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The Research Repository

Armenian scholarship open to all

A digital library of verified, open scholarship on all things Armenian, including Armenian history, the Genocide, Artsakh, language, and the diaspora.

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What is being done to Armenian monuments in Artsakh now is not new and it is not vandalism. Seda Parsamyan traces the demolition policy of the Hamidian massacres of the 1890s and puts the legal question directly: when a state sets out to erase a people's churches, at what point does that become cultural genocide? She works through how the concept has been defined, redefined and quietly narrowed by people who would rather it did not apply. The frame she builds is the one now being reached for over Artsakh.

Mass Destruction of Armenian Cultural Heritage during the Hamidian Massacres (1894-1896)

Parsamyan, Seda A. · 2023 · International Journal of Armenian Genocide Studies, Vol. 8, No. 2, pp. 5–34 (AGMI, Yerevan); DOI 10.51442/ijags.0043
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Topic:Christian iconography
Showing 1 of 1 matching publications (200 total) · catalogue updated 2026-07-22
Journal ArticleOpen Access

Essai pour une nouvelle lecture du bas-relief du tympan inférieur du narthex de l'église Saint-Étienne le Protomartyr du monastère de Noravankʻ (Toward a New Reading of the Bas-Relief of the Lower Tympanum of the Narthex of the Church of St. Stephen the Protomartyr, Noravank Monastery)

Leyloyan-Yekmalyan, Anna, 2025
Matenadaran: Medieval and Early Modern Armenian Studies (MEMAS), Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 163–186 (Mesrop Mashtots Matenadaran / Brepols); eISSN 3041-5063

Re-reads the carved lower tympanum of the Noravank narthex (founded 1261), whose composition centers on the Virgin and Child. The bird beneath the Child's feet is identified as the apocryphal clay bird animated by Jesus's breath, echoing the Father animating Adam; the lion the Child sits on is the Lion of Judah from the vision in Esdras. Old Testament prophets flank the Virgin, and a large letter Ա with a three-pointed arrow aimed at Mary's ear evokes Ephrem the Syrian's conception-through-the-ear formula, reinforced by the word ԲԱՌՆ and the surrounding Armenian inscription, which the author translates. The reading ties Armenian monumental sculpture to apocryphal and patristic exegesis.

NoravankArmenian medieval sculptureChristian iconographyArmenian Apostolic Churchapocryphal traditions
French

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How this repository is built

What is in this repository?

Peer-reviewed and institutional scholarship on Armenian subjects — history, the Armenian Genocide, Artsakh, language and literature, the church, and the diaspora — in any language and from any country. Journal articles, books, book chapters, theses and institute publications are all in scope. Entries are chosen for what they contribute to an Armenian student's understanding, not for how recent or how famous they are.

What does 'verified' mean here?

It means a person opened the link and checked the record against the publisher's own page: the title, the authors, the venue, the volume and pages, and the identifier. The date of that check is shown on each entry's page. Where an entry has no date shown, no check has been logged for it yet, and the catalogue does not claim one.

What is the summary on each entry?

A short account of what the publication does, followed by notes on what it offers different readers — a student writing a term paper, an academic, someone reading for the community, someone new to the subject. They are meant to tell you what a piece is useful for, not only what it argues.

How do I suggest a publication, or report an error?

Use the 'Suggest a publication' link at the foot of the directory. The same address takes corrections — a broken link, a wrong page range, a misattributed author. Corrections are checked against the publisher's record before an entry changes.