It is known that the framework of the literary and philological interests of the Mekhitarians relates mostly to the ancient and medieval periods. But since the beginning of the 19th century an interest towards the modern era becomes noticeable. This is a serious theme of research in light of literary developments as it is interesting to reveal how psychologically diverse literary circles understood and appreciated those developments. The aim of this paper is to investigate the reactions to Toumanian’s works in the pages of Bazmavep from the aforementioned perspective.

 During 1890-1923, Bazmavep included only a few, not very substantial articles on Toumanian (M. Poturian, S. Eremian, G. Balasanian, etc.). It would certainly be too simplistic to conclude that this fact proves that the journal gave less attention or importance to Toumanian’s works or underestimated him. As the analysis of the materials show, this was a question of principles. Neither in theory, nor in practice could Toumanian’s works be included in the frameworks of the widely-accepted criteria of the Mekhitarian journals suggested by the Armenian poetry of the time, especially at the turn of the century. However, it should be noted that opinions which hold today and which accurately highlighted the pecularities of Toumanian’s works sometimes appeared in the printed texts.