Birth of Martiros Saryan - February 28, 1880

The 20,000 dram banknote of the Republic of Armenia features painter Martiros Saryan, who was one of the two people publicly known and recognized in the twentieth century as Varbed (“Master”); the other was poet Avetik Isahakian (1875-1957).

Saryan was born in the Armenian community of Nor-Nakhichevan (the town is today part of the city of Rostov-on-the-Don, in the Northern Caucasus). His ancestors were from the medieval capital of Ani and had first migrated to Crimea in the Middle Ages. Afterwards, they moved to Nor-Nakhichevan, founded by Empress Catherine II of Russia in 1780. The town and its surrounding villages were the birthplace of many important figures of Armenian history, such as Mikael Nalbandian, Simon Vratzian, and Catholicos Guevorg VI, to name just a few.

Martiros Saryan studied in the public bilingual (Armenian and Russian) school of his town and graduated in 1895. After following elementary studies of art in his birthplace, he studied painting from 1897-1904 in the School of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture of Moscow. He visited Eastern Armenia for the first time in 1901-1902 and sojourned in Yerevan, Vagharshapat, and Ani, among other places. This trip was crucial for his formative years, as it gave him a fundamental knowledge and appreciation of the history, culture, arts, and customs of his people. Following graduation, he completed two years of postgraduate studies in portrait technique. He was in close touch with many members of the Russian intelligentsia and participated in various collective exhibitions in Moscow. He visited Constantinople, Egypt, and Persia in 1910-1913.

From an initial period of pure realism, after 1903 he entered a phase characterized as being “fantastic” painting. His works of the 1910s, while they marked a certain return to realism, were far from being purely realistic. He merged the color thinking of Paul Gauguin, the tri-dimensional understanding of Paul Cézanne, the linear view of Vincent Van Gogh, and certain principles of Armenian medieval miniature, fresco painting, and architecture achieving an entirely “Saryanesque” quality.

He worked in the Moscow Committee to Aid Armenians during the years of the Armenian Genocide and traveled to Echmiadzin in order to help the Western Armenian refugees. The psychological shock he suffered from the dire situation of the refugees was strong enough to have him moved to a hospital in Tiflis. In 1916 he participated in the formation of the Union of Armenian Artists, together with several famous painters (Vardgues Sureniants, Panos Terlemezian, Yeghishe Tadevosian, and others). He later returned to his birthplace.

He moved to Armenia in 1921 with his family and settled in Yerevan. He was named director of the State Museum of Armenia. He also contributed to the organization of the Committee of Conservation of Antiquities and Art, of which he was president, the Union of Workers of Plastic Arts and the Art Institute of Yerevan. He created the coat of arms of Soviet Armenia together with the painter Hakob Kojoyan, who was one of the coauthors of the coat of arms of the Republic of Armenia (the one in use today), in 1921. He participated in the fourteenth Biennale of Venice in 1924. He received the Grand Prix of the World’s Fair of Paris in 1937 for his decoration of the pavilion of the Soviet Union. His works of the Soviet period, perhaps the most known by the general public, marked a return to realism.

Saryan continued to be actively involved in public life and was president of the Union of Painters of Armenia from 1945-1951. He received various honors: full member of the Academy of Arts of the Soviet Union in 1947, full member of the Academy of Sciences of Armenia in 1956, Popular Painter of the USSR in 1960, Hero of Socialist Work (1965), etc.

The house-museum of Martiros Saryan that contains a good portion of his artistic works was opened in 1967. Other paintings are housed in the State Gallery of Armenia and its branches, the Tretiakov Gallery in Moscow, museums of various former Soviet countries, and private collections in the United States, France, and other countries.

Saryan passed away at the age of 92 in Yerevan, on May 5, 1972. In 1986, his statue was erected on the homonymous square, in front of the Opera. One of the central streets of the capital is also named in his honor.

Birth of Artur Tarkhanian - February 23, 1932

Some of the most representative buildings of the city of Yerevan are related to the name of architect Artur Tarkhanian.

He was born in Yerevan in 1932. He graduated from the Polytechnic Institute (now Yerevan State Engineering University) in 1957. Upon graduation, he started his career at the Haypetnakhagitz (Armenian State Project) Institute. He taught at Yerevan State University of Architecture and Construction since 1968. He was conferred the titles of Emeritus Architect of Armenia in 1972 and of People’s Architect in 1987, and became an honorary member of the Moscow branch of the International Academy of Architecture in 1992.

Tarkhanian was distinguished with several all-Soviet prizes, among them the Creativity Medal for Young Architects (1962 and 1968), achievements of Soviet architecture in the period 1973-1977, Best Construction of the Year (1982), Best Creation of the Year (1985). He also received the Anania Shirakatsi Medal of the Republic of Armenia (1998). 

Tarkhanian’s name is linked, together with his coauthors, to some of the best known buildings and monuments, such as:

- The branches of the Social Sciences institutes of the National Academy of Sciences (1955-1972);
- The monument to the victims of the Armenian Genocide on the Tzitzernakaberd hill (1967);
- The “Ayrarat” cinema hall, formerly known as “Rossiya” (1970-1974, winner of the prize of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union in 1979);
- The Youth Palace (1970-1985, winner of the Prize of the all-Soviet Communist Youth Union in 1981);
- The Sports and Music Complex (1984, winner of the State Prize of the USSR in 1987);
- The Zvartnots Airport (1981, winner of the State Prize of Armenia in 1985);
- The monument to painter Martiros Saryan (1986);
 - The monument to singer Charles Aznavour in Gumri (2001); etc.

The prize-winning Youth Palace has been regarded as one of the representative works of Soviet modernism. Unfortunately, this collective work of Tarkhanyan and his colleagues Hrach Poghosyan and Spartak Khachikian was sold by the government and demolished by its new owner in 2006—the same year of Tarkhanian’s death—despite expert opinion that the building only needed to be renovated. The 18-floor Youth Palace, containing a hotel, a revolving cafe on the top floor (like the Marriott Hotel in Manhattan), two halls with a capacity of 1,000 and 300 seats, and its many artworks, which had been a popular place in the 1970s and 1980s, went down into history. Until today, the site remains empty.

Artur Tarkhanian (middle) reviewing architectural plans with colleagues.

Birth of Hayganoush Mark - February 14, 1885

Armenian female writers were not very common at the beginning of the twentieth century. Following the line opened by Eliz Gesaratsian, Serpouhie Dussape, Zabel Asadour, and Zabel Essayan, along came Hayganoush Mark, who became the mainstay of Armenian feminism in Constantinople during the first half of the twentieth century.

There are several options for her year of birth, as she gave different dates. However, her tombstone says 1885. She studied at the Essayan Lyceum, where one of her main teachers was poet Zabel Asadour (1863-1934). She entered the literary arena at the turn of the twentieth century. Besides her poetry and prose, she was particularly active as a journalist and an advocate for female rights and social issues.

Her activism prompted her to publish the journal Dzaghig (1905-1907) at the age of 24. Despite its short duration, Dzaghig focused the attention of female writers and opened a window on their issues. She married journalist Vahan Toshigian in 1907 and moved to Smyrna, where she published the women’s page of his newspaper Arshaluys. 

Her most important achievement was the publication of the journal Hay Guin (1919-1933) in Constantinople. Published in the aftermath of the Armenian Genocide, the journal raised issues of feminism, the situation of women survivors, and other social questions until the rise of Kemalism. Hayganoush Mark’s incisive style gained her wide popularity. Afterwards, mounting political pressure on the Armenian community forced her to tone down her articles, until the closing of the journal by the Turkish government in 1933. The reasons remained unclear.

She published a volume of literary works, From My Moments of Idleness, in 1921. The fiftieth anniversary of her literary and journalistic work was celebrated in 1954 in Istanbul. A book called Hayganoush Mark: Her Life and Deeds was published in 1954. Her health worsened in her last years and she moved to the Armenian Hospital of Istanbul, where she passed away on March 7, 1966. Her library and belongings were bequeathed to the Seminary of Surp Khach (closed years later by the government and turned into a high school).

Signature of the Armenian reform plan - February 8, 1914

The defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkan war (1912-1913) created favorable conditions for the revival of the stipulations of the Treaty of Berlin of 1878. Its article 61, never put into practice, had established that the European powers would guarantee the implementation of administrative reforms within the provinces of the Empire inhabited by Armenians. 

Guevorg V (1911-1930), Catholicos of All Armenians, was the driving force behind the creation of the Armenian National Delegation, presided by Boghos Nubar Pasha (1852-1930), which lobbied the European powers to facilitate the enactment of reforms in the Ottoman Empire. The failure of the government to fulfill Armenian hopes after the revolution of 1908 and the restoration of the Constitution, coupled with the coup d’état of the Young Turks in early 1913, were enough to look forward to European intervention, as many other times in the past. 

The complicated politics of the period also favored such an intervention. France, Great Britain and Italy were anxiously trying to limit German overgrown influence in the Ottoman Empire, while Russia encouraged the Catholicos to appeal to the imperial government through the viceroy of the Caucasus for intervention. The project of reforms was prepared by André Mandelstam, the dragoman (translator) at the Russian Embassy in Constantinople, and representatives from the Armenian National Assembly, the main legislative body of the Ottoman Empire. The project was introduced and discussed at the meeting of the French, British and Italian ambassadors. It suggested the formation of a single province through the union of the six Armenian vilayets (Bitlis, Diarbekir, Erzerum, Mamuret-el-Aziz, Sivas, and Van) under either an Ottoman Christian or a European governor general. This official would be appointed by the European powers for the next five years to oversee matters related to Armenian issues. German strong opposition succeeded in obtaining several important modifications, such as the division of the region into two provinces headed by inspector-generals. They would be posted in Van and Erzerum.

L.C. Westenenk

Finally, the project was signed into law on February 8, 1914, by the Ottoman Empire (represented by Grand Vizir Said Halim Pasha) and Russia. Two European officials were selected as inspector-generals: Louis Constant Westenenk, an administrator for the Dutch East Indies, and Major Nicolai Hoff, of the Norwegian Army. Hoff was already in Van when World War I started on July 28, 1914, while Westenenk was preparing to depart for his post in Erzerum. The Ottoman Empire took advantage of the situation to expel the inspector-generals and, on December 16, 1914, a month and half after entering the war, abolish it. Anti-Armenian organized violence that would lead to the genocide was already on its way.

Opening of Yerevan State University - January 31, 1920

On May 16, 1919, the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Armenia adopted a resolution to found a university in Yerevan. However, the lack of an adequate building forced the establishment of the University outside the capital. The opening ceremonies were held with great pomp on January 31, 1920, in the building of the Commerce School of Alexandropol (now Gumri). The first rector was a law scholar, Yuri Ghambarian (1850-1926).

The inauguration was attended by the leadership of the republic, as well as by many guests from abroad. The first class was a lecture by the famous Armenologist, Stepan Malkhasiants (1857-1947) on February 1, 1920. During its first year, the university had one school (Faculty of History and Linguistics), 262 students and 32 professors. Famous specialists who had graduated abroad and had extensive experience in teaching and scholarship were invited to teach, such as Hakob Manandian, Manuk Abeghian, Stepan Malkhasiants, and others.

The University was moved to Yerevan in June 1920, but the grave political situation of the country made it impossible to restart classes until the sovietization of Armenia in December 1920. Historian Ashot Hovhannisian, the Commissar of Education of Soviet Armenia, issued a decree on December 17, 1920, renaming the university the Popular University of Yerevan. Historian Hakob Manandian was elected rector. The Popular University had two sections, Social Sciences and Biology. In October 1921, it expanded to five sections (Natural Sciences, Oriental Studies, Technics, Pedagogy, and Soviet Construction). The Faculty of Natural Sciences turned into Faculty of Agronomy, while the Faculty of Medicine was opened in March 1922. The university was renamed Yerevan State University in 1923. It functioned initially on the first floor of the Teachers’ Seminar, a black tufa building on Astafian (now Abovian) Street. Other remarkable scholars became faculty members, among them linguists Hrachia Adjarian and Grigor Ghapantsian, historian Leo (Arakel Babakhanian), literary scholar Arsen Terterian, archaeologist Ashkharbek Kalantar, art scholar Bishop Gareguin Hovsepiants (future Catholicos of the Holy See of Cilicia), philologists Yervant Ter-Minasian, Bishop Mesrop Ter-Movsisian, and Karo Melik-Ohanjanian, and others. Now its central building is on the beginning of Alex Manoogian Street (formerly Mravian).

In the academic year 1933-1934, the university had five faculties: Economic Sciences, Natural Sciences, History and Literature, Physics and Mathematics, and Pedagogy. The latter became the ground for the Pedagogical Institute (now the Armenian State Pedagogical University “Khachatur Abovian”). In the same year, the Faculty of Natural Sciences branched out in Biology and Chemistry.

Many teachers were arrested and killed during the Stalin purges of 1936-1938, while others were exiled and lived for years outside Armenia. Some of them died, while others were able to return after the death of Stalin in precarious health.

The number of schools increased over the years. In 1935-1936 there were eight and in 1991 they had turned into seventeen. Yerevan State University made an important change in its educational programs in the academic year 1995-1996, when it adopted a three-level program: bachelor (4 years), master (2 years) and graduate (3 years).

The university has given about 90,000 graduates since its inception. Today it has about 13,000 students in its 22 branches. More than seven hundred of its 1,200 teachers have one or two doctorate degrees. More than thirty full members of the National Academy of Sciences currently have educational and scholarly functions at the university.

Death of Aram Manoukian - January 29, 1919

Aram Manoukian was one of the main protagonists in the foundation of the first independent Republic of Armenia in 1918.

Born as Sergei (Sarkis) Hovhannisian in the village of Zeyva (nowadays David Bek, district of Kapan in Siunik) in 1879, he graduated from the Diocesan School of Shushi, in Gharabagh, one of the main Armenian schools in the region. He joined the ranks of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation when still a student. He was sent to Baku in 1901 as an activist. After a year spent in Kars (1903-1904), he settled in Van, where he developed his political activities for more than ten years, with a very short interruption. He had already acquired the pseudonym of Aram Manoukian and would later be known simply as “Aram of Van.”

 

He became one of the main leaders of the party in the region of Van and the soul of the resistance of the city against the Turkish orders of deportation in April 1915. After the deliverance of the Armenian population by the arrival of the Russian troops and the Armenian volunteers, Aram was named governor of Van until the unexpected retreat of the Russian forces two months later.

Between 1916 and 1917 he worked at the Armenian National Bureau of Tiflis and at the A.R.F. Bureau, dealing with the issues of Western Armenian refugees. He was one of the main organizers of the First Congress of Western Armenians in 1917. 

He was sent by the Armenian National Council to Yerevan in December 1917 as plenipotentiary representative to organize the resistance against the Turkish offensive. On January 5, 1918, on the eve of Armenian Christmas, Aram decreed a general mobilization. He declared: “In these conditions, our people can make miracles. I have often had the opportunity to realize that the sense of duty of our villagers is authentic. It is a sign of awareness. One call by the National Council is enough for him to leave his home and to rush to arms, when there is nothing that compels him to do so. At the time, the mobilization by the Russian government was always executed on the force of terror.”

He took severe measures to stabilize the situation as head of the Special Committee, and was proclaimed dictator during an assembly of representatives of the population of Yerevan in March 1918.

His organizing skills and his unflinching patriotic fervor led the Armenian population of the plain of Ararat to stand up against the invaders: “We are alone and we can only rely on our forces,” he proclaimed, “both to defend the front and to establish order inside the country.” He was the driving force behind the successful outcome of the battles of Sardarabad and Pash Abaran that, together with Gharakilise, ensured the proclamation of the independence on May 28, 1918.

Afterwards, he practically led the country until July 23, 1918, when the government of the Republic, created in Tiflis and headed by Prime Minister Hovhannes Kajaznuni, arrived in Yerevan. He was named Minister of Interior and held that position until his death. After the assassination of Kachatur Karjikian, Minister of Jobs and Health, he was also acting minister from November 15 to December 13, 1918.

Aram Manoukian died on January 29, 1919, from typhus that he contracted when visiting the camps of refugees from the genocide. His biographer, Arshaluys Astvatzatrian, has left the following description of his burial:

“The interment of Aram was an expression of great popular mourning. Thousands of people had come to give their final respect to the man to whom they had entrusted their fortune in the hardest days. I know what Aram was for Yerevan, but anyway, when we took out the coffin from his home, what I saw outside woke me up from the impact of the great loss and amazed me: wherever you looked, it was a human sea, in the street, on the roofs, windows, balconies, everything was occupied. The whole city, old and young, had come out to the street. From the church of Peter and Paul until the cemetery, the funeral carriage was empty: they were carrying the coffin on their shoulders and the carriers were mainly the Armenians from Van, who were particularly fond of Aram. In front of the A.R.F. House there were funeral speeches. Nikol Aghbalian’s words were superb and unforgettable. Hovhannes Kajaznuni and Abraham Gulkhandanian spoke at the cemetery. That day, the capital of Armenia was in mourning . . .”

Aram Manoukian’s tomb is currently at the City Cemetery of Yerevan (Tokhmakh-Gol). The street where he died was renamed Aram Street after the collapse of the Soviet regime.

Death of Bedros Tourian (January 21, 1872)

It has been said that Armenian literature had two great foes whose names started with the letter թ (t): tuberculosis (թոքախտ, tokakhd) and Turks (թուրքեր). Five famous poets were among the victims of the terrible illness, related to poverty and malnourishment. One of them was Bedros Tourian, the great name of Armenian romanticism.

Tourian was born in Scutari, a suburb of Constantinople, on May 20, 1851 (Julian calendar, equivalent to June 1 in the Gregorian calendar). His father, Abraham Zmbayan, was a struggling blacksmith in a poverty stricken family, named after his profession (Turkish zımba “chisel”), from which his son derived the Armenian translation Tourian (Armenian դուր[tour]“chisel”).

Young Bedros studied at the Armenian lyceum of Scutari, where he was a pupil of the future great Armenian satirist, Hagop Baronian (1843-1891). He was thirteen when he wrote his first poem. He was particularly interested in theater. He read Lamartine, Victor Hugo, Alfred de Musset, and other contemporaries of French romanticism. In 1866 he wrote his first play, “Vart and Shushan.” Another noted contemporary, poet Meguerdich Beshigtashlian (1828-1868), who would die of tuberculosis shortly thereafter, read it and exclaimed: “This young boy will overcome me.”

He finished school in 1867 and started working to help his parents. He first was a secretary for a moneylender and then for a merchant. However, he soon left these menial jobs to devote himself to literary and theatrical works. He worked on the editorial board of the newspaper Orakir and gave private lessons, and later became an actor in Hagop Vartovian’s theatrical group. On the advice of the latter, he started to write plays. Some of them were performed during his lifetime, mostly being historical plays which were the favorite of the Armenian public. His tragedy “Artashes I the Conqueror” brought him 10 golden Turkish pounds, but his other plays did not ensure financial gains, although they were warmly received by the public. He wrote a total of 10 plays and also translated Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” into Armenian. His last play, “Theater or the Wretched,” abandoned the historical subject for social and realist issues, opening a new page in Armenian theatrical literature.

On February 2 2012, Bedros Tourian's relics (fragments of his skull) mixed with the soil brought from the poet's grave from the Armenian cemetery of Constantinople were placed in the memorial wall at Yerevan Pantheon Cemetery.

He was famous for his plays during his life, but he became a celebrated poem after his death. He wrote a total of 39 poems, of which 26 were composed in his last year of life. His patriotic poems did not survive time, but his lyrical and love pieces ensured him a place in the pantheon of Armenian poetry. Early in 1871, the first signs of the feared tuberculosis appeared. Some of his most well-known pieces, such as “Lake” and “Complaint,” were written at that time. Aware of his forthcoming end, he rode the roller coaster of emotion, complaining to the Almighty in one poem and beseeching forgiveness in another. Unrealized dreams and an anxiety to live caused him deep pain and sorrow, which are reflected in his writing. He did not publish any book in his lifetime, but a volume of his poems and plays was posthumously printed in 1872 by a group of friends and admirers. An English translation of his complete poems by James Russell has been published by Harvard University Press.

Tourian passed away on January 21, 1872. He was 21 years old. The Armenian community wished to do a solemn burial. The youth requested Patriarch Meguerdich Khrimian (Khrimian Hayrig) to allow the burial with an orchestra. Khrimian, visibly moved, answered: “I don’t allow it, but I pardon it.” The coffin was followed by 4,000 youngsters. The poet was buried in the cemetery of Scutari. His friends built a memorial; the inscription was written by Tourian’s young brother, who later would become Patriarch Yeghishe Tourian (1852-1930), also a poet and writer.