Armenia’s Ministry of Culture shut down an exhibit entitled ECLIPSE at the Tumanyan House Museum in Yerevan stating that it was ‘politicized’ and would need to be re-curated. The exhibit highlighted the severity of the repressions of the Stalin era in the 1930s known as the Great Purge. It was an era of extreme persecution, oppression and terror. Thousands of Armenians, including writers, artists, clergymen, intellectuals and many others were arrested, exiled and many were killed. Hovhannes Tumanyan, one of Armenia’s most revered writers lost three of his sons to Stalin’s oppressions.

The exhibit not only highlighted the repressions carried out by Soviet authorities, but also brought to the public’s attention the anti-Armenian actions by many Armenian statesmen of the time. Through historical correspondence around issues of national interest – Armenia-Turkey, the First Republic and Karabakh – the exhibit tried to put history into perspective by presenting archival material chronologically.

It remains unclear what the real motivations of the Culture Ministry were for shutting down the exhibit that was to run until late autumn. Since the public no longer has the opportunity to physically go and see the exhibit, Narine Tukhikyan, the director of the Tumanyan House Museum, provided EVN Report with all the curated artefacts so that it could live on virtually.