News — #NAASRMardigianLibrary
May 28: Vratsian’s Hayastani Hanrapetutʻiwn and Hovannisian’s The Republic of Armenia
May 28 marks the establishment of the Republic of Armenia in 1918, providing us with the opportunity to look back on two monuments to the short-lived but historically important republic: Hayastani Hanrapetutʻiwn (Հայաստանի Հանրապետութիւն = The Republic of Armenia), by Simon Vrats‘ean (Սիմոն Վրացեան, also Vratsian or Vratzian; we will use the spelling Vratsian in this piece), published in 1928 in Paris, and the second revised edition published in 1958 in Beirut; and Richard G. Hovannisian’s 4-volume The Republic of Armenia (1971, 1982, 1996). We will also touch upon the very direct connection between these two landmark publications and their respective authors.
Book Stamps and What They Tell Us
NAASR's Mardigian Library has over 30,000 books published over the past three and a half centuries. This includes titles published almost everywhere Armenians have lived in any significant numbers, including major centers of Armenian life (and publishing) such as Yerevan, Etchmiadzin, Tiflis, St. Petersburg, Jerusalem, Constantinople, Smyrna, New Julfa, Beirut, Cairo, Sofia, Venice, Paris, Marseilles, New York, Boston, Fresno, Los Angeles, Buenos Aires and many others. In a way, these books contain the story of the Armenian diaspora itself.
Two Classic Works on Artsakh
While taking note of the anniversary of the capture of Shushi this week in 1992, one of the key events in the Nagorno-Karabakh war, we look back at two noteworthy books from NAASR’s Mardigian Library from the late 19th century that explore the then recent past of Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabagh: Khamsayi Melikʻutʻiwnnerě (Խամսայի Մելիքութիւններ) by Raffi and Gaghtnik‘ Gharabaghi (Գաղտնիք Ղարաբաղի) by Apresi Beknazareants‘.
“Come On-a My House” and the Armenian-American Pop Music Invasion That Never Was
Not everything in NAASR’s Mardigian Library is a book. There are also, among other things, a huge number of recordings—78s, LPs, tapes, CDs, etc., all with some Armenian connection or another. Some of these will be topics of future installments; most of them are obscure, except to specialists and collectors. For this installment we will go in a totally different direction and focus on a record that was a huge hit in its day, and its Armenian connections.
Hushamatean Mets Egherni, 1965, and the Rebirth of Armenian Genocide Scholarship
Fifty-five years ago, April 1965, can truly be seen as, in the words of author (and NAASR Board member) Michael Bobelian, “the birth of the modern campaign of justice” for the Armenian Genocide. 1965 may also be seen as the year of the re-birth of efforts to document the Armenian Genocide, which would lead to the creation, in more recent years, of a growing body of scholarship on the Genocide.