KHACHATUR ABOVYAN ARMENIAN STATE PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY

On October 25, the Ghazar Parpetsi Secondary School in Parpi village hosted a republican conference devoted to Ghazar Parpetsi, the last historian of the Golden Age. Among those attending the conference were Governor of Aragatsotn Province Sergey Movsisyan; Head of the Department of Education, Culture and Sport of the Staff of the Governor Galust Tadevosyan and Principal of the School Bavakan Harutyunyan.

In Parpi, which has a history spanning centuries, the students of the Armenian State Pedagogical University were introduced to the School’s history (5 of the 241 pupils of the School died heroically during the war).

Principal Bavakan Harutyunyan proudly stated that it is an honor for the School to host the conference devoted to Ghazar Parpetsi in the school of his hometown. In his opening speech at the conference, Governor of Aragatsotn Province Sergey Movsisyan said that the organizing and holding of such conferences highly contribute to improvement of the education system. He emphasized that great figures of the Armenian nation should be acknowledged at the academic level and expressed gratitude to the Armenian State Pedagogical University and the professors and lecturers of the Faculty of Philology for sharing their professional knowledge with the representatives of the Governor’s Staff and the School’s teachers.

Vice-Rector of the ASPU for Education Mariam Ispiryan expressed her greetings to the participants of the conference and underscored the need to fulfil the commitments with honor in the difficult conditions that have been created.

“Today’s conference is especially symbolic because it is being held in Parpi village, the hometown of great historian, patriot and orator Ghazar Parpetsi. A society has a different level of education and development in which pedagogues are appreciated. It is within this very context that the role of the Armenian State Pedagogical University is valued. Today, more than ever, we need to have great schools, a sustainable education system and a society that bears the value system to build the future today,” Vice-Rector Ispiryan stated and attached importance to the organizing of the conference. Ispiryan also emphasized the importance of cooperation with the staff of the secondary school in Parpi village in the context of universities and schools, assuring that the cooperation will be ongoing.

Head of the Chair of Armenian Ancient and Medieval Armenian Literature and its Teaching Methods, Professor Aelita Dolukhanyan, among the series of rich historiographical books dating back to the 5th century, presented the main emphases made in Parpetsi’s composition “History of the Armenian People”, touched upon the proclaimed “Tghtin” (To the Paper) addressed to regional governor of the time Vahan Mamikonyan, highlighted the historical and artistic value of Parpetsi’s composition “History” and attached importance to it as a valuable source for Armenian historiography and historical science in the future.

Dean of the Faculty of Philology, Professor Ashot Galstyan touched upon the linguistic peculiarities of the historian in his historical articles entitled “Description of the Araratian Field” and “The Treaty of Nvarsak”, stating that the linguistic study of the literary landmarks in Armenian grabar (Classic Armenian) help make the academic description of ancient Armenian more comprehensive. The Professor underscored the abundant use of descriptive words in the historical book, as well as the interesting manifestations and stylistic features in terms of word formation. The author of the book “History of the Armenian People” enriched literary Armenian with dozens of words, did not use loan words, presented the artistic descriptions of nature on the basis of psychology, vested his speech with metaphors, comparisons and contrasts and presented the history in a rich and understandable language.

Associate Professor of the Chair of Armenian Ancient and Medieval Armenian Literature and its Teaching Methods, Candidate of Philological Sciences Lilit Hovsepyan presented Ghazar Parpetsi’s composition “Paper about Vahan Mamikonyan” and the Bible, while Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, Associate Professor Ruzan Dolukhanyan touched upon the stories written by Yeghishe and Ghazar Parpetsi about the Battle of Avarayr. Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, Associate Professor Gayane Mardyan presented the critical and disciplinary spirit of Ghazar Parpetsi’s “Paper”, and Hovhannes Sargsyan, PhD student of the Chair, presented the historian of the Golden Age in the works of Ghevond Alishan. The participants of the conference flowers at the statue to Ghazaros Parpetsi and paid a visit to the Targmanchats Church of Parpi.

As a matter of fact, they had published the anthology of articles of the conference in advance, and dedicated copies of the anthology to the secondary school in Parpi village.