As always, the first article in the 44th issue of our journal is “Facts And Comments”. This article covers Turkey-Armenia relations as well as domestic and international developments of Armenia in the period of July-December 2021. Despite Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan’s landslide victory in the 20 June elections, a relatively small but vociferous opposition in the Parliament, together with their militant supporters, has given Pashinyan reason to be more circumspect. Despite the aforementioned adversity in domestic politics and complexity in foreign politics that requires juggling multiple prominent actors, Pashinyan has achieved relative success and has proven to be a seasoned and populist politician. However, a daunting task remains before him; leading his people to understand that the way to prosperity and stability does not entail trying furtively to turn the clock back, but rather accepting the reality in Karabagh despite the incitement and encouragement he receives otherwise. The difficulty of this is clearly seen in Armenia’s policy of procrastination that allows the continuation of occupying Azerbaijani territory that is temporarily guarded by the Russian peacekeeping forces in the aftermath of the 2020 Karabagh war that resulted in Azerbaijani victory. The changed conditions in the region bode unprecedented opportunities for regional cooperation and stability. Unfortunately, despite Armenia’s statements to the contrary, its policy towards Turkey appears to be following the traditional pattern of submitting allegiance to certain powers and expecting rewards for availing itself to the service of those in adversity to Turkey.
In their article titled “The Election Propaganda In Armenia Under The Rule Of The Communist Party Of Armenia”, Metin Işık, Mustafa Karaca, and Caner Çakı analyze several posters from the Soviet Armenia era using the semiotic concepts of the semiotician Charles William Morris, and reveal the symbols and messages contained in the posters. To form a background for such a study, the authors offer comparisons between the purpose of holding elections in democratic and authoritarian regimes, provide a literature review of studies that touched upon issues pertaining to propaganda and authoritarian regimes, and try to succinctly explain the key points of the semiotic approach. The authors reveal that elections in the Soviet Union in general and Soviet Armenia in specific were meant to serve the Soviet Union’s need to prevent its people from forming alternative or opposing political ideas, legitimize itself by convincing the people to vote in elections whose candidates were picked by the regime based on loyalty to the regime’s ideals, and to demonstrate to its Cold War rivals that the Union was a strong political formation that enjoyed popular support.
In his article titled “Armenians In The 1908 Trabzon Elections”, Salih Tunç uses archive research and study on the relevant reports of French consulate in Trabzon to evaluate the impacts of the 1908 elections on the population of Trabzon and on the Ottoman Empire. Tunç’s evaluation reveals that the 1908 elections led to considerable disputes among Muslim and non-Muslim community based on the candidates who were chosen as deputies in the elections. Various accusations and objections were circulated against the candidates through the efforts of the Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul, the Armenian Archbishopric of Trabzon, and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaktsutyun. However, the accusations and objections turned out to be unfounded, and the election disputes revealed power competition between the Armenian Church and Dashnaktsutyun, non-Muslim communities’ dissatisfaction in failing to achieve their election goals, and differences in the perspectives of various actors within the Ottoman Empire.
In his article titled “The Law Code Of Mkhitar Gosh And Analysis On The “Others” In The Medieval Armenian Community”, Erdi Öztürk sheds light on the life of the Armenian community in Anatolia during the Middle Ages and Armenian-Turkish relations based on the highly popular Law Code of Mkhitar Gosh. Gosh, a prominent Armenian scholar, priest, a statesman of the time, wrote his law code to provide both a religious and secular guide to the Armenian people. Gosh used several sources from both his own people, but also from other Christian peoples to serve as inspiration for his law code. Gosh was concerned that his people’s interactions and relations with foreigners, especially with the Muslim Turks who had established dominance in Anatolia, would lead to the erosion of Christian Armenian identity. As such, through his law code, Gosh wanted to limit his people’s interactions and relations with those who were perceived as “the others”. Despite Gosh’s efforts, it seems that Armenians nevertheless continued to interact with and be affected by “the others” throughout the Middle Ages.
Have a nice reading and best regards,
Editor
Contributors: p. 5
Editorial Note: p. 7
ARTICLES: p. 9
Alev KILIÇ - “Facts and Comments”: p. 9 (Editorial)
Metin IŞIK - Mustafa KARACA - Caner ÇAKI - “The Election Propaganda in Armenia under the Rule of the Communist Party of Armenia”: p. 53 (Research Article)
Salih TUNÇ - “Armenians in the 1908 Trabzon Elections”: p. 83 (Translation)
Erdi ÖZTÜRK - “The Law Code of Mkhitar Gosh and Analysis on the “Others” in the Medieval Armenian Community”: p. 107 (Translation)
Alev KILIÇ graduated from the Faculty of Political Sciences of Ankara University in 1968. The next year, he joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkey. Kılıç served as Ambassador to F.R. of Yugoslavia between 1996 and 1998 and Ambassador/Permanent Representative to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg between 1998 and 2001. In 2001-2004, he served as the Deputy Undersecretary for Economic Affairs of the Ministry. He served as Ambassador to Switzerland (2004-2009) and Ambassador to Mexican United States (2009-2011). He retired from the Ministry in 2011. Ambassador (R) Kılıç has been the Director of Center for Eurasian Studies (AVİM) since 2013.
Prof. Dr. Metin IŞIK graduated from Faculty of Communication at Gazi University. He worked as an academician at Selçuk University and Erciyes University and served as the founding dean of Sakarya University’s Faculty of Communication. In addition, he served as the dean of the Faculty of Communication at İnönü University and the dean of the Faculty of Art and Design at Yalova University. He has given personal development seminars to hundreds of institutions in the fields of "Effective Communication and Body Language" and is also known for his studies in the field of "City Branding and Brand Cities". He has worked as the Head of the Department of Public Relations and Advertising of the Faculty of Communication at Sakarya University.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mustafa KARACA was born in Kayseri, and completed his primary, secondary and high school education there. He graduated from the Department of Business Administration of the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences at Erciyes University (Kayseri/Turkey). He completed his master's degree in Business Administration and his doctorate degree in Management and Organization in the same university, respectively, by defending his thesis titled "Personality Traits Determining Entrepreneurship". He continued his academic life in Erciyes, Ahi Evran, İnönü and Sakarya Universities, respectively. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Karaca currently serves as a faculty member at the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences at Anadolu University. During his career, he served as head of the department, member of the faculty board, Director of the Institute of Social Sciences, member of the Senate and member of the University Board of Directors. He has published around 40 national/international articles, around 50 national/international papers, and around 10 national/international books in the fields of communication, management, propaganda, and entrepreneurship. He received support from Tübitak with his article published in the Review of Managerial Science (SSCI) in 2019. In 2020, he was awarded the publication incentive of Anadolu University with his book titled Handbook of Leadership published by Cambridge Publishing House. He wrote and directed many projects funded by European Union Framework Programs, IPARD, Bilateral Cooperation Programs, Central Finance Contracting Unit, Development Agencies and Turkish National Agency. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Karaca attaches importance to interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary studies and studies in this direction. He is the founder and editor of Anadolu Academy Journal of Social Sciences and International Journal of Social Sciences.
Dr. Caner ÇAKI was born in 1989 in Bafra. He graduated from the Department of Public Relations and Advertising of the Faculty of Communication at Karadeniz Technical University (Trabzon/Turkey) in 2012. He completed his master’s degree in the Department of Communication Sciences at Inonu University (Malatya/Turkey) in 2016. He subsequently completed his doctorate degree in the Program of Communication Sciences of the Institute of Social Sciences at Erciyes University (Kayseri/Turkey) in 2021. He has worked as a research assistant at Inonu University between 2015-2021. Dr. Çakı’s interest areas are propaganda, political communication, social media, and public relations. He has studies on the propaganda activities in Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and the People's Republic of China. He has published studies on propaganda activities in several national and international journals. He is editor of three books titled Propaganda and Communication, Propaganda Music in Turkish Political Life, and Propaganda Studies in Turkish Political Life.
Prof. Dr. Salih TUNÇ was born in the village of Akçay, in the Elmalı district of Antalya. After completing his high school education in Antalya High School, he graduated from the Department of History, Faculty of Letters of Istanbul University in 1989. He received his master's degree in 1992 with his thesis titled "Internal Revolts During The [Turkish] National Struggle" at the Institute of Ataturk's Principles and Revolution History at Istanbul University. Thereafter, in 1999, under the supervision of the late Prof. Dr. Ali İhsan GENCER, he completed his doctorate degree with the thesis titled "The Istanbul Press During The Occupation Period (1918-1922)". Subsequently, he served as a teacher for some time and then started to work as a lecturer at Akdeniz University in March 1993, serving in various academic staff positions. Between 2003-2005, at the Strasbourg University Departement d'Etudes Turques, and under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Paul Dumont, he carried out post-doctoral studies on the Young Turks and the Committee of Union and Progress (1908-1918). He became an Associate Professor in the field of New and Contemporary History in 2013 and Professor in Contemporary History Department in 2019. Subsequently, he worked as n guest researcher at Strasbourg University Departement d'Etudes Turques in France within the framework of the Tübitak 2219 project in 2016. He conducted archival studies at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs units in Paris / La Courneuve and in Nantes, as well as at the military archive Château Vincennes. His academic studies here were mainly focused on the Constitutional Monarchy, the Young Turks and the Committee of Union and Progress, as well as the Armistice and Occupation Period. Prof. Dr. Tunç continues to serve as a faculty member in the Department of History of the Faculty of Letters at Antalya Akdeniz University.
Erdi ÖZTÜRK He was born in 1991 in Bursa. He graduated from the Department of History of Hacettepe University in 2014 with the degree of "honor student". In 2018, he received his master's degree from the History Program of the Institute of Social Sciences at Hacettepe University with the thesis titled "Anatolia in the Age of Ethnic and Religious Transformation: Peoples, Beliefs and Cultural Interaction (XII-XIII Centuries)” (thesis advisor: Assoc, Prof. Resul Ay). In the same year, he commenced his doctorate level education in the History Program of the Institute of Social Sciences at Hacettepe University. In 2019, to assist his doctoral studies, Öztürk started his second undergraduate level education at the Program for Armenian Language and Culture of the Department of Caucasian Languages and Cultures, Faculty of Languages and History-Geography at Ankara University. Öztürk continues his doctoral thesis study titled "Armenians in Eastern Anatolia: Politics, Socio-Economic Life, and Cultural Interaction (XI-XV Centuries)".
