“I would gladly come to the Soviet Union again, but I have much to do. Our novelists are sought-after authors for French publishers. I must,” the progressive Turkish writer said as he took his leave—he is an active participant in Turkey’s anti-American movement—“finish the work at hand and begin a book I have long planned, about the national liberation war my people fought in the twenties.”
In the twenties his national liberation army annihilated two hundred thousand Armenians in Shirak. He is a millionaire’s son, the representative of a strong country. In this swift twentieth century, Turkey’s backwardness is a question to be resolved today or tomorrow. They are thirty-three million and growing; they are fifty million. What will this Nevzat Üstün say about the savagery of his national liberation army? Will he say, “We annihilated two hundred thousand invaders”? Were two hundred thousand of our million soldiers? Will he say, “We did not annihilate them; they annihilated us”? Will he say, “We were right to do it”? You and your conscience, Nevzat Üstün, you and your conscience: nobody else can tell you anything.
Azniv Okioperidze, née Khachtovmasyan, is searching for her father Hamazasp, her mother Arusyak, her brothers Andranik, Prosh, Anushavan, Manuk, Harutyun, Hambardzum and Garnuk (Azniv does not clearly remember Garnuk’s real name; the children in the family called him Garnuk), her sisters Arpen, Mariam and Shushan Khachtovmasyan, born between 1895 and 1913 in Bitlis, Western Armenia; her uncles Arshak, Sargis and Khachatur and their children Ashot, Artashes, Artavazd, Hakob, Galust, another Shushan, Gurgen, Suren, Aghavni, Voski and Tukhmanuk Khachtovmasyan, born in the same town. They disappeared in 1915. A Polish officer saved Azniv. There are reports that her relatives are alive and living in Argentina, Australia or perhaps Russia. Their house stood behind the monastery; between the house and monastery was a garden, with a well in it. Send information to: USSR, Armenian SSR, Yerevan, 37 Alaverdyan Street, editorial office of the weekly Voice of the Homeland.
ON CONFERRING THE HONORARY TITLE “MOTHER HEROINE” ON MOTHERS OF LARGE FAMILIES. Confer the honorary title “Mother Heroine”, and award the “Mother Heroine” orders and certificates of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, to the following mothers who have borne and raised ten children:
1. ABDULLAYEVA, Frangiz Sultan qizi—homemaker, Dastakert settlement, Sisian district.
2. ARABYAN, Bakhchagyul, daughter of Shko—state-farm worker, Aragats district.
…
“Seventy leading astrophysicists have arrived in Yerevan from fourteen countries to discuss a number of questions concerning unstable phenomena in galaxies. Among them are the director of Leiden Observatory and foreign member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Professor Jan Oort (the Netherlands); the distinguished researchers of external galaxies, the Burbidges; Professors Zwicky and Minkowski (USA); the vice-president of the International Radio Union, Dr Lequeux (France); Academician Zeldovich (USSR); Professor Fujimoto (Japan); Professor Uchtel (GDR); Professor Sérsic (Argentina), and others.
Academician Viktor Ambartsumian delivered the conference’s opening address. Welcoming the participants and guests of the international conference, he emphasised the great importance of further research into unstable phenomena, intended to broaden scientific understanding of the structure of distant galaxies and the still unknown properties of the matter composing them.
Tomorrow the conference participants will visit Byurakan Observatory, the Metsamor excavations, Echmiadzin and Zvartnots.”
“Expeditions of the republic’s Academy of Sciences archaeological museum are conducting extensive excavations on the terraces of the Hrazdan River, at Tsitsernakaberd, Shengavit, Teishebaini, Erebuni, Metsamor, Armavir and elsewhere. Large numbers of material cultural treasures are being discovered everywhere. The museum receives an average of three thousand archaeological objects each year. Thousands of clay vessels, bronze objects, daggers and various household items have been found in excavations of the ancient burial ground at Artiktuf. Of great interest is the fortress at Harich village, dating to the third millennium BC. Worth mentioning is the discovery of Metsamor’s enormous pagan temple, thousands of archaeological objects and metal-smelting furnaces. Four-wheeled carts have been recovered from tombs at Lchashen village… So many material cultural treasures accumulated at the excavation sites that the management of the Academy’s archaeological museum was obliged to turn Dvin, Garni and Erebuni into museums to preserve them where they were found. In a year or two, Metsamor, Harich, Shengavit, Armavir, Lchashen, Gladzor, Syunik, the Aghstev valley, the areas uncovered by Lake Sevan’s receding waters and, very probably, the areas still to be uncovered will also become museums. To underline the importance—I would say the world-historical significance—of our work, I need cite only one fact: scholars believe the discovery of Metsamor’s smelting works already points towards solving the mystery of the Hyksos, who conquered Egypt in the seventeenth century BC. Who were the Hyksos, where did they come from, where did they forge their iron swords?.. Our population helps us discover and preserve ancient settlements, although there are also quite a few individuals who…”
A tribe of dark, sinewy people who called themselves Hyksos came from the north through Syria and Phoenicia into the Nile valley and destroyed the seventeenth dynasty of the pharaohs in a single encounter. Not because that dynasty’s last rulers lacked power, but because the conquerors slashed and pierced with steel swords and their chariot wheels were rimmed with iron. However fast their steeds raced, their chariot wheels did not fall apart, because they were rimmed with iron. They descended from their northern mountains holding the horses’ bridles tight, slowly, restraining the horses. They entered the Syrian plain, suddenly raced forward and smashed the bronze armies and idols from Syria to Ethiopia with iron. They became pharaohs and priests, taught how the magic of fire could draw an iron sword from stone against brittle Libyan bronze, how to separate constellations from the heavens’ tangled stars. Then they themselves melted away, vanished into the hot country’s kindly indolence and the warm melancholy of its women…
Published in part. The complete version is available to download as a PDF.