ZORYAN INSTITUTE OF ACADEMIC AND CORPORATE BOARDS HOLD JOINT MEETING
TORONTO, CANADA – The members of the Zoryan Institute’s Corporate and Academic boards just concluded a three-day meeting in Toronto on June 27 to review the organization’s recent achievements, elect its directors and officers for both boards for the coming term, and to discuss the future direction of the Institute.
After welcoming remarks by Dr. Varouj Aivazian, Chair, and a review of the organization’s structure by Kourken Sarkissian, President, Mig Migirdicyan Treasurer, presented the financial statements, which have showed a steady increase in revenues over the past five years. The Institute’s disbursements have totaled over 1.7 million dollars during the past five years.
George Shirinian, Secretary of the Corporate Board, presented two new candidates for appointment to the Academic Board. One, Stephan Astourian, is Professor of History at the University of California-Berkeley, where he teaches about the Armenian Genocide and Diaspora. The other, Lisa Siraganian, is doing a post-doctoral fellowship at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. Her specialty is American literature and she has also done innovative film analysis of such directors as Rouben Mamoulian and Atom Egoyan.
Chaired by Dr. Levon Chorbajian, the Academic Board’s approved the new members and confirmed the new board, made up of the following members:
Detailed reports on the Institute’s projects were then presented, each followed by questions and discussion.
Vahakn Dadrian reviewed the genocide-related activities of the Institute. First, he described the importance of the publication this fall of The Armenian Genocide 1915/16: Selected Documents from the Political Archives of the German Foreign Office, edited by Wolfgang and Sigrid Gust. Zoryan began its involvement in this project in 1999 and it has entailed many years of research, translation and editorial work. Next, he discussed another long-term project, which is to translate and publish selected articles from Turkish newspapers published during the Armistice period just after WWI, when there was no censorship in Turkey. These articles provide a wealth of otherwise unknown detail from the daily testimony of witnesses called before the Turkish Military Tribunal investigating crimes against the Armenians perpetrated in Trabzon and Yozgat.
Khachig Tölölyan gave a status report on Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Studies, now in its twelfth continuous year, which Zoryan co-publishes with the University of Toronto Press. The number of submissions is now so high that only one article in five gets published.
A presentation was made of Zoryan’s involvement, along with the University of Minnesota, in a large project to “Create a Common Body of Knowledge” in English and Turkish, whereby the fundamental sources of information related to the Armenian Genocide would be freely available to all interested parties and could facilitate an informed and rational debate about this provocative subject. Traditionally, it has been difficult for those living in Turkey to have access to this information in their own language, but gradually this need is being addressed.
Yair Auron discussed the impact of his long-term study of Jewish and Israeli attitudes towards the Armenian and other genocides. While university students want to know more about these subjects, the Israeli government’s official policy is to deny that what happened to the Armenians in 1915 was genocide, and teaching about the Armenian Genocide in the educational system has not been officially approved. Among the projects planned in Israel, he proposed that a conference about the Armenian Genocide take place in Israel next year.
Roger Smith provided details on the Genocide and Human Rights University Program, which brings together a dozen of the foremost scholars on genocide with some two dozen students from around the world to explore several case studies—the Jewish Holocaust, the Cambodian Genocide and the Rwandan Genocide—with reference to the Armenian Genocide as the archetype of genocide in the twentieth century. This year, for the first time, the program will take place in both Toronto and Minneapolis in partnership with the University of Minnesota, and students attending the program in either location have the option of receiving four graduate level semester credits. The program’s aim is to prepare young scholars to pursue the study of the Armenian Genocide and comparative genocide as their life’s work.
Souren Chekijian, who has been involved with the Oral History Project from its inception, reported on the digitization of these priceless genocide survivor interviews. There are 660 interviews running anywhere from one to six hours or more. Approximately 50% of them have been digitized and transferred onto DVD, for their preservation and to facilitate access. It is hoped that the project will be completed by the end of the year.
Kourken Sarkissian discussed the establishment of a scholarship fund for students pursuing a PhD in Armenian Genocide or comparative genocide studies. Criteria are being developed and the scholarship fund will be publicized soon. He also described Zoryan’s involvement in the Canadian Museum of Human Rights, which is being prepared in Winnipeg, with the participation of the Armenian Genocide Museum in Washington, DC, represented by Dr. Rouben Adalian.
George Shirinian reported on a research project being conducted in the Danish Missionary Archives in Copenhagen. Dr. Eric Markusen and several graduate students are preparing a formal report on the materials there, which document the work of Danish relief workers providing aid to Armenians after the Genocide.
Zoryan’s plans to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide were discussed at length, and new research proposals were debated and voted on.
During what was perhaps the most important part of the weekend-long meeting, a lengthy brainstorming session was devoted to the direction the board wished to see the institute take in the coming years. This will be the basis for ongoing planning for the next 3 years and beyond.
The following individuals were also confirmed as the Corporate Board’s directors and officers for the coming term:
The Zoryan Institute is a non-profit, international center devoted to the research and documentation of contemporary issues related to the history, politics, society, and culture of Armenia and Armenians around the world.