In the city of Lviv, Ukraine, at the recent conference dedicated to the 90th birth anniversary of renowned scholar and author of 200 Armenian works, Jaroslav Dashkevich, during which the Turkish delegation demonstratively left the hall, was also attended by scholars and experts from different countries of the world along with other scholars. Doctor of Arts and Professor Levon Chookaszian was one of them. In a conversation with Aravot.am, Mr. Chookaszian told that still a few months ago, he was informed from Ukraine that Turks have paid enough money so that the National University of Lviv named after Ivan Franko would organize the Turkish branch in this conference.
Moreover, the Turks wanted one of the working languages of the conference to be Turkish in parallel to Ukrainian and English. “I am alerted that the Armenian branch is missing there. And the Armenian community of Ukraine took measures for having an Armenian branch and Armenian language is used as one of the working languages. I informed my colleagues-historians and art experts to form a delegation that will properly honor Dashkevich’s anniversary who has been a man of great knowledge and a great Armenologist, mastering 40 languages,” noted our interlocutor.
He also added that in his youth years Dashkevich was arrested because of his dissident activities and has even spent some time in Artsakh as a prisoner. “Perhaps those years generated interest in him toward Armenians and the Armenian language. Incidentally, my Ukrainian colleagues used to say that Dashkevich has Armenian origin. I remember when I was seeing him at the Matenadaran, he really had Armenia facial features. Once I saw him next to Paruyr Muradyan, both were tall and aquiline nose as if there were two brothers. Dashkevich has written about the Armenian-Ukrainian and Armenia-Polish bilateral relations, about the Armenian church in Lviv, Armenian cross-stones in Ukraine, about the protocols, he has participated in our international arts conferences which were organized in 1978 and 1985 in Armenia. Dashkevich visits Armenia almost every year to work in Matenadaran on his Armenian scientific works.”
Levon Chookaszian mentioned that the Armenian delegation attended the two-day conference in Lviv as appropriate. He says, “It was almost a congress rather than a conference because 10 branches were working in which many speeches were included. The Armenian branch was also attended by Karina Pivavarskaya, Alexander Bozhko, Irina Gayuk, translators and journalists from the Armenian community, Nikolay Kocharian, one of the leaders of the Armenian community in Lviv who had put a lot of effort to organize this conference. We revealed that in the face of Dashkevich, we were dealing with an encyclopedic knowledge possessing Armenologist who has written works in many languages, uses numerous sources and has a significant contribution in the Armenian studies.”
As for the Turkish delegation, first of all, their representative was delivering the speech with an unhappy face which even the translator was unable to translate and then has left the room demonstratively along with other members. “They did not take part even in the final wrap-up session which incidentally had transformed into a summary of Armenian-Ukrainian relations,” – said Mr. Chookaszian.
Gohar HAKOBYAN
