2010_12 Hye Sharzhoom Newspaper December 2010

              December 2010
Hye Sharzhoom
3
Middle East Conference at Fresno State Features Armenian Panel
Evelyn Demirchian
Staff Writer
During the week of October
4, the campus buzzed with
excitementand anticipation forthe
Third Annual Middle East Studies
Conference that was to be held
October 7-9, 2010, on the Fresno
State campus. Professors from
the Armenian Studies Program,
as well as scholars from a wide
range of university campuses,
joined panels to discuss various
issues concerning Middle Eastern
and Caucasian politics, relations,
religion, art and history.
A special panel, "The
Armenian Genocide: Literary
and Historic Perspectives," was
held on Saturday, October 8. The
panel, organized by Prof. Barlow
Der Mugrdechian, Director of
the Armenian Studies Program,
brought together Dr. Rubina
Peroomian (UCLA), Dr. Vahram
Shemmassian (CSU Northridge)
and former Armenian Studies
Program Director Dr. Dickran
Kouymjian (Paris) to discuss the
different ways in which literature
and history have touched on
the Genocide in Armenian
memory and culture. Dr. Kevork
Bardakjian, Manoogian Chair
of Modern Armenian Literature
(University of Michigan, Ann
Arbor) chaired the panel.
The panel began with Dr.
Peroomian's presentation that
focused on the representations of
the Genocide with special regards
to Soviet Era literature. The
Soviet Union after World War I
had welcomed Armenia under its
umbrella of protection,  with the
L. to R.: Prof. Barlow Der Mugrdechian, Dr. Kevork Bardakjian, Dr. Rubina Peroomian, Dr. Vahram Shemmassian, and
Photo: Erica Magarian
Der   Mugrdechian   pointed   out
Dr. Dickran Kouymjian.
provision that its people had to
erase the events of the past from
their memory and to integrate
into the new Soviet ideology.
"A people's common past is and
indelible landmark of collective
memory," Peroomian stated. Yet
for the Armenians, they had to
move forward without official
memory of the Genocide.
Among themes condemned
by the Soviet leadership was
Armenian nationalism and works
on the Genocide. Censorship was
harsh, yet memories could not be
erased and soon reemerged. In
time there was a growth of Soviet
Armenia literature regarding the
Genocide.
Professor Der Mugrdechian
followed with a talk on "Memory
and Identity in Post Genocide
Armenian-American Literature."
Focusing on several well-known
authors and their works, Professor
common subject matters that
ran consistently in Genocide
literature. From Peter Balakian's
Black Dog of Fate to Mchael J.
Arlen's Passage to Ararat, many
authors were shown to have had
similar themes, such as dealing
with the absence of a father figure
or of families in the lives of the
protagonist. Many of the central
characters in Armenian-American
novels, particularly Arlen's book,
underwent "intense shifts in their
ethnic identities."
Another common theme was
the search for identity that was
for many of these authors, as
well as for their main characters,
a direct result of the Genocide.
This distancing, and even hiding,
from their ethnicities was seen
as a coping mechanism to keep
a distance from the complicated
nature of having had been outright
La Porta at Dublin, Ireland Conference
Church of Tigran Honents',
Ani, 1215. Arts of Armenia.
Evelyn Demirchian
Staff Writer
"Dr.   La   Porta   went   to   a
conference." If one were to hear
this, one might think that Dr.
Sergio La Porta, Haig and Isabel
Berberi an Pro fes sor of A rm eni an
Studies, went to a conference
somewhere in California, or
at most maybe somewhere in
the United States. This past
October, however, Dr. La Porta
traveled even farther away as he
journeyed to Dublin, Ireland to
attend a three-day international
workshop (Oct 1-3, 2010) about
the question of convivencla
in Byzantium, hosted by the
European Science Foundation.
Dr. La Porta lectured on the
subject of cultural negotiations
between different Christian and
Muslim populations in Armenia
in the period between the Seljuk
and Mongol invasions.
The idea of convivencla
(coexistence) in medieval Spain
has been a controversial subject
in the academic world, as it has
suggested a time of peace and
multiculturalism between the
Christian, Jewish, and Muslim
populationsduringtheperiodofthe
8th-15th centuries. The workshop
debated the applicability of the
term and conceptual framework
of convivencla for the Byzantine
Empire. "Byzantium often tends
to be treated as though it were
a monolithic, Greek-speaking
empire; but, in fact, it was an
incredibly diverse empire that
functioned well. While Greek
may have been the dominant
language, ethnically it was
composed of a variety of peoples:
Syrian Christians, Armenians,
Slavs, Jews, and others," stated
Dr. La Porta.
Dr.   La  Porta's   presentation,
entitled "Re-Constructing
Armenia: Strategies of Co-
Existence between the period of
the Seljuks and the Mongols,"
examined Armenia as an
analogous example outside the
Empire. In the eleventh century,
the network of naxarar (dynastic
noble) families of Armenia
eroded due to the Byzantine
annexation of Armenia and
then Seljuk invasions. Despite
the negative political impact of
these invasions on the Armenian
Christian population of the region,
Armenian culture continued
and even thrived. Dr. La Porta
argued that Armenians were able
to successfully negotiate cultural
interactions with the different
ethnic and religious  groups  that
coexisted with them, including
Georgians, Turks, and Kurds.
La Porta noted that the
dissolution of the traditional
dynastic system allowed other
parts of Armenian society to gain
wealth and power. Thus in the city
of Ani, the former capital of the
Bagratuni kingdom, an Armenian
merchant class amassed their
wealth first under Kurdish
Shadadid rule in the twelfth
century. One of these famous
merchants, Tigran Honents', later
built a church in the city when
it had returned to Christian rule.
In his inscription, Honents', an
Armenian Christian, remarks that
he would like to have icons, a non-
Armenian feature, in his church;
the word he uses for 'icon' is a
Georgian one.
Dr. LaPortaalsohighlightedthe
incorporation of Islamic literary
and artistic motifs into Armenian
art, Armenian appreciation of
Persian poetry, and the Armenian
use of Persian and Turkish names,
as other examples of Armenian
cultural adaptation. He pointed
out, however, that Armenians
quickly indigenized cultural
elements that originated outside
of the Armenian tradition; that
is, they made them Armenian. It
was the successful negotiation of
these novel elements within their
culture—not a rejection of them —
La Porta argued, that permitted
Armenian culture to not only
survive, but flourish during this
period of political uncertainty.
hated and systematically murdered
due to being Armenian. Newer
trends in Armenian-American
literature were also mentioned.
Much of these subjects revolved
around being an immigrant in a
new country, and the difficulties
experienced as an immigrant to
America.
Dr. Shemmassian, then
discussed humanitarian aid sent to
Aleppo, in his talk "Humanitarian
Intervention by the Armenian
Prelacy of Aleppo During the
First Months of the Genocide."
His research concerned the
Armenians refugees in Aleppo
and Musa Dagh and the work done
by the Refugees Committee and
humanitarian commissions at the
time to aid those being persecuted
in the Ottoman Empire.
Professor Dickran Kouymjian
concluded the panel with his talk,
"The Other Genocide: The Crime
against Cultural Heritage and
Historical Memory," concerning
Turkey's continuing pressure to
eradicate Armenian history. This
lecture focused strongly on the
unabashed attempts by Turkey to
destroy any historical connections
to the Armenian people through
denial by historians, politicians,
teachers in Turkey.
"There is a policy of neglect,
denial, and destruction of
Armenian monuments in Turkey
that continues to this day," stated
Dr. Kouymjian. The Armenians in
Turkey are being robbed of their
identities and pride in their ethnic
heritage. The lesson to be learned
from Professor Kouymjian's
work was that the constant denial
and refusal to acknowledge the
historical presence and influence
of Armenians in Turkey is not only
detrimental to Armenian culture,
but also to the history of modern
and Western civilizations.
Dr. Sergio La Porta, Berberian
Chair of Armenian Studies
at Fresno State, gave a talk
Saturday morning on "Regional
Approaches to Problems of Land
Administration in Medieval
Anatolia," as part of a panel
on "Anatolia and the Southern
Caucasus in East-West Encounters
Across Historj'."
The Middle East conference
was organized by a committee
of faculty headed by Dr. Sasan
Fayazmanesh and the College of
Arts and Humanities. Panels over
the three-day conference ranged
from the role of women in the
Mddle East, language change
and maintenance in Persian,
Palestinian women's literature,
and Iran's role as an emerging
power in the Middle Eastern
region.
Dr. Nancy Gallagher, chair
of the University of California,
Santa Barbara Mddle East
Studies Program, gave the
keynote address on "Teaching
about Women and Gender in
the Modern Middle East" One
featured panel was "'East' Meets
'West': Science, Mathematics,
Philosophy, Economics and the
Islamic Civilization."
The conference also featured
a special Saturday evening
performance by the Middle East
Ensemble of the University of
California, Santa Barbara in the
Fresno State Concert Hall.
Der  Mugrdechian  Gives
Talk on "Armenia at 19"
Andrew Esguerra
Staff Writer
International Education Week,
aimed at recognizing international
diversity and celebrated on many
university campuses across the
nation, kicked off at Fresno State
on Monday, November 15. One
of the first events held was a
lecture by Professor Barlow Der
Mugrdechian of the Armenian
Studies Program, entided
"Armenia at 19: Reflections"
which offered a personal
retrospective of Armenia's history
for the past 30 years, specifically
his observations of Armenia's
changes and evolution since his
first of many trips there in June
1978.
Dr. Berta Gonzalez, Associate
Vice-President for Continuing and
Global Education, welcomed the
audience to the presentation. Dr.
Sergio La Porta then introduced
Prof. Der Mugrdechian.
During Prof. Der
Mugrdechian's first trip in 1978,
Armenia was under Soviet rule.
Even before that, during the course
of the 20th century, Armenia
had faced issues with rocky
leadership and other political and
environmental concerns, a few
of which Prof. Der Mugrdechian
highlighted in his lecture. Videos
from Armenia taken by Prof.
Der Mugrdechian in the summer
Barlow Der Mugrdechian
Photo: Ali Peyvandi
of 2007 ushered in his talk. The
videos showed Armenia changing,
reconstructing, and being
stagnant — vistas and buildings
in shambles and preserved.
Pictures of ruins in Armenia
told the tumultuous story of how
the nation emerged in 1918 from
the devastation of the Genocide,
to become a short-lived first
Armenian Republic. The
Wilsonian Grant promised large
amounts of land to the Armenians,
which would have geographically
doubled the size of Armenia, but
it did not pan out Nationalist
Turkey did not accept the Treaty
of Sevres and subsequently the
Treaty dissolved. In that same
year, 1920, the communist army
See Der Mugrdechian Page 7