Publication details
Ve stínu genocidy a na křižovatce mezi kulturami: Mren
| Title in English | In the Shadow of Genocide and at the Crossroads of Cultures: Mren |
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| Year of publication | 2023 |
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| Description | Today, the temple of Mren is located on the very border between Turkey and Armenia. Getting to it is a challenge, and its current state of preservation is deplorable; what is more, it has apparently been the target of attacks by heavy military equipment in recent decades. As with many other monuments in the region (such as the Horomos or Khtzkonk monasteries), it seems that their attachment to the Armenian cultural tradition was the reason why someone tried to literally wipe them off the map during the 20th century. All indications are that it was the Turkish army that tested its techniques on these "Armenian" monuments. However, if we look back to the 7th century, to the time when the cathedral of Mren was built, the situation in the region was very different: on the border between the Arabs and the Eastern Romans, there was a culture with its own identity, yet clearly straddling the East-West divide, a culture that was inherently cosmopolitan. The Temple of Mren thus painfully shows us how tragically inaccurate the nationalist categories of the last two centuries are, especially when projected into the distant past. |
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