LAMENTING JERUSALEM: THE ARMENIAN QUARTER IN THE OLD CITY
Friday, March 29th, 2013
BY TAMAR BOYADJIAN
For the last two millennia, Jerusalem has been represented as a space
of desire – a place that has been perennially occupied and lost, and
an area of which the borders are contested until today. Jerusalem –
as both a spiritual and secular space – has over the years attracted
the attention of many different groups of people, including Armenians.
Armenian presence in Jerusalem dates back over 1,500 years, with
documented evidence from the 5th century. The Armenian Quarter in
Jerusalem, which encompasses one-sixth of the Old City, is unique
in that Armenians are the only people to have a quarter in the Old
City along with the three monotheistic faiths: Christianity, Islam,
and Judaism.
My own interest and fascination with the city of Jerusalem comes
from the desire to examine the ways in which both Armenians and
other cultures represent the city in their medieval literary
traditions. On Friday the 8th of February, I had the pleasure of
delivering a paper about Armenians and the city of Jerusalem in the
crusader period, at a symposium entitled, “Armenian Jerusalem: Past
and Present.” The event, organized by the Armenian Studies Program
at California State University, Fresno, in cooperation with the
non-profit organization Save the ArQ (Save the Armenian Quarter of
Jerusalem), also featured presentations by my colleagues – Dr. Bedross
Der Matossian (University of Nebraska, Lincoln); Dr. Sergio La Porta
(California State University, Fresno); and Prof. Barlow Der Mugrdechian
(California State University, Fresno). The lectures on the program
covered a rich array of topics, such as: the history of the Armenian
community of Jerusalem from the early period to the contemporary;
issues that relate to the negotiations between the sacred and the
secular; pilgrimages to the city; and the current political and social
events taking place in the Armenian Quarter, including the election
of the new Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem in January of this year.
Archbishop Nourhan Manoogian succeeded the late Patriarch Torkom
Manoogian, becoming the 97th Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem.
Conversations during this symposium were also interspersed with
personal experiences of both living and traveling to the Armenian
Quarter in Jerusalem. These types of intimate familiarities were
significant in that, alongside providing an outline of the vital
role Armenians have played in the far extended history of Jerusalem,
these experiences also brought to the forefront one of the main goals
of the symposium – raising awareness about the Armenians currently
living in Jerusalem’s Old City .
>>From l to r: Prof. Barlow Der Mugrdechian, Dr. Bedross Der Matossian,
Dr. Sergio La Porta, Dr. Tamar Boyadjian
Currently, the Armenians in Jerusalem face many types of difficulties,
due to socio-economic and political factors impacting the region.
While much of the connection between Armenians and Jerusalem has
been and continues to be religious in nature – and more specifically
related to pilgrimage – a strong and prominent secular dimension also
exists. Armenians in Jerusalem have made significant contributions
to the history and development of the city from the period of early
Christianity to the present. Moreover, in order to better understand
the current condition of the Jerusalem Armenians, one must look at the
historical transformations that Armenians in general experienced under
the 19th-century Ottoman Empire, and later under British Mandate,
Jordanian rule, and the current administration of Israel. In order
to elaborate upon these historical complexities, I find it useful to
briefly draw upon the highly valuable work of my colleague, Dr.
Bedross Der Matossian, Professor of Modern Middle Eastern History at
University of Nebraska, Lincoln.
The collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the Armenian Genocide during
World War I led to the mass migration of Armenians from Cilicia to
Jerusalem, with thousands of Armenians pouring into the Armenian
Quarter. At this point, the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem
detached itself from the authority of the Istanbul Patriarchate
and the Armenian National Assembly, to which it was subordinate
during the period following the Armenian National Constitution in
1863. During the period under British Mandate, the Patriarchate
kept amicable relations with the British authorities, who largely
maintained the Ottoman millet system and allowed administrative matters
concerning the Armenian refugees and local population to be handled
by the Patriarchate. Following the Arab-Israeli war of 1948 and the
subsequent withdrawal of the British, the Jordanians and the Israelis
had disputes over Jerusalem; and subsequent to the Cold War, Jerusalem
became a contested space for the Holy Sees of Echmiazin and Cilicia.
In the 1970s and 1980s, the Patriarchate pursued a subtle policy with
the Israeli government, but with the breakout of the first Intifada
in 1987, the position of the Patriarchate towards the Palestinian
authorities and the Israeli government relatively cooled, and dozens
of Armenian families began to leave Jerusalem. In fact, the population
of Armenians living in Jerusalem has greatly declined since then.
During the British Mandate period, over 10,000 Armenians lived in
greater Jerusalem. Today, that number is under 1,000.
The decline in population is just one of the many challenges that
Jerusalem Armenians face today. These current difficulties are
multifold; and as Armenians, we should be aware of these circumstances
to help maintain this historically significant and long-standing
Armenian diaspora community. The first obstacle Jerusalem Armenians
face pertains to their citizenship status. Most Armenians are
considered Jordanian citizens and fall under the legal category of
“Eastern Jerusalemites.” For this reason, many of them have difficulty
obtaining travel and marriage documents. They also face obstacles when
attempting to bring spouses or other family members into Jerusalem.
The depressed economic environment discourages and makes it difficult
for Armenians to open up and maintain businesses in Jerusalem. Housing
also remains one of the biggest obstacles facing the Armenians in the
Old City. Not only is space limited because of overpopulation in the
Old City, but real estate is very expensive. Most Armenians, given
their current income, simply cannot afford to maintain their primary
residence there. Moreover, Armenians living in East Jerusalem would
find it virtually impossible to obtain a house in West Jerusalem,
due to exorbitant costs and their citizenship status.
Armenian education in the Old City also faces serious challenges and
needs the aid of Armenians in the diaspora. The Armenian Sts.
Tarkmanchatz Secondary School has adopted neither the Israeli nor
Palestinian education systems. Rather, the school follows the system
that was put in place under the British Mandate. As a result, children
graduating from this school are having difficulty both being accepted
and transitioning into Israeli and Palestinian universities. Amidst
these challenges, sweeping reforms and renovations have been
implemented under the supervision of Rev. Father Norayr Kazazian,
the current Dean of Sts. Tarkmanchatz Secondary School. Similarly,
Mihran Der Matossian, the director of the school’s education system,
has undertaken the task of radically restructuring the school’s
curriculum and education program. These reforms have been put in place
to prepare students graduating from the school to enter institutions
of higher education in Israel and abroad.
In face of these challenges, what are some of the things we can do
as Armenians living in the diaspora to help the Armenian community
in Jerusalem? One way to get involved is through the aforementioned
non-profit organization, Save the ArQ, co-founded by Mary M. Hoogasian
and Bedross Der Matossian, which has an Executive Board and supporting
members. The organization’s mission is to create awareness of the
significant religious, cultural, and historical presence of Armenians
in Jerusalem and to encourage the revitalization of the Armenian
Quarter in the Old City. The organization engages in both short-term
and long-term projects to help sustain the Armenian Quarter’s future.
One of its key objectives is to build housing units to re-populate the
Armenian Quarter in the Old City. The organization’s other projects
are devoted to bettering the community’s life by supporting education
at Sts. Tarkmanchatz Armenian School; renovating the compounds within
the Armenian Quarter; building a park and playground in the Quarter;
renovating sections of the Helen Mardigian Museum of Armenian Art and
History; organizing academic workshops, conferences, and seminars at
the Gulbenkian library; and aiding the Armenian clubs in the Quarter.
One of the most recent contributions of the organization is the
donation of lab equipment to the school to enhance students’ study
of the sciences. The organization also intends to set up a program
at the school, whereby teachers living abroad will be invited to
teach there and provide the latest tools and technologies necessary
for educational advancement. The school is also in desperate need of
up-to-date textbooks and school supplies, which could be donated by
both schools and individuals in the diaspora.
Another way Armenians living abroad can help the Armenian community
of Jerusalem is by making a “pilgrimage” to the Armenian Quarter. One
need not be convinced of the historically significant and highly
stimulating experience of visiting a place like Jerusalem. Though many
Armenians abroad may fear traveling to Israel because of the current
political climate, Save the ArQ will begin organizing tour groups for
Armenians interested in visiting the city. There are also a number of
non-Armenian and Christian tour groups which arrange frequent trips to
the Holy Land. These visits will both morally and financially support
the Armenian community in the Old City, along with being a rewarding
experience for the visitors themselves.
One final component that needs special attention pertains to
the preservation of the manuscripts and archival material of the
Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem. As a medievalist, and someone
who both collects and works with manuscripts, the preservation and
maintenance of this collection is particularly important to me. We
are very fortunate to have the invaluable magnum opus of Archbishop
Norayr Bogharian – a twelve-volume manuscript catalog, which provides
detailed information about all of the manuscripts belonging to the
Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem. This highly significant catalog
is no longer published in print form, but through my efforts at UCLA,
I have been able to convince the university to digitize it. However,
it is vital that we support efforts to preserve and digitize the
actual manuscripts and archival material – yet another project
being put in place by Save the ArQ. Just like Jerusalem itself, this
material is a palimpsest upon which Armenian culture and history have
been inscribed and preserved; and it is significant that we create
permanency of our own history and culture through modern technologies,
such as digitization.
Through efforts such as these, we can help our brothers and sisters in
Jerusalem maintain this historic and vital community. Let us remember
some of the opening lines of Catholicos Grigor Tgha’s 12th-century
“Poem of Lamentation over the Capture of Jerusalem,” lest we find
ourselves lamenting (as his poem does), a once-present Armenian spirit
in the city: I cry out this lamentable sound…
You listen concerning the calamity, Brothers and sisters together,
Children of the great mother Zion Brides of the upper room.
__________ For more information on Save the ArQ, you can visit their
website at: savethearq.org.
__________ Tamar Boyadjian is a Postdoctoral Fellow at UCLA,
where she received her PhD in the Department of Comparative
Literature. Her research interests include medieval manuscripts,
crusader Jerusalem, and the interactions between medieval Europe
and the medieval Middle East. You can reach her or any of the other
contributors to Critics’ Forum at [email protected]. This and
all other articles published in this series are available online at
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From: Baghdasarian
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