Title: The Ideology of Armenian Liberation: The Development of Armenian Political Thought Before the Revolutionary Movement (1639-1885)
Author: Gerard Libaridian, former senior advisor to the first president of the Republic of Armenia, Levon Ter-Petrosyan, and also held the Manoogian Chair in Modern Armenian History at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
About the piece: PhD dissertation, UCLA, 1987, 358 pages
Summary: Libaridian traces the development of the ideology of Armenian liberation, focusing on key players who championed the concept.
Some details: Libaridian’s dissertation is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of Armenian liberation and the thoughts, events and people which led to the Armenian revolutionary movement of the 19th century. Many of the oft-celebrated icons are discussed in detail including Joseph Emin and Mkrtich Khrimian, but Libaridian excels by illuminating the other figures who have not received as much attention in the national history.
The complex role of religious institutions and figures in this movement is a particularly interesting element of the dissertation, albeit a secondary one. Libaridian often cites public discontent with the church for a perceived pacification of its flock and its culpability in creating a servile nation. Yet, interestingly, many of the key figures in the movement were religious, and not just the obvious Khrimian and Mkhitarists.
For example, there was the Abbot of St. Karapet in Mush, Hovnan Vardapet, who advised Joseph Emin on arming Armenians for an open rebellion against Ottoman rule (p. 61). To say nothing of the Armenian Robin Hood cum cleric of Merke-Gulap near Etchmiadzin, the Mezrakh who robbed rich travelers, distributed the bounty to the poor and “once his earthly task was accomplished…would get another priest to hear his confession by the force of his sword.” (p. 79) These probably aren’t the type of clerics one is accustomed to reading about. The complicated and unexpected nature of these figures demonstrates the extent to which the ideology of liberation permeated through Armenian society.
The dissertation also delves deep into the written work of the period, providing numerous examples of the developing discourse, an invaluable source for English-reading audiences. One especially poignant example is penned by the cleric Eghise Ayvazian as he expressed his distaste with the complacency of his contemporaries regarding the state of the Armenian fatherland:
When the Armenian settled in Constantinople sees that the cemetery of his dead is endangered, he is moved immediately… and all Armenians unite as one and make every effort to defend their rights. Why is that same Armenian not moved the same way when it is the cemeteries of the living that are endangered… in the fatherland itself? And is not Armenia now a cemetery of the living? But the nation of Armenians… is used to slavery… Its thoughtless fear has reached such proportions that it is unwilling to express any sign of discomfort over its wretched state…Once it placed all its expectations on the Constitution… now all of its expectations are centered on the schools… But do we lack freedom because we did not have schools until now? And is it in the schools that the Armenian will learn to break the sword of the bloodthirsty Kurd?…Did not Armenians, the pariahs of the Ottoman Empire, enjoy the fruits of their loyalty [to the state]? Its churches were desecrated, its virgins violated; old and young, man and woman all fell equally to the blows of the sword… Let Armenians continue their indifference toward the suffering of their blood brethren and await for the British or Northerner to come to them. How can one expect pity from others when he does not pity himself? (p. 197)
The reader should not expect a straight progression toward the goal of national liberation or that there was suddenly a light bulb which was turned on. Thoughts of national liberation reached back centuries, but along the way, there were many setbacks facing a people who were stubborn and often too timidly in their ways to be completely receptive to the words of Emin, Krikor Odian or the plethora of others introduced in the dissertation. Luckily, Libaridian doesn’t shy away from this reality and documents the back and forth inherent in the period and how it built up to one of the most crucial stages in Armenian history: the revolutionary movement.