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02.03.2015

CENTERS FOR ARMENIAN STUDIES IN THE POST-SOVIET COUNTRIES

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Vahram Hovyan
Expert, Centre for the Armenian Studies, Noravank Foundation

In the ex-USSR, centers for Armenian Studies exist mainly in three countries: Russia, Ukraine and Georgia. In all these three countries Armenian Studies have traditionally been a well-developed scientific discipline. Interest toward Armenian Studies in these countries has been triggered by a combination of several factors, including:

1. Existence of large Armenian communities. Russia, Ukraine and Georgia host the most populous Armenian communities in the post-Soviet space. According to some unofficial data, there are 2.5 million Armenians in Russia, and several hundred thousand in Ukraine and Georgia each. In fact, the Armenians residing in Russia constitute the largest Armenian Diaspora community in the world.

2. Traditional cultural and scientific ties between the mentioned countries and Armenia. In case of Georgia its common border with Armenia plays an additional important role.

3. Interests that these countries have in the region. This concerns mostly Russia as a superpower and Georgia as a regional country.

In the post-Soviet space a number of Azerbaijani structures are also “involved” in Armenian topics, although mostly for the purposes of anti-Armenian propaganda. Hence, these are far from being scientific structures. Their main mission is to provide support to the Azeri foreign policies in the information space. These can be best described as “Armenian pseudo-study centers” or “centers for anti-Armenian studies.”

Centers for Armenian Studies in the post-Soviet countries can be divided in three groups:

- Those not nominally considered centers for Armenian Studies, but among other research also conducting Armenian (Armenia- and Armenians-related) studies. These are scientific/educational and academic institutions involved in humanities. In Russia, for example, the Faculty of Asian and African Studies of St. Petersburg State University is such institution. On September 23-25, 2014 it organized an international conference The Written Heritage of Armenia. Another example is the Institute of Asian and African Studies of the Lomonosov Moscow State University, where since 2012 the Armenian language is a core course, and the management of the university has rationalized this by the need to form a hub of Armenian culture not only for the Armenians residing in Russia, but the whole Russian society1. In Georgia such structures include Georgian National Academy of Sciences Institute of History, Institute of Oriental Studies, and the National Centre of Manuscripts. In Ukraine Armenian Studies are pursued at National University of Lvov and University of Kharkov.

These structures are not specifically oriented toward Armenian Studies. Their scope of research is wide and diverse, encompassing history, Oriental Studies, etc., which among other topics and disciplines also include those related to Armenia and Armenians, i.e. Armenian Studies. The centuries-old Armenian-Russian, Armenian-Georgian, Armenian-Ukrainian historical, scientific and cultural ties and interactions are the reason for these institutions’ involvement with Armenian Studies. For instance, as it has been noted, “Armenian-Georgian philosophical and cultural ties expanded in 17-18th centuries, and numerous philosophical writings were translated from Armenian to Georgian, which played an important role in the development of Georgian philosophy.”2 Under such circumstances Armenian Studies become extremely valuable for Russian, Georgian and Ukrainian Studies.

- Special centers for Armenian Studies that are part of the scientific/educational and academic structures. Among such centers are, for example, the Armenian collection at the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Centers of Armenian Studies at Ural Federal University and State University of Nizhniy Novgorod. In Georgia there are two such centers: Chair of Armenian Studies at Tbilisi State University and the Armenian department at the Pedagogical Institute. In Ukraine the Chair of Armenian Studies at National University of Kiev, which was established by the initiative of A. Bozhko, Ukraine’s former Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Armenia3.

- Centers for Armenian Studies that are not part of the scientific/educational and academic structures, but are either separate structures or part of Armenian community organizations. In both cases these centers for Armenian Studies belong to the respective Armenian communities. Examples of such centers include the Center for Armenian Studies and “time to analyze” center in Russia, Armenian Studies Center of the Union of Armenians of Ukraine, the Armenian Research Center in Georgia.

Armenian Studies structures that have NGO status and were established bilaterally also belong to this group. These exist only in Russia and their names normally contain the wording “Russian-Armenian”. Among these centers are Russian-Armenian Friendship (2003), Public Movement in Support of Developing the Russian-Armenian Relations (2010), and Russian-Armenian Strategic Cooperation and Public Initiatives Support Center (2012)4.

The main funding sources of centers for Armenian Studies include the scientific/educational and academic structures which they are part of, organizations of Armenian communities, and the state budget of Armenia. Since the pan-national structures of Diaspora (e.g. AGBU, Hamazkayin Armenian Cultural and Educational Society, etc.) are not active in the post-Soviet countries, perhaps that is why we have found no instances of their financing to any centers for Armenian Studies in these countries.

It has to be noted that the centers for Armenian Studies receive support not only to cover their operating costs, but also for implementing specific programs. For example, as the managers of the Centre for Armenian Studies of Institute of International Relations and World History at the State University of Nizhniy Novgorod have noted in response to our inquiry, the Armenian Community of Nizhniy Novgorod NGO supports the center in such matters as organization of conferences, seminars, and publishing activities. In other example, the Armenian Apostolic Church of St. Petersburg and the Consulate General of Armenia in St. Petersburg provided support to the Faculty of Asian and African Studies of St. Petersburg State University in organizing an international conference The Written Heritage of Armenia.

Some financing is provided to centers for Armenian Studies in the post-Soviet countries through various grant programs.

The main directions of activities of the centers for Armenian Studies in the post-Soviet countries are research, teaching activities, organization of conferences, workshops, round tables and other scientific events, and publishing activities.

The centers for Armenian Studies in the post-Soviet countries conduct diverse scientific research, investigations, analysis that are reflected in monographs, scientific and analytical articles, reports and other documents. The research activities of the centers for Armenian Studies are attested by the existence of graduate and post-graduate programs for Armenian Studies at the scientific/educational institutions of the post-Soviet countries. This also indicates that research work performed at centers for Armenian Studies is incorporated in Master’s degree and PhD theses.

As for educational activities, these are implemented especially at centers for Armenian Studies that are structurally part of the higher education institutions of the post-Soviet countries, for example the Chair of Armenian Studies at Tbilisi State University, Center for Armenian Studies at the State University of Nizhniy Novgorod, Center for Armenian Studies at the Ural Federal University, etc.

Educational activities are characteristic also to the centers for Armenian Studies that were established on voluntary basis and have bilateral affiliations; especially those involved in modern applied research and analysis, or worded differently, the ones that are similar to think-tanks. These centers carry out their educational activities through summer schools, special courses, lectures and workshops.

Centers for Armenian Studies in the post-Soviet countries also organize conferences and other scientific events. Local, country-wide and international conferences are organized. The international conference The Written Heritage of Armenia organized on September 23-25, 2014 by the Faculty of Asian and African Studies of St. Petersburg State University has already been mentioned here above. And the Centre for Armenian Studies of State University of Nizhniy Novgorod has organized two international conferences, one of which was Problems and Prospects of Foreign Policy of the Republic of Armenia and Diaspora (2009), and the other one, Armenia in the Dialog of Civilizations. In October, 2012 Ryazan State University organized an international scientific and practical conference titled Books as the Foundation of National Culture: Russia-Armenia-Europe5.

It has to be mentioned that centers for Armenian Studies in the post-Soviet countries do publish books, digests and periodicals. They also publish both individual and collective monographs on the conducted research, as well as educational manuals. For example the Centre for Armenian Studies of State University of Nizhniy Novgorod has three collective monographs about Armenian-Russian relations, Armenian foreign policy and Armenian communities of the Middle East6, as well as one individual monograph about the Armenian Apostolic Church7. In 2014 the Center published an educational and methodological manual titled The Process of Forming the Foreign Policy of the Republic of Armenia8. The educational manual Armenian Language for CIS Countries published by Moscow State Linguistic University is quite renowned9.

Centers for Armenian Studies also publish conference proceedings. For example, Centre for Armenian Studies of State University of Nizhniy Novgorod has published the proceedings of the above mentioned two international conferences that it organized10. It is also planned to publish collection of presentations delivered at the international conference The Written Heritage of Armenia organized on September 23-25, 2014 by the Faculty of Asian and African Studies of St. Petersburg State University.

As far as the periodicals are concerned, there are yearbooks and more frequently published periodicals that are issued by centers for Armenian Studies in the post-Soviet countries. The Centre for Armenian Studies of State University of Nizhniy Novgorod publishes the Nayiri Yearbook since 2004, which covers topics about Armenia and Diaspora. In 2013 the Union of Armenians of Ukraine had plans to publish «Вестник арменистики» (Bulletin of Armenian Studies) dedicated to the topical issues of history and culture of the Armenian communities in Ukraine, Moldova, Poland and Russia11.

The research interests of the centers for Armenian Studies in the post-Soviet countries encompass such thematic areas as Armenian language, literature, history, Armenian culture and civilization, religion, ethnography, historical, cultural, civilizational interactions between Armenians and other peoples, Diaspora, modern policies, etc. Research works on Armenian Diaspora implemented at centers for Armenian Studies are focused both on Diaspora problems in general, and those of Armenian communities of the specific countries where such centers are located. In the area of modern policies the centers for Armenian Studies are interested in Armenia’s domestic and foreign policies, its regional and international situation, relations between Armenia and the countries where these centers are hosted.

Modern policy topics are pursued mostly by centers for Armenian Studies of the Armenian communities and those established on voluntary basis with bilateral affiliations. Acting like think-tanks, these centers focus most attention on applied research and analysis that are considered imperative in the contemporary period.

Centers for Armenian Studies in the post-Soviet countries have certain experience of cooperation among themselves, as well as with those in other countries and Armenia. The cooperation occurs through publications, exchange of specialists, mutual invitations for lecturing and research activities, organization of joint conferences, participation in each other’s events and other means.

Nevertheless, it has to be noted that the activities of centers for Armenian Studies in the post-Soviet countries and individual researchers is generally uncoordinated. There are no structures created for that purpose. The idea to create a structure to coordinate the activities of centers for Armenian Studies and individual researchers in Russia has been in circulation for a while, although the first attempts to undertake concrete practical steps in this direction have been made only recently. It is intended to create an institutional body that could coordinate the activities of centers for Armenian Studies and individual researchers, akin to the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research, and the Society for Armenian Studies in the USA12.

1 Саядов С., Арменоведение в России: историографический очерк, Հայագիտական միջազգային երկրորդ համաժողով, «Հայագիտությունը և արդի ժամանակաշրջանի մարտահրավերները», Լիագումար նիստի զեկուցումներ, Երևան, 2013, էջ 75։

2 Զաքարյան Ս., Հայ փիլիսոփայության պատմության համառոտ ակնարկ, Երևան, 2004, էջ 50։

3 В Государственном университете Киева будет открыта кафедра арменоведения, http://www.panarmenian.net/rus/society/news/53666/

4 Саядов С., Арменоведение в России: историографический очерк, Հայագիտական միջազգային երկրորդ համաժողով, «Հայագիտությունը և արդի ժամանակաշրջանի մարտահրավերները», Լիագումար նիստի զեկուցումներ, Երևան, 2013, էջ 76։

5 Ibid։

6 Колобов О.А., Корнилов А.А., Симонян А.Г., Российско-армянские отношения. Исторический опыт, стратегические вызовы и перспективы развития, Н. Новгород – Ереван, 2001, 160 с; Асатрян Ю.С., Колобов О.А., Корнилов А.А., Геополитика Армении на Кавказе: генезис, историческая эволюция, перспективы, Н. Новгород-Саров, 2010, 228 с; Егиазарян А.О., Корнилов А.А., Армянские общины в странах Ближнего Востока: история, идентичность, институты, Н.Новгород։ Саров, 2010, 139 с.

7 Григорян Л.С., Армянский Иерусалим. Повествование паломников, Н.Новгород: Кварц, 2013, 160 с.

8 Корнилов А.А., Коротышев А.П., Сорокин А.С., Процесс формирования внешней политики Республики Армения, Практикум, Нижний Новгород, 2014, 69 с.

9 Комарова Р.А. и др., Армянский язык для стран СНГ: учебник, М, 2009.

10 Проблемы и перспективы внешней политики Республики Армении и Спюрка, Материалы международной научной конференции, Нижний Новгород, 2009, 72 с; Армения в диалоге цивилизаций, Материалы международной научной конференции, 28 апреля 2011 года, Нижний Новгород, 2011, 208 с.

11 В Украине готовится к изданию научное периодическое издание «Вестник Арменистики», http://sau.net.ua/content/v-ukraine-gotovitsya-k-izdaniyu-nauchnoe-periodicheskoe-izdanie-vestnik-armenistiki

12 Society of Armenologists of Russia is being established in Moscow, http://en.hayernaysor.am/%D5%B4%D5%B8%D5%BD%D5%AF%D5%BE%D5%A1%D5%B5%D5%B8%D6%82%D5%B4-%D5%BD%D5%BF%D5%A5%D5%B2%D5%AE%D5%BE%D5%B8%D6%82%D5%B4-%D5%A7-%D5%BC%D5%B8%D6%82%D5%BD%D5%A1%D5%BD%D5%BF%D5%A1%D5%B6%D5%AB-%D5%B0/

“Globus” analytical bulletin, No. 1, 2015
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