THEY TRIED TO DESTROY OUR CULTURE, BUT THEY DID NOT SUCCEED

Who is Ruben Angaladyan?

He is well-known writer and philosopher, historian and translator, and filmmaker. He was born in 1947 in Akhaltsikh. He studied at the Leningrad Polytechnic University. In Russian came out collections of his poems and stories, which have been translated into different languages. There are collections also in Armenian.

The last work of Angaladyan is the album-catalog “Yerevan-Paris”, dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. This album is an attempt to change ingrained in us the stereotype of genocide, to address this problem from a different perspective. Here are collected all the important documentary materials that are related to the Yerevan-Paris cultural relations of 1915-1940. These materials show how great was the influence of the representatives of the Armenian culture in those years, when Paris was considered the center of world art.

I go through the album of photos. Here are: one of the giants of the Armenian artistic thought, avant-garde artist Yakulov, famous actor Shahkhatoun, Misak Manushyan, who led active activities not only in the Armenian cultural life, but also in the political life in occupied Paris during World War II.

Not many people know that in the origins of the French silent and sound films stand also Armenians – the best masters of make-up. By the way, recently in world cinema again they began to use the experience of Armenian make-up masters.

In the book, a lot of space is devoted to the Armenian artists (Vartan Makhokhyan, Hakob Gyurjyan, Arsen Shabanyan, Yervand Kochar, Martiors Saryan), many of them have been awarded the Order of “Legion of Honor”.

Instead of an epilogue

“I am confident that we will have to deal with the world only from the standpoint of our national dignity. Of course, we had a lot of suffering, but we must express our clear position and to worthily represent our problem. This is important! And the main message of this book to the world is that the Turks have planned an attempt to obliterate such a culture! But they did not succeed! “- Ruben Angaladyan

Knar Tadevosyan

Major