The Genocide commemoration conference “Images of Memory” is a good platform to sum up the nation’s latest achievements in the preservation and digitalization of manuscripts, and study and reshape its historical cultural heritage, says the director of the Matenadaran (institute of ancient manuscripts).
“Thanks to scientific conferences and cooperation, the Matenadaran is slowly gaining a wide recognition and attraction. The Matenadaran is a repository of human memory and a center of universal culture,” Hrachya Tamrazyan told the participants of the event being held in Yerevan.
He said that the Institute has signed many contracts with international partners, including world-renowned centers in Europe and countries in the Commonwealth of Independent States, to foster future cooperation efforts.
He added that the Matenadaran has saved and preserved also pieces of foreign culture which it now displays for the public at large. “Our fund has many manuscripts in Arab scripts. During the Genocide we saved not only Armenian but also foreign – Arab-language manuscripts, Korans and religious books, and even hand-written records in the Ottoman language. That means we also rescued the genocidal slaughterers’ culture from themselves. This is where the Armenians’ set of values makes itself evident,” he added.
Addressing the meeting, an advisor to the Matenadaran director, Ara Khzmalyan , said that the scientific conference has gained a wide recognition over the past five years, consolidating high-level specialists of the area (experts in medieval studies, manuscripts and cultural funds, museologists, archivists and librarians).
Thanks to the remarkable achievements, the Matenadaran was granted the status of a key institution responsible to preserve and restore written cultural heritage on the CIS region, Khzmalyan added.
“The scientific conference is the best and the main platform to implement the key functions,” he said.