“Houshamadyan is non-profit association founded in Berlin, Germany, in 2010. It has a basic mission: to reconstruct and preserve the memory of Armenian life in the Ottoman Empire through research. The Houshamadyan Association has determined that this website, www.houshamadyan.org, will be the most suitable means to showcase the results of the Association’s work. For this reason, Houshamadyan Association’s primary aim is to maintain, finance, develop, expand, finalize, and enrich this website. At present, Houshamadyan is primarily financed by individual gifts and donations. We hope that many of our visitors will be encouraged to make a small donation to show their appreciation for our work.”
“Our research encompasses all aspects of the history of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, including social history, the history of daily life, local microhistories, dialects, music, literature, tangible culture, and more. We are especially interested in collecting and preserving culturally valuable artifacts of all kinds produced by Ottoman Armenians, including musical recordings of historical value, old photographs, old film footage, and more. Equally important to our work are documents pertaining to Ottoman Armenian history, such as printed books, periodicals, and archival materials; as well as papers in individual collections, such as correspondence, unpublished notes, official documents, autobiographical details, etc. The contents of such collections can be scanned at high resolution and submitted to our editorial team for review. Moreover, we are highly interested in chronicling and documenting oral history by recording interviews and testimonies.”
“Once this website takes its final form, the Houshamadyan Association will organize scholarly conferences, lectures and exhibitions focusing on the above-mentioned themes pertaining to the Armenians of the Ottoman Empire. Our future work will also include the publication of specialist works on relevant themes. Materials already published on our website will be selected, re-edited, and enriched for publication.”
“This website will be pivotal to Houshamadyan’s mission. We are convinced that the internet is the most practical, influential, and direct means of carrying out the wide scope of work required to reconstruct Ottoman Armenian memory. Moreover, it is our aim to create a collaborative site where each individual visitor can have the ability to make comments or submit memory objects that are in his or her possession – photographs, books, memoirs, etc. Thus, the website can grow and thrive collaboratively. Visitors will be able to electronically submit materials to our editorial team.”
Sassoun – Cuisine
Author Sonia Tashjian featured this traditional recipe at Houshamadyan on May 16, 2018. It was translated by Vahe Habeshian: “Sassoun is a district of the state of Aghtznik [of historical Great Armenia]. The plain to its south is the broad basin of Diarbekir, which the locals refer to as the Lower Plain, and to the north is the Plain of Moush, termed the Upper Plain. Along with the rest of Daron province, Sassoun has an abundance of water: It has large and small lakes, and because of copious amounts of rain and snow many rivulets form in the mountains, and myriad streams and rivers flow down their high peaks. Some of those flow through the territory of Sassoun, including Meghraked [Honey river], Dalvorig river, Sousanna river, Khodzodzvanki chour [Water of Khodzodz Monastery], Zandous stream, Khlhovid stream, Khoutachour [Water of Khout], etc.”
