Erasing History: Cultural Destruction in the Caucasus

Robert Bevan is an author and journalist. He is the author of Monumental Lies: Culture Wars and the Truth about the Past (Verso), a book of the year for the Financial Times and the Art Newspaper. His previous book, The Destruction of Memory: Architecture at War was described as “ground-breaking” by the New York Review of Books. He was a member of the Mayor of London’s Commission on Diversity in the Public Realm, and ICORP, the expert committee of ICOMOS on risk preparedness. He is a heritage consultant described as “one of the most compelling progressive voices in the heritage world” (Tribune).

A Research Associate with the Cultural Property Protection & Peace Team at Newcastle University and a member of the Blue Shield, an NGO focused on heritage protection during armed conflict. Her research, which stems from her background in Middle Eastern archaeology (Syria and Iraq), explores how cultural heritage is damaged in both conflict and peace worldwide, and the development of protection methods. Dr. Cunliffe specializes in geospatial data, heritage inventories, and satellite imagery analysis of conflict damage. She has also worked as a consultant for UNITAR/UNOSAT, analyzing cultural heritage damage during the Syrian conflict.

Teaches courses on Ottoman and Modern Turkish language, literature, and culture. Since 2005, he has also taught at the Intensive Ottoman and Turkish Summer School in Cunda, Turkey. His research focuses on Ottoman literature and Turkish culture, particularly frontier epic traditions and interactions with Byzantium and Greece. He is also interested in the aljamiado literature of Greek-speaking Muslims in the Ottoman Empire. His recent publications include a chapter on Bursa in Europe: A Literary History (CUP 2015) and works on Ottoman poetry and Greek aljamiado translations.

Igor Dorfmann-Lazarev, PhD (2002) and Habilitation (2009) at ÉPHÉ–Sorbonne, teaches Oriental languages in the Sofia University St Kliment Ohridski. He is interested in the interaction of religions across pre-modern Eurasia and the genesis of modern national identities in the South Caucasus. The focus of his publications is on the Armenians’ relationships with their neighbours from the Middle Ages to the modern era. In a series of articles, he has investigated the shaping of the idea of kingship in mediaeval Armenia, as expressed in texts and visual arts. He has authored Christ in Armenian Tradition: Doctrine, Apocrypha, Art (Sixth–Tenth Centuries)(Leuven: Peeters, 2016) and has edited Apocryphal and Esoteric Sources in the Development of Christianity and Judaism. The Eastern Mediterranean, the Near East, and Beyond (Leiden: Brill, 2021) and Sharing Myths, Texts and Sanctuaries in the South Caucasus: Apocryphal Themes in Literatures, Arts and Cults from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages(Leuven: Peeters, 2022).

An engineer specializing in Information Technology and Project Management from Paris, France. Alongside his engineering career, he has spent over 30 years conducting scientific expeditions in Armenia, Turkey, and Iran, focusing on Armenian cross-stones known as khachkars. He has co-authored two significant publications on the subject, including L'art des khatchkars and Localités et biens cultuels arméniens dans la Turquie ottoman. He continues his fieldwork in Armenia, working on a new publication on the khachkars of the Kotayk region. He is the co-editor of Monuments and Identities in the Caucasus book.

A Senior Lecturer in History at Newcastle University, specializing in early medieval Armenian history. She has a strong interest in comparative and world history and has published extensively on these topics. Her works include journal articles and book chapters, notably in the Historic Armenian Cities and Provinces series. She has authored four books, including The Armenians (1998), Religion, Politics and Society in Britain, 800-1066 (2014), Royal Building Programs in Tenth and Eleventh Century Armenia (2022), and Virtues of the Good King in Tenth- and Eleventh-Century Armenia (2024).

A Dutch scholar of Armenian studies. He has been the Calouste Gulbenkian Professor of Armenian Studies at the University of Oxford and a professorial fellow of Pembroke College since 2002. In the past, he has also served as secretary of the International Association for Armenian Studies.