On April 20, Istanbul-Armenian artist Julia Mutlu showcased 100 Armenian national costumes at a concert-exhibition called “100 Years-100 Armenian National Costumes”, which was held  under the high patronage of RA First Lady Rita Sargsyan at the National Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet after Alexander Spendiaryan as part of the events dedicated to the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide. The event was sponsored by the RA Ministry of Diaspora with the support of the Diocese of the Armenian Catholic Church in Armenia, Georgia, Russia and Eastern Europe and Verde LLC.

Among those attending the concert-exhibition were RA First Lady Rita Sargsyan, RA Minister of Diaspora Hranush Hakobyan, RA Minister of Culture Hasmik Poghosyan, as well as field experts, intellectuals and guests.

In her opening remarks, supporter of the event, deputy editor-in-chief of Marmara Daily Makruhi Hagopian expressed gratitude to the RA Ministry of Diaspora, particularly Minister Hranush Hakobyan for carrying out this major event.

“This exhibition of historic costumes is not just a presentation of national costumes, but a sentimental “pilgrimage” to the homeland of our ancestors,” Hagopian mentioned.

The exhibition showcased the national costumes of different classes and genders of Armenians between the years of 1590 and 2015, starting from farmers and ending with merchants of the Ottoman era, as well as ornaments, hats, moccasins and pants.

The exhibition began with a presentation of the costume of a girl from Alashkert village, followed by the presentation of the clothes that a bride of Amasia would wear, the costume of a man from Kutina city, as well as the costumes of a boy and girl from Moks province, a family of the mountainous Shatakh town of Vaspurakan, a soldier of Zeytun and Armenian women of different provinces, Armenian merchants, festive clothes of a wealthy woman from Yerevan, the clothes of a girl from Shushi, a troubadour from the villages of Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian kinto from Tbilisi, a woman from Van, a man from Sasun, the daily clothes of Armenian nuns, the clothing of Catholicoses and Deacons and other costumes. The 19^thcentury wedding gown of the mother of poet and Armenian Genocide victim Siamanto and other costumes were noteworthy.

The exhibition of costumes provided the audience with an opportunity to get a picture of not only the morals of Armenians of the cities and provinces in the past, the taste of women who created the costumes and their creativity, but also the morals and customs.

Presenting the program, Julia Mutlu mentioned: “With the help of youth, I wanted to present the traditional costumes of our ancestors in different environments. I had prepared nearly 70 costumes in 2011, and in 2015, I already had 100. Armenian songs, dances and costumes have undergone changes since 1590. Janin Papazian, Aram Kostanyan and several gifted young people made their contributions to present this collection, and I thank them for that.”

In the second part of the event, Armenian artists from Istanbul performed musical numbers that they had choreographed.

The dance ensemble of boys and girls from Istanbul performed to the sounds of the music of “Musa Ler” by Ara Gevorgyan and the folk song “Lusnyak Gisher”. The dances were choreographed by Julia Mutlu.

The members of that dance ensemble also presented the dance number choreographed by Aram Kostanyan based on Vahan Tekeyan’s poem “The Armenian Church”.

Sahak Partev Karian performed the songs “Erebuni-Yerevan” and “Kilikia”.

The event ended with a welcome speech by RA Minister of Diaspora Hranush Hakobyan, who particularly mentioned: “It is my great pleasure to express my greetings to you all today, here at one of the most splendid concert halls in the Mother Homeland where you truly put on a great show. It was touching and charming in terms of its content and historical significance. At the same time, we all experienced sadness since each of us traveled back to the historic homeland and saw the real colors, reshaping the style and images of all the provinces. A tremendous amount of work has been done. I thank those who made their contributions to help us enjoy this unique cultural event. I take pride in the fact that this event was a success and that it helped show the high culture and civilization of the Armenian nation. I believe this exhibition is a special event in the series of events dedicated to the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide.”

Praising the contributions of Istanbul-Armenian artists, Minister Hranush Hakobyan granted Julia Mutlu the Gold Medal of the Ministry of Diaspora, the Arshile Gorky Medal to Janin Papazian, a certificate of the Ministry of Diaspora to Sahak Partev Karian and a letter of gratitude to Aram Kostanyan.