MANUSCRIPTS, LOST DUE TO ARMENIAN GENOCIDE, MAY EXCEED 30,000

12:03, 5 March, 2015

YEREVAN, MARCH 5, ARMENPRESS: Due to the Armenian Genocide, besides
the enormous human losses, the Armenians had also material culture
losses, including the ancient Armenian manuscripts. The number of the
manuscripts, lost because of the Armenian Genocide, is about 30,000.

Armenpress talked about the lost and survived manuscripts, as
well as our activities to return the lost manuscripts, with Gevorg
Ter-Vardanyan, the Chief Warder of Matenadaran.

Gevorg Ter-Vardanyan stated that the philologists began the description
and the record of the manuscripts in 1880s. “The number of the
manuscripts, described in the media or the scientific literature,
which have been lost after the Armenian Genocide and we do not know
if they still exist, is more than 9,000. From 1880 to 1915 it is 30-35
years, which is quite a short period of time to implement recording.

Taking into account the fact that every church in the Western Armenia’s
settlements should have a manuscript book, the number of 30,000 may
be smaller than it is in reality. What has happened to them, we do
not know. They could have had different destinies”, – said the Chief
Warder of Matenadaran.