Научная библиотека Джона и Вигена Тер-Мануелянов
| Научная библиотека Джона и Вигена Тер-Мануелянов | |
| John Vigen Der Manuelian Research Library | |
| Ссылки: | http://www.umd.umich.edu/dept/armenian/search/collections.html |
Special Collections of the John Vigen Der Manuelian Research Library, Genocide Oral History and Photo Archives, and Digital Collections of the Center for Armenian Research and Publication
The University of Michigan-Dearborn
Introduction
The Center for Armenian Research and Publication (Armenian Research Center) was established by Dr. Dennis R. Papazian in 1985 for the documentation of and publication in the field of Armenian studies. The Knights of Vartan supported Armenian Research Center is unusual in that such specialized research centers are normally found on larger campuses such as Ann Arbor, and also unusual in that the Armenian Research Center is the only such research institute devoted to the study of the Armenians at any U.S. university.
In partial fulfillment of its stated goal above, the Armenian Research Center maintains a rich library, which was named the John Vigen Der Manuelian Research Library because the core of our collection comes from the noted Boston-area educator and community activist. Our Archives, as yet unnamed, also houses his papers.
At the heart of our library is the computerized database of the Armenian Research Center, along with our internet connection to the Library of Congress and virtually every other major library in the world. We are not excelled in our online connections by any Armenian facility in the world. Furthermore, all of our holdings are referenced in the database, making retrieval of hard copy prompt and efficient.
As of February 24, 2004, we have in our library over 43,000 items in our database, which can be divided into: 8,149 books located in the Center (in English, Armenian, Russian and other languages); almost 20,000 newspaper articles (clipped and in vertical files accessible through the database); and several cabinets of microfilm and microfiche. We also have 85 CDs and 184 videotapes and DVDs. The Armenian Research Center also has official archival documents, in different formats, from Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Great Britain, the Ottoman Empire, and the United States. These invaluable resources are critical for scholars in conducting research on the Armenian Genocide.
For the purposes of this introductory booklet to our holdings, the following collections within our library have been identified (additional collections can no doubt also be identified, but the collections below were identified on the basis of current trends of scholarly research):
Travelers' Accounts
We have a small but valuable collection of travel books or memoirs written by odar (foreign, non-Armenian) travelers to Armenia. The gem of our collection is John Macdonald Kinneir's Journey through Asia Minor, Armenia, and Koordistan in the Years 1813 and 1814; with remarks on the Marches of Alexander and the Retreat of the Ten Thousand (London: John Murray, 1818), a very valuable traveler's account worth $7,000 and donated to us by John Vigen Der Manuelian. Other volumes of travelers' accounts that we possess include: Eli Smith's Researches of the Rev. E. Smith and Rev. H.G.O. Dwight in Armenia (2 vols.) (Boston: Crocker and Brewster, 1833); Robert Curzon's Armenia: A Year at Erzeroom, and on the Frontiers of Russia, Turkey, and Persia (London: John Murray, 1854); and Baron August von Haxthausen's Transcaucasia: Sketches of the Nations and Races between the Black Sea and the Caspian, trans. by J.E. Taylor (London: Chapman and Hall). Eli Smith and H.G.O. Dwight were two of the earliest American missionaries to go among the Armenians; Robert Curzon was no relation to the famous British Viceroy of India and Foreign Minister Lord Curzon but he did also write a book about the monasteries of the Ottoman Middle East; and August von Haxthausen was one of the first modern scholars to record Armenian folklore. We have many more such accounts, which can be classified according to the following timeperiods: from the 1870s to the mid-1890s (before the Hamidian massacres, such as James Bryce's Transcaucasia and Ararat [London: Macmillan and Co., 1877]), to the late 1890s (Hamidian massacres and aftermath [such as George H. Hepworth's Through Armenia on Horseback {New York: E.P. Dutton, 1898}), the 1910s (the final years of Turkish Armenia, such as Noel and Harold Buxton's Travel and Politics in Armenia [London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1914]), the 1920s and 1930s (the early years of Soviet Armenia, such as Bosworth Goldman's Red Road through Asia: A Journey by the Arctic Circle to Siberia, Central Asia and Armenia [London: Methuen and Company, 1934]), the 1950s and 1960s (mature Soviet Armenia, such as J. Promptow's Durch das Armenische Hochland [Leipzig: F.A. Brockhaus Verlag, 1955]) (a book which no other U.S. library owns), and the 1980s and 1990s (the final years of Soviet Armenia and the first years of azad, angakh Hayastan [free and independent Armenia], such as Stephen Brook's Claws of the Crab: Georgia and Armenia in Crisis [London: Sinclair-Stevenson, 1992]). Researchers interested in travelers' accounts for earlier periods should consult Jack Vartoogian's The Image of Armenia in European Travel Accounts of the Seventeenth Century (Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, 1974), which we also have.
Austrian Records
Austria-Hungary was an ally of Germany during World War I and had diplomatic representatives in the Ottoman Empire at the time of the Armenian Genocide. We own the twelve-volume facsimile diplomatic records series Österreich-Armenien, 1872-1936: Faksimilesammlung Diplomatischer Aktenstücke, edited by Artem Ohandjanian. Among the public and university libraries in this country only the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum owns this. We also have a microfilm roll on Austrian records entitled Haus-, Hof- & Staatsarchiv Wien aus: PA XII/467 Turkei, and four issues of Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs, the register of documents of the Austrian archives. Finally, it should be mentioned that we have recently purchased Die K.U.K. Streitkräfte im Ersten Weltkriege 1914-1918 (issue 2 of Österreichische Militärgeschichte [1995]), which includes a study of all Austrian military units that served in the Ottoman Empire in World War I, as well as Joseph Pomiankowski's Der Zusammenbruch des Ottomanischen Reiches (Vienna: Amalthea-Verlag, 1928), which is an account of his time at the Ottoman Army's General Headquarters during World War I. He was the Austro-Hungarian Empire's plenipotentiary military representative to the Ottoman Empire during World War I and supreme commander of all Austro-Hungarian forces within the Ottoman Empire.
German Records
The German Empire was the main ally of the Ottoman Empire during World War I. The Ottoman armies were organized along the German model, and the Ottoman navy was reinforced by two German ships at the outside of World War I. During the course of the war the Ottoman Empire received 5 billion marks of loans and credits from Germany. Finally, German diplomats were located in the major cities of the Ottoman Empire, German officers were attached to all of the Ottoman armies, and German missionaries were present inside the Ottoman Empire. We have 270 microfiche sheets from the Political Archive of the German Foreign Office concerning Germany and the Armenians, as well as an additional 9 rolls of microfilm from the German Foreign Office. No other library in the United States has this material. We also have Vardges Mikaelian's Armianskii Vopros i Genotsid Armian ve Turtsii (1913-1919): Materialy Politicheskogo Arkhiva Ministerstva Inostrannykh del Kaizerovskoi Germanii: Sbornik (Erevan: Izdatelstvo "Gitutiun" NAN RA, 1995), which is a comprehensive index in Russian to the holdings of the German archives on the Armenians from 1913-1919, as well as A Catalogue of Files and Microfilms of the German Foreign Ministry Archives, 1867-1920, which was published by the American Historical Association Committee for the Study of War Documents.
Johannes Lepsius' Deutschland und Armenien, 1914-1918: Sammlung Diplomatischer Aktenstücke (Germany and Armenia, 1914-1918: A Collection of Diplomatic Documents) in its 1919 original and 1986 reprint is also a part of our collection. We also have memoirs of important Germans during the Genocide (such as those of Paul Leverkuehn, the adjutant to Max Erwin von Scheubner-Richter, German Vice Consul at Erzurum in 1915 and co-commander of an Ottoman guerilla force operating in the Caucasus; and Count Johann Bernstorff, Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire in 1917 and 1918) and of those important in the period before (such as those of Alfred von Kiderlen-Wächter, German Foreign Minister 1910-1912; and Prince Bernhard von Bülow, German Chancellor from 1900 to 1909). Finally, we also have a microfilm copy of Ernst Jäckh's papers from 1908 to 1917, when he was deeply involved in the affairs of the Ottoman Empire. Not only are his own papers included in this microfilm roll, but the papers of the German naval attache to the Ottoman Empire during World War I, Hans Humann, as well as an unpublished autobiography of Talaat Pasha, one of the ruling triumvirs of the Ottoman Empire during World War I, are included as well.
British Records
The British were at the forefront of world diplomacy from 1793-1949 (from the British-funded coalitions against Revolutionary France to the creation of NATO). Events on every continent of the world were within their purview, and Armenia was no exception. During the Armenian Genocide the British government (as well as the French and Russian) warned the perpetrators that they would be held accountable. The British also collected reports substantiating and describing the Armenian Genocide. These reports were published as The Treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, 1915-1916, and we have the 1916 original, the 1972 Beirut reprint with the key to names (because of fear of retribution against informants still in the Ottoman Empire) withheld in the original, and the 1990 reprint. We also have two sets of published British diplomatic records: Anita L.P. Burdett's Armenia: Political and Ethnic Boundaries, 1878-1948: Documents and Maps (Archive Editions, 1998), 2 volumes; and Anita L.P. Burdett's Caucasian Boundaries: Documents and Maps, 1802-1946 (Archive Editions, 1996), 2 volumes. We also have British Foreign Office Dossiers on Turkish War Criminals, a collection of British documents published by Vartkes Yeghiayan on various perpetrators and agents of the Armenian Genocide who were rounded up by the British and interned on the island of Malta pending trial. Unfortunately the internees were given to Mustafa Kemal's Nationalist Government in order to secure the release of British officers and soldiers illegally held by the Nationalists. Finally, we also have the actual microfilm copies of the British records on the Malta internments.
Finally, we also have memoirs (such those of Major-General L.C. Dunsterville, the commander of a small British force in the Caucasus in 1919; and Viscount Grey of Fallodon, British Foreign Minister at the time of the Armenian Genocide) and biographies (such as that of Lord Curzon, British Foreign Minister at the time of the First Republic of Armenia) of influential Britons.
Russian Archival Records
The two major dialects of Armenian, Eastern and Western, roughly corresponded with the division of Armenians in their historic homeland after 1828 (with the exception of a small number in Persia): Eastern Armenians and Eastern Armenia were located inside the Russian Empire while Western Armenians and Western Armenia were located in the Ottoman Empire. During the course of the nineteenth century the Russians brought Caucasia and Transcaucasia fully under their control. During that time a commission was appointed to bring together all the local and regional records the Russians had on the peoples of these areas. We have the 146 microfiche sheets of this "report" as Proceedings of the Caucasian Archaeographical Commission, 1866-1904 (Archive Editions, 1996). We also have records specifically relating to Russia and the Armenians for the nineteenth century in Russian translated by George A. Bournoutian as Russia and the Armenians of Transcaucasia, 1797-1889: A Documentary Record (Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers, 1998).
Previous to this, we have Ts.P. Agaian's Prisoedinenie vostochnoi Armenii k Rossii: Sbornik documentov, tom II: 1814-1830 (The Unification of Eastern Armenia to Russia: A Collection of Documents, Volume 2: 1814-1830) (Erevan: Izdatelstvo Akademii nauk Armianskoi SSR, 1978), a volume of Russian records on the Russian conquest of Eastern Armenia. Finally, we have recently acquired Dr. Bournoutian's translated volume on Armenians and Russia, 1626 to 1796: A Documentary Record (Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers, 2001), to accompany our two volumes of Ashot Ioannisian's (Ashot Hovhannisyan) Armiano-Russkie otnosheniia v pervoi treti XVIII veke; sbornik dokumentov (Armeno-Russian Relations in the 18th Century) (Erevan: Izdatelstvo Akademiia nauk Armianskoi SSR, 1964-1967), two volumes of eighteenth-century Russian records dealing with the Armenians, as well as A.N. Khachatrian's Armianskoe voisko v XVIII veke (The Armenian Army in the 18th Century) (Erevan: Izdatelstvo AN Armianskoi SSR, 1968), which contains Russian (and some Armenian) documentary records on Armenian soldiers in the eighteenth century.
French Archival Records
The Armenians have had a special connection with France. The last king of Cilician Armenia died in France and was buried in Saint Denis along with members of French royalty (to whom he was related). France sought to be the protector of the Catholics in the Ottoman Empire, a category which included Armenian Catholics. France also intervened militarily in Cilicia after immediately after World War I, although French troops were abruptly and ignobly withdrawn in the face of Kemalist pressure. We have Arthur Beylerian's Les Grandes Puissances l'Empire Ottoman et les Arméniens dans les Archives Françaises, 1914-1918 (The Great Powers, the Ottoman Empire and the Armenians in the French Archives) (Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 1983), a collection of 757 documents on the Armenian Genocide from various French archives. Finally, we have recently acquired the published correspondence of the French consul at Diyarbekir during the Hamidian massacres: Gustave Meyrier, Les massacres de Diarbékir: Correspondence diplomatique du Vice-Consul de France 1894-1896, ed. Claire Mouradian and Michael Durand-Meyrier (N.p: Éditions L'Inventaire, 2000).
Turkish Materials
It is important to monitor Turkish-sponsored historiography not only because the Western Armenians lived under Turkish rule for hundreds of years but also because of the efforts made in recent years by the Turkish government to influence the teaching and writing of history. We have the parliamentary records (in thirty-one volumes) of the Ottoman parliament from 1909 to 1920 (plus one volume for 1877), as well as Vahakn Dadrian's rare analysis of that parliament Haykakan Ts'eghaspanut'iwnê Khorhrdaranayin ew patmagitakan k'nnarkumnerov (The Treatment of the Armenian Genocide by the Ottoman Parliament and Its Historical Analysis) (Watertown, MA: Baikar Publications, 1995), and a twelve-volume history of the early years of the Turkish Grand National Assembly (the parliament of nationalist Turkey and the modern republic). We also have an eight-volume history of the elite Turkish school known as the Mülkiye (it had different names in its long existence first under the Ottoman Empire and then in modern Turkey) as well as biographies of its graduates, giving researchers an invaluable tool for tracing perpetrators and agents of the Armenian Genocide. There is no library in the world that has all the above material (Ohio State University has all but Dr. Dadrian's book).
We also have the published archival series Ottoman Archives Yildiz Collection: The Armenian Question in three volumes, Bilâl Šimšir'sBritish Documents on Ottoman Armenians (from 1856 to 1895) in four volumes, and the four-volume set Aršiv Belgelerine Göre Kafkaslar'da ve Anadolu'da Ermeni Mezâlimi, 1906-1922 / Armenian Violence and Massacre in the Caucasus and Anatolia based on Archives, as well as a reprint of Hüseyin Nâzm Paa's 1897 two-volume report to the sultan entitled Ermeni Olaylari Tarihi (History of Armenian Events). Bašbakanlik Osmanli Aršivi Rehberi, an overview of the Prime Minister's Archives in Turkey, is also a part of our collection. Finally, one volume of the published correspondence of Ziya Gökalp, the main ideologue of Ittihad ve Terakki, the ruling party of the Ottoman Empire in 1915, is in our library.
Immediately after World War I, a repentant Ottoman government held trials of the perpetrators and agents of the Armenian Genocide. Although the major figures had fled abroad, there were convictions, and even hangings, by the courts-martial, which in all but one instance only took testimony from Muslims. Transcripts of the trials were published in the Ottoman Government's official newspaper Takvîm-i Vekâyi, of which we have complete but unpublished translations into German and modern Turkish, and partial published translations into English by Vartkes Yeghiayan (The Armenian Genocide and the Trials of the Young Turks) (La Verne, CA: American Armenian International College Press, 1990) and Vahakn Dadrian ("A Textual Analysis of the Key Indictment of the Turkish Military Tribunal Investigating the Armenian Genocide" Armenian Review 44, no. 1/173 [Spring 1991], pp. 1-36, and "The Documentation of the World War I Armenian Massacres in the Proceedings of the Turkish Military Tribunal" International Journal of Middle East Studies 23, no. 4 [November 1991], pp. 549-576), as well as into German by Taner Akçam (Armenien und der Völkermord: Die Istanbuler Prozesse und die türkische Nationalbewegung [Armenia and the Genocide: The Istanbul Trials and the Turkish National Movement] [Hamburg: Hamburger Edition, 1996]).
We also have a collection of Turkish schoolbooks, for researchers interested in how the Turkish government's view of history is enforced in Turkish schools, and a complete run of the Turkological bibliographic serial Turkologischer Anzeiger. The sole issue of Györy Hazi and Barbara Kellner-Heinkele's Bibliographisches Handbuch der Turkologie: Eine Bibliographie der Bibliographien vom 18. Jahrhundert bis 1979 (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1986) as well as Hasan Duman's two-volume Osmanli Sâlnâmeleri ve Nevsâlleri Bibliyografyasi ve Toplu Katalou / A Bibliography and Union Catalogue of Ottoman Year-Books (Ankara: Enformasyon ve Dokümantasyon Hizmetleri Vakfi, 2000) are also in our collection. Finally, we have collections of Beleten and Belgeler (the official periodicals of the Turkish Historical Association), Hayat Tarih Macmuas, New Perspectives on Turkey, Osmanli Araštirmalari/The Journal of Ottoman Studies, OTAM, Toplumsal Tarih, the Turkish Studies Association Bulletin, and Türk Dünyasi Araštirmalari.
American Missionary Records
Under the aegis of the ABCFM (American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions), American Protestant missionaries became very active in the Ottoman Empire among the Armenians. In fact, by 1914 its Turkish "field" was the largest single area of American missionary activity in the world. Besides the biographies and autobiographies of missionaries (such as E.D.G. Prime's Forty Years in the Turkish Empire; or, the Memoirs of Rev. William Goodell [New York: Robert Carter and Brothers, 1876] and Edwin W. Martin's The Hubbards of Sivas: A Chronicle of Love and Faith [Santa Barbara, CA: Fithian Press, 1991]) and hardcopy reports (such as James L. Barton, comp., "Turkish Atrocities": Statements of American Missionaries on the Destruction of Christian Communities in Ottoman Turkey [Ann Arbor, MI: Gomidas Institute, 1998]) that American missionaries wrote that shed light on the Armenians of the Ottoman Empire before and during the Armenian Genocide, we also have some duplicate rolls of the ABCFM microfilm records held at Harvard University. Our holdings consist of 7 rolls of missionary biographies and official histories of missions, plus the 219 rolls of microfilm of Unit 5 of the Papers of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions correspondence series. The rolls of Unit 5 not only deal with the American missionaries and the Armenians, but they also deal with American missions in Syria, Palestine, and to the Assyrians and Nestorians. Also of note, researchers interested in the reaction of the missionaries to the Genocide and their relations with the successor state, Republican Turkey, should consult Suzanne Moranian's Ph.D. dissertation The American Missionaries and the Armenian Question: 1915-1927, a copy of which is in our library.
U.S. Diplomatic Material
U.S. missionary relations with the Ottoman Empire have already been mentioned, but those relations are not the only ones that can be researched in our library. U.S. relations with the Ottoman Empire during World War I also were not like those of the Germans. The United States never went to war with the Ottoman Empire, (although diplomatic relations were severed by the Turks at the urging of the Germans in 1917) and some Americans were inside the Ottoman Empire for the duration of the war. Finally, the United States was considered for a mandate over independent Armenia at the end of World War I, and one of the provisions of the Treaty of Sèvres was that President Wilson be the arbiter of its boundaries.
We have a comprehensive microfilm collection of U.S. diplomatic material, and it consists of: Diplomatic Dispatches from U.S. Consuls in Aleppo, Syria 1835-1840 (1 roll); Diplomatic Dispatches from U.S. Consuls in Alexandretta, Turkey 1896-1906 (1 roll); Diplomatic Dispatches from U.S. Consuls in Baghdad, Iraq 1888-1906 (2 rolls); Diplomatic Dispatches from U.S. Consuls in Batum, Russia 1890-1906 (1 roll); Diplomatic Dispatches from U.S. Consuls in Beirut, Lebanon 1836-1906 (23 rolls); Diplomatic Dispatches from U.S. Consuls in Constantinople, Turkey 1820-1906 (24 rolls); Diplomatic Dispatches from U.S. Consuls in Erzerum, Turkey 1895-1904 (2 rolls); Diplomatic Dispatches from U.S. Consuls in Harput, Turkey 1895-1906 (1 roll); Diplomatic Dispatches from U.S. Consuls in Sivas, Turkey 1886-1906 (2 rolls); Diplomatic Dispatches from U.S. Consuls in Teheran, Iran 1883-1906 (2 rolls); Diplomatic Dispatches from U.S. Consuls in Trebizond, Turkey 1904-1906 (1 roll); Records Relating to Internal Affairs of Asia 1910-1929 (3 rolls); Records Relating to Internal Affairs of Persia 1910-1929 (5 rolls); Records Relating to Internal Affairs of Russia and U.S.S.R. 1910-1929 (40 rolls); Records Relating to Internal Affairs of Turkey 1910-1929 (32 rolls); Records Relating to Political Relations Between the U.S. and Turkey 1910-1929 (6 rolls); Records Relating to Political Relations Between Turkey and Other States 1910-1929 (24 rolls); Records Relating to Relations Between Russia and U.S.S.R. and Other States 1910-1929 (2 rolls); Records Relating to Internal Affairs of Armenia 1910-1929 (8 rolls); Records Relating to Internal Affairs of Azerbaijan, 1910-1929 (1 roll); and Records Relating to the Political Relations Between Armenia and Other States 1910-1929 (2 rolls). We also have a microfilm roll from the Woodrow Wilson papers which includes the Full Report of the Committee Upon the Arbitration of the Boundary Between Turkey and Armenia and its appendices, as well as eighteen rolls of the General Records of the American Commission to Negotiate Peace, 1918-1931 and the forty-seven rolls of "Inquiry Documents" (Special Reports and Studies) produced by the United States Inquiry Commission, which prepared reports used by the American delegation at the Paris Peace Conference, including the report writen by General Harbord, who headed an American military mission to the Republic of Armenia. On microfiche we have the Chadwyck-Healey collection The Armenian Genocide in the U.S. Archives, 1915-1918.
We also have U.S. archival materials in book form, namely fifteen volumes of Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States (for 1895, 1903, 1914, 1915, 1917, 1918, 1919, 1942, 1945, and 1946); the report of the U.S. Consul (based in Harput) Leslie A. Davis on the Armenian Genocide in the Mamuret-ul-Aziz Vilayet (he toured the region extensively, taking notes and photographs), which was edited by Susan K. Blair and published as The Slaughterhouse Province: An American Diplomat's Report on the Armenian Genocide, 1915-1917 (New Rochelle, NY: Aristide D. Caratzas, Publisher, 1989); and the three-volume (so far) set of United States Official Documents on the Armenian Genocide published as a special series by the Armenian Review. Also concerning Leslie Davis, we have copies of the correspondence and other documents of Garabed Bedrosian, Davis's interpreter and bodyguard while consul.
Supplementing the archival materials, we also have books such as Lawrence Gelfand's The Inquiry: American Preparations for Peace, 1917-1919 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1963) and Harry N. Howard's The King-Crane Commission: An American Inquiry into the Middle East (Beirut: Khayats, 1963), which discuss official American researches into the conditions of the Armenians in the Middle East and in the Republic of Armenia.
Armenian History and Historiography
No research center like ours could possibly overlook Armenian history in its library. One of our aims in this area is to acquire editions of Armenian chronicles in both classical and modern Armenian, as well in the available western languages. For example, we have two different English translations (by Robert Bedrosian and Nina Garsoïan) of the Epic Histories (a history of fourth-century A.D. Armenia attributed to P'awstos Buzand), the classical Armenian edition of 1883, and a translation into modern Eastern Armenian, but we do not have the 1879 German edition, the 1953 Russian edition, or the recently published Italian edition. We also have historical studies of chroniclers, such as Hrant Khatchadourian's The History of Historiography of Armenia (a Ph.D. dissertation not available from UMI) and G. Abgaryan's "Sebeosi Patmut'yun" ev ananuni areghtsvatsê (Erevan: Haykakan SSR Gitut'yunneri Akademiayi Hratarak'chut'yun, 1965). Our historical coverage continues to the present. Two recent acquisitions to our collection are Claire Mouradian's De Staline à Gorbatchev: Histoire d'une république soviétique: l'Arménie (Paris: Éditions Ramsay, 1990) and Joseph Masih and Robert O. Krikorian's Armenia: At the Crossroads (Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers, 1999). We are also obtaining for our collections Ph.D. dissertations on Armenian history, many of which can be purchased from UMI/Bell and Howell but for some we depend on the kindness of scholars.
Armenian Genocide Survivor Accounts
We have about 300 survivor's stories in various formats--books, articles, manuscripts, videotapes, and audiotapes, which includes transcripts and tapes of the Armenian Genocide Oral History Project conducted in the 1970s. Some were written by the survivor directly (such as Les Memoires de Mgr. Jean Naslian [Vienna: Imprimerie Mechithariste, 1951; Beirut: Editeur Mgr. Jean Naslian, 1951), some by their children or grandchildren (such as Virginia and Victoria Haroutunian's Orphan in the Sands [N.p., 1995]). Some were published immediately after the fact (such as Esther Mugerditchian's From Turkish Toils: The Narrative of an Armenian Family's Escape [New York: George H. Doran Company, 1919]), while others were published much later (such as Der Nerses Babayan's Pages From My Diary [Glendale, CA: Abril Printing, 2000]), and we also have some that have never been published, such as Hagop Kalayjian's Memoirs of Hagop K. Kalayjian. We have memoirs in English, French, Armenian (such as Gabriel Tagworean's Gorsh gaylê katgher ër, 1915: Vkayut'iwnner u tpaworut'iwnner [Cairo: Tparan "Husaber," 1953], and Italian (such as Raffaele Gianighian's Khodorciur: Viaggio di un pellegrino alla ricerca della sua Patria [Venice: Casa Editrice Armena, 1992]). These memoirs are not only important for researching the Armenian Genocide, but also for researching the historical and social conditions of Western Armenia, and, in many cases, for researching the immigrant experience to America.
Village Histories
Since Western Armenia no longer exists as an Armenian-populated area, researchers need to turn to memoirs and village histories to learn about the organization of life in the towns and villages of Western Armenia. These village histories also trace inhabitants and family connections of Armenians of these regions, and the publication of some were sponsored by compatriotic associations of survivors, or children of survivors, from a particular region, determined to keep alive their experiences or those of their parents. We have such many village histories, both Armenian (in Armenian, such as the massive 3-volume Patmut'iwn Hay Tomartsayi, and English, such as Chomaklou: The History of an Armenian Village) and Turkish (such as Malatya, 1830-1919). We also have the Ottoman Salnames (official yearbooks) for the Trabzon Vilayet (Trebizond Province) for 1869-1877 and for the Angora Vilayet (Ankara Province) for 1907, and a partial run of T'ëodik's Amenun tarets'oyts' ê yearbooks. Finally, we also have partial runs of compatriotic association periodicals such as Nor Sebastia and Varak.
Armenian Literature
We have a strong collection of holdings by and on William Saroyan and David Kherdian. We also have works by and on other Armenian-American writers, as well as over 1,000 volumes of Armenian literature, both in English and in Armenian. Our Armenian-language literary holdings have been greatly enhanced through a recent donation by an Armenian-American in upstate New York.
Armenian Art and Architecture
We have a relatively small (377), but growing collection of books and booklet offprints on various Armenian art and architecture We have holdings in English (such as Edouard Utudjian's Armenian Architecture, 4th to 17th Century [Paris: Editions Albert Morance, 1968], which is a translation from the French), French (such as J. Mourier's 4-part L'Art au Caucase [Paris: Librairie Orientale et Américaine de J. Maisonneuve, Éditeur, 1896]), Armenian (such as Tiran Marut'yan's Zvart'nots' ev Zvart'nots'atip tacharner: Chartarapetakan k'nnakan aknark [Erevan: Haypethrat, 1963]), Russian (such as O.Kh. Khalpakhchian's Grazhdanskoi Zodchestvo Armenii [Zhilie i Obshchestvennie Zdaniia] [Moscow: Izdatelstvo Literatur po Stroitelstvu, 1971]), and German (such as Josef Strzygowski's massive Asiens Bildende Kunst in Stichproben, ihr Wesen und ihre Entwicklung [Augsburg: Dr. Benno Filser Verlag, 1930]). We also have collections, such as the Ricerca Sull'Architettura Armena Fonti series published in Italy, as well as the Documents of Armenian Architecture series also published in Italy, which just finished its run with a volume on jmiatsin (under the older name of Vagharshapat), and the massive seven-volume Armenian Architecture microfilm series edited by Vasken Parsegian.
Armenian Periodicals
As is true in other fields, journals contain the latest research, works in progress, and book reviews of books in the field of specialization. Thus, our library has amassed a fair-sized collection of journals in the field of Armenian Studies. These journal runs are listed below, first by paragraphs indicating their coverage in our library, and then by relative importance within each paragraph.
We have a complete run of the Journal of the Society for Armenian Studies (of which volumes 6-11 were edited by us), Revue des Études Arméniennes (the most prestigious Armenian Studies journal in the world, we have all of the old series in microfiche and much of the hardcopy too, and all of the new series in hardcopy), the Armenian Review (published by the Dashnaks from 1948-1995, 2001- ), Journal of Armenian Studies (published irregularly by the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research of Belmont, MA), Journal of Genocide Research (a new journal), the St. Nersess Theological Review (the journal of the only Armenian seminary in the western hemisphere), Revue du Monde Arménien Moderne et Contemprain (a new Paris-based journal of modern Armenian history published by the Société des Études Arméniens), Haykazean Hayagitakan Handës (the journal of Haigazian College in Lebanon), Armenian Forum (a new journal of modern Armenian civilization), Raft (a journal of Armenian literature published by the Armenian Studies Program in Cleveland, OH), and Diaspora (a new journal devoted to diaspora studies in general).
We have nearly all the issues of Revue d'Histoire Arménienne Contemporaine (published by the Nubarian Library in Paris), GAM (a Paris-based intellectual journal of the 1980s), Ararat (the AGBU monthly literary journal), the Annual of Armenian Linguistics (published by the Armenian Studies Program in Cleveland, OH), Armenian International Magazine (AIM) (a periodical similar to Time or Newsweek), and Armash (a now-defunct Canadian-Armenian journal named after the historic [and likewise defunct] Armash monastery).
We have most of the issues of Hairenik (the prominent but now defunct monthly literary journal published by the Dashnaks), and Navasart (a monthly literary periodical published in California).
We have some issues of Ëjmiatsin (the official journal of the Catholicos of All Armenians), the International Journal of Middle East Studies and the Middle East Studies Bulletin (journals of the Middle East Studies Association), Patma-Banasirakan Handes (the journal of the Armenian Academy of Sciences) Banber Erevani Hamalsarani (a journal of Erevan State University), Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae (the oriental studies journal of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), and Erevani Hamalsaran and Handes Erevani Hamalsarani (two more journals of Erevan State University), Hask (the official journal of the Catholicos of Cilicia), and Sion (the official periodical of the Patriarch of Jerusalem.
We have a few issues of Handës Amsorya (the journal of the Vienna Mekhitarists), Bazmavëp (the journal of the Venice Mekhitarists, Banber Matenadarani (the journal of the Matenadaran, the preeminent repository for Armenian manuscripts in the world, in Erevan), Shoghakat' (the journal of the Istanbul Patriarch), and Anahit (a 1930s Paris-based journal).
Newspapers
Current newsworthy events concerning Armenia and the world-wide Armenian diaspora are amply contained in the Armenian-American press (as well as the on-line services, several of which we receive). Thus, we maintain a collection of newspapers. We subscribe to the Armenian Reporter (Independent weekly), Armenian Mirror-Spectator (amkavar weekly), Armenian Weekly (Dashnak weekly), Armenian Life Weekly (Independent weekly), California Courier (Independent, Dashnak-leaning weekly), Asbarez (Dashnak daily), Nor Gyank (Dashnak weekly), Armenian Observer (Independent, Ramkavar-leaning weekly), and the Turkish Times (biweekly). We also receive Eritasard Hayastan (Hnch'ak monthly), Massis (Hnch'ak weekly), and the Institut Kurd de Paris Information Bulletin (a monthly press digest of newspaper articles on the Kurds). We have the last two years of each of the weekly and biweekly newspapers on file, the earlier issues having been microfilmed. We have also had various older issues of Hayrenik'i Dzayn (the newspaper of Soviet Armenia to diasporan Armenians), Eritasard Hayastan, Payk'ar (then a amkavar daily), and Nor Ashkhar microfilmed.
Reference Materials
Like all major libraries, the Armenian Research Center also has "reference" material: encyclopedias, bibliographies, etc. First of all, we have the eleven-volume Haykakan Sovetakan hanragitaran, the mammoth Armenian encyclopedia. We also have Vrej Nersessian's annotated bibliography Armenia (Oxford: Clio Press, 1993), his An Index of Articles on Armenian Studies in Western Journals (London: Luzac & Co., 1975), and his revised A Bibliography of Articles on Armenian Studies in Western Journals, 1869-1995 (Surrey: Curzon Press, 1997), as well as A. Salmaslian's Haykakan matenagitut'yun / Bibliographie de l'Arménie (Erevan: Haykakan SSH Gitut'yunneri Akademiayi Hratarakch'ut'yun, 1968), the first such bibliography of its kind, one volume of H.S. Anasyan's Haykakan matenagitut'yun (Erevan: Haykakan SSH GA Hratarakch'ut'yun, 1976), and Hamo B. Vassilian's The Armenians: A Colossal Bibliographic Guide to Books Published in the English Language (Glendale, CA: Armenian Reference Books, 1993).
On the topic of the Armenian Genocide, we have Israel Charny's two-volume Encyclopedia of Genocide (ABC-Clio, 1999), the first such encyclopedia of its kind, plus K.S. Khudaverdian's Armianskii vopros: Entsiklopediia (The Armenian Question: An Encyclopedia) (Erevan: Glavnaia Redaktsiia Armianskoi Entsiklopedii, 1991). Also on the topic of the Armenian Genocide we have Israel Charny's three-volume annotated series Genocide: A Critical Bibliographic Review (1988-1994); Samuel Totten's First-Person Accounts of Genocidal Acts Committed in the Twentieth Century (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1991); Michael Dobkowski and Isidor Wallimann's Genocide in Our Time: An Annotated Bibliography with Analytical Introductions (Ann Arbor, MI: The Perian Press, 1992); G.A. Abraamian's Russkie Istochniki o genotside armian v Osmanskoi imperii, 1915-1916 gody (Russian Sources on the Genocide of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in the Years 1915-1916) (Erevan: "Areresum"-Ani, 1995); Tigran Georgean and Hakob S. Anasean's "Haykakan Harts'"-ê ew Haykakan kotoratsnerê: Hamaparpak matenagitut'ean pordz (Cairo: Hratarakut'iwn H.B.E. Miutean Alek Manukean Mshakutayin Himnadrami, 1995); M.G. Nersisyan's Hayots' 1915-1916 tt. Ts'eghaspanut'yunê: Matenagitut'yun (Erevan: "Arersum"-ANI, 1995); Erdal Ilter's Türk-Ermeni Iliškileri Bibliyografyasi (Ankara: Ankara Üniversitesi Basimevi, 1997); H.S. Anassian's The Armenian Genocide and the Genocide of the Armenians in Turkey (A Brief Bibliography of Russian Materials (Los Angeles, CA: American Armenian International College, 1983); Hamo B. Vassilian's The Armenian Genocide: A Comprehensive Bibliography and Library Resource Guide (Glendale, CA: Armenian Reference Books, 1992); and Richard G. Hovannisian's The Armenian Holocaust: A Bibliography Relating to the Deportations, Massacres, and Dispersion of the Armenian People, 1915-1923 (Cambridge, MA: Armenian Heritage Press, 1978), the first such bibliography of its type.
Concerning the Armenian press, we have four fine bibliographies: Garegin Levonyan's Hayots' parberakan mamulê: Liakatar ts'uts'ak Hay lragrut'yun skzbits minchev orerê (1794-1934) (Erevan: Haratarakut'yun Melkonyan Fondi, 1934); Hovh. Petrosyan's Hay parberakan mamuli bibliografia (1794-1900): Aajananov ev tsanot'agrut'yunnerov (Erevan: Haykakan SSR Petgrapalat, 1956), A. Kirakosyan's Hay parberakan mamul matenagitut'yun (1794-1967): Hamahavak' ts'ank (Erevan, 1970), and M.A. Babloyan's Hay parberakan mamulê: Matenagitakan hamahavak' ts'uts'ak (1794-1980) (Erevan: Haykakan SSH GA Hratarakch'ut'yun, 1986); 1794 being the date the first Armenian periodical, Azdarar of Madras, was published.
Additional bibliographies owned by the Armenian Research Center include Robert W. Thomson's A Bibliography of Classical Armenian Literature to 1500 AD (Turnhout: Brepols, 1995), which not only is a bibliography of all Armenian works written prior to 1500 A.D. (and more recent editions and reprintings) but is also a bibliography of works written about these works by scholars after 1500 A.D; and Hamo Vassilian's Armenians and Iran bibliography in both its editions (1991 and 1994.
We also have a complete set of Mayr ts'uts'ak dzeragrats' Surbots' Hakobeants', Mayr ts'uts'ak Hayerën dzeragrats', and Ts'uts'ak Hayerën dzeragrats' matenadaranin Mkhitareants' i Vienna/Ts'uts'ak Hayerën dzeragrats' Mkhitarean matenadaranin i Vienna the respective catalogs of the manuscript holdings of the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the Mekhitarist monks of Venice, and the Mekhitarist monks of Vienna; catalogs of the Armenian manuscripts at the Bibliothèque nationale de France and at the Armenian Catholic monastery of Bzommar (Zmma) in Lebanon; catalogs of the Armenian manuscripts at UCLA and Cambridge University; a catalog of the Armenian manuscripts in Germany; a catalog of the Armenian manuscripts in Bulgaria; a catalog of an early 20th century private collection in Tiflis; a catalog to the now lost collection of Armenian manuscripts at the monastery of Sts. Karapet and Daniel in Kayseri; a catalog of the early Armenian books at the British Library and the Bodleian (Oxford University); a catalog of Armenian books from 1511 to 1695; and a catalog of Armenian books from 1512 to 1800. Finally, we have two of the volumes of the invaluable Hayastani ev harakits' shrjanneri teghanunneri baaran, a gazetteer of modern and historic Armenia, as well as the complete four-volume Hayeren armatakan bararan (Armenian Etymological Dictionary).
On a different note, we have recently acquired Official Military Historical Offices and Sources, Volume I: Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and India, which for our purposes is a guide to the military archives and official histories of the World War I combatants, and should prove useful for research on the roles of the German, Austro-Hungarian, and Ottoman armed forces in the Armenian Genocide.
Other Materials
We have purchased from Dr. Levon Chookaszian books from the library of his father, the famous philologist and assistant director of the Matenadaran, Dr. Babken Chookaszian. Also of philological interest we have Paul Jungmann and J.J.S. Weitenberg's A Reverse Analytical Dictionary of Classical Armenian (Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 1993), a rather expensive ($300) and esoteric tome with limited circulation in the U.S., as well as a collection of Armenological and philological books published by Martiros Minassian of the Ghoukassiantz Brotherhood, including his reprinting of Norayr Biwzandatsi's five-volume edition of the 1836 Nor bargirk Haykazean lezui. In our collection as well are 15 of Project SAVE's calendars, which use rare photographs to highlight various aspects of Armenian life both in historic Armenia and in the United States. We also have Vasken Parsegian's massive seven-volume Armenian Architecture microfilm collection, and T.A. Sinclair's four-volume Eastern Turkey: An Architectural and Archaeological Survey (worth over $1,200). Finally, we also have much of the Dutch and Swiss Inter Documentation Company's Armenian Sources microfiche collection.
Archives
Although there are several Armenian archives in the West, none has been attached to a university until now. Also none of these archives, until now, is attached to an institution with a permanent endowment to ensure its lasting survival. Our archive will help to document the pre-Genocide Armenian life in Turkey (historic Armenia), the Genocide—the horror stories of the survivors and their escape, and their struggle in America and in other parts of the Diaspora to restart their lives and create Armenian-American communities with new churches, Armenian newspapers, community centers, schools.
Our archive has already received four significant donations: the Garabed Bedrosian collection, the H. Achemean (Ajemian) collection, the Agop Arevian collection, and the John Vigen Der Manuelian collection. The Garabed Bedrosian collection consists of copies of the papers of Garabed Bedrosian, the interpretor and bodyguard of U.S. Consul Leslie Davis, who was stationed at Harput during the Armenian Genocide. Mr. Bedrosian later immigrated to the U.S., and the collection includes documents on the Armenian Genocide and materials about his life in America. The H. Achemean collection consists of handwritten booklets written in the early 1950s detailing the history and population of Chmshkatsag (Chemishgetsek), a village located in the Mamuret-ul-Aziz Vilayet before the Genocide. The Agop Arevian collection consists of a copy of a handwritten diary, written by a member of the Armenian Legion. Finally, the John Vigen Der Manuelian collection consists of over twelve linear feet of correspondence and other papers concerning his activities in Armenian-American educational affairs.
An existing collection of interviews of 160 Genocide survivors has also been transferred into this archive from the general collection of the Armenian Research Center. These interviews are in the process of being digitized in order to make them available online to researchers and the public.
Conclusion
While it is true that much of what we own can be found at one or more U.S. or world libraries, no library owns all of the material mentioned above. Thus, our library is a unique resource for research on the Armenians and their neighbors.
"National rankings of the quality of the University's academic programs are the
highest since these evaluations began several decades ago. A close examination
reveals that the academic reputations of our programs have increased more than
any other university in America over the past decade. Further, when rankings
across all academic programs and professional schools are considered, four
institutions stand apart: Harvard, Stanford, the University of California, and
the University of Michigan.
Through the remarkable efforts of our faculty, the University passed MIT several years ago to rank now as the nation's leading research university, attracting more federal, state, and corporate support for our research efforts than any other university in America"
Excerpt from
A Vision for the 21st Century: Beyond "the Leaders and Best"
James J. Duderstadt, President President's Weekend Address September 29, 1995
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(Because of the lack of characters in the Windows Character map, I'm using ê for the 8th letter of the Armenian alphabet, Ë and ë for the 7th letter, and r for the 28th as well as the 32nd letter).
