Author: David Nargizian

BY SHAHEN ARABOGHLIAN
From The Armenian Weekly

The most beautiful sunset I’d seen over the Beirut horizon was only yesterday. It was a magnificent fusion of smooth, peachy orange; pink cotton candy; with a bright blue backdrop—all full of toxic nitrates released from the traumatic explosion in Beirut. I write these sentences out of rage—a dominant feeling—with a pinch of numbness. Numbness that pushed me awake through the night, writing this piece.

It was almost power-cut o’clock in Lebanon, which is almost every hour, on a calm Tuesday afternoon. When I say calm, it’s very relative. It’s calm because no company or institution made hundreds of employee layoffs today; it’s calm because the internet still worked until 6:00 p.m.; it’s calm because I haven’t heard of a suicide attempt today; it’s calm because the exchange rate has stabilized, albeit at unimaginable heights. It was calm but at a cost.

A short shake startles me on the hilltop of my home in Mezher. Easy, earthquake. We’ve been over this Jumanji stage before. And then, a tiny boom. Something nearby blew up, I think. And then, a proper shake, which takes me stumbling over to my room door, in confusion. This has become a dangerous earthquake; we need to take cover. I look out my window to see the Homenetmen Stadium’s large window panes blow into pieces, and then, a deafening boom.
For a moment, I was sure we were getting bombed. For a moment, I was confident that all I was hearing were airstrikes approaching us from afar, and in the next few milliseconds, we would be next. I froze. I didn’t run. You can’t run from an airstrike. I stood there and accepted death.

Spoiler alert: it never came. I had to shuffle passports and paperwork and laptops into a backpack in case the third strike gave me a chance to run to the building basement. But the third strike never came, because it was never a strike. It was an explosion, and mom knew, because the Civil War still lingers in the daily memory of my parents’ generation. They can differentiate between airstrikes, missiles, mortars and bombs.

Whatever was left of Beirut vanished within minutes. The bars that squeezed their last pennies out in Mar Mkhayel, the almost-empty stores in Gemmayze, and the rest of already-suffering Beirut were all heavily hit. You forget about your fresh trauma and start calling around to check if your loved ones are fine, and hopefully alive, begging the “calling” screen to turn into “00:01.”

Over the next few hours, you see it all, and then some. You see the movie scenes of the exploding mushroom cloud, perishing all in its way. You see the Instagram page set up for the 200+ souls who haven’t been found yet and wonder how their families’ sleeplessness is so different from yours. You see underfunded Red Cross volunteers, scrambling to pull dead-or-alive bodies out of burning debris. You see homes, shelters and buildings—unlivable. You see doctors performing surgeries with smartphone flashlights, open-air, because our hospitals are underfunded and at full capacity. You see videos of children screaming that they don’t want to die.

And you count your blessings.

You read all about Lebanese resilience, everywhere. We party through pain; we’re happy through hardships; we conquer calamities and catastrophes. But not anymore.

You’re asked to close your windows to limit toxin inhalation, but my window is in pieces on the floor. You’re expected to rebuild what is broken, but my money has been confiscated by the bank.

It kicks in. You realize, this is it. This isn’t the Lebanon I grew up in anymore. This Lebanon hosts poverty, disease, anger, frustration, hunger, anxiety and depression. This Lebanon spits in the faces of the underprivileged, of the foreign worker, of minorities. You decide you want nothing to do with this Lebanon anymore. The Lebanon I know can only be reconstructed in dreams and memories. The Lebanon I know no longer wants to be reconstructed because it is unable to. The phoenix can only rise from the ashes so many times.

And in those ashes, there is another Lebanon:

The Lebanon I know stands in line to donate blood, less than half an hour after the shambles.

The Lebanon I know selflessly helps the wounded.

The Lebanon I know creates donation links and shares tweets and Instagram stories and Facebook posts, asking the diaspora—and the world—for assistance.

The Lebanon I know always finds its way out of the dust and rubble.
But the people of Lebanon can only handle so much.

I write these sentences in rage, but in them too is love for this nation and for her people. Eventually, the rage will subside, making way for total numbness. The Lebanon I know is at a tipping point, and the Paris of the Middle East is a tale of bygones.

An online panel titled “Cultural Destruction, Cultural Memory: The Heritage of the Khachkars of Jugha (Old Julfa)” was hosted by the Boston-based National Association for Armenian Studies and Research on Thursday.

The program featured opening remarks from NAASR’s Director of Academic Affairs Marc Mamigonian, followed by presentations from Ani Babaian, an independent researcher and artist and art conservator and serves as the Library Curator at the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR); Simon Maghakyan, a lecturer in International Relations at the University of Colorado Denver and independent investigator of the cultural genocide of Nakhichevan’s Armenian past; and Christina Maranci, Arthur H. Dadian and Ara Oztemel Professor of Armenian Art and Architecture and Chair of the Department of History of Art and Architecture at Tufts University. Audience members asked questions at the end of the presentations.

“The erasure of Armenian cultural history in Nakhichevan is one of the most underreported acts of cultural destruction in the 21st century. The year 2020 marks the 15-year commemoration of the final phase of this systematic destruction, when in 2005, the Azerbaijani army destroyed with sledgehammers thousands of remaining khachkars in Jugha (Old Julfa) in Nakhichevan, effectively eliminating the last remains of Armenian cultural presence in the region. UNESCO had designated these monuments as Cultural Identity but took no action to protect them,” stated the NAASR in its announcement of the panel.

This NAASR program on Zoom and YouTube was the first of a series to raise awareness throughout the world about this act of cultural destruction, as well as the artistic, cultural, and religious significance of khachkars through the ages, ongoing efforts at preserving ancient ones still standing, and the art of the khachkar today.

BY RAFFI BEDROSYAN

The world recently witnessed how the Turkish state “reconquered” the 1500 year-old Byzantine holy church of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, by converting it from museum to mosque. The chief Turkish Islamic cleric held a long sword in his hand during the first opening prayers of Quran, symbolizing the power of the conqueror and signifying that anything conquered by sword belongs to the conqueror – all churches, buildings, possessions, women and children of the conquered people. If the conqueror allows a few of the conquered people to live, they are called the “Remnants of the Sword,” as I had explained in a previous article. None of the invited foreign dignitaries, more significantly, none of the Islamic country dignitaries attended the opening prayers. Yet, masses of Turkish people rushed to the church/museum/mosque, chanting “Allah-u akbar” in the streets, on buses or subway trains, as if they are literally conquering the church from the Christian enemy right now.

The Turkish state has always relied on manipulating the masses against a real or imagined enemy, based on nationalism in the past and now, combining it with religious fanaticism, creating a Turko-Islamic fascist racist society.

In the eastern provinces of Turkey, the real or imagined enemy has always been the Armenians, and even one hundred years after wiping out the Armenian population in eastern Turkey (Western Armenia), the hatred toward Armenians is kept alive by annual celebrations, organized by the central and local governments, of “liberating” every town or village from the dreaded Armenians.
These liberation celebrations have nothing to do with the 1915 Armenian Genocide operations, but rather, they are about the complicated events that took place in eastern Turkey during 1915-1920. In 1915-17, the Russian army advanced into eastern Turkey already emptied of its Armenian population, occupying many provinces including Van, Erzurum, Erzincan, Bitlis, Mush, Sivas. But with the 1917 Russian Revolution, the Russian military operations ceased and Russian soldiers started returning home, leaving the defence of the front and the vast occupied territories to a few Armenian detachments, headed by General Antranig Ozanian, assisted by Mourad and Torkom. The occupied territories were administrated by Trans Caucasus Comissariat with Armenian, Georgian and Azeri officials, with its capital in Erzurum. It was almost impossible to govern, resulting in complete chaos and confusion. Although the war ended in 1918, the Turkish armies were not disbanded and they started advancing eastward, liberating town after town while General Antranig, severely outnumbered, retreated in an orderly way, thereby providing safe passage to Armenia for several thousand Armenian civilians still alive in these towns. Turks took back Erzurum unopposed in March 1918, continued marching eastward taking other towns until May 1918, when Armenians defeated them at Sardarabad, securing the foundation for the new republic of Armenia on May 28, 1918. Unfortunately, the Turks started attacking Armenia again in 1920, taking more territories until Armenia became a Soviet republic in November 1920.

Liberation of Erzurum and all other towns in eastern Turkey are celebrated every year, with mandatory attendance by all schoolchildren, the parents, various officials and army commanders. In addition to fiery speeches, a theatrical performance is prepared by the government in every town, showing the Armenian occupying forces and the victory of the Turks over the Armenians. The Armenian soldiers and officers are invariably depicted wearing black uniforms with a white cross sewn on their back; they give each other Nazi-style salutes. The commanding Armenian officer is named Arshak Pasha; his sidekick assistant Kirkor brings the local Islamic cleric and young rebellious Turks to Arshak Pasha who beats and executes them, until the ‘heroic’ Turkish soldiers rush to the sound of guns and artillery, murdering or chasing the Armenians out of town. In the past years, the local municipality sanitation workers were ordered to play the role of Armenians, but after several of them were severely beaten up by excited local townsfolk as ‘traitors’, they refused to participate. Then the local governments started advertising to pay anyone who would be willing to play the role of Armenian soldiers; when no one volunteered fully aware that they will be rewarded with a beating, the pay was doubled and tripled. For the past few years, real actors are now hired to participate in these liberation events, with strict orders by the police to the audience not to beat up the actors playing the Armenian traitors at the end of the performances.

The videos show these annual “liberation” celebrations, from Erzurum (Garin) and Bayburt (Papert). No translation is necessary; just watch how Armenians are shown to be cruel, sadistic and despicable, while the Turks are innocent victims or heroic martyrs. Suffice it to say, these performances help brainwash generation after generation of Turks to hate the Armenians.

San Francisco District Attorney Expresses Outrage; ANCA-WR Condemns Global Spate of Armenophobic Hate Crimes; Armenia’s Consulate General Calls it a Hate Crime

The Krouzian-Zekarian Armenian School and its adjacent Armenian Community Center in San Francisco were vandalized overnight, with what appears to be Azerbaijani-centric graffiti plastered all over the exterior walls of the building.

Community and school officials, among them the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Kristapor Gomideh leadership are on site assessing the damage.

The San Francisco Police Department in investigating the incident. The Armenian National Committee of America-San Francisco Bay Area chapter leaders and members have been working with law enforcement, as well as local and state officials to advance the matter.

In a statement on Friday, the ANCA–Western Region condemned “in the strongest possible terms the racially-motivated Armenophobic vandalism that took place on July 24 against the Krouzian-Zekarian-Vasbouragan bilingual Armenian School in San Francisco.”

This hate crime follows a pattern of racially-motivated attacks against Armenians, including the mob attacks against Armenians by Azerbaijanis in Russia, an arson attack on an Armenian embassy vehicle in Germany, and the deliberate burning down of an Armenian business in Ukraine. A similar incident involving racially charged anti-Armenian vandalism of Armenian schools in Los Angeles took place last year, forcing these schools to be on high alert to closely monitor the situation.

“We call on the governments of Azerbaijan and Turkey to immediately cease their state-sponsored and instigated campaigns of toxic Armenophobia. We further call on the international community – ranging from national governments to nonprofits alike – to decry this global assault campaign against Armenians and call for an immediate cessation of provocations. Finally, we call upon our community to stay vigilant against any suspicious activity, immediately report such activity to law enforcement, and refrain from giving in to any provocation,” said the ANCA-WR.

This latest attack targeting an institution of learning comes days after a protest against Azerbaijan’s aggression in Los Angeles  saw Azerbaijani counter-protesters instigate violence against peaceful Armenian protesters by physically assaulting them and using hate symbols including the salute of the Grey Wolves – a Turkish hate-group that openly espouses the eradication of the Armenian people and incites violence against Armenians internationally, with their salute seen by Armenians worldwide as the equivalent of the Nazi salute.

Armenia’s Consulate General in Los Angeles also “strongly condemned” the vandalism in San Francisco. Earlier this week, in condemning the violence at the L.A. protest, the Consulate called it an “orchestrated” effort by the Azerbaijani state.

“Azerbaijani graffiti was plastered all over the exterior walls of the building. The vandalism at educational institution testifies toward the fact that the Armenian community of California has become a victim of a hate crime apparently organized by the Azerbaijanis,” said the Armenian Consulate’s in its statement on Friday.

“The Consulate General of Armenia in Los Angeles strongly condemns the act of vandalism and manifestation of hatred directed at the Armenian educational institution and the entire Armenian Community of the Bay Area,” added the Consulate. “The Consulate General of Armenia expresses hope that law enforcement will duly investigate, reveal and punish its perpetrators.”

San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin took to Twitter to express his outrage about the incident.

“Someone vandalized the Armenian school/community center. I’m outraged. This is totally inconsistent with San Francisco values. It is also a CRIME,” said Boudin on Twitter Friday. “We are working with San Francisco Police Department to investigate. We stand with our Armenian brothers and sisters.”

This comes days after Azerbaijani’s instigated violence and attempted to disrupt a peaceful protest organized by the Armenian Youth Federation in front of the Azerbaijani Consulate in Los Angeles to condemn Azerbaijan’s brazen attacks on Armenia’s Tavush Province.

Hate acts against Armenians by Azerbaijanis have surged around the world. In Moscow, a group of Azerbaijani stumped on apricots from Armenia at a local open air market, and began displaying signs to not sell to Armenians. In Berlin, on Thursday, a car belonging to the Armenian Ambassador to Germany was set ablaze on Wednesday night.

This is a developing story.