CONFERENCE DEVOTED TO THE PROBLEMS OF THE ARMENIANS WHO HAVE CONVERTED THEIR RELIGION OR CONFESSION
On June 6 the conference was arranged in “Noravank” Foundation devoted to the problems of the Armenians who have converted their religion or confession. It is not a secret that the problem of the Armenians who have converted their religion or confession is of great scientific importance and it is one of the little-studied areas of the Armenian studies. Thus, in this context too, the meetings, the exchanges of views and the combination of the efforts of the specialists dealing with this problem are rather useful and justified. The recent obscure big deal, which has little to do with science, made out of the topic of the Armenians who converted their fate once more came to prove that the problem should be dealt with from the dedicated positions, and the argued and logically substantiated conclusions must be made.
In his opening speech the director of “Noravank” Foundation Gagik Harutyunyan mentioned the importance of the scientific research of the problem especially in the context of the ongoing developments. The first who addressed the meeting was the head of “The Centre of Western Armenian Studies” Scientific-Research Foundation Haykazun Alvratsyan who spoke about the national identity of the forcibly converted people. On this problem, according to the speaker, the national morale should be of paramount importance.
The report by the editor of “Droshak” magazine Karen Khanlaryan was devoted to the issue of the political views of the crypto-Armenians in Turkey. The Head of the Department of the Armenian Studies of “Noravank” Foundation Rouben Melkonyan spoke about the activation of the theme of the Islamized Armenian women in the modern Turkish literature and mentioned that the trend, which has emerged recently in that line, is interesting of itself and at the same time it is a source of the study both of the Islamized Armenains’ problems and of the Armenian Genocide.
Sergey Vardanyan who has dealt with the problems of Hemshin Armenians spoke about the dialect of the converted Hemshin Armenians and presented his quite recently published valuable book, which was devoted both to the dialect and the folklore of the converted Hemshin Armenians. The experienced scholar also touched on the self-consciousness of the Hemshin Armenians and the relations with the Christian Armenians.
The report by the director of “Modus Vivendi” Centre Ara Papyan covered the problem of the Catholic Armenians of Gerla. It is remarkable that the speaker’s report was based on his personal observations, which were gathered during diplomatic career in the process of the communication with those Armenians (which are mainly known as Transilvanian Armenians). At the end the report was made by the expert of “Noravank” Foundation Aristakes Simavoryan who spoke about the Catholic Armenians in Javakhq. It should be mentioned that his report was based on on-the-spot the researches, which were carried out by the initiative of “Noravank” Foundation.
The reports were followed by interesting discussion and comments. There was an agreement to continue cooperation between the specialists on the issue of the problem study.
