We must not forget Armenia’s suffering
By Fr Alexander Lucie-Smith
Wednesday, 4 Feb 2015
[Armenia has arguably produced more martyrs than anywhere else, given
that the victims of the genocide were killed in hatred of the Faith.]
Early February is a good time, liturgically speaking. On Monday we
celebrated the lovely feast of the Presentation of the Lord in the
Temple, when candles were blessed, marking the fortieth day since
Christmas, and on Tuesday we celebrated St Blaise, when throats were
blessed.
St Blaise is one of those saints of which we know very little, even
though his is a famous cult. As is the case with so many early
martyrs, legends sprang up and accounts were written down many
centuries later, which have no historical value. But we can be sure
that Blaise was a bishop and a martyr and lived in what is now called
Sivas in Turkey, but in which those days was called Sebastea in
Armenia.
Once Armenia covered much more territory than that presently covered
by the former Soviet Republic in the Caucasus. A look at a map places
Sivas in the middle of modern Turkey, but up to a hundred years ago
the town still had a flourishing Armenian and Greek Christian
population. Then came the fateful day: April 24 1915. It was on this
day that the Ottoman government began to arrest and deport Armenians
who had been living in Anatolia from time immemorial. This organised
campaign of arrest, deportation, massacre and extermination led to the
deaths of between one million and one and a half million Armenians. It
is for this reason that visitors to Turkey today will find plenty of
Armenian history but no actual Armenian people, or at least very few.
The Armenian genocide is commemorated all over the world, but not in
Turkey and not much in Britain, which studiously avoids mentioning the
genocide in order not to jeopardise relations with Turkey. This is a
pity, to put it mildly, as it is hard to see how any nations–ours or
the Turks–can flourish when we deny truth.
St Blaise, ever popular throughout the Catholic Church, is the only
Armenian saint in the Universal Calendar. He is the solitary
representative of his culture, but what a culture! The nation of St
Blaise is the oldest Christian nation, having been converted to Christ
by St Gregory the Illuminator in 301, before the time of Constantine.
Moreover, Armenia has arguably produced more martyrs than anywhere
else, given that the victims of the genocide were killed in odium of
the Christian faith. Right now we are rightly concerned by ISIS’s
cruelty; let us not forget the Armenians of 100 years ago.
Adolf Hitler’s view of the Armenian genocide is worth recalling, and
his reference to it, made in August 1939, worth quoting:
`Our strength is our quickness and our brutality. Genghis Khan had
millions of women and children hunted down and killed, deliberately
and with a gay heart. History sees in him only the great founder of
States. What the weak Western European civilization alleges about me
does not matter. I have given the order–and will have everyone shot
who utters but one word of criticism–that the aim of this war does
not consist in reaching certain designated [geographical] lines, but
in the enemies’ physical elimination. Thus, for the time being only in
the east, I put ready my Death’s Head units, with the order to kill
without pity or mercy all men, women, and children of the Polish race
or language. Only thus will we gain the living space that we need. Who
still talks nowadays of the extermination of the Armenians?’
Who indeed? That is why we need to talk about Armenia and remember
them this April. Put the date of that hundredth anniversary in your
diary now.
http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/commentandblogs/2015/02/04/we-must-not-forget-armenias-suffering/