Dear reader, Սիրելի ընթերցող, Issue 9 2020 Welcome to our Bardez-Partez / Պարտէզ! News and Views from the Armenian Institute As we say hello to a new decade, I am left reflecting on the In this issue! one just gone, and how better to have ended it than with recognition of the Armenian Genocide by the House of Armenian Artists in the UK page 10 Representatives in the United States following a number of attempts to block the vote. Hopefully the historic vote will push the UK towards recognition, and maybe with a Prime Minister whose own great-grandfather acted to save Armenians at the time, attitudes may change. Armenia itself is also blossoming into a new era, being heralded as ‘the Culture hit’ holiday destination for 2020 by the Evening Standard, amongst others. I took some non- Armenian friends in August and they (and I) had a truly wonderful time - drinking the wine, eating the glorious food, and discovering the heritage sites. We even managed to hike National Lottery Grant pages 12-13 part of the Transcaucasian Trail (I have the badge to prove it), meeting people from all over Europe as we did so. Furthermore, the Armenian Institute has firmly established itself over the past decade, and is very much looking forward to moving into our new home in 2020. AI hosted and ran over 25 events in 2019 ranging from book and film launches to workshops and lectures, as well as republishing I Ask you, I Ask you, Ladies and Gentlemen page 17 Ladies and Gentleman, bringing the words of Leon Surmelian to a new audience. AI was also successful in its application for a grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, and we are excited about the works the grant will allow us to do in the coming years. Finally, after five issues as editor of Bardez/Partez, I will be handing over the duties in the new year. I would like to thank all the contributors over this time, as well as Belinda Keheyan and Gagik Stepan-Sarkissian for all their help and guidance. Wishing our readers all the best for the twenties! Arda Eghiayan, Editor If you would like to contribute to the next issue please contact the Publishing Committee on [email protected] 1 The far reach of fake news by Owen Skirlos-Foster In an age of unfettered was obviously aware of the access to the internet, one Armenia article because of the downsides is that he cites it later on. From everybody has a soap box Huseynov: "The article from which to spout their “Armenia” in the same politically-motivated fake place notes that Armenia is news. On Academia.edu, a geographically located in Asia site where literally anybody Minor, not in the Caucasus." can post an "academic" paper, This is an oversimplification. Armenian historiography Firstly, Lake Sevan is listed has not been spared from as an Armenian lake, which the fake news phenomenon. is in the Caucasus. But An example of this kind of admittedly, for centuries Albanian Church literature is cartographers and writers of Gandzasar in the Decrees of have been inconsistent Azerbaijani Rulers written by about where Armenia's Rizvan Huseynov. The author boundaries are. However, this begins on the wrong foot the is no surprise given Armenia's moment he tries to misquote lack of independence for a the Encyclopaedia Britannica’s thousand years. If you want 11th edition, an English- to see for yourself, pick up a language source that can be copy of Rouben Galichian's found online for free: Historical Maps of Armenia “Armenian Church superiors or his Countries South of the settled with the permission of Jahanshah, the ruler Caucasus in Medieval Maps: Armenia, Georgia and of the Azerbaijani state of Qara Qoyunlu, in the Azerbaijan, which are available in the Armenian village of Uchkilisa - now Echmiadzin - in 1441. This Institute Library. You'll see that sometimes Armenia information is confirmed by Encyclopaedia Britannica is labelled only as far east as Lake Sevan, other times (1910), where the article “Armenian Church” states it stretches all the way to the confluence of the Aras that Armenian Catholicoses first moved to Echmiadzin and Kura rivers, especially when based on ancient in 1441.” Greek sources such as Ptolemy. Huseynov is trying to use this event to prove that But before anybody takes these discrepancies as the Holy See of Echmiadzin only became Armenian a victory, they'd better take note of the following. at a late date. By doing this, he hopes to convince Despite their inconsistency regarding Armenia's the unsuspecting public that Armenians are all eastern boundaries, one thing that these map makers newcomers to the Caucasus, and who appropriated and the Encyclopaedia Britannica article “Azerbaijan” the land, history, and churches of another race of are all consistent on is that "Azerbaijan is separated people known as the Caucasian Albanians. According from Russian territory on the North by the river Aras." to this version of events, these Caucasian Albanians This would by definition make it not in the Caucasus are in fact the forerunners to the modern inhabitants either! of the Republic of Azerbaijan. But does the To borrow a phrase from G.R.R Martin, this source Encyclopaedia Britannica really confirm Huseynov’s is for people like Huseynov "a sword without a hilt. claim? Instead of looking at the “Armenian Church” There is no safe way to grasp it.” article, let's turn to “Armenia”: If you would like to see for yourself, the entire 11th Armenia formed part of the territories of the " Edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica can be found Turkoman dynasties of Akand Kara-Kuyunli, and online at Studylight.org and Rouben Galichian's under their milder rule the seat of the Catholicos, cartographic collections are available at the Armenian which, during the Seljuk invasion, had been moved Institute Library. first to Sivas, and then to Lesser Armenia, and was reestablished, 1441, at Echmiadzin." Owen Skirlos-Foster is a history graduate from Coventry University, living in Shanghai and a Read that again. The Armenian church was Caucasusophile. reestablished in 1441, not first established. Huseynov 2 The United States of America recognised the Armenian Genocide Christmas came early in 2019 Whereas Raphael Lemkin, who for Armenians around the world coined the term “genocide” in when on December 12th – at 1944 and who was the earliest the fourth time of asking – the proponent of the United Nations US Senate unanimously adopted Convention on the Prevention a resolution recognising the and Punishment of the Crime of Armenian Genocide committed Genocide, invoked the Armenian by Ottoman Turkey. This followed case as a definitive example of the recognition by the House of genocide in the 20th century; Representatives in October. While Whereas, as displayed in the the State Department opposed United States Holocaust Memorial the recognition – and indeed had Museum, Adolf Hitler, on ordering arranged for Republican senators his military commanders to attack on three different occasion to block Poland without provocation in previous attempts – the House and 1939, dismissed objections by Senate votes on the resolutions saying, “Who, after all, speaks amount to official US Government today of the annihilation of the recognition of the massacre. Armenians?”, setting the stage for The resolution brought forward the Holocaust; by Senator Bob Menendez and Whereas the United States has co-sponsored by Ted Cruz, not officially recognized the Armenian only references the deaths and Genocide— killings during the Genocide, but (1) through the May 28, 1951, also rejects any attempts to "enlist, written statement of the United engage, or otherwise associate" the US government States Government to the International Court of Justice with denial of genocide and to "encourage education regarding the Convention on the Prevention and and public understanding" of it. Further, the preamble Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and Proclamation interestingly comments on the philanthropy of America No. 4838 issued by President Ronald Reagan on April 22, at the time and the huge sums raised, to help the 1981; and Armenians and others decimated by Ottoman Turkey. (2) by House Joint Resolution 148, 94th Congress, agreed The text of the resolution is as follows to April 8, 1975, and House Joint Resolution 247, 98th Expressing the sense of the Senate that it is the policy Congress, agreed to September 10, 1984; and of the United States to commemorate the Armenian Whereas the Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Genocide through official recognition and remembrance. Prevention Act of 2018 (Public Law 115–441) establishes Whereas the United States has a proud history of that the prevention of atrocities is a national interest of recognizing and condemning the Armenian Genocide, the United States and affirms that it is the policy of the the killing of an estimated 1,500,000 Armenians by the United States to pursue a United States Government- Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923, and providing relief wide strategy to identify, prevent, and respond to the to the survivors of the campaign of genocide against risk of atrocities by “strengthening diplomatic response Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Syriacs, and the effective use of foreign assistance to support Arameans, Maronites, and other Christians; appropriate transitional justice measures, including Whereas the Honorable Henry Morgenthau, Sr., United criminal accountability, for past atrocities”: Now, States Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1913 therefore, be it Resolved, That it is the sense of the to 1916, organized