Ketsemanian to Serve as Guest English Editor of the Armenian Weekly/Hairenik Magazine Dedicated to Republic’s Centennial  

WATERTOWN, Mass. (A.W.)—For the 11th consecutive year, the Armenian Weekly and the Hairenik will publish a joint, full-color magazine issue. This year’s magazine will be dedicated to the Centennial of the First Republic of Armenia and feature research, analysis, op-eds, and photographs by leading experts, commentators, and artists from diverse backgrounds and fields of expertise.

This year’s magazine will be dedicated to the Centennial of the First Republic of Armenia and feature research, analysis, op-eds, and photographs by leading experts, commentators, and artists from diverse backgrounds and fields of expertise.

Varak Ketsemanian, a second year PhD student at Princeton University, will serve as the guest editor for the English portion of the magazine issue, alongside Armenian Weekly editor Rupen Janbazian.

Born and raised in Beirut, Lebanon, Ketsemanian attended the American University of Beirut, and graduated in 2013 with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and minor in history. After interning at the Armenian Weekly offices and spending a year of doing freelance research and translation, Ketsemanian began his graduate studies at the University of Chicago’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies (2014-2016). His master’s thesis titled “Communities in Conflict: the Hunchakian Revolutionary Party 1890-1894” examines the socio-economic role of violence in shaping inter-communal and ethnic relations by doing a local history of the Armenian Revolutionary Movement in the Ottoman Empire.

Varak Ketsemanian (Photo: Garine Boghossian)

Ketsemanian’s work tackles problems such as the development and polarization of mainstream historiographies, inter-communal stratifications, nationalism, and the relationship of the Ottoman State with some of its Anatolian provinces. For his PhD dissertation, Ketsemanian plans on writing the social history of the National Constitution of Ottoman Armenians in 1863, and the communal dynamics/mechanisms that it created on imperial, communal, and provincial levels. Ketsemanian’s research relates to the development of different forms of nationalism in the 19th and 20th centuries, revolutionary violence, and constitutional movements.

Ketsemanian has conducted research and has been involved in various projects throughout the United States, Turkey, Lebanon, and Armenia. He is the recipient of several awards and fellowships such as Fulbright, FLAS, and the Gulbenkian Scholarship for Armenian Studies among others. He is a frequent contributor to Aztag Daily, Asbarez, and the Armenian Weekly.

“We are thrilled and honored to have Varak onboard for this important commemorative issue,” noted Weekly editor Rupen Janbazian. “Varak’s insight and knowledge have helped us curate and put together a comprehensive issue that will surely be appreciated by our dear readers and supporters,” he added.

The commemorative magazine will focus on new research on the short-lived republic, which became the first expression of Armenian sovereignty since the fall of the Lusignan dynasty in Cilician Armenia in 1375. The issue will also feature never-before-seen documents and photographs from 1918-1920.

For more than a decade, the Armenian Weekly/Hairenik magazine has been at the cutting edge of discussion on genocide, human rights, justice, and other pressing issues. Every year, the editors rely on their readers and supporters to raise the necessary funds for this publication.

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