Ahead of the 100^th anniversary of the May Heroic Battles and the declaration of the First Republic of Armenia (rebirth of Armenian statehood), Head of the Department of Modern and Contemporary History of the History Museum of Armenia Seda Galstyan and Lebanese-Armenian repatriate photojournalist Gabriel Panosian have released an album-documentary book entitled “The 100 Pages of the Rebirth of Armenian Statehood”.

Gabriel Panosian came up with idea of this album/documentary book after the events dedicated to the 100^th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide in 2015 when Editor-in-Chief of Lebanon’s Aztag Armenian Daily Shahan Kandaharian said that the next milestone has to be preparation for the 100^th anniversary of the Republic of Armenia and the May Heroic battles. These words served as a basis for the implementation of a project that would help make a modest contribution to implementation of the pan-Armenian events.

“I considered it an opportune moment to undertake an initiative ahead of the celebrations in May. First, I thought of organizing a documentary photo exhibition and started working extensively in that direction. With the request to find original samples, I addressed people and museums, but I realized that those photos would also need explanations. So, I addressed historian and Head of the Department of Modern and Contemporary History of the History Museum of Armenia Seda Galstyan and made an offer to collaborate,” the photojournalist said in an interview with Hayern Aysor.

Compiling the photos and materials over time, Panosian and Galstyan noticed that it was taking them days to complete the project, and this is why they decided to publish an album and present not only the photos, but also the memorable events that took place during the establishment of the First Republic of Armenia and the activities of state figures. After eight months of meticulous efforts, the book is now available for readers.

The book is published in Eastern Armenian and Western Armenian and its publication was sponsored by the ARF-D Soghomon Tehleryan Committee, as well as Jirayr and Srbook Sargsyan from San Francisco. The album was converted into Western Armenian by Narine Dumanyan, editor of YERAKOUYN, the first Western Armenian-language news website.

To gather valuable materials, Gabriel Panosian and the book’s editor Seda Galstyan used materials from the museum of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaktsutyun, the Battle of Sardarapat Memorial Complex, the National Museum of Armenian Ethnography and the Liberation Struggle and the History Museum of Armenia. The grandchildren of Hamo Ohanjanyan and Drastamat (Dro) Kanayan transferred exclusive archival photos. As a matter of fact, copies of the book were sent to various communities of the Armenian Diaspora.

On May 16, the Cultural Center of Yerevan State University hosted the presentation of the album held in a warm atmosphere. The attending historians and intellectuals praised the release of this book and stressed that it can be fully considered a historiological journal in terms of its rich and comprehensive content.