AN EASTER MESSAGE: A NEW BIRTH OF THE ARMENIAN SPIRIT
by Aram Hamparian
April 6, 2012
ANCA Telethon 2012 to Support Drive for the Return of Christian
Churches
As Armenians, we join together this Easter in celebrating the
resurrection of Christ and also, as Armenians-heirs of an ancient
people that arose nearly a century ago from the ashes of genocide-in
marking our own rebirth as a nation.
Anti-Armenian demonstration in Turkey. Banner reads: “Today Taksim,
Tomorrow Yerevan: We will descend upon you suddenly in the night.”
We recall with pride our rebirth as a people from the fires of hatred
that nearly consumed us in 1915. And, once again, we are painfully
reminded that the blind and irrational hatred by Turkish state-and
sadly much of its society-toward Armenians still burns, and-if not
quenched by the waters of justice-may light again to burn the surviving
sons and daughters of our ancient but endangered homeland.
As a people who believe in the power of faith and promise of
forgiveness, we seek a true and enduring redemption for the Republic
of Turkey through repentance. For, just as scripture tells us that
the truth will set us free, so too will justice lead us to peace.
For Turkey’s leaders, government, and people, the difficult path
to true forgiveness must pass through a sincere confession of past
sins and an apology for all harm, the full return of all that must
rightfully be rendered to the victims of its crimes, and an abiding
renunciation of hatred and violence toward the modern-day sons and
daughters of those who lived on the biblical lands in and around
Ararat for thousands of years.
Turkey must repent in word and deed; Redeem itself in spirit and
action; Renounce evil, and all the fruits of its crimes, and render
to the Armenians all that once was and remains Armenian. These are
the wages of Turkey’s sins, and the price of its salvation.
The Surp Garabed Church near Mush, currently a barn. (Photo by Khatchig
Mouradian) There can be no better place to start than the immediate
return of all churches, monasteries, relics, and other religious
properties, not only to the Armenians, but to all the Christians of
these ancient biblical lands. Thankfully, with the support of Armenian
Americans from across our country, we have been able to make progress
on this vital new front for the Armenian Cause. With your renewed
support for ANCA Telethon 2012, we can do much more.
In the months since last Easter-which fell, as Armenians worldwide
recall, on April 24th-we have seen the U.S. House of Representatives
pass H.Res.306, formally calling upon Turkey to return stolen Christian
churches, and European courts demanding the return of confiscated
holy sites. We have witnessed our Secretary of State publicly press
Ankara to return stolen religious properties, and the U.S. Commission
on International Religious Freedom place the Turkish government on its
“black list” of countries that violate freedom of faith. And, perhaps
most tellingly, we have watched-skeptically, but with interest-as
Turkey itself has felt compelled to begin speaking and even taking
token action regarding the return of religious properties.
To be sure, Secretary Clinton’s remarks fall far short of the type
of moral pressure America should be exerting upon Ankara, and Turkey
itself has shown no sign that it has deviated in the least from its
longstanding aim of cementing the gains of its genocidal crimes. In
fact, all signs point to Ankara tactically responding to international
pressure by creating the illusion of tolerance through “reforms,”
that, even if fully implemented, would only return a small fraction
of the thousands of religious properties belonging to Armenians,
Greeks, Assyrians, Arameans, Syriacs, and other Christians.
The ANCA’s Chairman, in February of this year, at a conference in
Antelias, Lebanon, hosted by Armenian religious leader, Aram I, who
heads the Great House of Cilicia, spoke powerfully to the broader moral
issues at stake in the growing movement to restore Christian churches
on the territory of present-day Turkey to their rightful owners:
As we approach the end of a century in which all the moral and material
costs of the Armenian Genocide have fallen upon the victims of this
crime, we seek, for ourselves and all humanity, a new era, a better
century-guided by the ethic that the burdens of this genocide and all
genocides will, as they rightly must, be borne by its perpetrator. The
return of churches, Turkey’s surrender-voluntary or otherwise-of the
thousands of church properties it stole from Armenians, Assyrians,
Greeks, Syriacs, and other Christians prior to, during, and after
the Armenian Genocide era, would represent a meaningful first step
by the Turkish government toward accepting its responsibility for a
truthful and just resolution of this still unpunished crime against
humanity. (Read the full text of Hachikian’s speech.)
As children of the first nation to adopt Christianity, we celebrate
this holiest of days by calling upon all of our brothers and
sisters in faith worldwide-Christians, Muslims, Jews, believers of
all denominations and faiths, and those who hold no faith-to join
with us in offering a prayer for the Armenian, Assyrian, Chaldean,
Syriac, Pontian, Greek, and other victims of the Ottoman Empire’s
World War I-era genocide of its Christian minorities.
We ask – in the powerful words of the late, great American President
John F. Kennedy-for the blessings and help of God, in the knowledge
that “here on earth God’s work must truly be our own.” In this
spirit, let us resolve to add a measure of devotion to our service and
sacrifice-through ANCA Telethon 2012 and countless other avenues-for
the return of our churches and the realization of the Armenian Cause.
From: Baghdasarian
http://www.armenianweekly.com/2012/04/06/an-easter-message-a-new-birth-of-the-armenian-spirit/