Aytsemnik’s character is extremely important in Armenian history and ideology. In the Soviet years, the study of her heroic biography was part of the school curriculum. Unfortunately, at the moment, interest in her figure has waned. And this threatens oblivion to her not only as an interesting historical person but also as an example of …
Someone did an excellent job making the chronology of the territory of Armenia throughout different historical periods and ruling dynasties. I have always felt the need for such a compilation which could make it possible to quickly clarify the ruler and the territory in a given period of the history of Armenia. It is a …
The need for a separate section for the documents on this short-term period is explained by several considerations. It was the culmination point of the Ottoman Empire’s implementation of its pan-Turkic policy of territorial expansion. It was also the point of the spread of the Armenian Genocide policy beyond the pre-war Russian-Turkish border, to the …
“I intermediate the transfer of the rank of lieutenant colonel to Captain Nzhdeh, and for his special merits the rank of colonel. Commander of the Zangezur troops Major General Ghazarov.” This unique document, which exists in a single copy, was provided through the mediation of Avetis Avetisyan from the national archive of Armenia. According to …
Modern Adana is among the ranks of the developing cities in Turkey. It is unlikely that its current residents know the true history of the city which was one of the main settlements of Cilicia and until the 1930s played an exceptional role in the lives of the Armenians of Cilicia. Even after the massacres, …
In the 19th century, an Armenian coat of arms was created on the basis of an 18th-century Armenian military emblem, which in turn had been based on the depictions of traditional values and images on the coats of arms of other regions of Armenia. In 1920, the coat of arms of the First Republic of …
The Special Shock Division, otherwise known as the Special Armenian Infantry Division, the Armenian Special Division, or the Western Armenian Division, was an irregular military unit under the command of Andranik Ozanyan consisting mainly of Armenians. The Special Shock Division was formed on December 22, 1917, by order of the Russian commander-in-chief in the Caucasus …
The process of changing the ethnic composition in historic Armenian territories affected Karabakh (Artsakh) later than other Armenian lands since the Karabakh meliks (princes) had retained their semi-independent position within the Persian state. The attitude of Persia towards the Armenians was fundamentally different from that of the Ottoman authorities in Western Armenia and the newly-arrived …
The French Armenian Legion was a military unit and a foreign legion within the armed forces of France. It was established under the 1916 French-Armenian agreement for the purpose of the national liberation struggle. In exchange for support in its struggle against the Ottoman Empire, France promised to grant autonomy to the Armenians of Cilicia. …
Among the monuments of the village of Chanakhchi (Avetaranots) in Shusha district, the Kusanots (Kusanats-anapat) monastery is of particular interest. It is located southwest of the village on a steep cape. The monument from the west was fortified with a massive fence, from which only a few sections of dilapidated towers remain. From the inscription …
In 1939, by the order of the Soviet government, tens of thousands of Armenians from the Azerbaijani SSR (from Baku, Gandzak, Shushi, Kazakh, Shamkhor, Zakatala, Sheki, Shamakhi), as well as from the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic (Jugha, Agulis, Ordubad, Sadarak, Shahbuz, etc.) were forcibly deported to Kazakhstan. Five years later, on May 29, 1944, the Commissar …
The David Sasunsky (David of Sasun) was a tank regiment formed during the Great Patriotic War (the Soviet theater of WWII) with funds raised by the Armenian Diaspora and transferred to the 119th separate tank regiment that fought in the Second Ukrainian Front. The regiment was named in honor of the character of the medieval …
Foreign diplomats received evidence of large-scale extermination of Armenians almost at the very beginning of the Genocide. In the joint declaration of May 24, 1915, of the Entente countries (the UK, France, and Russia), the mass murder of Armenians for the first time in history was recognized as a crime against humanity. However, the powers …
The legend of Siranush (Merope Sahaki Kantarjian, May 25, 1856 – June 10, 1932) is living among Armenians for more than a century. Her name was a benchmark, an unattainable peak in the history of Armenian theatrical art. This actress of great dramatic talent with her life and work has become one of the few …
In the second half of the 12th century, the decline of the Seljuks allowed the Georgian Kingdom to strengthen, which extended its influence south towards the Armenian territories. By the end of the 12th century, the Armenian princely Zakarian (Zakarid) dynasty, which became the de facto ruler of united Georgia under the legendary queen Tamar …
A native of Karabakh, Mikael Aramyants lived and worked in Tiflis. He had extensive experience in the trade of sugar and cotton and was an owner of apartment houses, estates, cottages, boarding houses, and sources of healing mineral waters in Akhtal and Kislovodsk. Mikael Aramyants played a huge role in the development of the oil …
In the Bulgarian city of Pazardzhik located on the railway line from Istanbul to Western Europe, there is a street named after one Hovhannes Sevadjian. This Sevadjian was a local chief of the railway station and a cryptographer during the Russian-Turkish War of 1877-1878 which liberated the Bulgarian people from the Turkish yoke. When the …
During the period of the strengthening of the Bagratid monarchy, power in Artsakh passed back to the local Armenian dynasty of Aranshahiks. Aranshahiks can be considered one of the oldest aristocratic families in the history of mankind. “Aranshahik” (Armenian: Առանշահիկներ) means a kind of “shahs” (i.e. monarchs) originating from Aran, one of the great-grandchildren of …