossian and Picturing the Ottoman Armenian World: Photography in Erzerum, Kharpert, Van and Beyond by David Low.  

Armenian Studies Chairs and Directors Meet to Discuss the Future of the Field

On September 29, the majority of current Armenian Studies Chairs and Directors in the United States, along with representatives of the Society for Armenian Studies (SAS), National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR), and Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation met for an “Armenian Studies Chairs and Directors Workshop: Current Challenges & Future Prospects” at the University of California – Irvine. The meeting which was the first of its kind in the west coast was organized by UCI’s Armenian Studies Program, the UCI Meghrouni Family Presidential Chair in Armenian Studies (Professor Houri Berberian), the UCLA Richard Hovannisian Endowed Chair in Modern Armenian History (Professor Sebouh Aslanian), and the Society for Armenian Studies (Professor Bedross Der Matossian, SAS President).

The Society for Armenian Studies Organizes an International Conference on the First Republic of Armenia

An international conference, “Innovative Approaches to the History of the First Republic of Armenian, 1918-1920,” will take place from noon-3:00PM on Thursday, November 15, 2018 in San Antonio, Texas. The conference, co-sponsored by the Society for Armenian Studies (SAS) and the Armenian Communities Department of the Gulbenkian Foundation, will be held in the Travis D (3) room of the Grand Hyatt San Antonio in conjunction with the Middle East Studies Association 52nd Annual Meeting to take place at the same hotel between November 15-18, 2018.

Stefan Ihrig and Abraham Terian Receive NAASR’s Aronian Armenian Studies Book Prizes

The National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) announced on December 14 that Dr. Stefan Ihrig and Dr. Abraham Terian have been awarded the 2017 Dr. Sona Aronian Book Prizes for Excellence in Armenian Studies.

NAASR’s Aronian Book Prizes were established in 2014 by the late Dr. Aronian and Dr. Geoffrey Gibbs to be awarded annually to an outstanding scholarly works in the English language in the field of Armenian Studies and translations from Armenian into English.  The 2017 awards are for books published in the year 2016.

Society for Armenian Studies Elects New Executive Officers

On Wednesday, December 6, 2017, the Society for Armenan Studies Executive Council held its first meeting. Executive Council officers were elected with Bedross Der Matossian (University of Nebraska-Lincoln) as the new SAS President. Also elected were Vice-President Vartan Matiossian (Armenian National Education Committee, NY); Secretary Khatchig Mouradian (Columbia University); Treasurer Vahe Sahakyan (University of Michigan-Ann Arbor); and advisors Alison Vacca (University of Tennessee-Knoxville), Barlow Der Mugrdechian (California State University, Fresno), and Arpi Siyahian (NUtech Ventures-UNL).

‘Sherlock Holmes of Armenian Genocide’ Uncovers Lost Evidence

Tim Arango

 

For more than a century, Turkey has denied any role in organizing the killing of Armenians in what historians have long accepted as a genocide that started in 1915, as World War I spread across continents. The Turkish narrative of denial has hinged on the argument that the original documents from postwar military tribunals that convicted the genocide’s planners were nowhere to be found.

Now, Taner Akcam, a Turkish historian at Clark University in Worcester, Mass., who has studied the genocide for decades by piecing together documents from around the world to establish state complicity in the killings, says he has unearthed an original telegram from the trials, in an archive held by the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem.

NAASR Announces First Winners of Aronian Armenian Studies Book Prizes

The National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) recently announced the winners of the first Dr. Sona Aronian Book Prizes for Excellence in Armenian Studies. Aronian, who passed away on Nov. 17, 2015, established the prizes last year, to be awarded annually to an outstanding scholarly monograph in the English language in the field of Armenian studies and, in alternating years, to a translation from Armenian into English of a work of literature or of an academic book within the field of Armenian studies.

New Texts Out Now: Bedross Der Matossian, Shattered Dreams of Revolution: From Liberty to Violence in the Late Ottoman Empire

Jadaliyya (J): What made you write this book?

Bedross Der Matossian (BDM): I have always been interested in the history of the late Ottoman period, in particular the era of Abdülhamid II (1876-1909) and the Second Constitutional Period (1908-1918). Most of the scholarship about the period in the past has been written from the perspective of the dominant ruling elite/political center. It is only in the past decade that we see new studies that provide a broader picture of the period by incorporating non-dominant groups. It is with this intention in mind that I decided to concentrate on examining one of the most important turning points in the beginning of the modern Middle East from the perspective of the non-dominant groups.

Much has been written on the causes and initial implementation of the Young Turk Revolution of 1908. There is, however, a dearth of material that appropriately addresses its complexity and its impact on the worldview of the different non-dominant groups in the post-revolutionary period. Existing scholarship on the impact of the Young Turk Revolution on the Ottoman society is divided into two groups. One views the Revolution as a factor that led to the debilitation of interethnic relations leading to the rise of ethnic nationalism among the non-dominant groups, while the other romanticizes the period as the beginning of “civic nationalism” under the rubric of Ottomanism which was interrupted by World War I. I argue in the book that both approaches fail to adequately problematize the Revolution and demonstrate its complexities.

Society for Armenian Studies Hosts Conference on ‘Armenians in the Ottoman Empire’

Aram Arkun

 

The Society for Armenian Studies (SAS), a primarily American association of scholars and supporters of Armenology, is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. It held an international conference in Yerevan in October, and on November 21-22, it convened a conference in Washington, DC, called “Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in the 19th-20th Centuries.”

The Ottoman Spring

Sam Taylor

 

On July 24, 1908, a group of disaffected Ottoman military officers and members of the secretive Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) mounted a successful coup against the despotic rule of Sultan Abdulhamid II, and restored the constitution that he had suspended thirty years prior. What became known as the Young Turk Revolution brought euphoria and optimism to the multi-ethnic, multi-religious populations of the Ottoman Empire, who were enticed by the CUP with the promise, rooted in the rhetoric of the French Revolution, of ‘Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity.’

In Izmir, Ottoman Jews marched alongside government dignitaries, shouting “Long live the fatherland! Long live liberty!” In Beirut, Biblical and Quranic passages were posted side by side. In Jerusalem, Armenians, Greeks, and Arabs celebrated under a banner at the city gate that read, “Long live the army, long live freedom. Liberty, equality, and fraternity.” All over the Ottoman Empire, Muslims, Christians, and Jews marched in processions together, basking in the dawn of a new era.