CONFERENCE PROGRAM
“ARMENIANS AND THE COLD WAR”
April 1-3, 2016
Armenian Research Center at the University of Michigan-Dearborn
FRIDAY, APRIL 1, 2016
5:00-6:30 pm
Meet & Greet with the Participants of the Conference
6:30-7:00 pm
Words of Welcome
- Representative of the University of Michigan-Dearborn administration
- Asbed Kotchikian, The Armenian Review
- Gregory Aftandilian, National Association for Armenian Studies & Research
7:00-7:30 pm
Conference Introduction
Ara Sanjian, University of Michigan-Dearborn, “Why This Conference?”
7:30-9:30 pm
PANEL I: An Armenian “Cold War” before the Global Cold War?
Chair: Cam Amin, University of Michigan-Dearborn
- Garabet K. Moumdjian, Independent historian, Pasadena, CA, “ARF Collusion in the Kurdish Rebellions of the 1920s and 1930s in Republican Turkey: In Search of the Origins of Islamized Armenians in Turkey”
- Vahe Sahakyan, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, “Negotiating Politics in a Time of Crisis: The Changing Course of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation During WWII and its Aftermath (1941-1947)”
- Hazel Antaramian-Hofman, Fresno Community College, “Missing Ethnographic Opportunities: Post-WWII American-Armenian Repatriation to Soviet Armenia, 1947-1956”
Discussant: Astrig Atamian, École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris
SATURDAY, APRIL 2, 2016
10:00 am-12:00 pm
PANEL II: Armenian-Americans in the 1950s
Chair: Pam Pennock, University of Michigan-Dearborn
- Levon Chorbajian, University of Massachusetts, Lowell, “Roily Exchanges: Newspaper Wars at the Hairenik Weekly and the Armenian Mirror-Spectator in 1951”
- Gregory Aftandilian, American University, Washington, DC, “The Cold War Writings of Reuben Darbinian in The Armenian Review”
- Benjamin F. Alexander, New York City College of Technology (CUNY), “The Cold Wars of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation”
Discussant: Khatchik DerGhougassian, Universidad de San Andrés, Argentina
12:00-12:15 pm
Coffee Break
12:15-1:30 pm
PANEL III: The Armenian “Cold War” in France
Chair: Richard G. Hovannisian, Professor Emeritus, UCLA, and Adjunct Professor, University of Southern California
- Jirair Jolakian, Nor Haratch, Paris, “The Cold War in the Pages of the Newspaper Haratch”
- Astrig Atamian, École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris, “Between Soviet Armenia and the French Communist Party, the ‘Garmir’ Movement in France”
Discussant: Asbed Kotchikian, Bentley University
1:30-3:00
Lunch
3:00-5:00 pm
PANEL IV: The Armenian “Cold War” in South America
Chair: Kevork Bardakjian, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
- Vartan Matiossian, Armenian National Education Committee, New York, “Fighting for History: An Unknown Polemics in the Beginnings of the Cold War”
- Heitor Loureiro, São Paulo State University (UNESP), “Communism in the Armenian Community in São Paulo and Repression by the Political Police”
- Khatchik DerGhougassian, Universidad de San Andrés, Argentina, “The Diffusion of the Cold War in the (Southern) Periphery of the Armenian Diaspora: The Pro/Against Soviet Divide in the Argentine-Armenian Community 1947-1987”
Discussant: Simon Payaslian, Boston University
5:00-5:15 pm
Coffee Break
5:15-6:30 pm
PANEL V: Armenians: Between a Soviet Homeland and the Diaspora
Chair: Anush Hovhannisyan, Institute of Oriental Studies, National Academy of Sciences, Armenia
- Nélida Boulgourdjian, Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero, Argentina, “Background of Soviet Policy Toward the Armenian Diaspora in the Early Cold War: The Case of the Armenian Diaspora in France and Argentina (1930-1950)”
- Gevorg Petrosyan, Institute of Oriental Studies, National Academy of Sciences, Armenia, “The Impact of the Cold War and Turkish-Soviet Relations on Armenians in Turkey and Their Relations with Soviet Armenia (1945-1964)”
Discussant: Eldad Ben-Aharon, Royal Holloway, University of London
6:30-9:00 pm
Reception
SUNDAY, APRIL 3, 2016
10:00 am-12:00 pm
PANEL VI: The Armenian “Cold War” in the Arab World from 1945 to 1970
Chair: Levon Chorbajian, University of Massachusetts, Lowell
- Hratch Tchilingirian, University of Oxford, “The Armenian Church During the Cold War Era and the Chasm Between Ejmiatsin and Antelias”
- James Stocker, Trinity Washington University, “An Opportunity to Strike a Blow? The United States and the Struggle in the Armenian Apostolic Church, 1956-1963”
- Khatchig Mouradian, Rutgers University, “The Cold War of Genocide: April 24 Editorials in the Lebanese-Armenian Party Political Press, 1945-1970”
Discussant: Benjamin F. Alexander, New York City College of Technology (CUNY)
12:00-12:15 pm
Coffee Break
12:15-1:00 pm
ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION I: The Chronologies of Global Cold War and the Armenian “Cold War” Compared
Opening remarks: Ara Sanjian, University of Michigan-Dearborn
1:00-2:30 pm
Lunch
2:30-3:45 pm
PANEL VII: The Middle East in the 1970s and ’80s: The Era of ASALA and JCAG
Chair: Nélida Boulgourdjian, Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero, Argentina
- Eldad Ben Aharon, Royal Holloway, University of London, “The Cold War and Mid-East Political Violence: An Israeli-American-TurkishAlliance?”
- Emre Can Daglioglu, Clark University, “Re-Shaped Identity of Armenians in Turkey Under the Conditions of the Cold War”
Discussant: Vahe Sahakyan, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
3:45-4:00 pm
Coffee Break
4:00-5:15
PANEL VIII: Soviet Armenian Historiography and the Cold War
Chair: Tamar Boyadjian, Michigan State University
- Samvel Grigoryan, Independent historian, Moscow, “T‘agawor, Korol‘ or Czar: The Impact of Soviet-Western Relations on the Historiography of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia”
- Anush Hovhannisyan, Institute of Oriental Studies, National Academy of Sciences, Armenia, “Remembering the Genocide in SovietArmenia During the Cold War Era: ‘Private Stories’”
Discussant: Richard G. Hovannisian, Professor Emeritus, UCLA, and Adjunct Professor, University of Southern California
5:15-5:30
Coffee Break
5:30-6:45
PANEL IX: Arts and Popular Culture during the Armenian “Cold War”
Panel chair: Sally Howell, University of Michigan-Dearborn
- Neery Melkonian, Independent researcher, critic and curator, New York City, “A Third Space: Armenian Diaspora Artists and the Cold War”
- Tigran Matosyan, American University of Armenia, “Sheepskin Vests in Yerevan: The Story of Soviet Armenian Hippies”
Discussant: Kevork Bardakjian, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
6:45-7:00
Coffee Break
7:00-8:00
ROUNDTABLE II: The Legacy of the Armenian “Cold War” Today; Recommendations for Future Research
Opening remarks: Hratch Tchilingirian, University of Oxford