History of Armenia

This book covers the history of Armenia from the most ancient literate peoples of Mesopotamia, who had commercial interests in the land of Armenia (c. 2500 BC), to the end of the Middle Ages.

The Kingdom of Armenia

There is a great deal of interest in the history of Armenia since its renewed independence in the 1990s and the ongoing debate about the genocide - an interest that informs the strong desire of a new generation of Armenian Americans to learn more about their heritage and has led to greater solidarity in the community. By integrating themes such as war, geopolitics, and great leaders, with the less familiar cultural themes and personal stories, this book will appeal to general readers and travellers interested in the region.

The History of Armenia

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

History Of Armenia, By Father Michael Chamich

The book is addressed to Armenians in all the world and to readers living in various countries who are interested in ancient history and culture of Biblical Armenia.

The History of Armenia attributed to Movses Khorenatsi is an early account of Armenia, covering the legendary origins of the Armenian people as well as Armenia's interaction with Sassanid, Byzantine and Arsacid empires down to the 5th century.

Vahan M. Kurkjian (Aleppo, 1863 - New York City, 1961) was an Armenian author, historian, teacher, and community leader. In 1904, in Cairo, he published the Armenian newspaper Loussaper (The Morning Star), in the pages of which he and other intellectuals called for a national union for the Armenian people. The idea eventually materialized in the form of the Armenian General Benevolent Union. In 1907 he emigrated to the United States and studied law at Boston University. Two years later, also in Boston, he founded the first American chapter of the Armenian General Benevolent Union. From its inception he was inseparably identified with that organization, serving as its executive director until his retirement in 1939. Kurkjian was a frequent contributor of articles to Armenian newspapers, and published a number of books and pamphlets, among which the best-remembered is his History of Armenia. (wikipedia.org) The volume is an easy reading and a must for the beginner student and interested party of the history of Armenia as well as for those more familiar with Armenian and its history. The author, an expert on Armenian history, has masterfully covered all aspects of the Armenian history such as Armenian literature, Armenian Church, the history of Armenian old and modern language, architecture, sculpture, music etc. along with all the historical events, starting from the beginning of the human civilization and that of Armenian one to the modern era of Armenia.

A History of Armeni

The History attributed to Sebeos is one of the major works of early Armenian historiography. Although anonymous, it was written in the middle of the seventh century, a time when comparable chronicles in Greek and Syriac are sparse. Sebeos traces the fortunes of Armenia in the sixth and seventh centuries within the broader framework of the Byzantine-Sasanian conflict. This book will be of interest to all those involved in the study of Armenia, the Caucasus, the Eastern Roman Empire and the Middle East in late antiquity. It will be of particular value to Islamicists, since Sebeos not only sets the scene for the coming of Islam, but provides the only substantial non-Muslim account of the initial period of expansion.

The Armenian History Attributed to Sebeos

A Turk’s discovery that Armenians once thrived in his hometown leads to a groundbreaking investigation into the local dynamics of genocide. Ümit Kurt, born and raised in Gaziantep, Turkey, was astonished to learn that his hometown once had a large and active Armenian community. The Armenian presence in Aintab, the city’s name during the Ottoman period, had not only been destroyed—it had been replaced. To every appearance, Gaziantep was a typical Turkish city. Kurt digs into the details of the Armenian dispossession that produced the homogeneously Turkish city in which he grew up. In particular, he examines the population that gained from ethnic cleansing. Records of land confiscation and population transfer demonstrate just how much new wealth became available when the prosperous Armenians—who were active in manufacturing, agricultural production, and trade—were ejected. Although the official rationale for the removal of the Armenians was that the group posed a threat of rebellion, Kurt shows that the prospect of material gain was a key motivator of support for the Armenian genocide among the local Muslim gentry and the Turkish public. Those who benefited most—provincial elites, wealthy landowners, state officials, and merchants who accumulated Armenian capital—in turn financed the nationalist movement that brought the modern Turkish republic into being. The economic elite of Aintab was thus reconstituted along both ethnic and political lines. The Armenians of Aintab draws on primary sources from Armenian, Ottoman, Turkish, British, and French archives, as well as memoirs, personal papers, oral accounts, and newly discovered property-liquidation records. Together they provide an invaluable account of genocide at ground level.

The Armenians of Aintab

Tigranes the Great ruled the Kingdom of Armenia from 95 to 55 BC. He formed a close alliance with Mithridates VI, Eupator and King of Pontus, to secure each other's flanks from the expansion of Rome. Tigranes' troops, commanded by his generals, entered Mesopotamia and annexed the northern dynastic kingdoms under Parthian rule, turning them into his vassals. One invasion was followed by another in what became a growing imperial war of conquests. Those victories enabled Tigranes to take the Achaemenid proud title of "King of Kings", after which he conquered the crumbling Seleucid kingdom and the lands as far south as Phoenicia. Around 70 BC, Tigranes reached the summit of his fame and glory as his kingdom was transformed into an empire, stretching from the Caspian Sea in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west. It was only a matter of time before Lucullus, followed by Pompey, marched their legions into Tigranes' dominion and reduced it to its original borders. This book is a gripping account of the royal life and fate of this audacious Hellenistic king, who has left an everlasting mark in the annals of history. It provides valuable and crucial insights into the motivations leading up to the invasion of his empire and some corroborated dialogue that brings the main characters vividly to life.

Tigranes the Great

This unique history and invaluable comparative study is based on extensive research conducted in both Armenia and the diaspora, including interviews and translations of Armenian-language sources. Razmik Panossian analyzes Armenians' first attempts at liberation, the Armenian renaissance of the nineteenth century, the 1915 genocide of the Ottoman Armenians, and Soviet occupation. He shows how these influences led to a "multilocal" evolution of Armenian national identity in various locations in and outside of Armenia, and how these numerous identities contribute to deep divisions and tensions within the Armenian nation today. Panossian uses this history to argue that national identity is modern, predominantly subjective, and based on a political sense of belonging. Yet he also acknowledges the crucial role of history, art, literature, religious practice, and commerce in preserving the national memory and shaping the cultural identity of the Armenian people. Considering the diversity of this single nation, Panossian questions the theoretical assumption that nationalism must be homogenizing.

The Armenians

This book presents the dramatic and complex story of Armenia's ecclesiastical relations with Byzantine and subsequently Roman Christendom in the Middle Ages. It is built on a broad foundation of sources – Armenian, Greek, Latin, and Syrian chronicles and documents, especially the abundant correspondence between the Holy See and the Armenian Church. Krzysztof Stopka examines problems straddling the disciplines of history and theology and pertinent to a critical, though not widely known, episode in the story of the struggle for Christian unity.

Armenia Christiana

Covering more than one century, this book describes the complex issues of Mongol-Armenian political relations that involved many different ethnic groups in a vast geographical area stretching from China to the Mediterranean coast in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.

The Mongols and the Armenians (1220-1335)

This volume gives an in-depth account of the relations between the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt and Syria and the Armenian Kingdom, centred on Cilicia in southern Asia Minor, in the period after the collapse of the Crusader States. As well as diplomatic encounters, the work describes in detail, for example, the course of the Mamluk invasions of Cilicia, and the Armenian involvement with the Mongol invasions of Mamluk Syria. The work is substantially based on sources written in Arabic in the Mamluk Sultanate. Using them in conjuction with more 'pro-Armenian' sources, it demonstrates the value of these Arabic histories, which provide many new insights and details. Both in its subject, and in its use of sources, this work demonstrates an important new direction for scholars of the Middle East.

The Armenian Kingdom and the Mamluks

This unique study bridges the history of the Crusades with the history of Armenian nationalism and Christianity. To the Crusaders, Armenian Christians presented the only reliable allies in Anatolia and Asia Minor, and were pivotal in the founding of the Crusader principalities of Edessa, Antioch, Jerusalem and Tripoli. The Anatolian kingdom of Cilicia was founded by the Roupenian dynasty (mid 10th to late 11th century), and grew under the collective rule of the Hetumian dynasty (late 12th to mid 14th century). After confrontations with Byzantium, the Seljuks and the Mongols, the Second Crusade led to the crowning of the first Cilician king despite opposition from Byzantium. Following the Third Crusade, power shifted in Cilicia to the Lusignans of Cyprus (mid to late 14th century), culminating in the final collapse of the kingdom at the hands of the Egyptian Mamluks.

The Armenian Kingdom in Cilicia During the Crusades

The Armenian People from Ancient to Modern Times, Volumes I and II: 2 Volume Set

In the second of a three-volume work, Seta B. Dadoyan explores the Armenian condition from the 970s to the end of the fourteenth century. This period marked the gradual loss of semi-autonomy on the traditional mainland and the rise of Armenian power of diverging patterns in southeastern Asia Minor, north Syria, Cilicia, and Egypt. Dadoyan's premise is that if Armenians and Armenia have always been located in the Middle East and the Islamic world, then their history is also a natural part of that region and its peoples. She observes that the Armenian experience has been too complicated to be defined by simplistic constructs centered on the idea of a heroic, yet victimized nation. She notes that a certain politics of historical writing, supported by a culture of authority, has focused sharply on episodes and, in particular, on the genocide. For her sources, Dadoyan has used all available and relevant (primary and secondary) Armenian sources, as well as primary Arab texts and sources. This book will stimulate re-evaluation of the period, and re-conceptualizing Armenian and Middle Eastern histories.

The Armenians in the Medieval Islamic World

The Ancient Kingdom of Urartu

"Armenian Cilicia experienced a brilliant cultural era known as the Silver Age, with major advances in science and medicine, theology and philosophy, astronomy and musicology, art and architecture. Despite its successes, however, the Armenian kingdom, caught in the geopolitical contests among the major powers of the time, finally fell to the invading Mamluk armies in 1375. In the sixteenth century, Cilicia and most of the historic homelands to the east were incorporated into the Ottoman Empire, where Armenian life continued for four centuries until the calamitous events of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century violently eliminated the Armenian presence there."--BOOK JACKET.

Armenian Cilicia

In Medieval Fortifications in Cilicia Dweezil Vandekerckhove offers an account of the origins, development and spatial distribution of fortified sites in the Armenian Kingdom (1198-1375). Despite the abundance of archaeological remains, the Armenian heritage had previously not been closely studied. However, through the examination of known and newly identified castles, this work has now increased the number of sites and features associated with the Armenian Kingdom. By the construction of numerous powerful castles, the Armenians succeeded in establishing an independent kingdom, which lasted until the Mamluk conquest in 1375. Dweezil Vandekerckhove convincingly proves that the medieval castles in Cilicia are of outstanding architectural interest, with a significant place in the history of military architecture.

Medieval Fortifications in Cilicia

Here is a fully annotated translation of an Armenian literary classic, the first made from the critical Armenian text. The sixth-century History of Vardan and the Armenian War describes a revolt of Armenians against the shah of Sasanian Iran in 450-451 in protest against the persecution of Christianity. Elishē uses this occasion to express in more general terms his attitude as a Christian Armenian to the problems of cultural survival and patriotism in a hostile environment. His history profoundly influenced Armenian writers from classical times to the present; its hero, Vardan, remains the ideal figure of a patriot even in Soviet Armenia. Mr. Thomson's introduction places the work in its historical context, while extensive notes identify people and places, explain allusions, and clarify details of the account.

History of Vardan and the Armenian War

History of the Armenians

Relates the history of Armenia through entries on influential people, places, organizations, cultural elements, and events.

Historical Dictionary of Armenia

Jacques de Morgan's The History of the Armenian People, from the Remotest Times to the Present Day is a comprehensive history of the modern nation of Armenia over the centuries. From the preface: "During this seemingly endless war, the worst ever to afflict mankind, Armenia has undoubtedly been the most unfortunate of all lands, the most racked and tortured, more so even than Belgium, more so than Serbia! Victim of the frightful massacres by the Turks, subjected to the crudest horrors, partly delivered by the Russians and then woefully abandoned by them, Armenia has seen her fine and industrious rural population decimated to an unthinkable extent through a most abominable series of slaughters. Not only is she the unhappiest of nations, but no national history is so little known as is hers, despite the fact that this history was once so famous. The reason for this is that for several centuries Armenia has been constantly held down beneath the most unbearable of servitudes, the bloody Ottoman yoke. In our western civilization hardly any but a very few scholars know the early history of the Armenians, those ancient and medieval times when this then warlike race played a most important role in the hinterland of the Eastern world, first the Roman and then the Christian. A few noble-minded men of this long and sorely tried nation, along with some French friends devoted to their cause, felt it urgent to bring Armenia's hitherto neglected history to the knowledge of the general French public and that of our Allies, through a published work of high standing and practical value. This they deemed one of the best ways to interest the world, and France in particular, in the salvation of so worthy a people. These friends of Armenia, choosing as spokesman one of the best among them, the great patriot Archag Tchobanian, kindly asked my advice as to whom they should appeal to carry out this difficult task. One name came at once to my thought, that of my friend Jacques de Morgan, the intrepid explorer, the scholarly and enthusiastic traveler and great archaeologist, renowned for his excavations at Susa and in Egypt. No one is better acquainted with the vast regions around Armenia, and with Armenia itself, which he has traveled over more than anyone. No one has more carefully studied the mysterious beginnings and the history of those races that settled over the magnificent lands south of the Caucasus. Many years of incessant labor had impaired his health, yet when upon my advice my Armenian friends asked him to write the history of their nation and to compass its glorious but forgotten annals in a volume of striking interest, to be widely disseminated in behalf of this sacred cause, he at once accepted, despite his poor health and comparative reclusion. He set to work immediately, happy to be able still to serve the sublime cause of oppressed peoples. In two years of ardent labor he completed this important work, of such great interest to a vast public so lacking in knowledge about Armenia. I have been done the great honor of being asked to write a few introductory lines to this volume. For this honor I am perhaps indebted to my own works on the Crusades and Byzantine history, in which I so often had to refer to the valorous deeds in the East of the illustrious Armenian race. "This is the first time," wrote Jacques de Morgan to me, "that I am not writing the preface myself to one of my books!" I accepted, however, this pleasurable task, with the stated intention of writing briefly, not to re-introduce to the public my friend Morgan already so well known, but if possible to draw the further attention of all the allied nations to the unhappy Armenian people and to the abominable injustice they have endured for centuries.

The History of the Armenian People, from the Remotest Times to the Present Day

This memoir recalls Yervant Alexanian’s death-defying experiences in the center of the Armenian Genocide. Like other Armenians of his generation, he was an eyewitness to the massacre and dislocation of his family and fellow countrymen in Ottoman Turkey during World War I. Alexanian was conscripted into the Turkish army—but unlike others so conscripted, he survived. Alexanian was forced to become an onlooker while he watched the atrocities unfold. His story of resourceful action and fateful turns is a suspenseful “insider’s account” of a Genocide survivor. From his singular position, Alexanian was able to document the tragedy of his people in his journals and diaries, but he also offers us a behind-the-scenes look into the motivations and actions of Turkish military officials as they committed the atrocities. His story continues after the war as we follow the trail of his journey through Europe and finally to America, where he found solace and was able to start anew with fellow survivors. No comparable account exists in the literature of the Armenian Genocide. This edition, translated from Alexanian’s hand-written Armenian-language chronicle, includes never-before-seen documents and photos that the author preserved. Through his eyes we relive the astonishing cruelty of the Genocide’s perpetrators—but also rare, unexpected acts of humanity between victim and oppressor.

Forced into Genocide

World War I was a watershed, a defining moment, in Armenian history. Its effects were unprecedented in that it resulted in what no other war, invasion, or occupation had achieved in three thousand years of identifiable Armenian existence. This calamity was the physical elimination of the Armenian people and most of the evidence of their ever having lived on the great Armenian Plateau, to which the perpetrator side soon gave the new name of Eastern Anatolia. The bearers of an impressive martial and cultural history, the Armenians had also known repeated trials and tribulations, waves of massacre, captivity, and exile, but even in the darkest of times there had always been enough remaining to revive, rebuild, and go forward. This third volume in a series edited by Richard Hovannisian, the dean of Armenian historians, provides a unique fusion of the history, philosophy, literature, art, music, and educational aspects of the Armenian experience. It further provides a rich storehouse of information on comparative dimensions of the Armenian genocide in relation to the Assyrian, Greek and Jewish situations, and beyond that, paradoxes in American and French policy responses to the Armenian genocides. The volume concludes with a trio of essays concerning fundamental questions of historiography and politics that either make possible or can inhibit reconciliation of ancient truths and righting ancient wrongs.

The Armenian Genocide

Dadrian, a former professor at SUNY, Geneseo, currently directs a genocide study project supported by the Guggenheim Foundation. The present study analyzes the devastating wartime destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire as the cataclysmic culmination of a historical process involving the progressive Turkish decimation of the Armenians through intermittent and incremental massacres. In addition to the excellent general bibliography there is an annotated bibliography of selected books used in the study. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The History of the Armenian Genocide

The first genocide of the twentieth century remains unrecognized and unpunished. Turkey continues to deny the slaughter of over a million Ottoman Armenians in 1915 and the following years. What sets the Armenian genocide apart from other mass atrocities is that the country responsible has never officially acknowledged its actions, and no individual has ever been brought to justice. In Turkey and the Armenian Ghost, a translation of the award-winning La Turquie et le fantôme arménien, Laure Marchand and Guillaume Perrier visit historic sites and interview politicians, elderly survivors, descendants, authors, and activists in a quest for the hidden truth. Taking the reader into remote mountain regions, tiny hamlets, and the homes of traumatized victims of a deadly persecution that continues to this day, they reveal little-known aspects of the history and culture of a people who have been rendered invisible in their ancient homeland. Seeking to illuminate complex issues of blame and responsibility, guilt and innocence, the authors discuss the roles played in this drama by the "righteous Turks," the Kurds, the converts, the rebels, and the "leftovers of the sword." They also describe the struggle to have the genocide officially recognized in Turkey, France, and the United States. Arguing that this giant cover-up has had consequences for Turks as well as for Armenians, the authors point to a society sickened by a century of denial. The face of Turkey is gradually changing, however, and a new generation of Turks is beginning to understand what happened and to realize that the ghost of the Armenian genocide must be recognized and laid to rest.

Turkey and the Armenian Ghost

Drawing on archival sources, reportage and moving personal stories, de Waal tells the full story of Armenian-Turkish relations since the Genocide in all its extraordinary twists and turns. He looks behind the propaganda to examine the realities of a terrible historical crime and the divisive "politics of genocide" it produced.

Great Catastrophe

The book represents an earthquake in genocide studies, particularly in the field of Armenian Genocide research. A unique feature of the Armenian Genocide has been the long-standing efforts of successive Turkish governments to deny its historicity and to hide the documentary evidencesurrounding it. This book provides a major clarification of the often blurred lines between facts and truth in regard to these events. The authenticity of the killing orders signed by Ottoman Interior Minister Talat Pasha and the memoirs of the Ottoman bureaucrat Naim Efendi have been two of the most contested topics in this regard. The denialist school has long argued that these documents and memoirs were all forgeries, produced by Armenians to further their claims. Taner Akçam provides the evidence to refute the basis of these claims and demonstrates clearly why the documents can be trusted as authentic, revealing the genocidal intent of the Ottoman-Turkish government towards its Armenian population. As such, this work removes a cornerstone from the denialist edifice, and further establishes the historicity of the Armenian Genocide.

Killing Orders

Between 1915 and 1925 as many as 1.5 million Armenians, a minority in the Ottoman Empire, died in Ottoman Turkey, victims of execution, starvation, and death marches to the Syrian Desert. Peterson explores the American response to these atrocities, from initial reports to President Wilson until Armenia's eventual absorption into the Soviet Union.

"Starving Armenians"

The final years of the Ottoman Empire were catastrophic ones for its non-Turkish, non-Muslim minorities. From 1913 to 1923, its rulers deported, killed, or otherwise persecuted staggering numbers of citizens in an attempt to preserve “Turkey for the Turks,” setting a modern precedent for how a regime can commit genocide in pursuit of political ends while largely escaping accountability. While this brutal history is most widely known in the case of the Armenian genocide, few appreciate the extent to which the Empire’s Assyrian and Greek subjects suffered and died under similar policies. This comprehensive volume is the first to broadly examine the genocides of the Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks in comparative fashion, analyzing the similarities and differences among them and giving crucial context to present-day calls for recognition.

Genocide in the Ottoman Empire

The Armenian Genocide was one of the greatest atrocities of the twentieth century, an episode in which up to 1.5 million Armenians lost their lives. In this major new history, the renowned historian Raymond Kevorkian provides an authoritative account of the origins, events and consequences of the years 1915 and 1916. He considers the role that the Armenian Genocide played in the construction of the Turkish nation state and Turkish identity, as well as exploring the ideologies of power, rule and state violence. Crucially, he examines the consequences of the violence against the Armenians, the implications of deportations and attempts to bring those who committed the atrocities to justice. Kevorkian offers a detailed and meticulous record, providing an authoritative analysis of the events and their impact upon the Armenian community itself, as well as the development of the Turkish state. This important book will serve as an indispensable resource to historians of the period, as well as those wishing to understand the history of genocidal violence more generally.

A definitive history of the 20th century's first major genocide on its 100th anniversary Starting in early 1915, the Ottoman Turks began deporting and killing hundreds of thousands of Armenians in the first major genocide of the twentieth century. By the end of the First World War, the number of Armenians in what would become Turkey had been reduced by 90 percent—more than a million people. A century later, the Armenian Genocide remains controversial but relatively unknown, overshadowed by later slaughters and the chasm separating Turkish and Armenian interpretations of events. In this definitive narrative history, Ronald Suny cuts through nationalist myths, propaganda, and denial to provide an unmatched account of when, how, and why the atrocities of 1915–16 were committed. Drawing on archival documents and eyewitness accounts, this is an unforgettable chronicle of a cataclysm that set a tragic pattern for a century of genocide and crimes against humanity.

"They Can Live in the Desert but Nowhere Else"

An analysis of the Turkish position regarding the Armenian claims of genocide during World War I and the continuing debate over this issue, the author offers an equal examination of each side's historical position. The book asks "what is genocide?" and illustrates that although this is a useful concept to describe such evil events as the Jewish Holocaust in World War II and Rwanda in the 1990s, the term has also been overused, misused, and therefore trivialized by many different groups seeking to demonize their antagonists and win sympathetic approbation for them. The author includes the Armenians in this category because, although as many as 600,000 of them died during World War I, it was neither a premeditated policy perpetrated by the Ottoman Turkish government nor an event unilaterally implemented without cause. Of course, in no way does this excuse the horrible excesses committed by the Turks.

Armenian History and the Question of Genocide

This book rethinks the Armenian people as significant actors in the context of Mediterranean and global history. Spanning a millennium of cross-cultural interaction and exchange across the Mediterranean world, essays move between connected histories, frontier studies, comparative literature, and discussions of trauma, memory, diaspora, and visual culture. Contributors dismantle narrow, national ways of understanding Armenian literature; propose new frameworks for mapping the post-Ottoman Mediterranean world; and navigate the challenges of writing national history in a globalized age. A century after the Armenian genocide, this book reimagines the borders of the “Armenian,” pointing to a fresh vision for the field of Armenian studies that is omnivorously comparative, deeply interconnected, and rich with possibility.

An Armenian Mediterranean

The medieval historian of the Armenian people Movses Khorenatsi was the first Armenian to give a wonderful account of the inception of his nation in Babylon, the power struggles of the Armenian aristocracy, and the final dissolution of the Armenian kingdom. As the author said about his compatriots: "For although we are a small garden, and are very limited in number, and deprived of power, and have been conquered by other nations many times, still in our country there have been many feats of courage worthy of being immortalized in writing, which, however, none of them cared to record in books." The Armenian historian provided a very honest description of the Armenian society not being shy to praise the heroic exploits of some Armenians, such as the courageous founders of the Armenian people - Hayk and Aram, the brave king Tigran, the wise inventor of the Armenian script Mesrop Mashtots, and concurrently being brutal in his criticism of others: "Therefore, while mourning my people, I will say as Paul said about his enemies and the foes of the cross of Christ, using not my own, but the Holy Spirit’s words. A flawed and disappointing clan, the clan unsettled in heart and unfaithful to God in its spirit! People of Aram! How long will you be hard-hearted, why do you love vanity and godlessness? Do you not realize that the Lord has magnified his saint and that the Lord will not hear when you call to him? For you have become hardened in the Fall and do not repent on your lounges, for you make unlawful sacrifices, and despise those who trust in God." The book consists of 3 parts - the genealogy of Great Armenia, the Middle history, and the completion of the history. The final chapter of the book ends with the lament over the loss of the Armenian kingdom:"I mourn you, the Armenian country, mourn you, the noblest of all the northern (countries), for the king and the priest, the mentor and the teacher were taken away from you; the world got disturbed, the disorder took root, the orthodoxy got shaken, the ignorance affirmed other faith.I am sorry for you, the Armenian church, which has lost the beauty of the altar, deprived of a brave pastor and his companion. I no longer see your intelligent herd grazing on a green meadow and near the waters of rest, or gathered in a sheepfold and protected from the wolves, but (I see) it scattered across the wastelands and the steep mountains."

History of Armenia.

As a new independent Republic of Armenia is established among the ruins of the Soviet Union, Armenians are rethinking their history—the processes by which they arrived at statehood in a small part of their historic homeland, and the definitions they might give to boundaries of their nation. Both a victim and a beneficiary of rival empires, Armenia experienced a complex evolution as a divided or an erased polity with a widespread diaspora. Ronald Grigor Suny traces the cultural and social transformations and interventions that created a new sense of Armenian nationality in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Perceptions of antiquity and uniqueness combined in the popular imagination with the experiences of dispersion, genocide, and regeneration to forge an Armenian nation in Transcaucasia. Suny shows that while the limits of Armenia at times excluded the diaspora, now, at a time of state renewal, the boundaries have been expanded to include Armenians who live beyond the borders of the republic.

Looking Toward Ararat

Translated from French, this book is an account of Ottoman Armenian magnates of the 18th and 19th centuries, called Amiras, who ran the treasury, mint and armaments factories, built palaces and public buildings, and operated other monopolies. They had good relations with Ottoman Sultans and administrators and played an important role in the development of the Ottoman Armenian millet. Some of these amiras also dominated Egypt, as it broke away from the Ottoman Empire. Pascal Carmont (1928-2011) was a french diplomat of Armenian origin and a descendant of the Amiras of Constantinople. His publication Les Amiras: Seigneurs de l'Armenie ottomane was originally published by Editions Salvator (paris) in 1999.

The Amiras

The Resistance Network is the history of an underground network of humanitarians, missionaries, and diplomats in Ottoman Syria who helped save the lives of thousands during the Armenian Genocide. Khatchig Mouradian challenges depictions of Armenians as passive victims of violence and subjects of humanitarianism, demonstrating the key role they played in organizing a humanitarian resistance against the destruction of their people. Piecing together hundreds of accounts, official documents, and missionary records, Mouradian presents a social history of genocide and resistance in wartime Aleppo and a network of transit and concentration camps stretching from Bab to Ras ul-Ain and Der Zor. He ultimately argues that, despite the violent and systematic mechanisms of control and destruction in the cities, concentration camps, and massacre sites in this region, the genocide of the Armenians did not progress unhindered—unarmed resistance proved an important factor in saving countless lives.

The Resistance Network

Edited by the leading historian of the Republic of Armenia, this is the definitive history of an extraordinary country - from its earliest foundations, through the Crusades, the resistance to Ottoman and Tsarist rule, the collapse of the independent state, its brief re-emergence after World War I, its subjugation by the Bolsheviks, and the establishment of the new Republic in 1991. Written by the foremost experts on each period in Armenia's history, this book is a major contribution to understanding the complexities of Transcaucasia. Armenia is a cradle of civilization situated on one of the world's most turbulent crossroads. This volume examines the question of Armenian origins and traces domestic and international relations, society and culture through the five dynastic periods, spanning nearly two thousand years. The challenge facing the Armenian people was to maintain as much freedom as possible under the shadow of powerful neighbouring empires. The adoption of Christianity had a permanent impact on the course of Armenian history and culture. These were the heroic, colourful and harsh feudal centuries of Armenia.

The Armenian People from Ancient to Modern Times

The Art of Armenia offers a sweeping survey of the arts of Armenia from antiquity to the eighteenth century C.E., addressing a range of media including architecture, sculpture, works in metal, wood, and ivory, manuscript illumination, and ceramic arts.

The Art of Armenia

The Armenian revolutionary movement

Moses Khorenatsi was a skilled philosopher and rhetorician whose History has been used as a textbook for many centuries. Using extensive research into the pre-history of the Armenians and the seventh-century History of Bishop Sebeos, Gabriel Soultanian sheds light on the obscure areas of the History and its creator. Combined with the Assyro-Babylonian sources, he confirms the majority of the names, ancient sayings, demotic tales and events that Moses records and throws light on many other frustrating or ill-understood problems. In the process he also solves the problem of dating Khorenatsi and his work, a hitherto controversial subject not helped by conflicting and unfounded theories expounded by scholars previously on the subject. Gabriel Soultanian is an independent writer based in the United Kingdom and Armenia. He is the author of four ground-breaking studies published by Bennett & Bloom.

The History of the Armenians and Mosēs Khorenats'i

How mass migration and a refugee crisis transformed Armenian culture in the 17th-century Ottoman Empire At the turn of the 17th century, the historical Armenian population centres in Eastern Anatolia and the Caucasus were ravaged by war with Persia, rebellion, famine and economic collapse. This instability caused mass migrations towards secure territories in Western Anatolia, Istanbul and Thrace, migrations which catalysed a renaissance of Armenian literary and cultural life in the Ottoman capital. This book traces the emergence, experiences and cultural and literary production of Armenian communities in and around Istanbul and the western provinces of the Ottoman Empire in the early modern period. Using both Ottoman Turkish and little-known Armenian sources, Henry Shapiro provides a systematic study of the Armenian population movements that resulted in the cosmopolitan remaking of Istanbul - and the birth of the Western Armenian diaspora. Key Features  The first English-language book on Armenian cultural history in the early modern Ottoman Empire  Based on original research using Armenian manuscripts and Ottoman Turkish archives  Includes 3 black-and-white maps and 20 photographs of Armenian ruins, historical sites and manuscript pages Henry R. Shapiro is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Polansky Academy for Advanced Study at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute.

The Rise of the Western Armenian Diaspora in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire

On April 24, 1915, Grigoris Balakian was arrested along with some 250 other leaders of Constantinople’s Armenian community. It was the beginning of the Ottoman Empire’s systematic attempt to eliminate the Armenian people from Turkey—a campaign that continued through World War I and the fall of the empire. Over the next four years, Balakian would bear witness to a seemingly endless caravan of blood, surviving to recount his miraculous escape and expose the atrocities that led to over a million deaths. Armenian Golgotha is Balakian’s devastating eyewitness account—a haunting reminder of the first modern genocide and a controversial historical document that is destined to become a classic of survivor literature.

Armenian Golgotha

After the Armenian genocide of 1915, in which over a million Armenians died, thousands of Armenians lived and worked in the Turkish state alongside those who had persecuted their communities. Living in the context of pervasive denial, how did Armenians remaining in Turkey record their own history? Here, Talin Suciyan explores the life experienced by these Armenian communities as Turkey's modernisation project of the twentieth century gathered pace. Suciyan achieves this through analysis of remarkable new primary material: Turkish state archives, minutes of the Armenian National Assembly, a kaleidoscopic series of personal diaries, memoirs and oral histories, various Armenian periodicals such as newspapers, yearbooks and magazines, as well as statutes and laws which led to the continuing persecution of Armenians. The first history of its kind, The Armenians in Modern Turkey is a fresh contribution to the history of modern Turkey and the Armenian experience there.

The Armenians in Modern Turkey

VAHRAMS CHRONICLE OF THE ARMEN

Excerpt from Vahram's Chronicle of the Armenian Kingdom in Cilicia, During the Time of the Crusades The greatest defect of the following Chronicle is its brevity. Varram, of whose life little more is known than that he was a native of Edessa, a priest, and the secretary of king Leon III., ex hibits almost all the faults of the com mon Chroniclers of the Middle Ages. He relates many barren facts, without stating the circumstances with which they were connected, and he mistakes every where the passions of men for the finger of God. The compilers of chronicles were in those ages ignorant of the true end, and unacquainted with the proper objectsviii preface. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Vahram's Chronicle of the Armenian Kingdom in Cilicia, During the Time of the Crusades (Classic Reprint)

From early antiquity, the Armenian people developed a rich and distinctive culture on the great highland plateau extending from eastern Asia Minor to the Caucasus. On that crossroad, they interacted on many levels with civilizations of the Orient and Occident. Armenian Kars and Ani represents a departure from the preceding volumes in this series which have focused on the historic Western Armenian provinces, cities, and communities that were encompassed in the Ottoman Empire. In modern history, Kars and Ani were very much a part of Eastern or Russian Armenia, and, even after the Turkish border was pushed eastward again in the aftermath of World War I, the Russian and Caucasian influences in the region remained manifest in its urban planning and architecture and in its music, cuisine, and other forms of popular culture. Historically, Ani, lying along the right bank of the Akhurian (Arpachai) River in the great plain of Shirak, outshone Kars (Vanand) as the medieval Bagratuni/Bagratid kingdom's last illustrious capital city, with its great walls and grand palaces and its fabled thousand and one churches. But Kars preceded Ani as the Bagratuni capital and, what was more, continued to exist as a regional administrative center long after the decline and ultimate abandonment of Ani. Hence, while the histories of the two neighboring Armenian cities are linked, they are also quite distinct. The UCLA conference series, Historic Armenian Cities and Provinces, is organized by the Holder of the Armenian Educational Foundation Chair in Modern Armenian History with the purpose of exploring and illuminating the historical, political, cultural, religious, social, and economic legacies of a people rooted for millennia on the Armenian highland. Armenian Kars and Ani is the tenth of the conference proceedings to be published. Scholars from various disciplines present the history and culture of the region across the centuries until its de-Armenianization between 1918 and 1921. Other volumes in this series include Armenian Van/Vaspurakan; Baghesh/Bitlis and Taron/Mush; Tsopk/Kharpert; Karin/Erzerum; Sebastia/Sivas and Lesser Armenia; Tigranakert/Diarbekir and Edessa/Urfa; Cilicia; Pontus--Trebizond-Black Sea Communities; and Constantinople. Publisher's note.

Armenian Kars and Ani

Urartian Architecture

Sirarpie Der Nersessian's scholarship has influenced the understanding of Armenian art and its Byzantine context. These two volumes are the culmination of six decades devoted to the exploration of Armenian art, and reflect a deep knowledge of the manuscripts and their creators.

Miniature Painting in the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia from the Twelfth to the Fourteenth Century

A History of the Armenian People

The Armenians in History and the Armenian Question

The Pre-history of the Armenians

The first part of the study discusses the origins of the Armenians, the Urartian Kingdom, Armenia and the Achaemenid, Seleucid, Parthian, Roman, Sasanid and Byzantine periods. It also examines Christinaity in Armenia and the development of an alphabet and literature. The work then continues with the history of Armenia during the Arab, Turkish and Mongol periods. A separate chapter deals with the history of Cilician Armenia and the Crusades. The second part concentrates on the Armenian communities in the Ottoman, Persian, Indian, and Russian empires (1500-1918). It also details the Armenian diaspora in Eastern and Western Europe, Africa, the Arab World, the Far East, and the Americas. The study concludes with lengthy chapters on the history of the three Armenian republics (1918-1920); (1921-1991Soviet Armenia); and the current Armenian republic (1991-2001)

A Concise History of the Armenian People

History of Armenia, from B. C. 2247 to the year of Christ 1780, or 1229 of the Armenian era is a translation of an abridged version of the three-volume history of Armenia, originally written in Armenian by Father Mik'ayel Ch'amch'yants' and published in Venice in 1784-86. Ch'amch'yants' was born in Istanbul in 1738, and in 1762 he became a member of the Armenian Catholic Mekhitarist order at the St. Lazar Monastery in Venice. Written in chronicle style and based on Armenian and non-Armenian primary source materials, this work by Ch'amch'yants' was the first critical examination of the history of the Armenian people. In 1811 Ch'amch'yants' produced an abridged version of the history, which Hovhannēs Avdaleantsʻ (Johannes Avdall) translated into English and which was published in Calcutta (present-day Kolkata) in 1827. The translation includes a dedication by Avdaleantsʻ to the Asiatic Society of Bengal, a preface by Avdaleantsʻ containing an overview of the history of Armenia and assessments of the most important Armenian historians, and a postscript containing a summary of events in Armenia from 1780 to 1827.

History of Armenia, by Father Michael Chamich

The Ancient Civilization of Urartu

Highlights of Armenian History and Its Civilization

History of the Armenians in India from the Earliest Times to the Present Day

Vahram's Chronicle of the Armenian Kingdom in Cilicia, During the Time of the Crusades

VAHRAM'S CHRONICLE OF THE ARMENIAN KINGDOM IN CILICIA, DURING THE TIME OF THE CRUSADES.

The Cilician Kingdom of Armenia

The History of the Kingdom of Van, Urartu

From the Armenian Highland to Iran. A Study on the Relations Between the Kingdom of Urartu and the Achaemenid Empire

First mentioned in Assyrian documents of the 13th century, the Urartians commanded a large kingdom stretching from the Euphrates in the west to Transcaucasia in the north and the Taurus mountains in the south. This book accompanies an exhibition held in 2003 and 2004 at Yapi Kredi Vedat Nedim Tor Museum, covering the history, art, architecture and religion of Urartian culture. Eight dual-language essays in Turkish and English discuss Urartian language and writing, the history of the kingdom, its topography, the capital of Tuspha and its architectural legacy, through to the apparent violent destruction of many sites around the 7th century. These are followed by a large catalogue of objects from the exhibition including those relating to daily life, jewellery and ornaments, the army and warfare, religion and belief.

Urartu

The Capital of Urartu

The Development of Defence System of Eastern Anatolia (the Armenian Upland)

Tigranes II and Rome

History of the Armenians in India

Unmailed Letters

The history of Armenia, an ancient country in the South Caucasus region, is a rich tapestry woven through millennia. Renowned as one of the world's oldest civilizations, Armenia's story begins with the Kingdom of Urartu in the 9th century BC, known for its advanced metallurgy and engineering. It became the first state to adopt Christianity as its official religion in 301 AD under King Tiridates III, establishing a profound cultural identity. Throughout its history, Armenia has been at the crossroads of various empires, including Roman, Byzantine, Persian, and Ottoman, which has significantly influenced its unique culture, language, and heritage. The Armenian Genocide of 1915, perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire, is a pivotal and tragic part of its history, leading to a widespread diaspora. Despite this, Armenia has preserved its distinct identity, evident in its ancient architectural wonders like the temples of Garni and Geghard, and in its vibrant traditions in music, art, and cuisine. As a burgeoning hub for tourism and cultural exploration, Armenia's historical journey from ancient times to its current republic status is a testament to its resilience and enduring legacy.