Ararat Beckons

[Arpa]

Ararat Beckons.

The above title may well be copywritten by the Parseghian and co.

 

http://www.mountararat.net/pages/265857/

 

Those who have not seen the videotape are strongly urged to do so as it may well be the best documentation yet. At the site above remember to click on the photos button and observe the khachkars and the ruins of the village of Aghuri from which the modern Turkish name of the mountain, Aghri derives. When viewing the actual video observe the lights of Yerevan as seen from the summit.

Yerevan is the nearest metropolis, one can practically walk over. Yerevan is also best equipped to handle the flood of tourists and curiosity seekers that this summer's expedition will create.

It seems like that idiot McGivern is intent on carrying his quest of the Ark, now that the network TVs have picked up the story, lots of luck to him, however we can join forces and participate in the adventure by educating him and his ilk about the history and significance of the Sacred Mountain to the Armenian people. Masis Ler is not sacred solely based on the Noah legend but it has been sacred to the Armenian people since time immemorial just as Mount Olympus is to the Greeks it is the residence of all our gods.

Now that the mountain is not so tightly restricted as during the cold war days Turkey will reap mountains of benefit from this flood of interest in the matter. Are our touristic companies and societies adequately equipped to benefit from the imminent economic bonanza created by those who may be starved of intellect and with fat wallets.

[Arpa]

My apologies for the length of the following. It is worth a read. Maybe now we will be convinced that the furkish name of our SACRED MOUNTAIN comes from AGORI.

To see the original article with pictures here, PP 8 and 9;

 

mirrorspectator

To not forget why Abovian became such an HERETIC and eventually murdered.

 

Ararat Redux

Abovian, Prof. Parrot and First Ascent

 

By Philip P. Ketchian

 

The history of Mount Ararat abounds with

accounts of explorers and adventurers taking

up the challenge of scaling its fabled summit.

Absent, however, are any signs of abatement in

the interest and the controversy surrounding

its first ascent that would dog Prof. Friedrich

Parrot and Khatchadur Abovian to the end of

their days, as evidenced by Edward Peck’s article,

“Ararat: Another Controversial First

Ascent,” published in the British Alpine

Journal (2002, Vol. 107, pp. 207-215). I would

like to take this opportunity to introduce some

additional information that may inject some

clarity into the subject from sources that exist

only in the Russian and the Armenian languages.

It will be seen that the long-forgotten

account of the Russian adventurer Spassky-

Avtonomov confirms Parrot’s successful pioneering

first ascent of the peak.

As is well known, it was only on their third

attempt on October 9 (September 27, by the

Old Style Julian calendar), 1829, that University

of Dorpat (presently Tartu, Estonia) physics professor,

Friedrich Parrot, and Khatchadur

Abovian, together with two Armenian villagers

from Agori on Mt. Ararat, Hovannes Aivazian

and Murat Boghossian, as well as two Russian

soldiers, Alexei Zdorovenko and Matvei

Chalpanov, successfully ascended the western

summit of Mt. Ararat at 16,854 feet (5,937

meters) above sea level.

Parrot had met Abovian at Echmiadzin, the

seat of the Armenian Church, where he was

employed as a clerk and translator to the

catholicos, the head of the Armenian Church.

Parrot’s report of the successful ascent was

first published on October 30 in the Russian language

weekly, Tiflis Chronicles. The full

account of the expedition appeared in his book,

Reise zum Ararat in 1834, translated into

English in 1845 as Journey to Ararat.

In his book, Parrot writes that the controversy

was given credibility by an article appearing

in 1831 in the Tiflis Chronicles in which “… a

man belonging to the educated European public,

a man of merit in his way ... was the first to

cast a stone against me, and in a published commentary

to insist on the impossibility of the fact

asserted by me.” Parrot did respond in writing

to the charges in the Tiflis Chronicles and also

initiated an action to take sworn depositions

from the members of his summitting party and

from the Agori village chief Stepan Khojiants,

who had accompanied Parrot on his unsuccessful

second attempt a week earlier where they

had reached a respectable altitude of 16,028

feet, and where they had erected a wooden

cross bearing a lead plaque.

The deposition from Melik Stepan Aga

(Stepan Khojiants) was taken on October 24,

1831. His statement was mostly inconsequential

to the matter at hand, since he did not participate

in the third attempt. However, his secondhand

comments on the cross erected during

the third attempt being placed “…in respect to

distance not higher than the first,” was only

partially correct and contributed to setting a

negative spin. That cross was deliberately not

placed on the actual summit pyramid by

Abovian, but somewhat lower in a location to be

better observed from Agori.

Villager Murat Poghossian was questioned

three days later. He stated, “We were not on the

very summit, and could not get there, because

further on there is no snow lying, but only ice;

and besides, the steepness of the slope allows

no further progress.” This statement reaches us

after being translated from Armenian into

Russian, into German and finally into English

and is what doubters cling to as proof of their

arguments. Nevertheless, it appears that

Aivazian was uncomfortable with the turn of

events but reluctantly concurred with

Poghossian. Hovannes Aivazian’s deposition is

said to be “simply confirmatory of his comrade’s.”

Be that as it may, Abovian had noted in his

diary that some days following the successful

ascent, Aivazian and Boghossian had

approached him to voice their concern regarding

the disbelief and harassment that they were

being subjected to by some officials and clergymen

for claiming to have climbed to the summit.

They also mentioned being concerned for

their safety, insisting that if this continued, they

could be pressured to renege on the truth if

they did not receive adequate protection from

the authorities. It is not clear whether Abovian

related these concerns to Parrot, although it

appears not. Thus the stage had been set for

what eventually occurred.

The two Russian soldiers Zdorovenko and

Chalpanov, however, were under no such pressure

and did confirm the fact of reaching the

summit. On November 2, 1831, Chalpanov stated,

“I was, in fact, with Professor Parrot on the

top of Mount Ararat in the month of

September, 1829.” Zdorovenko’s statement was

“…exactly similar in all points to that given

above.”

Ultimately, it is Abovian’s statement that is of

prime importance to the matter at hand, for he

was highly intelligent and educated, as well as

the one in a position to provide the authorities

with a credible and factual account of the

events of the day. Abovian presented himself at

the courthouse in Dorpat, where he was studying,

on August 30, 1831. Asked whether he

had personally been on the summit of Ararat

with Parrot on October 9, 1829, Abovian

emphatically answered, “Yes.” To the second

question, asking from where the expedition

started, Abovian responded that they had set

out from the Monastery of St. Jacob, which was

located at an elevation of 6,375 feet, and

reached the top of the summit on the following

day. Another question asked was at what time

they had been on the summit; to which

Abovian replied, “In the afternoon.” Finally, he

was asked what they had done on the summit.

Abovian related that he had erected a cross

while Parrot, standing on the very top of the

peak, took measurements with his scientific

instruments. It is, however, unclear why

Abovian’s official deposition was not included

in Parrot’s Reise zum Ararat in 1834, for they

were both in Dorpat and had close personal

relations at the time. He thereby missed an

opportunity to put an end to the quibbling that

would follow. Abovian’s deposition was eventually

published in St. Petersburgische Zeitung

in 1835.

Soon after the climb, Abovian would write

about the final push as follows:

“We had been mercilessly suffering such various

difficulties that when the pinnacle of the

mountain appeared not far from us, each one

of us, one after the other, headed in that direction,

not taking any notice at the moment of

any difficulties and not considering their

exhaustion, they were hurrying and hastening

to see the spot desired by so many. It appeared

as if we were winging up the slope to the sky,

toward where the summit was. Our hopeless

legs and wobbly knees had gained momentum

and were soaring upward, toward the astonishing

aerie. Wonders came to view, in addition to

our joyous desires that led us to rejoice,

towards the birthplace of the entire world. Our

souls were enveloped with happiness and were

overcome by unimaginable gaiety; we began to

run about in this and that direction to view the

lower-lying valleys and ridges. One was amazed

by the height of the mountain, the other was

attempting to observe faraway places, and

words of gratitude and blessing were pouring

forth in our dialect from their mouths.”

Abovian’s first and repeat ascents of Ararat,

in addition to his subsequent first ascent of

13,435 ft. (4,095 meters) Mt. Aragats while

accompanying University of Munich’s Prof.

Moritz Wagner, firmly establish him as the

father of Armenian mountaineering. After

returning to Armenia from his university studies

in Dorpat, Abovian established himself as a

progressive educator and the premier national

man of modern letters.

Parrot had met the young Khatchadur

Abovian at Echmiadzin. It is interesting that

later in 1844 Abovian also accompanied

Herrmann von Abich, a professor of mineralogy

at the same University of Dorpat as Parrot,

to Ararat. They made three unsuccessful

attempts together, having been turned back by

violent storms just short of the summit. During

one of the attempts, they erected a cross short

of the summit. The following year, however,

Abich, accompanied by Peter Sharoyan, a student

of Abovian’s, and two other Armenian

guides, was successful in ascending the eastern

summit. One of his guides was Simon

Sarkisian.

Abovian was, nevertheless, destined to successfully

ascend Ararat once more. This time

he did it together with the Englishman Henry

Danby Seymour and Simon Sarkisian on

September 30, 1846. Sarkisian was a survivor

of the 1840 Agori avalanche and would summit

for the third time with the massive 68-member

expedition organized by the Russian Army

topographer, Col. Iosif Khodzko, in 1850. His

fourth attempt at ascending was in 1878, while

guiding another Englishman, George Percival

Baker. This time the now 90-year-old Sarkisian

was forced to turn back short of the summit.

Baker continued on to successfully ascend the

peak on August 7.

It is also of interest that a dozen years later

Abich’s cross was discovered by the

Englishmen Maj. Robert Stuart and Walter

Thursby on their way up to the summit on

August 14, 1856. Three of their companions

had summitted two days earlier. “About 1,200

feet from the summit, we came upon an oak

cross that had been fixed by Professor Abich,”

Stuart wrote. He speculated, “Professor Abich

made several attempts, but failed in all, as is

proved by the position of the cross…” Not

being familiar with the history of the mountain,

Stuart mistakenly assumed that they were

the first.

To shed more light on the matter one must

seek out the Russian and Armenian sources.

One such invaluable source is an article by E.

G. Weidenbaum, “Greater Ararat: and Attempts

to Climb Its Summit,” published in the

Transactions of the Caucasus Branch of the

Imperial Russian Geographic Society (vol. xiii,

1884). According to Weidenbaum’s account,

one year after Parrot’s ascent, Ivan Shopen,

the chairman of the Incomes and Properties

Department of the Province of Armenia,

expressed doubts concerning the veracity of

Parrot’s announcement of reaching the summit

of Ararat. Thus we learn the identity of Parrot’s

principle tormentor, whom he had described as

“… a man belonging to the educated European

public, a man of merit in his way — one who on

account of his long residence in those countries

possesses undoubted claims to confidence

in his local knowledge.”

Weidenbaum also mentions Karl Kokh, a

noted botanist, who was personally acquainted

with both Parrot and Shopen. Kokh opined

that “jealousy was the principle reason for

Shopen to question the veracity of Parrot’s

statements, in view of the fact that he himself

had made two attempts at climbing Ararat, and

both times experienced total failure.” He continues

to say that Shopen’s portly body was

hardly suited for such an endeavor, in contrast

to the athletic build of Parrot.

Another such skeptic was the postmaster of

Yerevan, Artem Kalantarian. He was to hound

Abovian into agreeing on a wager to climb

Ararat once again to prove it possible. Before

that could take place, regrettably, one day in

April of 1848, Abovian left his home and mysteriously

disappeared. No trace of him has ever

been found.

In any event, the most conclusive evidence of

Parrot’s achievement is to be found buried in

the pages of a book by Kozma Spassky-

Avtonomov, The Ascent of Ararat, published in

Moscow in 1839. Spassky-Avtonomov’s was

only the second expedition to successfully summit

Ararat in 1834. His account also dispels the

mistaken notion of most chroniclers that

Spassky-Avtonomov may have only ascended

the lower eastern summit pyramid or even not

reached the summit at all. As a matter of fact,

he climbed both summits. In that endeavor he

was fortunate to be assisted by two Armenian

guides from Agori, Hovannes Aivazian who

had also accompanied Parrot on his successful

third attempt and proven so helpful to him, and

Yeghdar Ghougassian. The Armenian village of

Agori was situated at an elevation of approximately

4,000 feet above sea level at the base of

the Agori Gorge on the northern slope of the

mountain. This was prior to 1840 when a powerful

earthquake violently shook the mountain,

triggering a catastrophic avalanche that totally

destroyed the village and the monastery, and

buried all its inhabitants under a massive layer

of rock and ice.

 

I believe that the Turkish name

Agri Dag for Mt. Ararat is derived from the

name of this Armenian village.

 

Aivazian confidently guided them to where

Parrot had bivouacked on the first night of

their third attempt. The following morning

Aivazian directed them to the cross on the

dome plateau that Parrot had erected at 16,028

feet, the high point of his second attempt. The

trio continued to climb atop the snowcap

toward the eastern summit pyramid, which they

soon successfully ascended. Following a relaxing

lunch break in the saddle between the two

summits, they headed toward the western summit.

As the climbers ascended the higher western

summit pyramid, Aivazian suddenly shouted

out to Spassky-Avtonomov that this was

where Parrot had stood. Thereby prompting

him to write, “for myself at least, it became clear

why the guide Aivazian initially had stated to

me that the professor had not been on the summit,

but later began to insist that he had been;

he, as all Agori residents, considered the main

summit of Masis (Armenian for Ararat) to be the

eastern peak. Therefore, for Aivazian the professor

had not been on Masis, when he had

been only on the western peak.” The eastern

summit is a mere 50 feet lower than the true

western summit; however, Agori villagers and,

in fact, all observers from the north side of the

mountain view the closer eastern pyramid to be

the higher of the two due to the trick played by

perspective on observers some 14,000 feet

below. Having seen the mountain from the

north, I too had been under that impression.

But my July 19, 2003, successful summiting up

the southern route with a British expedition

dispelled the confusion and also exposed me to

Ararat’s unique beauty and the spell it casts

upon its admirers.

A mere five years had separated the first two

ascents. Spassky-Avtonomov had been fortunate

to share the able services of Parrot’s guide

Aivazian, who was a participant and eyewitness

of both successful summit ascents. His spontaneous,

unsolicited declaration atop the true

summit must be accepted as proof positive that

Parrot and his party did indeed summit Ararat

in 1829. The proof had been there for all to see,

but inaccessible to most chroniclers on account

of the rarity of Spassky-Avtonomov’s text.

It is my firm belief that this information

should lay to rest any lingering questions and

doubts surrounding Parrot’s truly spectacular

achievement, for his ascent was one of the highest

of any human to date.

(Philip Ketchian is a retired physicist, who

climbed Mount Ararat with a British

Expeditionary Group and his wife, Elsa

Ronningstam Ketchian, in July 2003.)

Edited October 16, 2011 by Arpa