«Ամենուր անհրաժեշտ է գիտակցվածություն» - հարցազրույց Ռայմոն Քեվորքյանի հետ

Diana Stepanyan's article is devoted to an interview with the French historian of Armenian origin, Doctor of Historical Sciences Raymond Haroutioun Kévorkian — a specialist in contemporary history, lecturer at the French Institute of Geopolitics at the University of Paris VIII, curator of the Nubar Library collections, and editor of the journal "Contemporary Armenian History."

Context and circumstances of the conversation
The material is based on two meetings with the researcher — at the Nubar Library in Paris and at an international conference in Antelias devoted to the culture of Cilician Armenia.

The Nubar Library as a scholarly and memorial institution
A significant part of the interview reveals the history and functions of the library, founded in 1928 by Boghos Nubar (the financial component) and Aram Andonian (the intellectual component, first director). Kévorkian notes:

the uniqueness of the collections — about 40,000 books, 1,500 periodicals, 10,000 photographs, archival materials on the Armenian Question and the Genocide;
the library's status as the only professional Armenian research center in France;
four categories of users: students, scholars, "enlightened amateurs," and journalists;
the library's role as a platform for interdisciplinary scholarly exchange (Armenology, Turkology, Iranology).

Research path and the book "The Armenian Genocide"
Kévorkian speaks about his transition from 17 years of work at the National Library of France to activity at the Nubar Library, which opened access to the archives and determined 20 years of work on the fundamental study "Le Génocide des Arméniens" (2006).

Exhibition activities
A separate section is devoted to the organization of major exhibitions — "Armenia Between West and East" (1996), "Ani, Capital of Armenia in the Year 1000" (2001), and the exhibition on Armenian refugees of the Middle East, 1917–1939 (Beirut, then Paris, 2007) — as a way of presenting to a broad public an image of Armenia not only as a victim of the Genocide, but also as an ancient civilization.

Family history and professional formation
Kévorkian describes the tragic fate of his family, which survived the Genocide, his education at the Mekhitarist College in Paris, his dissertation defense at the Sorbonne, and his subsequent transition to a university geopolitical specialization on Turkey and the post-Ottoman space.

The key conclusion of the interview is the necessity of consciously transmitting scholarly and cultural knowledge to new generations of researchers, since without preparing successors, the achievements of the older generation of Armenologists risk remaining unclaimed.