Under the presidency of His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia, and at the initiative of the committee of the Catholicosate’s “Khachik Babikian Publishing Foundation,” consultative sessions dedicated to the theme “Towards the Lausanne Centennial” took place in the hall of the Catholicosate’s “Cilicia” Museum on 22-24 April 2023.
At the beginning of the year, during the regular sessions held under the leadership of His Holiness the Catholicos, the necessity of preparing for the centennial of the Treaty of Lausanne was emphasized, keeping in view two main directions: first, to find the legal paths that, in the Sèvres-Lausanne relationship, would not render the historical rights of the Armenians subject to question; second, to bring into the spotlight Turkey’s obligations regarding the preservation of the rights of national minorities.
Invited to these consultative sessions were the director of the Institute of History of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia (N.A.S. R.A.), Prof. Ashot Melkonyan (member of the committee); advisor to the director of the N.A.S. R.A. Institute of Oriental Studies, Academician Prof. Ruben Safrastyan; head of the Department of the Armenian Genocide and the Armenian Question of the N.A.S. R.A. Institute of History, Dr. Armen Marukyan; international law expert and responsible for the legal files of the historic Catholicosate of Sis, Dr. Nora Bayraktarian-Gabagian; historian Yervant Pamboukian (chairman of the committee); committee members Kiro Manoyan and Shahan Gandaharian; and secretary-clerk of the committees of the Catholicosate’s foundations, Aharon Shkhrtmyan.
Given the political orientation of the issue and its present-day significance, as well as its pan-Armenian agenda character, at the invitation of His Holiness the Catholicos, representatives of the highest bodies of the Armenian political parties also participated in the sessions: member of the Central Board of the Social Democrat Hunchakian Party (S.D.H.P.) Aleksan Keoshkerian, representative of the Bureau of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (A.R.F.) Hagop Der-Khachadourian, and member of the Central Board of the Armenian Democratic Liberal Party (A.D.L.) Dr. Avetis Dagesian.
During the three-day sessions, professional reports were presented in historical, legal and political directions. This joint discussion by historians, jurists and Armenian political-public figures of the Diaspora contributed to the establishment of the preparatory phase for the elaboration of the proposed theme.
The participants particularly emphasized that, in the current crisis conditions, from a nationwide perspective, such initiatives are strictly necessary, which bring together representatives of Armenian scientific and political thought to jointly discuss events with historical underpinnings and their possible consequences being recorded in the region, both in the South Caucasus and the Middle East.
His Holiness expressed his deep satisfaction with the phenomenon of consolidation, the readiness to discuss problems together, and especially with the in-depth and qualified reports, consultations and the proposals derived from them, from the perspective of each field.
It was deemed comprehensively necessary to continue consultative meetings in such a format.
