Cosmic Multicultural Bucharest in the Pandemic (17):
About Armenian Astronomy
By Andrei Dorian Gheorghe (astro-photo-poem-essay) and Florin Alexandru Stancu (design)
Armenia became the first Christian state (301 AC) and its national church became non-Chalcedonian and independent, separating from the Patriarchate of Constantinople in the 6th century, but its ingrate geographical position (in the way of migrations and imperial expansions) forced many Armenians to spread all over the world (for instance, I saw an Armenian church even in Singapore!).
Despite these conditions, the Armenian people gave birth to great astronomers: Anania Shirakatsi (the first great Armenian astronomer in the 7th century), Viktor Amazaspovich Ambartsumian (the founder of the Byurakan Observatory in the Soviet Union), Mari Sukiasyan Paris Pişmiş de Recilas (“the first professional astronomer in Mexico”), Ālenush Teriān (“Mother of Modern Iranian Astronomy”), Grigor Gurzadyan (“a pioneer in space astronomy” in the Soviet Union), Agop Terzan (an exceptional discoverer of variable stars, star clusters, galaxies and nebulae in Turkey and France) etc.
Even the first great Romanian astronomer, Spiru Haret, had Armenian origins.
In the 1910s important Romanian architects made the building of the Armenian Church in Bucharest (which replaced the old buildings of the this community from the 16th-18th centuries) using the model of the national mother church of Armenia (Etchmiadzin Cathedral) .
On October 17, 2010 I noticed here a sculpture with Saint Gregory the Illuminator (the founder of the Armenian Apostolic Church) irradiating sun rays.
But in history…
although Armenians have always been
a positive humanistic guard,
for the brave Armenian people
the real Sun has always shone so hard!
#poetry