Gurdjieff Conference Armenia 2009

An international conference entitled “The Life and Work of G.I. Gurdjieff” will be held 26-28 June 2009 in Yerevan. This will be the 5th annual Gurdjieff conference since 2004. The conference will examine the various dimensions of the life and thought of Gurdjieff and, in particular, the Armenian and Caucasian roots of his work.

Born in Alexandropol/Gyumri to a Pontic Greek father and Armenian mother, Gevorgi Ivanovich Gurdjieff grew up in Kars, traveled to many parts of the world and died in 1949 in Paris, France. He is considered as a philosopher, a mystic, a teacher of sacred dances, and a spiritual leader. Gurdjieff is most notable for introducing a certain approach to self-awareness that he referred to as the “Fourth Way”.

Conference 2009 Theme

According to the conference organizers, while many works have been written about Gurdjieff life and work, few have addressed the Caucasian and specifically Armenian character of his work. Further, even though Gurdjieff is known outside of the Caucasus, many Armenians remain unfamiliar with him. The conference will to take steps in redressing these imbalances.

The organizers hope that the conference will investigate Gurdjieff, his life, his work, as well as his ideas. In particular, they hope to highlight and explore the roots of his identity and his role as an important philosopher and thinker of Armenia and the Caucasus.

The following areas of inquiry will specifically be emphasized: Gurdjieff’s influence in contemporary culture; his Caucasian and/or Armenian identity; his writings - language and terminology; his “Toast of the Idiots”; and he vis-à-vis ethics.

By holding the conference in the very heart of Gurdjieff’s homeland, it is hoped to make new global connections to the Caucasus, a project that has only become possible since Armenia’s break from the Soviet Union.

The working languages of the conference will be English and Armenian – there will be simultaneous translation. The deadline for the submission of paper proposals is 1 Feb 2009. It is anticipated that the conference papers will be published as a volume.

For further information on this event, please click here.
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Tribute to the Leading Anthropologist

Considered one of the leading thinkers and scientists of the 20th century, and undoubtedly one of the greatest anthropologists of all times, Mr. Claude Levi-Strauss celebrated his hundredth birthday on 28 November 2008. Professor Levi-Strauss continues to pursue his scholarly activities.

In paying tribute to the French scientist, UNESCO Director General, Mr. Koïchiro Matsuura, wrote: “Claude Lévi-Strauss, one of the greatest thinkers of the 20th century, has always been very close to the unfolding history of UNESCO. His work, with its humanist message and universal scope, has radically changed our understanding of the world. Interested in all civilizations, he has taught us about the complexity of myths and the diversity of cultures, as well as their fragility. Thanks to him, we know that the wealth of humanity lies in its diversity and its ability always to accept the other.”

According to UNESCO press release, Claude Lévi-Strauss was a member of the international commission of scholars who drafted the organization’s first declaration on the race question in 1950. In 1951, he chaired the committee of experts appointed to set up the International Social Science Council, of which he was the first Secretary General, from 1952 - 1961. In 1952, at the request of UNESCO, he wrote Race and History. In 1971, Mr. Lévi-Strauss gave his celebrated speech on Race and Culture.

On 16 November 2005, Claude Lévi-Strauss opened the ceremonies commemorating the 60th anniversary of UNESCO. In his speech, he declared: “Cultural diversity and biological diversity are only phenomena of the same kind, they are linked organically, and, every day, we become more aware that on the human scale, the problem of cultural diversity is the reflection of a much wider problem, whose solution is even more urgent, and that is the relationship between humanity and other living species. It is of no use to attempt to resolve the problem on one level if it is not also tackled on the other, as it is so evident that the respect that we wish to obtain from every human being towards cultures that are different from their own, is only a special instance of the respect that should be felt towards all forms of life”.
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The War of Maps in Caucasus

The Canadian paper The Chronicle Herald has published an article entitled “Map: A Reminder of Complex History of Caucasus” by Mr. Scott Taylor. At the end of his 7 country tour of Caucasus, Mr. Taylor arrived in Azerbaijan where he gave a lecture at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs University. He writes:

About four dozen former ambassadors, faculty members and students attended my presentation. While it is admittedly a challenge to try to define the complex political, strategic situation in the Caucasus to North American readers, it is much dodgier when you attempt the same thing with an audience of active participants from the region. Given the level of tension between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, almost every word you could utter has the potential to be contentious.

… At the beginning of my lecture, I mentioned my travels to Nagorno-Karabakh’s capital city, Stepanakert. As soon as I said the word, a low grumble came from my audience, hands shot up and a bright, young Azeri student rose to admonish me. "You mean the city of Henkendi?" he asked.

I had to admit that I had never heard of that name; from highway signs to maps to written accounts of the war, I had only ever seen the name Stepanakert. “Henkendi was the old Azeri-Turkic name of the capital, but the Soviets changed it to Stepanakert in the 1920s,” I was advised.

On Azeri maps published since independence from the Soviet Union, all place names have been replaced with the former Turkic ones. This renaming process was also conducted by the Armenians, and, as it had been very difficult to find accurate maps of the region in Canada, I had acquired one in Yerevan.

This particular map had been produced in 2002 by the Armenians, and it included a separate handy chart that listed all the former place names juxtaposed with the current ones. Despite the catalogue of name changes, I was still unable to correspond some of my research to a location on the map.

Outside Baku, at a refugee camp, I had interviewed 28 Azeri survivors of the Feb. 26, 1992, massacre in the town of Khojaly. On that fateful night a combat force of Armenians had routed the Azeri militia and completely cleansed the Azeri enclave of all inhabitants. … After my lecture, I asked one of the Azeri students to find Khojaly on my Armenian-produced map. After a protracted, head-scratching silence, he looked up bewildered and said: "It’s not there. They’ve simply erased it from existence."…

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Picture: A map of “real Azerbaijan” according to an Armenian nationalistic website. Azerbaijan has been dismantled and disintegrated.
Drawing and redrawing maps and naming and renaming places are among the favorite weapons employed by all the parties in the on-going psychological wars in the South Caucasus.
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Learn the Language of Your Neighbor

The National, an English-language newspaper published in Abu Dhabi, UAE, recently carried an interesting article by Thomas Seibert on the recent developments in Turkey concerning Kurdish minority’s cultural and educational rights.

Called “mountainous Turks” up to very recent times, and having their representative Ms. Leyla Zana jailed for merely speaking Kurdish during the oath-taking at the Turkish parliament (1991), the Kurds of Turkey are making big strides towards getting full recognition.

These developments are mainly due to the pressure exercised by the European Union that wants to see the instauration of full democracy in Turkey before the country joins the Union.

The Two Pioneers: Hakkari U. & Artuklu U.

Mr. Seibert writes that the two newly founded state universities in Turkey’s Kurdish region are preparing to ask education authorities in Ankara for permission to set up the country’s first departments for Kurdish language and literature.

“There is change taking place in Turkey,” Ibrahim Belenli, the rector of Hakkari University in the south-eastern corner of the country, said in a telephone interview. He said the offer of courses on Kurdish language and literature by colleges would help to bring “more harmony” to a country where a bloody conflict in the Kurdish region has claimed more than 40,000 lives.

Serdar Bedii Omay, the rector of Artuklu University in Mardin, also in Turkey’s south-east, is planning to offer Kurdish language and literature courses in the framework of an Institute of Eastern Languages and Religions that would also include courses in Arabic, Farsi and Aramaic.

… If all goes well and the higher education board, or YOK, the Ankara-based body overseeing Turkey’s universities, gives the green light, the institute can start life next year. “It is a contribution to social peace,” Prof Omay said.

That Prof Belenli and Prof Omay are even considering creating Kurdish departments is revolutionary. Turkish universities routinely offer education in English, French, German or other foreign languages. But so far, there is no Kurdish education at a college level. Traditionally, the Turkish state has been reluctant to tolerate moves that may strengthen loyalty to non-Turkish native languages of its people because it is seen as a potential threat to national unity.

Instruction of Kurdish May Expand

The biggest threat is perceived to come from the Kurdish language, … Today, the use of the Kurdish language is less restricted in Turkey, after political reforms in recent years allowed the country’s estimated 12 million Kurds to speak Kurdish publicly, to open and attend private Kurdish language courses and listen to Kurdish music. Currently, the government is preparing to start a new television channel that will broadcast in Kurdish and other minority languages. The new channel is to begin with test broadcasts in January.

… The universities of Prof Omay and Prof Belenli are newcomers, with the one in Mardin operating since last year, while another in Hakkari officially open less than a year, but they are not alone in planning language branches that go beyond the normal fare in Turkey …

The debate about Kurdish courses at state universities started when Osman Ozcelik, a Kurdish deputy in Ankara’s parliament, tabled a draft law last month that calls for the opening of Kurdish language departments at universities in the metropolis Istanbul and in Diyarbakir, the main city of Turkey’s Kurdish region.

After Mr Ozcelik’s proposal, YOK signaled it was ready to look at proposals coming from universities. There was no legal hurdle for universities to come forward with the wish for a Kurdish language department, Yusuf Ziya Ozcan, the YOK president, told the daily newspaper Radikal.

Turkey is Late

Halis Ayhan, a senior YOK official, told the same newspaper that universities were “late” in proposing such departments. At the same time, Prof Ayhan was careful to draw a clear distinction between the roles of Turkish and Kurdish. “In the constitution, it is being stressed that Turkish is the language of education. Kurdish is a language that is being spoken by a local group in Turkey.”

… Prof Belenli of Hakkari University said it was important “that people should be able to express their opinions openly”. As his university was still in the start-up phase and had no buildings of its own at the moment, the opening of Kurdish language courses was years, rather than months away, he said.

Efforts in Edirne are much more advanced. As it prepares for the new Armenian courses, officials at Trakya University have described the reform as a contribution to the Turkish-Armenian rapprochement … “We go forward with the slogan ‘First learn the language of your neighbor,’” Sevinc Sakarya Maden, head of the foreign languages department, told the Hurriyet newspaper. “It is our biggest aim to create relations of peace and understanding.”

To read the article in full, please click here.

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