YEREVAN (Noyan Tapan)–An exhibition of photographer Levon Tashjian’s work opened on September 20 at the Yerevan Museum of Literature and Art. The exhibition showed photographs of Western Armenia in what is now eastern Turkey.
Tashjian traveled through Western Armenia for a month and took numerous pictures of his forefathers’ homeland. In an Armenian church in one of the villages of Mush–Tashjian took a picture of an ornamented font used by the local Turkish population as a drinking bowl for cattle. When Turkish policemen’saw him taking pictures–they immediately seized Tashjian’s camera and destroyed the film that also contained shots of Mount Nemrut and the town of Sasun. They also forbade him to take photos of Ararat. But Levon managed to photograph himself in clothes resembling the Armenian flag near a church in Ani and in Musa Ler–his forefathers’ homeland–with his arms crossed.
Before the exhibition in Armenia–Tashjian’s photos taken in Musa Ler–Ani–Sis–and near Lake Van were displayed in Cyprus–Syria and Lebanon and will be displayed in Aleppo and Geneva.
Attending the opening ceremony were Director of the Museum of Literature and Art Henrik Bakhchinian–Director of the National Picture Gallery Shahen Khachatrian–Chairman of the Council of Armenia’s compatriotic organizations Joseph Avetissian–Chairman of the "Musa Ler" compatriotic union Kamo Ter-Petrossian–film director–historian–Vice-Chairman of the Austrian "Franz Werfel" society Artyem Oghanjanian–and Archimandrite Sahak Keshishian–who translated Narekatsi’s "Book of mournful songs" into French. The exhibition will last ten days. The same day an exhibition dedicated to Franz Werfel’s life and activities opened in one of the halls of the museum. Documents–photos and different translations of the book "40 Days of Musa Dagh" are displayed at the exhibition.