Լիբանանի հայոց անձնական իրաւանց կարգավիճակը՝ պետութիւն-եկեղեցի յարաբերութեանց դիտանկիւնէն
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2008
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The author delves into history and puts the personal rights code of the Lebanese Armenians in the framework of the state-versus-communities relationship. He assesses the advantages of such a system for the communities as well as its disadvantages to the sovereignty of the state, since it is incompatible with the priniciple of state sovereignty.
The author sees these rights as the practical outcome of the very first Moslem Arab conquests, whereby the Moslem Arab conqueror and the non-Moslem vanquished had to live within the boundaries of the same country. Such a cohabitation, however, necessitated the establishment of a modus vivendi.
This cohabitation was bound by Islam, which rejected forceful islamization of Christians and Jews. It was a political necessity, too, since in order to win over the population, Islam tolerated Oriental Christian Churches which were persecuted by the Byzantine Empire. Furthermore, the conquerors needed the natives' know-how, handlabor, economic produce and taxes.
The author identifies several treaties signed between the invading Moslem armies and Christian Armenian cities and towns as he examines the relationship between the Moslem rulers and the non-Molem natives. He notes, however, that it was with the establishment of the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinple (Istanbul) in 1461 that the Armenian Church and its state relations attained their legal and stable shape. Indeed, Fatih Sultan Mehmet II appointed Archbishop Hovagim Patriarch of all Armenians of the Empire and granted recognition to the Armenians, incorporating them - like the Greeks and the Jews millet system. Later on, in 1831, the Armenian Catholics were incorporated too, as were the Protestants (of divesre ethnicities) in 1846.
Concurrently, in 1836, religious-administrative entitlements, called Bolojenya, were granted to the Catholicosate of Echmiadzin, which was under Russian rule.
After the Armenian genocide, specifically on March 20, 1926 under the Turkish state civil code, the millet system was abolished.
The genocide survivors who settled in the West were subjected to the civil code of their adopted countries, since the church was separated from the state in those countries. However, those who settled in Arab countries had their communal rights code restored based on the ottoman millet system.
Accordingly, the Ottoman personal codes of the Orthodox Armenians (as well as the Catholic Armenians and Protestants) were used in Lebanon as a base for a similar new code.
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Տէրտէրեան, Գ., «Լիբանանի հայոց անձնական իրաւանց կարգավիճակը՝ պետութիւն-եկեղեցի յարաբերութեանց դիտանկիւնէն», «Հայկազեան հայագիտական հանդէս», 2008, Պէյրութ, էջ 263-278