Hovhannes Kajaznuni

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Hovhannes Kajaznuni
Յովհաննէս Քաջազնունի
Hovhannes Katchaznouni.JPG
1st Prime Minister of Armenia
In office
6 June 1918 – 7 August 1919
Preceded by position established
Succeeded by Alexander Khatisyan
Chairman of the National Assembly of Armenia
In office
4 November 1920 – 2 December 1920
Preceded by Avetik Sahakyan
Succeeded by Soviet Armenia
Personal details
Born (1868-02-01)February 1, 1868
Akhaltsikhe, Tiflis Governorate, Russian Empire
Died 1938 (aged 69–70)
Yerevan, Armenian SSR, Soviet Union
Nationality Armenian
Political party Armenian Revolutionary Federation

Hovhannes Kajaznuni, or Hovhannes Katchaznouni (Armenian: Յովհաննէս Քաջազնունի) (1 February 1868 – 1938) was the first Prime Minister of the First Republic of Armenia from June 6, 1918 to August 7, 1919. He was a member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation.

Personal life

Hovhannes Kajaznuni was born in 1868 in the town of Akhaltsikhe, then part of the Russian Empire, now part of Georgia. He attended secondary school in Tiflis from 1877 to 1886. In 1887 he moved to St. Petersburg and entered the Citizens' Architectural Institute, graduating with honors in 1893. In St. Petersburg he joined the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, eventually becoming one of its most important members. After graduation, he worked at the construction department of the Baku provincial administration (1893-1895), as an architect in Batumi (1895–1897), and as regional architect at the Tiflis provincial administration (1897-1899). Between 1899 and 1906 he worked as a senior architect in Baku, designing hospitals and apartment buildings. After 1906 he devoted himself to political and social activities.[1]

He was forced to leave the Caucasus in 1911 to avoid being called to St. Petersburg to testify at the "Armenian Revolutionary Federation trial" mounted by the Russian government. He lived in Constantinople and then in Van until 1914, when he returned to the Caucasus. He became a member of the Armenian National Council in 1917 and was an A.R.F. representative in the Seym (the Transcaucasian Parliament) until 1918. He was on the Armenian delegation that conducted peace talks with the Ottoman Empire in Trabzon and Batoum. After the dissolution of the Transcaucasian Federation, he was elected in Armenian National Council as the first Prime Minister of the independent Armenian state on June 6, 1918 and his Cabinet was formed on June 30. Kajaznuni held this position until August 7, 1919; with the nomination as a Prime-Minister abroad from June 5, 1919. He was in diplomatic missions in Europe from August, 1919 and in the United States during October 9, 1919 - August, 1920. He returned to Armenia to become Chairman of the Parliament on November 4, 1920 and being arrested after the Bolsheviks came to power in December 1920, but was liberated by the February 1921 revolt against the Soviet regime. After its end in early April, he left the country and lived in Bucharest from 1921-1924. In 1925 he returned to Soviet Armenia and worked as an architect in Leninakan. He also taught at the technical department of Yerevan State University, lecturing on construction and architecture. In 1930 he joined the newly established Construction Institute and attained the title of professor there. Kajaznuni became a member of the Armenian Union of Architects.

Kajaznuni became a victim of Stalin's Great Terror. He was arrested in 1937 and imprisoned. He died in prison in 1938, although the exact date of his death is unknown.[2]

Report to the 1923 ARF Congress

Kajaznuni prepared a critical report for the April 1923 ARF convention in Bucharest (the 10th Congress of the Party was held in 1924)[3][4] titled "Dashnaktsutyun Has Nothing More to Do," which called for the dissolution of the Party and Armenian support of Soviet Armenia.[5][6][7][8] It has been claimed that the convention of 1923 was "highly secret and closed to the public",[9] which was common for party gatherings. Kajaznuni published his report in Vienna (1923). In the same year, it was republished by non-A.R.F. circles in Tbilisi, Alexandria (Egypt), and Bucarest.[10] Its claims immediately drew rebuke from the party.[11][12][13][14] Until recently, the report was available through its abridged English translation by Matthew Aram Callender, The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnagtzoutiun) Has Nothing to Do Any More, edited by Avedis Boghos Derounian, and published by the Armenian Information Service, directed by the latter.[15] The Armenian original was reprinted twice in Yerevan in 1994 and 1995, and copies of different editions are available through major Armenian libraries worldwide.

In 2007 Turkish historian Mehmet Perinçek,[16] son of politician Doğu Perinçek, the first person to be convicted by a court of law for denial of the Armenian Genocide, claimed to have produced a new Turkish and English translation of the full text, based on a reportedly unabridged Russian copy (printed in Tbilisi, 1927) held in the Russian State Library in Moscow.[17] This story is disputed by some Armenian intellectuals such as Viken L. Attarian, who claim that all these "discoveries" are actually forgeries of this document, made by alleged Turkish unscrupulous historians to rebuke the fact of the Armenian Genocide,[18] which is proven by the fact that the translations of the text in Turkish, English, and German were published by Kaynak Press, Istanbul, as the first in a book series titled "Ermeni Belgeleriyle Ermeni Soykırımı Yalanı," "The Lie of 'Armenian Genocide' in Armenian Documents" and "Die Lüge vom Genozid an den Armeniern Anhand armenischer Dokumente.", whilst in the version which is translated from the original by Matthew A. Callender Kajaznuni describes what happened as "holocaust" (p. 7) and says:

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The second half of 1915 and the entire year of 1916 were periods of hopelessness, desperation and mourning for us. The refugees, all those who had survived the holocaust, were filling Russian provinces by tens and hundreds of thousands.[19]

Bibliography

  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. (Book cover), Full text online
  • Ovanes Kachaznuni. The Hundred and Ten Days in Europe. Baku, 1911 (new edition in Russian, Saint Petersburg, 2013)

References

  1. Edmond Tigranian, Հայ ճարտարապետների գործունեությունը Անդրկովկասում XIX դարի վերջ - XX դարի սկիզբ (Contributions of Armenian Architects in the Transcaucausus at the End of the 19th Century and the Beginning of the 20th Century), Yerevan, 2003, p. 236-241.
  2. Հայկական Հարց Հանրագիտարան (Encyclopedia of the Armenian Question), Yerevan, 1996, p. 456.
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  6. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. See footnote 12.
  7. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. (also London and Sydney: Croom Helm)
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  10. See http://www.armunicat.am:8991/ARMA and search for Յովհաննէս Քաջազնունի.
  11. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Translates to "Our Answer/Response to H. Kachaznunii" (author's name also transliterated "Rouben", "Ruben", "Rooben", etc.)
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  15. Imprinted on the cover of the booklet: "Published by the Armenian Information Service, Suite 7D, 471 Park Ave., New York 22."
  16. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. Hovhannes Katchaznouni - the Intellectual Politician and Unique Patriot (A Lecture in Armenian). By Viken L. Attarian, P. Eng. MSc MBA, Montreal
  19. The Armenian Revolutionary Federation Has Nothing To Do Any More: The Manifesto of Hovhannes Kajaznuni. New York 1955. p.7
Political offices
Preceded by
None
Prime Minister of the First Republic of Armenia
1918-1919
Succeeded by
Alexander Khatisyan