On Saturday evening, November 8, Holy Martyrs was privileged to welcome two scholars in Armenian History from Yerevan State University (YSU) as guest lecturers for their annual Cultural Night event. The evening’s lecture, titled “Migration Waves from Armenia: Historical Routes and Current Trends,” was part 1 of a two-part collaborative lecture series with St. Illuminator’s Armenian Cathedral. Fr. Abraham Malkhasyan, pastor of Holy Martyrs, began the evening with welcoming remarks and special thanks to Fr. Mesrob Lakissian, pastor of St. Illuminator’s and Dr. Artur Martirosyan, for their help in coordinating the transportation of the scholars from Armenia to America.
The scholars, Mikayel Malkhasyan, a PhD student in Armenian History and lecturer at YSU (and Fr. Abraham’s younger brother) and Aghasi Tadevosyan, PhD in Social Anthropology and lecturer at YSU, are visiting the United States and presenting their research to many Armenian communities during their stay.
Malkhasyan’s research interests include historical demography and historical geography of Armenia and the Diaspora. He has published four books, about 40 scientific articles, edited more than 10 collections of scientific article and has participated in more than 50 scientific conferences. Malkhasyan is a teacher of history at IB DP “Quantum” College since 2010, the Chairman of the Student Scientific Society of YSU since 2012 as well as a lecturer for YSU’s
Distance learning lab and Department of History.
Dr. Aghasi Tadevosyan’s main research interests are the social changes, cultural transition, value transformation, modernization and migration processes of post Soviet Armenia. He has
authored and co-authored 11 monographs and more than 40 scientific articles published in Armenian, English and Russian. Dr Tadevosyan is a Senior Scientist of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) of the Republic of Armenia and Associate Professor of Social Anthropology at YSU. He was also a Visiting Scholar at the University of California at Berkeley for the 2012-2013 academic semester.
During the informative presentation, Malkhasyan spoke about the main periods of emigration of Armenia, beginning in the ancient times, continuing through the Middle Ages and Byzantine Rule, the invasion of nomadic tribes, the demographic consequences of war between Ottoman and Safavid authorities, the islamization of Christians and the migration of Armenians during the establishment of Russian Rule. The emigration of Armenians after the Genocide as well as internal Soviet migration and repatriation to Armenia in later years was also discussed during this informative lecture. The evening concluded with a presentation by Dr. Tadevosyan about the current migration trends of Armenians out of the motherland to Russia and other countries for economic and social opportunities.
A festive fall reception, sponsored by the Jevarjian and Cetin Family Trust Funds, followed the presentations. During the reception, attendees were able to meet and ask the scholars questions and purchase copies of their books. Over the years, the Holy Martyrs annual Cultural Night event has welcomed musicians, artists and lecturers on a variety of educational topics. The events are always free and open to the community.