YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 7, ARMENPRESS. The Matenadaran scientific-research institute of ancient manuscripts after Mesrop Mashtots is scheduled to hold a number of events dedicated to the publishing of the first Armenian version of the Bible.

ARMENPRESS had an interview with Vahan Ter-Ghevondyan, acting director of Matenadaran.

- Mr. Ter-Ghevondyan, what was the year of 2016 like for Matenadaran in terms of implementation of programs?

- 2016 was a difficult year, in terms of the passing of director Hrachya Tamrazyan, who was an insightful scientist, talented poet, good organizer and a caring director. His loss was of course a serious blow. Each of the staff members asked themselves, how to pay tribute to his memory. Seemingly, something like a common decision happened, that we must pay homage to the memory of Tamrazyan through our work.

Of course initially our concern was that the working environment doesn’t get impeded anyhow, from this perspective I have to say there was not a single day when our employees were negatively impacted. In terms of program implementation and their results, 2016 was a pretty good year, in some matters we are even ahead compared to 2015. We published 23 monographs, 92 scientific articles, which surpasses the last year’s indicator by 40, our employees had 90 scientific reports in various scientific conferences. We held 4 scientific conferences in 2016, 3 of which international. By the way, one of these, which I highlight very much, was a scientific conference on the historical Taik, which had both scientific and political significance. I also highlight a conference on 2nd readings of Narekatsi, important experts had arrived: cardinal Gujerotti, Archbishop Levon Zekiyan, expert on Armenian studies Jean Pierre Mahe and others.

This year we will hold several scientific conferences as well. By the way, we finally received the UNESCO confirmation on winning a grant, under which we will hold events dedicated to the 350th anniversary of the Bible’s publishing. As we know, the first Armenian version of the Bible was published in 1666-1667 in Amsterdam. Let’s not forget that this was a significant event, because since 1512 Armenians had printed books, but the Bible wasn’t published. The event will also include an exhibition, scientific conference and the publishing of a collection.

 - In addition to the scientific activities, a rather active digitization process is underway, at what stage is it now and what has been done so far?

- Yes, that’s correct, the digitization process is underway for already a few years. In this period, already 6 thousand manuscripts have been digitized, but there is still huge work to do, because more than 20 thousand manuscripts are kept in Matenadaran. We digitize an average of 600-700 manuscripts each year. We have initiated a new process. As you know, there are cases when manuscripts and Bibles are kept in villages. Some villagers have a superstition that if the manuscript is taken out of the village, then something bad will happen. Since there are isufficient preservation conditions in villages, therefore the manuscripts deteriorate. The owners of the manuscripts do not agree to grant a renovation. This was a big problem for a long time. A foundation provided a grant and a group of renovation experts departed for Javakhk and renovated the manuscripts there. We plan to continue this work.

I’d like to mention an achievement of last year, which is directly related to this year. I am speaking about the formalization of our branch in Gandzasar. In the end of 2015, one of the buildings located next to the Gandzasar monastic complex was completely reconstructed and turned into a Matenadaran. By the decision of the Government, it became a branch of the Yerevan Matenadaran in 2016. It will operate fully in Spring, it will become one of the important scientific centers of Nagorno Karabakh. Months ago the exhibition department began operating, 11 thousand people have already visited it”.

From which countries do people visit and study the Matenadaran more, what are they specifically interested in?

We really do have a big number of visitors from abroad. We have readers from Iran, France, USA, Syria, Lebanon, these ties must be expanded even more. Among the readers there are experts on Armenian studies, who study the Armenian manuscripts. Some researchers make separate comparisons of the Armenian language and culture with other languages and cultures. Many are interested in the Armenian translation of the Bible. It is considered to be one of the best translations. In addition to Armenian manuscripts, we have more than 4 thousand manuscripts in other languages, therefore there are foreign experts who are interested in valuable manuscripts in Greek, Persian, Arabic.