Author: Edgar Tavakalian

Chairman of the Religious Council of the Armenian Patriarchate in Istanbul Bishop Sahak Mashalian has announced his resignation in a statement released on Monday, stating that General Vicar Aram Ateshian is to blame for his decision, reported Istanbul-based newspaper.

Mashalian stated in his resignation letter that his decision came after the Clerical Assembly meeting on February 13, where he stated that Archbhishop Ateshian had “unfavorable attitudes.” Mashalian also announced that he will step down from his candidacy for the patriarchal seat, and has plans to leave Istanbul.

The Religious Council voted Archbishop Aram Ateshyan to lead the Patriarchate after Patriarch Mesrob Mutafyan II withdrew from his duties due to his diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease.

Mashalian in his letter presented the proper procedure of holding elections for the patriarch, indicating Ateshian’s attempts to sabotage the process.

He informed that the religious council had set up a commission comprised of 4 clerics, which was to submit an application to the authorities about holding new elections. But Ateshian did not allow the letter to be submitted to the governor of Istanbul as a result of which the submission process has been suspended.

Mashalian noted that the elections should be held following the constitutional referendum in Turkey, referring to the Armenian community leader Bedros Sirinoglu and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan January 27 meeting, adding that it should have accelerated the election process. Ateshian, however, used this information as another pretext to avoid elections.

“Ignoring his promise given to the community, he told the media without consulting with anyone that no application will be submitted for holding elections. The Religious Council of the Patriarchy, and I, the chairman of the Council, got to know about it from media,” the bishop stated.

During the February 13 meeting, Mashalian stated that the application of the commission should be immediately submitted to the governorate and released to the community. “His Eminence Aram managed to manipulate this issue with his capricious and threatening attitudes; he even threatened us with leaving the meeting,” he wrote in the letter, adding that his proposal was rejected.

“It’s evident there can be no Patriarchal elections as long as Aram Ateshian holds the position of the General Vicar of the  Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople. Today already everyone shares the opinion that the existing situation, when the post is vacant, while the chaos goes deeper, worsens due to Aram Ateshian,” said Mashalian, adding that the Patriarchal post has never been vacant for eight years in the Armenian Church’s history. “Manipulating for 8 years by using his powers, abusing his position has criminal nature and he deserves punishment according to Church laws,” the Bishop said, announcing that he steps down from the post of chairman of the Religious Council.

“Clerics, leaders and people, leave me alone. This is a speech of defeat. But I am not the only defeated, you are all defeated. Once again only one person remains victorious,” Mashalian concluded in his letter.

Mashalian’s letter can be read below:

It is a duty for me to inform all of my people on the following problems in the light of recent developments concerning the patriarchal election.

General Assembly of the Church decided to elect a new patriarch since our patriarch was superannuated and started the process. This process should have proceeded per tradition: a değabah (locum tenens) should have been elected, an Enterprising Committee should have been formed and governor’s office should have been informed with a letter in order to start the legal process. This simple process, which should have taken only a few weeks, has failed once again due to Vicar of Patriarch Archbishop Aram Ateşyan’s resistance and reluctance, and no legal application has been made so far.

His Eminence Aram displayed the following unfavorable attitudes:

1. Right after the seat was declared vacant, a Değabah should have been elected. However, His Eminence Aram prevented this election with all kinds of threats and caprices. Considering some sensitive issues, the Clerical Assembly had to tolerate vicarship of His Eminence Aram. However, His Eminence Aram continued to have his own way in accordance with his old habits, instead of acting like a real değabah. This revealed the vital importance of the değabah in order to have a decent election process.
2. General Assembly formed a commission consisting of four clerics to write the letter of application to the state. This commission reviewed the previous applications and wrote a letter that includes main elements. This letter was supposed to be an informing letter. It should have included the existence of the Enterprising Committee and stated that their names will be given to the governor’s office later. His Eminence Aram vigorously insisted that the Enterprising Committee shouldn’t be mentioned and permission of the state should be asked. A letter was written after some compromises and we started to wait for an appointment from the governor’s office.
3. Meanwhile, Chair of Surp Pırgiç Hospital Foundation Bedros Şirinoğlu came together with President Erdoğan and announced that the problem of election will be solved right after the referendum. This development should have accelerated the process. However, His Eminence Aram used this good news as another excuse for evading the election. On January 6 Dzınunt feast, he even broke the promise that he made to our people and announced that he won’t apply for holding an election without talking to anybody in advance. The Clerical Assembly, and I as the head of that assembly, learned about it from the press.

Today, on February 13, Clerical Assembly came together and His Eminence Aram managed to manipulate this issue with his capricious and threatening attitudes; he even threatened us with leaving the meeting. Majority of the Clerical Assembly refused the proposal of His Eminence Sahak, which was the following:

The news that we received from the president informally should have accelerated the process. For instance, we could form a new Enterprising Committee on Wednesday, give the letter of application to the governor’s office on Thursday and disclose the letter to our people. In this way, we could wait for an election that will be held after the referendum with inner peace. This was the prudent and honorable action that the people should have expecting from the Clerical Assembly. This suggestion of mine is refused.

However, the problem went beyond the issue of waiting for the referendum and His Eminence Aram made the Clerical Assembly decide to ask for STATE’S PERMISSON after the referendum. This means that the Enterprising Committee will be formed after the permission. In a friendly manner, I tried to explain him with legal terms that a secular state would never give such permission and this would mean that the election will be held when two Sundays come together. However, His Eminence Aram, who seems to be scared of Enterprising Committee more than he is scared of the devil, has got he wants. In sum, there WON’T be an election after the referendum!!! I don’t know how many times more this issue will be brought to this confused people, but I cannot stand it anymore.

It is obvious that this election won’t be held as long as His Eminence Aram is the vicar. Everyone agrees on the fact that His Eminence Aram makes the situation worse in a time when the patriarchal seat is vacant and the chaos is getting intense. In this regard, it is impossible to consider His Eminence Aram’s attitudes and actions as unintended simple mistakes.

1. He hadn’t realized the decision of the General Assembly immediately; on the contrary, he used his authority as the vicar for postponing the election by leaving the process hanging in midair.
2. He ignored the consultation of the Clerical Assembly, which is a higher authority than him, he hadn’t informed the assembly on the developments and decided not to hold an election on his own. Thus, His Eminence Aram committed a serious disciplinary action against the General and Clerical assemblies.
3. In the 1717-years-old history of the Armenian Church, the seat of the patriarch or catholicos has never been vacant for 9 years. The manipulations that he has been doing for 9 years by using his authority and his abuse of his seat and authority for the sake of his personal interests constitute crime and require penal sanctioning upon the ecclesiastics law.

For me, it is impossible to be together with clerics who are nothing but a bunch of cowards and His Eminence Aram, whose scandalous actions are rewarded instead being punished.

1. I resign from my duty as the head of Clerical Assembly.
2. I resign from my duty as the vice president of Hovagim 1461 Foundation, which stinks so much that I cannot take it anymore.
3. I don’t want to serve for imprudent foundation executives who hand over all the authority to a single person and for a people who are indifferent to the problems of the church and their society. I am leaving this city.
4. Let me answer the most intriguing question: I am not a candidate for the patriarchal seat. I want to use my productivity and the rest of my life for more meaningful services. There are more than enough people who would die for that seat anyway.

Clerics, executives and people; you left me alone. This is a cry of defeat. However, I am not the only one who is defeated; you are defeated as well. After all, a single person won once again.

God help you all.

Sahak Bishop Maşalyan

According to a presidential decree signed on February 6, David Tonoyan has been appointed Minister of Emergency Situations.

President Serzh Sargsyan earlier signed a decree, relieving David Tonoyan from the duties of First Deputy Defense Minister of Armenia.

UN Secretary General António Guterres has issued a message on the International Day of Commemoration in memory ohf the victims ohf the Holocaust.

Today, we honour the victims of the Holocaust, an incomparable tragedy in human history.

The world has a duty to remember that the Holocaust was a systematic attempt to eliminate the Jewish people and so many others.

It would be a dangerous error to think of the Holocaust as simply the result of the insanity of a group of criminal Nazis.  On the contrary, the Holocaust was the culmination of millennia of hatred, scapegoating and discrimination targeting the Jews, what we now call anti-Semitism.

Tragically, and contrary to our resolve, anti-Semitism continues to thrive.  We are also seeing a deeply troubling rise in extremism, xenophobia, racism and anti-Muslim hatred.  Irrationality and intolerance are back.

This is in complete contrast to the universal values enshrined in the United Nations Charter and Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

We can never remain silent or indifferent when human beings are suffering.

We must always defend the vulnerable and bring tormentors to justice.

And as the theme of this year’s observance highlights, a better future depends on education.

After the horrors of the 20th century, there should be no room for intolerance in the 21st.  I guarantee you that as Secretary-General of the United Nations, I will be in the frontline of the battle against anti-Semitism and all other forms of hatred.

Let us build a future of dignity and equality for all – and thus honour the victims of the Holocaust who we will never allow to be forgotten.

Photo: EPA

 

An Italian rescue official has said that a number of people have been killed after a hotel was hit by an avalanche, apparently triggered by an earthquake on Wednesday, the BBC reports.

Rescuers battled overnight to reach the hotel close to the Gran Sasso mountain in the Abruzzo region.

“There are many deaths,” Antonio Crocetta, the head of a mountain rescue team, was quoted as saying.

Up to 30 people were in the Rigopiano hotel at the time of the avalanche.

Rescuers said at least 20 tourists and seven staff had been inside the Rigopiano hotel when it was hit by the avalanche.

The mountainous region of Central Italy was hit by a succession of four earthquakes on Wednesday and further tremors were reported overnight.

The quakes came after the regions of Abruzzo, Marche and Lazio were hit by days of heavy snow. Many villages became inaccessible and emergency services worked through the night into Thursday to reach them.

President Serzh Sargsyan has sent  a letter of condolences to the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Hassan Rouhani on the demise of the former President of the IRI Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

“Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani will be remembered by the Armenian people as a President of the neighboring country whose tenure in office was signified by the establishment of the initial interstate relations between the newly independent Armenia and Iran, which gave a new impetus to the centuries-long friendship of our two nations. Based on the strong foundation, which was formed in those years, today we continue to expand and deepen our cooperation,” the letter reads.

Photo: AP

 

President Serzh Sargsyan sent today a letter of condolences to the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany Angela Merkel on the tragedy which took place in the center of Berlin, killing and injuring dozens of innocent people.

The President of Armenia strongly condemned the terroristic act and reiterated Armenia’s commitment to consistently continue the fight with international terrorism.

Serzh Sargsyan expressed condolences to the friendly people of Germany and families of the victims, wishing them strong spirit and a speedy recovery to all injured.

The word Brexit has been added to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the BBC reports.

It defines Brexit as “the (proposed) withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union, and the political process associated with it”.

It continues: “Sometimes used specifically with reference to the referendum held in the UK on 23rd June 2016, in which a majority of voters favoured withdrawal from the EU.”

The OED’s senior editor said it became widely used with “impressive” speed.

Craig Leyland said economists started using the word in May 2012, influenced by “Grexit”, which has also been added to the OED, and was used to describe the potential withdrawal of Greece from the Eurozone monetary union.

Photo: Edmond Terakopian/PA

 

By Paul Daley

History is often best understood outside of the books that record it, when it is experienced in the lands that staged it, by its actors’ descendants.

And history, for all its serpentine connections and resonances, is what inspired two priests – Bishop Haigazoun Najarian and Deacon Nishan Basmajian from the Armenian Apostolic Church of the holy resurrection in Chatswood, Sydney – to recently undertake a 4000km pilgrimage deep into Warlpiri country in the Northern Territory.

At the remote community of Lajamanu – over a thousand kilometres from Darwin – Najarian presented the local community Baptist church with two ornately engraved Armenian “khachkars” or cross stones. The cross stones were blessed before a congregation of local elders, children, dogs and a delegation of non-Indigenous visitors – the culmination of three years’ planning by Australian Catholic University academic Judith Crispin.

During the service Najarian evoked the difficulties that the Warlpiri and Armenians faced, historically and currently. Both, he said, had been subject to massacres – the Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Turks and the Warlpiri by white settlers, miners and police – and they’d had to fight for the survival of their respective cultures.

Crispin explained how it took her three years to convince the Armenians – who had never been to remote Australia – to visit Warlpiri country.

“They’ve not been anywhere remote in Australia before so it was a big thing for them. I’m working on a project related to the Armenian genocide, which is how I know the priests, and I’ve been visiting Lajamanu twice a year for four years now … so it was really just a case of bringing together the two groups,” she said.

“It occurred to me that rather than just feeling sickened by my (Australian) government’s ongoing refusal to acknowledge the Armenian genocide, or to dignify Aboriginal people with a complete account of past massacres, I might possibly facilitate a mutually supportive relationship between Armenians and Warlpiri.”

After the service at Lajamanu, a mutual statement was hand-written and signed by the Armenian clerics and by the local pastor and Warlpiri elder, Jerry Jangala Patrick.

It reads: “Together we acknowledge the past massacres of Yapa people and other Australian Indigenous people and the genocide of Armenian people in 1915. We stand together today as brothers in solidarity.”

The Australian government, like many other liberal democracies, refuses to formally acknowledge the mass killings of Armenian people that began in 1915, as “genocide”. Turkey expends enormous diplomatic and political effort to ensure that countries such as Australia do not formally acknowledge the slaughter of the Armenians as genocide.

The beginning of the attempted annihilation of the Armenians coincided almost precisely with Australia’s participation in the British invasion and failed occupation of Gallipoli in April 1915. There are witness accounts by Australian prisoners of war of the Turkish mistreatment and killing of the Armenians – though this has never been part of Australia’s carefully cultivated Anzac story, a myth that relies heavily on continued warm relations between Ankara and Canberra.

Indeed, the Turks have lobbied successive federal governments intensively to ensure that mention of the Armenian genocide did not cruel centenary commemorative celebrations around the 100^th anniversary of the Anzac Gallipoli invasion. At one point the Turkish government threatened to ban Australian politicians who had formally acknowledged Armenian genocide from Anzac commemorations at Gallipoli in 2015.

In Australia, at least, the Anzac story has eclipsed the history of what happened to the minority Armenian Christians, about a million-and-a-half of whom died in Ottoman purges.

The Australian War Memorial, despite having ample material in its collections about the Turkish orchestrated mass murder of the Armenians, does not tell the story.

Anzac, more than any other, has, of course, become Australia’s foundation story – at the expense of so much pre- and post-colonial history. The story of the failed invasion and occupation on a distant finger of the Ottomans supersedes, in public and political consciousness, that other invasion – that by the British Empire of this continent on 26 January, 1778, that preceded frontier wars and battles across the continent that culminated in massacres of Indigenous people well into the 20th century.

While the continuing violence and oppression of Australian Indigenous people, and their social disadvantage, can be linked directly to the trauma of the frontier and the ensuing assimilation-ist policies, the last accepted “massacre” of up to 100 Indigenous people happened at Coniston in 1928.

Coincidentally the man who led the Coniston massacre, mounted constable George Murray, was a former Anzac light horseman who served at Gallipoli. His tactics of pursuit and “dispersal” of the Indigenes – including many Warlpiri – were an acquired part of his training as an Australian Light Horseman. Murray was, naturally, exonerated after the white establishment rallied around him (another shameful story, for another time, involving some of Australia’s most revered public families).

Anyway, such are the roots that link seemingly disparate strands of history.

Of his visit to Lajamanu, Najarian says: “I did not know what to expect – the only common thing I could share with the people was suffering, loss of land, a culture, tradition and identity … The catch was our suffering because of the genocide … and the suffering of the Aboriginal people.”

At a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan, the Military-Industrial Commission approved the draft on Military-industrial and military-technical policy strategy.

Deputy Defense Minister, head of the State Military Industry Committee David Pakhchanyan said the strategy aims to turn the scientific-technical and industrial-technical potential into practical innovative means, which will help ensure the competitiveness of the production of the military industry complex.

Pakhchanyan underlined that the document has been worked out on the basis of the experience of the years of independence and the analysis of the April events.

He noted that the strategy also aims to boost the development of military industry, implementation and development of innovative technologies and organization oflocal production.

The main objective is to create a scientific-technical complex with a view of implementing the priorities of development of the military-technical policy.

According to Pakhchanyan, with the “nation-army” formula in the spotlight, it is necessary to review the education process in Armenia in order to turn the school-higher educational establishment-industry-science link into a scientific-educational complex.

During the meeting reference was made to development of the military industry complex and other issues related to the military-technical policy.

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian will visit Antananarivo November 22-25 to participate in the session of the International Organization of the Francophonie.

Within the framework of the visit Minister Nalbandian will have meetings with his counterparts from a number of countries.