ARMENIAN HIGHLAND

THE CHURCH AND THE FIGHT FOR ENDURANCE

Numerous monasteries in Echmiadzin and other parts of Armenia were renewed. The revival that began in the XVth century continued well into the XVIIth century. These efforts were violently disrupted by the wars between the Persian Shahs and the Ottoman Turks. Each power wanted to establish its control over the strategically important Armenian Highland. If the highlands and the highlanders would be conquered, then keeping control over the lowlands would be a much easier task. The Perso-Turkish wars that lasted until late XVIIIth century devastated and large areas of Armenia. Shah Abbas I, in 1604-05, during his invasion of Eastern Armenia, forcefully uprooted hundreds of thousands of Armenians from their native homeland and forcefully resettled them in many provinces of Iran. This overall had a negative impact for Armenia, since many towns and villages became deserted virtually overnight and many Armenian died en route to their unknown destination. The move from Shah Abas' point of view was brilliant. His scorched earth policy left Eastern Armenia greatly unusable for the incoming Ottoman troops, who during their military campaigns heavily relied on their logistics [including food and housing] on the local inhabitants. Whole cities built by the talent and genius of hardworking and productive Armenian hands sprang up in northern Iran that previously was a virtual desert. The newly built city of New Julfa [named in honor of the Old Julfa of Naxičevan - many of whose inhabitants were forcibly moved from that city ] very quickly in the XVIIth century became a thriving cultural and economic center of international importance. The merchants and businessmen of New Julfa, who came from generations of traditions of international mercantilism in Old Julfa, put the new city on the map by establishing a global network of commercial activities, tied in with important centers of their day throughout Near East, Europe, Russia and the Far East.

YOUNG ARMENIAN PROFESSIONAL LADS FROM SEBASTIA [1910].
PHOTO FROM SURVIVORS BY DR. DONALD E. MILLER AND LORNA T. MILLER
PRIOR TO THE GENOCIDE THE INDUSTRIOUS ARMENIANS WERE THE BACKBONE OF
THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC AND CULTURAL VENUES OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE.

THE PAINTING BY GRIGOR KHANJIAN OF KOMITAS VARTAPET
IN THE ERKIR - HOMELAND PRIOR TO THE GENOCIDE...

THE BELOVED VARTAPET -- THE GREAT ARMENIAN COMPOSER RECORDED AND
THUS SAVED THOUSANDS OF ANCIENT ORAL FOLKLORIC SONGS FROM
LOSS DURING THE PRE-GENOCIDE YEARS BY TRAVELING THROUGHOUT
THE CITIES AND PROVINCES OF HISTORIC ARMENIA. KOMITAS BECAME
INSANE, AFTER PERSONALLY WITNESSING THE HORROR OF THE GENOCIDE.
BARELY ESCAPING THE CLUTCHES OF THE TURKISH DEATH SQUADS
OF 'THE SPECIAL ORGANIZATION.' HE SPENT THE REMAINDER OF HIS LIFE
IN A PSYCHIATRIC CLINIC IN FRANCE...WHERE HE DIED IN 1935...

IN 2003 -- THE STATUE OF THE GREAT VARTAPET
WAS ERECTED IN PLACE D'CANADA -- ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL
SQUARES IN THE HEART OF PARIS IN ORDER TO COMMEMORATE THIS
GREAT HUMAN BEING WHOSE EXTREMELY SENSITIVE ATTUNEMENT
TO THE HARMONIOUS ETERNAL MUSIC OF THE UNIVERSE WAS CUT LIKE
A STRING CORD OF A BROKEN VIOLIN AFTER THE EYEWITNESS EXPERIENCE OF
THE UNIMAGINABLE HORROR OF TURKISH BRUTALITY...

NOTRE DAME, PARIS. 1912 SKETCH BY EDGAR CHAHIN.

The instability and almost constant invasions of Armenia, that were accompanied by new killings of Armenians, finally ended in the first half of the XIXth century. In 1828, the Russian imperial army along with many Armenian fighters, often led by talented Armenian generals like Loris-Melikian [an Armenian aristocratic family that played an important role in the politics of Russia, holding posts of top advisors and prime ministers] of the Imperial Army, liberated Eastern Armenia from the oppression of the foreign khans. The conquests on the battlefield were solidified by the Treaty of Turkmenchay, in which the Persian side seceded Eastern Armenia to the Russian Empire. The Persian Shahs agreed to free Armenians that were two centuries earlier forcefully moved from their native soil back to Armenia. Holy Echmiadzin became part of the newly created Erevan Province [in 1840 becoming part of the Armenian Province], of the vast Russian Empire. From the second half of the XIXth century, Vałaršapat began to once again grow in its population. A number of new schools were opened, and Echmiadzin, once again became an important center of learning. The revival of Holy Echmiadzin continued well into the first decades of the XXth century, when it was once again cut short by the turmoil and chaos of wars and...Genocide.

THE GREAT PHILANTHROPIST S A M U Ē L M U R A T.
HELPED TO ESTABLISH THE MURATEAN SEMINARY IN PARIS
A BRANCH OF THE MEKHITARIST FATHERS. DEDICATED TO
SEEING THE ENLIGHTENMENT OF THE ARMENIAN PEOPLE.

IMPERIAL DECREE ISSUED BY EMPEROR NAPOLEON BONAPARTE
IN 1810 OFFICIALLY RECOGNIZING THE GREAT ENLIGHTENMENT
CENTER OF MEKHITARIST FATHERS [ESTABLISHED BY
ABBOT MEKHITAR IN 1717 TO SEE THE NATIONAL AWAKENING
OF THE ARMENIAN PEOPLE THROUGH ENLIGHTENMENT]
ON SAN LAZZARO ISLAND, VENICE AS THE ARMENIAN
ACADEMY OF SCIENCES.

A NUMBER OF LEADING OFFICERS AND COMMANDERS IN NAPOLEON'S
GRANDE ARMIE [INCLUDING THE IMPERIAL BODYGUARD] WERE ARMENIANS
AS THERE WERE ARMENIAN OFFICERS AND GENERALS
IN THE RUSSIAN IMPERIAL ARMY
THAT FOUGHT IN THE PATRIOTIC WAR OF 1812
THAT WAS A 'SHORT-TERM' VICTORY FOR EMPEROR NAPOLEON BUT
EVENTUALLY TURNED OUT TO BE A DE FACTO DEFEAT IN THE LONG TERM.
FOR EXAMPLE GENERAL BAGRATION, THE HERO OF THE
BATTLE OF BORODINO HAILED FROM A LONG LINE OF BAGRATID ARISTOCRATS.
THE ANCIENT HOUSE OF THE BAGRATIDS ESTABLISHED THE GEORGIAN
BRANCH DURING THE MIDDLE AGES -- QUEEN TAMAR
ARGUABLY BEING THE MOST PROMINENT REPRESENTATIVE
OF THE GEORGIAN BAGRATIDS. THE HOUSE OF BAGRAT IN
GEORGIA LASTED WELL AFTER THE FALL OF BAGRATIDS
IN ARMENIA PROPER, RETAINING THE GEORGIAN THRONE AS LATE AS
1801 WHEN IN THAT YEAR GEORGIA [AND EVENTUALLY MUCH OF EASTERN ARMENIA]
WAS INCORPORATED INTO EXPANDING RUSSIAN EMPIRE.

'HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF, AND THAT'S ONE OF
THE THINGS THAT'S WRONG WITH HISTORY.'
-- CLARENCE DARROW

HIS HOLINESS C A T H O L I C O S G E V O R K V [REIGNED BETWEEN 1912-30,
SUCCEEDING KHRIMIAN HAYRIK] DURING THE HORRIFIC YEARS OF THE GENOCIDE
BECAME -- AS A TRUE SPIRITUAL LEADER -- THE RALLYING POINT AND
THE SYMBOL OF THE IMMORTAL ARMENIAN WILL AND TENACITY FOR
PERSEVERANCE IN THE EPIC LIFE AND DEATH STRUGGLE
AGAINST THE TURKISH GOVERNMENT DEATH SQUADS.

FATHER ŁEWOND ALISHAN. THE GREAT ARMENOLOGIST
MEKHITARIST FATHER WHO IS CONSIDERED ONE OF THE GIANTS
OF ARMENOLOGY. FR. ALISHAN'S MONUMENTAL,
PAINSTAKINGLY METICULOUS AND DETAILED MULTI-VOLUME
STUDIES ARE QUINTESSENTIAL TO ARMENIAN STUDIES.
THROUGH HIS PROFOUND KNOWLEDGE OF MANY
ANCIENT AND MODERN LANGUAGES FATHER ALISHAN
WAS ABLE TO STUDY PRICELESS PRIMARY SOURCES AND DOCUMENTS.

'...WITH THE CLAIRAUDIENCE OF A TRUE GENIUS... KOMITAS
COMPOSED ANTUNI...THAT WORK ALONE HAS INSURED HIS PLACE
AMONGST THE HISTORIC NOTABLES OF CULTURE AND CIVILIZATION ...'

THE GREAT MAESTRO COMPOSER
CLAUDE DEBUSSY [1862-1918]

"...THE EYES OF THE ARMENIAN SPEAK BEFORE THE LIPS MOVE AND LONG
AFTER THEY CEASE TO..." -- ARSHILE GORKY [1904-1947].
CHARCOAL SKETCH [63 x 48.5 cm] OF RENOWNED ARTIST'S MOTHER
MADE IN 1938 FROM AN ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPH MADE
MONTHS BEFORE THE OUTBREAK OF THE GENOCIDE...GORKY'S MOTHER
WAS ONE OF HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF INNOCENT MARTYRS DURING
ONE OF THE DARK PERIOD'S IN HUMAN HISTORY. GORKY [VOSTANIK ADOYAN]
NEVER GOT OVER THE TRAUMATIC LOSS OF HIS BELOVED MOTHER
BECOMING AN ORPHAN AT THE TENDER AGE OF 11...

THE DEATH MARCH TO THE SYRIAN DESERT FOR THE FINAL EXTERMINATION...

The chaos that spread throughout Western Armenia, during the Genocide of 1915 -- the first genocide of the bloody twentieth century -- nearly 1,500,000 Armenians were killed in a systematically organized, pre-planned attempt to wipe out a whole nation -- a "murder of a nation" as Henry Morgenthau Sr., the U.S. Ambassador to Turkey at that time [1913-16] was carried out by the Turkish Government, headed by the criminals who called themselves "the Young Turks." The "Young Turk" regime, adopted a historically unprecedented ideology of vociferous racism and hatred an ideology they called -- Pan-Turkism. An ideology that included a vision of creating a mythical "Turan," -- "a Turkic Empire stretching from Europe to Siberia," as the "Young Turk" ideologues heralded. All non-Turks, the Armenian people -- first and foremost, that were deemed inassimilable were to be exterminated in order to pave way for the coming of "Turan."

P O G H O S N U B A R. A SON OF THE PRIME MINISTER OF EGYPT,
THE GREAT PHILANTHROPIST WAS ONE OF THE KEY FOUNDERS THE ARMENIAN
GENERAL BENEVOLENT UNION. IN 1912 CATHOLICOS GEVORK V
SENT HIM TO LONDON IN ORDER TO PLEAD TO SAVE THE ARMENIAN PEOPLE
FROM THE IMPENDING CATASTROPHE. AFTER THE HORROR OF THE GENOCIDE
HE HEADED THE NATIONAL DELEGATION TO THE PARIS PEACE CONFERENCE
IN ORDER TO SEE THAT THE CRIMINAL TURKISH GOVERNMENT IS
HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR THE IMPLEMENTED GENOCIDE --
THE GRAVEST CRIME AGAINST ALL OF HUMANITY.
THE EMPTY PROMISES BY THE "EUROPEAN POWERS" TO PUNISH THE
CRIMINAL TURKISH GOVERNMENT TURNED OUT TO BE ALL BUT EMPTY...

M A R T Y R D O M

S A C R I L E G E O F T H E H O L Y BY VARDKES SURENEANC‛
A MURDERED ARMENIAN PRIEST...RANSACKED AND LOOTED CHURCH...
BOOKS AND HUMAN BEINGS WERE OF NO VALUE TO THE TURKISH KILLERS...
HENCE THEIR ULTIMATE FAITH...ONLY PRECIOUS METALS AND STONES
WOULD BRING IN A HEFTY PROFIT ON THE BLACK MARKET.
BETWEEN 1894-96 ANYWHERE BETWEEN 100,000 TO 200,000 ARMENIANS
WERE MASSACRED BY THE ORDERS OF SULTAN ABDUL HAMID
THAT THEREAFTER BECAME KNOWN AS THE RED OR BLOODY SULTAN.

R A F F I. THE OUTSTANDING ARMENIAN IDEALIST WRITER OF THE XIXTH.
THAT THROUGH HIS WORKS SUCH AS 'SPARKS' AND MANY OTHERS
INSPIRED THE ARMENIAN PEOPLE TO FREE THEMSELVES FROM
MENTAL AND PHYSICAL TYRANNY OF FOREIGN DOMINATION.

INSPIRING XIXTH CENTURY ENLIGHTENMENT WRITER AND SPEAKER G. AGHAYAN.

PHOTOGRAPH SHOWING ONE OF THE OLD ARMENIAN CHURCHES OF ADANA --
THE ANCIENT CAPITAL [AFTER SIS] OF CILICIAN ARMENIA BEFORE THE CITY WAS
BURNED TO THE GROUND AND MOST OF ITS ARMENIAN INHABITANTS
WERE MASSACRED [SOME 40,000 WERE BUTCHERED ON THE STREETS IN
COLD BLOOD] BY THE ORDERS OF THE TURKISH GOVERNMENT IN 1909.

1909. ADANA IN FLAMES...PHOTO TAKEN BY ONE OF THE LOCAL EUROPEAN
CONSULS WHO GAVE SHELTER TO FEW ARMENIANS THAT WERE ABLE
TO FLEE AS THE CITY WAS SLOWLY BURNING AWAY.

OLD PHOTOGRAPH OF THE BELOVED NATIONAL HERO MAJ. GEN. ADRANIK OZANIAN
WHO ROSE TO THE DEFENSE OF HIS PEOPLE AFTER THE MASSACRES OF 1894-96.

The Genocide began on April 24, 1915, with the arrest of 600 of the most prominent representatives of the Armenian intelligentsia of Constantinople. A precise plan that was masterminded and put in action by the Central Committee of the criminal "Young Turk" regime, that euphemistically called itself "Ittihad ve Terakki Cemiyet" [Committee for Union and Progress]. The Young Turk Genocide of the Armenian people continued by the dictator Mustafa Kemal "Atatürk" the "father" of the Republic of Turkey borne out of the Genocide of the Armenian people, seizure of their wealth and property and the annexation of their ancestral lands to the new Turkish republic. The Turkish government, guided by the policy of Pan-Turkism, went to great lengths to destroy Armenians NOT ONLY in Western Armenia, but throughout the whole region. The Turks fanatically going after the Armenian population not only throughout the Ottoman Empire, but beyond, in Eastern Armenia, Georgia, Iran, Syria -- in cities like Erevan, Tiflis, Shushi, Baku, Tabriz. In some instances the Turkish generals, even after the end of WWI in November 1918, after the defeat of the Central Powers, including the Turkish empire, remained true to its bloody character and the ideology of Pan-Turkism by going after Armenians of Baku.

TIGRAN CHUKHAJIAN. THE IMMORTAL ARMENIAN FOUNDER OF THE FIRST
OPERA INSTITUTION IN OTTOMAN EMPIRE. AMONG MANY MONUMENTAL
ACCOMPLISHMENTS CHUKHAJIAN COMPOSED THE HISTORIC
OPERETTA ARSHAK II AND THE FIRST OTTOMAN OPERETTA
ARFIN HILESI. PAINTING BY VARDKES ISDEPANIAN.

THE CHURCH OF ST. KARAPET IN MUŠ [NEAR AŠTIŠAT], TARON PROVINCE
OF GREATER ARMENIA. REBUILT NUMEROUS TIMES ON BASED
ON THE HOLY GROUND OF ANCIENT MEHIAN TEMPLE [NATIONAL
MITHRAIC TEMPLE]. AN IMPORTANT SPIRITUAL CENTER OF LEARNING
HEADED BY KHRIMIAN HAYRIK AND GAREGIN SRVANDZTYANTS...
IN 1915 WHEN THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE WAS RAGING THROUGHOUT
ARMENIA THOUSANDS OF ARMENIANS HELD OUT FOR
TWO MONTHS IN AND AROUND THE SACRED CHURCH FIGHTING
OFF THE TURKISH DEATH SQUADS UNTIL ARMENIAN VOLUNTEER
FIGHTERS FROM EASTERN ARMENIA WERE ABLE TO SAVE
WHAT WAS LEFT OF THE SURVIVORS ALONG WITH THE
PRICELESS TREASURES OF THE CHURCH...THE CHURCH
LIKE THOUSANDS OF OTHER ANCIENT PRECIOUS ARMENIAN
MONUMENTS THROUGHOUT HISTORIC ARMENIA WAS
COMPLETELY DESTROYED BY THE TURKISH GOVERNMENT
IN THE CULTURAL GENOCIDE THAT FOLLOWED THE 1915-1923
PHYSICAL GENOCIDE OF THE ARMENIAN PEOPLE...THE DESTRUCTION
OF ARMENIAN MONUMENTS CONTINUES TO THIS VERY DAY...

FLOOR PLAN OF THE ST. KARAPET COMPLEX OF MUŠ.

THE IMPOSING RUINS OF THE MONASTERY OF NAREK WHERE THE IMMORTAL
XTH CENTURY ARMENIAN VISIONARY GRIGOR NAREKATSI COMPOSED HIS
TRANSCENDENTAL COSMIC HYMNS. THE MONASTERY WAS COMPLETELY
DESTROYED IN 1896 DURING THE 1894-96 ARMENIAN MASSACRES
THAT WERE A PRELUDE TO THE HORRIFIC GENOCIDE OF 1915-23.

XTSKONK‛ [KHTSKONK] MONASTERIAL COMPLEX [VII-XITH CENTURIES]
PHOTO TAKEN BY H. KIURKCHIAN IN 1881 BEFORE ITS VIRTUAL
DESTRUCTION [ARTILLERY BOMBARDED] BY THE TURKISH ARMY IN 1966...

THE HISTORIC CHURCH OF KILIS [WHERE MY GRANDFATHER FROM
MY FATHER'S SIDE WAS BORN]...ONE OF THOUSANDS OF
PRICELESS ARMENIAN MONUMENTS THROUGHOUT HISTORIC
ARMENIA DEMOLISHED BY THE TURKISH GOVERNMENT...

THE ANCIENT CHURCH OF AINTAB. [WHERE MY GRANDMOTHER FROM
MY FATHER'S SIDE WAS BORN]... MET THE SAME FAITH AS COUNTLESS OTHER
CULTURAL ARMENIAN MONUMENTS OF HISTORIC ARMENIA
IN THE ONGOING CULTURAL GENOCIDE...

RENOWNED ARMAŠ COLLEGE AT THE BEGINNING OF THE XXTH CENTURY.

THE GREAT PLAYWRIGHT HAKOB PARONYAN WHO
WROTE PIERCING SATIRICAL PLAYS THAT EXPOSED THE NUMEROUS
ILLS AND ESPECIALLY THE PREVALENT IN NUMEROUS WAYS -- INJURIOUS
HYPOCRISY OF THE TURN OF XIXTH AND EARLY XXTH CENTURIES IN THE
CONSTANTINOPOLITAN PETIT-BOURGEOIS REALITY SETTING THAT
WAS FULL OF EXPLOITATION AND INJUSTICE DONE BY FELLOW
HUMAN BEINGS TOWARDS EACH OTHER...

BUST OF PETROS DURYAN [1851-1872] BY AD. GRIGORYAN.
THE GREAT POET AND DRAMATURGE OF ROMANTICISM.
ONE OF THE LEADING INTELLECTUALS OF XIXTH CENTURY
CONSTANTINOPOLITAN INTELLIGENTSIA.

ONE OF COMMEMORATIVE POSTCARDS OF ECOLE TEBROTZASSERE [LIT. DEVOTEE
OF SCHOOL/KNOWLEDGE] EST. IN 1923 IN MARSEILLE ON 35, AVENUE DE LA CAPELETTE.

THE OLD ARMENIAN CHURCH OF SINGAPORE. SOME OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL
ANCIENT MONUMENTS THROUGHOUT THE OLD AND NEW WORLD CONTINENTS
WERE BUILT BY THE CREATIVE HAND OF THE ARMENIAN SPIRIT THROUGHOUT
MANY MILLENNIA...HOMAGE TO CULTURE...BEAUTY...GOODNESS...TRUTH.

STATUE IN YEREVAN IN HONOR OF SAYAT NOVA THE GREAT XVIIITH
CENTURY GUSAN BARD WHO SANG THE SONGS OF
THE HEARTBREAKING SER [LOVE...AMOR]...
THROUGH MUSIC...THE SACRED HEART WAS OPENED...AND THE
DEVOTEE POET TROUBADOUR CONNECTED WITH THE GODDESS...

The local pan-Turkist elements in the cities organized by the Turko-Tatar Musavat party, a wing of the pan-Turkists in Baku and what later became known as "Azerbaijan." That name was adopted in 1918 as a geographic term and never an ethnic one, the first time that the word "Azerbaijani" as an ethnic term was first used in the 1936 Stalinist constitution that artificially made the Turks residing in "Azerbaijan" -- that prior to this were known as "Caucasian Tatars" -- the term Caucasian also denoting geographic locale, rather than ethnic extraction of the Turkic peoples residing in the area -- Azerbaijan, is in fact the Iranian variant of the ancient Armenian Atrpatakan - the historic region to the south of the "Azerbaijani Republic" that was part of Greater Armenia [a significant part of the so-called "Azerbaijani Republic" also for millennia has been Armenian populated and part of Armenia], until the partition in the Middle Ages, although Atrpatakan - became part of Iran, for centuries the majority remained the native Armenian population] Between 1915 and 1923, the years of implementation of the Armenian Genocide, the criminal Turkish government went to great lengths to seize and kill any and all fleeing Armenians that they could get their hands on.

S. HEKIMIAN'S BOOK OF PLAYS [1857] AND K. GALFAIAN'S A LA FRANCA [1862]
THE ARMENIAN INTELLECTUALS LED THE HIGH CULTURAL LIFE OF
CONSTANTINOPOLITAN SOCIETY.

FRONTISPIECE OF NOR BARGIRK‛ HAYKAZEAN LEZUI [THE NEW DICTIONARY OF
ARMENIAN LANGUAGE] BY LINGUISTS H. G. AVETIKEAN, H. K. SIWRMELEAN AND
H. M. AWGEREAN PUBLISHED BY THE MEKHITARIST
BROTHERHOOD IN SAN LAZZARO, VENICE IN 1836.

THE 1845 FRONTISPIECE OF THE ARMENOLOGICAL JOURNAL
BAZMAVĒP. THE JOURNAL WAS ESTABLISHED IN THAT YEAR AND
HAS BEEN UNINTERRUPTEDLY PUBLISHED BY THE MEKHITARISTS
EVER SINCE. THE JOURNAL HAS BEEN REGARDED BY MANY
ARMENOLOGISTS AS A LEADING UNIVERSAL
PUBLISHING [NOW ENTERING ITS FOURTH CENTURY] OF ARMENIAN STUDIES.

THE HANDES AMSOREAY BEGAN ITS PUBLICATIONS IN THE SECOND HALF
OF XIXTH CENTURY AS A POPULAR CULTURAL AND SCIENTIFIC
JOURNAL PUBLISHED BY THE VIENNA BRANCH OF
OF THE NUMEROUS MEKHITARIST EDUCATIONAL CENTERS
SPREAD THROUGHOUT THE GLOBE AND ADDED TO THE ALREADY VAST
ARRAY OF OUTSTANDING MEKHITARIST PUBLICATIONS IN THEIR
DEPTH AND SCHOLASTIC FOCUS.

HISTORY OF ARMENIA BY THE VTH CENTURY FATHER OF
ARMENIAN HISTORY XORENAC'I. 1850 PUBLICATION
[IN ITALIAN] ONE OF NUMEROUS THAT PRECEDED AND FOLLOWED
THE HISTORIC MAGNUM OPUS.

FEW OF THE COUNTLESS CENTURIES OLD ARMENIAN CHURCHES THROUGHOUT POLAND...
MANY ARMENIANS FLED THE TURKISH ONSLAUGHT [ESPECIALLY AFTER THE
FALL OF ANI IN 1064] BEGINNING IN THE XITH CENTURY
AND FOUND REFUGE IN MANY OTHER COUNTRIES OF EASTERN EUROPE. THE
OLD COMMUNITIES LIKE THAT OF POLAND WOULD EVENTUALLY ASSIMILATE...
ONLY THE OLD MONUMENTS SCATTERED ACROSS OTHER PARTS OF EUROPE
ARE NOW A TESTAMENT OF THE ENDURING ARMENIAN CREATIVE SPIRIT...

Those survivors who managed to escape, due to the help of the Armenian fighters and Russian army during the evacuation of Van-Vaspurakan, told the horrible stories of the Genocide. The Turks having bloodied and obliterated all of Western Armenia and Cilician Armenia now sent the criminal "army" to carry out the "final solution of the Armenian Question" in Eastern Armenia, Iran and parts of former Russian Empire. The plan of mass extermination of the Armenian people almost succeeded, it wiped out 2/3 of the native population of Armenia, citizens of Ottoman Empire that for so many centuries yearned to break free the bonds of sultans, and the second class citizen status and had sought freedom and equality, never imagined that it will all culminate and end with the Genocide...

A FIN-DE-SIECLE ENGRAVING OF HOTEL TOKATLIAN IN PERA DISTRICT
OF CONSTANTINOPLE BUILT BY ARMENIAN MASTER BUILDERS. THE BALIAN
[PALIAN] FAMILY OF GENERATIONAL ARCHITECTS BUILT SOME OF THE MOST
BEAUTIFUL BUILDINGS THROUGHOUT CONSTANTINOPLE INCLUDING THE
PALACES OF THE TURKISH SULTANS THAT HAVE BEEN PRESERVED AND TODAY
ARE AMONG THE MOST FAVORITE TOURIST SITES OF OLD CAPITAL.
THE INGENIOUS CREATIVE ARMENIAN SPIRIT RECEIVED A DEATH BLOW
AT THE HANDS OF THE TURKISH KILLERS. BUT THE
DIVINE SPARK OF CREATION, BEAUTY AND ORDER WOULD FIGHT ON
AND NOT BE WIPED OUT BY THE DARK FORCES OF DESTRUCTION
AND DEATH FROM THE FACE OF THIS BEAUTIFUL EARTH...

A TURN OF THE CENTURY PHOTO OF A SECTION OF THE SAMATYA DISTRICT.
HIGHLY EDUCATED PROMINENT ARMENIANS WERE IN MANY WAYS
THE SOUL AND THE SPIRIT OF CONSTANTINOPOLITAN CULTURAL LIFE.
THE CHURCH OF SAINT GEORGE IN THE BACKGROUND.

THE IMPOSING BELL TOWER OF THE CHURCH OF TIGRANAKERT WAS
DYNAMITED IN THE XXTH CENTURY BY THE TURKISH GOVERNMENT...

THE GREAT A B B O T M E K H I T A R WHO IN 1717
FOUNDED THE WORLD RENOWNED MEKHITARIST LEARNING CENTER THAT
SOON BECAME NO LESS THAN A NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES.

THE GREAT MEKHITARIAN ACADEMY IN VIENNA. ONE OF NUMEROUS
MEKHITARIST LEARNING CENTERS OF HIGHER EDUCATION THROUGHOUT THE WORLD
THAT PRODUCED SOME OF THE OUTSTANDING THINKERS AND SCIENTISTS OF OUR ERA.

THE BUST OF KHACHATUR ABOVIAN IN THE LECTURE HALL NAMED
AFTER HIM IN THE UNIVERSITY OF TARTU [OLD DORPAT] IN ESTONIA.
ABOVIAN WITH NUMEROUS OTHER LEADING MEMBERS OF INTELLIGENTSIA
INCLUDING S. NAZARYAN, G. DODOKHYAN, Kh. AVAGYAN, P. SIMONYAN,
G. MIRIMANYAN, BROS. R. AND K. PATKANYAN AND MANY OTHERS
ATTENDED THE UNIVERSITY OF DORPAT [EST. IN 1632].
ABOVIAN ENROLLED IN 1830 AND WITH HIS FRIENDS AND
FELLOW ACADEMICIANS PUBLISHED ARMENIAN BOOKS.
G. ANAMYAN, ONE OF ABOVIAN'S DISCIPLES UNDER UNIVERSITY
PRESS HOUSE PUBLISHED THE WOUNDS OF ARMENIA
AT THE END OF THE XIXTH CENTURY THE UNIVERSITY HAD
MORE THAN 200 ARMENIAN UNDERGRADUATE AND GRADUATE STUDENTS.
A STREET LEADING TO THE TARTU UNIVERSITY IS NAMED AFTER
THE GREAT DEVOTEE OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT ERA.

ADMINISTRATION HALL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF DORPAT.

JOHANN JACOB FRIEDRICH WILHELM PARROT (1792-1841).
BEFRIENDED THE GREAT ABOVIAN AS A PROFESSOR OF
PHYSICS IN DORPAT UNIVERSITY AND ALONG WITH
THE IMMORTAL ARMENIAN POET AND THREE OTHER
STUDENTS MADE A MOUNTAIN CLIMBING EXPEDITION
TOWARDS THE HIGHER SUMMIT [METS MASIS] SACRED TWIN PEAK
MOUNTAIN - REACHING THE SUMMIT ON SEPTEMBER 27, 1829.

A SKETCH OF MOUNT ARARAT IN THE DISTANCE MADE FROM A
NEARBY VILLAGE IN 1829 BY DR. FRIEDRICH PARROT.

OPENING LINES OF ABOVIAN'S MANUSCRIPT
AND LATER PUB. BOOK PRIMARY EDUCATION.

MIK‛AĒL NALBANDIAN AND ALEXANDER HERZEN MEETING IN LONDON, 1861.

D E A T H A N D ... R E S U R R E C T I O N

The Turkish criminal government that had used the cover of WWI had now wanted to use the same turmoil that had by 1917-18 engulfed Eastern Armenia due to the Russian Revolution of March 1917 and the subsequent collapse of the Russian Front that held the Turks from carrying over the Genocide into the East. Armenia was overflowed with hundred of thousands of survivors of the Genocide who barely escaped the clutches of the Turkish death squads only to find famine, various epidemics and virtually no permanent shelter. The chaos, that came about with the fall of the Russian Empire, after the first revolution of 1917, had destroyed the social order and had terrible impact on Eastern Armenia. The Turks saw the right moment for implementing the final solution to the Armenian Question by eradicating what was left of Armenia and Armenian people. In early 1918, when WWI was still raging, but the Armeno-Russian front had collapsed due to the October Revolution of the Bolsheviks, who in 1918 under the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, withdrew from the war and the Allied side -- the Turks launched a massive invasion of overwhelming forces against Eastern Armenia.

K H R I M I A N H A Y R I K [1820-1907]. AN OUTSTANDING FIGURE OF THE XIXTH
AND EARLY XXTH CENTURIES. HAYRIK [FATHER -- THE AFFECTIONATE NAME
BESTOWED BY HIS PEOPLE] WAS BORN IN VAN AND WAS ORDAINED VARTAPET AT
AGHTAMAR AND BISHOP AT ETCHMIADZIN. HE SERVED AS PATRIARCH OF
CONSTANTINOPLE FROM 1869 TO 1873 AND BECAME CATHOLICOS OF THE
HOLY SEE IN 1892 [REIGNING AS THE SUPREME PATRIARCH UNTIL HIS DEATH IN
1907. HAYRIK WAS AN OUTSPOKEN CHAMPION OF HIS PEOPLE DEFENDING
THEIR CIVIL LIBERTIES IN THE OTTOMAN AND RUSSIAN EMPIRES. HE SENSED

THE IMPEDING CATACLYSM OF HIS PEOPLE AND URGED THE GREAT POWERS
OF EUROPE TO INTERFERE IN ORDER TO SAVE THE ARMENIAN PEOPLE
FROM THE IMPENDING DOOM...BUT...ALL WAS IN VAIN...THE GREAT
CALAMITY THAT WAS TO BECOME THE FIRST GENOCIDE OF MODERN ERA
WAS ONLY FEW YEARS AWAY WHEN HAYRIK PASSED AWAY IN MANY WAYS
HEARTBROKEN BY THE SHREWD INDIFFERENCE OF "THE GREAT POWERS..."

CATHOLICOS MATHEW II WAS THE SUPREME PATRIARCH OF
THE HOLY SEE BETWEEN 1908-10 WHO WAS GRIEF STRICKEN WHEN
HE HEARD THE NEWS OF THE ADANA MASSACRES OF 1909
BY THE NEW YOUNG TURK REGIME IN WHICH 40,000 ARMENIANS
WERE BUTCHERED IN COLD BLOOD IN AND AROUND THE CITY OF
ADANA...ONE OF THE OLD GLORIOUS CAPITALS OF CILICIAN ARMENIA...
THE MASSACRES WERE NOTHING LESS THEN A 'DRILL' TO TEST
THE REACTION OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY TO THE IMPEDING
GENOCIDE...CONDUCTED BY THE CRIMINAL TURKISH GOVERNMENT HEADED BY THE
INDESCRIBABLY INHUMAN AND EVIL YOUNG TURK REGIME...
THE YOUNG TURKS BELIEVED THAT THE WORLD WILL NOT STOP THEM
AND WILL REMAIN VIRTUALLY COMPLETELY INDIFFERENT...THEY WERE RIGHT...
AS WERE ALL OF THE GENOCIDAL REGIMES THAT COPIED THE YOUNG TURK
MODUS OPERANDI INCLUDING APPALLING GENOCIDE IN SUDAN
UNBELIEVABLY... AT THE OPENING YEARS OF THE 21ST CENTURY...

ISLAND OF SAN LAZZARO, NEAR VENICE. ENGRAVING FROM CA. 1750.

The Armenian people knew that this would be an epic Life and Death battle. United under the war cry TO ARMS! all segments of the population, young and old, rich and poor, peasants, workers and members of intelligentsia -- from all walks of life -- joined the heroic effort to stop the bloody Turks from realizing their plan of complete genocide. By the middle of 1918, the Turkish hordes were able to reach the Ararat Valley. The decisive battle took place near the village of Sardarapat, near Armavir, only few kilometers away from the Holy City. Every Armenian knew that IF the battle was lost, the fate of extinction through systematic Genocide awaited the nation. Armenian volunteers from Europe, the Americas, and other parts of the globe joined their kinsmen to fight the ultimate battle for the preservation of the Armenian nation -- on the brink of extinction. The Armenian regiments rushed to the battlefield, to save Catholicos

FATHER SHAHAMIRIAN WHO WAS ONE OF THE EDITORS OF AZDARAR
[PUBLISHED BETWEEN 1794-96] THE FIRST ARMENIAN PERIODICAL NEWSPAPER
THAT WAS PUBLISHED BY THE INFLUENTIAL ARMENIAN COMMUNITY OF
MADRAS IN INDIA. THE PAPER AND NUMEROUS BOOKS PUBLISHED BY
THE LEADING ARMENIAN INTELLECTUALS OF MADRAS FORMULATED
THE MASTER PLAN FOR LIBERATION OF ARMENIA FROM
FOREIGN TYRANNY AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A
FREE ARMENIAN REPUBLIC. IN 1772, THE ARMENIAN
ENLIGHTENMENT FREE THINKERS PUBLISHED NOR TETRAK VOR KOCHI
YORDORAK THAT CALLED ARMENIAN YOUNG MEN TO ARMS FOR AN
ARMED STRUGGLE TO THROW OFF THE CHAINS OF FOREIGN DOMINATION.

FRONTISPIECE OF NOR TETRAK [1772].
NOTE THE WINGED SUN DISK IN THE CENTER IN THE FORM OF
AN EIGHT PETAL VARDEAK [ROSETTE] WITH OFFSHOOT XOY [RAM]
PAROYRS [SPIRALS] WITH TWO FIVE PETAL ROSES COMPLETE
WITH THE DOT IN THE CIRCLE HEART.

FRONTISPIECE OF VOROGAYT PARATS - RAY OF GLORY [1773].
HEAD OF AN INTELLECTUALLY ILLUMINED MAN...REPRESENTED
WITH THE ENCIRCLING RAY/HALO/AURA/SHELL.

AZDARAR. THE FRONTISPIECE OF THE FIRST ARMENIAN PERIODICAL [1794].

IN 1773, THE ARMENIAN ENLIGHTENMENT INTELLECTUALS PUBLISHED
VOROGAYT PARATS -- THE FIRST CONSTITUTION OF THE FUTURE
FREE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA. THE CONSTITUTION ALONG WITH THE
POLISH ONE IS FIRST IN ITS KIND! PREDATING THAT OF THE AMERICAN
AND FRENCH CONSTITUTIONS -- BORNE OUT OF THE SPARK OF
THE AGE OF REASON AND ENLIGHTENMENT...EARLIER IN 1771, A
NUMBER OF ARMENIAN INTELLECTUALS FROM THE PROMINENT
ARMENIAN COMMUNITY IN INDIA RETURNED TO THEIR
HOMELAND, TO THE HOLY CITY OF ECHMIADZIN AND
ESTABLISHED A PRINTING PRESS IN ORDER TO
ACCELERATE PUBLIC ENLIGHTENMENT AND AWAKEN
THE ARMENIAN PEOPLE TO FREE THEMSELVES FROM
FOREIGN DOMINATION.

CA' FOSCARI IN VENICE. DRAWING BY RUSKIN.

TOMBSTONE OF AIVAZOVSKY [1817-1900] IN THE COURTYARD OF THE ARMENIAN
CHURCH IN THEODOSIA. THE QUOTE IN ARMENIAN ON THE TOMB [TAKEN FROM
XORĒNAC‛I -- THE VTH CENTURY FATHER OF ARMENIAN HISTORY] READS:
'...BORN A MORTAL...HE LEFT AN IMMORTAL LEGACY...'

BUST OF THE WORLD RENOWNED ARMENIAN SEASCAPE
ARTIST YOVHANNĒS AIVAZOVSKY [AIVAZIAN] IN THEODOSIA.

THE BUST OF GODDESS ANAHIT ALONG WITH FOUR ARMENIAN INSCRIPTION
PLAQUES ON THE HOUSE [NOW MUSEUM] OF AIVAZOVSKY IN THEODOSIA.

Gevork V and the Holy See from being overran and forever destroyed. The Catholicos made a heroic speech and to the amazement of many said that he will not leave the Holy City and more importantly said that the Armenians were going to be victorious in this Ultimate Battle. The Battle of Sardarapat began at Dawn. The Turks confidently, almost cockily made a bayonet charge against the Armenian defenses. The Armenian defenders stood their ground and the Turks were shocked after seeing the fanatical level of the fighting spirit. The Turkish "army" was not used to fighting and winning on the battlefields. They were for the last few centuries losing on the battlefields against the Russians, the Armenian freedom fighters, the Serbs and the Arabs, they had become accustomed to the "easy kill" of going after women, children and the elderly... After the unsuccessful charge, the Turks were thrown back, and the Armenian warriors charged from their positions and pursued the fleeing remnants of the Turkish "army." Many Armenians with vengeance in their hearts cut down many Turks with bayonets and swords. The remnants of the Turkish "army" were were chased hundreds of miles by the Armenian fighters. In other parts of Armenia the Turkish "imperial army" was virtually constantly attacked by Armenian partisans who operated in the areas occupied by the enemy.

THE INSANITY OF THE GENOCIDE...COSMICALLY ATTUNED COMPOSER IMMORTAL
KOMITAS' VARTAPET WENT MAD AFTER WITNESSING SOME OF THE MOST
DISTURBING SCENES OF INDESCRIBABLE CARNAGE DURING THE
HORRIFIC YEARS OF THE GENOCIDE....

RAPHAEL PATKANIAN.

LEWON ŠANT‛.

T H E L I F E A N D D E A T H S T R U G G L E

D A N I E L V A R U Z H A N. ARGUABLY THE MOST PROMINENT POET
OF WESTERN ARMENIAN LITERATURE, VARUZHAN LIKE
SIAMANTO PLAYED AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN AWAKENING
THE NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS OF HIS PEOPLE AND
RECONNECTING THEM BACK TO THEIR ANCIENT ROOTS.
[IN INSPIRING WORKS LIKE -- PAGAN SONGS -- AND --THE HEART OF THE NATION]
LIKE A TRUE CLAIRVOYANT POET IN A TRANCE STATE IN HIS WORKS
HE GLORIFIED THE DIVINE ESSENCE AND ONENESS OF ALL.

HE EXALTED -- Ē --THE SEVENTH SACRED [ESSENTIAL]
LETTER OF THE ARMENIAN ALPHABET AS THE SYMBOL AND
KEY TO THE GREAT BEYOND... HIS FINAL VOLUME -- SONGS OF BREAD
WERE LEFT UNFINISHED...THE LIFE AND THE GREAT WORK OF
THE IDEALIST POET WAS CUT SHORT BY THE BLOODY HANDS OF
THE TURKISH DEATH SQUADS OF 'THE SPECIAL ORGANIZATION...'

R U B E N S E V A K. ANOTHER BRILLIANT ROMANTIC POET WHO
WAS AMONG THE HUNDREDS OF ARMENIAN INTELLECTUALS
WHOSE LUMINOUS FLAME WAS EXTINGUISHED BY THE DARK
HAND OF THE 'SPECIAL ORGANIZATION...'

The Battle of Sardarapat was indeed a turning point in the numerous millennia of Armenian history. Serving as the ultimate turning point of rebirth and national will for survival. The unbelievably horrific plan of exterminating the Armenian people had failed. In fact Armenia was Reborn...rising from the ashes of Genocide with the proclamation of the first Republic of Armenia on May 28, 1918. The First Republic comprised only the lands of Eastern Armenia -- Western Armenia, including Cilicia, was still under the occupation of the Turkish empire, having been emptied of its native population by the gruesome means of the genocide. The Treaty of Sévres, after the end of World War I, between the defeated Central Powers [including the Turkish empire] and the victorious Allies and signed among others by the Turkish and Armenian governments, on August 10, 1920, officially recognized that most of Western Armenia constitutes an integral part of the Republic of Armenia. The Allies assured the Armenians, that the return of the occupied Armenian lands, will take place which would indeed be a small -- albeit just -- retribution and restitution for the 1, 500, 000 innocent victims of the Genocide. But the promises made by the Allies turned out to be empty after all. Their unwillingness to follow up and resolve the injustice, by political pressure and force the defeated Turkish empire to what it agreed and signed, never came to pass. Save perhaps the efforts of President Woodrow Wilson, who himself mapped the lands of Western Armenia [that became known as Wilsonian Armenia] to be passed to the Republic of Armenia with the protection of the American mandate and the President's stand and eventual failure to convince the unwilling Congress and the "splendid isolationism" policy that followed WWI. The Armenians -- at a terrible cost -- understood that the game of realpolitik and morality do not go together.

A R M E N I A R E B O R N

IMMORTAL CREATORS AND CIVILIZATION BUILDERS
THE ARMENIAN FREE SPIRIT WILL NEVER BE BROKEN !

S Y B I L. ONE OF THE MANY HIGHLY EDUCATED ARMENIAN WOMEN
IN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE. POET AND NOVELIST SYBIL [ZABEL ASATUR]
HAD A CONSIDERABLE IMPACT ON ARMENIAN REALITY OF HER TIME.
A DEDICATED TEACHER AND PUBLIC SERVANT, SHE OPENED SCHOOLS FOR
GIRLS IN CONSTANTINOPLE AND WESTERN ARMENIA. DURING AND AFTER THE
GENOCIDE SHE PERSONALLY TOOK CHARGE OF CARING FOR THE
SURVIVOR ORPHANS OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE.

G R I G O R Z O H R A B

...To this day the Holy Mountain, which can been seen from Yerevan and the Holy City, stands as the Eternal symbol of Armenia and the Armenian people. The Turks tried to change the name of The Mountain to Aghri Dagh...the world still knows and uses the true and sacred name -- ARARAT. Today a glance on The Mountain, from the other side of the River, is an agonizing feeling, but...at the same time... The Mountain calls to that Fire burning within, calls to its native Highlanders for -- the Eternal Return.