Director Artak Avetyan

The Pope calls on King Hetum II of Cilicia to adopt the Catholic faith and unite the two churches. As a result, the Armenian King of Cilicia had to receive the approval of the Pope, and the Armenian Apostolic Church had to make painful concessions. This agenda is opposed by the Catholicos of Constantinople, Constantine II. King Hetum II accuses the Catholicos of worldly living. High-ranking clergy appear, who express their readiness to oppose the Catholicos. A council is convened in the capital, Sis, where they decide to remove the Catholicos from the throne and imprison him. 3 years later, the Mamluks of Egypt capture the Catholicosate of Rome and, with the support of the King, capture the new Catholicos, who has ascended to the throne, and take him to Egypt, where he dies.

The issue of unifying the Armenian Apostolic Church with the Byzantine Catholic Church was particularly acute in the region of Cilician Armenia. Nerses Shnorhali sent a letter to the Vardapets located in the territory of Armenia itself, because their opinion should be taken into account in making a decision. Nerses Shnorhali was in favor of dialogue between the two churches, but he was never in favor of the unification of the churches. Later, the Catholicos and the kings of Cilicia deliberately sent such letters to the Vardapets in order to show their justifications in the West as a reason for rejecting the unification of the churches.

The Armenian Apostolic Church considered martyrdom for the homeland a sacred act as early as the 4th century. In other words, Christianity affirms that the homeland is a sacred living space. Vrtanes, the son of Gregory the Illuminator, was the first to establish a rule by which martyrdom for the homeland was equated with martyrdom for the faith.

Writer Hovhannes Yeranyan tells about the activities of sculptor and painter Ara Sargsyan. At a young age, he was involved in the NEMESIS operation and discovered the former Turkish prime minister in Italy, after whom the program participants killed him, Ara Sargsyan left for Vienna to study. In reality, it was a business trip to discover the leaders of the Young Turks in Germany.

Writer Hovhannes Yeranyan tells about the path of actress Hasmik Papyan. She was the first actress to be awarded the title of People's Artist. She was also the first female deputy of the Supreme Council. Yeghishe Charents dedicated a poem to her on the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of her activities.

Movses Khorenatsi initially acts as an ideologist of the restoration of the kingdom. He does a high-level job by the standards of a modern scholar, writing his work with a critical approach. Khorenatsi's History of the Armenians is not simply a history of a nation, but a history centered on the kingdom. In other words, the goal of the book is the restoration of the Armenian kingdom.

During the Van Kingdom, we had a local writing system, which was ideographic in nature. In parallel, since the 4th century BC, the use of the Greek alphabet had taken root in Armenia. In other words, we had writing, but we never achieved the creation of a local alphabet. Mesrop Mashtots’ work is unique from a historical perspective: he created an alphabetic system.

After the adoption of Christianity, 36 bishoprics were formed in Armenia, 12 of which were representatives of the former clergy. That is, integration took place - reconciliation of the pre-Christian and Christian periods. In addition, various national customs received Christian meaning. Unlike the Europeans, who rejected the pre-Christian period, the Armenian people reinterpreted it.

The Armenian Apostolic Church has had a unique mission in history. It was an important stronghold during the period of Armenian statehood. After the loss of statehood, the church went through trials, taking on additional responsibilities that are not directly related to the mission of the church. In the Middle Ages, it was the Apostolic Church that took on the tasks of enlightenment and later modernization of the Armenian people: the invention of writing, printing, the press, girls' schools, etc.