PRESS RELEASE
National Association for Armenian Studies and Research
395 Concord Ave.
Belmont, MA 02478
Phone: 617-489-1610
E-mail: hq@naasr.org
Web:
Contact: Marc A. Mamigonian
LECTURE ON KARABAGH MOVEMENT,
GENOCIDE, AND ARMENIAN IDENTITY AT NAASR
Prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union, there were several national mass
social and political movements in various parts of the country. For
Armenians, the Karabagh Movement of 1988-1990 is particularly significant.
Important aspects of contemporary Armenian society developed during the
two-and-a-half years that the Karabagh Movement lasted. Eventually the
Movement led to revolu-tionary changes in the lives of the people of Soviet
Armenia and challenged views, perspectives, and images that had developed
after the Armenian Genocide and during the decades of Soviet rule. These
changes have had far-reaching effects on Armenian national identity as a
whole.
Dr. Harutyun Marutyan will describe the crucial and positive role of
historical memory in the Karabagh Movement in a lecture at the Center of the
National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR), 395 Concord
Ave., Belmont, Mass., on Wednesday, April 21, at 8 p.m. He will
particularly review the liberation of Armenia from the Soviet regime and the
building of an independ-ent state aspiring to democratic values and the
creation of a civil society. The lecture is co-sponsored by NAASR and the
Zoryan Institute for Contemporary Armenian Research and Documentation.
Questions to be Addressed
Through the examination of the visual imagery of the Karabagh Movement – its
posters and banners – Dr. Marutyan will explain how the mechanism of
historical memory, especially the Armenian people’s memory of the Genocide,
functioned in the Movement. These posters represented images of identity
and serve as an index of the collective understanding of the Movement by its
participants. Changes in these images directly echoed changes in the
political situation and contrib-uted to changes in how the Armenian people
understand their past, present, and future.
Visiting Scholar at MIT
Dr. Harutyun Marutyan is a Social/Cultural Anthropologist, Senior Researcher
at the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography in the National Academy of
Sciences of Armenia, and is also Visiting Professor of Anthropology at
Yerevan State University. Currently, Dr. Marutyan is a Fulbright Visiting
Scholar at the Anthropology Program, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Admission to the lecture is free (donations are appreciated). A
question-and-answer period and reception will follow the lecture. The NAASR
Bookstore will open at 7:30 p.m.
The NAASR Center and Headquarters is located at 395 Concord Avenue near
Belmont Center and is directly opposite the First Armenian Church and next
to the U.S. Post Office. Ample parking is available around the building and
in adjacent areas.
More information on Dr. Marutyan’s lecture or about NAASR and its programs
for the furtherance of Armenian studies, research, and publication may be
had by calling 617-489-1610, by fax at 617-484-1759, by e-mail at
hq@naasr.org, or by writing to NAASR, 395 Concord Ave., Belmont, MA 02478.