Author: Mike Maghakian

The Society for Armenian Studies is pleased to announce the establishment of “The Nina G. Garsoïan Graduate Research Grant for Ancient and Early Mediaeval Armenian History.” A $500 grant will be awarded on an annual basis to a graduate student in the field of Ancient and Medieval Armenian History. The grant is funded by Dr. Levon Avdoyan, who recently retired as the Area Specialist for Armenia and Georgia at the African and Middle Eastern Division of the Library of Congress. Dr. Avdoyan received his Ph.D. from Columbia University in New York in ancient and Armenian history under the supervision of Professor Garsoïan.

Dr. Avdoyan commented on the importance of the grant: “Nina Garsoïan’s passion for the Ancient and Early Mediaeval periods of Armenian history and culture led not only to many brilliant publications, but also to the preparation of an entire generation of young Armenists. With her retirement from the Chair at Columbia, the study of the Armenian pre-Christian past went into eclipse in the United States, yielding to more modern studies. I intend, with this modest grant, to support the research activities of those young scholars who have rediscovered or are in the process of rediscovering the allure and intrigue of that past to restore the balance that Garsoïan’s generation worked hard to establish.”

The grant will constitute part of the Society for Armenian Studies Graduate Research and Conference Grant for M.A. and Ph.D. students awarded on semi-annual basis.

“The Society for Armenian Studies highly appreciates Dr. Avdoyan’s initiative of establishing the Nina G. Garsoïan Graduate Research Grant. I hope other scholars and individuals will follow in Dr. Avdoyan’s footsteps and establish named grants to support graduate and post-graduate members of the Society. Students who pursue graduate studies in the field of Armenian Studies usually have limited access to grants. One of the major objectives of the Society for the coming years is to the increase the size of grants so it can help a larger pool of applicants,” stated SAS President, Professor Bedross Der Matossian

Nina G. Garsoïan is a world renowned Byzantanist and Armenologist and author of multiple groundbreaking books and articles. She was the dean of the Princeton University Graduate School and the first holder of the Gevork M. Avedissian Chair in Armenian History and Civilization at Columbia University. She retired in 1993 and is currently Professor Emerita of Armenian History and Civilization. After her retirement, the Avedissian Chair has never been filled and still remains vacant.

For more information on how to establish named grants for graduate and post-graduate students, please contact the President of the Society for Armenian Studies by email.

“The Christian Architecture of the Levant,” a new website dedicated to the churches, monasteries, fortifications and other architecture of the Armenian, Greek, Georgian, Syriac, Crusader and Arab people of the Near East is now available online.

A generous and anonymous grant has allowed the creation of this website as a forum for serious scholars to post their carefully documented photographs, plans, and assessments of the Christian architecture in the Levant. The initial 3,300 photographs, plans and maps of 118 sites presented on the Website are composed of secular, ecclesiastical and military construction within Turkey, from the Byzantine, Cilician Armenian and late Medieval periods. By exposing this material to the widest possible audience, the donors hope to encourage dialogue, provide documentation for publications, and facilitate efforts for the preservation of these endangered monuments.

The rate at which these sites have become damaged and, in some cases, completely obliterated, has accelerated in the last decades. The loss of this world heritage is irreversible and not to be underestimated. “I am thrilled to be bringing this website online,” said Jirair Christianian, General Editor of the website. “It is my hope that others will contribute additional images and plans of these or of other sites, on a non-exclusive basis, in order to make it as comprehensive as possible and a true resource for future researchers,” he added. It is anticipated that the website will eventually cover sites throughout Turkey, Cyprus, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.

Anyone interested in contributing images and plans of the late antique and medieval Christian settlements in the Levant is invited to contact the General Editor via the Contact link in the website header. There is no minimum limit on the number of photographs and plans that can be submitted, and a contributing author is free to deposit any of his/her images contained in this website into any other archive without restrictions.

Volume One of the website is comprised of the archive of Robert W. Edwards, the author, among other publications, of “The Fortifications of Armenian Cilicia” and articles on the ecclesiastical architecture of the Armenians, Georgians and Byzantine Greeks in Cilicia, the Pontus, the Marchlands of northeastern Turkey, and Historical Armenia. His detailed photographs, plans, and extensive documentation of these sites represent an invaluable documentation of this architectural heritage in Turkey, much of which is under threat of permanent destruction.

It is the hope of the project directors that other archives of photographs and plans will be added to the Website, in order to develop it into a truly comprehensive archive. Any efforts to promote the Website, whether in talks and lectures, communications of organizations focused on related topics in architecture, art history, or history, or in publications are encouraged and appreciated. Any online links to the Website would be especially appreciated. Links to the website could be either to the home page or to individual sites, e.g., to Sis, Anavarza, Vahka, Aghtamar, etc., as appropriate.

Any questions or comments about the Website can be directed to the editor from the contact links found online.

And what is Armenia’s government going to do about it?

BY GARO R. MADENLIAN

We all understand the limitless promise of our young republic and especially the creative power of our youth–irrespective of ruling parties or coalitions, elections, debates and never-ending power-struggles.

We also see the grinding poverty still facing our ancient nation as it continues to improve, survive and thrive in the face of imminent danger and ongoing blockade by its neighbors to the east and west, where large portions of our historical Armenian homeland remains occupied.

Amidst this difficult geopolitical environment, we collectively acknowledge our greatest asset, and best hope, for a prosperous country is our youth. Because of this, we know that cultivating our next generation is one of our very top priorities. Developing and directing the vast energy and potential of our youth is the key to the well-educated and highly-skilled workforce that will take Armenia to the next level.

We desperately need investments in cutting-edge, world-beating education – the type of instruction and inspiration that arms our boys and girls with the skills to compete in tomorrow’s high-stakes marketplace. If we aspire to an Armenia that’s more than a museum – a tourist destination – we need major infusions of resources to drive Armenia’s progress as an incubator of innovation, a global IT hub for our vast and growing Diasporan economic network, and an international center for commerce and cooperation.

Armenia was – until very recently – powerfully positioned for a major Millennium Challenge Corporation grant for IT education, in the hundreds of millions of dollars, a potentially game-changing allocation of direct U.S. funding for instruction in information technology in schools across Armenia. MCC is an independent U.S. foreign assistance agency created by Congress in 2004 with strong bipartisan support that is helping lead the fight against global poverty. It provides time-limited grants (not loans) promoting economic growth, reducing poverty, and strengthening institutions including education. Learn more here.

MCC has projects throughout the world and in various sectors such as agriculture, education, energy, health, land and property rights, road and transportation, and sanitation and irrigation (https://www.mcc.gov/sectors), all of which are very important.  For Armenia’s future, an education sector grant – like the $140 million STEM grant given to the Republic of Georgia in 2013 would be truly game changing. As proof of concept, we can look at the successes of similar grants in Namibia, Cote d’Ivoire, Mongolia, Morrocco, and El Salvador which fundamentally transformed their educational systems, giving their students advantages and providing huge benefits to their respective economies. Learn more here.

Why then hasn’t Armenia received a similar grant to catapult her schools into the future? It’s not because Armenia’s undeserving, or that there’s no need, or that Armenia lacks support.

On the contrary, Armenia meets and exceeds nearly every good governance standard set by the MCC, whose stated aim is to alleviate poverty. There is, sadly, far too much poverty in Armenia. Armenia is also blessed to have a strong Diaspora in America – where prominent groups like the Armenian National Committee of America and their many friends in Congress have strongly backed securing an education-based MCC grant for Armenia dating back to 2016.

The real reason Armenia has not received a major MCC grant for education purposes is that the World Bank (whose main goal is also reducing poverty) suddenly reclassified Armenia as barely meeting its threshold for an “upper middle-income country,” making it ineligible for MCC funding.  They grouped Armenia with far wealthier countries like Brazil, Lebanon, Russia, and Turkey. By this standard, Armenia is now just one level below “high income” nations, like Denmark, Germany, and the United States.

This reclassification is absolutely ridiculous!

The government of Armenia must step up its game, leveraging its status as a member of the World Bank to correct this error and right the wrong to secure this grant for its own future.

Armenia can, for example, challenge the World Bank determination of its income status, formally request the World Bank change its income status, officially ask for the raw data World Bank economists used to make this unfair determination, use its own data and economists to present accurate numbers.  Or, Armenia could, on a more human level, simply invite the President of the World Bank to visit actual villages in Armenia.

With the future of our kids at stake, we should demand nothing less than honesty and transparency from the World Bank, and for the Armenian government to take the initiative and act on behalf of its youth and our common future by aggressively fighting for a major infusion of funds for Armenia’s public schools.

The Republic of Georgia’s STEM focused MCC compact valued at $140 million in grant funding began on July 26, 2013 and closed on July 1, 2019.  According to the MCC these U.S. funds were successfully used to “fully rehabilitate 91 public schools, benefiting more than 37,000 Georgian schoolchildren. In addition, 15,000 secondary STEM and English teachers, 1,800 principals and 1,400 school-based professional development facilitators received training to improve their instructional skills and management capacity. The compact also equipped more than 1.7 million Georgians with better education and training, increasing workforce capacity in fields critical for economic growth, with a particular focus on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields,” according to the MCC.

Armenia’s public school students and educators especially those mired in poverty deserve the same boost that America gave to public school students and educators in Georgia and many other countries.

Let’s work together and get this done!