tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79512871154368862442024-02-08T10:47:10.016-08:00ArmeNewsRafi Topalianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13947155792238329401noreply@blogger.comBlogger1093125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7951287115436886244.post-43671272822669421822019-04-06T08:01:00.002-07:002019-04-06T08:01:33.275-07:00ANI Releases New Exhibit Revealing Critical Humanitarian Assistance of the U.S. Military to Armenia in 1919-1920<span style="background-color: white; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px;"> </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/u/1/null" rel="noopener noreferrer" removedlink__dc61d13e-7b7f-4ca4-852c-18340b31a5a0__href="http://bit.ly/2Uux8nZ" style="background-color: white; color: blue; cursor: pointer; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration-line: underline;" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/2Uux8nZ</a><br />
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Rafi Topalianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13947155792238329401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7951287115436886244.post-7761552444035879892019-03-25T18:11:00.000-07:002019-03-25T18:11:54.672-07:00DOCTOR OF THE CHURCHhttps://aleteia.org/2018/04/04/vatican-gardens-to-have-statue-of-2nd-doctor-of-the-church-from-the-east/#.WsViGhVvVTc.facebookRafi Topalianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13947155792238329401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7951287115436886244.post-20311541410800995882019-03-25T18:10:00.001-07:002019-03-25T18:10:49.445-07:00ARMENIAN FLAG TO FLY AT COLONIE TOWN HALL, Week of April 22 2019<b style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">ARMENIAN FLAG TO FLY AT COLONIE TOWN HALL, Week of April 22: </span></b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; text-align: justify;">In commemoration of the Armenian Genocide, the Armenian flag will be flown at the Town of Colonie Town Hall (Route 9, Newtonville) from April 22-29. Again this year, the Capital District Armenian Genocide Committee (CDAGC) appreciates this show of support by Town of Colonie Supervisor, Paula Mahan. For more information on the CDAGC, contact Rafi Topalian at (518) 810-5018 or <a href="mailto:rafitop@aol.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: blue; cursor: pointer;" target="_blank" ymailto="mailto:rafitop@aol.com">rafitop@aol.com</a>.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
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Rafi Topalianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13947155792238329401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7951287115436886244.post-80250463745708723062019-03-25T17:24:00.001-07:002019-03-25T17:24:23.290-07:00A Regime Conceals Its Erasure of Indigenous Armenian Culture<header class="entry-header" style="background-color: white; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; margin-bottom: 1.5rem;"><div class="row" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-left: -15px; margin-right: -15px;">
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A Regime Conceals Its Erasure of Indigenous Armenian Culture</h1>
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A groundbreaking forensic report tracks Azerbaijan’s recent destruction of 89 medieval churches, 5,840 intricate cross-stones, and 22,000 tombstones.</div>
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<span class="byline" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-right: 20px;"><span class="multiple-authors" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="author vcard" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-right: 15px;"><a class="url fn n" href="https://hyperallergic.com/author/simon-maghakyan" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; display: inline-block; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;" title="View all posts by Simon Maghakyan">Simon Maghakyan</a></span><span class="author vcard" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a class="url fn n" href="https://hyperallergic.com/author/sarah-pickman" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; display: inline-block; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;" title="View all posts by Sarah Pickman">Sarah Pickman</a></span></span></span><span class="posted-on" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="https://hyperallergic.com/date/2019/02/18/" rel="bookmark" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; display: inline-block; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;" title="February 18, 2019">February 18, 2019</a></span></div>
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<figure aria-describedby="caption-attachment-482188" class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_482188" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: none; height: auto; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px !important; max-width: 100%; width: 1080px;"><img alt="" class="wp-image-482188 size-large" height="1401" sizes="(max-width: 1080px) 100vw, 1080px" src="https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/1-1080x1401.jpg" srcset="https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/1-1080x1401.jpg 1080w, https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/1-720x934.jpg 720w, https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/1-360x467.jpg 360w, https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/1.jpg 1400w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 1080px;" width="1080" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-482188" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #999999; font-size: 0.7em; letter-spacing: 0.02em; line-height: 1.4em; margin-top: 0.5rem;">From left: Vasif Talibov, Heydar Aliyev, and Ilham Aliyev at the 1999 unveiling of a Nakhichevani statue to Dede Korkut, the mythological author of medieval Turkic tales. The statue was erected under the auspices of Heydar Aliyev’s April 20, 1997 decree to promote the “ancient and rich culture”-filled Book of Dede Korkut. The targeted destruction of Nakhichevan’s Armenian past reportedly started shortly after the decree’s signing. (courtesy of Azerbaijan state media)</figcaption></figure><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.05em; letter-spacing: 0.01em; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 1em auto 1.05em; max-width: 630px;">
In April 2011, when a US Ambassador traveled to Azerbaijan, on the southwestern edge of the former USSR, he was <a href="https://photos.state.gov/libraries/azerbaijan/366196/Press%20Releases/Press%20Release%20Nakhchivan%20Trip%2004%2021%202011_ENG.pdf" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 215, 248); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">denied access</a> to the riverside borderland that separates this South Caucasus nation from Iran. But it was not a foreign foe that halted the visit. Instead, his Azerbaijani hosts insisted that the envoy’s planned investigation inside the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhichevan (officially, Naxçıvan Autonomous Republic) could not proceed because it was motivated by <a href="http://www.today.az/news/society/26173.html" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 215, 248); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">fake news</a>. The ambassador had intended to probe the reported destruction of thousands of historical Medieval Christian Armenian artworks and objects at the necropolis of Djulfa in Nakhichevan. This cemetery is recorded to have once boasted the world’s largest collection of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khachkar" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 215, 248); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">khachkars</a> — distinctive Armenian cross-stones. However, according to Azerbaijani officials this reported destruction was a farce, that the site had not been disturbed, because it never existed in the first place. Despite ample testimony to the contrary, Azerbaijan claims that Nakhichevan was <a href="https://azertag.az/en/xeber/572168" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 215, 248); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">never</a> Armenian.</div>
<figure aria-describedby="caption-attachment-482202" class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_482202" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: none; height: auto; margin: 1.5rem auto; max-width: 100%; width: 1080px;"><img alt="" class="wp-image-482202 size-large" height="1025" sizes="(max-width: 1080px) 100vw, 1080px" src="https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/8-1080x1025.jpg" srcset="https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/8-1080x1025.jpg 1080w, https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/8-720x683.jpg 720w, https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/8-360x342.jpg 360w, https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/8.jpg 1400w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 1080px;" width="1080" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-482202" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #999999; font-size: 0.7em; letter-spacing: 0.02em; line-height: 1.4em; margin-top: 0.5rem;">Some of Djulfa’s thousands of khachkars before their destruction, the majority of which were erected in the 16th century (© Argam Ayvazyan archives, 1970-1981)</figcaption></figure><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.05em; letter-spacing: 0.01em; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 1em auto 1.05em; max-width: 630px;">
Incompatible narratives of historical rights and wrongs have long bedeviled the unresolved Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict. Following the Russian Empire’s WWI-era collapse, Armenia and Azerbaijan emerged as short-lived independent states. Since centuries of imperial warfare over the strategic Armenian Highland had diversified the region’s ethnic makeup, newly-independent Armenia and Azerbaijan confronted overlapping territorial claims. Soon after the Bolsheviks took power in the area, they formalized two disputed regions — Nagorno-Karabakh and Nakhichevan — as autonomies within Soviet Azerbaijan.While Nagorno-Karabakh preserved a majority Armenian population, Nakhichevan’s longstanding Armenian communities dwindled over the twentieth century. In 1988, Nagorno-Karabakh sought unification with Soviet Armenia. Leaving Azerbaijan was necessary, Nagorno-Karabakh’s majority-Armenian population claimed, to preserve the region’s indigenous Christian past and to avoid the fate of Nakhichevan’s vanished Armenians. Amid Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">glasnost</em>and <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">perestroika</em>, Nagorno-Karabakh became a war zone.</div>
<figure aria-describedby="caption-attachment-482210" class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_482210" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: none; height: auto; margin: 1.5rem auto; max-width: 100%; width: 1080px;"><img alt="" class="wp-image-482210 size-large" height="847" sizes="(max-width: 1080px) 100vw, 1080px" src="https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/13-1080x847.png" srcset="https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/13-1080x847.png 1080w, https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/13-720x565.png 720w, https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/13-360x282.png 360w, https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/13.png 1400w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 1080px;" width="1080" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-482210" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #999999; font-size: 0.7em; letter-spacing: 0.02em; line-height: 1.4em; margin-top: 0.5rem;">A map of Nakhichevan and the surrounding region (courtesy Djulfa Virtual Memorial and Museum | Djulfa.com)</figcaption></figure><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.05em; letter-spacing: 0.01em; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 1em auto 1.05em; max-width: 630px;">
Since the 1994 ceasefire among newly-independent Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Nagorno-Karabakh, mutual accusations of vandalism and revisionism have been rampant. <span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1em;">Azerbaijan’s president </span><a href="https://www.azernews.az/nation/118782.html" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 215, 248); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 1em; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">protests</a><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1em;">that “all of our mosques in occupied Azerbaijani lands have been destroyed.” A visitor to Armenia-backed Nagorno-Karabakh (also called Artsakh in Armenian) would observe otherwise: there are mosques, albeit nonoperational, including one in the devastated “buffer zone” ghost town Agdam.</span></div>
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Yet a tourist in Nakhichevan, which was not a war zone, would encounter neither Armenian heritage sites nor public acknowledgment of the region’s far-reaching Armenian roots, including the medieval global trade networks launched by Djulfa’s innovative merchants. These merchants’ legacies, documented in Sebouh Aslanian’s <em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Indian-Mediterranean-California-History-Library/dp/0520282175/?tag=hyperallergic-20" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 215, 248); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">From the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean</a>,</em> include the legendary treasures of the “Adventure Prize” ship pirated in 1698 by celebrated outlaw Captain Kidd. In addition, according to Ina McCabe’s <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Orientalism-Early-Modern-France-Exoticism/dp/1845203747/?tag=hyperallergic-20" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 215, 248); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Orientalism in Early Modern France</em></a>, many of Europe’s first cafés were founded by these Djulfa (Julfan) merchants in the seventeenth century — contributing to a culture that, as Adam Gopnik <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/12/24/what-cafes-did-for-liberalism" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 215, 248); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">writes</a> in <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The New Yorker</em>’s last issue of 2018, “helped lay the foundation for the liberal Enlightenment.” Save for <a href="http://www.nakhchivan.az/portal-en/serencam-14.htm" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 215, 248); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">appropriated</a> Armenian folklore linking the region to the Biblical Noah, whose ark was said to have landed on nearby Mount Ararat, Nakhichevan’s Armenian past has all but been erased.</div>
<figure aria-describedby="caption-attachment-482189" class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_482189" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: none; height: auto; margin: 1.5rem auto; max-width: 100%; width: 1080px;"><img alt="" class="wp-image-482189 size-large" height="742" sizes="(max-width: 1080px) 100vw, 1080px" src="https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/2-1080x742.jpg" srcset="https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/2-1080x742.jpg 1080w, https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/2-720x495.jpg 720w, https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/2-360x247.jpg 360w, https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/2.jpg 1400w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 1080px;" width="1080" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-482189" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #999999; font-size: 0.7em; letter-spacing: 0.02em; line-height: 1.4em; margin-top: 0.5rem;">A panoramic photograph of Agulis, c. early 1900s (courtesy History Museum of Armenia)</figcaption></figure><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.05em; letter-spacing: 0.01em; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 1em auto 1.05em; max-width: 630px;">
<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Photographic Memories</span></div>
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Unlike the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/06/29/world/middleeast/isis-historic-sites-control.html?mtrref=www.google.com" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 215, 248); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">self-publicized</a> cultural destruction of ISIS, independent Azerbaijan’s covert campaign to re-engineer Nakhichevan’s historical landscape between 1997 and 2006 is little known outside the region. But one man, Armenia-based researcher Argam Ayvazyan, anticipated the systematic destruction decades before.</div>
<figure aria-describedby="caption-attachment-482264" class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_482264" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: none; height: auto; margin: 1.5rem auto; max-width: 100%; width: 1080px;"><img alt="" class="wp-image-482264 size-large" height="1466" sizes="(max-width: 1080px) 100vw, 1080px" src="https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/12-1080x1466.jpg" srcset="https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/12-1080x1466.jpg 1080w, https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/12-720x978.jpg 720w, https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/12-360x489.jpg 360w, https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/12.jpg 1400w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 1080px;" width="1080" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-482264" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #999999; font-size: 0.7em; letter-spacing: 0.02em; line-height: 1.4em; margin-top: 0.5rem;">Argam Ayvazyan next to a 14th-century khachkar in Nors (today Nursu), near his birthplace (© Argam Ayvazyan archives, 1970-1981)</figcaption></figure><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.05em; letter-spacing: 0.01em; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 1em auto 1.05em; max-width: 630px;">
Ayvazyan feared that Nakhichevan’s Armenian material heritage was destined to disappear, like its indigenous Armenians already had. The region’s Armenian population shrunk following the 1921 treaties of Kars and Moscow, in which Turkish negotiators secured the disputed territory as an exclave under the administration of Soviet Azerbaijan. Ayvazyan was barely 17 when he started photographing the cultural heritage of his native Nakhichevan. From 1964 to 1987, he collected enough documentation to ultimately publish 200 articles and over 40 books. His photographic missions were self-financed, undercover, dangerous, and supported by his closest companion: “My wife, a teacher, was my number one pillar,” recalls Ayvazyan, “she never once complained about my prolonged absences, financial hardships, or being our children’s primary caretaker.” By the time the Berlin Wall fell, Ayvazyan had documented 89 Armenian churches, 5,840 ornate khachkars, and 22,000 horizontal tombstones, among other Armenian monuments. His affection for Nakhichevan’s artifacts was not confined to Christian sites: Ayvazyan also surveyed the region’s seven Islamic mausoleums and 27 mosques.</div>
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Treading carefully while researching contentious sites is a skill Ayvazyan learned early in his work. In 1965, after being taken to a police station for photographing a church near his birthplace, Ayvazyan received a warning from a visiting KGB chief, who treated the teenage offender to tea. In a recent interview with the authors, Ayvazyan recalled that Comrade Heydar Aliyev told him in Russian, “Never again do such things, there are no Armenian-Shmarmenian things here!” Four years later, Comrade Aliyev would become Soviet Azerbaijan’s leader and then, in 1993, president of independent Azerbaijan. “Who knew,” Ayvazyan tells <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Hyperallergic</em>, “that the man who told me not to photograph churches would 30 years later launch their annihilation.” Ayvazyan became increasingly cautious. For example, when it came to surveying the interior of Nakhichevan’s preeminent cathedral in the town of Agulis in September 1972, he asked an elderly local matriarch, Marus, to escort him to a potentially hostile encounter. As the last Armenian resident of a nearby village, she knew how to speak softly with the Azerbaijani community of Agulis. There, Marus convinced locals to unlock the sealed Saint Thomas cathedral, which tradition states was founded as a chapel by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartholomew_the_Apostle" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 215, 248); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">Bartholomew the Apostle</a>. Marus insisted that Ayvazyan was suffering from an illness that, he believed, could only be eased by solitary time spent inside the cathedral.</div>
<figure aria-describedby="caption-attachment-482263" class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_482263" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: none; height: auto; margin: 1.5rem auto; max-width: 100%; width: 1080px;"><img alt="" class="wp-image-482263 size-large" height="1187" sizes="(max-width: 1080px) 100vw, 1080px" src="https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/5-1080x1187.jpg" srcset="https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/5-1080x1187.jpg 1080w, https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/5-720x791.jpg 720w, https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/5-360x396.jpg 360w, https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/5.jpg 1400w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 1080px;" width="1080" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-482263" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #999999; font-size: 0.7em; letter-spacing: 0.02em; line-height: 1.4em; margin-top: 0.5rem;">Surb Karapet (Holy Precursor Church) in Abrakunis, a major center of medieval Armenian theology (© Argam Ayvazyan archives, 1970-1981)</figcaption></figure><figure aria-describedby="caption-attachment-482199" class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_482199" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: none; height: auto; margin: 1.5rem auto; max-width: 100%; width: 1080px;"><img alt="" class="wp-image-482199 size-large" height="720" sizes="(max-width: 1080px) 100vw, 1080px" src="https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/6-1080x720.jpg" srcset="https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/6-1080x720.jpg 1080w, https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/6-720x480.jpg 720w, https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/6-360x240.jpg 360w, https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/6.jpg 1400w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 1080px;" width="1080" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-482199" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #999999; font-size: 0.7em; letter-spacing: 0.02em; line-height: 1.4em; margin-top: 0.5rem;">The flattened site where Surb Karapet previously stood, as of August 2005 in Abrakunis (today Əbrəqunus) (courtesy Steven Sim)</figcaption></figure><figure aria-describedby="caption-attachment-482200" class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_482200" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: none; height: auto; margin: 1.5rem auto; max-width: 100%; width: 1080px;"><img alt="" class="wp-image-482200 size-large" height="720" sizes="(max-width: 1080px) 100vw, 1080px" src="https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/7-1080x720.jpg" srcset="https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/7-1080x720.jpg 1080w, https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/7-720x480.jpg 720w, https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/7-360x240.jpg 360w, https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/7.jpg 1400w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 1080px;" width="1080" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-482200" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #999999; font-size: 0.7em; letter-spacing: 0.02em; line-height: 1.4em; margin-top: 0.5rem;">A mosque, opened in 2013, on the site of medieval Surb Karapet in Abrakunis (today Əbrəqunus) (courtesy Djulfa Virtual Memorial and Museum | Djulfa.com)</figcaption></figure><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.05em; letter-spacing: 0.01em; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 1em auto 1.05em; max-width: 630px;">
<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Post-Communist Manifesto</span></div>
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In August 2005 the region’s authorities detained another visiting scholar. Scottish researcher Steven Sim had traveled to post-Soviet Nakhichevan to assess the condition of the Armenian churches photographed earlier by Ayvazyan. Instead of medieval churches, Sim <a href="https://www.djulfa.com/nakhichevan-2005-the-state-of-armenian-monuments/" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 215, 248); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">found vacant plots</a> with no vegetation. His police interrogators had a quick response as to why there was nothing for Sim to study: “Armenians came here and took photographs … then went back to their country and inserted into them photographs of churches in Armenia … There were no Armenians ever living here — so how could there have been churches here?!,” he was told. At the end of the interrogation, Sim was given until midnight to exit Nakhichevan, leaving with photographs of empty lots. But at least some of the toppled headstones of Djulfa, which he had seen from his window during a train ride, were still there. Because of its prominent location on an international border, Djulfa — spelled varyingly and originating from the Armenian “Jugha” — had survived.</div>
<figure aria-describedby="caption-attachment-482211" class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_482211" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: none; height: auto; margin: 1.5rem auto; max-width: 100%; width: 1080px;"><img alt="" class="wp-image-482211 size-large" height="1112" sizes="(max-width: 1080px) 100vw, 1080px" src="https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/14-1080x1112.jpg" srcset="https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/14-1080x1112.jpg 1080w, https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/14-720x741.jpg 720w, https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/14-360x371.jpg 360w, https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/14.jpg 1400w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 1080px;" width="1080" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-482211" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #999999; font-size: 0.7em; letter-spacing: 0.02em; line-height: 1.4em; margin-top: 0.5rem;">Surb Hakob (Saint Jacob), founded in the 12th century, the largest church of Shorot (© Argam Ayvazyan archives, 1970-1981)</figcaption></figure><figure aria-describedby="caption-attachment-482213" class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_482213" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: none; height: auto; margin: 1.5rem auto; max-width: 100%; width: 1080px;"><img alt="" class="wp-image-482213 size-large" height="564" sizes="(max-width: 1080px) 100vw, 1080px" src="https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/15-1-1080x564.jpg" srcset="https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/15-1-1080x564.jpg 1080w, https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/15-1-720x376.jpg 720w, https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/15-1-360x188.jpg 360w, https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/15-1.jpg 1400w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 1080px;" width="1080" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-482213" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #999999; font-size: 0.7em; letter-spacing: 0.02em; line-height: 1.4em; margin-top: 0.5rem;">No signs of Surb Hakob or the three adjacent churches of Shorot (today Şurud) in August 2005 (courtesy Steven Sim)</figcaption></figure><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.05em; letter-spacing: 0.01em; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 1em auto 1.05em; max-width: 630px;">
Four months later, in December 2005, an Iranian border patrol alerted the Prelate of Northern Iran’s Armenian Church that the vast Djulfa cemetery, visible across the border in Azerbaijan, was under military attack. Bishop Nshan Topouzian and his driver rushed to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZu2zqFE_gI" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 215, 248); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">video tape</a>over 100 Azerbaijani soldiers, armed with sledgehammers, dump trucks, and cranes, destroying the cemetery’s remaining 2,000 khachkars; over 1,000 had already been purged in 1998 and 2002.</div>
<figure aria-describedby="caption-attachment-482203" class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_482203" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: none; height: auto; margin: 1.5rem auto; max-width: 100%; width: 1080px;"><img alt="" class="wp-image-482203 size-large" height="754" sizes="(max-width: 1080px) 100vw, 1080px" src="https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/9-1080x754.jpg" srcset="https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/9-1080x754.jpg 1080w, https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/9-720x503.jpg 720w, https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/9-360x251.jpg 360w, https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/9.jpg 1400w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 1080px;" width="1080" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-482203" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #999999; font-size: 0.7em; letter-spacing: 0.02em; line-height: 1.4em; margin-top: 0.5rem;">Northern Iran’s late Armenian Prelate prays tearfully in the foreground of the Djulfa cemetery as Azerbaijani soldiers across the River Araxes (the natural international border between modern Azerbaijan and Iran) destroy its remaining 2,000 medieval khachkars in December 2005 (courtesy Djulfa Virtual Memorial and Museum | Djulfa.com)</figcaption></figure><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.05em; letter-spacing: 0.01em; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 1em auto 1.05em; max-width: 630px;">
The helpless bishop officiated a tearful memorial service for the disturbed dead as the heart-wrenching scenes and screeching sounds of the obliteration continued across the border. Photographs from 2006 taken from the Iranian side of the border showed that a military rifle range had been erected where the cemetery used to be, presumably by Azerbaijan’s armed forces, to rationalize the existence of the freshly flattened soil. Likely due to three factors — its noticeable position on an international border, reputation as the world’s largest collection of khachkars, and previously <a href="https://www.icomos.org/risk/2002/azerbaijan2002.htm" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 215, 248); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">voiced</a> Armenian concerns for its preservation — Djulfa was the last major Armenian site in Nakhichevan to be destroyed. Its 2005–2006 demolition was the “grand finale” of Azerbaijan’s eradication of Nakhichevan’s Armenian past.</div>
<figure aria-describedby="caption-attachment-482204" class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_482204" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: none; height: auto; margin: 1.5rem auto; max-width: 100%; width: 1080px;"><img alt="" class="wp-image-482204 size-large" height="810" sizes="(max-width: 1080px) 100vw, 1080px" src="https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/10-1080x810.jpg" srcset="https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/10-1080x810.jpg 1080w, https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/10-720x540.jpg 720w, https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/10-360x270.jpg 360w, https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/10.jpg 1400w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 1080px;" width="1080" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-482204" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #999999; font-size: 0.7em; letter-spacing: 0.02em; line-height: 1.4em; margin-top: 0.5rem;">The site of the medieval Djulfa cemetery – photographed in July 2006 from the Iranian border – was temporarily converted to a rifle range by Azerbaijani authorities to rationalize the freshly-flattened earth following the final phase of the cemetery’s destruction (courtesy Djulfa Virtual Memorial and Museum | Djulfa.com)</figcaption></figure><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.05em; letter-spacing: 0.01em; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 1em auto 1.05em; max-width: 630px;">
Since Azerbaijan banned international fact-finders from visiting Nakhichevan, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) employed remote sensing technologies in its pioneer investigation into cultural destruction. Their 2010 geospatial study <a href="https://www.aaas.org/resources/high-resolution-satellite-imagery-and-destruction-cultural-artifacts-nakhchivan-azerbaijan" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 215, 248); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">concluded</a> that “satellite evidence is consistent with reports by observers on the ground who have reported the destruction of Armenian artifacts in the Djulfa cemetery.” In November 2013, dressed in the guise of a pilgrim to a Djulfa chapel now preserved on the Iranian side of the border, one of the authors of this article saw desolate grasslands across the river in Azerbaijan. The breathtakingly ornate stones of the world’s largest medieval Armenian cemetery were no more. Except for the peculiarity of flat fields on otherwise uneven terrain, it was as if no human had ever touched the landscape, just as Azerbaijani leaders intended.</div>
<figure aria-describedby="caption-attachment-482206" class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_482206" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: none; height: auto; margin: 1.5rem auto; max-width: 100%; width: 1080px;"><img alt="" class="wp-image-482206 size-large" height="1184" sizes="(max-width: 1080px) 100vw, 1080px" src="https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/11-1080x1184.jpg" srcset="https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/11-1080x1184.jpg 1080w, https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/11-720x789.jpg 720w, https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/11-360x395.jpg 360w, https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/11.jpg 1400w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 1080px;" width="1080" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-482206" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #999999; font-size: 0.7em; letter-spacing: 0.02em; line-height: 1.4em; margin-top: 0.5rem;">Satellite images showing the complete disappearance of the medieval cemetery of historic Djulfa (in Armenian, Jugha) nearby what is today the Azerbaijani village Gülüstan in Nakhichevan’s Culfa (Julfa) region. Close-up of the southwestern portion of the cemetery clearly shows the extent to which the area has been scoured. Upper image from 2003; lower image from 2009 (courtesy the American Association for the Advancement of Science / Digital Globe)</figcaption></figure><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.05em; letter-spacing: 0.01em; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 1em auto 1.05em; max-width: 630px;">
<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Rebuttal by Baku</span></div>
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“Absolutely false and slanderous information … [fabricated by] the Armenian lobby.” These were the words used by Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev — successor to and son of KGB-leader-turned-President Heydar Aliyev — to describe reports of Djulfa’s destruction in an April 2006 <a href="https://azertag.az/en/xeber/PRESIDENT_ILHAM_ALIYEV_VISITS_SHEKI-560490" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 215, 248); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">speech</a>. Dismissing any criticism as “Armenian propaganda” has been commonplace in Azerbaijan since war gripped South Caucasus in the early 1990s. By the time a fragile Armenian-Azerbaijani ceasefire was signed in 1994, this conflict — the Nagorno-Karabakh war — had scarred the wider region. It caused tens of thousands of deaths on both sides and many more displaced refugees, the majority of whom were Azerbaijanis from surrounding territories that the otherwise island-shaped Nagorno-Karabakh considers its existential guarantee. “After its defeat and suffering at the hands of the Armenians,” reflected <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Black Garden</em> author Thomas de Waal on Azerbaijan’s post-war rhetoric, which came to include denial of the WWI-era Armenian Genocide, “[Baku] wanted to assert Azerbaijan’s right to victimhood too.” Azerbaijan’s narrative includes Armenian aggression, ethnic cleansing, massacre in Khojaly, occupation, and anti-Azerbaijan propaganda spread by the well-connected Armenian Diaspora.</div>
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But historical revisionism in Azerbaijan challenging Armenian antiquity predates the bloody 1990s war by decades. In the mid-1950s, writes Victor Schnirelmann in the Russian-language book <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Memory Wars</em>, Azerbaijani historiographers initiated an anti-Armenian agenda. Such a shift likely occurred in response to the rebellious cultural awakening in Armenia, which, as Armenian-American scholar Pietro Shakarian argues, was among the first Soviet republics to experience the “Thaw” and de-Stalinization. Each new argument of the anti-Armenian revisionism, writes Schnirelmann, “inflamed the imagination of the Azerbaijani authors.” In 1975, for instance, a Soviet Azerbaijani construction project demolished the ancient Holy Trinity church, the site of Arab invaders’ mass burning of Armenian noblemen in 705 CE. At the time of the demolition, Azerbaijani historian Ziya Bunyadov downplayed the destruction. Wrecking the church was insignificant since the “real” Holy Trinity, Bunyadov abruptly claimed, was located outside Azerbaijan. A decade later, as the Soviet Union was crumbling, Azerbaijani historians claimed that the churches and cross-stones of Nakhichevan were not the work of medieval Armenians but that of long-gone <a href="http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/albania-iranian-aran-arm" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 215, 248); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">“Caucasian Albanians,”</a> whom many Azerbaijanis consider to be ancestors, even though the extinct nation’s geographic distribution never included Nakhichevan. But, after the region’s last remaining traces of Christianity were expunged in 2005–2006, the Azerbaijani authorities abandoned discussions of “Caucasian Albanians,” and began <a href="https://www.isesco.org.ma/blog/2017/12/29/nakhchivan-capital-of-islamic-culture-2018/" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 215, 248); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">promoting</a> Nakhichevan as the bedrock of an “ancient and medieval Turkish-Islamic culture,” without reference to its deep Christian past.</div>
<figure aria-describedby="caption-attachment-482214" class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_482214" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: none; height: auto; margin: 1.5rem auto; max-width: 100%; width: 1080px;"><img alt="" class="wp-image-482214 size-large" height="666" sizes="(max-width: 1080px) 100vw, 1080px" src="https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/16-1080x666.jpg" srcset="https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/16-1080x666.jpg 1080w, https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/16-600x371.jpg 600w, https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/16-720x444.jpg 720w, https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/16-360x222.jpg 360w, https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/16.jpg 1400w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 1080px;" width="1080" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-482214" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #999999; font-size: 0.7em; letter-spacing: 0.02em; line-height: 1.4em; margin-top: 0.5rem;">Soviet-era and post-Soviet enumeration of Nakhichevan’s extant medieval Armenian monuments (prepared by the authors)</figcaption></figure><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.05em; letter-spacing: 0.01em; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 1em auto 1.05em; max-width: 630px;">
Despite fervent denial, the most gripping evidence of the erasure of Nakhichevan’s Armenian heritage comes from within the Azerbaijani government itself. On December 6, 2005, days before Djulfa’s catastrophic destruction, Nakhichevan’s local autocrat Vasif Talibov, a relative of President Aliyev, <a href="http://www.nakhchivan.az/portal-en/serencam-11.htm" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 215, 248); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">issued</a> public decree No. 5-03/S, ordering a detailed inventory of Nakhichevan’s monuments. Three years later, the investigation was summed up in the bilingual English and Azerbaijani <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Encyclopedia of Nakhchivan Monuments</em>, co-edited by Talibov himself. Missing from the 522-page “Encyclopedia” are the 89 medieval churches, 5,840 intricate khachkars, and 22,000 tombstones that Ayvazyan had meticulously documented. There is not so much as a footnote on the now-defunct Christian Armenian communities in the area — Apostolic and Catholic alike. Nevertheless, the official Azerbaijani publication’s foreword explicitly reveals “Armenians” as the reason for No. 5-03/S: “Thereafter the decision issued on 6 December 2005 … a passport was issued for each monument … Armenians demonstrating hostility against us not only have an injustice [sic] land claim from Nakhchivan, but also our historical monuments by giving biassed [sic] information to the international community. The held investigations once again prove that the land of Nakhchivan belonged to the Azerbaijan turks [sic]….”</div>
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Azerbaijan’s government has also not shied away from reinventing long-lost Armenian monuments as “ancient Azerbaijani” landmarks. In 2009, Nakhichevan’s authorities unveiled a new Islamic mausoleum as “the restored eighth-century grave monument of the Prophet Noah” in what was once an Armenian cemetery. In fact, the original mythological tomb, likely dynamited during Stalinist purges against “religious superstition,” was described by J. Theodore Bent in <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Contemporary Review</em> in 1896 as a popular Christian Armenian shrine, although other observers have reported that Muslims, too, considered the site sacred. Similarly, a construction project completed in 2016 over the ruins of the hilltop castle Ernjak was promoted as “the restored Alinja fortress — the Machu-Picchu of Azerbaijan,” with no reference to its deep Armenian past. This includes the 914 CE torture, beheading, and crucifixion of Armenia’s king Smbat the Martyr at the hands of the Abbasid caliphate’s Sajid emir Yusuf during his siege of the castle, chronicled by contemporary Catholicos Hovhannes V.</div>
<figure aria-describedby="caption-attachment-482192" class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_482192" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: none; height: auto; margin: 1.5rem auto; max-width: 100%; width: 1080px;"><img alt="" class="wp-image-482192 size-large" height="1119" sizes="(max-width: 1080px) 100vw, 1080px" src="https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/3-1080x1119.jpg" srcset="https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/3-1080x1119.jpg 1080w, https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/3-720x746.jpg 720w, https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/3-360x373.jpg 360w, https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/3.jpg 1400w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 1080px;" width="1080" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-482192" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #999999; font-size: 0.7em; letter-spacing: 0.02em; line-height: 1.4em; margin-top: 0.5rem;">Agulis’s Surb Tovma (St. Thomas Cathedral), which tradition states was founded as a chapel by Bartholomew the Apostle (©Argam Ayvazyan Archives, 1970-1981)</figcaption></figure><figure aria-describedby="caption-attachment-482193" class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_482193" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: none; height: auto; margin: 1.5rem auto; max-width: 100%; width: 1080px;"><img alt="" class="wp-image-482193 size-large" height="771" sizes="(max-width: 1080px) 100vw, 1080px" src="https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/4-1080x771.jpg" srcset="https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/4-1080x771.jpg 1080w, https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/4-720x514.jpg 720w, https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/4-360x257.jpg 360w, https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/4.jpg 1400w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 1080px;" width="1080" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-482193" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #999999; font-size: 0.7em; letter-spacing: 0.02em; line-height: 1.4em; margin-top: 0.5rem;">A mosque, unveiled in 2014, on the site of the demolished Surb Tovma in Agulis (today Yuxarı Əylis or Aylis) (courtesy Djulfa Virtual Memorial and Museum)</figcaption></figure><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.05em; letter-spacing: 0.01em; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 1em auto 1.05em; max-width: 630px;">
Today, Nakhichevan’s sole “surviving” Christian site is what the Azerbaijani authorities call the “Ordubad Temple,” the former St. Alexander Nevsky Russian Orthodox Church that, according to Argam Ayvazyan, was built in 1862 by the Araskhanians, a prominent Armenian clan from Agulis. In 2016, after a “renovation” that significantly altered the original structure, the Azerbaijani authorities reopened the formerly Russian church as a “temple-museum” to, in part, use its interior for displaying photos of nearby Islamic monuments, followed by Azerbaijan’s state media’s <span class="m_-7326764538434878561gmail-m-2308307038913915877gmail-msohyperlink" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://azertag.az/xeber/Ordubad_mebedi_xalqimizin_multikulturalizm_ve_tolerantliq_deyerlerini_ozunde_yasadir-978559&source=gmail&ust=1549108534788000&usg=AFQjCNGR9EsqXChMC3qsUbnpQPWlHlYQeg" href="https://azertag.az/xeber/Ordubad_mebedi_xalqimizin_multikulturalizm_ve_tolerantliq_deyerlerini_ozunde_yasadir-978559" rel="noopener" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 215, 248); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;" target="_blank">praise</a></span> of the conversion as a testament to “multiculturalism and tolerance.” St. Nevsky’s Armenian masons are not acknowledged by the Azerbaijani authorities since, according to their preferred history, Armenians did not exist in Nakhichevan.</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Costly Conscience</span></div>
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It is not just Armenians who have been affected by Azerbaijan’s government-sanctioned destruction in Nakhichevan. Affirming Nakhichevan’s Armenian roots is dangerous for Azerbaijanis as well, no matter how prominent. In 2013, President Aliyev was furious at Azerbaijan’s prolific “People’s Writer” — Akram Aylisli — for publishing a novel about Armenian suffering and antiquity. Set during the Soviet twilight, the protagonist of <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Stone Dreams </em>is an Azerbaijani intellectual from Agulis (known today as Aylis), an ancient Armenian town in Nakhichevan that its worldly Armenian merchants had modernized into a “Little Paris,” well before Ottoman Turks — aided by Azerbaijani opportunists — massacred its Armenian community in 1919. The novel’s protagonist constantly grapples with memories of this place, including eight of the town’s 12 medieval churches that had survived until the 1990s, even after falling into coma while protecting a victim of anti-Armenian pogroms in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku. Riled by what he <a href="https://eurasianet.org/with-english-translation-controversial-azerbaijani-novel-to-reach-global-audience" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 215, 248); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">called</a> the “deliberate distortion” of history in <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Stone Dreams</em>, President Aliyev <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/mar/30/azerbaijan-akram-aylisli-airport-incroci-di-civilta-festival" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 215, 248); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">revoked</a> Aylisli’s pension and title of “People’s Writer.” Aylisli’s writings were removed from school curricula, his books were publicly <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/24899006.html#player-start-time=2.888739" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 215, 248); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">burned</a>, and his family members were <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/bring-me-the-ear-of-akram-aylisli-politician-offers-8000-for-attack-on-writer-8492268.html" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 215, 248); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">fired</a> from their jobs. A group of international intellectuals later <a href="https://katherineyoungpoet.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/aylisli-nobel-nomination-letter.pdf" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 215, 248); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">nominated</a> Aylisli for the Nobel Peace Prize.</div>
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Aylisli, who has been under <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">de facto </em><a href="https://pen.org/advocacy-case/akram-aylisli/" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 215, 248); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">house arrest</a> since <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Stone Dreams</em>’s release, protested Azerbaijan’s destruction of Nakhichevan’s Armenian past for many years. He reportedly witnessed the destruction of Agulis’s churches and quit his position as Member of Azerbaijan’s Parliament in protest of the late 2005 demolition of Djulfa. It is often said that Aylisli decided to write <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Stone Dreams</em> upon watching a video of Djulfa’s destruction. But a newly released book reveals that Aylisli first protested the destruction in Nakhichevan nearly a decade earlier. In a recently penned essay published as part of <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Farewell, Aylis: A Non-Traditional Novel in Three Works </em>(English translation by Katherine E. Young, 2018), Aylisli writes that “I always openly expressed to [Vasif Talibov] that I thought the mass destruction of Armenian monuments in Nakhchivan was a great shame of our nation.” Aylisli’s new essay also references a telegram he sent to Azerbaijan’s president in 1997, the year “when that monstrous vandalism had just begun.” Aylisili had actually published the text of this telegram in 2011 in a privately released Russian-language book with a circulation of just 50 copies. The telegram reads:</div>
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To the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan – Mr. HEYDAR ALIYEV</div>
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Honorable Mr. President</div>
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Recently it became known to me that in my native village of Aylis large-scale work is underway for the eradication of Armenian churches and cemeteries. This act of vandalism is being perpetrated through the involvement of armed forces and employment of anti-tank mines. I bring to your attention my deepest concern regarding the fact that such senseless action will be perceived by the world community as manifestation of disrespect for religious and moral values, and I express my hope that urgent measures will be undertaken on your part for ending this evil vandalism.</div>
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Respectfully,</div>
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AKRAM AYLISLI</div>
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10 June, 1997</div>
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Following Ilham Aliyev’s persecution of the famed author in light of the public release of <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Stone Dreams</em>, independent Russian journalist Shura Burtin <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/23761199.2014.11417303" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 215, 248); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">interviewed</a> Akram Aylisli in 2013 in Baku. Awed by Aylisli’s nostalgia for his birthplace, the Russian journalist traveled to Nakhichevan to see the area with his own eyes. Recounting his 2013 visit to Agulis, Burtin recently told <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Hyperallergic</em> that he didn’t see “a trace of the area’s glorious past.” Burtin did not mince words to describe what he saw (or rather, <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">didn’t</em> see): “not even ISIS could commit such an epic crime against humanity.”</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Different Diagnoses</span></div>
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Outside observers have typically interpreted the Aliyev regime’s erasure of Nakhichevan’s Armenian Christian heritage solely as a vengeful legacy of the bloody Nagorno-Karabakh war, but Armenian scholars and Azerbaijani dissidents have several additional theories of their own.</div>
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Armenian researcher Samvel Karapetyan, whose diligent documentation of remote medieval Armenian monuments in Nagorno-Karabakh has been dubbed “constructive ultra-nationalism,” sees Azerbaijan’s destruction of Armenian monuments as an effort to neutralize Armenian “historical rights” or antiquity-derived political legitimacy in the region. Other Armenian scholars perceive Azerbaijan’s anti-Armenian destruction as part of a larger agenda of realizing a vision of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan-Turkism" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 215, 248); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">pan-Turkism</a>: an ethnically homogenous Turkic polity comprising Turkey, Azerbaijan, and their ethnolinguistic brethren across Eurasia. In the words of the late Armenian historian Edward Danielyan, “[Azerbaijan’s] monstrous crimes [against medieval Armenian monuments] are not a clash of civilizations or cultures, but a continuation of the [1915–23] genocide stemming from Pan-Turkism’s anti-Armenian policies.”</div>
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Perceiving parallels between the obliteration in Nakhichevan and the destruction of material heritage during the Armenian Genocide in Turkey is not without merit. The pre-WWI count of active Ottoman Armenian churches and monasteries, according to the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople, was 2,538 and 451, respectively; nearly all have since been destroyed or repurposed. As French journalists Laure Marchand and Guillaume Perrier explain in <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Turkey and the Armenian Ghost</em>, “Since the Armenians’ religious heritage was the strongest expression of their ancestral roots, it became a prime target for their oppressors.” In absolute numbers, Turkey’s wipeout of Armenian cultural heritage dwarfs Azerbaijan’s recent vandalism in Nakhichevan. Nevertheless, many Armenian ruins — and a few renovated churches — do survive today across historical Armenia’s western regions in what is today Eastern Turkey. In contrast, Azerbaijan has left no Armenian stone unturned in Nakhichevan.</div>
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Unlike Armenian scholars, Azerbaijani dissidents often see the destruction of Nakhichevan’s Armenian heritage as part of a domestic crackdown on all forms of opposition to Azerbaijan’s ruling elite. This repression seemingly intensified after the May 2005 inauguration of the lucrative Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline. Vasif Talibov authorized decree No. 5-03/S, the effective order for erasing the last remnants of Armenian Nakhichevan, just months after the Europe-bound pipeline’s opening. But Talibov’s entourage did not just attack khachkars. They also <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/1079243.html" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 215, 248); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">shutdown</a> most of the region’s numerous privately-owned teahouses, the traditional center of Azerbaijani social life, where discussing politics was as commonplace as indulging in hot tea. Simultaneously, Talibov has been unveiling mosques and statues honoring the ruling dynasty’s patriarch Heydar Aliyev. According to Netherlands-based independent Azerbaijani historian and prominent human rights defender Arif Yunus, who was previously jailed in Azerbaijan on what Amnesty International considers trumped-up charges of “treason,” the Azerbaijani president’s anti-Armenian posture is inflated jingoism aimed at cementing his regime. “After replacing his father in 2003 as president,” Yunus told us, “Ilham Aliyev upgraded Armenophobia to the levels of fascist Germany’s anti-Semitism.” The final purge of Nakhichevan’s medieval Armenian monuments, according to Yunus, was conceived by Ilham Aliyev to boost his nationalist credentials, while Vasif Talibov happily complied to remain in charge.</div>
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While some Azerbaijanis have embraced their government’s vandalism as either righteous revenge or a national security measure against potential Armenian territorial claims, other Azerbaijanis — in addition to the humanist author Akram Aylisli — have mourned the destruction. According to an Azerbaijani historian, who requested anonymity, many among modern Nakhichevan’s almost half-million population (virtually all of whom are Muslim), are devastated by the recent disappearance of the area’s Christian heritage. This includes teachers who took students on field trips to those sites. However, “they prefer silent rage over jail time.” Aylisli’s 2018 non-fiction essay in <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Farewell, Aylis</em> even claims that a mosque built five years ago on the site of one of the destroyed churches has been boycotted by locals because “everyone in Aylis knows that prayers offered in a mosque built in the place of a church don’t reach the ears of Allah.”</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Multiculturalists, Not Vandals</span></div>
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President Aliyev has harsh critics among Azerbaijani intellectuals and the global human rights community, but he also has passionate supporters abroad. In fact, the Aliyev regime’s controversy-riddled diplomacy promotes Azerbaijan as a “land of tolerance.” In 2012, the European Stability Initiative described Azerbaijan’s generous spending on lobbying and attempts to woo foreign allies as “caviar diplomacy.” This petrodollar-funded campaign has entailed various donations, including cultural preservation grants of <a href="https://eurasianet.org/azerbaijan-papal-pr-pays-off" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 215, 248); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">undisclosed sums to the Vatican</a>. Baku’s ability to court friendships has produced many notable results, including a 2015 <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Time Magazine</em> op-ed <a href="http://time.com/4099548/azerbaijan-is-an-oasis-of-tolerance-in-the-middle-east/" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 215, 248); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">describing</a> Azerbaijan as “an oasis of tolerance,” commendations of Azerbaijan’s “exemplary interfaith harmony” in several US state legislatures, and medals bestowed upon Azerbaijan’s Vice President — President Aliyev’s wife — by the leaders of France, the Russian Orthodox Church, and even UNESCO, the international organization charged with protecting world heritage. The latter’s World Heritage Committee is <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/news/1853" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 215, 248); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">scheduled to meet</a>in June 2019 in Baku, where President Aliyev’s token preservation of a repurposed 19th-century Armenian church (the age of which “proves” that Armenian history inside Azerbaijan spans just a couple centuries) is a <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2016/08/30/prayers-for-pakistan-prayers-for-us-all/" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 215, 248); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">must-see “tolerance” attraction</a>.</div>
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UNESCO’s commendations of Azerbaijan have been particularly puzzling. In 2013, following Washington’s defunding of UNESCO, Azerbaijan <a href="https://en.unesco.org/news/republic-azerbaijan-donates-us-5-million-unesco-0" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 215, 248); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">donated</a> $5 million to the cash-strapped organization. Praise for Azerbaijan’s “multiculturalism” and “tolerance” soon ensued. Even before Azerbaijan’s donations, UNESCO’s leaders had largely ignored the destruction in Nakhichevan, despite <a href="https://www.djulfa.com/20061017-PR_UNESCO_E.pdf" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 215, 248); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">documentation</a> submitted by the Parliamentary Group Switzerland-Armenia and Research on Armenian Architecture. Moreover, following his 2009 retirement, UNESCO director-general Kōichirō Matsuura joined Azerbaijan’s state-managed “Baku International Multiculturalism Centre” as a <a href="http://old.multikulturalizm.gov.az/board-trustees-baku-nternational-center-multiculturalism/" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 215, 248); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">trustee</a>, while his successor Irina Bokova <a href="https://en.unesco.org/news/baku-forum-intercultural-dialogue-calls-enhanced-cooperation" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 215, 248); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">frequented</a> Baku for President Aliyev’s “World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue.” Allegations of foul play lack hard evidence, however, perhaps except for <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Guardian</em>’s September 4, 2017 <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/04/uk-at-centre-of-secret-3bn-azerbaijani-money-laundering-and-lobbying-scheme" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 215, 248); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">report</a> “UK at centre of secret $3bn Azerbaijani money laundering and lobbying scheme.” This investigative article by Luke Harding, Caelainn Barr, and Dina Nagapetyants cited questionable payments to Bokova’s husband. Ethical or not, the UNESCO-Azerbaijan rapport has undoubtedly contributed to international silence over the destruction of Nakhichevan’s Armenian past. But Baku’s UNESCO charm offensive, argues Aliyev critic Arif Yunus, also promotes domestic obedience: “Nothing projects the Aliyev dictatorship’s power to Azerbaijani dissidents like committing cultural genocide in Nakhichevan then showering in international praises of tolerance.”</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Pursuits of Justice</span></div>
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<a href="https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/06YEREVAN230_a.html" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 215, 248); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">Unable</a> to hold Azerbaijan accountable for the purge of Nakhichevan’s Armenian cultural heritage, Armenians and their allies have rethought what forms justice might take. In 2010, Armenia convinced a multi-state UNESCO committee to declare “the symbolism and craftsmanship of khachkars” <a href="https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/armenian-cross-stones-art-symbolism-and-craftsmanship-of-khachkars-00434" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 215, 248); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">part</a> of UN-designated Intangible Cultural Heritage — a posthumous yet implicit tribute to Djulfa.</div>
<figure aria-describedby="caption-attachment-482215" class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_482215" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: none; height: auto; margin: 1.5rem auto; max-width: 100%; width: 1080px;"><img alt="" class="wp-image-482215 size-large" height="1593" sizes="(max-width: 1080px) 100vw, 1080px" src="https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/17-1080x1593.jpg" srcset="https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/17-1080x1593.jpg 1080w, https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/17-720x1062.jpg 720w, https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/17-360x531.jpg 360w, https://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/17.jpg 1400w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 1080px;" width="1080" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-482215" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #999999; font-size: 0.7em; letter-spacing: 0.02em; line-height: 1.4em; margin-top: 0.5rem;">An original Djulfa khachkar, one of a dozen survivors removed from Nakhichevan during or before the Soviet era, displayed at The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Armenia!</em> exhibit (September 22, 2018-January 13, 2019), on loan from Armenia’s Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin (© Simon Maghakyan, courtesy Djulfa Virtual Memorial and Museum | Djulfa.com)</figcaption></figure><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.05em; letter-spacing: 0.01em; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 1em auto 1.05em; max-width: 630px;">
Several replica Djulfa khachkars have been erected across the world, including at the Council of Europe <a href="https://www.panorama.am/en/news/2018/01/24/Armenia-presents-khachkar-to-Council-of-Europe/1894816" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 215, 248); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">headquarters</a> in Strasbourg, France and the Colorado State <a href="https://armenianweekly.com/2015/05/15/colorado-khachkar/" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 215, 248); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">Capitol</a> in Denver, US. The Australian Catholic University’s former <a href="https://irci.acu.edu.au/julfa-cemetery-digital-repatriation-project/" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 215, 248); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">Julfa Cemetery Digital Repatriation Project</a>, the brainchild of Judith Crispin, aimed to virtually recreate Djulfa with 3D imaging technologies. The Project was created in part “to demonstrate to those who destroy world heritage that their efforts are in vain,” states digital humanities specialist Harold Short. Yet remote restoration of Nakhichevan’s lost Armenian monuments or alternative measures of accountability fall short of unanimous approval. “The ultimate hope for in-situ reconstruction is reconciliation,” explains Brian Daniels, the University of Pennsylvania’s Cultural Heritage Center director. Daniels, who has <a href="https://docs.house.gov/committee/calendar/ByEvent.aspx?EventID=106166" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 215, 248); box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;">testified</a> before the US Congress about issues of cultural destruction, notes that expert conservation efforts must begin with at least some material remains, however small. But even meeting this requirement would be “an extraordinary difficulty in Azerbaijan.”</div>
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Today, the scholar Argam Ayvazyan — like all those of Armenian ethnicity and background — is banned by Azerbaijan’s government from visiting his native Nakhichevan. Lamenting the loss of the monuments he so lovingly documented for decades, he decries the world’s silence. “Oil-rich Azerbaijan’s annihilation of Nakhichevan’s Armenian past make it worse than ISIS, yet UNESCO and most Westerners have looked away.” ISIS-demolished sites like Palmyra can be renovated, Ayvazyan argues, but “all that remain of Nakhichevan’s Armenian churches and cross-stones that survived earthquakes, caliphs, Tamerlane, and Stalin are my photographs.”</div>
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Rafi Topalianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13947155792238329401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7951287115436886244.post-66627240325763323122019-03-16T08:37:00.002-07:002019-03-16T08:37:43.470-07:00PETER BALAKIAN---ARMENIAN GENOCIDE SCHOLAR<div class="regular-header" style="color: #323232; font-family: Lato, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; position: relative;">
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By Christopher Atamian</h3>
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Peter Balakian, poet, memoirist and scholar, is the author of seven volumes of poetry, four books of prose and several collaborative translations. His 1997 New York Times best-selling book “Black Dog of Fate,” winner of the PEN/Albrand Prize for memoir, is widely credited with setting a young generation of Armenian-Americans on a path toward re-discovering their roots.</div>
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Balakian’s “The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America’s Response” won the 2005 Raphael Lemkin Prize and was a New York Times Notable Book and a New York Times best seller. His translation (with the late Aris Sevag) of Bishop Grigoris Balakian’s “Armenian Golgotha” has been likened to the Holocaust memoirs of Primo Levi and Elie Wiesel. </div>
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Peter Balakian holds a Ph.D. from Brown University in American civilization and has been teaching at Colgate University in the state of New York since 1980, where he is currently Donald M. and Constance H. Rebar professor of humanities in the department of English and director of creative writing. He was the first director of Colgate’s Center for Ethics and World Societies. </div>
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<strong>Aleppo: Terminus Armenicus and Jesse Jackson, a righteous American </strong></div>
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Balakian’s maternal grandmother Nafina Shekerlemedjian Chilinguirian (later Aroosian), who was from a wealthy family in Diyarbakir, escaped almost certain death during the 1915 deportations of Armenians. Nafina’s entire family, except her husband and two small children, had been massacred in the first week of August of 1915. Nafina, along with other surviving Armenians of the region, was put on a forced, hundreds-of-miles-long march through southeast Anatolia’s arid land. The scorching sun burned above them as they were forced marched to the Der-ez-Zor desert in eastern Syria. Nafina’s husband died on the march. </div>
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But even those who managed to escape murder, abduction and rape along the way were not guaranteed survival once they arrived.</blockquote>
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In Der-ez-Zor, a place like Auschwitz for Armenians, over 400,000 people would perish from starvation, disease or murder.</div>
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But it was also in Syria that thanks to the efforts of a committed number of Armenian priests and a few American and European diplomats and missionaries, who ran orphanages in Aleppo, that some Armenians were able to survive. Aleppo had always been an important diasporan center, where Armenians have lived since the ancient times. By the time Nafina made her way to the city at the age of 25, with her daughters Gladys and Alice, Syria’s largest city had been overrun by over 100,000 Armenian refugees, most of them dying of starvation, typhus or malaria.</div>
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<span style="font-size: 12px;"><em> Nafina Shekerlemedjian Chilinguirian with her daughters Gladys and Alice</em></span></div>
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Shortly after arriving in Aleppo Nafina came down with typhus, and lay near death at a local hospital. Her daughters watched, helpless, but Nafina seemed to possess a preternatural will to live. She recovered and continued raising her daughters, working as a seamstress to support them. She enrolled the girls in an Armenian school run by the clergy of the Forty Martyrs Church. “These Armenian priests,” says Balakian, “were heroic in starting orphanages for the surviving children. In some way you could say they were instrumental in helping to save a generation of Armenians.” </div>
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Nafina had no family left in the Middle East, and conditions in Syria were worsening. Everywhere she turned she saw only death and destruction: entire families and clans murdered, historical villages erased from the map. Typhus and malaria were claiming the lives of remaining Armenian women and children. But how could her family escape Aleppo? </div>
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Nafina heard that Jesse B. Jackson, the U.S. consul, a humane and ethical man, had been helping Armenians. He had cabled the U.S. Ambassador Henry Morgenthau on several occasions in order to keep him abreast of the mass-killings and atrocities. He urged for the United States to intervene and provide relief, financial and otherwise, for the survivors: “I am trying to keep those in the outside towns alive, also, but it is a terrible task, as many persons have been beaten to death, and some hung or shot [by Turkish gendarmes] for having distributed relief funds,” Balakian quotes Jackson in his book, “Black Dog of Fate.” </div>
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Directly or indirectly, Jackson was responsible for saving countless Armenian lives. Nafina implored him to help her: he took a liking to the young woman and lent his support. </blockquote>
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In a letter dated September 11, 1916, that he penned to Nafina’s brother-in-law Frank Basmajian in Boston, Jackson wrote: </div>
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<em>“Sir: </em></div>
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<em>Your sister, Nafina Shekerlemedjian, is in Aleppo, and being in need, has asked me to write you </em></div>
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<em>and request that you send her some money. This may be done best through the American Embassy in Constantinople and this Consulate, by telegraph. </em></div>
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<em>Respectfully yours,</em></div>
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(Signed) <em>J.B. Jackson, Consul”</em></div>
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Thanks to Jackson’s intervention Nafina was able to connect with her deceased husband’s relatives, the Basmajians, in the United States. Soon money arrived from her half-brother Thomas Shekerlemedjian in New Jersey, allowing Nafina to persevere through the dire circumstances of post-Genocide Middle East. Nafina planned her escape to America, despite the fact that in the spring of 1920, passports became hard to come by. In a letter to Thomas, Nafina wrote: “My task in very difficult, until late night I walk around to try and get my passport. Wherever ever you go, they ask you for money. Before it was very easy to get a passport, but now I suffer the utmost difficulties, and until now I don’t know if I will be able to rise and go because after the closing of the borders, there is fear on all sides. Only the road to Beirut is open, and even that is doubtful.”</div>
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<em>Close-ups of the passport Nafina was able to obtain for herself and her daughters with the help of U.S. Consul Jesse B. Jackson. The back of the document states: “The bearer is to depart for The United States of America between April 30, 1920 and July 31, 1920. American Consulate, Aleppo, Syria, April 26, 1920.” The document bears Jesse B. Jackson’s original signature.</em></div>
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Through hard work and an iron will, Nafina made it to America, where she eventually flourished and helped to create one of the Armenian Diaspora’s most celebrated families. “For me, my grandmother’s gift is irredeemable. First, against all odds, she got us here. Furthermore, for me as a writer, what she transmitted has been central to my life; she conveyed to me a complex thread of her post-traumatic mind and experience; she transmitted to me a vision of her survivor experience though folk tales, dreams and encoded symbols; and her unconditional love was a foundation of my life. But without help and some luck, she wouldn’t have made it.</div>
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And the humanity of the U.S. Consul Jesse B. Jackson was essential to my grandmother’s survival. </blockquote>
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He was her conduit to the West, to America. It shows us that bystanders make a difference; that lives are saved by individuals acting on their ethical instincts,” says Balakian. </div>
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Nearly 100 years later, as bombs rain down on Aleppo today and decimate the once-prosperous 150,000-strong Syrian Armenian community as well as the rest of Syria, it’s important to remember that from 1915 to 1923, Aleppo was the stage of another disaster. Thus it is perhaps fitting to remember the brave people who helped a generation of Armenians survive the Genocide and preserve a part of Western Armenia and its 2,500 year-old culture. It was this ethical spirit that helped save Nafina Shekerlemedjian in 1915; it is this spirit that is needed as much as ever today.</div>
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<em><strong>The story is verified by the 100 LIVES Research Team. </strong></em></div>
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Rafi Topalianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13947155792238329401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7951287115436886244.post-48271413265839537352019-03-13T07:57:00.001-07:002019-03-13T07:57:16.343-07:00Rabbi Schneier Takes Evangelical Pastors On a Propaganda Tour of Azerbaijan<div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Bayon; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
BY HARUT SASSOUNIAN</div>
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For several years, the government of Azerbaijan and its diplomats overseas have gone to great lengths to win over Jews worldwide, American Jewish organizations, and Israel.</div>
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Azerbaijan is simply copying Turkey’s sinister behavior that until recently wooed Jewish organizations in the United States and Israel’s government to block the passage of a congressional resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide. Many Jewish groups ended their immoral cooperation with Turkey, after Turkish President Rejep Tayyip Erdogan began making anti-Semitic statements and threatening Israel.</div>
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Just like Turkey, Azerbaijan’s outreach to Jewish organizations and Israel is based on the typical anti-Semitic belief that Jews control American politicians and it is therefore in Azerbaijan’s interest to be on the good side of ‘powerful’ Jews. According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, “many countries nurture their relationship to Israel in hopes of finding favor with influential American Jewish organizations who will in turn speak well of them to the U.S. government.”</div>
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Furthermore, Azerbaijan’s pro-Jewish efforts are based on the fact that it purchases billions of dollars of modern weapons from Israel. In return, Azerbaijan sells a large amount of oil to Israel. There have been also intelligence reports that Azerbaijan has provided Israel with several bases on its border with Iran, should Israel decide to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities.</div>
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<img alt="Rabbi Marc Schneier met with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev during a visit in 2015" class="size-full wp-image-178292" height="384" src="http://asbarez.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Rabbi-Schneier-meets-with-President-of-Azerbaijan-%E2%80%93-May-19-2015-800x500.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" width="576" /><div class="wp-caption-text" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 5px;">
Rabbi Marc Schneier met with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev during a visit in 2015</div>
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The latest example of the collaboration between American Jewish leaders and Azerbaijan is the visit to Baku on March 3-8 by a group of U.S. evangelical pastors led by New York-based Orthodox Rabbi Marc Schneier “to promote interfaith dialogue and highlight cooperation with Israel,” according to the Associated Press. This was the first ever evangelical delegation to visit the Muslim Shiite nation. The Rabbi described Azerbaijan as “the most beloved and respected Muslim country in the eyes of the Jewish American community,” reported Trend, an Azeri news agency. Schneier spoke at an event in the U.S. Congress last year celebrating the close friendship between Azerbaijan and Israel.</div>
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The group of 12 U.S. evangelical pastors met Pres. Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan, the foreign minister, Muslim Sheikhs, local church leaders, and Israel’s ambassador. Rabbi Schneier told the Associated Press that Pres. Aliyev “announced during the delegation’s visit that the country’s first-ever Jewish cultural center would be built in Baku with Kosher dining options and a hotel to accommodate Jewish guests.” Schneier heads the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding based in New York and founded the Hampton Synagogue in Westhampton Beach, New York. As a sign of their cozy relationship, Azerbaijan’s national airline flies directly to Tel Aviv and Pres. Aliyev hosted Israel’s prime minister in 2016.</div>
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Not surprisingly, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov took advantage of his meeting with the evangelical leaders to disparage Armenia and distort the facts of the Artsakh conflict. He said, “the recent statements of the Armenian leadership highlighted that such statements undermine the peace process.”</div>
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Pastor Adam Mesa, who leads the Abundant Living Family Church in Rancho Cucamonga, California, told the Associated Press that it was his first time in a Muslim majority country. The pastor said he was encouraged to take part in the trip because of Azerbaijan’s supportive Israeli stance and interreligious efforts. “It’s incredible that a Muslim majority country is the one that has to actually lead the charge on religious dialogue and community and solidarity.”</div>
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Rabbi Schneier confirmed to the Associated Press the political agenda behind the religious group’s visit: “from a political point of view, listen there is no question you know that Azerbaijan is looking to strengthen its relationship with the U.S. administration, with the United States Congress. Israel is very much a conduit to that.”</div>
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As in the case of Cong. Alcee Hastings, Azerbaijan seems to have picked another disgraced individual to disseminate its propaganda. The 60-year-old Rabbi Schneier has been married six times, the last on March 2017. In February 2018, the State of Florida ordered Schneier to pay $5,000 a month for $64,594 in unpaid child support he owed to his third wife for the care of their 19-year-old son. Rabbi Schneier was expelled in June 2015 by the Rabbinical Council of America for breaching the code of ethics by carrying on an extramarital relationship. In June 2010, the Rabbi announced to his congregation that he was suffering from “bipolar disorder.”</div>
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According to Wikipedia, “under pressure from his congregation for his multiple divorces and philandering, Schneier resigned in 2016 from his pulpit position at the Hampton Synagogue, which he had founded in 1990. Congregants had threatened to withhold pledges and payments until he left the synagogue.”</div>
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The New York Post reported that after cheating on his third wife, Rabbi Schneier in 2006 married Tobi Rubinstein, “a sexy worshipper,” who became wife No. 4. “In 2010, Tobi hired a private investigator who turned up explicit photos of her husband and Gitty Leiner, a then-30-something worshipper, getting hot and heavy in the Holy Land on what Schneier had told his wife was a routine business trip. Marriage No. 4 ended in divorce soon after.” The Rabbi ended up marrying Gitty Leiner in 2013 — wife No. 5. The couple had a child in 2014, “but then in 2015, Schneir was caught dining out in Queens with sexy young Simi Teitelbaum” who became his sixth wife in 2017! Interestingly, The Post reported that “Schneier explained away his unholy extramarital hookups by saying he was mentally ill and seeking treatment.”</div>
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Rabbi’s ex-wife Toby Gotesman told the Post: “When I left him, he was making $800,000 … that included a $500,000 salary, plus hundreds of thousands in additional compensation, including mortgage payments on his 5,000-square-foot Westhampton Beach home, said to be valued at around $3 million.”</div>
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Rabbi Schneier’s visit to Azerbaijan last week was not his first. He has been there several times in recent years on propaganda tours. One wonders if the Rabbi has received any compensation from Pres. Aliyev for his ‘valuable’ services. His multiple trips to Azerbaijan makes the Rabbi look more like a lobbyist for Azerbaijan than a religious figure!</div>
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I would urge Armenian evangelical church leaders to contact the 12 pastors who visited Baku last week in order to counter the propaganda they were fed against Armenia and Artsakh. I would also like to know if these pastors and Rabbi Schneier came back from Baku with suitcases full of the usual Azeri “gifts” of caviar, rugs, and other valuable items!</div>
Rafi Topalianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13947155792238329401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7951287115436886244.post-60052533079761125352019-03-11T09:34:00.002-07:002019-03-11T09:34:26.338-07:00ANCA’s Raphael Lemkin Policy Lecture Focuses on Transitional Justice<div class="slideshow-window jetpack-slideshow slideshow-black" data-autostart="1" data-gallery="[{"src":"https:\/\/armenianweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Henry_theriault_LemkinSeries_1000.jpg","id":"65658","title":"Henry_theriault_LemkinSeries_1000","alt":"","caption":"","itemprop":"image"},{"src":"https:\/\/armenianweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Tereza_Yerimyan_LemkinSeries_1000.jpg","id":"65661","title":"Tereza_Yerimyan_LemkinSeries_1000","alt":"","caption":"","itemprop":"image"},{"src":"https:\/\/armenianweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Lemkin_Series_crowd_1000.jpg","id":"65659","title":"Lemkin_Series_crowd_1000","alt":"","caption":"","itemprop":"image"},{"src":"https:\/\/armenianweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/sarbanes_aramian_rhh_1000.jpg","id":"65660","title":"sarbanes_aramian_rhh_1000","alt":"","caption":"","itemprop":"image"}]" data-trans="fade" id="gallery-65657-1-slideshow" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageGallery" style="background-color: #222222; border-radius: 10px; border: 20px solid rgb(34, 34, 34); box-sizing: content-box; font-family: Roboto; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; height: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; overflow: hidden; padding-bottom: 381.391px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 30px !important; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; z-index: 1;">
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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Inspired by the recent adoption of the landmark Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act, the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) launched the Raphael Lemkin Policy Series with a lecture by Dr. Henry Theriault, President of the International Association of Genocide Scholars. The series aims to foster an ongoing Capitol Hill conversation among legislative, civil society, academic and other stakeholders about preventing and punishing genocide.</div>
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“It is wonderfully appropriate that this policy series is named for Raphael Lemkin, the man who first described the crime of genocide as a specific and distinct act, the effort to exterminate a whole people based on ethnicity, nationality, religion, or some other trait,” noted Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA), who was today’s host. “Raphael Lemkin did the world and the cause of fundamental human rights a great service in his work, and that is the work that we carry forth today in fighting for the full recognition of the Armenian Genocide. Only by confronting the truth of past genocides can we hope to respond to modern day mass violence. Today’s lecture is an important step in that fight,” concluded Congressman Schiff. U.S. Representative John Sarbanes (D-MD), a leading member of both the Hellenic and Armenian caucasus was on hand to show his support.</div>
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ANCA Programs Director Tereza Yerimyan welcomed Congressional staff, representatives of the Embassy of Armenia, Republic of Artsakh Representative, His Excellency Robert Avetisyan, former U.S. Ambassador to Armenia John Evans, Genocide Watch Founder and President Dr. Greg Stanton, Raphael Lemkin expert Jim Fussell, In Defense of Christians President Toufic Baaklini and Greater Washington DC area human rights supporters to the lecture. “In the wake of Congress passing and the President signing into law, the Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act of 2018, a measure that states that it is U.S. policy to regard the prevention of genocide and other atrocity crimes as a core national security interest and a core moral responsibility, we see signs of progress, but also the need for more serious conversations on Capitol Hill about the prevention and punishment of genocide,” explained Yerimyan. “Today, we look to begin that conversation, with Dr. Henry Theriault, President of the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) and Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs at Worcester State University.”</div>
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“We do have a challenge. The world is very different from Lemkin’s time (who died in 1959), and yet, genocide is still a fundamental, incessant problem that we face. ‘Never again’ really seems to mean ‘ever again,’” began Dr. Theriault, who noted that there has been a steady stream of genocides which have occurred from the 19th century all the way through to the 21st century. “But Lemkin, if there is one part of his legacy, in the midst of the darkest challenge, you find some things to hold on to, that are signs of progress.” Dr. Theriault cited as progress the 1988 U.S. ratification of the United Nations Genocide Convention, the first prosecution of genocide in 1998, key interventions in Kosovo and East Timor, last year’s Congressional passage of the Elie Wiesel Genocide Prevention Act, and a number of transitional justice initiatives.</div>
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“There needs to be a legitimate, serious fundamental process for dealing with past mass violence that actually addresses the problems and, I would argue, includes a reparative process. That means the perpetrator group needs to give up the gains of the genocide and assume responsibility for helping to reconstitute the victim group as much as possible,” said Dr. Theriault, because, he stressed, without justice, “the message to other would-be perpetrators is absolutely clear: Genocide pays and you can just go on with it, and no one will do anything about it.”</div>
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Commenting on two instances of where U.S. policy helped stop genocide and sought to address genocide denial, Dr. Theriault first cited the efforts of former Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) and Congressman Jim McGovern (D-MA) who led efforts to stop the genocide in East Timor by ending support for and arms sales to the perpetrating regime in the early 1990’s. Then, citing the ongoing U.S. policy of not properly referencing the Armenian Genocide, Dr. Theriault spotlighted the courage of former Ambassador to Armenia John Evans in making specific, accurate references to this crime, for which he paid the heavy political price of being recalled from office. “By saying a word [genocide], you can create an ethical challenge that wasn’t just about Armenians but was really about how the U.S. addresses the reality of mass violence. It was the legacy of Morgenthau. It was the moment where we used Lemkin’s word and in doing that, it brought about a change [. . .] — a moment where people actually felt that for the first time somebody was actually standing up to acknowledge the history in an official way.”</div>
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Dr. Theriault concluded, “The lesson of Lemkin that we can take is that we are in a position to do something about genocide. It seems daunting. It took Lemkin decades to get a law against genocide. It took the world half a century to begin to deal with genocide. These are lifetime commitments – but making that commitment and keeping that commitment […] maybe we will have a genocide-free world because of the things that people in this room are doing now.”</div>
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The Lemkin series is made possible by the ANCA Endowment Fund and the generosity of the Aramian Family – led by sisters Sue, the late Martha, and the late Margo – long-time benefactors of educational and charitable projects in the Armenian homeland and the diaspora.</div>
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The lecture was streamed live on the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ancagrassroots/videos/372591410242823/" style="border: 0px; color: #e64946; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">ANCA Facebook page.</a></div>
Rafi Topalianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13947155792238329401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7951287115436886244.post-48124293580652653512019-03-02T09:24:00.000-08:002019-03-02T09:24:06.675-08:00Monumental loss: Azerbaijan and 'the worst cultural genocide of the 21st century'<header class="content__head content__head--article tonal__head tonal__head--tone-feature" style="background-color: white; color: #121212; display: grid; font-family: "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; grid-template-areas: "labels headline" "meta main-media" ". standfirst"; grid-template-columns: 10rem 1fr; margin-left: -10rem;"><figure class="media-primary media-content media-primary--showcase " data-component="image" data-media-id="420ee569818f1173dc757086ca7697a878125c92" id="img-1" itemprop="associatedMedia image" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" style="grid-area: main-media / main-media / main-media / main-media; margin: 0px; max-width: unset; position: relative; width: 58.75rem; z-index: 2;"><a class="article__img-container js-gallerythumbs" data-is-ajax="" data-link-name="Launch Article Lightbox" href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/mar/01/monumental-loss-azerbaijan-cultural-genocide-khachkars?fbclid=IwAR2auejLRE4Z__WLIbX3Cp_kV8GIwchc7KIp1dcCED-qOwXyRIegkYh_mfo#img-1" style="background: transparent; color: #a1845c; cursor: pointer; touch-action: manipulation;"><div>
<picture><img alt="Some of Djulfa’s thousands of khachkars, circa 16th century, photographed in the 1970s, before their destruction. " class="maxed responsive-img" itemprop="contentUrl" src="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/420ee569818f1173dc757086ca7697a878125c92/0_153_1080_648/master/1080.jpg?width=300&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=fb78c660a2c866afb390e22a2413f44c" style="border: 0px; display: block; height: auto; width: 940px;" /></picture></div>
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The 21st century’s most extensive campaign of cultural cleansing to date may not have happened in Syria, as you might assume, but a largely ignored part of the Transcaucasian plateau.</div>
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According to <a class="u-underline" data-link-name="in body link" href="https://hyperallergic.com/482353/a-regime-conceals-its-erasure-of-indigenous-armenian-culture/" style="background: transparent; border-bottom: 0.0625rem solid rgb(220, 220, 220); color: #6b5840; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none !important; touch-action: manipulation; transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out 0s;">a lengthy report published</a> in the art journal <a class="u-underline" data-link-name="in body link" href="https://hyperallergic.com/" style="background: transparent; border-bottom: 0.0625rem solid rgb(220, 220, 220); color: #6b5840; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none !important; touch-action: manipulation; transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out 0s;">Hyperallergic</a> in February, the Azerbaijani government has, over the past 30 years, been engaging in a systematic erasure of the country’s historic Armenian heritage. This official, albeit covert, destruction of cultural and religious artefacts exceeds Islamic State’s self-promotional <a class="u-underline" data-link-name="in body link" href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2016/apr/08/palmyra-after-islamic-state-isis-visual-guide" style="background: transparent; border-bottom: 0.0625rem solid rgb(220, 220, 220); color: #6b5840; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none !important; touch-action: manipulation; transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out 0s;">dynamiting of Palmyra</a>, according to the report’s authors, Simon Maghakyan and Sarah Pickman.</div>
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Maghakyan, a Denver-based analyst, activist and lecturer in political science, labels it “the greatest cultural genocide of the 21st century”. He grew up with stories about his father visiting a beautiful, mysterious place called Djulfa. Located in the Azerbaijani enclave of Nakhichevan, on the banks of the Araxes river, it was the site of a medieval necropolis, the largest ancient Armenian cemetery in the world. Visitors through the centuries, from Alexandre de Rhodes to William Ouseley, had noted the remote location’s splendour.</div>
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At its height, the graveyard counted around 10,000 khachkars, or cross stones, standing to attention, the earliest dating back to the 6th century. Unique to Armenian burial traditions, these distinctive tall steles of pinkish red and yellow stone feature crosses, figurative scenes and symbols, and highly decorative relief patterning. By the time the Soviets formalised the autonomous regions of Nagorno-Karabakh and Nakhichevan in 1920, after decades of plunder, less than 3,000 khachkars remained. Subsequent episodic vandalism led <a class="u-underline" data-link-name="in body link" href="https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/armenian-cross-stones-art-symbolism-and-craftsmanship-of-khachkars-00434" style="background: transparent; border-bottom: 0.0625rem solid rgb(220, 220, 220); color: #6b5840; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none !important; touch-action: manipulation; transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out 0s;">Unesco in </a><a class="u-underline" data-link-name="in body link" href="https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/armenian-cross-stones-art-symbolism-and-craftsmanship-of-khachkars-00434" style="background: transparent; border-bottom: 0.0625rem solid rgb(220, 220, 220); color: #6b5840; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none !important; touch-action: manipulation; transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out 0s;">2000 to order</a> that the monuments be preserved.</div>
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<figcaption class="caption caption--img" style="color: #767676; font-family: "Guardian Text Sans Web", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, "Lucida Grande", sans-serif; font-size: 0.75rem; line-height: 1rem; max-width: 32.5rem; min-height: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.375rem; padding-left: 0px; padding-top: 0.5rem; top: 100%;">The New Tears of Araxes, a short film by Simon Maghakyan and Sarah Pickman showing the destruction of Djulfa. <a class="u-underline" data-link-name="in body link" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZu2zqFE_gI" style="background: transparent; border-bottom: 0.0625rem solid rgb(220, 220, 220); color: #6b5840; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none !important; touch-action: manipulation; transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out 0s;">Watch it on YouTube here</a>.</figcaption></figure><div style="margin-bottom: 1rem; padding: 0px;">
But that had little effect. On 15 December 2005, the prelate of northern Iran’s Armenian church, Bishop Nshan Topouzian, filmed – from across the river in Iran – the Azerbaijani military methodically laying waste with sledgehammers to all that remained of Djulfa. The soldiers loaded the debris on to truck beds and dumped it into the Araxes.</div>
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The footage can be found in a 2006 film entitled <a class="u-underline" data-link-name="in body link" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZu2zqFE_gI" style="background: transparent; border-bottom: 0.0625rem solid rgb(220, 220, 220); color: #6b5840; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none !important; touch-action: manipulation; transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out 0s;">The New Tears of Araxes</a> posted on YouTube, edited by Maghakyan and scripted by Pickman. It is chilling. Satellite research shows that, in 2003, the uneven, textured landscape was dotted with multiple small structures. By 2009, it is flattened and empty.</div>
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The Azerbaijani government has repeatedly refused international inspectors entry to the site, it has not responded to requests for comment – including for this article – and it has denied Armenians ever lived in Nakhichevan. Such stonewalling renders independent verification difficult, but the sheer amount of forensic evidence that Maghakyan and Pickman present makes a rock-solid case for at least not being deterred. Their contention is that the dramatic events at Djulfa marked the final stage of a broader campaign to denude Nakhichevan of its indigenous Armenian Christian past.</div>
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Underlining quite how little international attention has been paid to this story, most of the material on which this report is based was gathered not by official bodies but by individuals, who, like Maghakyan and Pickman, have operated on their own dime.</div>
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<figcaption class="caption caption--img caption caption--img" itemprop="description" style="color: #767676; float: left; font-family: "Guardian Text Sans Web", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, "Lucida Grande", sans-serif; font-size: 0.75rem; line-height: 1rem; max-width: 13.125rem; min-height: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.5rem; padding-left: 0px; padding-top: 0.5rem; top: 100%; width: 8.75rem;"><span class="inline-triangle inline-icon " style="fill: rgb(161, 132, 92);"><svg class="inline-triangle__svg inline-icon__svg" height="10" viewbox="0 0 11 10" width="11"><path d="M5.5 0L11 10H0z" fill-rule="evenodd"></path></svg> </span>Armenian art researcher Argam Ayvazyan in 1981, next to a 14th-century khachkar in Nors, near his birthplace. Photograph: © Argam Ayvazyan archives, 1970-81</figcaption></figure><div style="margin-bottom: 1rem; padding: 0px;">
Local researcher Argam Ayvazyan, now exiled in Armenia, photographed 89 Armenian churches, 5,840 khachkars, and 22,000 tombstones between 1964 and 1987 – which the report states have all disappeared. A Scotsman named Steven Sim travelled on a whim to eastern Turkey in 1984 and has taken in excess of 80,000 slides and photographs over the past 35 years documenting ancient Armenian heritage across the region: “It was the nearest faraway place to Britain, at the time, that was cheap to go to,” he says. He’s been regularly returning ever since, amassing a 1,000-tome library – with many books by Ayvazyan – mostly on Armenian architecture.</div>
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Azerbaijan’s erstwhile national treasure <a class="u-underline" data-link-name="in body link" href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/mar/30/azerbaijan-akram-aylisli-airport-incroci-di-civilta-festival" style="background: transparent; border-bottom: 0.0625rem solid rgb(220, 220, 220); color: #6b5840; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none !important; touch-action: manipulation; transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out 0s;">Akram Aylisli</a>, meanwhile, has lived under virtual house arrest since 2013, when he published writing critical of his government’s actions. He first protested what he termed “evil vandalism” in a 1997 telegram to the country’s president. “Such senseless action,” he wrote, “will be perceived by the world community as a manifestation of disrespect for religious and moral values.”</div>
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Sim points out that the Hyperallergic report fails to adequately explain the artistic value of what has been lost. Armenian architecture is unique, he says – deceptively minimal in appearance but highly sophisticated structurally and built to withstand the landscape’s seismic volatility. He describes the diminutive churches as more sculpture than building; single-volume dome-topped structures that look like they’ve been cast in stone. The khachkars, meanwhile, are regional, the meaning of the iconography and symbolism they display largely lost to time. That loss is most keenly felt with the destruction of the Djulfa cross stones, which featured scenes of daily medieval life – people riding horses, carrying water jugs, or picnicking in gardens, the food laid out on carpets – and strange mythical creatures including a four-legged hooved beast with two bodies, a single head and wings. “I’ve looked at thousands of khachkars throughout Armenia,” Sim says, “and I’ve only ever seen one which has this twin-bodied single-headed animal. But they all had them in Djulfa.”</div>
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The world rightfully recognised Isis’s wrecking of Palmyra as a war crime, an immense loss for the Syrian people and humanity as a whole. Maghakyan hopes Armenians and Azerbaijanis alike will see what has happened in Nakhichevan as a crime against all, committed by a ruthless regime. The Azerbaijani historian who acted as peer reviewer for the article, but wished to remain anonymous due to fears for their safety, told Maghakyan that the report was “for all of us, regardless of ethnicity and religion”, but especially for Azerbaijanis who had not lost or surrendered their conscience.</div>
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Rafi Topalianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13947155792238329401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7951287115436886244.post-9746246036736491762019-03-02T09:21:00.001-08:002019-03-02T09:21:10.266-08:00What Unifies Us as A Nation--ARMENIA<div class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_178024" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Bayon; font-size: 15px; max-width: 100%; width: 586px;">
<img alt="Young Armenians waving the tri-color in Yerevan" class="size-full wp-image-178024" height="384" src="http://asbarez.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/armenia-flag-day-state-symbols.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" width="576" /><div class="wp-caption-text" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 5px;">
Young Armenians waving the tri-color in Yerevan</div>
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BY STEVEN J. DER-HAROUTUNIAN</div>
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The recent call for replacing the national anthem, Mer Hairenik, with the former Soviet Armenia anthem can only be viewed as an attempt to drive a wedge between our people when in fact the purpose of the revolution was to unify our nation.</div>
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When the obvious why is asked, we are given some dribble about musicality, why of course citing the trivial and impertinent armchair criticisms of some otherwise respected musicologists as the basis. While I will defer to others to scientifically debate the merit of one tune over another an anthem on the other hand cannot simply be judge in that manner. A National anthem doesn’t exist in a vacuum.</div>
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How an anthem can be solely measured by its musical quality 100 years after its adoption is shocking to the conscious of most of our nation who has answered the call of that anthem and its flag and all those symbols which represent Armenia and give character to the long struggle of the Armenian nation for its freedom and independence.</div>
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That anthem captures the sacrifice made by countless patriotic men women and children in that struggle for independence whether that was standing on the front at Saradarabad in 1918, standing in a hall in Davenport Iowa in 1946, on the cliffs of Shoushi in 1992 or holding onto the faith as a family in the darkest days in the early 1990s and standing firm on their small plot of land and choosing to stay without food, warmth and often without adequate shelter and tough it out as Armenians on their ancestral land rather than to leave for the chance of a better life in Russia, Europe or America as thousands of others did.</div>
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That anthem tells their story. A sacred story. A story of faith, struggle for freedom to live and if necessary die as Armenians for Armenia rather than to live and then to disappear among other nations un-moored to their land and lost like flotsam in the sea.</div>
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That is what is so confusing about this whole artificial controversy. Why is the musicality of the anthem now being challenged and called for replacing? Who are these adventurist political figures that today call for that?</div>
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Mer Hairenik does not need to win a Grammy award or be at the top of a charts to be our anthem. Its musicality is judged by what is represents and that is first and foremost freedom. No alternative song blessed by those who took away that freedom and held Armenia as a vassal state in their empire can ever ever be our anthem no matter how pleasant a rhythm and lyrics it have upon the ear, it is an insult to the heart and soul of our freedom and independence and what was spent and it spent to keep it in blood, sweat and treasure.</div>
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Which brings us to the question: Why would anyone raise this issue today?</div>
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When the Prime Minister has stated that repatriation, economic investment and military preparedness are the goals of this new government, how does replacing a 100-year-old national anthem accomplish any of those? In fact all this toxic divisive proposal has done is divide our nation, when in fact we should be standing united to face the real challenges our country faces such as population loss, unemployment and under employment, economic dependence and exploitation, poverty, inadequate healthcare and the need for a vigilant defense.</div>
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Today we as a nation look to leaders who will address those existential threats to Armenia and in doing so once again unify us as a nation. Mer Hairneik is one of the key symbols that does that.</div>
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Our nation looks to the Armenian government to responsibly act to unify us a nation not allow for dangerous opportunists to divide us.</div>
Rafi Topalianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13947155792238329401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7951287115436886244.post-29505859437553921162019-02-10T19:55:00.001-08:002019-02-10T19:55:22.108-08:00Macron Declares April 24 National Day of Armenian Genocide Commemoration in France<header class="entry-header" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Bayon; font-size: 13px;"><div class="entry-meta" style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); margin-bottom: 20px; padding-bottom: 20px;">
<time class="entry-date" datetime="2019-02-06T11:54:40+00:00" pubdate="">February 6, 2019</time></div>
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<img alt="French President Emmanuel Macron and the first lady, Brigitte, at the Dizidzernagapert Armenian Genocide Memorial Complex in October, 2018" class="size-full wp-image-177604" height="384" src="http://asbarez.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Macron-Memorial-1.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" width="576" /><div class="wp-caption-text" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 5px;">
French President Emmanuel Macron and the first lady, Brigitte, at the Dizidzernagapert Armenian Genocide Memorial Complex in October, 2018</div>
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<strong>French leader angers Turkey</strong></div>
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PARIS—President Emmanuel Macron of France on Tuesday said that his country would observe April 24 as “national day of commemoration of the Armenian Genocide.”</div>
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He made the declaration at the annual gala dinner of the Coordinating Council of Armenian Organization in France (CCAF), fulfilling a campaign promise he made while running for president in 2017.</div>
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“France is, first and foremost, the country that knows how to look history in the face, and was among the first to denounce the killing of the Armenian people in 1915 as genocide, calling it was, and in 2001 after a long struggle recognized it as law,” Macron told the crowd gathered at the CCAF gala.</div>
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France “will in the next weeks make April 24 a national day of commemoration of the Armenian genocide,” he added.</div>
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<img alt="French President Emmanuel Macron speaks at the CCAF annual gala on Feb, 5 in Paris" class="size-full wp-image-177610" height="384" src="http://asbarez.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/macronccaf1.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" width="576" /><div class="wp-caption-text" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 5px;">
French President Emmanuel Macron speaks at the CCAF annual gala on Feb, 5 in Paris</div>
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Macron and his wife, Brigitte, visited the Dzidzernagapert Armenian Genocide Memorial Complex in Yerevan while they were visiting Armenia during the Francophonie Summit in October.</div>
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Official Ankara was quick to express it anger at Macron’s statement, calling it “a political lie.”</div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="__youtube_prefs__" data-no-lazy="1" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll="" height="360" id="_ytid_77769" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rC_MfBVapxY?enablejsapi=1&autoplay=0&cc_load_policy=0&iv_load_policy=1&loop=0&modestbranding=0&rel=1&showinfo=1&theme=dark&color=red&autohide=2&controls=2&playsinline=0&" style="border-width: 0px; max-width: 100%;" width="640"></iframe></div>
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Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin “strongly condemned” Macron’s statement about the Armenian Genocide, reported the Anadolu news agency.</div>
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Kalin also accused Macron of “trying to rescue himself by using historical events as political fodder”.</div>
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Macron said he had informed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan about the decision to declare April 24th a National Day of Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide ahead of his announcement.</div>
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“We have disagreements over the fight against the Islamic State, human rights and civil liberties in Turkey and on the Genocide,” Macron was quoted as saying by Euronews.</div>
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<img alt="Legendary singer Charles Aznavour's son, Nicolas, presented French President Emmanuel Macron with a duduk during the CCAF gala in Paris on Feb. 5, 2019 (Photo by Jean Eckian)" class="size-full wp-image-177605" height="377" src="http://asbarez.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/963247.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" width="576" /><div class="wp-caption-text" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 5px;">
Legendary singer Charles Aznavour’s son, Nicolas, presented French President Emmanuel Macron with a duduk during the CCAF gala in Paris on Feb. 5, 2019 (Photo by Jean Eckian)</div>
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At the CCAF event, Macron paid tribute to the memory of legendary singer Charles Aznavour. In October, the French President led a state funeral for Aznavour, declaring him a national hero.</div>
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“Some heroes become French by spilling their blood. This son of Greek and Armenian immigrants, who never went to secondary school, knew instinctively that our most sacred sanctuary was the French language,” and used it like a poet, Macron said at Aznavour’s funeral ceremony. “In France, poets never die,” he added, standing before the coffin draped in the French national flag.</div>
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The French president also praised Aznavour’s “loyalty to his roots.” “Armenians of all countries, today I am thinking of you,” he said.</div>
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To honor his father’s legacy, Aznavour’s son, Nicolas, Aznavour, presented a duduk to Macron during the CCAF dinner on Tuesday.</div>
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Rafi Topalianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13947155792238329401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7951287115436886244.post-11376515836697726252019-02-01T08:02:00.001-08:002019-02-01T08:02:55.206-08:00ANCA-WR, Elected Officials Condemn Hateful Acts at Armenian Schools<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_65389" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Roboto; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 1.25rem auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 960px;"><img alt="" class="wp-image-65389 size-full" height="720" sizes="(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px" src="https://gakg5sv2p13fjr0q1hulkabr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/word-image-15.jpeg" srcset="https://gakg5sv2p13fjr0q1hulkabr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/word-image-15.jpeg 960w, https://gakg5sv2p13fjr0q1hulkabr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/word-image-15-300x225.jpeg 300w, https://gakg5sv2p13fjr0q1hulkabr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/word-image-15-768x576.jpeg 768w, https://gakg5sv2p13fjr0q1hulkabr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/word-image-15-678x509.jpeg 678w, https://gakg5sv2p13fjr0q1hulkabr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/word-image-15-326x245.jpeg 326w, https://gakg5sv2p13fjr0q1hulkabr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/word-image-15-80x60.jpeg 80w, https://gakg5sv2p13fjr0q1hulkabr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/word-image-15-632x474.jpeg 632w, https://gakg5sv2p13fjr0q1hulkabr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/word-image-15-536x402.jpeg 536w" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" width="960" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.75rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: 1.4; margin: 5px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The front entrance to Ferrahian School property, which includes Holy Martyrs Armenian Apostolic Church, Encino, Calif. (Image circulated on social media)</figcaption></figure><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Roboto; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.25rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
ENCINO, Calif.—Just over 12 hours after an unknown suspect allegedly hung Turkish flags at two Armenian private schools in southern California, the local Armenian community joined the Armenian National Committee of America-Western Region (ANCA-WR) and the Armenian Genocide Committee to condemn the vandalism.</div>
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Inside the gymnasium of Holy Martyrs Ferrahian High School in Encino, California on Tuesday evening, community leaders and school officials held a press conference hosted by the Armenian Genocide Committee to update the public and concerned families on the ongoing <a href="https://armenianweekly.com/2019/01/29/armenian-schools-in-california-vandalized-with-turkish-flags/" style="border: 0px; color: #e64946; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">police investigation</a>.</div>
<figure class="wp-caption alignleft" id="attachment_65399" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; display: inline; float: left; font-family: Roboto; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0.3125rem 1.25rem 1.25rem 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 292px;"><img alt="" class="size-full wp-image-65399" height="317" sizes="(max-width: 292px) 100vw, 292px" src="https://gakg5sv2p13fjr0q1hulkabr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/51014044_283597778989552_7387580569321734144_n.jpg" srcset="https://gakg5sv2p13fjr0q1hulkabr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/51014044_283597778989552_7387580569321734144_n.jpg 292w, https://gakg5sv2p13fjr0q1hulkabr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/51014044_283597778989552_7387580569321734144_n-276x300.jpg 276w" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" width="292" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.75rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: 1.4; margin: 5px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Gated entrance to AGBU Manoogian-Demirdjian School in Canoga Park, Calif. (Photo credit: thearmenianreport)</figcaption></figure><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Roboto; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.25rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Ferrahian principal Sossi Shanlian informed everyone that surveillance cameras captured a masked man allegedly trespassing onto school property at around four in the morning on Tuesday. Shanlian said the suspect, dressed in black clothing with face and head covered, jumped the front gate and started hanging Turkish flags in the parochial school’s courtyard. At Ferrahian, the Turkish flags were hanging feet away from the steps leading to the Armenian church on-site. The suspect also allegedly targeted AGBU Manoogian-Demirdjian School in Canoga Park, which is about five miles away.</div>
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After a preliminary investigation that failed to use the term “hate crime,” local law enforcement is now taking this matter seriously and designating it as such, according to the ANCA-WR. “I’m sorry to the Armenian community,” said Los Angeles Police Department captain Ernest Eskridge. “This is a very serious crime. We are doing our best to bring this suspect to justice.” Captain Eskridge also expressed his commitment to ensure the Armenian community is at peace.</div>
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But peace is something that’s been difficult to come by for the Armenian people. As the chair of the ANCA-WR Nora Hovsepian explained, one of the targets, Ferrahian, was founded almost 60 years ago by a generation of Armenian Genocide survivors. “This is a direct affront to them and to their descendants,” said Hovsepian. To this day, the government of Turkey continues to deny the events of 1915.</div>
<figure class="wp-caption alignright" id="attachment_65390" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; display: inline; float: right; font-family: Roboto; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0.3125rem 0px 1.25rem 1.25rem; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 300px;"><img alt="" class="wp-image-65390 size-medium" height="225" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" src="https://gakg5sv2p13fjr0q1hulkabr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/word-image-16-300x225.jpeg" srcset="https://gakg5sv2p13fjr0q1hulkabr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/word-image-16-300x225.jpeg 300w, https://gakg5sv2p13fjr0q1hulkabr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/word-image-16-768x575.jpeg 768w, https://gakg5sv2p13fjr0q1hulkabr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/word-image-16-1024x767.jpeg 1024w, https://gakg5sv2p13fjr0q1hulkabr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/word-image-16-678x509.jpeg 678w, https://gakg5sv2p13fjr0q1hulkabr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/word-image-16-326x245.jpeg 326w, https://gakg5sv2p13fjr0q1hulkabr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/word-image-16-80x60.jpeg 80w, https://gakg5sv2p13fjr0q1hulkabr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/word-image-16-1044x783.jpeg 1044w, https://gakg5sv2p13fjr0q1hulkabr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/word-image-16-632x474.jpeg 632w, https://gakg5sv2p13fjr0q1hulkabr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/word-image-16-536x402.jpeg 536w, https://gakg5sv2p13fjr0q1hulkabr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/word-image-16.jpeg 1280w" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" width="300" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.75rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: 1.4; margin: 5px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Street view from White Oak Avenue of Ferrahian High School (Photo sent to Armenian Weekly)</figcaption></figure><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Roboto; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.25rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
That lack of recognition is one reason why several local elected officials felt compelled to attend and stand in solidarity with the Armenian community. Los Angeles City Councilmember Paul Koretz, one of several proponents of Armenian Genocide recognition in the state, equated the hate crime at these two southern California Armenian schools to that of a Nazi swastika plastered on a Jewish school building. Los Angeles City Councilmember Bob Blumenfield, who represents Canoga Park, recalled Holocaust Remembrance Day in his comments saying, “This kind of hate is pervasive.”</div>
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School administrators say the young school community is shocked yet strong, despite the circumstances. Shanlian said this has become a teachable moment for the students. After a short assembly Tuesday morning, Shanlian said Ferrahian students “broke out in a spontaneous expression of their unity, love and respect for the Armenian culture and heritage.” They also took down all the Turkish flags and replaced them with even more Armenian flags.</div>
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Classes on Wednesday are still in session at both schools. Security will also be heightened; parents can expect to see police near and on-campus as they continue their investigation.</div>
Rafi Topalianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13947155792238329401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7951287115436886244.post-33278992244762127162019-01-27T15:35:00.001-08:002019-01-27T15:35:43.585-08:00The Turks in Germany Who Defeated Denial<div id="single-top" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #383737; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 14px;">
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<span class="td-post-date" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #aaaaaa; display: inline-block; line-height: 1.5; position: relative; top: 0px;"><time class="entry-date updated td-module-date" datetime="2018-12-20T15:30:54+00:00" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-transform: uppercase;">DECEMBER 20, 2018</time></span><div class="td-post-author-name" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.2; margin: 10px 0px; position: relative; top: 0px !important;">
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BERLIN — Since June 2, 2016, the German Bundestag (Parliament) has been counted among those political institutions worldwide that have officially recognized the Armenian Genocide. The names of the parliamentarians associated with launching the initiative and organizing the political muscle to force it through are known. But if those individuals served as midwives, they were not the ones to conceive the idea. In the beginning was a small group of Turkish citizens living in Germany who came together in an association called Soykırım Karsıtları Dernegi (SKD), the Society against Genocide. At the beginning of December, they observed their 20<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 16.5px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">th</span> anniversary in Frankfurt and they had good reason to celebrate.</div>
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The festivities took place in a community center where some members had held birthday parties or wedding receptions. There were Turks, Armenians, Greeks, Arameans, Kurds and Germans, young and old, there was music, sung in all the languages, and dancing, and a buffet with everything from mezze to baklava. Ali Ertem, the founder and chairman of the SKD, told the members and guests that he had decided to throw away his prepared remarks and to speak from the heart. To summarize the experience of his association, he began with the question of why the organization was founded. Many years ago at Bochum university he met the Armenian Mihran Dabag, then also a student, who first told him about the crimes committed by the Young Turk regime against the Armenians. Like many Turks who first learn about the genocide when they come to Germany, he decided to look into it, and his research quickly proved the case. Moved by the moral responsibility to act on this new knowledge, he set up the association with the commitment to get Turkey to recognize the genocide, and the first petitions began to circulate.</div>
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Ertem and his associates soon thereafter organized a visit to Armenia, which was to become an annual event every April 24. On his first visit, he was asked by his hosts why he set up the SKD, considering the policy of denial that reigned in Turkey. He answered with an anecdote about an old Shi’ite wise man. The man lived as a farmer with his family, at the foot of a mountain, and his sons had been urging him to move to a region with more sunlight, for the crops. The man refused, and instead he began to dig at the base of the mountain every day. In response to queries, he explained that by digging, he was preparing to move the mountain; if he did not complete the task in his lifetime, his sons would continue it, and after them, their sons. And so on, until the mountain had been relocated. “We have broken the monopoly on the genocide,” Ertem said. “The situation inside Turkey is tough, to be sure,” he said, “but we are moving mountains.”</div>
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Dogan Akhanlı was the guest speaker. The German-Turkish author has been jailed and persecuted repeatedly by Turkish authorities, most recently a year ago when he was arrested in Spain on Turkish orders and released only after an international mobilization. As a result of this harassment, his fame as an author has been enhanced and his books are selling well.</div>
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His address filled out the story of the SKD and its significance, He recalled that in a speech he was invited to deliver on April 24, 2011 at the Paulskirche in Frankfurt, at the annual genocide commemoration event, he had characterized the SKD as the pioneer in the process of coming to terms with the genocide against the Armenians and Aramaeans. Akhanlı said that “denial of the genocide and expulsion of the Armenians and Aramaeans and Pontus Greeks was not only a social phenomenon inside Turkey.” Outside the country, intellectuals with a Turkish background, even those committed to working through past history, shied away from using the term genocide — until Hrant Dink’s murder in 2007. He cited the usual argument, that one couldn’t use the term genocide for events occurring prior to its having been coined as a juridical term, and reviewed the work done by Raphael Lemkin, which led to the UN Genocide Convention. Since then, he said, there is no question among researchers that this was genocide. So, it is wrong to talk about some “Armenian question.”</div>
<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_27953" style="box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; margin: 6px auto 0px; max-width: 100%; text-align: center; width: 640px;"><img alt="" class="size-large wp-image-27953" height="360" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" src="https://mirrorspectator.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/MurielDenialAli-1024x576.jpg" srcset="https://mirrorspectator.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/MurielDenialAli-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://mirrorspectator.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/MurielDenialAli-300x169.jpg 300w, https://mirrorspectator.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/MurielDenialAli-768x432.jpg 768w, https://mirrorspectator.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/MurielDenialAli-696x392.jpg 696w, https://mirrorspectator.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/MurielDenialAli-1068x601.jpg 1068w, https://mirrorspectator.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/MurielDenialAli-747x420.jpg 747w, https://mirrorspectator.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/MurielDenialAli.jpg 1280w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; height: auto; margin-bottom: 0px; max-width: 100%; width: 640px;" width="640" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; line-height: 17px; margin: 6px 0px 26px; text-align: left;">Ali Ertem speaking at a Seyfo (Assyrian Genocide) event</figcaption></figure><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; color: #383737; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28px; margin-bottom: 26px;">
Akhanlı noted, “The response to the so-called ‘Armenian question’ of the last century was annihilation. At present there remains only the Turkish question: Turkish denial of the genocide, Turkish defamation of the diaspora, Turkish arrogance and lack of respect for the victims and their descendants.”</div>
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It was thanks to the diaspora, he continued, that the fight for recognition continued and sustained the memory of the victims. “And yet,” he said, “when I came to Germany in the beginning of the 1990s as a refugee, I had only a vague idea of the dimensions of the Young Turks’ violence.” At the time no books on the subject were available in Turkey, and only in that decade did some works appear, those published by Belge in Istanbul, and German books like those by Taner Akçam. It was in that period that he met Ali Ertem and the other founding members of the SKD, who “were the first people in Germany, perhaps worldwide, who named by name the crime against the Armenians and openly pronounced it.” He recalled the series of meetings, exhibitions, round table discussions and readings that the SKD organized, thus bringing together for the first time the successor generations of the perpetrators and the survivors.</div>
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Yet it took a good 20 years before the Bundestag would pass its resolution. Akhanlı said it was above all “thanks to the struggle of the SKD” that the resolution passed. In November 1999 the SKD had gathered signatures from more than 10,000 Turkish citizens and sent the petition to the Turkish parliament demanding that it recognize the genocide in accordance with the 1948 UN Convention, but the petition was returned by mail, unopened. So, in April 2000, the SKD together with the Berlin-based Working Group Recognition (AGA), delivered the petition to the German Bundestag, demanding that it recognize the genocide and urge Turkey to follow suit. Of the 16,000 signatures of German residents, 10,000 were Turkish citizens, and support came from prominent individuals worldwide.</div>
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In closing, Akhanlı recalled the proposal he had launched in the Paulskirche address in 2011, that Germany expand working through its history, to include other atrocities committed during the colonial period. He had also proposed the creation of an Action Reconciliation Service for Peace (Aktions Sühnezeichen Friedensdienste-ASF) for Turkey. The ASF, founded by the Evangelical Church in 1958, has been active as a peace organization, promoting reconciliation in dealing with the legacy of Nazism, and had a major impact on Akhanlı’s own development. Although there are individuals in Turkey eager to collaborate, the difficulty, the speaker explained, lies in the fact that, without genocide recognition on the part of Turkey, there are no institutional forces ready to act. One organization that has pursued peace work, he said, is Anadolu Kültür, and it has come under assault since the failed coup attempt in 2016. Its founder Osman Kavala sits in jail.</div>
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“But nevertheless,” he concluded, “we have a core group, the SKD, which is fighting indefatigably and uncompromisingly against racism and anti-Semitism, against current and historical violence, which has made an admirable contribution to reconciliation and which is celebrating its 20th birthday today.”</div>
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On a personal note, Akhanlı said this “association of solidarity work” had had the “magical effect of saving me from the jaws of arbitrary and arrogant power and made it possible for me to be here with you and to celebrate. Heartfelt thanks!”</div>
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Rafi Topalianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13947155792238329401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7951287115436886244.post-79295289872302952482019-01-24T17:59:00.001-08:002019-01-24T17:59:15.913-08:00Turkey Abuses Interpol To Extradite Regime Opponents<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Roboto; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.25rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Turkey and several other repressive governments are increasingly abusing their membership in the Interpol to harass and punish their opponents. </span>Interpol, or the International Criminal Police Organization, is composed of 194 countries and focuses on fighting transnational crimes.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Roboto; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.25rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Although Interpol’s charter forbids the pursuit of individuals for political, religious, military or racial reasons, several member states continue to abuse the power of the Interpol to pursue their opponents.</span></div>
<figure class="wp-caption alignleft" id="attachment_65287" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; display: inline; float: left; font-family: Roboto; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0.3125rem 1.25rem 1.25rem 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 208px;"><img alt="" class="wp-image-65287 size-medium" height="300" sizes="(max-width: 208px) 100vw, 208px" src="https://gakg5sv2p13fjr0q1hulkabr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/624px-Enes_Kanter_cropped-208x300.jpg" srcset="https://gakg5sv2p13fjr0q1hulkabr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/624px-Enes_Kanter_cropped-208x300.jpg 208w, https://gakg5sv2p13fjr0q1hulkabr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/624px-Enes_Kanter_cropped.jpg 624w" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" width="208" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.75rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: 1.4; margin: 5px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">New York Knicks basketball player Enes Kanter (<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Photo: Frenchieinportland/Wikimedia Commons)</em></figcaption></figure><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Roboto; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.25rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The most recent case is the Turkish government’s demand to Interpol to have Enes Kanter, an NBA basketball player of Turkish origin, arrested and extradited to Turkey by placing his name on Interpol’s Red Notice list. Kanter declined to join his team, the New York Knicks, on a trip to London for an NBA game. He said he was wrongly charged by the Erdogan government as a ‘terrorist’ and feared that he may be assassinated by Turkish agents in London.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Roboto; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.25rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">On May 19, 2017, Abdullah Bozkurt wrote on the Turkish Minute website that Kanter “barely escaped arrest while in Jakarta, [Indonesia] where he stopped as part of a global goodwill tour. The Indonesian army and secret service raided a school where an event was planned in order to detain him at Turkey’s request, but he managed to leave Indonesia for Romania. On his return trip to the US, Kanter was detained on May 20 at Henri Coandă International Airport in Bucharest because his passport was reported to have been cancelled by the Turkish government. The NBA star was subsequently released after the US government and NBA officials intervened on his behalf. He remains a staunch critic of Erdogan for his rights violations.”</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Roboto; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.25rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">In a Washington Post op-ed column, Kanter wrote: “Anyone who speaks out against him [Erdogan] is a target. I am definitely a target. And Erdogan wants me back in Turkey where he can silence me.” Kanter told Newsweek that the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is “the Hitler of our century.” According to ESPN, the Turkish government requested Interpol last November to have more than 80 people arrested in other countries and extradited to Turkey!</span></div>
<figure class="wp-caption alignright" id="attachment_65289" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; display: inline; float: right; font-family: Roboto; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0.3125rem 0px 1.25rem 1.25rem; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 200px;"><img alt="" class="wp-image-65289 size-medium" height="300" sizes="(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" src="https://gakg5sv2p13fjr0q1hulkabr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Can_D%C3%BCndar_par_Claude_Truong-Ngoc_janvier_2017-200x300.jpg" srcset="https://gakg5sv2p13fjr0q1hulkabr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Can_Dündar_par_Claude_Truong-Ngoc_janvier_2017-200x300.jpg 200w, https://gakg5sv2p13fjr0q1hulkabr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Can_Dündar_par_Claude_Truong-Ngoc_janvier_2017.jpg 600w" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" width="200" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.75rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: 1.4; margin: 5px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Turkish journalist Can Dündar (<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">© Claude Truong-Ngoc/Wikimedia Commons)</em></figcaption></figure><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Roboto; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.25rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Several other Turkish dissidents have barely escaped the Turkish government’s long reach through the Interpol. Last October, Turkey requested that the Interpol arrest and extradite Can Dündar, the former editor of Cumhuriyet newspaper, and Ilhan Tanir, editor of the Ahval news website. “I have not killed anyone, run a cartel, robbed a bank or done anything else to warrant a global manhunt,” Tanir wrote. “The Turkish government is pursuing me for my activities as a journalist.”</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Roboto; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.25rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Ragip Zarakoglu, a journalist, author, publisher, and human rights defender, was placed on Interpol’s Red Notice list to be arrested and extradited to Turkey. He is currently in Sweden, safe from Erdogan’s clutches.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Roboto; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.25rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Another Turkish journalist was less fortunate. Hamza Yalçin, who had escaped to Sweden, was arrested at Turkey’s request to Interpol in 2017 during his visit to Spain. He was released after two months following pressure from the governments of Sweden and Germany.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Roboto; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.25rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“We welcome the Spanish government’s decision, which shows respect for international law,” Reporters Without Borders stated. “Hamza Yalçin’s release sends the Turkish government a clear message that Interpol should not be used for the political purpose of pursuing journalists who have fled abroad.”</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Roboto; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.25rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Shortly after the failed coup in July 2016, Turkey made more than 60,000 Red Notice requests to Interpol. Red Notices are only for people accused of serious crimes, and Interpol’s constitution calls on countries not to use the system for political ends and to act within the spirit of international human rights standards. Turkey, China, Russia and the UAE are in blatant violation of these regulations, stated the Foreign Policy magazine.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Roboto; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.25rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">In an April 2017 resolution, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe called on Interpol “to continue improving its Red Notice procedure in order to prevent and redress abuses even more effectively.” Johann Bihr, the head of Reporters Without Borders’ Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk, stated that “dozens of Turkish journalists have had to flee abroad since the coup attempt in Turkey in July 2016. But like other exile journalists all over the world, they are now threatened by political manipulation of Interpol. The reforms begun by Interpol must now be completed as a matter of urgency so that it is better able to guard against abusive requests from Turkey and other repressive states.”</span></div>
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Harut Sassounian</h4>
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<span style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">California Courier Editor</span></div>
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Harut Sassounian is the publisher of The California Courier, a weekly newspaper based in Glendale, Calif. He is the president of the United Armenian Fund, a coalition of the seven largest Armenian-American organizations. He has been decorated by the president and prime minister of the Republic of Armenia, and the heads of the Armenian Apostolic and Catholic churches. He is also the recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.</div>
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Rafi Topalianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13947155792238329401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7951287115436886244.post-82637697798646836132019-01-22T08:53:00.001-08:002019-01-22T09:12:06.159-08:00A tribute to slain journalist HRANT DINK 1.5 MILLION +1 ..A song for this hero of Armenianshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFHFi7gaK8k<br />
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A tribute to slain journalist HRANT DINK 1.5 MILLION +1 ..A song for this hero of Armenians<br />
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Istanbul Turkey ..TURKEY END YOUR CRUEL DENIAL OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE 1915-19123Rafi Topalianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13947155792238329401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7951287115436886244.post-39691245978502226652019-01-20T19:43:00.001-08:002019-01-20T19:43:40.498-08:00Turkey Ranked Among Top 10 Countries With Probability of Committing Genocide<div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Bayon; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
BY HARUT SASSOUNIAN</div>
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According to the Early Warning Project of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Turkey is ranked 8th among countries with the highest risk of committing mass killings. Azerbaijan is wrongly ranked much lower at 87th and Armenia is correctly ranked even lower at 102nd. Turkey is assessed as having 11.2% or 1 in 9 chance of new mass killings during 2019.</div>
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The Early Warning Project stated that “genocides are never spontaneous. They are always preceded by a range of early warning signs. If these signs are detected, their causes can be addressed, preventing the potential for catastrophic progression.”</div>
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The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s founding charter, written by Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, states that “only a conscious, concerted attempt to learn from past errors can prevent recurrence to any racial, religious, ethnic or national group. A memorial unresponsive to the future would also violate the memory of the past.”</div>
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Turkey’s high risk of committing genocide once again is based on its past and present actions. The Turkish government has not only committed genocide against Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks a century ago, but continues to commit mass killings against its minority Kurdish population. Even more concerning is the fact that Turkish leaders deny their history of mass murders and shamefully remain unapologetic, which leads to the commission of new crimes against humanity!</div>
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Turkey’s genocidal risk assessment is understated as the study only includes mass killings within a country, excluding the victims of interstate conflict. As Turkey has been involved in large-scale military attacks against Kurds in Syria and Iraq, and threatens to expand its military actions in Northern Syria, the risk of its commitment of mass crimes is much higher than the study indicates.</div>
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The Early Warning Project explains that the failed coup attempt in 2016 increased the chances of mass killings in Turkey. Over 100,000 military and civilian personnel were dismissed and tens of thousands were imprisoned, many without a trial. “Other [Turkish genocide] risk factors include a lack of freedom of movement, the country’s anocratic regime type [a mix of autocratic and democratic characteristics], a large population, a history of mass killings, and the ongoing armed conflict between the government and Kurdish rebels.”</div>
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Turkish Journalist Jailed for Telling the Truth<br />An Istanbul court sentenced Turkish journalist Pelin Unker to imprisonment for 13 months and 15 days after being accused of defaming her nation’s former Prime Minister and two of his sons. She was also fined $1,615 on January 8, 2018.</div>
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Unker had written an article in the Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet, exposing that former Prime Minister Binali Yildirim and his two sons owned five shipping companies in Malta. After serving as Prime Minister for two years, Yildirim became Speaker of Turkey’s Parliament. He is currently a candidate for Mayor of Istanbul on behalf of Pres. Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).</div>
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Yildirim family’s ownership of companies in Malta was exposed by the “Paradise Papers” and published in newspapers around the world. As I had reported in my June 2017 article, the Yildirim family owned the following shipping and other foreign assets worth $140 million:</div>
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18 ships (Dutch conglomerates, fully or partly owned)<br />1 ship (Netherlands Antilles company)<br />4 Malta companies<br />7 properties in the Netherlands<br />8 ships in the Netherlands<br />3 ships in Malta</div>
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Strangely, Pelin Unker was the only journalist punished for exposing the Yildirim assets. Unker said she will appeal the unfair sentence as Yildirim acknowledged in court that he owned the companies in an offshore tax haven. The former Prime Minister and his sons filed a lawsuit in November 2017, accusing Unker of “insulting and slandering a public official.”</div>
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Gerard Ryle, Director of the International Consortium of Independent Journalists, condemned Unker’s punishment “as yet another disgraceful attack on free speech in Turkey.” Ryle added: “the sentence ignored the truth of the Paradise Papers’ investigation and it would have a chilling effect on what little remained of press freedom in Turkey. This unjust ruling is about silencing fair and accurate reporting. Nothing more. ICIJ commends Pelin Unker’s brave and truthful investigative reporting and it condemns this latest assault on journalistic freedom under Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s autocratic rule.”</div>
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Reporters Without Borders (RSF) ranked Turkey 157th of 180 countries on the 2018 World Free Press Index. RSF described Turkey as “the world’s biggest prison for professional journalists!”</div>
Rafi Topalianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13947155792238329401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7951287115436886244.post-29085684074244985002019-01-20T11:55:00.003-08:002019-01-20T11:55:42.928-08:00ARMENIAN GENOCIDE CENTENNIAL PERFORMANCEhttp://voiceofarmenians.com/programs/performance-you-rejoice-my-heart-dedicated-to-the-armenian-genocide-centennialRafi Topalianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13947155792238329401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7951287115436886244.post-3385632928595153322019-01-20T09:53:00.002-08:002019-01-20T09:53:47.969-08:00ARMENIAN WEBSITEShttps://www.thearmeniankitchen.com/ FOOD<br />
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DREOr-UbrJc ,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1-fNQaHEt4 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhvv1vbEQuQ MUSIC</div>
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FW81ARX2AxY, https://www.itinari.com/armenian-folk-dances-b4fw DANCES</div>
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http://kayqer.am/en/ INFO WEBSITES ABOUT ARMENIA</div>
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https://www.armenian-genocide.org/ ARMENIAN GENOCIDE</div>
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Rafi Topalianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13947155792238329401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7951287115436886244.post-4889107096884689692019-01-19T05:10:00.000-08:002019-01-19T05:10:14.605-08:00Armenian lands Turkey illegaly occupieshttps://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fallinnet.info%2Fworld%2Fturkey-is-built-on-the-property-of-armenians%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR3-X0PxwN2MDEOzWpdeNSbWAEzEjI59qWhKh0E6QsFUCyLQCVSXgW5UwjU&h=AT0SImiQSc04qIWjPvuPpku5jVTg5fK5RQn9hfLhbQDYKkhGjt99ey3CjOpF4pUdKP2WCWR-g0lyA13SXJidn908FeqYHtE1BGPZijlXSTcsH8HKb9FHc38fMFUQoD_tG8oL0d2PtBnh27Zp8wRafi Topalianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13947155792238329401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7951287115436886244.post-82993876012225343872019-01-02T09:47:00.002-08:002019-01-02T09:47:34.429-08:00TURKS ARE BIZARRE---YES THEY AREhttp://asbarez.com/176951/bizarre-turkish-news-for-the-amusement-of-readers-during-the-holiday-season/Rafi Topalianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13947155792238329401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7951287115436886244.post-50661665622993437392018-12-21T04:53:00.001-08:002018-12-21T04:53:03.530-08:00The Economist Ranks Armenia ‘Country of the Year’<article class="post-65100 post type-post status-publish format-standard has-post-thumbnail hentry category-a-word-from-the-editor category-send-to-app" id="post-65100" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Roboto; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="entry-content clearfix" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_65101" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 1.25rem auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1087px;"><img alt="" class="size-full wp-image-65101" height="800" sizes="(max-width: 1087px) 100vw, 1087px" src="https://gakg5sv2p13fjr0q1hulkabr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/James_Gillray_-_The_Plum-Pudding_in_Danger_-_WGA08993.jpg" srcset="https://gakg5sv2p13fjr0q1hulkabr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/James_Gillray_-_The_Plum-Pudding_in_Danger_-_WGA08993.jpg 1087w, https://gakg5sv2p13fjr0q1hulkabr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/James_Gillray_-_The_Plum-Pudding_in_Danger_-_WGA08993-300x221.jpg 300w, https://gakg5sv2p13fjr0q1hulkabr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/James_Gillray_-_The_Plum-Pudding_in_Danger_-_WGA08993-768x565.jpg 768w, https://gakg5sv2p13fjr0q1hulkabr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/James_Gillray_-_The_Plum-Pudding_in_Danger_-_WGA08993-1024x754.jpg 1024w, https://gakg5sv2p13fjr0q1hulkabr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/James_Gillray_-_The_Plum-Pudding_in_Danger_-_WGA08993-80x60.jpg 80w" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" width="1087" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.75rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: 1.4; margin: 5px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">James Gillray’s ‘The Plum-Pudding in Danger’ (coloured engraving, 1805) Photo: Wikimedia Commons</figcaption></figure><div style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.25rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
A few days ago, a bunch of journalists at the <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Economist</em> got together and decided, like kindergarten teachers doling out their ‘best student’ award, which of the world’s countries has ‘most improved’ in the last calendar year. In an article brimming with cynicism, <a href="https://www.economist.com/leaders/2018/12/22/the-economists-country-of-the-year-2018" style="border: 0px; color: #e64946; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">they selected Armenia</a>.</div>
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It appears the rise of Trump and Brexit have left an indelible mark on journalists in the West. As what were once dominant colonial powers become increasingly irrelevant in the geopolitical sphere—their social fabrics deteriorating to reveal the insidious foundations upon which their modern-day nation states were built—it must be difficult to watch small, unimportant nations like Armenia (and Malaysia, also a ‘contender’) reveal themselves to be modern day beacons of progress.</div>
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Or perhaps writers at the<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Economist</em> need a break from their daily coverage of <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">lit’rally</em> everything. This article, which simply <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">cahn’t be bothahd</em>, is a great reminder as to the nonsensical role modern, globalized journalism has the potential to play in our daily lives. Lacking a unified community, writers for international publications write for seemingly everyone and yet, in an odd sort of way, for no one but themselves. Today, so much journalism is noncommittal, jaded, self-centered, and divorced from the collective and local human experience. Wasn’t this profession once born out of the need for communities to see themselves represented in pieces penned by those who understood them? Who or what community, one wonders, is the <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Economist</em>representing?</div>
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The issue is not the idea of international coverage. It’s that the robust circuit of local news which once supplemented that coverage is disappearing. Today, one is more likely to find cities and towns teeming with folks more concerned with saving hungry children in countries they’ll never visit than with fixing their own disintegrating local food economies. (Rural communities, it’s worth mentioning, are not so transfixed on what is occurring on an international scale, and they are condemned for it by their urban counterparts.) Oxford, where I went to school, is home to some of the world’s brightest individuals, many of whom are in training to ‘solve’ the world’s problems on a global scale. Meanwhile, the city is racked with poverty. On my last visit, I saw four separate instances of unconscious homeless individuals on the street being carted off by ambulances. Local problems are invisible in and to a globalist agenda. We are losing our innate and historical ability to discern that which is and isn’t within our sphere of influence, and journalists at major publications are responding by fabricating arbitrary and cynical awards out of thin air (which Alexis Ohanian, at least, appears thrilled about).</div>
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In any case, <a href="https://www.economist.com/leaders/2018/12/22/the-economists-country-of-the-year-2018" style="border: 0px; color: #e64946; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">read the article for yourselves</a>, and determine what is a suitable reaction. But for the record, when it comes to nations with the ‘tastiest food’ (which it was decided Armenia is not)… perhaps, rather than ranking the world’s cuisines, the Brits should just stick to stealing them.</div>
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Karine Vann</h4>
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Karine Vann is the editor of the Armenian Weekly. She is a musician who transitioned into journalism while living in the Caucasus for several years. Her work has appeared in Smithsonian.com, The New Food Economy, and a number of other publications. Her critical writings focus primarily on the politics of culture, media analyses, and the environment. She spends her spare time in front of a keyboard, at a farm, or making a fuss about zero waste. If you have comments, questions, pitches, or leads, she can be reached at karine@armenianweekly.com.</div>
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<h4 class="mh-widget-title" style="background: rgb(245, 245, 245); border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-color: rgb(230, 73, 70); border-left-style: solid; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 0px 10px; font-family: "Roboto Condensed", sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: 1.3; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 10px 25px 10px 15px; position: relative; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="mh-widget-title-inner" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">14 COMMENTS</span></h4>
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<li class="comment even thread-even depth-1 entry-content" id="comment-982117" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><article class="comment-body" id="div-comment-982117" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(235, 235, 235); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; font: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><footer class="comment-meta" style="border: 0px; color: #2a2a2a; font: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="comment-author vcard" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b class="fn" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a class="url" href="http://no%20web/" rel="external nofollow" style="border: 0px; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Gabe Korajian</a></b> <span class="says" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">says:</span></div>
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<a href="https://armenianweekly.com/2018/12/20/armenia-ranked-country-of-the-year/#comment-982117" style="border: 0px; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">DECEMBER 20, 2018 AT 2:34 PM</a></div>
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Fantastic. That’s all I have to say.</div>
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<a aria-label="Reply to Gabe Korajian" class="comment-reply-link" href="https://armenianweekly.com/2018/12/20/armenia-ranked-country-of-the-year/#comment-982117" rel="nofollow" style="border: 0px; color: #979797; display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.8125rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: baseline;">REPLY</a></div>
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<li class="comment odd alt thread-odd thread-alt depth-1 entry-content" id="comment-982119" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><article class="comment-body" id="div-comment-982119" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(235, 235, 235); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; font: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><footer class="comment-meta" style="border: 0px; color: #2a2a2a; font: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="comment-author vcard" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b class="fn" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a class="url" href="http://no%20web./" rel="external nofollow" style="border: 0px; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Gabe Korajian</a></b> <span class="says" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">says:</span></div>
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<a href="https://armenianweekly.com/2018/12/20/armenia-ranked-country-of-the-year/#comment-982119" style="border: 0px; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">DECEMBER 20, 2018 AT 2:40 PM</a></div>
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Fantastic!<br />Thank you to The Economist team for Rankanking Armenia ‘Country of the Year’</div>
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<a aria-label="Reply to Gabe Korajian" class="comment-reply-link" href="https://armenianweekly.com/2018/12/20/armenia-ranked-country-of-the-year/#comment-982119" rel="nofollow" style="border: 0px; color: #979797; display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.8125rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: baseline;">REPLY</a></div>
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<li class="comment even thread-even depth-1 entry-content" id="comment-982120" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><article class="comment-body" id="div-comment-982120" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(235, 235, 235); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; font: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><footer class="comment-meta" style="border: 0px; color: #2a2a2a; font: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="comment-author vcard" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b class="fn" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a class="url" href="http://no%20web./" rel="external nofollow" style="border: 0px; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Gabe Korajian</a></b> <span class="says" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">says:</span></div>
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<a href="https://armenianweekly.com/2018/12/20/armenia-ranked-country-of-the-year/#comment-982120" style="border: 0px; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">DECEMBER 20, 2018 AT 2:41 PM</a></div>
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Thank you.</div>
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<li class="comment odd alt thread-odd thread-alt depth-1 entry-content" id="comment-982121" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><article class="comment-body" id="div-comment-982121" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(235, 235, 235); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; font: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><footer class="comment-meta" style="border: 0px; color: #2a2a2a; font: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="comment-author vcard" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b class="fn" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Garen Yegparian</b> <span class="says" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">says:</span></div>
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<a href="https://armenianweekly.com/2018/12/20/armenia-ranked-country-of-the-year/#comment-982121" style="border: 0px; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">DECEMBER 20, 2018 AT 2:51 PM</a></div>
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Hamov er! Nice!</div>
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<li class="comment even thread-even depth-1 parent entry-content" id="comment-982122" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><article class="comment-body" id="div-comment-982122" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(235, 235, 235); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; font: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><footer class="comment-meta" style="border: 0px; color: #2a2a2a; font: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="comment-author vcard" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b class="fn" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Harry Kezelian III</b> <span class="says" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">says:</span></div>
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<a href="https://armenianweekly.com/2018/12/20/armenia-ranked-country-of-the-year/#comment-982122" style="border: 0px; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">DECEMBER 20, 2018 AT 3:13 PM</a></div>
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This commentary reveals more about the writer’s hate for the British than anything else. If The Economist was being elitist, Ms. Vann, you are being childish.</div>
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<li class="comment odd alt depth-2 entry-content" id="comment-982129" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><article class="comment-body" id="div-comment-982129" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(235, 235, 235); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; font: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><footer class="comment-meta" style="border: 0px; color: #2a2a2a; font: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="comment-author vcard" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b class="fn" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Vahan kurkjian</b> <span class="says" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">says:</span></div>
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<a href="https://armenianweekly.com/2018/12/20/armenia-ranked-country-of-the-year/#comment-982129" style="border: 0px; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">DECEMBER 20, 2018 AT 4:18 PM</a></div>
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Agreed, the author demonstrates her bias toward Great Britain. Why did she study at Oxford? If so did she matriculate?</div>
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<li class="comment even thread-odd thread-alt depth-1 entry-content" id="comment-982128" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><article class="comment-body" id="div-comment-982128" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(235, 235, 235); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; font: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><footer class="comment-meta" style="border: 0px; color: #2a2a2a; font: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="comment-author vcard" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b class="fn" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Garabed</b> <span class="says" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">says:</span></div>
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<a href="https://armenianweekly.com/2018/12/20/armenia-ranked-country-of-the-year/#comment-982128" style="border: 0px; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">DECEMBER 20, 2018 AT 4:18 PM</a></div>
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I must admit that I could not understand Ms. Vann’s editorial’s *crux of the matter”. I was left with the impression that it was more about the sad state of journalism otherwise the Economist would not have picked Armenia as the as the ‘country of the year’ (quoting her). I am not a journalist, consequently I refrain from commenting on the state of ‘global’ journalism, after all, quoting her “Who or what community, one wonders, is the Economist representing?”. I guess the implication is that the “globalized” journalism surely does not represent the Armenian community. Did she mean to say Armenians in and outside Armenia or in the latter only? I am not sure.</div>
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<li class="comment odd alt thread-even depth-1 entry-content" id="comment-982130" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><article class="comment-body" id="div-comment-982130" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(235, 235, 235); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; font: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><footer class="comment-meta" style="border: 0px; color: #2a2a2a; font: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="comment-author vcard" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b class="fn" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Anoush F. Terjanian</b> <span class="says" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">says:</span></div>
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<a href="https://armenianweekly.com/2018/12/20/armenia-ranked-country-of-the-year/#comment-982130" style="border: 0px; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">DECEMBER 20, 2018 AT 4:49 PM</a></div>
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The world is literally (sic) yearning for examples of successful, and peaceful, democratic transitions out of authoritarianism, and at last Armenia and Armenians are attracting global attention for their leadership. I’m curious about what The Armenian Weekly and the author are trying to achieve with this article?</div>
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<li class="comment even thread-odd thread-alt depth-1 entry-content" id="comment-982131" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><article class="comment-body" id="div-comment-982131" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(235, 235, 235); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; font: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><footer class="comment-meta" style="border: 0px; color: #2a2a2a; font: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="comment-author vcard" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b class="fn" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Veronica BARSOIAN</b> <span class="says" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">says:</span></div>
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<a href="https://armenianweekly.com/2018/12/20/armenia-ranked-country-of-the-year/#comment-982131" style="border: 0px; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">DECEMBER 20, 2018 AT 4:50 PM</a></div>
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ARMENIA HAS BEEN HOLY FOR CENTURIES<br />ARMENIANS WERE FORCED TO MIGRATE<br />BUT WHEREVER THEIR JOURNEY TOOK THEM;<br />THEY PERSEVERED and<br />CONTRIBUTED TO THE BETTERMENT OF THE WORLD.</div>
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<li class="comment odd alt thread-even depth-1 entry-content" id="comment-982135" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><article class="comment-body" id="div-comment-982135" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(235, 235, 235); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; font: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><footer class="comment-meta" style="border: 0px; color: #2a2a2a; font: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="comment-author vcard" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b class="fn" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Ed</b> <span class="says" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">says:</span></div>
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<a href="https://armenianweekly.com/2018/12/20/armenia-ranked-country-of-the-year/#comment-982135" style="border: 0px; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">DECEMBER 20, 2018 AT 5:16 PM</a></div>
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A little anybody knows that things in Armenia are now a lot worse than they were before the velvet revolution. Now we got bunch of square minded dogmatics that are absolutely incompetent and have no clue how to do their job. Not to mention that the previous administration had devostated the country to the point that it will take several generations to repair a third of the damage. I have given up on Armenia. There’s no hope for it.</div>
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<li class="comment even thread-odd thread-alt depth-1 entry-content" id="comment-982149" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><article class="comment-body" id="div-comment-982149" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(235, 235, 235); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; font: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><footer class="comment-meta" style="border: 0px; color: #2a2a2a; font: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="comment-author vcard" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b class="fn" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">K. Paramazyan</b> <span class="says" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">says:</span></div>
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<a href="https://armenianweekly.com/2018/12/20/armenia-ranked-country-of-the-year/#comment-982149" style="border: 0px; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">DECEMBER 20, 2018 AT 6:25 PM</a></div>
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Apres Hayastan!</div>
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<li class="comment odd alt thread-even depth-1 entry-content" id="comment-982150" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><article class="comment-body" id="div-comment-982150" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(235, 235, 235); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; font: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><footer class="comment-meta" style="border: 0px; color: #2a2a2a; font: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="comment-author vcard" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b class="fn" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Armenoid</b> <span class="says" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">says:</span></div>
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<a href="https://armenianweekly.com/2018/12/20/armenia-ranked-country-of-the-year/#comment-982150" style="border: 0px; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">DECEMBER 20, 2018 AT 6:27 PM</a></div>
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A den of professional thieves and criminals throws a bone to Armenians and everyone is excited? Typical self-destructive, politically illiterate Armenian behavior…</div>
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<li class="comment even thread-odd thread-alt depth-1 entry-content" id="comment-982151" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><article class="comment-body" id="div-comment-982151" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(235, 235, 235); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; font: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><footer class="comment-meta" style="border: 0px; color: #2a2a2a; font: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="comment-author vcard" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b class="fn" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">art hagopian</b> <span class="says" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">says:</span></div>
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<a href="https://armenianweekly.com/2018/12/20/armenia-ranked-country-of-the-year/#comment-982151" style="border: 0px; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">DECEMBER 20, 2018 AT 6:40 PM</a></div>
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How come I am not surprised that the ECONOMIST, the prima Donna western elitist paper picked Armenia as a result of the possible western move by the velvet revolution. The Economist is now just like the BBC a mouthpiece for Western anti-russian constant propaganda.</div>
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<li class="comment odd alt thread-even depth-1 entry-content" id="comment-982166" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><article class="comment-body" id="div-comment-982166" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(235, 235, 235); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; font: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><footer class="comment-meta" style="border: 0px; color: #2a2a2a; font: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="comment-author vcard" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b class="fn" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Zhirayr Bebutyan</b> <span class="says" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">says:</span></div>
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<a href="https://armenianweekly.com/2018/12/20/armenia-ranked-country-of-the-year/#comment-982166" style="border: 0px; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">DECEMBER 20, 2018 AT 9:04 PM</a></div>
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Too many words and a little sense.<br />More and more people around the world are trying to regain authority and leadership from politicians who are unable to control even their attitude, who are heading countries right<br />into voids. France, Britain, USA, Russia… almost every country is in the list, everywhere people feel themselves betrayed and left by the government.<br />I hope Armenia will be the first but not last in the toughest way of founding real democracy. Freedom is the most expensive capital for Armenia, for the world, and we are ready to pay for it any price.</div>
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Rafi Topalianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13947155792238329401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7951287115436886244.post-84472721221446286122018-12-09T19:09:00.001-08:002018-12-09T19:09:36.939-08:00Finding my Armenia, a century after the genocide Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of
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In February, Armenia nudged me. I met a stranger who learnt I was Armenian and who asked a completely normal follow-up question: “Have you been?”
No, I told him. My grandfather and great-grandparents escaped during the Armenian genocide. Almost all traces of Armenian history from that part of the former Ottoman empire — now eastern Turkey — have been destroyed. Because the modern-day nation is on land that was not under Ottoman rule, I never thought it would feel like my Armenia. “I’ll go, eventually,” I said. This was language I was repeating. I have been saying it all my life.
“Huh,” he said. “I’ve been wanting to go for some time now, so I might just bite the bullet. My friend went and said she had the best time. It seems to have culture, delicious food, excellent music and mountains. I mean, what more do you need?”
I blinked. He was going to Armenia? The country, heavy with symbolism in my mind, was not somewhere a tourist could just visit for a cheap week away. If he could — which, of course, he could — why was I making such a big deal about my own eventual trip?
In May, Armenia nudged me again. The Financial Times was covering the country’s Velvet Revolution— Armenians, after a month of entirely peaceful, nationwide protest, unseated their prime minister and replaced him with opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan. The revolution was an overwhelming success. Knowing my background, an editor in our newsroom asked for my thoughts on it.
© Vahram Muradyan
“To be honest, I know very little about Armenia the country,” I told her. In 1922, a few years after the genocide ended, Armenia was incorporated into the Soviet Union, where it remained for 70 years. My mother’s family always thought Eastern Armenians (those from the nation of Armenia) would be more culturally Russian than those of our heritage, which was influenced more by the Greek, Armenian, Jewish and Ottoman cultures that had coexisted for centuries under Ottoman rule.
We thought of ourselves as Western Armenian, members of the diaspora. When my family left, we took that culture with us in a time capsule. Different food. Different dialect.
I heard myself saying these things, and I didn’t like it. Who was I kidding? Why had I never been to Armenia?
The third time Armenia showed up was in July. I received an invitation to a press event in New York. The poet Peter Balakian, whose 1997 memoir Black Dog of Fate is a resonant exploration of growing up Armenian in America, was due to speak. I was tired, but I felt the pull. So I took the subway uptown.
Halfway through the event, I texted my family’s group chat.
Live texting you from this Armenia event.
Did you know the oldest known winery is in Armenia?
The food looks insane. Basturma for breakfast!
One of the safest countries in the world?!
OK, they got me. I’m going. September. Who wants to join?
My sister responded. “September’s like, tomorrow,” she said. “Maybe next year.”
Meanwhile, Armenia was nudging my mother, too. When I called her that night, she told me about a recent conversation with a woman she knew. “Stop waiting for next year,” the woman had told her. “It’s not the moon. What’s the big deal? Just go!”
It was the moon. To us, it was the moon. But people have been to the moon. So I booked flights for my parents and me.
With a last name like Raptopoulos, my Greekness is a public fact that I carry everywhere. It is also tangible: I hear it in my father’s accent, see it on my trips to Greece; I even speak the language, albeit haltingly. But my Armenianness is fully cultural, just an idea. It is something I work overtime to keep alive. My grandmother, my mother and now my sisters and I stuff green peppers with ground beef, rice, cumin. We know how to skewer slippery cubes of lamb into shish kebabs.
One day I called my mother. “I woke up missing my mom today,” she said. “So I’m making a cheese boerag.” As she spoke, she was layering filo dough in a pan, brushing each sheet lovingly and hastily with melted butter, filling the middle with farmer’s cheese, feta cheese, garlic powder, an egg, then putting it in to bake.
In my hometown of Brookline, Massachusetts, every Armenian I knew was related to me. As a child, I explained the intricacies of the genocide to my American friends’ parents. Not visiting Armenia seemed like procrastination, but it wasn’t. It was a block. Maybe it represented danger, the source of the trauma. My family, like many in the diaspora, had a misconception of how the country would be. We weren’t sure we’d belong. It took a collection of cues to get us there.
I met my parents at the luggage carousel in Yerevan, the capital, at midnight in September, seven months after my first cue. We had flown in separately and were giddy, our senses tingling, everything new and out of context. “It smells sweet,” my mother said, a fact that made her happy.
Armenia today is a small, landlocked Christian nation of 2.9 million people. Travel is quite cheap for western tourists, so we organised a driver for the whole trip, Rafael Hovakimyan, and a tour guide for three days in the countryside, Katar Taslakyan. Both became like family; they’re in half of my photos.
© Vahram Muradyan
Rafael was at the airport the night we arrived. “Armenia welcomes you,” he told us. “I know that you will leave this country in love. Everyone does.”
For the first two days, my parents and I kept repeating, “I can’t believe we’re in Armenia”, like wind-up dolls. Yerevan feels like a small southern European city — outdoor cafés and wine bars, unique museums, a symmetrical central square. The snow-capped Mount Ararat, biblically the landing place of Noah’s ark, stands in constant view.
The children on billboards looked like me. My mother kept remembering forgotten phrases from her childhood. At a market, she turned to me. “My mom used to say Kah-nee-yeh. It means ‘How much?’ Watch this.”
With the confidence of a local, she hollered “Kah-nee-yeh” to the vendor. He responded in full Armenian sentences. “I’m so sorry, I actually don’t know what that means,” she said. “I was just checking to see if it worked.”
The next morning, as we ate eggs scrambled with tomato, my mother stopped someone walking by. “I’m sorry to bother you. My father used to make this every Sunday. Is it called doma-tizo-havgeet?” It was.
We had found a place in the outside world where our secret family language worked.
My father was our affable travel companion, returning the favour to my mother, who has joined him on dozens of visits to Greece over their 45 years of marriage. His parents, in an odd twist of fate, also grew up in Western Armenia during the Ottoman empire. In 1922, the Turks had agreed with Greece on an exchange of populations. The Greeks in Turkey, including my father’s parents, walked a thousand miles to Greece in caravans; the Turks in Greece made the converse trip.
My parents met in New York City and realised quickly that their families had been neighbours in Asia Minor. They were both from the same place, shuffled and re-sorted by history, an imperial chess game in which they had no control. When my grandfathers met for the first time, one didn’t speak Greek and the other didn’t speak English. They communicated in Turkish, the language of their oppressors.
A few days into our trip, I asked my father how he felt. We were walking around Yerevan — like every day, the weather was warm, sunny and dry. “It feels like it’s on the cutting edge of change,” he said. “It feels like Greece in the 1970s. It feels familiar, but it’s not mine. But you’re the one who’s Armenian. How does it feel to you?”
I felt so lucky in that moment — Greece was not my mother’s. Armenia was not my father’s. But both could be mine.
For three days we travelled through the countryside, past dramatic scenes — burnt yellow mountains, a brilliant blue Lake Sevan, gorges that sliced rolling hills in half, tiny monasteries tucked into rock and growing from the land as if they had living roots. We drove through villages that were littered with memories of Armenia’s Soviet past: cement homes with tin roofs, vast abandoned factories.
Late one afternoon, we walked into the grounds of a 6th-century monastery called Odzun. A local festival was wrapping up and children were chasing each other. I looked up to see my mother sitting on the steps of a monument surrounded by children. Their arms were wrapped around each other like old friends, chanting “Ar-men-ia! Ar-men-ia!” As we left, one boy said to my mother in the little English he knew, “Bye bye! I love you!”
“Oh I love you too!” she cried, her arms outstretched. “Come to Boston and you can stay at my house.” That we ever worried we might not belong suddenly became laughable; the number of years we had lost, when we could have had Armenia as another home, felt palpable.
My mother’s father, Manuel BozBeckian, survived the genocide, in which an estimated 1.5 million Armenians were killed in 1915. The genocide was directed primarily by Talaat Pasha and the Young Turks, the nationalist party in power at the end of the Ottoman empire. I tell the BozBeckian story often and openly. It feels like the only way to keep the history alive. So I’ll tell you now.
It was 1915, and Manuel was six years old. One night at dinner, his father was taken outside their home and shot. The rest of his family — his mother, brother, sister and himself — were pushed into line on a long walk into the Syrian desert. To die.
Manuel BozBeckian, who fled the Armenian genocide as a boy, shown here with his wife Pilune Kirkorian
This is how most Armenians died: they were robbed, deprived of food and water, often raped and killed. People dropped out of the lines like flies. If you go to parts of the Syrian desert now and touch the ground, you find bones.
Somewhere along the walk, my great-grandmother witnessed a fight between two Young Turk generals and was brought to a nearby city to testify. She had to put her three children in an orphanage while the testimony went on. She was gone for a year; I can only imagine what she had to do to survive. When she returned to the orphanage, my grandfather was the only one of her children left alive. The word used was always malnutrition. But children in Turkish state orphanages during the genocide were tortured and starved.
After a number of years travelling, Manuel and his mother made it on to one of the last boats to America from Constantinople, through Ellis Island. By then he was 13. When I was 13, I had my own bathroom, a growing CD collection and a job walking my neighbour’s dog.
Father shot, caravan into the desert, testify, orphanage, malnutrition, Ellis Island. These words are stitched into me. I’ve been told that traumas like these are passed down generationally, that I have a diluted version of it and that it will continue on, even more diluted, to my children. How could this not be true? Manuel is the man that raised my mother.
The diaspora today is large — about 11 million — and spread across the world, from Russia to the US, France, Lebanon, Iran and Argentina. It is only 3.5 million smaller than the world’s Jewish population. The genocide is still a live issue: Turkey continues to deny it and, due to lobbying and the pressure of strategic alliances, it has still not been acknowledged by the US, the UK, Israel or all but 29 countries around the world.
I have always been defined by my grandfather’s story. But over the course of these 11 days in Armenia, I began to feel that my attachment to the genocide was a privilege — I could come here and explore my roots freely, because my family’s experiences have improved so radically in the years since.
While my grandparents built lives, Armenia continued to struggle. It was relatively stable during Soviet rule, though heavily dependent, until 1988, when it suffered a catastrophic earthquake that killed 25,000 people. When the USSR fell in 1992, the economic support it had given the country went with it. Left with an unreliable supply of energy, Armenians lived with about an hour of electricity a day for four years.
The people we met who have memories of the 1990s told us of the “dark years”, when one of the few things they could rely on eating was trout from Lake Sevan. They remembered cutting down trees with their fathers for warmth in cold winters. (Today, the country is still trying to recover from overfishing and deforestation.) They remember a war with Azerbaijan from 1988-1994 over contested borders of the Armenian-populated Nagorno-Karabach, an unresolved conflict still considered one of wider Europe’s most unstable potential flashpoints.
Armenia has good diplomatic ties with almost everyone but its two direct border neighbours, Turkey and Azerbaijan. Its history with Russia adds a layer of complication; though they are close, Russia likes its former states to need it. Russia sells weapons to Azerbaijan and Armenia at the same time.
In recent years, the country has become a base for members of the diaspora living across the Middle East, including more than 17,000 Syrian Armenians. One evening we had dinner at Derian, a Syrian-Armenian restaurant in Yerevan, with an Armenian-American named Suzanne Daghlian. She had “felt the pull — I can’t explain it” and moved permanently to Yerevan in 2013. Her friend Davit had come to Armenia from Aleppo a few months before the Syrian civil war began. Once fighting started back home, his family suggested he stay.
Davit is 27. He joined us for a glass of raki and told us things were bad but could have been worse. He was lucky. His family in Aleppo had lost power, water and heat for two full years. His aunt’s building was struck by a missile; many of his friends had been kidnapped or killed; they struggled with depression and unspeakable pain. But you can’t compare pain, he told us. In parts of Africa people are starving, and we are dying because of war, and we just really can’t compare it.
A Syrian-Armenian family from the next table began to chat with us. They had gone to school with Davit in Aleppo and recognised each other here, in this restaurant in Yerevan. They offered us some of their son’s birthday cake. We said, “No, it’s OK,” and laughed, but the child’s mother picked up the cake, filled her fork and brought it to each of our mouths.
“Ker”, she told us. Eat.
Here I was, Lilah from Brookline, Massachusetts, standing with a fellow Armenian. She had a similar family history of persecution, but had recently survived another vivid round of trauma. When in need, this country welcomed her, a cultural meeting place that also welcomed Davit, and Suzanne, and me. She was feeding me, simply because she is Armenian and it is important to feed.
The next day we visited Mother Armenia, a Statue of Liberty-like monument that overlooks Yerevan from the top of its highest hill. It replaced a monument of Joseph Stalin that was pulled down in the 1960s. She is severe, made of copper, her elbows at right angles. She holds a sword in her hands. I was shocked to see that sword.
I suppose I thought, naively, that after the genocide, Armenians’ wellbeing was a settled matter. Sure, their post-genocidal partition wasn’t large, but it was theirs and they were safe. Instead, I found a country not fully calm.
On one of the last days, I told Rafael that I was sure he had many tourists like us, from the diaspora, who arrive with the genocide at the top of our minds. I asked whether it bothered him that we were so caught up in the fight for genocide recognition while Armenia was still struggling in so many other ways. “Yes, we have to look forward. But I think it is good that the diaspora talks about the genocide, because it reminds the world of our power,” he told me. “It shows strength that you will not let it go. If Turkey or Azerbaijan tries to start a war with us, they know the world is watching.”
Despite these tensions, Armenia has one of the lowest crime rates in the world, and its people are full of optimism. The revolution in May was organised through Facebook, Twitter and Signal by a generation that doesn’t remember Soviet rule, is well educated, highly skilled in technology and has grown up online. Its leader, journalist turned opposition politician Nikol Pashinyan, set ground rules: no violence, no resistance; if someone tries to arrest you, allow them; everyone off the streets at 10pm.
© Vahram Muradyan
As in many post-Soviet states, for years oligarchs held substantial economic and political control in Armenia. Corruption, including bribery and electoral fraud, was common. In April, the public watched with hope as their country transitioned from a semi-presidential republic to a parliamentary democracy, with the promise from two-term president Serzh Sargsyan that he would not appoint himself prime minister. When he broke this promise, the revolution began.
In the seven months since Sargsyan stepped down, Pashinyan’s number-one goal has been to root out corruption. He has cut back the country’s police force; now traffic cops no longer stop drivers to demand bribes. He has criminalised rampant vote-buying and investigated — and charged — oligarchs for widespread tax fraud, bringing millions back into the system to reinvest.
Pashinyan recently called for a snap election and, on December 9, citizens will have a chance to replace their current parliament with politicians they trust. For the first time, it will be a free and fair election.
One evening I met Armen Der Kiureghian, president and co-founder of the American University of Armenia. We had dinner on an outdoor patio in Yerevan, wrapping fresh, spongey lavash flatbread around sprigs of mixed herbs. I asked him what he wanted to see in Armenia over the next 10 years.
“That people don’t leave,” he said. “That people come back, and that the diaspora realises that this is the perfect time to invest. If Pashinyan can root out corruption, Armenians will be able to start businesses. They want to work hard.”
Our last night was my mother’s 69th birthday. It was our final meal in Yerevan: kofte, dolma, tourshi, manti. My father turned to my mother. “So, Debbie, do you feel like this is your country?” he asked.
She thought for a second. “I feel like I have a culture, and that culture has a country.”
Lilah Raptopoulos is the FT’s community editor; lilah.raptopoulos@ft.com
Follow @FTMag on Twitter to find out about our latest stories first. Subscribe to FT Life on YouTube for the latest FT Weekend videosRafi Topalianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13947155792238329401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7951287115436886244.post-27678276111621745932018-12-02T06:05:00.001-08:002018-12-02T06:05:12.136-08:00New Book Puts Armenians Back on the Map in Turkey<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Roboto; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.25rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="" class="aligncenter wp-image-64897 size-large" height="1024" sizes="(max-width: 791px) 100vw, 791px" src="https://gakg5sv2p13fjr0q1hulkabr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/book-cvr-karayan-1-791x1024.jpg" srcset="https://gakg5sv2p13fjr0q1hulkabr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/book-cvr-karayan-1-791x1024.jpg 791w, https://gakg5sv2p13fjr0q1hulkabr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/book-cvr-karayan-1-232x300.jpg 232w, https://gakg5sv2p13fjr0q1hulkabr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/book-cvr-karayan-1-768x994.jpg 768w, https://gakg5sv2p13fjr0q1hulkabr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/book-cvr-karayan-1.jpg 1200w" style="border: 0px; display: block; font: inherit; height: auto; margin: 1.25rem auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" width="791" />LOS ANGELES—In 1971, Dr. Sarkis Karayan, was asked by his professor, Dr. Stanley Kerr, to calculate how many Armenians were killed in the Genocide of 1915 perpetrated by Ottoman Turkey. Karayan realized that to answer that question, a different question needed to be asked: “How many Armenians lived in Ottoman Turkey before the Genocide began?”</span><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Though he was a medical doctor, Karayan took on Kerr’s request and began what would become a lifelong research project that culminated in his writing a 674-page book, </span><i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Armenians in Ottoman Turkey, 1914: A Geographical and Demographic Gazetteer</i><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Roboto; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.25rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">This landmark volume</span><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">, the first of its kind, contains a meticulously researched and footnoted list of more than 4,000 Armenian-inhabited towns and villages in 1914 and a census of how many Armenians lived in Turkey in the early 20th century.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Roboto; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.25rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Karayan fell ill and passed away before the book was published. Thanks to his wife, Dr. Silva Karayan, the volume was published last month by the Gomidas Institute in London with support from the George Ignatius Foundation and the Armenian Film Foundation.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Roboto; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.25rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Gomidas Institute publisher Ara Sarafian was recently in Los Angeles and Fresno to launch the book at events hosted by the Western Diocese of the Armenian Church, Abril bookstore and Cal State University in Fresno.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Roboto; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.25rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">At Abril, Sarafian told a full house, “This is the first English language book dealing with the demographic profile of Ottoman Armenians on such a massive scale. It is the result of several decades of probing Armenian, Turkish, German and French books, maps and archival sources.”</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Roboto; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.25rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Armenians in Ottoman Turkey, 1914</i><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> is a reference book for anyone wanting to know more about their roots in Turkey before the Genocide. In Fresno, Sarafian told the audience at an event hosted by Cal State University Professor Barlow Der Mugerditchian, that “successive Turkish governments have continued with Turkification programs,” including renaming hundreds of Armenian villages starting in 1959, which has made it nearly impossible for people to find the birthplaces of their ancestors.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Roboto; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.25rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The book solves that problem because the index lists more than 4,000 names of towns and villages in their original Armenian names and the new Turkish names. The index refers the reader to the Gazetteer in the book, where the exact longitude and latitude and population figures are provided for the once Armenian-inhabited towns and villages in Ottoman Turkey.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Roboto; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.25rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Karayan’s work literally puts Armenians back onto the map of Turkey. According to his research, there were 2,534,784 Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in 1914, and 2,185,000 of them disappeared during World War I. He footnotes every single population statistic for the 4,093 places in Turkey where Armenians lived.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Roboto; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.25rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">In late October at the Western Diocese headquarters under the auspices of Archbishop Hovnan Derderian, a panel of scholars led by Dr. Carla Garapedian of the Armenian Film Foundation discussed Karayan’s massive new study. Panelists included Ara Sarafian, Dr. Garabed Moumdjian, Crispin Brooks from the USC Shoah Foundation and Dr. Garbis Der Yeghiayan.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Roboto; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.25rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Brooks spoke about the importance of Karayan’s study for the Armenian Genocides Testimonies collection at the USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive. The Shoah Foundation was given an early draft of the book in 2016, and has used it regularly since then in order to establish where survivors in the Armenian collection came from. Many of these places are simply not on the modern Turkish map, Brooks asserted. Karayan’s study has provided key geographical data for each Armenian Genocide survivor, showing where each person lived, in terms of longitude and latitude.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Roboto; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.25rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Dr. Garbis Der Yeghiayan said that finding Armenian towns and villages during the many pilgrimages he has led to Turkey over the past 20 years has been a real challenge. On his next journey in 2019, he said there would be a difference. “I will not be leading it,” he said holding up Karayan’s book. “Dr. Sarkis Karayan will be the leader.”</span></div>
Rafi Topalianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13947155792238329401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7951287115436886244.post-29448693892086261452018-11-15T07:16:00.001-08:002018-11-15T07:16:56.291-08:00Robert Mardian – An Armenian Who Refused to Become the President of the United Stateshttps://allinnet.info/world/robert-mardian-an-armenian/?fbclid=IwAR23mKd5Rw5nkrFgEejEbPn7wuwqQUp5lsaPCXY0PIOhRk3RsBORer1SSz4Rafi Topalianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13947155792238329401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7951287115436886244.post-41280791394474558522018-11-12T09:49:00.001-08:002018-11-12T09:49:48.494-08:00Research Your Armenian Roots<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Roboto; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.25rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">This article is part of a continuing series documenting the available records for research into one’s Armenian family roots. </i><a href="https://armenianweekly.com/2018/07/24/research-your-armenian-roots-what-you-need-to-know-part-i/" style="border: 0px; color: #e64946; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Part I</i></a><i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> in the series supplied a historical background on the Armenian genealogy movement as well as specific records available for Syria. In </i><a href="https://armenianweekly.com/2018/07/30/research-your-armenian-roots-what-you-need-to-know-part-ii/" style="border: 0px; color: #e64946; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Part 2</i></a><i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">, records from Lebanon and Israel were detailed. </i><a href="https://armenianweekly.com/2018/08/05/research-your-armenian-roots-what-you-need-to-know-part-iii/" style="border: 0px; color: #e64946; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Part 3</i></a><i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> covered the records of Greece and Jordan. Southeast Asia and Serbia were covered in </i><a href="https://armenianweekly.com/2018/08/14/research-your-armenian-roots-what-you-need-to-know-part-iv/" style="border: 0px; color: #e64946; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Part 4</i></a><i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">. The available information from the Republic of Turkey was explored in </i><a href="https://armenianweekly.com/2018/08/22/research-your-armenian-roots-what-you-need-to-know-part-v/" style="border: 0px; color: #e64946; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Part 5</i></a><i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">.</i><b style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </i></b><a href="https://armenianweekly.com/2018/08/28/research-your-armenian-roots-what-you-need-to-know-part-vi/" style="border: 0px; color: #e64946; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Part 6</i></a><i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> dealt with Egypt and Armenia.</i></div>
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This will be the final installment of the series on the resources available for tracing your Armenian family roots. There remain a few important regions that have thus far not been mentioned. I will do so briefly here before discussing places I deem particularly significant for their lack of available records.</div>
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<b style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Austria</b></div>
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The Family History Library of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) contains important Armenian church records from Vienna and Trieste. Some of these records date to the 1700s. The documents are not solely the recording of sacraments, but also some census records as well as family genealogies. For example, the following image is of the elaborate family tree of Kerop Pakradian and his wife, Garine Keleshian.</div>
<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_64118" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Roboto; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 1.25rem auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1410px;"><img alt="" class="wp-image-64118 size-full" height="1416" sizes="(max-width: 1410px) 100vw, 1410px" src="https://gakg5sv2p13fjr0q1hulkabr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/genealogy_1.png" srcset="https://gakg5sv2p13fjr0q1hulkabr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/genealogy_1.png 1410w, https://gakg5sv2p13fjr0q1hulkabr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/genealogy_1-150x150.png 150w, https://gakg5sv2p13fjr0q1hulkabr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/genealogy_1-300x300.png 300w, https://gakg5sv2p13fjr0q1hulkabr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/genealogy_1-768x771.png 768w, https://gakg5sv2p13fjr0q1hulkabr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/genealogy_1-1020x1024.png 1020w" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" width="1410" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.75rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: 1.4; margin: 5px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Family tree for Kerop Pakradian and Garine Keleshian (Image from LDS Family History Library courtesy George Aghjayan)</figcaption></figure><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Roboto; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.25rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Poland</b></div>
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The Armenian community of Poland dates back over five centuries. Over the centuries, the community has been subjected to numerous trauma and challenges. Yet, even today, there are those that retain their Armenian identity from these early immigrants. I recall being surprised when one of my college classmates told me of his Polish Armenian roots, a grandmother or great-grandmother as I recall. The LDS Family History Library contains wedding records from the mid-16th century to the mid-17th century. The language utilized in these documents is stated to be Armeno-Kipchak, a Turkic language brought with the Armenians from Crimea in the 13th century.</div>
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There are also records from a region now part of the Ukraine but previously part of Poland. Specifically, there are records from early in the 18th century for the Armenian Catholic Church of Stanislau, Poland which is now known as Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine.</div>
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<b style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Cyprus</b></div>
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While there has possibly been an Armenian presence in Cyprus for millennia, the available records through the LDS Family History Library begin only in 1877. Many of the early records are difficult to read as the quality of the images is poor. As an important post-genocide Armenian community, the more recent records are definitely of interest to a great many people.</div>
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<b style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Hungary</b></div>
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The register of sacraments for St. Krikor Lusavorich Armenian Catholic Church of Budapest is available beginning in 1923. I have not reviewed these records personally, but they can be accessed at the LDS Family History Library.</div>
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<b style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Current Gaps</b></div>
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Hidden away in our church basements, closets or simply lost over time are valuable documents yet to be preserved properly.</div>
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Clearly, I have not detailed every single available resource for researching Armenian family roots. But that was never my objective. The most important concept to understand is that while many records are missing or destroyed, there are still many that remain, many easily accessible.</div>
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Yet, there are still significant gaps. In particular, Armenian church records from France were never microfilmed by the LDS church. I am confident that important records can be found, assuming they have been cared for, in the church archives. Many Armenians married in France prior to coming to the U.S. In addition, census records would be fascinating and could potentially yield previously unknown information about our families.</div>
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The Armenian community of Iran has existed for centuries and served as an important bridge between the homeland and the Southeast Asian diasporan communities. Yet, we do not have any Armenian church records from Iran available. It would seem that we should have learned our lesson by now – the only guarantee to preservation for these records is duplication and accessibility.</div>
<figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_64119" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Roboto; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 1.25rem auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1830px;"><img alt="" class="wp-image-64119 size-full" height="1230" sizes="(max-width: 1830px) 100vw, 1830px" src="https://gakg5sv2p13fjr0q1hulkabr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Screen-Shot-2018-09-11-at-8.46.53-PM.png" srcset="https://gakg5sv2p13fjr0q1hulkabr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Screen-Shot-2018-09-11-at-8.46.53-PM.png 1830w, https://gakg5sv2p13fjr0q1hulkabr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Screen-Shot-2018-09-11-at-8.46.53-PM-300x202.png 300w, https://gakg5sv2p13fjr0q1hulkabr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Screen-Shot-2018-09-11-at-8.46.53-PM-768x516.png 768w, https://gakg5sv2p13fjr0q1hulkabr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Screen-Shot-2018-09-11-at-8.46.53-PM-1024x688.png 1024w" style="border: 0px; font: inherit; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" width="1830" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.75rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: 1.4; margin: 5px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">1929 census Armenian Church of Our Saviour, Worcester (Image from LDS Family History Library courtesy George Aghjayan)</figcaption></figure><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Roboto; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.25rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Which leads me to the final point I wish to leave you with. Only one Armenian church in the U.S. has its records available through the LDS Family History Library. Hidden away in our church basements, closets or simply lost over time are valuable documents yet to be preserved properly. The Armenian Church of Our Saviour in Worcester is the lone exception.</div>
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As just one example, buried among these records was a 1929 church census. What makes this census so unique and important is that it was undertaken before the split in the community and at a time when many of the first immigrants were still alive. The census contains not only the names of family members but also their parents’ names as well as women’s maiden names. Moreover, birthplaces are described in more detail than other records one might reference, thus making it the only source available with this level of information.</div>
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How many more such records remain unknown, inaccessible and improperly preserved?</div>
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George Aghjayan</h4>
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George Aghjayan is the Director of the Armenian Historical Archives and the chair of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Central Committee of the Eastern United States. Aghjayan graduated with honors from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1988 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Actuarial Mathematics. He achieved Fellowship in the Society of Actuaries in 1996. After a career in both insurance and structured finance, Aghjayan retired in 2014 to concentrate on Armenian related research and projects. His primary area of focus is the demographics and geography of western Armenia as well as a keen interest in the hidden Armenians living there today. Other topics he has written and lectured on include Armenian genealogy and genocide denial. He is a board member of the National Association of Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR), a frequent contributor to the Armenian Weekly and Houshamadyan.org, and the creator and curator westernarmenia.weebly.com, a website dedicated to the preservation of Armenian culture in Western Armenia.</div>
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Rafi Topalianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13947155792238329401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7951287115436886244.post-40222352855760440052018-11-12T08:32:00.001-08:002018-11-12T08:32:58.611-08:00Search for: SEARCH … Genealogy: A Tool for Empowerment or Ethnic Gatekeeping?<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Roboto; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.25rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Since 2000, the tracing of ancestry utilizing genetic markers has skyrocketed in popularity. Genealogy is one of few categories of websites that competes with pornography for most user activity and is <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Business/genealogy-hot-hobby-worth-16b-mormons/story?id=17544242" style="border: 0px; color: #e64946; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">reportedly</a>second only to gardening as a hobby in the U.S.</div>
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Yet there’s something very ironic about the fact that today, very few consider the roots behind the tools that enable us to access ours.</div>
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The empirical study of one’s ancestry has had different meanings for different populations in the United States, depending on the time period. The civil rights movement in particular was a cultural turning point for the technology. For many descendants of communities born out of forced migration, most notably African-Americans, the idea of tracing one’s roots back to normalcy offered a rare opportunity to reclaim ownership over a history that had otherwise been erased. In the seventies, the very popular book-turned-TV series <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Roots </em>followed the life of an 18th century slave and followed his descendents all the way to the author/narrator. In 2003, the <a href="http://www.africanancestry.com/home/" style="border: 0px; color: #e64946; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">African Ancestry</a>, a website facilitating the African-American search for roots, was one of the very first example of direct-to-consumer genetic-testing. It was founded in 2003, predating 23andMe (now one of the most popular services) by five years.</div>
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This movement and its implications was not lost on the Armenian community, whose ancestors had narrowly escaped a mass genocide in the Ottoman empire nearly a century prior. “While I was interested in my ancient DNA and the migration of man out of Africa,” <a href="https://armenianweekly.com/2015/09/04/dna-testing-brings-ancestors-back-from-dead/" style="border: 0px; color: #e64946; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">wrote</a>Weekly editorial board member George Aghjayan back in 2015, “what really motivated me was the hope of connecting with descendants thought murdered during the genocide. Possibly descendants of the sisters my grandmother never heard from after they were sent to the desert. I wanted to bring them back from the dead.”</div>
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Aghjayan recalls that these efforts really gained force in the Armenian community by the nineties. The first such project was initiated by Mark Arslan and focused on those who had come from the district of Kghi. Gradually this expanded and now thousands of Armenians have tested at the various DNA companies. In recent years, there have even been annual Armenian genealogy conferences.</div>
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But before ancestry testing became an empowering tool for ethnic minorities in the U.S., it was used for the purposes of ethnic gatekeeping. In the late-19th and early-20th century, many whites in America, threatened by the waves of new European immigrants, were intent on creating barriers to newcomers; both real and imagined. Lineage-based organizations emerged, like Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), founded in 1890, which stipulated that its members have ancestral ties to soldiers of the Revolutionary War. In 1910, they <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=Y6QRAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA25&lpg=PA25&dq=the+purity+of+our+Caucasian+blood.+daughters+of+the+american+revolution&source=bl&ots=wNwLT287Mo&sig=cZYJohHuoHJ2UgcgFRq_G4obydo&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjjsNelqbHeAhWtg-AKHQzTAHQQ6AEwCnoECAYQAQ#v=onepage&q=the%20purity%20of%20our%20Caucasian%20blood.%20daughters%20of%20the%20american%20revolution&f=false" style="border: 0px; color: #e64946; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">wrote</a> that the organization stood for “the purity of our Caucasian blood, the perpetuity of our Anglo-Saxon traditions of liberty, law, and the security and gradual elevation of the white man’s standard of living.” (DAR’s policies have become significantly more liberal and accepting since then.)</div>
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… as institutions shift their standards to account for historically disadvantaged and marginalized communities, we find ourselves at a new, political crossroads.</div>
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Many southern states formally adopted what had up to that point been called the “one-drop rule,” a social and later, legal principle of racial classification that said any person with even one distant African ancestor (i.e. “one drop” of black blood) would be considered black and thus, barred large groups of people from accessing certain benefits, ranging from housing to healthcare. The eugenics movement similarly affected another racial caste that had long been deemed undesirable by white settlers: Native Americans. Long-held racial stereotypes in the U.S. propagated the belief that Native American women were unfit to raise or to have children in comparison to white women, and even as late as the 1960s and 70s, a federally funded effort was underway that resulted in nearly 4,000 native women being sterilized (many, without their consent).</div>
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These atrocities are horrific, and nothing can undo the damage. Fortunately, in the century, recognition of these injustices is widespread and efforts at reparation, in many different forms, are underway.</div>
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Today, certain privileges are reserved for those descended of marginalized communities, which take the form of everything from scholarships and university admission quotas (i.e. affirmative action) to dental care. There has also been a cultural shift, particularly in metropolitan parts of the country; an awakening to the injustice white supremacy has inflicted on people of color. A backlash has ensued (the #BlackLivesMatter movement) and a backlash to that backlash (the visibility of neo-white supremacists and the election of Donald Trump).</div>
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But as institutions shift their standards to account for historically disadvantaged and marginalized communities, we find ourselves at a new, political crossroads.</div>
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Had she not run for Senate in 2012, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren’s unwavering belief in a distant Cherokee relative may never have been ruptured. But at some point during her campaign, it was revealed that she, a white woman by all visible indicators, had allowed Harvard Law School to include her as part of their diversity quota, listing her as a Native American in their rosters when she was tenured there in the nineties. Preceding the 2018 midterm elections, President Donald Trump reinvigorated these criticisms of Warren, calling her ‘Pocahontas’ at a rally, and stating that if she could prove her Native ancestry by means of a DNA test, he would donate $1 million to a charity of her choosing. Warren, responding to the taunts, actually did perform a DNA test, to prove her native roots.</div>
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Warren’s rebuttal to taunts from Trump ended up backfiring—badly. The Cherokee Nation was incensed. Secretary of State Chuck Hoskin Jr. <a href="http://webtest2.cherokee.org/News/Stories/Archive_2018/20181015_Cherokee-Nation-responds-to-Senator-Warrens-DNA-test" style="border: 0px; color: #e64946; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">condemned</a> Warren’s use of genetic testing. “A DNA test is useless to determine tribal citizenship,” he stated, “Current DNA tests do not even distinguish whether a person’s ancestors were indigenous to North or South America… It makes a mockery out of DNA tests and its legitimate uses while also dishonoring legitimate tribal governments and their citizens, whose ancestors are well documented and whose heritage is proven.”</div>
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Debate rages as to Warren’s motives—had she truly been seeking to benefit politically? Or were her claims to Native heritage in her job application a simple mistake made in haste? A moment’s decision in which rationality was trumped by faith in an unquestioned family lore? Regardless, rallying for Native American heritage only when it is politically desirable to do so is wrong—a fact, it is worth noting, that Warren now accepts.</div>
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<img alt="" class="size-full wp-image-64728 alignleft" height="391" sizes="(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px" src="https://gakg5sv2p13fjr0q1hulkabr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Cartoon_03.jpg" srcset="https://gakg5sv2p13fjr0q1hulkabr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Cartoon_03.jpg 400w, https://gakg5sv2p13fjr0q1hulkabr-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Cartoon_03-300x293.jpg 300w" style="border: 0px; display: inline; float: left; font: inherit; height: auto; margin: 0.3125rem 1.25rem 1.25rem 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" width="400" />And to the point about DNA-testing, many Native Americans rightly responded that tribal inclusion is not just about blood quotas; it’s also about the importance of lived relationships and a sense of community. But this is a community, it seems, which has learned it cannot afford to be welcoming. “There’s a running joke in Indian country,” Dr. Kim TallBear, a professor at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Alberta" style="border: 0px; color: #e64946; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" title="University of Alberta">University of Alberta</a> specializing in racial politics, told journalist Brooke Gladstone in a recent <a href="https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/blood-and-beyond-blood" style="border: 0px; color: #e64946; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">interview</a>, “…when we’re out in the world and we meet people and they say, ‘Oh you’re native! Oh, my great-grandmother was Cherokee!’ our first response is to try not to roll our eyes.”</div>
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While this response is on some level understandable, it’s also a sad realization: though while the context has shifted in the modern era, the idea that an awareness of <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">who one is, </em>is nearly always accompanied by an awareness of <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">what one is entitled to</em>. Even if what one is entitled to is well-deserved.</div>
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The stakes for Armenians, it is worth noting, are very different. Certainly an awareness of one’s Armenian-ness (written about <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">ad nauseum</em> in our pages) entitles one to feel certain cultural and identity-related privileges. Certainly there are Armenian scholarships and foundations. But as a community, there is not (yet) any particular political benefit to being Armenian today—particularly in Turkey. As a result, there is a generally (with certain exceptions) welcoming attitudes towards non-Armenians, referred to as <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">odar</em>, who express an interest in joining the community’s ranks—even fabricating cutesy titles for folks, like “ABC” (Armenian By Choice). The Armenian Revolutionary Federation, for example, holds no stipulations that members must be of traceable Armenian descent to join (and in fact, the ARF welcomed many Kurds in its early days).</div>
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Regardless, though it occupies a different political space for our community, genealogy has been a valuable avenue of research for Armenians, which is why Armenian newspapers are often host to countless articles on the topic (even recently a six-part series into “<a href="https://armenianweekly.com/2018/09/12/research-your-armenian-roots-what-you-need-to-know-part-vii/" style="border: 0px; color: #e64946; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How to Research your Armenian Roots”)</a> During his research into his ancestry, our editorial board member discovered the descendants of his great-grandmother’s sister, who had thought to have been lost during the Genocide. “The people in this story remain victims of genocide,” concluded Aghjayan his <a href="https://armenianweekly.com/2015/09/04/dna-testing-brings-ancestors-back-from-dead/" style="border: 0px; color: #e64946; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">story</a> from 2015, “but they no longer are tallied in the dead. The 1.5 million has been reduced by 2.”</div>
Rafi Topalianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13947155792238329401noreply@blogger.com0