Armen Karo Student Assoctiation

TORONTO—On May 1, 2013, Canada’s ARF Armen Karo Student Association announced the launch of its Armenian Thesis Database, a new, online tool located at www.armeniantheses.com. The website is the result of a year-and-a-half of work and brings together master’s and doctoral dissertations written on Armenian topics from around the world. 

Tro Bakerdjian and Daniel Ohanian, co-developers on the project, explained, “The development of this database, which is comprised of listings dating back 120 years, was motivated by a desire to find ways of promoting the work of graduate students, which rarely receives widespread attention. It brings together dissertations cited in bibliographies, in lists published by community presses, and by premium services requiring special subscriptions. We hope it will be an asset to researchers, a testament to the diversity of emerging scholars, and an inspiration to those looking for new areas of investigation.”

“In many cases, copyright for the full texts of these studies lies with the authors or with the universities where they were written. By choosing an online medium, we are able to provide URLs and PDFs where possible; we invite researchers to consult with their librarians or with us for help in locating others,” they continued. 

Dennis R. Papazian, Professor Emeritus and Founding Director of the Armenian Research Center at the University of Michigan–Dearborn, commented on the importance of research done by graduate students by stating, “These dissertations are an invaluable resource for the study of various things Armenian, since they often represent pioneering efforts and have unearthed resources which open new vistas for increased understanding and open doors for further research.”

The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation announced today the appointment of Dr. Razmik Panossian as the new Director of the Armenian Communities Department in Lisbon. He will assume the post on February 1.

Panossian holds a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics and Political Science, where he also taught. He has published widely on Armenian-related issues, including a critically acclaimed book on Armenian national identity. He has extensive experience in senior management, including the administration of multi-million dollar programs, as well as the allocation and distribution of international development grants. For many years he served as the Director of Policy, Programs and Planning at a Canadian governmental organization based in Montreal. He has worked for the United Nations Development Program. He is fluent in English, French and Armenian.

“I am both thrilled and humbled by this appointment,” said Panossian. “This is one of the most important positions in the Armenian Diaspora. I am looking forward to continuing the work of my predecessors and further strengthening and expanding the activities of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in a focused and systematic manner within Armenian communities around the world.”

Martin Essayan, the Trustee responsible for the Armenian Communities Department, and great grandson of Foundation founder Calouste Gulbenkian, said: “I am delighted that Dr. Panossian will be the new Director of the Armenian Communities Department. He comes with outstanding credentials for this role and brings the international, integrative perspective we need. The appointment followed a global search during which we were able to consider many excellent candidates.”

The Asia Minor Catastrophe and the Ottoman Greek Genocide: Essays on Asia Minor, Pontos, and Eastern Thrace, 1913–1923 edited by George N. Shirinian, Executive Director of the Zoryan Institute, is a compilation of innovative papers given by distinguished scholars at two academic conferences organized by the Asia Minor and Pontos Hellenic Research Center in Chicago.

“…our knowledge of the catastrophic events affecting millions of people caught up in the huge political and social transformation connected with the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of the Turkish Republic has not received the scholarly attention it deserves. Even the best studied of these tragic events, ‘The Armenian Genocide,’ has been deprived of a certain panoramic contextualization of a tragedy which touched profoundly the lives of several other religious and ethnic groups, such as the Greeks and Assyrians,” observed Theofanis G. Stavrou, Professor of History at the University of Minnesota.

This book and its careful treatment of the Greek experience within the broader genocide of the Christian minorities in the Ottoman Empire aims to fill a gap in the scholarly literature on the Greek Genocide and is one of the first to treat the genocidal experiences of the Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks in a comparative manner and as an integrated history. As Prof. Roger W. Smith, Chair of Zoryan’s Academic Board, has written, “Only the comparative approach can yield carefully delimited generalizations about the nature and mechanics of genocide as a general problem of humanity.”

Dr. Ronald Marchese will discuss his recent research in Constantinople/Istanbul with a talk on “Treasures of Faith: Sacred Objects from the Armenian Churches of Constantinople and What They Tell Us About Armenian Society and Culture” at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, January 28.

This Leon S. Peters Foundation Lecture will be held in the University Business Center, Alice Peters Auditorium, Room 191, on the Fresno State campus and is part of the Armenian Studies Program Spring 2013 Lecture Series.  The lecture is funded in part by the Associated Students, Inc. at Fresno State.

Dr. Marchese is professor of ancient history and archaeology at the University of Minnesota, Duluth and has spent the last several years documenting the rich cultural history of the Armenians in Constantinople, by studying the works of arts that the Armenians produced. He will accompany his talk with slides of some of the artwork that he has catalogued.

Over the course of hundreds of years Armenian society and culture developed in Constantinople after the founding of the Armenian Patriarchate in the city in 1461. Although a traditional date, it is clearly evident that a substantial number of Armenians from eastern Anatolia had established themselves in the city long before this date. Most went unnoticed in the pages of history due to the fact that they were absorbed within Byzantine material and political culture. Simply stated they became “Byzantine” in nature. After the mid-fifteenth century and especially after the establishment of their own patriarchate and “patrik” this “invisibility” disappears.

Encouraged to immigrate “to the city” (to istan-polis) the Armenian population increased substantially as witnessed by the steady growth of neighborhoods and churches to match the population increase. By the mid-18th city to the mid nineteenth century—1750-1850—approximately half of all Armenian churches in the city were founded. Some were in close proximity to others in densely concentrated areas near the Patriarchate, especially in Kumkapi, Yenikapi, Samataya, and Beyoglu.