PRESS RELEASE
UCLA AEF Chair in Armenian History
Contact: Prof. Richard Hovannisian
Tel: 310-825-3375
Contact: Peter Szanton, 310-825-4669
[email protected]
Mar ch 30, 2007
attached illustration: Stockholm, January: Karine Arakelian, Richard
Hovannisian, Erebouni and Vahagn Avedian
sent as a separate attachment: Geneva, March: Vartiter Hovannisian, Sarkis
Shahinian, Tamar Hacoyan, Lilit and David Ekchian
PROFESSOR RICHARD HOVANNISIAN IN ACTIVE FIRST QUARTER
During the first quarter of 2007, Professor Richard G. Hovannisian, AEF
Chair in Modern Armenian History at UCLA, has continued to maintain an
intense schedule of lectures, conferences, and interviews relating to the
Armenian Studies. He has at the same time maintained a full teaching load
in his popular UCLA courses in Armenian history and on the comparative
study of genocide.
Atlanta-Stockholm-San Francisco-Zurich
Hovannisian attended the annual conference of the American
Historical Association in Atlanta, January 4-7. As president of the Society
for Armenian Studies (SAS), he also took part in meetings of groups
affiliated with the AHA and laid plans there for SAS participation with
organized panels in the next AHA conference which will be held in
Washington, D.C. in January 2008.
The following weekend, January 12-13, Dr. Hovannisian was in
Stockholm, Sweden, where he spoke to the Council of Swedish Armenian
organizations on the changing landscape of historic Western Armenia. The
community is made up of Armenians speaking a variety of languages,
including those who know only Kurdish, Turkish, or Swedish. Hovannisian’s
bilingual presentation and illustrated talk helped to reach all segments of
the audience. At the same time, he became better acquainted with the
translation into Swedish and placing on the worldwide web of his selected
works, an initiative of Mr. Vahagn Avedian, a computer specialist in
Uppsala. He is the web master of the informative web site
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[SEE ATTACHED PHOTOGRAPH jpeg 7 Stockholm: Karine Arakelian, Richard
Hovannisian, Erebouni and Vahagn Avedian]
On January 27, Dr. Hovannisian spent an hour on Horizon
Television in a cultural program, Gragan Yeter, hosted by Ms. Monet Airian,
a former student and poet. The following day he was at St. John Armenian
Church in San Francisco at the invitation of Father Sarkis Petoyan for an
all-community luncheon and his presentation on impressions of the historic
homelands now in eastern Turkey.
On February 3, Richard Hovannisian was in Zurich for a talk to
the Switzerland-Armenia Association. The event was coordinated by Mr.
Sarkis Shahinian, an architect who was highly instrumental in the release
by Time Magazine in Europe of the DVD on the Armenian Genocide and who with
several others is currently leading a campaign in Switzerland against
genocide deniers. Among his collaborators is Mr.David Ekchian, who with his
wife Lilit hosted Hovannisian and the conference organizers at a
post-lecture dinner and discussion.
Clark Library and Pepperdine University
On February 9-10, Dr. Hovannisian was an invited guest at the
historic Clark Library in Los Angeles for a conference on Imperial Models
in the Early Modern World, during which the management of differences in
the Ottoman, Hapsburg, Iberian, and other imperial states was the subject
of exploration and discussion.
On February 11-12, Hovannisian was a featured speaker at an
international conference Genocide and Religion: Victims, Perpetrators,
Bystanders, and Resisters, sponsored by the Pepperdine Law School Institute
on Law, Religion, and Ethics. Addressing a large audience of legal
scholars, academics, human rights activists, and students, Hovannisian
assessed the degree to which religion was a contributing factor in the
Armenian Genocide, the religious components of pre-genocidal Ottoman
society, and the exploitation of religion by the Young Turk nationalists.
Western Diocese and NAASR
On the evening of February 16, Professor Hovannisian was honored
by Archbishop Hovnan Derderian and the Western Diocese of the Armenian
Church in a rich cultural and culinary event, with analyses of
Hovannisian’s life and work by former students and now professors, Barlow
Der Mugrdechian of California State University, Fresno, and Vahram
Shemmassian, California State University, Northridge. The immediate
occasion for the event was the publication of the sixth volume in the
series, Historic Armenian Cities and Provinces, with the papers for each
volume revised and edited by Hovannisian. The volumes now include
Van/Vaspurakan; Baghesh/Bitlis and Taron/Mush; Tsopk/Kharpert;
Karin/Erzerum; Sebastia/Sivas; and Tigranakert/Diarbekir and Edessa/Urfa.
Professor Der Mugrdechian adeptly presented Hovannisian’s life from his
youth in the San Joaquin Valley to his past and present academic pursuits.
Shemmassian discussed the importance of each province and volume in the
series, before Hovannisian himself reflected on his career and the advances
and challenges in Armenian studies.
Richard Hovannisian flew to Boston on February 23 to present an
illustrated lecture sponsored by the National Association of Armenian
Studies and Research in a standing room audience at the First Armenian
Church in Belmont, Massachusetts. He was introduced by NAASR president Ms
Nancy Kolligian and the director of programs and publications, Mr. Marc
Mamigonian. Hovannisian’s recent books were featured at the NAASR bookstore
during the post-lecture reception.
Hrant Dink Memorial at UCLA
Professor Hovannisian returned to UCLA on February 25 for a memorial
tribute and program on dedicated to the life and works of Hrant Dink. On
Hovannisian’s initiative, a collective of Turkish students, the
Organization of Istanbul Armenians (OIA), and the UCLA Armenian Studies
Program, Near Eastern Languages Department, Center for Jewish Studies, and
Center for Near Eastern Studies participated in the memorial program: Hrant
Dink: His Legacy and His Challenge. The overflow audience of more than 500
students, faculty, and community members participated in a moving program
that was opened by Richard Hovannisian followed by a minute of silence with
accompanying memorial music. Speakers included Mr. Simon Acilac of the OIA,
Ms. Zeynep Turkyilmaz of the Initiative of Turkish Students, Professor
David Myers, Director of the Jewish Studies Center, Professor Ayse Gul
Altinay of Sabanci University in Istanbul, and UCLA alumnus Dr. Rupen
Cetinyan. A video tribute was prepared by Stepan Partamian and a moving
musical program with violin and duduk was followed by the traditional
"helva" in memory of the departed.
London and Geneva
The pace of activities has continued into the month of March,
with presentations in the Kensington Library of London sponsored by the
Armenian Institute on March 3. The Institute’s president, Dr. Susan Pattie,
discussed the importance of the series that Hovannisian edits on Historic
Armenian Cities and Provinces, and then invited the professor to recount
first hand experiences and impressions in those regions. A post-lecture
dinner was hosted by Mr. Adom and Mrs. Sella Tenjoukian.
On March 4, Richard and Vartiter Hovannisian flew to Geneva to
take part in a gathering sponsored by the Armenian Church and nearly all
the Armenian organizations of Switzerland. As the event came on the eve of
the test case in the Swiss courts involving a denier of the Armenian
Genocide, Hovannisian outlined the typical denial arguments in a
comparative perspective and pointed to the continuing harm that denial
causes to survivors and successive generations. He also reflected on issues
that still need to be resolved in the study of the actual decision-making
processes and execution of the genocide. The afternoon program was attended
by Armenians from all parts of Switzerland as well as numerous city and
canton officials from Geneva and the ambassador of the Republic of Armenia,
Mr. Zohrab Mnatsakanyan. The initial verdict of the court that tried the
case in Lausanne two days later found the denier guilty and imposed a token
symbolic fine, although there is little doubt that the perpetrator side
will take the case to courts of appeal and continue to mount pressure on
the federal government of Switzerland.
[SEE ATTACHED PHOTOGRAPH jpeg: 3212 Geneva: Vartiter Hovannisian, Sarkis
Shahinian, Tamar Hacoyan, Lilit and David Ekchian]
Returning to Los Angeles, Hovannisian was in the Avedissian Hall
of Ferrahian High School on the evening of March 9. The program sponsored
by the Anahid chapter of the Armenian Relief Society featured his
power-point presentation with historical commentary on the sites visited in
historic Western Armenia with Dr. Vartiter K. Hovannisian, Professor Fatma
Muge Gocek, and the Armenian editor of Agos, Mr. Sarkis Seropian, during
the summer of 2006.
The Armenian Communities of the Indian Ocean
On the weekend of March 16-18, Hovannisian organized with Dr.
Sebouh Aslanian the sixteenth in the UCLA series on historic Armenian
cities, provinces, and communities. The conference, Ebb and Flow of the
Armenian Communities of the Indian Ocean, brought together scholars from
Armenia, Europe, Mexico, and the United States to consider the active and
colorful commercial, intellectual, and philanthropic history of the
Armenian communities of India and South Asia. During the conference, which
was sponsored by UCLA’s AEF Chair in Armenian History, International
Institute, Near Eastern Center, History Department, and AGBU Southern
California District Committee Professor Hovannisian presented the story of
a number of prominent Armenian civic leaders in India and introduced a film
about Sir Catchick Paul Chater, who rose from humble origins in Calcutta to
become a towering figure in the development of the Hong Kong colony, where
even today a park and street bear his name. His large bequest to the
Armenian Holy Church of Nazareth in Calcutta has helped to maintain the
church and the Armenian College and Philanthropic Academy (Mardasiarkan
Jemaran). All conference participants were hosted to special dinner with
AEF members by Mr. and Mrs. Hacop and Hilda Baghdassarian.
Saint Mary’s of Maryland
Richard Hovannisian completed his engagements of the first
quarter of the year on March 28-29 with meetings with students and faculty
and a public lecture at St. Mary’s College in St. Mary’s City, Maryland
(the state’s first capital) at the invitation of Professor Bjorn Krondorfer
of the Department of Religious Studies. Hovannisian’s presentation in the
college’s distinguished lecturer series, titled "Must We Still Remember?
The Armenian Genocide as Prototype," addressed many of the issues with
which students in the fields of religion, philosophy, and history have been
confronting.
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