12.04.2024


Today marks Sergey Teryan’s 100th birthday. An Armenian inventor and technical sciences candidate, he was born in the village of Banants (in the Gardman county of Utik province of historical Greater Armenia, now in Azerbaijan). He dedicated his entire life to raising the issues of his native world of Gardman and its people.

Some years ago Sergey Teryan handed over, from his personal archive, his handwritten memoir and exclusive archival materials concerning the construction of the “Artsiv” (Eagle) fountain-monument dedicated to the memory of the victims of the Patriotic War in the village of Banants and the story of its destruction overnight by the Azerbaijani authorities, comprising photos, documents, manuscripts. etc. to the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute.

Sergey Teryan was chairman of the organising committee for the monument’s and the architect was Rafael Israelyan. Unfortunately, the official opening of the monument never took place as the Baku authorities, stating that it symbolised General Andranik, labeled the monument in the form of an eagle as "Dashnak" (ARF) and, on the night of July 26, 1969, having turned the village and surrounding area lights off beforehand, demolished the memorial.

Incidentally, it was destroyed just days after Heydar Aliyev was elected as the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan. Sergey Teryan refers, in his memoirs, to a meeting with him, during which Heydar Aliyev said that he was aware of the destruction of the monument but could do nothing about restoring it, as some Azerbaijani would blow it up as the opinion has spread among them that the monument symbolised General Andranik.

The AGMI presented Sergey Teryan with a letter of thanks on his birthday for the valuable donation he made to the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute foundation, as well as for his activities dedicated to the preservation of Armenian values and the development of national thought.

The photograph shows Sergey Teryan at the AGMI in 2019.