IT’S IMPOSSIBLE NOT TO FALL IN LOVE WITH HAMSHEN: PRESENTATION OF “HAMSHEN IN ARMENIAN MANUSCRIPTS” MONOGRAPHY AT YSU

YSU Rector Aram Simonyan, the Dean of the Faculty of Oriental Studies Ruben Melkonyan, the Dean of the Faculty of history Edik Minasyan, the Chairman of the RA MES Science Committee Samvel Harutyunyan, the Director of the RA NAS Institute of history Ashot Mekonyan, the Director of the RA NAS Institute of Literature after Manuk Abeghyan Vardan Devrikyan, Archimandrit Zakaria Baghumyan, scholars, guests from abroad, students were present at the event.

The event was started with the video telling about the nature of Hamshen and its cultural and historical sights.

Professor Ruben Melkonyan made a greeting speech, presented the agenda of the event and thanked YSU Rector for the assistance.

YSU Rector Aram Simonyan, greeting those present told about his acquaintances of Hamshen origin.

“We appreciate the scientific studies of the Armenians of Hamshen. I familiarized myself with the work and I highly appreciate it as a historian. And as an Armenian, I evaluate the importance of Hamshen and the Armenians who come from there”, said the Rector.

Samvel Harutyunyan noted that monographies are of high scientific and historical-cultural value.

Ashot Mekonyan told about the beauty of Hamshen nature. “Once, during my visit to my homeland Hamshen, I asked a young man in my poor Turkish if there are any Armenians and he answered that everyone there is Armenian. And they say that they consider Hamshen an Armenian land”, marked Ashot Melkonyan.

Ruben Melkonyan said that the Turkish propaganda for many years had tried to deny the specific identity of Hamshen. And Azerbakjan joined them stating that there is no Armenian trace has ever been in Hamshen. This book is the reply given by our science. Hamshen used to be an important Christian hearth, one of the most importance dioceses of the Armenian Apostolic Church populated by Armenians.

Then the ethnographer Sergey Vardanyan came up with a speech, in which he stressed that the presentation of the book turned into a fest. He also told about the studies and the challenges they encountered during the process.

Vardan Devrikyan stressed the great efforts the author put into the creation of the book. He also stressed the importance of translating of some episodes written in Grabar into Eastern Armenian.

The head of the Chair of Turkish Studies Alexander Safaryan stressed the importance of the work by Lusine Sahakyan in the division of Armenian-Ottoman Relations. He stressed the high linguistic quality of the monography.

The author of the bool Lusine Sahakyan told about the fieldworks, about the scarcity of historical sources, presented the main idea of the book.

“One of the motives of writing the monography was to bring together the facts about Hamshen. Stydying the previous authors I understood that manuscripts can help us in it”, said Lusine Sahakyan.

Lusine Sahakyan completed her speech with expressing gratitude to the people who assisted her during her studies.

The event was finished with the performance of musicians of Hamshen origin.