Armenian Forum On-Line

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Armenian Forum On-Line is a timely platform for scholarship related to modern Armenian studies. Submissions can be articles, reviews, notes and studies of academic interest. All submissions will be peer reviewed. Please send all materials electronically to the editor (afol@gomidas.org)


Ara Sarafian (comp and ed), Kharpert (Harput), cir. 1900-2023,

HISTORICAL KHARPERT, 1900-1923
This map was created as part of the Gomidas Institute's "ProjectKharpert2022" and our ongoing efforts to engage Turkish authorities and civil society to preserve the historical identity of Kharpert (Harput). This map is an invaluable guide to modern-day visitors to the city, especially as it identifies the location of Kharpert's rich, yet officially rebuffed, Armenian heritage.

FaceBook: ProjectKharpert2022

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Historical Map
Ara Sarafian, Tarihi Harput (Kharpert), 1900-2023,

TARİHİ HARPUT 1900-2023
Bu harita, Gomidas Enstitüsü'nün "Kharpert2022Project"inin ve Harput'un tarihi kimliğini korumak için Türk makamlarının ve sivil toplumun dikkatini çekmek için devam eden çabalarımızın bir parçası olarak oluşturulmuştur. Bu harita, özellikle Harput'un zengin, ancak resmi olarak reddedilen Ermeni mirasının yerini belirlediği için, şehre gelen modern ziyaretçiler için paha biçilmez bir rehberdir.

FaceBook: ProjectKharpert2022

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Study
Ara Sarafian, A-Do and Armenians in the Ottoman Province of Van on the Eve of WWI,

A-Do is a leading intermediary source on the Armenian population of Van cir. 1915. This is a critical evaluation of his work Mets Depkeru Vaspourakanoum in 1914-1915 (Yerevan: Louys, 1917]; English translation, Van 1915: The Great Events of Vasbouragan (London: Gomidas Institute, 2017). 

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Ara Sarafian, comp. and ed., Kharpert - Խարբերդ - Harput cir. 1914,

This is a composite map of Kharpert (Խարբերդ) cir 1914. It is mainly based on the works of İshak Sunguroğlu, Harput Yollarında, (Elazığ Kültür ve Tanıtma Vakfı Yayınları, No 2, Istanbul, 1958) and Վահէ Հայկ (աշխ. եւ կազմ.), Խարբերդ եւ Անոր Ոսկեղէն Դաշտը - Պատմական, Մշակութային եւ Ազգագրական [Vahe Hayg (comp. and ed.), Khartpert yev Anor Vosgeghen Tashdu: Houshamadyan Badmagan, Mshagoutayin yev Azkakragan] (New York, 1959). The base map of the city is from Sunguroğlu.

This work is part of the "Kharpert 2022 Project" of the Gomidas Institute.

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Ara Sarafian, Gesaria (Kayseri) and Its Surroundings,

This is an English rendition Mardiros Balaian's iconic map of the Gesaria [Kayseri] region circa 1915 in A. Alboyajian, Badmoutiun Hay Gesario [Պատմութիւն Հայ Կեսարիոյ], (Hagop Papazian Press, Cairo, 1937). Comp. and ed. by Ara Sarafian, 2022.

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Article
Mischa Geracoulis, Armenian Orphans in the 21st Century: International Recommendations and 21st Century Solutions,

• Mischa Geracoulis is a writer and educator based in California. She writes on social justice and human rights, education, diaspora, migration, identity and the multifaceted human condition. She can be found at Twitter @MGeracoulis

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Book Review
Kubra Uygur, Avedis' Story: An Armenian Boy’s Journey,

Avedis' Story: An Armenian Boy’s Journey (ed. C. S. Najarian), Gomidas Institute, London ISBN 978-1-909382-13-8, pb. UK£16.00 / US$22.00. Armenians in the Kharpert Plain cir. 1915, a detailed, full color, foldout map (Gomidas Institute, 2015) UK£8.00 / US$12.00.

• Kubra Uygur is a PhD student in Ottoman & Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies (University of Birmingham)

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Essay
Paul Mirabile, A Tale of Two Peoples: Armenians and Turks,

Paul Mirabile studied at the French university of Vincennes-Paris VIII for eight years majoring in philology, literature and History, especially mediaeval, defending his doctoral thesis on the Genèse de la Chanson de Roland. He has lived, worked and travelled for the past twenty-five years in Turkey, South India, China and Siberia teaching at universities or secondary schools, studying languages, History and mediaeval literature, publishing books and articles on the mediaeval epic tales of those aforesaid nations....

His interest in Turkic and Armenian relationships stems precisely from this mediaeval continuum and present day political framework, one gleaned from his readings of Dede Korkut Kitabi and David of Sassoun, during thirteen years of working and studying in Turkey, and frequent sojourns in Armenia.

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Essay
Diran Meghreblian, Emigrating to Soviet Armenia and Back, 1949-1965: the Story of an American -Armenian Family,

18 March 2015

The following account was written by Diran Meghreblian in 1999. We are reprinting it with two additional sections added by the author.

* Diran Meghreblian was born in 1945 in Troy, New York, USA. When he was four years old the family went to live to Soviet Armenia where Diran received a Russian education at school and college level in Yerevan. After the family emigrated to France in 1965, he continued his studies at the Sorbonne University in Paris graduating in 1969. In 1970 Diran was invited to England to work at the BBC's World Service as a Russian broadcaster. He took early retirement in 1999. In addition to nearly 30 years' experience as a radio-journalist Diran has done considerable voice-over work, both in Russian and in English. He has also worked in cinema appearing in the 1999 James Bond movie "The World Is Not Enough" and in a thriller  called "Revelation."

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Review-Essay
Lilit F. Grigoryan, Grossman in Armenia,

10.1.2015

Grossman in Armenia
Discovering a Different Literary Caucasus in Vasily Grossman's An Armenian Sketchbook

As the Caucasus became part of the Russian Empire, Russian writers, beginning with Pushkin, created a "literary Caucasus."  This Caucasus was an exotic "Orient" of adventure, mystery, and romance.  However, this "literary Caucasus" changed in Russian literature with the author and era.  Vasily Grossman, one of the best-known representatives of Russian literature in the 20th century, presents a Caucasus that is different from the "exotic Orient" in his work, An Armenian Sketchbook (1967).  In Grossman's text, the Caucasus is not romanticized.  Though his account is written poetically, it is direct and realistic.  It is a kind of a narration of an ordinary man who visited Armenia.   In this respect, Grossman's Caucasus is unique in Russian literature

* Lilit F. Grigoryan is a graduate student enrolled in the MA program in Russian Translation at Kent State University.  She graduated from Yerevan State University in 2007 with a BA in Russian Philology.

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Ուսումնասիրութիւն
Բիեդրո Շաքարեան, Մշուշապատ Արարատ . Բնապահպանության Դերը Ազգային եվ Հասարակական-քաղաքական Շարժման Տարիներին Խորհրդային եվ Հետ-Խորհրդային Հայաստանում 1975 Թվականից առ Այսօր,

19 Մայիս 2013

Բնապահպանական շարժումը Խորհրդային  Հայաստանում հիմք հանդիսացավ համազգային նոր շարժում սկսելու «գլաստնոստի» ժամանակաշրջանում: Չնայած Հայաստանում խորհրդային իշխանութեան փլուզման վերաբերեալ լայնածաւալ ուսումնասիրութիւններին՝ շատ քիչ ուսումնասիրութիւն է արուել այս շարժման՝ որպէս հայկական  ազգային եւ քաղաքացիական դրսեւորման խոշոր գործօնի, թեմայով: Հայաստանի բնապահպան-ակտիվիստներ Կարինե Դանիելյանի և Հակոբ Սանասարյանի բացառիկ հարցազրույցների օգնությամբ այս աշխատանքն ուսումնասիրում է շարժման հիմքերը՝ սկսած 1970 թվականից՝ ներառյալ դրա էվոլյուցիոն զարգացումը «գլաստնոստի» ժամանակ և դրա հետագա խնդիրները:

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Work in Progress
Ara Sarafian (comp. and ed.), Chaldeo-Assyrian Communities of the Ottoman Empire and Iran: Agha Petros' Report of 1922,

28 June 2013

This project is based on an appendix to a report that was prepared by Agha Petros in 1922 for the Lausanne Peace Conference. This appendix lists around 1,000 Chaldeo-Assyrian communities in the Ottoman Empire and Iran before 1915.

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Study
Pietro Shakarian, Haze over Ararat: The Role of Environmentalism in the Rise of National and Civic Movements in Soviet and Post-Soviet Armenia, 1975 – Present,

19 May 2013

The environmental movement in Soviet Armenia served as a catalyst for the rise of the Armenian national movement during glasnost. Despite extensive studies of the collapse of Soviet power in Armenia, little research has looked at this movement as a major factor in Armenian civic and national expression. With the aid of exclusive interviews with leading Armenian environmental activists, Karine Danielyan and Hakob Sanasaryan, this study explores the roots of the movement starting from the 1970s to its evolution under glasnost and its continuing concerns.

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Study
Ara Melkonian (comp. and transl.), Armenian Orphans in the Care of the Armenian National Relief Organisation of Istanbul on 31 October 1919,

24 April 2007

The question of Armenian orphans after the Armenian Genocide is a recurring theme in the work of many researchers. The following study was compiled by Ara Stepan Melkonian as a reference for such researchers.


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Study
Stavros T. Stavridis and Vahe Kateb, Armenian Tragedy, Abdul Hamid and the Argus 1894-98,

22 January 2008

This work is an analysis of how the Hamidian massacre of Ottoman Armenians was reported in Argus, one of the most influential Australian newspapers at that time, and the impact such reporting had in Australia.

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Article
Ara Sarafian, What Happened on 24 April 1915? The Ayash Prisoners,

22 April 2013

Conventional accounts of the Armenian Genocide invariably start with the arrest of Armenian community intellectuals on 24 April 1915 followed by the unfolding of a genocidal process. The recent attempt by the former head of the Turkish State Archives
Yusuf Sarinay to argue that nothing untoward happened to the men who were arrested on that date, especially the political prisoners sent to Ayash, was a clear attempt to falsify history argues historian Ara Sarafian.

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