Published since 07.2002
Published on May 30, 2008
FROM AVARAYR TO THE THIRD REPUBLIC: ARMENIA’S BATTLE CRY THROUGH THE AGES
- The battle cry of Avarayr in 451AD, when 60,000 Armenian soldiers led by Commander Vardan Mamikonyan engaged with Sword and Cross against a 200,000-strong army of Persian King Shapuh, has guided the world’s first Christian nation for 52 generations in time, leading to the victories at Sardarapat and in Karabakh at the end of the last century. The feat of “The Soldiers of Saint Vardan” could even be said to have laid the foundation for the establishment of the First Armenian Republic in 1918 and for the existence of the Third Republic shored up by the de-facto independence achieved in Nagorno-Karabakh after the fall of the Soviet Empire. Incidentally, the victories in all cases were either achieved or sealed in the month of May, a month for Armenians to celebrate. If the history of 40 centuries of Armenian national life is fitted onto a clock face, then the 20th century would last only 36 minutes – but those would be some of the most extraordinary and defining minutes in the life of the nation. It was in the 20th Century that Armenians ceased to be a demographic, economic and cultural majority in their historical Homeland for the first time in thousands of years. Moreover, Armenians ceased to exist physically in the territory of 90 per cent of their Homeland. Armenian kingdoms rose and collapsed on this land in different historical epochs but, whatever the territory’s political status, the Armenian ethno-cultural element always dominated there. The Genocide in the early 20th Century stripped one of the world’s ancient cultural centers of its indigenous population. That event occurred within only a few minutes on the clock face of the nation’s history but it defined a special “Armenian” world outlook for generations of survivors who had to resolve the issue of preserving their national identity for the next “half an hour”. Armenians became one of the peoples with a tradition of defending the Homeland. We find references to this in the works of Fifth Century historiographers who quite concretely interpret the Homeland as the highest value. It is in their translation that we practically for the first time come across a battle cry with a conspicuously ethnic reference: “Armenians!” Remarkably, the Armenian people takes its roots from Forefather Hayk “who was the Defender of the Homeland” – not a farmer or cattle-breeder, but a Warrior. The idea of sacrificing oneself in the name of the Homeland was preached by the Fifth Century chronicler and founder of Armenian historiography Movses Khorenatsi. He characterizes Armenian King Arame as a “man who loves the Country and Homeland, who would rather die for his Homeland than see foreign-born sons trampling on home soil, ruling over kinsmen.” Another of the “Golden Pleiad” of Armenian historiographers of the Fifth Century, Yeznik Koghbatsi, expressed the interests of the Armenian world this way: “When a brigand attacks the country in order to destroy its people, shouldn’t these people gather troops and make regiment after regiment to drive the brigand out of their land?” The first grandiose battle in the name of saving and preserving Armenia’s Christian faith took place in Avarayr on May 26, 451, when Armenians “asserted” their right to be considered “citizens” of the first Christian state. Yeghishe, a younger contemporary of Yeznik Koghbatsi, the author of the famous book “About Vardan and the Armenian War”, would say in this connection: “An unrealized death is a death, a deliberate death is immortality.” The next 52 generations of the Armenian people would swear allegiance to their Homeland with these very words once uttered by chronicler Yeghishe. This is the practical sense of Avarayr that led to a victory achieved by the heroes of the Sardarapat battle (or the 49th generation) who also called themselves “Soldiers of Saint Vardan” and the heroic deeds of the Karabakh Armenians, the 52nd descendants of Vardan’s army.
- Aris Ghazinyan
Headlines for May 30, 2008
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Marianna Grigoryan
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Ani Hakobyan
May 28 is a special holiday in Armenia, the day of the declaration of the first Republic of Armenia. This year, on this day, the first “Republic of Armenia” turns 90. So does Gyumri’s Azniv Vardanyan. ...HAPPY BIRTHDAY REPUBLIC AND GRANDMA VARDANYAN: FIRST CHILD OF THE NATIONAL DREAM TURNS 90 ON MAY 28
Ani Hakobyan
May 28 is a special holiday in Armenia, the day of the declaration of the first Republic of Armenia. This year, on this day, the first “Republic of Armenia” turns 90. So does Gyumri’s Azniv Vardanyan. ...FROM AVARAYR TO THE THIRD REPUBLIC: ARMENIA’S BATTLE CRY THROUGH THE AGES
Aris GhazinyanThe battle cry of Avarayr in 451AD, when 60,000 Armenian soldiers led by Commander Vardan Mamikonyan engaged with Sword and Cross against a 200,000-strong army of Persian King Shapuh, has guided the world’s ...IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE: LIFE OF ISOLATION TURNS INTO DAILY STRUGGLE FOR FORLORN FARMERS
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Only 32 kilometers from Yerevan, cut off from the nearest villages, they exist with a hope that everything will be fine, since nothing but hope remains for them to look for any prospect of a good future. ...THE BLOOD TALKING: DAUGHTER-FATHER FIND EACH OTHER AFTER 27 YEARS
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Armine Avagyan
In an attempt to draw more attention to German as a foreign language in Armenia, the German Embassy in Armenia on May 22 and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) on May 20-24 for the first time ...OFF THE PACE: GOVERNMENT MEASURES TO EASE POLITICAL TENSIONS FAIL THE EUROPEAN TEST, SAY OPPOSITION GROUPS
Gayane Abrahamyan
Opposition forces have criticized moves to improve democratic accountability in Armenia as an “imitation” of reforms demanded by the Council of Europe. A draft law is circulating to strengthen the rights ...REJECTED: COURT TURNS DOWN FIRED DIPLOMATS’ CLAIM AGAINST MFA
Gayane Mkrtchyan
An administrative court in Yerevan on Thursday refused to sustain the action filed by four former employees of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who insisted that the decision to fire them was illegal. ...PROGRESS EVALUATION: MONITORING COMMITTEE SEES “FEW TANGIBLE RESULTS” ON PACE DEMANDS SO FAR
Suren MusayelyanAs it met in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, May 26-27, the Monitoring Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) welcomed the initiatives taken by the Armenian authorities to ...HAYASTAN FUND: ARMENIA AND KARABAKH AGREE ON CLOSER COOPERATION UNDER ALL-ARMENIAN AID PROGRAMS
Naira Hayrumyan
The activities of Hayastan All Armenian Fund are talked about with deep gratitude in Karabakh. However, specialists point out at a number of major shortcomings, in particular the quality of the work done ...ARABO’S FATE: IS IT EARLY YET TO PUT A FULL STOP?
Enemy soldiers advancing and indifferently sidestepping the bodies of dead soldiers in trenches lying in different poses – poses in which death came upon them, the faces of some can be seen, others lying ...SPORT: ARMENIA SECURES MORE OLYMPIC BERTHS
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Today in Armenian history- 1807 Yusuf zia Pasha (Turkish "seraskyar") attacks Gyoomree with 10000 soldiers.
- 1878 Signature in London of the British-Russian agreement to change the San-Stefano treaty.
- 1913 End of the First Balkan War, which lasted for about seven months. Andranik leads an Armenian detachment.
- 1915 The Turkish government approves the Temporary Deportation Law" that was already being implemented.
- 1927 Death of Atrpet (Sargis Moobayajyan), Armenian writer, public figure and author of "Tjvjeek" - a classic short story - as well as "Javaheer", "Khev" among others.
- 1953 Without consulting the Armenians, the USSR relinquishes claims to the (Western) Armenian territories occupied by Turkey.
- 1964 The Armenian Literature and Art week starts in Tallin (Estonia).
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