Wednesday: Remember Sumgait Massacres / Lecture on Karabagh‏

Dear Friends ,

This week marks the 21st anniversary of the beginning of a series of gruesome massacres against Armenians in Azerbaijan, first in Sumgait, then Kirovabad, Nagorno-Karabagh and Baku. These events were preceded by a wave of anti-Armenian rallies that shook Azerbaijan in February 1988. During the pogroms, dozens of Armenians were killed, the majority of whom were set afire alive after being beaten and tortured. Hundreds of innocent people were injured, women and minors were raped, hundreds of apartments were robbed, properties destroyed, and thousands of people became refugees.

We remember this solemn anniversary, and we invite you to hear

Dr. George Bournoutian
In San Francisco, Wednesday (2/25)
In Berkeley, Thursday & Friday (2/26-27)

Dr. George Bournoutian is Professor of East European and Middle Eastern Studies at Iona College, New York. Voted "Outstanding Professor" many times, he is also the author of eleven books and has taught at Columbia University, Tufts University, New York University, Rutgers University, and elsewhere. Fluent in at least 5 languages, Bournoutian is an authority on Eastern Armenian studies, from the 16th to the 19th century. His translations of primary sources have received laudatory reviews

Wednesday, February 25, 2009, 7:30 pm, Vaspouragan Hall, 51 Commonwealth Ave., SF, 94118
The Academic War Over Karabagh: Historical Revisionism with Political Impact

Although the ceasefire between Armenians and Azerbaijanis is holding steady, the battle over the record of Karabagh's ethnic identity still rages. Prof. Bournoutian has recently published Two Chronicles on the History of Karabagh, an expanded version of his 1994 book, History of Qarabagh (1994), providing a detailed picture of Karabagh in the 18th and early 19th centuries, culled from histories written by Turkic Muslims during that time. In this lecture, Bournoutian will discuss how some Azerbaijani scholars have manipulated original 19th century Persian texts to suit their present-day political agendas.
Reception to follow

Hosted by the Bay Area ANC, UC Berkeley Armenian Studies Program,
And the UCB Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies

Thursday, February 26, 2009, 12 noon, 270 Stephens Hall, UC Berkeley
Armenian Chroniclers as Primary Sources for the History of Persia in the 17-18th Centuries

Friday, February 27, 2009, 12:00 pm, 270 Stephens Hall, UC Berkeley
Czarist Russia and the Armenian Church: A Historical Perspective

Sponsored by the Armenian Studies Program, UC Berkeley; the Center for Middle Eastern Studies,
UC Berkeley; and the Institute for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies, UC Berkeley.

All Events are Free and Open to the Public
For more information, please call (510) 643-5844.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~