PRESS RELEASE
Armenian Studies Program
California State University, Fresno
Contact: Barlow Der Mugrdechian, 559-278-4930
ASP Office: 559-278-2669
Fax: 559-278-2129
Email: [email protected]
Visit the Armenian Studies Program Web Page at
Ara Sarafian to Speak on `The Armenians of Bitlis’
Ara Sarafian of the Gomidas Institute (London) will present an
illustrated lecture `A Hundred Years Ago… The Armenians of Bitlis’
at 7:30 PM on Thursday, September 5, 2013, in the Industrial
Technology Building, Room 101, at the South-East corner of Barstow and
Campus Drive, on the Fresno State campus.
The lecture is co-sponsored by the Armenian Studies Program, the
Armenian Students Organization of Fresno State, and the Leon S. Peters
Foundation.
Bitlis was one of the great centers of Armenian civilization, with a
unique identity of its own. Armenians lived in this mountainous
region, in towns and villages with schools, churches, and
monasteries. Today, very little remains of the Armenian past. Most of
it was destroyed in the Armenian Genocide and the anti-Armenian
policies of the Turkish republic.
In this talk, `The Armenians of Bitlis,’ historian Ara Sarafian will
present a historical-and a contemporary-view of the Armenian presence
in Bitlis before 1915. His power-point presentation will draw on a
critical set of Ottoman, Armenian, and Russian sources from 1880 to
1915, as well as his latest trip to the region.
`The Armenians of Bitlis’ is part of a broader bridge building project
which the Gomidas Institute launched in Bitlis this year. The project
has already benefited from the support of many Kurds and Turks and
will lead to a public exhibition in Bitlis next year.
The lecture will end with the release of Thomas Mugerditchian’s, The
Diyarbekir Massacres and Kurdish Atrocities , (Gomidas Institute,
2013).
Ara Sarafian is an archival historian specializing on late Ottoman
history. He is the director of the Gomidas Institute, which is a
leading research and publication center related to modern Armenian
history.
The lecture is free and open to the public. Parking will be available
in Lots Q, K, and L the night of the lecture. Make sure to use parking
code 273401 to receive a free parking pass.
For more information on the lecture please contact the Armenian
Studies Program at 278-2669.