Armenian Press in Turin: 1915-1918

1915 marked the start of a bloodier phase of the Armenian tragedy. 1915 was also the year in which Italy interrupted its diplomatic presence in Anatolia and entered the war against the Ottoman Empire. For the few Armenians then resident in Italy this coincidence of circumstances constituted a mobilising factor: being in many cases citizens of the Ottoman Empire, on the one hand, they had to demonstrate their diversity with respect to the Turks, and on the other hand, the assumption of active behaviour towards the host country aimed at enhancing their belonging and cultural prerogatives. With the aim to investigate how the Genocide was experienced by the Armenian community in Italy, the paper will focus on the magazine Armenia. Eco delle rivendicazioni armene (Armenia. Echo of Armenian Claims) born in Turin and published between 1915-18.

Armenians on the Via Francigena: Armenian and Latin Sources on the Origins of the Armenian Community of Orvieto (Urbs Vetus)

An Armenian religious community settled in Orvieto in the 13th century and founded the church and hospice of Santo Spirito, where they provided hospitality to pilgrims on the Via Francigena. Archaeological traces of their presence include a travertine gate with a trilingual inscription, reused in the church of San Domenico (Orvieto), the remains of the church of Santo Spirito, and art pieces removed from the latter. Contemporary Latin documents and an analysis of the historical context suggest that the Armenian presence was well-received by the lay and clerical authorities, and even held as prestigious.

The Wilsonian Moment of the Azerbaijani Delegation in Paris (1919-1920)

The delegation of the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan to the 1919 Paris Peace Conference fought for the international recognition of its country and for admission to the League of Nations. The analysis of mostly unpublished archival documents from the personal archives of head of delegation Əlimərdan Ələkbər oğlu sheds new light on the history of Azerbaijani diplomacy. Topçubaşov could rely above all on the tools of influence of public opinion, such as books, publications and magazines which were written in large numbers in Paris. The adoption, in Azerbaijani political communication, of languages and contents adapted to the Wilsonian culture was meant to justify the aspiration to self-determination, as other anti-colonial non-European elites attempted to do during the Paris Peace Conference.

Central Asia in Contemporary Russian Literature

Central Asia in contemporary Russian literature is represented by two main discourses, Nostalgia discourse and New Orientalism discourse. This article follows a diachronic perspective in an attempt to understand their origins, the characteristics of the Tashkent text and the Tajikistan text in literature, as well as historical and cultural factors which led to the present-day image of Central Asia in Russian culture, from the first Orientalist works through hybridisation processes to the collapse of the USSR and the Post-Soviet trauma. As a sample of contemporary literature, novels by Dina Rubina, Suhbat Aflatuni, Andrey Volos, Yevgeny Chizhov and other writers are analysed.

Le trasformazioni urbane nella Tbilisi post-sovietica

After the Rose Revolution, a process of transformation of the city begins. Very different public and private architectures from the past arise, while the strategies for the conservation of old Tbilisi are matter of discussion. To understand the factors that determine the creation of new urban spaces we first need to focus on two factors: the process of Institution Building that follows the Rose Revolution and the emergence of a political narrative that combines modernisation and nationalism. The hypothesis is that these two factors create the ground for developing the specific practices of transformation of the city and for the emergence of a new urban form.

Ti proteggo, ti punisco. L’agire imprevedibile dei santi e degli spiriti osseti

Many spirits of the traditional Ossetian religion had a double role: on the one hand they protected, on the other they punished in case of transgression. Unfortunately these spirits were highly unpredictable. In many cases the punishment for a transgression was a disease: in fact, in the mountain villages no one believed that a disease could be transmitted from person to person: the idea of contagion was absent.

Alcune considerazioni sulla situazione attuale della lingua svana

This paper features the current situation of the Svan-speaking linguistic communities in Georgia, the Georgian language policies and the attempts made to make Svan a literary language. In 2013, Richard Bærug published Svan Youth Literature, a book containing short stories written by young Svans; this and other recent publications seem to bear witness to the vitality of this endangered language. Anyway, language policy in Georgia still looks far from accepting the Kartvelian languages different from Georgian as separate languages, although other minority languages are earning evident privileges. Recent studies have shed light on some of these problems, which however take on greater meaning when viewed from the diachronic perspective hereby presented.

The Prospect of the Russian Language in Georgia. Insights from the Educated Youth

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the status of the Russian language in the new-born Republics became a central issue. In the Southern Caucasus, all the Constitutions promulgated by the three Republics opted for ethnocentric language policies that accepted the titular language as the only State Language. However, the role of the Russian language as a lingua franca remained crucial for international communication and everyday interaction. It followed that it continued to play an important role also in education. The present study focuses on Georgia, where a strong derussification policy has taken place in the last decades and aims at understanding to what extent the use of Russian among the young generations has contracted. In particular, we present an analysis conducted on data collected via (i) a survey for young people consisting of questions on their sociolinguistic background and a proficiency test in Russian, and (ii) semi-structured interviews for teachers of Russian and English as Foreign Languages on the research topics.

Armenian Clergy and Conflict Management in Lebanon, 1920-1994

This essay discusses the role played by Church institutions and leaders in the history of the Armenians of Lebanon after their settlement in the country. The development of Armenian institutions in Lebanon is marked since the period of the French Mandate by the pervasive role played by political parties based on mass mobilisation. Through alliances and expediency, these parties managed to carve out their own quotas in Lebanon’s peculiar power-sharing system. However, Armenians in Lebanon remained highly vulnerable to domestic volatility and regional tensions. Church deliberative organs became a site of conflict among opposed political agendas related to the definition of Armenian and Lebanese national identities, Lebanon’s foreign policy, and the relation between the Soviet Union and the Armenian diaspora in the Middle East. Despite these constraints, Armenian Churches remained a vital component in the preservation of Armenian culture and heritage.

The Cultural and Political Claims of the Caucasian Minorities in Turkey

More than in the previous years, in 2019 the organisations and the social media groups of the Turkish citizens who are fully or partly descendants of Caucasian refugees looked active not only around 21 May, their “genocide commemoration” day, but also around 2 May, remembering the 2 May 1923, when the Kemalist government deported Eastwards many Circassian villages located in Western Anatolia. In sum, we are witnessing that now the “Circassians of Turkey” (a term which generally includes North-Eastern Caucasians like Chechens and South-Eastern Caucasians like Abkhazians) are struggling not only for a worldwide recognition of the “Circassian genocide”, but also for an open debate on what has meant and means being “Circassian” in the Republic. This paper tries to draw an updated picture of what is up within Circassian intelligencija and what Caucasians of Turkish nationality are aiming at.