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Hear Prof. George Bournoutian's Lecture on The Current Scholarly Debate Over Karabagh

2/28/2005

February 28, 2005

Prof. George Bournoutian of Iona College delivered a public lecture at St. Nersess Armenian Seminary on Monday, February 21, 2005 night, entitled, "The Current Scholarly Debate over Karabagh."

TO HEAR DR. BOURNOUTIAN'S LECTURE IN FULL Click Here.

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Dean Lectures at Yale Conference

2/22/2005

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February 22, 2005

V. Rev. Fr. Daniel Findikyan, Seminary Dean and Associate Professor of Liturgical Studies, was guest speaker at a conference at the Institute of Sacred Music of Yale University from February 24-27.

The conference was entitled, "The Place of Christ in Liturgical Prayer: Christology, Trinity and Liturgical Theology," and will feature renowned scholars from throughout the United States and Europe.

Fr. Findikyan's paper was entitled, Christology in Early Armenian Liturgical Commentaries.

The Armenian Church boasts a rich tradition of medieval commentaries on various liturgical services and books. These theological works, by authors such as Step'anos Siwnec'i and Grigoris Arsharuni (both 8th c.) are highly allegorical.

"When most people think of a commentary," said Fr. Findikyan, "They imagine a reference book that is read side-by-side with another book in order to unpack and elucidate the other book's meaning and relevance. One consults a commentary on Plato in order to better understand Plato, and we consult a liturgical commentary to help us grasp the full meaning of the Liturgy."

"But medieval theologians in Armenia had a different approach," Findikyan continued. "Their commentaries used the prayers, hymns and rituals of the liturgy as a jumping off point for exploring the mystery of mankind's salvation in Jesus Christ."

Fr. Findikyan's paper examines several Armenian liturgical commentaries from the first millennium. He discovers in them a common and distinctive system of allegorical interpretation that differs fundamentally from the way medieval Greek theologians interpreted their church services.

Fr. Findikyan also shows that these works are christological in their aim. Their primary purpose is to reflect upon the person of Jesus Christ and the deeds he accomplished for the sake of mankind's salvation. These Armenian commentaries are purely biblical and they are important witnesses to the Armenians understanding of the mystery of Christ.

"It is a great privilege for me to contribute to this conference, which will bring together world-class specialists in the history and theology of worship. Several of them were my teachers," Findikyan said.

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A Stinging Indictment by Prof. George Bournoutian at St. Nersess Lecture on Karabagh

2/21/2005

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February 21, 2005

In 1973 George Bournoutian was doing research for his doctoral dissertation in the Matenadaranmanuscript depository in Armenia, when he was given the opportunity to travel to Azerbaijan to explore the archives in Baku. Those were the Soviet days when nationalist feelings were kept tightly in check, and when no one dreamed that one day the Armenian enclave known as Karabagh would become a highly disputed and bloody political issue.

Bournoutian related the story during a public lecture at St. Nersess Armenian Seminary on Monday night, entitled, "The Current Scholarly Debate over Karabagh."

TO HEAR DR. BOURNOUTIAN'S LECTURE IN FULL Click Here. Perusing the holdings in Baku, Bournoutian came across several old Persian manuscripts containing little-known primary histories and chronologies with numerous indisputable references to the historical Armenian presence in Karabagh.

"I was familiar with these sources," Bournoutian recalled. "They had been published in Azerbaijan in the early 1950's in a series of volumes that quickly went out of print and were forgotten. Only two copies exist in the entire United States."

So cordial was the atmosphere, that the staff of the archives was kind enough to furnish microfilm reproductions of these manuscripts for Bournoutian.

Something is Not Right
Jump ahead to a few years ago, when Bournoutian came across new, allegedly scholarly editions of these old sources in Columbia University's library. Published in 1989-1990 by the Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences with full Russian translation, these volumes had been edited by the prominent Azeri academician Zia Buniatov.

"As I turned the pages of the new editions, I realized something was not right. Nearly every reference to Armenia and the Armenians had been obscured or deleted altogether," Bournoutian said, enumerating example after example for the audience. He cited, for example, a chronicle by the German chronicler Johannes Schildberger, who sojourned to the region in the early 1400's. In the original Azeri editions of the 1950's, this source included nearly twenty pages of detailed information on Armenian villages in greater Karabagh. Yet in the new edition of 1989, those twenty pages have been entirely deleted.

"What's more," Bournoutian added, "is that these new editions have been published in the tens of thousands and sent, free of charge, to the world's great universities and libraries."

Bournoutian began his talk with a riveting yet concise history of Karabagh from its earliest attestation by classical Greek authors such as Strabo's Geography, Pliny the Elder, the Lives of Plutarch and Ptolemy'sGeography. "All of these sources, without exception, attest that the entire region west of the Kur River was part of Armenia," Bournoutian said.

What made Bournoutian's lecture even more remarkable was that he relied exclusively on non-Armenian sources in order to document that it was only in the early nineteenth century that, as a result of the Russo-Persian wars, Karabagh becomes a part of Azerbaijan. Before that time, according to the unanimous testimony of Greek, Arab, Ottoman, Persian and Russian sources, the entire region was populated by Armenians and was a part of Armenia. This applies not just to the mountainous (Lernayin) region of Karabagh in Armenian control today, but also to the central valleys and lowland steppes of greater Karabagh.

Bournoutian is Professor of East European and Middle Eastern History and Political Science at Iona College, which is situated just a couple of miles from St. Nersess in New Rochelle, New York. He has taught Armenian and Iranian History at UCLA and Columbia University, and was the first to teach Armenian history courses at New York University, Tufts University, the University of Connecticut, Rutgers University, Ramapo College, and Glendale Community College. He is the author of 19 books, many of which deal directly with Armenian history.

A Call for Study and Funding
"We must support objective scholarship of Armenia's modern history," Bournoutian said at the end of his lecture. "Sadly, there are very few students who are stepping in to study these crucial chapters in our nation's history. Worse yet, there is precious little funding available to support this kind of work."

Following a lively question and answer session Bournoutian signed copies of his latest book, Two Chronicles on the History of Karabagh (Scholar's Press, 2004).

As a form of outreach to the community St. Nersess offers periodic public lectures by prominent speakers on a variety of topics related to Armenian faith and heritage, and on contemporary issues.

TO HEAR DR. BOURNOUTIAN'S LECTURE IN FULL Click Here.

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Hear Prof. George Bournoutian's Lecture on The Current Scholarly Debate Over Karabagh

Dean Lectures at Yale Conference

A Stinging Indictment by Prof. George Bournoutian at St. Nersess Lecture on Karabagh

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Hear Prof. George Bournoutian's Lecture on The Current Scholarly Debate Over Karabagh

Dean Lectures at Yale Conference

A Stinging Indictment by Prof. George Bournoutian at St. Nersess Lecture on Karabagh

Archives

Categories

Directions to the Seminary

Armonk Campus486 Bedford RoadArmonk, NY 10504

Contact Us

Armonk Campus
486 Bedford Road
Armonk, NY 10504