Critics’ Forum
Literature
Lamenting Jerusalem: The Armenian Quarter in the Old City
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 whose 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 .
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, please visit:
All Rights Reserved: Critics’ Forum, 2013. Exclusive to Asbarez.
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
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