SYNOPSIS OF THE PANEL "ARMENIANS AND ISLAM" AT THE 10TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF THE CENTRAL EURASIAN STUDIES SOCIETY, UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO, CANADA, OCTOBER 8-11, 2009

AZG DAILY
14-11-2009

Science

On October 10, 2009, Mushegh Asatryan and Khachik Gevorgyan, the
founding members of the Armenian Association for Academic Partnership
and Support (ARMACAD) took part in the panel "Armenians and Islam",
organized by them, which was part at the Central Eurasian Studies
Society’s 10th annual Conference at the University of Toronto, Canada.

In late January a call for papers was distributed by Mushegh Asatryan
to invite all interested parties to participate in the panel. From
more than 15 applications 8 were accepted to constitute 2 different
panels on "Armenians and Islam", one on the medieval, and the other
on the modern periods. The organizers of the conference accepted the
panel on modern issues concerning the Armenians and Islam. After
negotiations with the organizers the panels were merged and 3
participants registered for the mentioned panel.

On October 10 in the room N 023 at the Munk centre for international
studies at the University of Toronto the panel on "Armenians and
Islam" started.

The organizer of panel Mr. Mushegh Asatryan introduced to participants
of the panel the idea and the reason of organizing such a panel. Since
Armenian history and culture are viewed as part of the Christian
heritage, Armenian studies is traditionally viewed as part of the
study of the Christian Middle East, with little attention to the
Islamic milieu in which Armenians have always lived. A second point
worth mentioning is the popular view among Armenians of the Islamic
world at best as "foreign", and at worst as an "enemy". This view is
sometimes shared by Armenian academics working on Armenian history,
which makes them view the history of Armenian interactions with
the Muslim world as a series of battles and massacres (due to some
historical events, such as the Genocide), completely ignoring the rich
cultural interaction between the Armenians and the Muslim world. Thus,
this panel is a symbolic step in urging future historians to view
Armenian history in a more complex manner.

As a discussant of the panel Dr. Khachik Gevorgyan mainly focused on
the following:

So far the discipline of Armenian Studies has been introduced either
via separate conferences devoted only to Armenian Studies, or this
discipline was introduced as a panel at international conferences
mainly devoted to Middle Eastern Studies, Christian Studies, Bible
Studies, etc.

He mentioned that one of the main ideas of this panel within this
conference is to introduce the Armenian Studies in a broader concept of
Eurasian Studies, which, of course, in some cases do overlap with the
Middle Eastern Studies. But still taking into consideration the modern
socio-political realities as well as the historical events through
centuries it is important to view Armenian realities in the context
of Eurasian Studies and more specifically in the context of Central
Asian and Caucasian studies, which in their turn are main geographical
areas to be studied within the Central Eurasian Studies Society. Thus
this society and this conference were chosen by the organizers of
this panel the Armenian Studies to be introduced in a new perspective.

As the programs of many conferences on Armenian Studies show, the main
bulk of participants are from different countries but not Armenia. Dr.

Gevorgyan mentioned that this situation has been changed by the active
involvement of the Armenian Studies program at Michigan, Ann Arbor,
which strives to always have representatives of Armenian academic
circles during the events organized on Armenian Studies at Ann Arbor.

>From this point, Dr. Gevorgyan particularly mentioned that the
importance of this panel can be viewed also from the perspective that
it is organized by those who have their academic background from the
Republic of Armenia and are bearers of Armenian Academic culture.

Then Dr. Gevorgyan discussed two papers presented at the panel
by Alyson Wharton (SOAS, University of London), "The Rise and
Eventual Fall of the Balyan Family: The Phenomenon of a Family of
Armenian-Ottoman Architects in 19th Century Istanbul" and Roubina
Shnorhokian (Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada),
"A Medieval Trans-imperial Chronicle: Preliminary Remarks on the
Examples of Het’um of Korykos and Rashid al-Din". Sona Tajiryan from
the Republic of Armenia who was to present a paper was unable to
attend this conference.