«Բանականությամբ և սրտով» - Հարցազրույց Վերժինե Սվազլյանի հետ

The article, dedicated to an interview with Doctor of Philology, Professor, and Leading Researcher at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia, Verjiné Svazlian, presents an extensive biographical narrative that reveals the origins of the formation of her scholarly worldview and her dedication to the subject of Western Armenian oral folklore.

Introduction and Methodology

The material is structured as a conversation in which Verjiné Svazlian traces the history of her family, beginning with the activities of her uncle — the public and political figure, diplomat, and publicist Mihran Svazlian, who stood at the origins of Armenian lobbying in Great Britain and the United States. Particular attention is devoted to his role in informing European and American society about the Armenian Question, to the publication of the newspaper «hАйастан» [Hayastan] and the journal «The Armenian Herald», as well as to his participation in the Paris Peace Conference.

Key Point: Family Experience as a Source of Research Interest

The central place in the interview is occupied by the figure of her father, Garnik Svazlian, who survived the Smyrna catastrophe of 1922 and devoted his life to the idea of the repatriation of Diaspora Armenians. His public activity in Alexandria (Egypt) is noted, including:

• the founding of the patriotic union "Sevan";
• participation in the work of the Committee for the Aid of Armenia;
• the creation of the play "Repatriation," the proceeds from which went toward the needs of the Leninakan factory;
• the personal delivery of the funds collected to the Soviet ambassador for the construction of housing for repatriates.

Repatriation and the Formation of Scholarly Interests

The narrative reveals the difficulties of the family's adaptation in Armenia after 1947, the early death of her father, and the subsequent formation of Verjiné Svazlian herself as a journalist and educator. Her collaboration with the journal «Советская Армения» [Soviet Armenia] and her articles on the fates of repatriates are marked as a stage preceding her transition to the systematic scholarly study of the oral memory of Western Armenians.

The Beginning of Fieldwork in Folkloristics

Special significance is given to the episode of 1956, when the researcher made the decision to seek out eyewitnesses of the Genocide among the repatriates of the Malatia district of Yerevan, in particular the bearers of the Musa Dagh dialect, which became the starting point of her many years of collecting activity.

Conclusion

The key conclusion of the interview is that Verjiné Svazlian's scholarly and collecting activity in recording the collective historical memory of Western Armenians represents a direct continuation of the family tradition of patriotic service and a conscious response to the spiritual legacy received from her father and uncle — the preservation of national memory as an act of personal and public duty.