Armen Haghnazarian, a rare individual whose infinite love of homeland and sense of duty towards his nation made him the forerunner of a mission the fulfillment of which has preserved Armenian national identity throughout many millennia.
He was born (5 May 1941) in the family of Hovhanes Haghnazarian, a native of Agulis (in Nakhijevan at present annexed to Azerbaijan) and the only survivor from a large family that had been driven away from their home under the threat of extermination. Hovhanes Haghnazarian, who was the inspector of the Armenian schools of Teheran, is the author of an Armenian book of memoirs entitled Goghtan District and written in the course of many years. One day-Armen was a pupil at Teheran's Kushesh Davtian School-he put down the pen and said, "I have finished it." The following day, that man, who had not ever had any health problems, consigned his soul to God.
From Armen himself have I heard all I know about Hovhanes Haghnazarian, a taciturn man whose wounded brother's last cries for help, addressed to him from the rocks and mountains of Agulis, never faded away from his ears.
From time to time, Armen would tell us some stories connected with his father, but I particularly remember this one. One day Hovhanes was dining in his house together with his colleagues. During the conversation, each of the guests started praising his or her children:
"My son does well at school."
"My daughter plays the piano perfectly."
While the guests were lavishing words of praise on their children, Armen, who was listening to the adults' talk secretly being far from the table, was waiting for his father to praise him, his heart beating heavily. He thought Hovhanes would at least boast of his climbing trees so dexterously, but all he heard was:
"My Armik has good friends."
Armik, who became very upset upon hearing these words, was to realise their importance and significance only from the depths of many years, for in essence, their meaning was even deeper than all the simple praises that had sounded at the dinner table.
Armen Haghnazarian manifested his keen interest in Armenian architecture when still a student of Urban Planning at Aachen University. Faithful to his vocation, in 1969 he summarised his research into the Monastery of Thaddaeus the Apostle (Artaz District of Historical Armenia) in a doctoral thesis.
Unable to ignore the numerous facts exposing the neglect and destruction the Armenian monuments of Western Armenia were consigned to, in 1970 Haghnazarian made his first research trip to this land abounding in ancestral relics. He visited only several ancient sites and returned to Germany in a state of great perplexity in the very proper sense of the word.
The immense number of monuments waiting for researchers on the one hand, and the lack of financial means necessary for the beginning of the work on the other, put him in a serious predicament. A wayout was offered by Armen Haghnazarian's wife Margrit, a German in origin and an architect by profession like him who fully shared all her husband's concerns and anxieties. She suggested selling her wedding ring to get means for the next expedition. Armen followed her advice, but the second trip made him even more anxious, and he firmly decided to devote himself to research into the monuments of Western Armenia.
Soon Haghnazarian got acquainted with physicist Vazgen Barseghian, a native of Moks, Western Armenia who lived in New York. It was through this man's financial assistance that he made another six research trips to Western Armenia in the 1970s, each of them lasting for over two months.
Broadly speaking, each of these expeditions, accompanied with numerous obstacles and hardships, only clarified the immense scope of work that was still to be carried out. While in his forefathers' land, Armen photographed and measured hundreds of historical monuments many of which are destroyed without any trace nowadays. This, however, was not the end of research: on the contrary, these trips only revealed the necessity of further large-scale studies to be implemented in Western Armenia.
The expeditions, or as Haghnazarian himself characterised them, the "hunt for khachkars," proved extremely dangerous and full of difficulties. He constantly had to work under the strict control of Turkish security forces: interrogations and imprisonment that often hindered him from working had become a commonplace for him. In the long run, the Turkish state declared Haghnazarian as persona non grata and he was stripped of the right to participate in future expeditions. The Turkish authorities, however, failed to impede the realisation of Haghnazarian's patriotic dreams and projects.
With Margrit's unfailing support-she was as closely attached to Armenian architecture as her husband-Haghnazarian continued the organisation of scientific expeditions to Western Armenia, Armenia Minor and Cilicia for over two decades, without sparing the means of their modest family budget for that purpose.
In order to increase the productivity of his work and procure some financial assistance, in 1978 Armen Haghnazarian officially established a non-governmental organisation in Germany named Research on Armenian Architecture-in fact, it had been in existence for already a decade.
In 1983 A. Haghnazarian visited Soviet Armenia for the first time, having previously agreed with physicist Vazgen Barseghian to meet there to discuss the publication of microfilms on Armenian architecture-the latter had committed himself to sponsoring it. The meetings were held under the supervision of Grigor Hasratian, the head of the Principal Department for the Preservation and Use of Monuments at the Council of Ministers of Soviet Armenia. It was decided to start the publication of microfilms with a volume per year-these volumes were to include not only the collections of RAA Organisation, but also those of the Principal Department for the Preservation and Use of Monuments.
The last, 7th volume of microfilms was published in 1990, and the work was stopped not only due to the shortage of financial means, but also because of the revolution in science which now allowed images to be preserved through digitization and copies.
It was almost during this period, to put it more exactly, in the autumn of 1989 that I got acquainted with Armen Haghnazarian. We spent a whole day looking through my collections of the Armenian monuments located in Azerbaijan and Georgia. Haghnazarian suggested that I should join his organisation and collaborate with him, a proposal which I accepted with the utmost willingness.
This acquaintance marked a new, and why not, an unusual period in my life. Although I had been working for Soviet Armenia's Principal Department for the Preservation and Use of Monuments since 1980, it was for the first time that I had met a person who grew enthusiastic about what I had been doing for already twelve years-at that time, I was engaged in the study of Armenian historical monuments situated outside Soviet Armenia, i.e. within the borders of Azerbaijan and Georgia.
In fact, my acquaintance with Armen Haghnazarian may be described as the meeting of two researchers who shared the same worries and concerns and had been doing the same work separately, in different regions of the world.
Haghnazarian was not slow in providing me with cameras of higher quality. I deeply regretted that I had not had the chance of using such cameras before, for I could have achieved better results with them. Unfortunately, at that time, Northern Artsakh and Boon Aghvank (Caucasian Albania) were absolutely inaccessible for any Armenian so that I could not use my new cameras in these regions.
In late May 1993, Armen Haghnazarian committed himself to sponsoring me in my research into the monuments preserved in the liberated districts of Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh), as well as in those that were on their way towards liberation. Fieldwork continued until 1995, comprising numerous expeditions to Artsakh. In the same year, Haghnazarian held an exhibition of the monuments of the liberated territories in H. Tumanian's Home-Museum, with all the large-size colour photographs having been printed in Germany.
In 1993 Haghnazarian, to whom I had already grown attached fraternally, solved my housing problem that had been facing me in uncertainty since 1986. Thanks to his efforts, my family and large collections of Armenian national values ceased wandering from a rented house to another and found a permanent harbour.
Through the endeavours of a group of Iranian Armenians who were well-aware of the work of RAA through Armen Haghnazarian and shared our common interests and concerns, in 1996 the organisation opened a branch in the USA, with Shahen Harutiunian heading it.
The time was ripe now for the official establishment of RAA in the Republic of Armenia as well. In fact, Haghnazarian initiated this work as early as 1992-the organisation was to be attached to Matenadaran, the Armenian Research Institute of Manuscripts-but no results were achieved due to the irresponsibility of those on whom it depended. It was only in 1998, i.e. in the 30th year of its actual existence, that RAA was officially established in Armenia. Two years later, it was re-registered according to the legislation of the country.
Our search for a working place lasted for about two years, and finally, we found an appropriate site thanks to the good will manifested by Levon Hakhverdian, then the Head of the Institute of Art of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia. On 22 February 2000, the opening of the Yerevan Office of RAA was held. Since then we have been working at 24· Marshal Baghramian Avenue with already more than 20 collaborators.
The establishment of this office opened new horizons before RAA. We started large-scale digitisation of tens of thousands of negatives, positives, photographs, measurements, maps and other relevant materials that had been accumulated throughout many decades. The data stored in our collections also comprised a wide variety of archive materials which were now classified according to settlements and administrative-territorial units.
In order to proceed with the work that was becoming larger and larger in scope, we had to employ other specialists, something that was made possible-as well as everything else undertaken by RAA-only thanks to the existing budget mostly shouldered by Armen Haghnazarian.
When asked about the sources of financial means, Armen would often answer, "My wife is the breadwinner in our family, and I am the "breadwinner" for the office." He never told anybody that he had deprived himself of three canvasses by Ayvazovski to procure means of existence for RAA. Besides, he also sold his paternal house in Teheran to transfer the amount he received to the budget of RAA.
The office was Haghnazarian's second family, and the collaborators were like his own children.
He was fond of telling stories from his life to which we listened with great willingness, as everything he said in his usually low voice contained an example for us to follow. The stories he told us reflected the wide experience of an intellectual, and often included judgements and conclusions deriving from this very experience. Every second we could learn something from Haghnazarian and enrich our knowledge even involuntarily.
On 15 February 2009 that was Sunday, I was predestined to hear my senior brother's and teacher's voice for the last time. He had rung me up to part with me and convey his last commandments to me:
"Always remember Vazgen Barseghian's name in all our projects, for he was the first to support us at the very beginning. I bequeath our organisation and the work it is still to do to you and Emma..."
As for me, all I can do is to assure that we are going to keep this commandment and shall continue our work until the very day when we shall join him.
Samvel Karapetian
Head of the Yerevan Office of RAA NGO
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