PROFESSOR RICHARD HOVANNISIAN IN SUMMER CONFERENCES
AZG Armenian Daily #160
05/09/2007
During the summer months, Professor Richard Hovannisian, AEF Chair
in Armenian History at UCLA, has continued his active schedule of
conferences and presentations relating to Armenian history and issues.
Dr. Hovannisian gave the opening address at an international symposium
on the history of Shushi, which was held under the auspices of Yerevan
State University, Armenian National Academy of Sciences, and the
Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Mountainous Karabagh. The
meetings were held in the Music Academy of Shushi and at Artsakh
State University in Stepanakert, June 20-24, 2007. In his paper,
Hovannisian focused on the relevance of Shushi in Armenian history,
with particular reference to the modern period and the lessons to
be learned from the struggle for Karabagh in the years of the first
Armenian republic. Hovannisian was a part of a small delegation to meet
with outgoing Karabagh President Arkady Gukasyan. Professor Kevork
Bardakjian of the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor also attended
the conference and presented a paper on prominent literary figures
of Shushi.
Immediately upon his return to Los Angeles at the end of June, Richard
Hovannisian took part in a week-long Facing History summer institute
on ways and means to teach about the Armenian Genocide. Teachers from
across the United States had come to Antioch College in Los Angeles
to gain further training on implementation of the Facing History
resource book titled Crimes Against Humanity and Civilization:
Genocide of the Armenians. Professor Hovannisian shared with the
teachers his experience in teaching about the Armenian Genocide and
about genocide in comparative perspective within the parameters of
the Facing History program
Dr. Hovannisian then traveled to Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, to
participate in the Seventh Bienniel Meeting of the International
Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS), July 9-13. A number of
participants specializing in various aspects of the Armenian Genocide
were present for the conference: Haig Demoyan and Tigran Sarukhanyan
from Armenia; Herve Georgelin and Sevane Garibian from France; Carlos
Antaramian fromMexico, Ani Degirmencioglu from Turkey and Austria;
and Peter Balakian, Annie Kalaydjian, Ed Maljian, Arsen Marsoobian,
Rubina Peroomian, and Hasmig Tatiossian from the United States.
The IAGS honored Ambassador John Evans with the Raoul Wallenberg Award
"for speaking out when diplomats are expected to remain silent and for
calling upon the United States Government to recognize the Armenian
Genocide." Ambassador Evans gave a powerful affirmation of his position
on the Armenian Genocide and crimes against humanity. Rajib Zarakoglu
recived the IAGS Award "for combating denial of the Armenian Genocide
and all genocides."
Richard Hovannisian’s conference presentation focused on the new wave
of genocide denial, with particular reference to the recent publication
of Guenther Lewy’s The Armenian Massacres in Ottoman Turkey: A Disputed
Genocide, issued by the University of Utah Press, along with Justin
McCarthy’s The Armenian Rebellion at Van. He pointed to Lewy’s clever
but highly flawed methodology and claims of objectivity disguised under
a false veneer of deconstructing and discounting the primary sources
relating to the Armenian Genocide. In Hovannisian’s earlier discussion
on the subject at the University of Utah, the school newspaper,
The Daily Utah Chronicle, ran a feature article on this issue.
Back in Los Angeles, Professor Hovannisian joined Dr. Kevork
Keshishian, Mrs. Janet Kassouni, Dr. Vicken Aharonian, Mr. Panos
Titizian, Archbishop Hovnan Derderian, and the community at the
AGBU Manoogian Center in Pasadena on August 17 in paying tribute to
Dr. Haig Messerlian for his decades of dedicated service to education
and historical research.
Messerlian, the long-time principal of the Evangelical High School in
Beirut, is also the author of several important monographs on modern
Armenian history.
Coinciding with the beginning of a new academic year at UCLA, Richard
Hovannisian’s final summer engagement will be on September 29 as
the keynote speaker at the first banquet of the Alumni and Friends
of the Armenian Studies Program at California State University,
Northridge. There, Richard Hovannisian will address the subject,
"Links and Gaps in Modern Armenian History."