MUNICH, Germany (A.W.)—In the first week of February, Ludwig-Maximilians University’s (LMU) Institute for Near and Middle Eastern Studies will be hosting five events—three lectures, a film screening, and a workshop—that deal with Armenia’s politics and Armenian literature.

The first, which took place on Feb. 1, was a lecture by Talin Suciyan titled “Armenia and Turkey: A Change of Paradigm?” Suciyan is an Istanbul Armenian journalist who lived in Armenia from 2007-09. She is currently based in Munich, where she is pursuing her graduate studies. She contributes regularly to Agos and other Turkish newspapers. She was also a contributor in the Armenian Weekly’s January special issue.

The following day, on Feb. 2, in cooperation with the Institute of Byzantine Studies, Byzantine Art History, and Modern Greek Studies, Kevork Bardakjian gave a talk on “A Bifurcated Tradition: Modern Eastern and Western Armenian Literatures of the Nineteenth Century.” Bardakjian earned his BA and MA in Armenian philology from the State University of Yerevan, and his D.Phil. in Armenian studies from Oxford University. He has taught at Harvard University (1974-87), and became the first to hold the Marie Manoogian Chair of Armenian Language and Literature at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is the founder of the University of Michigan’s Summer Armenian Institute, and has served on the boards of a number of Armenian studies journals.

On Feb. 4, Wolfgang Schmitt-Garibian lectured on “Armenian Manuscripts and Printed Books of the Bavarian State Library.” Schmitt-Garibian works at Bavarian State Library. He has studied krapar (Classical Armenian) and continues to learn modern Armenian at LMU. Bavarian State Library has a collection of valuable Armenian manuscripts and rare books (both in Eastern and Western Armenian), magazines, newspapers, periodicals, and Armeno-Turkish texts.

On Feb. 5, Directors Lara Aharonian and Talin Suciyan screened their film, “Finding Zabel Yesayan.” The film explores the life and works of Zabel Yesayan, the writer, activist, and feminist. Aharonian was born in Lebanon and raised in Montreal, where she completed her graduate studies in comparative literature and women’s studies. For the past seven years, she has been living in Armenia, and is the founder of the Women’s Resource Center of Armenia, “a feminist organization working with and for women.”

Finally, on Feb. 6, Prof. Kevork Bardakjian held a workshop titled “Reading Turkish Texts in Armenian Script,” during which participants explored Armeno-Turkish texts, mainly fermans and berats, concerning the Patriarchate of Istanbul.