Books, CDs, cards and beautiful original paintings for sale, including hand-painted reproductions from mediaeval Armenian manuscipts. 

Mulled wine, hot chocolate and nibbles.
All welcome

Kim Bu Ermeniler (Who Are the Armenians?)

Presentation by authors Susan Pattie and Maral Kerovpyan with translator Lora Sari.  

The evening includes a discussion about the adaptation to a new audience and leads into activities found in the book. Prepare to learn some phrases in Armenian, draw “bird letters”, learn a song or a dance.  An event for all ages.  Copies of the book in Turkish and in English will be available for sale.

Kim Bu Ermeniler?, the Turkish translation of Who Are the Armenians?  was released in August 2016.  Created for children, this popular book is a colourful and lively introduction to Armenians for people of all ages. Published by the Armenian Institute (London) in partnership with Aras Publishing (Istanbul), the project received generous funding from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.  Author Susan Pattie and co-authors Gagik Stepan-Sarkissian and Maral Kerovpyan worked with translator Lora Sari to adapt the text and images for Turkish language readers, adding a further eight pages to the already expanded 2nd edition of the original English version.  With pages on language, history, games, food, customs, music and much else, the book includes activities and audio supplement now found on the website.  Its Portuguese edition has been the best-selling book in the Gulbenkian Foundation’s bookstore for many months. 

Please visit www.whoarethearmenians.comto learn more about the book and find sample pages in Turkish as well as the English and Portuguese editions. 

Books can be ordered directly from www.arasyayincilik.com, through the book’s website (above) or from www.armenianinstitute.org.uk in London.

The Armenian Institute invites all teachers of Armenian language (western and eastern variants) to come to its first workshop on language teaching methods.  Led by Jiraïr Tcholakian of Mgnig Workshop (Paris), teachers will participate in methods borrowed from theatre and the arts, focusing on giving students the confidence and desire to speak, joke and play in Armenian, making it more a part of their daily lives.  Whether your students are adults or children, this will be an inspiring workshop that will be both enjoyable and challenging.  

As well as a editing Nor Haratch, Jiraïr Tcholakian is active in the Mgnig Workshop, a weekly alternative school for bilingual children in Paris, has wide experience in Armenian theatre and is a regular member of ensemble Akn - Armenian liturgical chant.  

Admission free.

Jiraïr Tcholakian, editor of Nor Haratch (Paris) will speak about current issues in Western Armenian language publications and the challenges of revitalizing a "national treasure".  Nor Haratch is an Armenian-language newspaper published in Paris since 2009. A French-language supplement is also published weekly. A few months after Europe’s long-running Armenian newspaper Haratch (1925-2009) ceased publication, Nor Haratch was launched as a new and separate publication by a group of French-Armenian intellectuals. 

As well as a editing Nor Haratch, Jiraïr Tcholakian is active in the Mgnig Workshop, a weekly alternative school for bilingual children in Paris, has wide experience in Armenian theatre and is a regular member of ensemble Akn - Armenian liturgical chant.  

Admission | £5 (£3 students) to include wine and nibbles

In the multi-ethnic and multi-confessional empires of the medieval and early modern Middle East, religion was a defining characteristic of community identity, exemplified in the millet system of the Ottoman Empire. In Safavid Iran too, Christians enjoyed protected status and communal autonomy as zimmis (people of the book) in return for the payment of supplementary taxes. That, at least, was how it worked in theory.

This lecture will explore this question through the experiences of Safavid Armenians and Georgians, focusing on the several ways in which their case deviates from the norm. Prof. Herzig will argue that the novelty of Shiʿism as a state religion combined with the Safavid system of highly personalised royal power created new challenges and opportunities for the rulers, Muslim clerics, Armenians and Georgians alike. On the one hand Christians’ security and freedom of religion were frequently threatened, while on the other some Georgians and Armenians became members of the Safavid elite – trusted servants of the Shahs as officers, administrators, diplomats and merchants. Many converted to Islam, either voluntarily or involuntarily, but they retained, nevertheless, elements of their Georgian or Armenian identity and even, in some cases, reverted eventually to their Christian faith.

Edmund Herzig is Masoumeh and Fereydoon Soudavar Professor of Persian Studies at the University of Oxford. After a BA at Cambridge and a year’s graduate study at Princeton he studied for his doctorate at Oxford, with a year at Yerevan State University. He wrote his thesis on the New Julfa Armenian merchants of Safavid Isfahan, and has continued since to work on Safavid history, with a special interest in the Julfa Armenians and the relationship between history and identity in Iran, Armenia and the Caucasus.

Dana Walrath, a writer, artist and anthropologist likes to cross borders and disciplines with her work. After years of using stories and art to teach medical students at University of Vermont’s College of Medicine, she spent 2012-2013 as a Fulbright Scholar in Armenia where she completed her first book, Like Water on Stone a verse novel about the Armenian genocide of 1915.  Loosely based on the story of her grandmother, Like Water on Stone is a Notable Book for a Global Society Award Winner, a Bank Street Best Book of 2015, a Vermont Book Award Finalist, and more. Her just released graphic memoir, Aliceheimer’s blends the story of life with her mother, Alice, before and during dementia, with stories from Armenia.  She has spoken extensively about the role of comics in healing throughout North America and Eurasia including TEDx talks. She has also shown her artwork in a variety of venues throughout North America and Eurasia. Her recent essays have appeared in Slate and Foreign Policy.

Dana Walrath’s BA is from Barnard College, Columbia University, MFA in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts, and PhD in Anthropology from University of Pennsylvania.

Don’t miss the Armenian Institute Stall at the Armenian Street Festival in Kensington.

Many new books!

When Dana Walrath’s Armenian mother, Alice, came down with dementia and moved in with her, little did she know that this would lead her to start making comics. Creative writing, visual art, medical anthropology and comics? Who knew that they were connected? But through watching Alice devour every graphic narrative that came into the house, Dr Walrath discovered the healing power of this visual storytelling form and put it to work in her just released graphic memoir Aliceheimer’s (Penn State University Press 2016). Coming to us straight from the 7th International Comics and Medicine Conference in Dundee Scotland, she will lead participants through a series of hands–on interactive exercises that explore how visual storytelling works, and how healing works, and most importantly how to combine them in order to start your own graphic medicine journey.

Dana Walrath will be signing her books Aliceheimer’s and Like Water on Stone at the Armenian Institute stall during the Armenian Street Festival, Iverna Gardens W8, this Sunday, 17 July, between 3 and 4 pm. 

Dana Walrath’s BA is from Barnard College, Columbia University, MFA in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts, and PhD in Anthropology from University of Pennsylvania.

Dr Khachatur Gasparyan is Chair of Medical Psychology Department at M. Heratsi Yerevan State Medical University, Chief Psychologist at Intra Mental Health Centre and Advisor at the Armenian Ministry of Defense. Since 2000 he has been a director of the Mental Health Care Centre (funded by the British charity CAFOD for 5 years) focusing on developing a training model for culturally appropriate mental health work. He also conducts a situational analysis on the mental health care system, with a focus on persons affected by conflicts. Dr Gasparyan has extensive experience working with soldiers, their families and displaced refugees from the Nagorno–Karabakh conflict, with survivors of the 1988 earthquake in Armenia and currently with refugees from Syria.  

Mike Ayvazian, actor, director and therapist, has studied theatre arts including clown, mime and commedia dell'arte.  Having also studied expressive arts therapy, Mike has worked with people from underprivileged and minority backgrounds, including refugees, for 30 years. More recently he was part of the project “Better Together” aiming at integration and development of normal communication between Syrian and Lebanese youth.  Teaching theatre arts in schools, training youths, teachers and social workers in the use of expressive arts therapy in Lebanon and Armenia, Mike also teaches acting and art direction in two Lebanese universities.

Workshops, seminars and performances by researchers, arts-based NGOs and artists working with refugees.

June 20 – 9:30 am to 5:00 pmInstitute of Advanced Studies (IAS), Wilkins Building, South Wing, Common Ground      Room, Gower StreetWX1E 6BT

June 20 – 8:00 pm RADA, Studio Theatre, 16 Chenies Street, WC1E 7EX (Tickets £12, concessions £10)

June 21 – 9:30 am to 4:00 pm, Department of Anthropology, UCL, 14 Taviton Street, WC1H 0BW

The personal narratives of refugees reveal problems faced as well as sources of resilience and strength. These stories become an essential part of the work of researchers, NGOs and artists as they collaborate with refugees and each other.  Join us in exploring how the arts are taking integral roles in projects with goals such as conflict transformation, psychological healing, community building, and social integration.

Workshops and Seminars free and open to the public – Register on website www.refugeenarratives.com

Evening Performance – Tickets from RADA box office (020 7636 7076)

University College London in partnership with the ArtEZ, Organization for Identity and Cultural Development and the Armenian Institute.

Photo credits (clockwise from top): Helge Hansen, Mike Ayvazian, Ice & Fire, Phospho.

Phosphorus Theatre Dear Home Office. An Applied Theatre project with unaccompanied minor young men, developed in partnership with Afghan Association Paiwand.

Dina Mousawi, Director

Terrestrial Journeys film excerpt

Ice and Fire 

Asylum Monologues

Verbatim Theatre

Helen East and Rick Wilson

Universal to Personal: the story circle

Folktales and music provide a doorway to connecting with refugee narratives as Helen and Rick perform an excerpt from a musical storytelling presentation created for a refugee camp as part of the Hakaya Al Balad Festival and British Council, Jordan, storytelling project

Fargespill with Ole Hamre and Sissel Saue

Fargespill is an intimate, musical meeting with young peoples’ stories about who they are and where they come from, told through music and dance from their respective cultures.

University College London Department of Anthropology in partnership with the Institute of Advanced Studies (UCL), Organization for Identity and Cultural Development, ArtEZ Institute of the Arts (Netherlands) and the Armenian Institute.

Funded by University College London Knowledge Exchange Programme

Photo credit: Fargespill by Helge Hansen

Join us for a stimulating and moving evening of poetry in the beautiful atmosphere of St Sarkis Armenian Church.  Poems will be read and recited in many languages, including a special presentation by the Pushkin Club of London.  Translations into English will be provided as poems are read in Arabic, Armenian, French, Persian, Turkish. Poems in original English will include an excerpt from 2016 Pulitzer Prize-winning book of poetry Ozone Journal by Peter Balakian.

This talk first examines the state of Armenian cultural heritage in present-day Eastern Turkey. It navigates from a recently renovated Armenian church in Tigranakert/Diyarbakır to a community centre in the Armenian village of Vak’if/Vakıflı Köyü, and from a newly restored Armenian fountain in Habap/Ekinözü to an Armenian cemetery just outside Arapgir. By using such examples, the talk demonstrates how restoring Armenian ruins can also work to rebuild memories, communities and identities. In the end, it contextualises these attempts to “restore” within: 1. present-day Turkey’s contested political and social landscapes, and 2. recent attempts by its Ministry of Culture and Tourism, among other public and private actors, to “sell" its past.

Dr Laurent Dissard is a Junior Research Fellow at UCL’s Institute of Advanced Studies. After completing his PhD in Near Eastern Studies at University of California at Berkeley, he received a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Penn Humanities Forum at the University of Pennsylvania to work on his book manuscript Submerged Stories: Dams and Cultural Erasure in Eastern Turkey, forthcoming with MIT Press. The book takes dams as symbols of Turkey’s "modernisation" and their associated reservoirs - artificial lakes inundating river valleys and their cultural heritage - as metaphors for the country’s "submerged stories."

Հանդիպում մը Պատմական Յուշարձաններու Պահպանութեան Ճարտարապետ եւ «Ակօս»ի Սիւնակագիր` Զաքարիա Միլտանօղլուի հետ

Զաքարիա Միլտանօղլու, Պոլսահայ ճարտարապետ, հսկեց Աղթամար Կղզիի Ս. Խաչ եկեղեցւոյ վերանորոգման աշխատութեան, որպէս Թուրքիոյ Հայոց Պատրիարքարանի ներկայացուցիչը։ Հակառակ բազմաթիւ բողոքներու, ներկայիս եկեղեցին թանգարան է եւ անուանափոխուած «Ագտամար»ի։ Միլտանօղլու հեղինակն է բազմաթիւ շինութիւններու եւ վերանորոգութիւններու նախագիծերուն:  Նշելի են Գուզկոնճուք թաղի կազի արտադրութեան սարքի վերանորոգումը որ կառուցուած էր Պէյլէրպէյի Պալատին համար ըլլալով Թուրքիոյ առաջինը եւ Օրթագիւղ թաղի Հայ Կաթողիկէ Անտոնեան Միաբանութեան շէնքի վերանորոգումը։ Միլտանօղլու «Ակօս» թերթի յօդուածագիր է։  Հրատարակած է «Սկիզբէն մինչեւ այսօր հայ պարբերական մամուլը» ուսումնասիրութիւնը։

Միլտանօղլուի դասախօսութիւնը պիտի ներառէ «Հայճար» (Հայ Ճարտարապետ  եւ Ճարտարագետներու Միութիւն) խումբի բազմաթիւ լուսանկարները, որոնք մաս կը կազմեն հայկական գիւղերու եւ քաղաքներու մէջ վաւերագրելու, վերահսկելու եւ ուսումնասիրելու ապագայ վերանորոգութիւններու նախագիծերը։

Meet Conservation Architect and Agos Columnist Zakarya Mildanoğlu

Zakarya Mildanoğlu, the Istanbul-based architect represented the Armenian Patriarchate of Turkey during the restoration of Sourp Khatch Church, Akhtamar now a museum renamed 'Akdamar' despite protests. A columnist for AGOS, he has also published History of the Armenian Periodical Press from Its Inception to the Present Day. 

Join us at St Sarkis Church with your beloved texts, poems, writers to remember Armenian writers and intellectuals who were tortured and killed but not silenced on April 24th 1915.

Read from your heart. 

Recite in any language.

Choose from our collection of books.

Share your passion for Armenian writing, history, travel. The choice is yours. Classic or modern. Young writing or old. We look forward to hearing you. We read for our past and for our future. 

100 Years Later follows historian Ara Sarafian who has worked to unveil the facts of the 1915 genocide of Anatolia's minorities by the collapsing Ottoman military junta, the Ittihadists. However, this is not a film about what word to use for the murder of over a million people. It's about how to create reconciliation between Turks, Kurds and Armenians over a crime that many still refuse to recognise. Filmed in April 2015, the film shows the political situation in South East Turkey just before the 2015 elections and the continuation of violence between the PKK and Turkish state. Is Anatolia a place whose people are destined to hate each other forever, or can a more tolerant culture be revived from the ashes of the past?'

John Lubbock is a journalist and human rights activist and this is the first film he has made on a budget of only $3000. John is a graduate of City University London's International Politics programme and Research Officer for the Bahrain Center for Human Rights.

Panel discussion on the book, Diasporas of the Modern Middle East: Contextualising Community (Edinburgh University Press, 2015) with the editors, Anthony Gorman and Sossie Kasbarian, and contributors May Farah, Maria Holt and Haris Theodorelis-Rigas. Approaching the Middle East through the lens of Diaspora Studies, the 11 detailed case studies in this volume explore the experiences of different diasporic communities in and of the region, and look at the changing conceptions and practice of diaspora in the modern Middle East.

In situating these different communities within their own narratives - of conflict, resistance, war, genocide, persecution, displacement, migration - these studies stress both the common elements of diaspora but also their individual specificity in a way that challenges, complements and at times subverts the dominant nationalist historiography of the region.

Case studies include, amongst others, the Cypriot Armenian community and Armenian diasporic tourism in Turkey.

Chair: Reem Abou–El–Fadl

Anthony Gorman is Senior Lecturer in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at University of Edinburgh. He has taught at universities in Australia, Egypt and Britain and is the author of Historians, State and Politics in Twentieth Century Egypt: Contesting the Nation (2003) as well as a number of articles on the resident foreign communities of modern Egypt.

 Sossie Kasbarian is Lecturer in Middle East Politics at the University of Lancaster. She has taught at SOAS, the University of Edinburgh and the Graduate Institute, Geneva, and is the author of a number of articles on the diaspora communities of the Middle East.

It is frequently acknowledged that Armenians played a major role in Ottoman photography, and yet much of this story remains unwritten.  This lecture approaches the history of Ottoman Armenian photography through an examination of a wide variety of photographers and studios, from the famous residents of Constantinople’s Grande Rue de Péra to the lesser known establishments of the Armenian provinces.  Across the empire, Ottoman Armenians were integral to the business, being responsible for the production of a vast wealth of images through which we can read numerous, sometimes divergent, purposes and concerns.  However, there were also elements that were common to all photographic activity, for each studio offered their customers the means by which to fashion their own self-images and tell their own stories of life in the empire, often to audiences abroad.  It is to these photographic stories that this lecture looks.

David Low has recently completed his PhD research at the Courtauld Institute of Art on the subject of photography during the last years of the Ottoman Empire and the Armenian Genocide.  His research has been supported by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council.  He has been a Research Fellow at the Library of Congress, Washington DC and the Raphael Lemkin scholar at the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute, Yerevan.

Image caption: A. & H. Soursourian, Graduates of the National Central School, Kharpert, 1910 (Courtesy of AGBU Nubar Library, Paris)

Due to popular demand the Armenian Institute has organised further guided tours of this unique exhibition. In order to accommodate more people the same tour will be given twice on each day. The tours will be led by Professor Theo M van Lint, Calouste Gulbenkian Professor of Armenian Studies at Oxford and co-author of the exhibition’s superbly illustrated catalogue.

Places for each tour are limited to 15 persons and will be allocated on first-come first-served basis. Please book early to avoid disappointment and specify the day and whether you wish to join the morning or afternoon tour.

If you would like to join us between the two tours for a casual lunch, please come along at 1 pm to the Turf Tavern (4-5 Bath Place, Oxford, OX1 3SU, www.turftavern-oxford.co.uk). (Each person responsible for own lunch costs)

Due to popular demand the Armenian Institute has organised further guided tours of this unique exhibition. In order to accommodate more people the same tour will be given twice on each day. The tours will be led by Professor Theo M van Lint, Calouste Gulbenkian Professor of Armenian Studies at Oxford and co-author of the exhibition’s superbly illustrated catalogue.

Places for each tour are limited to 15 persons and will be allocated on first-come first-served basis. Please book early to avoid disappointment and specify the day and whether you wish to join the morning or afternoon tour.

If you would like to join us between the two tours for a casual lunch, please come along at 1 pm to the Turf Tavern (4-5 Bath Place, Oxford, OX1 3SU, www.turftavern-oxford.co.uk). (Each person responsible for own lunch costs)

Those joining the morning tour on today may be interested to attend the Armenian Needlework Workshop (2.30 to 6.30 pm) at Pembroke College. To register please write to armenian.society@studentclubs.ox.ac.uk by 28 January.

The role of the Armenians in the Byzantine Empire has been often understated, and in some cases entirely ignored. The most common interpretation of Byzantium as a manifestation of Medieval Hellenism has meant no room for the Armenian element within the Byzantine state to be recognised. Toby Bromige has been conducting a revisionist work to restore the Armenian element in Byzantium to its rightful state. In this paper, he will explore the various roles Armenians contributed to Byzantine society as Priests, Generals and Emperors, the latter holding the most significance with some of Byzantium’s most heroic figures arising from Armenian migration into the empire.

Toby Bromige is a Third Year PhD candidate at Royal Holloway, University of London, under the supervision of Professor Jonathan Harris. He attained his Bachelor of History from Royal Holloway in 2012 and his Master’s degree in Late Antique & Byzantine Studies from the University of London in 2013. His PhD research has been focused on the role of the Armenians in the Byzantine Empire, particularly within the years 950-1084.

Image: Miniature painting from the Psalter of Basil II (Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Venice) showing the Emperor in triumphal garb with the imperial crown handed down by Archangel Gabriel. 

Հանդիպում մը սփիւռքեան պայմաններու մէջ հայերէն լեզուի դասաւանդման մարտահրաւէրներուն շուրջ

 Անի Կարմիրեան

Սոյն աշխատանոցին նպատակն է՝ միօրեայ դպրոցներու ուսուցիչ-ուսուցչուհիներուն հնարաւորութիւնն ընծայել իրենց դաստիարակչական մեթոտները վերանայելու, նոր հեռանկարներու հետ ծանօթանալու, եւ երկլեզու դաստիարակչութեան մարզէն ներս հայերէն լեզուին արժանի տեղ մը ապահովելու։

Անի Կարմիրեան Կիւլպէնկեան Հիմնարկութեան արեւմտահայերէնի զարգացման պատասխանատու եւ կրթական ծրագիրներու աւագ վարիչն է։ Վկայուած է Հայտելպերկի համալսարանէն եւ Նիւ Եորքի Bank Street College-ի Դաստիարակչական ղեկավարութեան մասնաճիւղէն։ 2000էն մինչեւ 2014՝ Նիւ Ճըրզիի Յովնանեան Վարժարանի տնօրէնուհին էր։ Հիմնադիրն է Փարիզի ՄԿՆԻԿ երկլեզու աշխատանոցին։ Ինալքօ (Փարիզ) կը դասաւանդէ 1994էն ի վեր։

A discussion around the challenges of the Armenian language teaching in a Diasporan setting

 Ani Garmiryan

The purpose of this workshop (in Armenian) is to offer teachers of Armenian schools a chance to revisit the established teaching standards and routines, familiarise themselves with new perspectives, and include the Armenian language in a successful bilingual education.

Ani Garmiryan is the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation's Senior Programme Officer for Western Armenian Language Support. She studied Linguistics and Pedagogy at the University of Heidelberg and Educational Leadership at Bank Street College, N.Y.  The founder of MGNIG in Paris, she was the headmistress of Hovnanian School in New Jersey (2000-2014). She has also been a lecturer in Methodology of Armenian as a Second Language at Inalco (Paris) since 1994. 

Becky Jinks is a Lecturer in Modern European History at Exeter University. Her first book, Representing Genocide: The Holocaust as Paradigm? (Bloomsbury, 2016) explores the ways in which the Holocaust has influenced the understandings and representation of other genocides. Her current book project, inspired by the research which underlies this talk, is a social history of humanitarians and humanitarianism in the period immediately following the World War I.