The National Center for Manuscripts and Rare Books of Kazakhstan and  the Armenian Institute of Ancient Manuscripts "Matenadaran" signed a  memorandum of cooperation

ArmInfo. "The development of science is one of the priorities of the development of our country and cooperation with the Armenian Institute of Ancient Manuscripts  Matenadaron is important for us," Timur Urazaev, Kazakhstan's  ambassador to Armenia, stated to journalists on September 28 after  the signing of the Memorandum of Cooperation between the National the  center of manuscripts and rare books of the Ministry of Culture of  Kazakhstan and the Armenian Institute of Ancient Manuscripts  "Matenadaran".

Urazaev noted that it is in the "Matenadaran" that the most  interesting handwritten evidence related to the history of the two  peoples is kept. "The Embassy, organizing events that develop  bilateral cooperation, is doing everything possible to make our two  people communicate directly with each other." The most important  thing for us in this area is that the research activities of our  scientists are based on genuine historiographic sources and be  scientifically grounded, not there were no insinuations and  pseudoscientific speculations around the subjects of research.The  fact is that we do not set ourselves the goal of showing who is  ancient and who is wiser, because the fact is that different peoples  on the ground entire history of communicating with each other,  traded, fought, but the most important thing - to constantly interact  famous Soviet, Kazakh poet Olzhas Suleimenov his poem "to elevate the  steppe did not detract from the mountain," actually gave us a motto  for our research work ", stressed Urazaev.

The ambassador noted that these scientific and research ideas, the  work of historians, are aimed at enhancing the Kazakh national  identity through. "The work of our scientists should be aimed at an  unbiased, scientific study of our rich past," the ambassador said.

In his turn, the director of the Mesrop Mashtots Research Institute  for Ancient Manuscripts Matenadaran Vahan Ter-Ghevondyan said that  this cooperation has great potential and great importance.The  National Center for Manuscripts and Rare Books of Kazakhstan was  recently opened, but has already acquired a wide fame and regional  importance.We hope that our cooperation will be interesting and  fruitful, "Ter- Ghevondyan said.

In his turn, the head of the National Center for Manuscripts and Rare  Books of Kazakhstan, Asilkhan Saduov, noted that manuscripts and  unique old books collected in archives or handed over by private  collectors to the Republic of Kazakhstan were collected in his  center. According to Saduov, the center pays great attention to  international cooperation, builds scientific bridges with many  international and national institutions and organizations.  "Cooperation with Matenadaran will create new ways and prospects for  deepening cooperation between the two countries," Saduov said.

After the memorandum was signed, a scientific conference on written  monuments of the Kypchak period was also held in the Matenadaran.  During the conference, Asilkhan Saduov stressed that about 10-12  manuscripts in the Kypchak language were collected in the  Matenadaran, which is especially interesting for the scientific  community of Kazakhstan. "The Kypchak language is a part of the  Turkic culture.Kazakh scholars made their great contribution to the  study of the Kypchak language.For us it is very important and  interesting to study manuscripts in the Kypchak language written in  Armenian letters.In the Matenadaran, about 10-12 such manuscripts are  kept.Our two people I am sure that our cooperation will be fruitful  and fruitful, "Saduov concluded.

In his turn, the director of the M. Abegyan Literature Institute  Vardan Devrikyan reported that the Crimean Armenians for the most  part spoke exactly in the Kypchak language. He noted that many court  cases and other documents were written in Kypchak, but in Armenian  letters. "Armenian granrabar Armenian language was then used by the  Crimean Armenians only in the church, and they mostly spoke in  Kypchak, it was the Armenian transcription that best represented the  phonetics of the language," said Devrikyan.

Recall that the Armenian-Kypchak language is a dead language,  attributed to the Kypchak-Polovtsian subgroup of the Turkic  languages. It is the language of the Armenians who were subjected to  linguistic assimilation in the Crimea in the 14-15th centuries. It is  famous for written monuments of Kypchak- speaking Armenians who  professed Christianity in the tradition of the Armenian Apostolic  Church, who lived in large colonies in Kamenetz-Podolsky, Lviv,  Lutsk, Mogilev-Podolsky, Suceava, Seret, Zamosc, Iasi, Akkerman and  other cities of Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Moldova, where they moved  from the Crimea (mainly from Kafa - Feodosia) and, possibly, from  Armenia after the Mongol invasion.

Epigraphic monuments also testify to the fact that in the 12th and  13th centuries the Kypchaks also lived on the territory of Armenia,  having accepted the faith of the Armenian Apostolic Church. One of  the surviving monasteries of the Arich complex in the Artik district  of the Shirak region of Armenia, built at the turn of the 12th-13th  centuries, is called Khpchakhavank. In the monuments of the  Armenian-Kypchak language, this language is designated by its  carriers in three ways: the older term khypchaks tili ("Kypchak  language, the language of the Kypchaks"), the possessive design of  bizimil ("our language") and a later comparative terminology  combination, translators familiar with the Tatar language of the  Crimea.