0 4_ 01_2014: RICHARD HOVANNISIAN TO LECTURE ON SMYRNA CATASTROPHE AT HOLY TRANSLATORS

Professor Richard G. Hovannisian will present an illustrated lecture, “The Smyrna Catastrophe, 1922,” on Friday, January 24, 2014, at 7:30 p.m., at the Armenian Church of the Holy Translators, 38 Franklin Street, Framingham, MA. The program will be co-sponsored by the Church of the Holy Translators and the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR).

September 2012 marked the 90th anniversary of the Smyrna Catastrophe when much of the city, the second largest in the Ottoman Empire, was destroyed by fire during the final phase of the Greco-Turkish War. The calamity marked the end of a strong Christian presence in the historic Aegean coastal regions and turned hundreds of thousands of Greeks and Armenians into refugees.

In this illustrated lecture, Prof. Richard Hovannisian will discuss the important role of Smyrna (Izmir) in modern Armenian history and the inferno that engulfed the city in September 1922. Hovannisian is the editor of Armenian Smyrna/Izmir, the eleventh volume of proceedings from the UCLA conference series “Historic Armenian Cities and Provinces.” He also traveled to Izmir and environs in June 2012 as the historian-guide for a NAASR Armenian Heritage Tour led by Armen Aroyan.

A book signing of Armenian Smyrna/Izmir will immediately follow the lecture. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Richard Hovannisian is the author of Armenia on the Road to Independence, the four-volume history The Republic of Armenia, and has edited and contributed to more than twenty-five books including The Armenian Genocide in Perspective; The Armenian People from Ancient to Modern Times; Remembrance and Denial; Looking Backward, Moving Forward; and The Armenian Genocide: Cultural and Ethical Legacies. Professor Hovannisian was the first holder of the Armenian Educational Foundation Chair in Modern Armenian History at UCLA and is presently Distinguished Chancellor’s Fellow at Chapman University.

For more information about the September 12 program contact Holy Translators at 508-875-0868 or NAASR at 617-489-1610 or hq@naasr.org.

Marc Mamigonian