PRESS RELEASE
UCLA AEF Chair in Armenian History
Contact: Prof. Richard Hovannisian
Tel: 310-825-3375
Email: Hovannis@history.ucla.edu
ARMENIAN SMYRNA CONFERENCE AT UCLA, NOVEMBER 2-3
Los AngelesScholars from Armenia, Argentina, Canada, France, Great Britain,
and several universities in the United States will gather at UCLA on
November 2-3 to recreate the history and culture of the vibrant Armenian
community of Smyrna/Izmir from the Middle Ages to the 20th Century. The
conference is the eleventh in the UCLA series on Historic Armenian Cities
and Provinces. Open to the public without charge, it will be held on the
UCLA campus in Young Hall 50, on Saturday, November 2, from 9:30 a.m. to
5:30 p.m., and on Sunday afternoon, November 3, from 1:30 to 6:00 p.m.
Parking will be available in Structure No. 2 at the Hilgard Avenue and
Wyton entrance to UCLA.
A special feature of the conference will be the first Sunday
session, which will be conducted in the Armenian language from 1:30 to 3:15
p.m. with presentations by Dr. Albert Kharatyan and Tigran Sarukhanyan from
Armenia, the first being on the role of the Smyrna community in the 19th
century and the second on the importance of Hrachia Ajarian’s history of
that community. Dr. Nora Arissian from Damascus, Syria, will discuss how
Smyrna and the Smyrna tragedy were reported and portrayed in Arabic sources
and journals.
The second special feature is the second Sunday afternoon session
from 3:30 to 6:00 p.m., which will mark the 80th anniversary of the Smyrna
tragedy of 1922, when the city was burned and the Greek and Armenian
inhabitants were driven into the sea. During this session, which will be
conducted in English, renowned scholar Speros Vryonis, Jr. will discuss the
impact of the Greco-Turkish conflict in Asia Minor on the fate of the city,
and noted writer Marjorie Housepian Dobkin will investigate the burning of
Smyrna based on her pioneering study on the subject. Literary aspects of
the Smyrna tragedy will be presented by Dr. David Calonne of Eastern
Michigan University and Dr. Jack Der-Sarkissian of the Southern California
Permanente Medical Group.
The Saturday morning sessions from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. will focus
on the Aegean Armenian communities starting in the 14th century with a
presentation by Dr. Kharatyan (in Armenian, with English summary). The
remainder of the Saturday sessions will be in English and include an
overview of the Smyrna Armenia community by Richard Hovannisian of UCLA and
by Robert Hewsen of Rowan State University; Artsvi Bakhchinyan of Erevan
(ACNIS) on Swedish-Armenian relations; Barbara Merguerian of Fresno State
University on the American missionary publications at Smyrna; Osheen
Keshishian, Glendale Community College and the Armenian Observer, on the
role of the newspaper “Arshaloys Araratian”; and Christian Maranci of the
University of Wisconsin on the visual culture and arts of Smyrna Armenians.
The Saturday afternoon sessions from 2:00 to 5:30 p.m. begin with
Dr. Sona Seferian of Erevan State University on Armenian Literature,
Shakespeare, and the Enlightenment in Smyrna; Victoria Rowe of the
University of Toronto on the Hripsime Educational Association; Hevre
Georgelin of the School of Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (Paris)
on inter-ethnic relations in Smyrna; Rubina Peroomian of UCLA on the
Armenian oral histories on the fate of the Aegean communities during the
Genocide; Vartan Matiossian of Buenos Aires and the Hovnanian School on the
Smyrna-Armenian immigrant communities
in South America; and Bert Vaux of Harvard on the dialect of the Smyrna
Armenians. A Photographic exhibit for the conference will be mounted by
Richard and Anne Elizabeth Elbrecht of Davis, California.
The conference is organized by Professor Richard G. Hovannisian, Holder
of the Armenian Educational Foundation Chair in Modern Armenian History at
UCLA. Co-sponsors for the conference are the UCLA G.E. von Grunebaum Center
for Near Eastern Studies, the Center for European and Russian Studies, and
the International Institute. The conference program and other information
about the UCLA Armenian Studies program may be found on the web site
www.uclaarmenian.org and a map of the UCLA campus may be found at
www.ucla.edu/map (note the change in the conference auditorium for this
conference). “Armenian Studies Conference” hotel rates are available at the
Holiday Inn Brentwood/Bel Air, 310-476-6411. For further conference
information, contact Professor Richard Hovannisian at 310-825-3375 (a.m.
hours) or by e-mail at Hovannis@history.ucla.edu. The public is cordially
invited to attend “The Armenian Community of Smyrna/Izmir.”
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