Ara Sarafian to Speak on “The Armenians of Bitlis”

FRESNO — Ara Sarafian of the Gomidas Institute (London) will present an illustrated lecture “A Hundred Years Ago… The Armenians of Bitlis” at 7:30 PM on Thursday, September 5, 2013, in the Industrial Technology Building, Room 101, at the South-East corner of Barstow and Campus Drive, on the Fresno State campus.

The lecture is co-sponsored by the Armenian Studies Program, the Armenian Students Organization of Fresno State, and the Leon S. Peters Foundation.

Bitlis was one of the great centers of Armenian civilization, with a unique identity of its own. Armenians lived in this mountainous region, in towns and villages with schools, churches, and monasteries. Today, very little remains of the Armenian past. Most of it was destroyed in the Armenian Genocide and the anti-Armenian policies of the Turkish republic.

In this talk, “The Armenians of Bitlis,” historian Ara Sarafian will present a historical-and a contemporary-view of the Armenian presence in Bitlis before 1915. His power-point presentation will draw on a critical set of Ottoman, Armenian, and Russian sources from 1880 to 1915, as well as his latest trip to the region.

“The Armenians of Bitlis” is part of a broader bridge building project which the Gomidas Institute launched in Bitlis this year. The project has already benefited from the support of many Kurds and Turks and will lead to a public exhibition in Bitlis next year.

The lecture will end with the release of Thomas Mugerditchian’s, The Diyarbekir Massacres and Kurdish Atrocities, (Gomidas Institute, 2013).

Ara Sarafian is an archival historian specializing on late Ottoman history. He is the director of the Gomidas Institute, which is a leading research and publication center related to modern Armenian history.

The lecture is free and open to the public. Parking will be available in Lots Q, K, and L the night of the lecture. Make sure to use parking code 273401 to receive a free parking pass.

For more information on the lecture please contact the Armenian Studies Program at 278-2669.