Tuesday,
Pashinian Warns Of New War With Azerbaijan
• Naira Nalbandian
Armenia - Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian speaks on state television,
Yerevan, .
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has claimed that Azerbaijan is torpedoing peace
talks and preparing the ground for another war with Armenia.
“They are trying to create legitimacy for a new war,” he said in televised
remarks aired late on Monday. “Whether they plan the new war in three months,
three years or thirty years is a different issue.”
In that regard, Pashinian pointed to continuing Azerbaijani claims that Yerevan
is reluctant to negotiate a peace treaty with Baku, demarcate the
Armenian-Azerbaijani border and open it to commerce. He said that the
Azerbaijani side itself cancelled a fresh meeting of senior Armenian and
Azerbaijani officials which was due to take place in Brussels on Monday. It has
also not responded to an Armenian proposal to organize a face-to-face meeting of
the foreign ministers of the two states, he said.
On Sunday Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev again implicitly threatened to
resort to military action. He said that Armenia will “regret it” if it delays
the border demarcation.
Aliyev voiced similar threats earlier this month when he warned Yerevan against
continuing to oppose the opening of a land corridor connecting Azerbaijan to its
Nakhichevan exclave.
Armenian officials again ruled out such an extraterritorial corridor afterwards,
arguing that Armenian-Azerbaijani agreements brokered by Russia call for only
conventional transport links between the two South Caucasus states.
Pashinian said on Monday that Baku itself is violating those agreements by
breaching the ceasefire regime in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone and
continuing to hold dozens of Armenian prisoners.
Pashinian adopted a conciliatory policy towards Azerbaijan following Armenia’s
defeat in the 2020 war over Karabakh. He has since repeatedly promised that it
will usher in an “era of peaceful development” for Armenia and the entire region.
Pashinian sparked weeks of antigovernment protests in Yerevan after signaling in
April his readiness to “lower the bar” on the status of Karabakh acceptable to
Armenia. Armenian opposition leaders accused him of helping Azerbaijan regain
full control over the Armenian-populated territory.
One of those leaders, Ishkhan Saghatelian, claimed on Tuesday that Pashinian’s
warning about a new war with Azerbaijan is aimed at discouraging Armenians from
fighting for regime change. In a Facebook post, Saghatelian insisted that
Pashinian’s removal from power is on the contrary the only way to “save Armenia
and Artsakh from this destructive course.”
Opposition Leaders Set To Lose Parliament Posts
Armenia - Parliament vice-speaker Ishkhan Saghatelian leads an opposition
demonstration in Yerevan, May 18, 2022.
The ruling Civil Contract party moved on Tuesday to dismiss a deputy speaker of
the Armenian parliament and the chairman of one of its standing committees
affiliated with the main opposition Hayastan alliance.
Hayastan’s Ishkhan Saghatelian holds one of the three posts of vice-speaker
reserved for the opposition. The other opposition lawmaker, Vahe Hakobian,
chairs the parliament committee on economic affairs.
A representative of Civil Contract’s parliamentary group, which controls the
majority of seats in the National Assembly, said it has decided to strip them of
their posts because of their continuing boycott of parliament sessions.
Saghatelian, Hakobian and the 33 other deputies representing Hayastan and the
other parliamentary opposition force, Pativ Unem, began the boycott in April in
advance of their daily demonstrations demanding Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s
resignation.
Under Armenian law, a lawmaker can lose their seat if they skip, for
“non-legitimate” reasons, at least half of parliament votes during a single
semi-annual session of the National Assembly. The final decision to that effect
is to be made by the Constitutional Court at the initiative of the parliament’s
leadership or at least one-fifth of the deputies.
Parliament speaker Alen Simonian said on May 17 that he is considering
initiating such an appeal to the court. According to the parliament’s press
office, over a dozen opposition lawmakers could be formally accused of
absenteeism at that point.
Simonian told reporters on Tuesday morning that he and other pro-government
lawmakers will discuss the issue at a meeting later in the day.
After the meeting, the ruling party announced no decision to strip any
opposition parliamentarians of their seats. It said instead that Saghatelian and
Hakobian will only lose their posts.
Speaking shortly before that announcement, Saghatelian again dismissed the
government threats to terminate his and his colleagues’ membership of the
National Assembly.
“We are out to fight against that gang,” he told News.am. “For us, the
[parliamentary] mandate is only a tool for struggle. If the authorities want to
strip us of our mandates let them do that. That will not affect our struggle in
any way.”
Saghatelian announced earlier in the day that the opposition forces will hold
their next antigovernment rally on Friday.
Pashinian Admits Failure Of ‘Judicial Reforms’
• Naira Nalbandian
Armenia - Parents of soldiers killed in the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh protest
outside the Supreme Judicial Council building in Yerevan, May 26, 2022.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian acknowledged late on Monday that a scandal
sparked by leaked audio featuring Armenia’s top judicial officer has undermined
the credibility of judicial reforms declared by his administration.
But Pashinian did not say whether he believes Gagik Jahangirian, the
controversial acting head of the country’s Supreme Judicial Council (SJC),
should resign.
Ruben Vartazarian, the SJC’s previous chairman, publicized on June 20 a
14-minute audio clip which he secretly recorded during a dinner meeting with
Jahangirian in February 2021. The meeting took place two months before
Vartazarian was controversially suspended by other SJC members amid rising
tensions with Pashinian.
In the recording full of profanities uttered by him, Jahangirian can be heard
seemingly warning Vartazarian to resign or face criminal charges.
Jahangirian claimed late last week that he simply tried to trick Vartazarian
into resigning as head of the state body that nominates judges and can also
dismiss them. He dismissed calls for his resignation voiced by opposition and
civil society groups.
Armenia -- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian chairs a meeting with senior
law-enforcement and judicial officials, Yerevan, November 30, 2020.
Pashinian did not comment on those calls when he was asked about the scandal
during a live televised appearance. Instead, he attacked Vartazarian, saying
that the recording also raised questions about the former SJC chairman.
“I always say that our biggest problem is the judicial system, that we don’t
have real successes here,” Pashinian told Armenian Public Television.
Asked whether the leaked audio scandal has cast a shadow over his declared
judicial reforms, Pashinian said: “I think so.” He expressed hope that an
Armenian law-enforcement agency will properly investigate the content of the
recording and its implications.
The Investigative Committee reportedly interrogated Vartazarian on June 23. But
it has still not opened a formal criminal case in connection with Jahangirian’s
secretly recorded comments.
Critics say Jahangirian must be not only sacked but also prosecuted for what
they see as blackmail and illegal interference in the work of law-enforcement
bodies.
The SJC indicated last week that it will not even launch disciplinary
proceedings against its embattled head. But one of its members, Davit
Khachaturian, announced on Monday that the judicial watchdog has set up a
working group that will look into the leaked audio and determine whether it
warrants such proceedings.
Armenia - Ruben Vartazarian, head of the Supreme Judicial Council, at a news
conference in Yerevan, June 20, 2022.
The SJC formally deposed Vartazarian as its chairman and member on June 23. The
official reason for the move was a recent newspaper interview in which he
claimed that Jahangirian joined the watchdog in January 2021 in breach of
Armenian law.
Vartazarian fell out with Pashinian in late 2020 as the prime minister’s
political allies accused him of encouraging Armenian courts to free arrested
government critics. Vartazarian denied the accusations. He says that he was
indicted and suspended in April 2021 as part of government efforts to replace
him with Jahangirian, a former prosecutor widely seen as a figure loyal to
Pashinian.
Pashinian’s political opponents dismiss his stated efforts to reform the
Armenian judiciary as a smokescreen for increasing government influence on
courts. Pashinian and his political allies say the reforms are on the contrary
aimed at strengthening judicial independence.
U.S. Reports Russian Boycott Of Talks On Karabakh
• Tatevik Lazarian
US - The Department of State building in Washington, DC, April 20, 2020.
Russia has boycotted a multilateral discussion on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
initiated by the United States within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group, the
U.S. State Department said on Tuesday.
“The U.S. OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair spoke with her counterparts today to discuss
the future of Nagorno-Karabakh,” tweeted the department’s Bureau of European and
Eurasian Affairs.
“It's unfortunate the Russian Co-Chair [of the Minsk Group] did not accept the
invitation. We look forward to the Minsk Group’s continuing work,” it said.
The State Department division did not specify who else took part in that
discussion or give any other details.
The U.S., Russia and France have for decades jointly tried to broker an
Armenian-Azerbaijani peace accord in their capacity as the co-chairs of the
Minsk Group. According to Russian officials, Washington and Paris stopped
working with Moscow in that format following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Armenia -- The U.S. and French co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group and other
diplomats meet with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, Yerevan, December
14, 2020.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Karen Donfried denied the Russian claims when
she visited Yerevan on June 18. She told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that the
Minsk Group remains a “very important format” for Washington.
The Russian Foreign Ministry dismissed Donfried’s assurances on June 22. A
ministry spokeswoman said the U.S. and France caused “irreparable damage” to the
mediating format as a result of their broader attempts to isolate Russia on the
international stage.
Visiting Baku two days later, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov insisted
that “the Minsk Group stopped its activities at the initiative of the American
and French co-chairs.”
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian suggested on Monday that Lavrov’s comments
contradict one of the provisions of his joint declaration with Russian President
Vladimir Putin adopted in April. It stresses “the importance of using the
potential and experience of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship institute in
accordance with its international mandate.”
ARMENIA - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (right) is about to meet with
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in Yerevan, June 9, 2022.
“I think that this contradiction needs to be clarified,” Pashinian said, adding
that the Minsk Group is not dead.
Incidentally, the secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, Armen Grigorian, met
with the group’s the French co-chair, Brice Roquefeuil, in Paris on Tuesday. A
statement by the council said the two men agreed on the need for achieving a
comprehensive Karabakh settlement “under the aegis of the OSCE Minsk Group
co-chairmanship.”
In recent weeks, Armenia’s leaders have called on the U.S., Russian and French
mediators to resume their joint peace efforts.
By contrast, Azerbaijani officials and President Ilham Aliyev in particular have
repeatedly questioned the need for the group’s continued existence. Aliyev has
said that Azerbaijan’s victory in the 2020 war with Armenia put an end to the
Karabakh conflict.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry urged Yerevan
to “stop wasting time on restoring a format the effectiveness of which was
always low.”
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2022 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
Month: June 2022
ANN/Armenian News – A Series of Photo Albums Prepared by Maria Jacobsen Missionary Nurse and Relief Worker
Armenian News Network / Armenian News
by Abraham D. Krikorian and Eugene L. Taylor
Probing the Photographic Record
LONG ISLAND, NY
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Maria Jacobsen is a name well-known to Armenians. She was one of two Danish-born women who richly deserved the title “Danish Mothers of the Armenian Orphans.” Five Armenian stamps were issued in July 2014, in advance of the upcoming 2015 commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. (See Fig. 1 for two juxtapositioned 200 dram stamps; one with an image of Karen Jeppe; the other of Maria Jacobsen.). A very special feature of the work of each of these two women is that their individual efforts for the Armenians covered many years. It was not a matter of dedicating themselves to short-term service for either of them.
Fig. 1.
This posting draws attention to our YouTube video of the photo albums of Maria Jacobsen, whose broad and remarkable service spanned more than a half-century. Maria Jacobsen is buried according to her wishes in the courtyard of her beloved Bird’s Nest Orphanage in Byblos [Jubeil], Lebanon, one of the most ancient cities on earth. See endnote.[1]
We were fortunate enough through the generosity of the late Karekin Dickran, a Lebanese Armenian emigrated to Denmark, who knew Eileen Hadidian as a neighbor in Beirut days, to be able to make contact years ago with Eileen in Albany, California. Although Eileen pretty much nearly always used her maiden name, she was married to Peter Trichenor and they had one child, a daughter named Melia. Eileen was an extraordinarily lovely person and an accomplished musician. She had earned a Master’s degree and her Doctor of Music degree from Stanford University. Sadly, she died December 14, 2012, after a long battle with cancer. Part of her musical legacy, especially in the East Bay area, may be found in CDs produced through The Healing Muses. See: http://magnatune.com/artists/hadidian/
One of the many distinctive aspects of the photos in the various Jacobsen Photo Albums in Eileen’s possession, which she inherited from her mother, (who was an adopted daughter of Maria Jacobsen) were photos ranging from the pre-Genocide and Genocide periods at the twin cities of Mezireh-Harpoot all the way up to, and including the rehabilitation activities in the orphanages set up and maintained for Armenians in The Lebanon. Viewing and examining the Albums today enables one to appreciate not only the sheer volume but the development and temporal context of the events before and during the disastrous Armenian Genocide and its ultimate consequences.
Eileen’s husband, Peter Trichenor, now of course a widower, is retired and lives in Portland, Oregon where their daughter Melia resides as well, and teaches. Both are pleased that our video of the Albums has been posted for general viewing and possible use.
Another feature of the Jacobsen Albums is that they permit us not only to view content and range of photographic coverage, but also provide a means of dovetailing, and linking with photographs taken by others on site, even if the photos were the product of workers who were engaged in the region for a relatively short period of time. It will be appreciated that “bits and pieces” of information from scattered, even unlikely or unexpected sources, can all help fill in a picture that might otherwise be lacking one or a few details thought to be important.
All this allows for what has been referred to as a “panorama of contextualization” to emerge.
For example, an early photograph shows Maria Jacobsen on the upper story porch of the Annie Tracy Riggs Hospital in Mezireh taken on the occasion of the dedication of the Hospital in 1910. This is from an enlargement of a photograph showing the front of the Annie Tracy Riggs Hospital and the notables and attendees of the dedication of the ‘American’ Hospital’ at Mezireh (See Figs. 2a. and 2b.)
This view of the gathering at the Hospital shows a number of notables assembled, such as the Vali [Governor General] of the Vilayet and the penultimate American Consul to Harput, Turkey, William Wesley Masterson. It might be interesting for some to learn that we ourselves obtained some additional photographs that pertain to that period in Harput (which overlapped with some of the early time of Maria Jacobsen’s service) through the kindness of the daughter of Consul and Mrs. Masterson, Mary Carroll Masterson. She was born in Mezireh and was delivered at the Hospital by American physician Dr. Ruth A. Parmelee, who born in Trebizond, Turkey and was descended from missionaries who long served in Turkey. Remarkably, the Masterson family had deep connections with a small town on the Ohio River, Carrollton, Kentucky, the hometown of one of us, Eugene L. Taylor. We were able to track her down quite easily and got to know her quite well by. H happy coincidence and chance![2]
Fig. 2a.
Fig. 2b.
Maria Jacobsen is third from the right.
Another rewarding connection we have been personally able to make through ‘linking’, involves an attractive color painting produced in 1917, looking down from the ‘Garden’, used by some of the missionaries to escape the summer heat of the upper City. It shows the Harpoot plain below with a few of its buildings and a proximal village as viewed from above – that is to say, from a higher elevation looking down southwards. These places are all labeled clearly. See Fig. 3a. and 3b.
Karen Marie Petersen (1881- date of death has not been yet exactly determined, either 1961 or 1964) certainly painted an attractive picture, and today it has become a very rare one at that, especially in terms of what it shows in color. It is reproduced from a quality photograph of the framed painting measuring 46 inches wide X 32 inches high, made and sent to us on CD by the late Karekin Dickran. It was also interesting to us especially since the painting offered a view in color of the town of Yegheke where Armenian American Master photographer Kazar Sarkis Melikian was born, as well as being the hometown of the mother of a late sister-in-law.[3]
Fig. 3a.
View of some of the Harpoot Plain as seen from the Garden.
Cf. ANN/Armenian News Armenian News October 11, 2015, by Abraham D. Krikorian and Eugene L. Taylor.
Fig. 3b.
Karen Marie Petersen. From a photograph in a Maria Jacobsen Album.
See photographs of her when considerably younger in Figs. 5. and 6.
To continue briefly about Kazar Sarkis Melikian of Yegheke we will mention that K.S. Melikian’s daughter Mary Christine Melikian of Worcester, Massachusetts died at the age of 89 on 22 September 2015. We posted a brief notice on ANN/Armenian News. A Sad Note of Passage, And A Happy Notice of a Major Legacy of Photographs for Armenians at The Library of Congress: Commentary, and a Notice of a Video Posting on YouTube by Eugene L. Taylor and Abraham D. Krikorian entitled Kazar Sarkis Melikian Studio, Worcester, Mass. As stated, Mary’s father, Kazar Sarkis Melikian, was an important preserver and photographer of Armenian heritage and the Armenian experience – from Kharpert to America, up to his death in 1969. We made the video of the photo albums in 2006. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyenw3n7xJA.
Those Interested in Armenian and Armenian-related photos can also show their commitment to preservation of their Heritage through videoing them as well. What follows in our video includes an overview of the Melikian Project. It includes a letter of thanks from Mary completed and finalized late in the afternoon the day before she died peacefully and unexpectedly” See: https://www.Armenian News.org/orig/ak-20151011.html [4]
Another especially interesting example of a video that ‘dovetails’ with what is covered in the Maria Jacobsen Albums and which is particularly significant and useful especially for the Kharpert area, bears the descriptor Laurence H. and Frances C. MacDaniels American Committee for Relief in the Near East (A.C.R.N.E.) 1919-1920, Photo Album Oberlin College Archives SG1276. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zEDfMSx8mk.
This is not the time or place to go into detail here on how the two of us ended up at Oberlin College Archives studying the MacDaniels Near East Photo Album, suffice it to say that we were hoping to expand our knowledge of the period, and gain access to relevant photos pertaining to the Armenian genocide witnessed by the last American Consul at Harput, Leslie A. Davis. Again, it is by pure chance that Leslie Davis was born and is buried in Port Jefferson, Long Island where we live. [5]
Fig. 4. below shows some of the future staff of the American Committee for Relief in the Near East (ACRNE) assigned to Harpoot area, on the way out to Harput from the German-constructed eastern deep-water port of Derinjeh.
Fig. 4.
“On the way”. Going out into the Interior of Turkey from Oula Kishla [Ulukışla]; this was the group’s “dining car.” Front row, from left: Dr. Ruth A. Parmelee, Mrs. Frances C. MacDaniels, Miss Florence Miss Stively, nurse; 2nd row, Esther F. Greene’, Peggy Niles; Amy A. Bliss, nurse; 3rd row, Cornelius M. Janney; Alice Moore; back row, an Armenian cook with the first name of Kourken [meaning Brave as a Wolf or Lion] and an Armenian translator and much respected and very able Armenian helper (formerly in the employ of the American Consulate as a Cavass) Garabed Bedrosian. Returning missionary Miss Mary W. Riggs is missing from the photograph. Dr. Laurence H. MacDaniels took this picture.
Once in Harpoot the group set to work immediately, and there is a considerable amount of archival paper material and letters once owned by the MacDaniels family and now at Oberlin Archives that provide substantial detail. We know of two photos of the group of relief workers that served much of their tour of duty in Harpoot. Each of the photos seems to have been taken by 2 different cameras on the same occasion. Although they are virtually the same, there are some differences in the view provided, that allows the viewer to get a slightly different or arguably better perspective. (See Figs. 5. and 6. below).
Fig. 5.
This group photograph of those who served at Harpoot is neither labeled nor dated but the negative of the photo is at Oberlin Archives. Moreover, a nearly identical copy (also without identifications) exists in the hands of a MacDaniels’ daughter. It bears the annotation in the hand of Maria Jacobsen “Harpoot Missionaries and Relief Workers, August 1919.” (See Fig. 6. below.)
Fig. 6.
Caption is the same as was given for Fig. 5. above but note the “Turkey Carpet” spread out on the ground in Fig.5. The dog Harrass is not in this photo. The presence of ‘native’ workers/inmates is more obvious here and one can even detect people peeking out the upper windows on the left.
Almost all are identifiable with great certainty: little girl front left seated on the ground, is Beatrice Arshalouys [‘Dawn’ in Armenian] Dingilian, affectionately called “Bessie” by Miss Maria P. Jacobsen, who is seated next to her—Bessie was adopted by Miss Jacobsen; Ruth A. Parmelee, M.D.; Anna R. Ward, wife of Dr. Mark H. Ward; second row seated, Miss Karen Marie Petersen, a Dane; the next man with the necktie remains unidentified; (3rd from left remains unidentified; she is not Emma Barnum Riggs, i.e. Mrs. Henry H. Riggs, because she died on 26 April 1917 fide Jacobsen Diaries). A guess is that neither is she Mr. H.H. Riggs’ fiancé [Frances C. MacDaniels in a letter home dated 11 February 1920 relates “…Mr. Riggs startled us by engaging himself to one of the missionaries who just came out. I don’t know the technicalities of marriage of Americans in foreign countries, but I think they will have to wait till they can reach some American consul.” (Parenthetically, Henry H. Riggs was born in 1875 and the woman here looks as if she would be a bit old for him. Be that as it may, Riggs did marry one Annie M. Denison in Harpoot on 7 May 1920 fide Ara Sarafian, ed. of Henry H. Riggs’ Days of Tragedy in Armenia, Personal Experiences in Harpoot 1915-1917, Gomidas Institute, Ann Arbor 1997); Henry Harrison Riggs [“Harry]”; his sister Mary W. Riggs; Dr. Mark H. Ward, M.D.; standing in the back row is Frances C. MacDaniels, Miss Florence Stively, Cornelius Janney, Peggy Niles, Lee Vrooman (later Rev. Vrooman D.D.); Gardiner C. Means (later a famous economist) and last in row Laurence MacDaniels, Professor at Cornell University. Identification of “Bessie” verified by her daughter the late Eileen Hadidian. This photograph may well have been taken on the occasion of the farewell party for Miss Jacobsen prior to her return to Denmark with Bessie. Mrs. Anna Ward is identified fide her daughter and son and a nephew in telephone conversation.
Many images from the MacDaniels Near East album are included in the video we uploaded some years ago on our You Tube Conscience Films site about the so-called ‘Orphan Rug’ that was made for the American White House. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkQQEFsXDRg “History of the Armenian Orphan Rug Made for the White House 1925.” The video itself was entitled Story of an Oriental Rug made by Armenian Orphans for the White House: preserving authentic memory of survivors of the Turkish genocide against the Armenians by Eugene L. Taylor and Abraham D. Krikorian, You Tube, December 14, 2014.
The MacDaniels material is, in a word, very valuable not only in itself but because it allows linking and broadening of understanding of the period at large. It is a great pity that equivalent albums with supporting letters so far as details are concerned, do not exist for other areas. Fig. 7. below shows a photograph of the MacDaniels outside of their ‘residence’ in Harpoot at the Euphrates (Yeprad) College facilities. The photo labeled in the hand of Maria Jacobsen derives from a scan made from one of Maria Jacobsen albums at Albany, California. Having worked with the MacDaniels materials at Oberlin Archives, we believe we can express our confident opinion that this is the nicest photo of the couple together during the time of their service in Harpoot. It may be of some interest to readers that they occupied the space occupied by Maria Jacobsen after she left to go back to Denmark after an exhausting period during and especially just after the genocide.
Fig. 7.
The American Committee for Relief in the Near East undertook a massive effort at the end of the war to help ‘salvage’ survivors and remnants of the genocide. Most of the efforts concentrated on the very young and young who had somehow or other escaped concerted efforts by the Turks at elimination. Opening, or taking over houses to provide facilities to accommodate full orphans, or half-orphans, children born of rape and violation of Armenian women and mothers, became a high priority. Miss Mary W. Riggs was essentially in charge of who was admitted or not admitted. The Near East Relief map shown below gives an excellent summary of just how extensive the efforts were. The remnants were not that numerous though, because the map does not make it clear that the orphanages were quite small and one should not get that idea that massive numbers of children survivors were necessarily involved in the Harpoot area. (There were all told some 5,000 orphans.)
The map shown in Fig. 8. shows the general distribution of these orphanages. In the video of the Jacobsen album (and the Orphan Rug video) an attempt is made to show these efforts, how they were prioritized and executed.
Even under very difficult circumstances those running the orphanages and helping maintain some semblance of normalcy had a gargantuan amount of work to do.
Fig. 8.
The efforts to provide the orphans some semblance of ‘normalcy’ in life are phenomenal and emphasize just how imaginative and resourceful the care providers were.
For example, the staged events at Mezireh for the orphans at Armenian Christmas in 1920 are quite extraordinary and heart-warming. See https://www.Armenian News.org/orig/ak-20140106.html “Christmas Celebrations for Armenian Orphans in Mezreh (Kharpert) January 8, 1920: from letters and photographs.” ANN/Armenian News January 6, 2014, Abraham D. Krikorian and Eugene L. Taylor. The organizational skills of the relief workers for massive projects is clearly in evidence.
Despite all this dedication and work of those determined to carrying out ‘salvage’ efforts’, it ended up being virtually impossible to sustain the efforts for the orphans in Asia Minor. There was massive and consistent harassment by Turk ‘leadership’ who were running the show after the War, despite technically being the losers, and deliberate curtailment of the orphanage work for Christian kids and ‘returning refugees’ had to be faced and dealt with realistically. It became very clear that these kids would have to be moved into safer areas.[6]
The story of the relocation of the orphanages is too long to describe here. The Orphan Rug video featuring some of the photographs from the MacDaniels’ album, and the present video under notice here of Maria Jacobsen’s work covers it well, and in a very personal way.
Figure 9. below tells it ‘all’.
Fig. 9.
“Mama” Jacobsen and some of her charges.
Maria’s diary, handwritten in Danish was translated into Armenian, and from Danish into English, considerably later. It has a number of images that are shown in the video. See Figs. 10. and 11.[7]
Fig. 10.
Fig. 11.
This photograph on the back cover of the Diary also appears in Walter P. Davenport’s
“General Health Conditions and Medical Relief Work in Armenia” (192l) Medical Surgeon vol. 48. no. 2, Feb. pgs. 139 – 158. See especially at pg. 150. There the caption reads “The sidewalk his deathbed.”
Her work was formally recognized by many. Fig. 12 shows a gathering at which many orphans now grown up are gathered to honor her.
Fig. 12.
We hope that this ‘notice’ of the Maria Jacobsen video posting will help make people aware of this rich resource. For us, the Maria Jacobsen albums enabled us to visually fill out a series of events at the Harput area starting with the United States William Wesley Masterson especially in 1909 all the way to Maria Jacobsen’s work at Harput, into The Lebanon area of Syria, and finally in Lebanon which was formally recognized as an independent country in 1943.
Endnotes
[1] Karen Jeppe is fully deserving of her own major coverage, suffice that we only merely mention her here. Others are sure to take up the challenge of celebrating through video her life and work among the Armenians. See e.g. Watenpaugh, Keith David (2010) “The League of Nations’ Rescue of Armenian Genocide Survivors and the Making of Modern Humanitarianism, 1920-1927”, The American Historical Review vol. 115, 1315-1339.
[2] See https://www.Armenian News.org/orig/ak-20070611.html, “Mary C. Masterson, Daughter of Harput Consul William W. Masterson, Dead at Age 92” by Abraham D. Krikorian and Eugene L. Taylor. ANN/Armenian News June 11, 2007.
[3] ANN/Armenian News October 11, 2015 by Abraham D. Krikorian and Eugene L. Taylor. “Mary Christine Melikian of Worcester, Massachusetts died at the age of 89 on 22 September 2015. A Sad Note of Passage, And A Happy Notice of A Major Legacy of Photographs for Armenians at The Library of Congress: Commentary, and a Notice of a Video Posting on You Tube by Taylor and Krikorian entitled ‘Kazar Sarkis Melikian Studio, Worcester, Mass.’ Mary’s father, Kazar Sarkis Melikian, was an important preserver and photographer of Armenian heritage and the Armenian experience – from Kharpert to America. We made the video of the photo albums in 2006. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyenw3n7xJA. Those Interested in Armenian and Armenian-related Photos Can also Show their Commitment to Preservation of their Heritage through videoing them as well . What follows in that video includes an overview of the Melikian Project. It includes a letter of thanks from Mary completed and finalized the late in the afternoon the day before she died peacefully and unexpectedly (https://www.Armenian News.org/orig/ak-20151011.html.)
[4] See https://www.Armenian News.com/orig/ak-20171003.html “Harpoot and Mezereh: A Glimpse into The Way it Was in 1956 When Ruth Azniv Parmelee, M.D. Visited. She Had Worked in Both Places First from 1914 To 1917, And then from 1919 to 1922” by Eugene L. Taylor and Abraham D. Krikorian, ANN/Armenian News, October 3, 2017. Compare Karen Marie Petersen’s painting with the views taken by the outstanding Netherlands travel photographer Dick Osseman, Figs. 7 to 10 (kindly made available to us years ago with permission to use). Some very interesting film footage and commentary are offered in a video with Ara Sarafian visiting the Harput area in The Blue Book, Political truth or historical fiction? (2007) by Gagik Karagheusian, David Holloway and Ara Sarafian, Ani Sounds ca. 80 min.). See also Voices from the Lake, the secret genocide by J. Michael Hagopian (2007) which focusses on the Kharpert area. That video is about 86 min. long and was released by the Armenian Film Foundation.
[5] See “United States Consul Leslie A. Davis’s Photographs of Armenians Slaughtered at Lake Goeljuk, Summer of 1915”, ANN/Armenian News April 7, 2017, Abraham D. Krikorian and Eugene L. Taylor. It is curious that we never did find what we were hoping to find at Oberlin College Archives, but that visit did open yet another path. This is of course a very good example that [chance favors the prepared mind.]
[6] Detailed coverage of some of the activities associated with the movement out of the Harpoot area of orphans may be found on pgs. 400 to 409 of our chapter in the volume entitled “The Genocide of the Ottoman Greeks: studies on the state-sponsored campaign of extermination of the Christians of Asia Minor, 1912-1922 and its aftermath: history, law, memory” ed. by Tessa Hofmann, Matthias Bjørnlund, Vasileiois Meichenetsidis, published by Aristide D. Caratza, New York and Athens, 2011. The efforts were nothing short of heroic.
[7] Since the diary is not the easiest book to track down in a Library and is difficult to locate on the used book market, we are presenting a copy of the catalog entry from the British Library.
Diary (1907-1919) Kharberd / Maria Cheikpson (Yagopson); Translated from the Danish manuscript. Inside Eps. Bakhtikian, Mihran Simonian
● Title:
Ōragrut’iwn (1907-1919) kharberd / Maria Chēyk’ěpsěn (Eagopsěn); Danierēn tseṛagir bnagrēn t’argm. Nersēs Eps. Bakhtikean, Mihran Simonean.
● Author: Cheikpson, Maria, author;
Maria Jacobsen, 1882-1960 author.
● Contributor: Bakhtikian, Nerses;
Simonian, Mihran;
Nersēs Bakhtikean translator.;
Mihran Simonean translator.
● Subjects: Armenians
● Publication Details: Ant’ilias : Tparan Kat’oghikosut’ean Hayots’ Metsi Tann Kilikioy, 1979.
Antilias. Printing house of the Catholicosate of the Armenian Great House of Cilicia, 1979
● Language: Armenian
● Identifier: System number: 020092256
● Physical xxxi, 963 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
© Copyright 2022 Armenian News Network/Armenian News and the authors. All Rights Reserved.
CivilNet: Pashinyan’s comments on Lachin corridor refocus attention on residents’ future
CIVILNET.AM
28 Jun, 2022 05:06
By Mark Dovich
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan confirmed at a press conference Monday that “in case of a change” in the route of the Lachin corridor, some Armenian communities there “will pass to Azerbaijan’s control,” refocusing attention on the still-unclear future for the region’s residents.
However, he refused to go into any detail about what the handover will mean in practice, only saying that the “problems…will be solved with the help of the Artsakh (Karabakh) government.”
The Lachin corridor is a strategically important strip of land surrounding a road patrolled by Russian peacekeepers that, at present, connects Armenia with the part of Karabakh remaining under Armenian control.
The corridor begins at the Armenian border village of Tegh and then, after crossing into Karabakh, winds through the village of Aghavno and the town of Lachin, also known as Berdzor. After that, the road heads north through the village of Lisagor on to Shushi, the largest city captured by Azerbaijani forces in the 2020 Karabakh war, before finally reaching Stepanakert, the region’s capital.
As a result of territorial gains made by Azerbaijan in the war, the Lachin corridor has become the only overland connection between Armenia and Karabakh. The villages and towns along the other roads between Armenia and Karabakh were handed over to Azerbaijan after the war.
The ceasefire declaration that ended the war stipulates that a new road should be built that also connects Armenia and Karabakh, but that bypasses the Armenian communities that remain within the Lachin corridor. Those include the villages of Aghavno, Nerkin Sus, and Sus, as well as the town of Lachin.
Once that alternative route is completed, Azerbaijan is meant to take control of those communities, and Russian peacekeepers are supposed to relocate to the new route.
The new road is set to start in the Armenian border village of Kornidzor and then will head through the Karabakh villages of Hin Shen and Mets Shen. After that, the new route will link up with the portion of the old road running through Lisagor to Shushi and, beyond that, to Stepanakert.
The ceasefire calls for “a plan for the construction” of the new road to “be determined within the next three years,” without specifying which side should take on the responsibility and cost of building it.
But as officials in Yerevan and Stepanakert have largely kept up their silence on the issue, Baku has taken the lead on the project, with Azerbaijani construction crews making significant progress building the section of the route that lies in Karabakh.
In fact, the head of Azerbaijan’s roads agency said earlier this year he expects the new route to be ready by the end of next month, well ahead of the three-year timeline set in the ceasefire.
In contrast, work on the part of the new road that will lie in Armenia has yet to begin.
All that has put the remaining Armenian residents of the Lachin corridor on a collision course with the geopolitical reality that Azerbaijan may soon take control of their communities.
In the immediate aftermath of the 2020 war, CivilNet reporters visited Aghavno, one of the villages that may soon be handed over to Azerbaijan. Residents there largely struck a defiant note, pledging to stay.
“We are not betraying (our lands). We are not abandoning our homes. We have nowhere else to go,” said resident Narine Rasoyan, giving what was then a more or less typical point of view.
A journalist with Eurasianet who traveled to the village earlier this month found more mixed emotions about the prospect of a handover, but many residents still said they would refuse to leave.
CivilNet’s team, meanwhile, paid a visit a few weeks ago to Hin Shen, where Azerbaijani construction crews have already begun building a section of the new road. Residents there spoke of their anxiety living in such close proximity to Azerbaijani workers.
“No matter how much we try to dispel people’s fears, all this (construction) has a negative impact on them,” said Karen Barseghyan, the head of the village school.
Tigran Grigoryan, a well-known Karabakh analyst, called for a more sober view on the Lachin corridor issue in an interview with CivilNet shortly after Pashinyan’s press conference, saying that “at this stage, we should understand we cannot prevent that (handover) agreement.”
“Since the war, Yerevan and Stepanakert have not had the opportunity to prevent the handover of those communities to Azerbaijan,” he noted. “The reasons are evident: the army was crushed after the war, (and) the Russians had the perception that those settlements should be handed over.”
CivilNet: “Azerbaijan is trying to build up legitimacy for new war,” says Pashinyan
CIVILNET.AM
28 Jun, 2022 10:06
- The next meeting of the special envoys for Armenia-Turkey normalization talks will take place on July 1 in Vienna.
- Azerbaijan is trying to build up legitimacy for a new war by blaming Armenia for the lack of progress in peace talks, says Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
- Armenia’s service sector, which includes retail, tourism, entertainment, and banking, grew by 24.9% between January to May 2022.
Gegharkunik Governor receives Dutch Ambassador
10:07,
GAVAR, JUNE 27, ARMENPRESS. Governor of Gegharkunik province Karen Sargsyan received Ambassador of the Netherlands to Armenia Nico Schermers.
During the meeting the sides discussed the INFORMA project to be implemented in the province, which aims at training specialists working based on artificial intelligence for the municipalities of the province.
The Governor of Gegharkunik thanked the Kingdom of the Netherlands for this initiative and the support provided, expressing hope that the project will positively affect raising the awareness and information level of the local population.
At the invitation of the Governor, the Dutch Ambassador will soon pay a visit to the province to get acquainted with the opportunities existing in the field of hiking tourism.
Reporting by Khosrov Khlghatyan
European Commission’s head opposed to boycotting G20 summit if Putin attends
10:57,
YEREVAN, JUNE 27, ARMENPRESS. The European Commission’s Ursula von der Leyen said in an interview with the German TV channel ZDF on Sunday that she was against a boycott of the G20 summit scheduled for this fall if Russian President Vladimir Putin attends it, reports TASS.
“We have to think very carefully about whether we paralyze the entire G20, so I don’t support it”, the president of the European Commission said on the sidelines of a G7 summit in Elmau, Bavaria. “In my opinion, the G20 is too important, including for developing countries”, she added.
The G20 heads of state and government summit will take place on November 15-16 in Bali.
Parliament convenes emergency session – 06/27/2022
Parliament convenes emergency session
11:00,
YEREVAN, JUNE 27, ARMENPRESS. The Parliament of Armenia convened an emergency session today.
The decision was approved today by the Council of the Parliament.
6 items are on agenda of the emergency session.
Armenian Finance Minister highlights regular meetings with ADB representatives
11:34,
YEREVAN, JUNE 27, ARMENPRESS. Minister of Finance Tigran Khachatryan met on June 27 with Philip Rose, Executive Director at Asian Development Bank (ADB) for Austria, Germany, Turkey, Luxembourg and UK, and ADB Armenia Director Paolo Spantigati, the finance ministry said.
In his remarks Minister Khachatryan highlighted the 15th anniversary of the cooperation with ADB, stating that the regular meetings with the Bank especially in this unpredictable time period are very important.
Philip Rose in turn said that Armenia is a country of great opportunities, and the ADB is ready to always assist the ongoing projects here.
The sides exchanged views on private sector development, public investments, development of state infrastructure programs, etc.
COVID-19: Armenia reports 139 new cases, 1 death within a week
12:44,
YEREVAN, JUNE 27, ARMENPRESS. 139 new cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Armenia in the past one week, the ministry of health said.
The total number of confirmed cases has reached 423,243.
4780 tests were conducted within a week.
1 death case has been registered. The death toll has risen to 8626.
The number of recoveries rose by 62, bringing the total to 412,755.
The number of active cases is 178.
Yerevan Mayor in France on official visit
13:03,
YEREVAN, JUNE 27, ARMENPRESS. The delegation led by Mayor of Yerevan Hrachya Sargsyan is on an official visit in Marseille, Lyon and Paris at the invitation of the mayors of these cities, the Yerevan City Hall said in a statement.
Hrachya Sargsyan will participate in the events marking the 30th anniversary of Yerevan-Marseille partnership, the 4th Armenian-French decentralized cooperation conference in Lyon, the climate change summit in Abidjan. The Mayor will also have meetings with his counterparts of Marseille, Lyon and Paris.
The Yerevan City Hall’s delegation will also visit a number of city economy management structures.
The visit will end on July 7.