No. 80: Monuments of Memory

Author(s): Gayane Shagoyan, Jürgen Gispert, Jana Javakhishvili
Editor(s): Oliver Reisner (Special Editor), Tamara Brunner, Lili Di Puppo, Iris Kempe, Natia Mestvirishvili, Matthias Neumann, Robert Orttung, Jeronim Perović, Heiko Pleines
Series: Caucasus Analytical Digest (CAD)
Issue: 80
Publisher(s): Center for Security Studies (CSS), ETH Zurich; Research Centre for East European Studies, University of Bremen; Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies, George Washington University
Publication Year: 2016

This issue discusses “Monuments of Memory” in the South Caucasus. Gayane Shagoyan, analyzes the public discourse on the Soviet history of Armenia provoked by the initiative to raise a monument to the Soviet political figure Anastas Mikoyan in a central park of Yerevan in 2014. This case exposes the complex interrelations between family memories about the Soviet functionary and different versions of the official historiography and non-official oral histories of former Soviet citizens and their post-Soviet descendants. Based on the findings of the French sociologist of memory, Maurice Halbwachs, Jürgen Gispert tries to show how the Armenian traditional khachkar, or cross stone, is applied in the context of the monument of Mother Armenia in commemoration of World War II. Jana Javakhishvili posits that the urban environment and especially monuments say a lot about a society, particularly its political and cultural values and systems. Her article reflects on how the urban environment in Georgia reflects contemporary socio-political developments taking place in the country.

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