Mikael Melik-Ohandzhanyan descended from a famous Syunik princely family. He is the brother of prominent Armenian philologist, Armenologist, and orientalist, as well as translator Karapet Melik-Ohandzhanyan. It is known that at the moment of WWI’s outbreak, Mikael Melik-Ohandzhanyan was studying in Moscow. As a royal officer, he took part in the war. After the Bolshevik …
Homeland gives to a person a feeling of fair pride, the deepest suffering, the most complete of confessions, and the holiest of deaths. One appealing cry which has come from the depths of the pagan centuries still resonates in my blood: “Soldiers of Armenia, if we do not drown the enemy in these waves, we …
This story known to all the inhabitants of the village of Vardablur and containing remarkable details on the visit of Komitas has been passed from generation to generation. Komitas was accompanied by a student of the Etchmiadzin Seminary and later Professor Avetik Ter-Poghosyan, a native of the village of Vardablur. They knew that the local …
Howard Kazanjian is an American film producer who gained wide popularity after producing several extremely successful Hollywood films – Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi, and Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. Since early childhood, Kazanjian has been attracted to …
Why was Garegin Nzhdeh victorious in Syunik in 1921? Because he chose the right tactics and only relied on his army. By creating a cohesive and combat-ready national military structure and not expecting any support from anyone, he successfully repelled all the attacks of the enemy. And, most importantly, he did not believe anyone and …
We present to your attention one French miniature. It is part of the famous French manuscript collection created in 1401–1405 and called “Le Roman de Mélusine.” It is now stored in Paris in the National Library of France. The miniature depicts the founding of the Lusignan dynasty in Cilician Armenia in 1343 when Guy (Guillaume) …
March 19 marked the 140th anniversary of the birth of one of the titans of the modern history of Armenia and the symbol of the First Republic Aram Manukian. Aram Manukian was a leader with national and state thinking, as well as exceptional organizational talent. He had inherent inspirational and at the same time imperious …
How was the First Republic of Armenia’s independence proclaimed in May 1918? About this wrote the last prime minister of the First Republic of Armenia Simon Vratsian. “The republic was not accepted with glee, the Armenian people did not accept (the independence) with joy in their hearts as it came in the most adverse conditions. …
At the beginning of the 18th century, the Russians were struggling to strengthen their positions on the shores of the Baltic, Black, and Caspian Seas. In 1701, Israel Ori arrived in Russia and presented to the Russian Tsar Peter I his program for the liberation of Armenia with the support of Russia. Peter I was …
In 550, the emperor of Byzantium Justinian I (527–565) appointed Armenian commander Nerses commander-in-chief of the Byzantine army in Italy. In 552 near Capua (city and fortress in southern Italy), Nerses Haykazn defeated the army of the Gothic King Totila (541-552), captured Rome, and conquered the Franks and Alemanni (ancient Germanic tribal alliance). In 555, …
We present to your attention a few pages from a Turkish-Bolshevik novel. Karl Marx, the founder of the communist idea “A pious deed for Christian states would be the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.” Anastas Mikoyan, Armenian Bolshevik “Armenian chauvinists, relying on imperialist allies, are promoting a chimerical idea of creating ‘Greater Armenia’ on historical …
Below, we present the memoirs of the Prime Minister of the First Republic of Armenia Alexander Khatisian on the difficult situation in which Armenians ended up as a result of the Russian-Turkish war. He also covered the lack of prudence of the Russian side towards Armenians and the justified caution of the Georgians. “In 1915, …
The old Yerevan two-story building located at 46, Nalbandyan St, and built at the beginning of the 20th century could go unnoticed despite the fact that the office of the Russian VTB Bank’s Armenian branch is now located here. However, a noteworthy fact is associated with this building. Outstanding Armenian poet Yeghishe Charents lived and …
When Armenian painter Martiros Saryan was told to paint a portrait of Stalin, he replied that he had a principle to paint from live models only. In 1937, 12 portraits of Saryan were burned in the courtyard of the art gallery. They depicted Armenian statesmen and representatives of the Armenian intelligentsia who were condemned as …
Armenians have always belonged to those peoples who fought for their liberty with weapons in their hands. Unfortunately, during the decades of Soviet power, we developed a complex of an “eternal victim”, which was finally overcome in the early 1990s thanks to the victory in the Artsakh war. The photo above shows one of the …
The elimination of writers was a priority both during the Armenians Genocide of 1915 and during Stalinist repressions which began in 1937. It was precisely because of the enormity of the Stalinist regime that famous writer Zabel Yesayan turned silent forever. Zabel Yesayan, a gifted novelist who is regarded as the female equivalent of Armenian …
When the production of bottled beer began in the Russian Empire in the 1890s, many breweries were opened in the Caucasus, including in Armenia – namely, in Yerevan, Alexandropol (Gyumri), and Kars. Armenian producers received high-quality barley – raw materials for making beer – mainly from the Kars region. In Yerevan, the first bottled beer …
Today, the Surb Khach (Holy Cross) Church built in the 10th century located on Akhtamar Island on Van Lake in Turkey continues to be admired by everyone. Over the last decades, the church could have met the fate of many architectural monuments of Western Armenia. However, it by a miracle escaped complete demolition. The general …