“EACH TURKOLOGIST IS VERY VALUABLE FOR US” PRESENTATION OF UNIVERSITY MANUAL AT YSU

The patriarch of Gugarats Diocese, Archbishop Sepuh Chuljyan and the Armenian public figure and benefactor from Istanbul Tigran Altun, as well as the representatives of the teaching staff of the Faculty, students were present at the event. By the way, Tigran Altun undertook the sponsorship of the next publishing of the book.

It should be noted that a team of Turkologists of different generations worked on the manual: the director of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the RA NAS, Academician Ruben Safrastyan, the Dean of the Faculty of Oriental Studies of YSU, Professor Ruben Melkonyan, the senior tutor of America University of Armenia, Doctor of History Vahram Ter-Matevosyan, the researcher of the RA MAS Institute of Oriental Studies Anush Hovhannisyan, Turkologists Hakob Zakaryan, Arthur Dumanyan and Varuzhan Geghamyan.



Those present were greeted by the Dean of the Faculty Ruben Melkonyan, “This manual has a special significance. The history of the Republic of Turkey has been presented in such coverage for the first time: beginning from 1918 till 2018. The bools was published 4 years ago, and now we present the supplemented version.The chain of important events formed the history of Turkey of the 20-21 centuries and the situation created nowadays in that country were presented in Armenian for the first time. Particular importance was attached to the history of struggle for survival of Armenians residing in Turkey”, stated Professor Ruben Melkonyan.

He also mentioned that publishing of the book was sponsored by the American Armenian benefactor Zhirayr Nshanyan and his foundation.

Academician Ruben Safrastyan, recollecting his studentship noted that they lived in ambivalent reality, when tutors presented the real spiritual and cultural history of Turkey, but another reality was described in textbooks, as they were in Russian and published in Moscow.

“We learnt the truth from what our teachers told us, but we read other things in textbooks-about the myth of Lenin-Ataturk friendship on which was based the Turkology of the Soviet period. At that time, it was difficult to imagine that in the conditions of the independent statehood we will narrate the real history of Turkey in the Armenian language”, mentioned Ruben Safrastyan.

The AUA senior tutor Vahram Ter-Matevosyan speaking about Turkish Studies noted, “You know, a phenomenal process is going on in Armenia as regards Turkish Studies. Having no diplomatic relationship, having no open borders it remains interesting for youth and a field of serious studies. The persons in charge of this sphere had and have no right to neglect this interest existing among students. There is a permanent demand for updating their knowledge and getting new skills. The second edition of this book is aimed at this demand”, stressed Dr. Ter-Matevosyan.



Speaking about Turkology development in Armenia the RA NAS Institute of Oriental Studies researched Anush Hovhannisyan noted that being an Armenian Turkologist is an advantage as our life,, the destiny of our nation were inter-related. According the her, we see history both from inside and outside. The Mission of Armenian Turkologists is to convey the true, unbiased history to readers and those who study the subject.

Turkologist Varuzhan Geghamyan noted in his speech that currently there is no such a manual which covers the period of events up to December 2018.

“The book is a reference supplemented with the maps of the administrative division of Turkey, demographic data, calendar of holidays, chronology, history of political parties and biographies of politicians which make it possible for readers to get oriented in important events”, presented Varuzhan Geghamyan.



He also told about the book cover. According to him, the text becomes complete with the cover. The last chapter of the book describes Turkey of Erdoghan period and on the last page of the cover his shadow is depicted on the background of a monument and the colour of the cover-orange-symbolizes the ruling party.



The head of the Chair of Turkish Studies, Professor Alexander Safaryan spoke about the activity of book creation of the faculty.

“Currently the necessity of creating new manuals instead of simply translating them is being discussed in some circles. The issue has no simple solution. Newton’s laws are the same in Yerevan and Baku, but it’s obvious that there are some textbooks on Social Sciences, Armenian Studies, Turkish Studies need updating”, said Professor Safaryan.

The patriarch of Gugarats Diocese Archbishop Sepuh Chujyan mentioned that each Turkologist is valuable for us: I rely greatly on them and see them as ambassadors in the future, ambassadors of Armenians”.



At the end of the presentation congratulating those present on the International Women’s Day, Dean Ruben Melkonyan presented the manual and flowers to the students.