Armenian Literature Takes its Place at Frankfurt Book Fair

Hovsepyan added the important, perhaps not widely known fact, that Armenia is the only country with a religious holiday commemorating translators, the Feast of Holy Translators, from Mesrob Mashtots on. Not all translations are successful: the Farsi version of Hovsepyan’s own novel was banned by an Iranian Ministry, he added.

Ignorance of Armenian culture is indeed widespread, as the discussants noted and translators have a difficult task. They must know the context of the work, for example, post-Soviet Armenia and Armenians, Western vs. Eastern Armenian, etc.

Bergman mentioned the close link of Armenians to their culture and offered that contemporary Armenian writers are not popular with Diaspora Armenians, who prefer classical authors. Here she spoke of the post-Soviet Diaspora. That said, Hovsepyan interjected that the Diaspora represents great potential, precisely because of its interest in world literature. The consensus was that translation has always been part of Armenian culture. Without it, the Armenians probably would not have survived as a culture.

Women in Literature and Publishing

Arevik Ashkharoyan, the founder and director of ARI, organized a second round table session on “Women Leading Cultural Change: Stronger Literary Markets Through European Integration.” Participants came from five countries in the Caucasus and Eastern Europe. All were publishers, each with a different background and focus.

Paola Erizanu, from Moldova, said she had been “born into literature” and loved to go to book fairs. Yulia Kozlovets, from Ukraine, had a sister who owned one of the first bookstores for children in Kiev and, as a child who loved to read, she wanted to follow her example.  Gvantsa Jobava, a member of the International Publishing Association from Georgia, said she was fortunate to have educated parents who supported her education. As a youth she wrote poetry that was published, even in Armenian translation. Her husband, a printer, had made posters for demonstrations when he was a member of the opposition and landed in prison. They both had a keen awareness that books and publishing could change the world.

Ashkharoyan noted that, although there are few women in publishing, they should prove themselves through their work, rather than fixate on the problem. Most of these women have had to deal with other problems, in particular censorship and state control. In Georgia, international financing in publishing is prohibited and anyone accepting funds would be legally charged with being an “agent.” Jobava said in fact for the past four years, the Georgia stand at the Frankfurt fair had been financed by independent publishers rather than the government.

In 2022, Kozlovets said, the Frankfurt Book Fair severed negotiations with Russia and other organizations followed suit. If special projects for publishing in Germany have been organized through the Foreign Ministry since then, they were due to years of networking beforehand.

For Ashkharoyan, “Ukraine is teaching us all a lesson.” In Armenia, she said, the 2018 revolution was followed by war. And Armenia still hosts Russian military bases. Yet, she said, this year world leaders came to Armenia for an EU summit and one of them, the Ukrainian president, said Armenia was a democratic country. In her words, during the Soviet era, “for 70 years we were neighbors, but never friends. Now through association, Russian, Armenian and Ukrainian writers are coming together.”

The same principle was at work in Moldova, Erizanu pointed out: after the Romanian-Moldovan border was closed, the two started building literary relations; with the same language, the same literature, they strengthened regional cooperation. In the 1990s, there was a literary boom, she said; books that had been prohibited in the Soviet era, appeared. People who had forgotten about neighbors, because regional relations were mediated through the USSR, began to understand the history oof their region.

Intercultural Exchange at Work

If the message transmitted by these gatherings was that intercultural exchange is the key to progress and understanding, it was manifest in a special way at the Armenian stand itself. Financial and personal support for the stand came from NOAH, an association founded by Ernst-Ludwig Drayss of Heppenheim, to promote cultural exchange between Armenia and Germany. NOAH contributed not only funds but also personnel and knowledge. Members of the association volunteered to help out at the stand, greet guests, introduce them to the exhibitors and tell them about Armenia’s cultural heritage and current offerings.

Among the volumes displayed at the stand was the richly illustrated book, Twenty Years of NOAH, issued by the association.