When the Voiceless Speak: Self-Narratives of Two Genocide Survivors
Through the voices of his great-grandparents, Varak Ketsemanian gives the reader a small glimpse into the inner world of Genocide survivors.
Varak Ketsemanian graduated from the American University of Beirut in 2013 with a BA in philosophy and minor in history. After interning at the Armenian Weekly offices in Boston, MA, Ketsemanian enrolled at the University of Chicago in the MA program at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies (2014-2016). His MA thesis titled “Communities in Conflict: the Hunchakian Revolutionary Party 1890-1894” examines the socio-economic role of violence in shaping inter-communal and ethnic relations by doing a local history of the Armenian Revolutionary Movement in the Ottoman Empire. Ketsemanian is currently a PhD student at Department of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University planning on writing the social history of the Armenian National Constitution of 1863, and the communal dynamics that it created on imperial, communal, and provincial levels. Ketsemanian’s research relates to the development of different forms of nationalism in the 19th and 20th centuries, revolutionary violence, and constitutional movements. He has conducted research and has been involved in various projects in Turkey, USA, Lebanon and Armenia. He is the recipient of several awards and fellowships such as Fulbright, FLAS, and the Gulbenkian Scholarship for Armenian Studies among others. He is a frequent contributor to Aztag Daily, Asbarez and Armenian Weekly.
Through the voices of his great-grandparents, Varak Ketsemanian gives the reader a small glimpse into the inner world of Genocide survivors.
EVN Report ամսագրի ապրիլյան թողարկումը՝ «Սփիւռք» խորագրով, ազգային սպասումների անցյալի պատվանդանը վերակառուցելու ու նոր տեսլական ունենալու հրամայականի մասին է:
The guest editor for the April issue on “Diaspora” writes about clarifying the steps needed to navigate these difficult times, and the imperative to take a step back and deconstruct the pedestal on which we have built our mutual and national expectations.
Through the voices of his great-grandparents, Varak Ketsemanian gives the reader a small glimpse into the inner world of Genocide survivors.
“Western Armenia” as a concept is a crucial component of the Armenian national narrative, mostly in the Diaspora. In this article, Varak Ketsemanian raises some questions regarding the Armenian reality’s understanding of “Western Armenia,” its biases and blind-spots. He suggests refining the ways in which we discuss and represent “Western Armenia” in the 21st century.
As Armenians prepare to mark the centennial of the First Armenian Republic (1918-1920), Varak Ketsemanian writes that there seems to be little consensus regarding its true meaning, its contested legacy and the various forms through which it should be commemorated.
In an exclusive interview with EVN Report’s contributor Varak Ketsemanian, Alexander Balistreri of the University of Basel reflects on some of the larger historical and historiographical problems pertinent to the region around Kars a century ago and sheds light on the political and military developments that shaped the policies of the Armenian government and the larger regional powers.
In this article, Varak Ketsemanian reflects on the possibilities of integrating the ARF archives on the First Republic into the larger political debate. Thus, he argues for the need of a critical and constructive re-assessment of this historical period in the nation's recent history, as a way to contribute to a long-term political convergence.
In this new essay for EVN Report, Varak Ketsemanian argues that one of the reasons Armenians have failed to come up with a palatable “national brand” lies in the absence of common political premises (beyond the Genocide and Artsakh) upon which collaborative platforms may be created in the Diaspora, but more importantly, in the Republic of Armenia.
Varak Ketsemanian presents a critical analysis of Sona B. Dadoyan’s work, “2015, The Armenian Condition in Hindsight and Foresight: A Discourse,” a timely and critical piece of scholarship that sheds light on the intellectual crisis of the 21st century Armenian reality.
EVN Report’s mission is to empower Armenia, inspire the diaspora and inform the world through sound, credible and fact-based reporting and commentary. Our goal is to increase public trust in the media. EVN Report is the media arm of EVN News Foundation registered in the Republic of Armenia in 2017.
SUPPORT INDEPENDANT JOURNALISM