Author: Kalantarian Kevo

Personal history: Remembering the Armenian Genocide
pressherald.com/2015/04/12/remembering-the-armenian-genocide/

By John Christie
Portland Press Herald, Maine
April 12, 2015

On a spring day in 1909, in a hill town swept by the breezes of the
eastern Mediterranean Sea, a 10-year-girl was sent to her family’s
pasture to round up their cows.

She was Gulenia Hovsepian, a little Armenian girl living just outside
the Turkish village of Suediya. In English, her name means Rose.

She finished her chore and started back up the hill to her home,
running through the mulberry trees her father grew to feed the
family’s silkworms.

`And I was coming back to the mulberry trees and the mulberry trees
were tapping my face, and I was running, and I was a kid and hadn’t
eaten yet, nothing,’ she recalled in a recording she made at age
91. `A boy, a Turkish boy, by the neighbors, hollers to me, I never
forget it, never could forget it. In Turkish he said, `They’re killing
the giaour, the kafir.’ ‘

`They’ were the Turks. The Armenians were the giaour, the kafir – the
infidels.

What history records as the Adana massacre was beginning through a
region of Turkey that was Cilician Armenia 1,000 years before and was
still the home of tens of thousands of Armenians.

`Adana was the turning point for the Armenians,’ wrote Peter Balakian
in `The Burning Tigris,’ his much-praised history of the Armenian
Genocide. `The massacres there were another major step in the
devaluation of this minority culture, and a step forward on the road
to genocide.’

Balakian cites a report that 15,000 to 25,000 people were killed in
the massacres, including children and teachers in a school that was
set afire. Those that didn’t die in the fire were shot as they tried
to escape.

The Armenian Genocide – one of the earlier recorded genocides – began
100 years ago this year throughout Ottoman Turkey. Armenians all over
the world – including half a million in the U.S. – will be
commemorating the anniversary in 2015, especially on Remembrance Day,
April 24.

The massacres of the 1890s and 1900s and the genocide stemmed from a
longstanding hatred and resentment of the Christian Armenians (Armenia
was the first nation to declare itself Christian, in 301 A.D.) by the
Muslim majority, and the rise of Turkish nationalism and militarism.

Under the leadership of the minister of the interior, Talaat Pasha,
Turkey passed laws to forcibly deport Armenians and confiscate their
homes and property. Then they were marched across deserts, where many
starved to death. Others were outright murdered: shot, bayoneted,
burned to death in barns, driven over cliffs, crucified and
flayed. Woman were raped or forced to marry ethnic Turks.

The U.S. ambassador to Turkey at the time was Henry Morgenthau, a
tireless advocate for what became in the U.S. a catchphrase: `the
starving Armenians.’ In a letter to the secretary of state in July
1915, Morgenthau describes what was happening in Turkey:

The `deportation and excesses against peaceful Armenians is increasing
and from harrowing reports of eye witnesses it appears that a campaign
of race extermination is in progress …’

Except for those few Turks who were assassinated in the 1920s by
Armenian rebels, no one has ever been held responsible for the
Armenian `Race Murder,’ the title of the first chapter in Samantha
Power’s groundbreaking history of genocide, `A Problem from Hell.’

In 1939, during of the Nazi genocide of European Jews, Adolf Hitler
expressed confidence he could get away with anything: `Who today,
after all, speaks of the annihilation of the Armenians?’

Now, 75 years after Hitler’s dismissal, the world has not forgotten,
especially those like myself who grew up with a victim of the Turkish
atrocities.

In 1948, that little girl who ran through the mulberry trees became my
grandmother, Rose Hovsepian Banaian =80` my Nana. Until I was 12 years
old, we lived in the same tenement: she and her unmarried children in
the end unit; my mother (her oldest daughter), and my Irish father, my
brother and I in the middle tenement on a dead end street in Dover,
New Hampshire.

I knew from talks around family dinners, especially the Sunday
picnics, that Nana was a refugee from the genocide; I knew her father
and mother had died at Turkish hands; and I knew she escaped through
Egypt and came to the U.S. as the arranged bride of an Armenian man
who had also escaped the genocide.

I say I knew this, but I had never written anything down, nor asked
for precise details.

My search for Nana’s story – and my story – brought me to a 1990
recording of Nana that begins in that Turkish pasture so many years
ago.

`I SAW MY FATHER RUNNING’
Nana raced home on that day 81 years ago and 5000
miles away from where she would make her American life.

`I saw my father running. He had his rifle, his sword, his pistol
… he hugged me and he kissed me but he didn’t say nuthin’. But he
was running, he ran into that brook, to follow the brook.’

He was headed to the village center to join other Armenian men to
resist the Turks. He never made it.

Nana begins to tell what happened next: `Before he get there, on the
hill he met a …’ and her voice just stops. Nothing for
seconds. Then: `All I’ll say is, hundreds of them. He was killed. He
was beaten. Because he couldn’t fight all those people. He tried, he
did. They had taken everything off him, only his white shirt, homespun
white shirt that goes way down to the knee. It’s all homespun, rough
stuff, and left him there. Left him there.’

>From that day in 1909 until she arrived at Ellis Island in 1921 and
married John Banaian, Gulenia Hovsepian was taken out of her simple
farm life and tossed onto the world stage, one of the millions of
victims in the shattering events that culminated in World War I.

HIDING FROM THE TURKS
While her recollections at age 91 sometimes wandered across time
periods and left some crucial storylines incomplete, her gift for the
telling detail and the turning-point event is novelistic.

After her father was killed, the family – mother Marian and her five
children, from 10-month-old Movses to Sara, 13 – had to escape. They
made their way to the nearby factory where silk was woven, where the
owner agreed to hide them from the Turks. `They locked the door in
there, and we heard the soldiers going by because it was on the main
road and the baby started to cry and my mother would put her hand on
his mouth (so) they won’t hear’ her, Nana recalled.

They made their way to Antioch, where they were to be spared by
becoming – as Nana puts it – `Mohammedan.’ In the massacres and later
in the genocide, conversion was sometimes offered as a way to avoid
deportation and possible death. But before that could happen, the
official killings stopped. Nana recalled: The sultan `had given orders
for the town criers to go around – it’s not like papers now – town
criers to go around in the town, in the city, and they holler and
yell, `Stop it, don’t kill no more.’ ‘

Still, the family had lost their home, their source of income, their
very world.

Nana’s hopes were with her Uncle George, who she believed was well off
and working for an Englishman in a cigarette factory in Cairo.

George had received word that his brother had been killed and his
family members were refugees. He arrived in Antioch and organized a
rescue of Nana and 45 other Armenian girls, including Nana’s younger
sister, Violet.

=80=9CWe get all gathered, they had to take us in the dark to the
missionary … My mother bathe me and comb my hair and she took a
little piece of cloth and put in there cucumbers and some kind of
bread they make of it, a lot of sesame seeds on it. She put that in
there for the two of us to eat. And when we get to Alexandretta (on
the Turkish coast) in a building, an empty building in there, and at
midnight, they took us out, but they served a meal there.

`All of a sudden, they came around: Get your bundle, what you have
with you. They were going to transfer us somewhere else. You know what
happened? We heard the story afterward. The Turks had take, you know
the gasoline, kerosene, I mean, comes in cans, in tin cans like that,
because we had to buy it ourselves for our home. They did it all
around the building. They were gonna put it on fire there. And someone
found out about it so they had to take us. Yeah, they were gonna burn
us all to death.’

The children were taken by ship to Beirut, where a German Lutheran
orphanage and school agreed to accept them. Nana stayed from age 10 to
age 16 in 1918, relatively safe from both the war and the genocide
that was killing hundreds of thousands of Armenians in neighboring
Turkey.

`IT MADE MY HEART IN PIECES’
Her mother, though, was not as fortunate. Every time the subject of
her mother comes up on the 1990 recording, Nana answers quickly – `My
mother died on the road’ =80` and then changes the subject.

Historically, that makes sense. Even though Nana’s mother escaped the
Adana massacre, she was a refugee and without resources when the 1915
genocide began. `Died on the road’ could well refer to the most common
way Armenians were killed – by starvation and disease on forced
marches to concentration camps.

Movses, the youngest child, lived with sister Sarah and the man she
had married, in Antioch, but there was little food to feed the
family. Movses had only grass to eat and died, likely from severe
diarrhea or dysentery, Nana said.

`He died, starved to death three weeks before the armistice was
signed. The armistice was signed, they had PLENTY, PLENTY FOOD, the
Red Cross (she halts, sobs). He was about … 10 years old. He
died. I’m never going to forgive anyone for that. Never! Never! It
broke my heart, made my heart in pieces.’

A friend from the Beirut orphanage was working as a nurse’s aide in a
Cairo hospital, and helped Nana get a job there, where she stayed for
two years. Then, through a friend, the two got an offer to marry
Armenians who were living in America: `She had somebody that she knew,
she asked her how about bring two girls, there are two brothers here,
they like to marry Armenian girls. They say, they’re pretty well off,
they got money, see.’

On Aug. 9, 1921, Nana and her friend boarded a train to Alexandria,
then a ship to Piraeus, Greece, and the King Alexander ocean liner to
Ellis Island, where she arrived just before Labor Day.

`I wanted to see America. I wasn’t only interested in see a man, or
anything. I wanted to see America.’

It turns out, John Banaian, who was to be my grandfather, had no money
and lived in a shabby apartment with dish towels for curtains in the
worst section of Dover. But he was a typical immigrant – industrious
and frugal. Later, he bought the tenement house and they had six
children in seven and a half years. The youngest, Lillian, was but 10
months old when John Banaian died of pneumonia.

Nana was left with three boys and three girls; the oldest, my mother,
was 10. It was in the middle of the Depression. My mother became the
daytime mother while Nana went to work in the mills.

After World War II, my mother – who went by `Kay’ rather than the
decidedly immigrant first name she was given, Kouharig – met and
married a local Irishman, Thomas Christie. I was born in 1948, the
first grandchild on my mother’s side.

AN ANTIDOTE TO HARDSHIP
The lives of my mother and her mother – my Nana – were forged from
hardship and loss.

When I came along life was a little better. The American economy was
strong after the war: Dad, a World War II veteran, became a skilled
machinist; Mom worked the late shift at a nearby GE plant.

There were no luxuries, but my extended, deprived family made my life
as easy, as all-American, as they could. Perhaps in response to their
lives, mine was to be protected.

I was to be the antidote to their past, yet the family history seeped
into my consciousness, awaiting a deeper exploration of the past
opened up by Nana’s recording.

Now, it takes but a plate of grape leaves I make from Nana’s recipe,
and I can see her running through those mulberry trees while her
father – my great-grandfather – grabs his rifle and runs directly into
his murder. In that moment he enters the history of a people, the
history of a world soon afire, the history of one of mankind’s worst
inventions: genocide.

On the recording, Nana, who died five years later at age 96, strays
from the narrative of her life to reflect upon history and the fact
that the Turkish government to this day officially denies the Armenian
Genocide:

`I don’t know if the Turks would ever. But, ah, they’re denying
it. I’m sorry to damn them – they don’t want to admit it. I’m telling
you this: Where did I come from? Where did I get the story to tell you
about it?’

John Christie is a journalist living in Maine and writing a memoir,
`The Regretful Boy Scout.’

VATICAN
Le pape François utilise le terme de génocide à propos des Arméniens

Le pape François a utilisé dimanche le terme “génocide” pour le
massacre des Arméniens il y a cent ans. Une déclaration en public
inédite qui pourrait perturber les relations entre Rome et la Turquie.

“Au siècle dernier, notre famille humaine a traversé trois tragédies
massives et sans précédent. La première, qui est largement considérée
comme le premier génocide du XXe siècle a frappé votre peuple
arménien”, a déclaré le pape François dans le cadre solennel de la
basilique Saint-Pierre de Rome, en citant un document signé en 2001
par le pape Jean Paul II et le patriarche arménien.

François s’est exprimé à l’ouverture d’une messe à la mémoire des
Arméniens massacrés entre 1915 et 1917, concélébrée avec le patriarche
arménien Nerses Bedros XIX Tarmouni, avec des éléments du rite
catholique arménien et en présence du président du pays.

Une première pour un pape

Même si Jean Paul II avait utilisé le terme de “génocide” en 2000 dans
le document commun et que Jorge Bergoglio l’avait utilisé plusieurs
fois avant de devenir pape et même au moins une fois en privé depuis,
c’est la première fois que ce mot est prononcé publiquement par un
pontife.

dimanche 12 avril 2015,
Stéphane (c)armenews.com

TMZ
April 12 2015

Kanye West Gets Wet and Wild During Surprise Free Armenian Concert

Turns out Yeezus can’t walk on water, he just falls in it like the rest of us.

Kanye West performed a free concert Sunday night in the capital of
Armenia, which came to an end after Kanye jumped into Swan Lake …
and dozens of fans followed suit.

Kanye’s been over there with Kim Kardashian all week as she taps into
her Armenian roots — and shoots scenes for ‘Keeping Up With the
Kardashians’. He performed six songs: “Stronger,” “Jesus Walks,”
“Power,” “Touch the Sky,” “All of the Lights and “Good Life.”

West’s lake dive ended the show — he crowd went bonkers and cops had
to shut everything down — but you know it’ll be great promo footage
for the reality show.

Patheos
April 12 2015

Pope recalls slaughter of Armenians in ‘first genocide of the 20th century’

Rome, Italy, Apr 12, 2015 / 08:24 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis
today referred to the mass killing of Armenians by the Ottoman Turks
in 1915 as a “genocide,” prompting the Turkish government to summon
the Vatican’s ambassador for questioning.

“In the past century our human family has lived through three massive
and unprecedented tragedies. The first, which is widely considered
‘the first genocide of the twentieth century,’ struck your own
Armenian people, the first Christian nation,” the Pope said April 12.

Francis’ reference to the genocide was taken from a common declaration
signed by both Pope Saint John Paull II and Supreme Armenian Patriarch
Karekin II in 2001.

His comments took place before celebrating Mass on Divine Mercy
Sunday, which is a feast instituted by St. John Paul II and celebrated
on the Second Sunday of the Church’s liturgical Easter season.

Francis offered the Mass for faithful of the Armenian rite in
commemoration of the centenary of the “Metz Yeghern,” or Armenian
“martyrdom.” April 24 is recognized in Armenia as the official date of
the start of the event.

Many faithful and members of the Armenian rite were present for
Sunday’s Mass, including Armenian president Serz Azati Sargsyan,
Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of all Armenians Karekin II,
Catholicos Aram I and Patriarch Nerses Bedros XIX.

The Pope has kept strong ties with the Armenian community since his
time as archbishop of Buenos Aires, and a group of Argentinian
Armenians were among those gathered for the Mass.

During the Mass, Francis also proclaimed Armenian-rite Saint Gregory
of Narek a Doctor of the Church, making the 10th century priest, monk,
mystic, and poet the first Armenian to receive the title.

Widely referred to as a genocide, the mass killings took place in
1915-1916 when the Ottoman Empire systematically exterminated its
minority Armenian population who called Turkey their homeland, most of
whom were Christians. Roughly 1.5 million Armenians lost their lives.

Turkey has repeatedly denied that the slaughter was a genocide, saying
that the number of deaths was much smaller, and came as a result of
conflict surrounding World War I. The country holds that many ethnic
Turks also lost their lives in the event.

However, most non-Turkish scholars refer to the episode as a genocide.
Argentina, Belgium, Canada, France, Italy, Russia and Uruguay are
among the 22 nations that formally recognize the massacre as a
genocide.

Reports have circulated saying that the Turkish government summoned
the Vatican’s papal nuncio, Archbishop Antonio Lucibello, for
questioning after the Pope’s genocide comment.

When CNA phoned the Turkish embassy to the Holy See, they declined to
comment, however the apostolic nunciature in Ankara responded by
saying that the nuncio had in fact been called.

After Francis made his comments, the Turkish Foreign Ministry released
a statement expressing their “great disappointment and sadness” at the
Pope’s remarks. They said the words signaled a loss of trust and
contradicted his message of peace, the Associated Press reports.

The foreign ministry also held that Francis’ words were
discriminatory, because he only mentioned the pain suffered by
Christians, and not Muslims or any other religious group.

In his greeting ahead of Sunday’s Mass, Pope Francis noted how
“bishops and priests, religious, women and men, the elderly and even
defenseless children and the infirm were murdered” in the 1915
massacre, which targeted Catholic and Orthodox Syrians, Assyrians,
Chaldeans and Greeks.

Francis also called to mind other tragic events of the 20th century,
including the violence perpetrated by Nazism and Stalinism, as well as
other mass killings carried out in Cambodia, Rwanda, Burundi and
Bosnia.

“It seems that humanity is incapable of putting a halt to the shedding
of innocent blood (and) has refused to learn from its mistakes caused
by the law of terror,” he said, noting that the enthusiasm to end such
violence that came at the end of the Second World War seems to be
“disappearing.”

By the “complicit silence of others who simply stand by,” the agenda
of those who seek to eliminate others continues, the Pope said.

“Today too we are experiencing a sort of genocide created by general
and collective indifference, by the complicit silence of Cain, who
cries out: ‘What does it matter to me? Am I my brother’s keeper?'”

It is both necessary and a duty to honor the centenary of the “immense
and senseless slaughter” the Armenians had to endure, Pope Francis
said, because when memories fade, evil can enter and make old wounds
fester.

“Concealing or denying evil is like allowing a wound to keep bleeding
without bandaging it!” he said, and stressed that evil is never
something that comes from God.

In a message given to the Armenian community after the celebration,
Pope Francis said that to remember the event is the responsibility of
the whole world, so that it can serve as a warning not to repeat
similar “horrors” in the future.

He expressed his hope that Turkey and Armenia would work toward a
greater reconciliation, and prayed that the Mass and proclamation of
St. Gregory as a Doctor of the Church would be an occasion for all
Christians to unite in prayer.

At the close of the Mass, Catholicos Karekin II spoke in English,
saying that the Armenian genocide is “an unforgettable and undeniable
fact of history.”

The genocide is deeply engrained into the consciousness of the
Armenian people, the patriarch said, therefore “any attempt to erase
it from history and from our common memory is doomed to fail.”

Karekin observed that according to international law, genocide is a
crime against humanity that closely intertwines with condemnation,
recognition and repatriation for the act, so therefore the Armenian
cause is one of “justice.”

In the years after the genocide the Armenian Church has never
forgotten “the continuous concern, assistance and solidarity of the
Church of Rome toward Armenians,” he said.

The patriarch then expressed his “deep gratitude” to Pope Francis,
praying that he would be strengthened in body and spirit so as to
continue his ministry “with renewed dynamism and spiritual courage.”

Pope Francis proclaims St. Gregory of Narek Doctor of Universal Church

12:14, 12 April, 2015

YEREVAN, APRIL 12, ARMENPRESS. At the course of the Divine Liturgy
dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide offered by
Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Basilica today, the leader of the Catholic
Church proclaimed St. Gregory of Narek the Doctor of the Universal
Church.

As reports “Armenpress”, Cardinal Angelo Amato, Prefect of the
Congregation for the Cause of Saints, stated that by his life and
teaching, St. Gregory of Narek preached a teaching of beauty and the
people appreciated the beauty of his words and his teaching.

Among other things, Cardinal Angelo Amato underscored: “One of the
leaders of the Oriental Church, St. Ephrem the Syrian, was proclaimed
the Doctor of the Universal Church 100 years ago. Today, we ask to
proclaim Doctor of the Universal Church another leader of the Oriental
Church – St. Gregory of Narek. His continuous popularity is connected
with his major work “The Book of Lamentations”, called “Narek” by the
Armenian people, which is considered to be his most popular work among
the Armenians.”

“St. Gregory of Narek’s thoughts and words can be compared with those
of St. John Chrysostom and St. Gregory the Illuminator. All the
theologians gave their positive assessment at the course of the
session of the Congregation for the Cause of Saints and signed the
declaration, by which St. Gregory of Narek will receive that honorable
title. All the Cardinals have also given their assent,” Cardinal
Angelo Amato concluded.

In addition, the Cardinal emphasized that this year marks the 100th
anniversary of a horrible evil the Armenian people was subjected to
and St. Greogry of Narek also came forth as a creator of hope and
peace amid this tragedy.

Grigor Narekatsi (951-1003) is a canonized saint. He was an Armenian
monk, poet, mystical philosopher and theologian, born into a family of
writers. His father, Khosrov, was an archbishop. He lost his mother
very early, so he was educated by his cousin, Anania of Narek, who was
the founder of the monastery and school of the village. Almost all of
his life he lived in the monasteries of Narek (in Greater Armenia, now
Turkey) where he taught at the monastic school. He is the author of
mystical interpretation on the Song of Songs (977) and numerous poetic
writings. Narekatsi’s poetry is deeply biblical and is penetrated with
images, themes and realities of sacred history, distinguished with
intimate, personal character. The mystical poem “Book of Lamentations”
(published in 1673 in Marseille) has been translated into many
languages and has played a significant role in the development of the
Armenian literary language.

For Narekatsi, peoples’ absolute goal in life should be to reach to
God, and to reach wherever human nature would unite with godly nature,
thus erasing the differences between God and men. As a result, the
difficulties of earthly life would disappear. According to him,
mankind’s assimilation with God is possible not by logic, but by
feelings.

Numerous miracles and traditions have been attributed to the saint and
perhaps that is why he is referred to as “the watchful angel in human
form”.

In 1984-1985, Alfred Schnittke composed Concerto for Mixed Chorus
singing verses from Gregory’s Book of Lamentations translated into
Russian by Naum Grebnev, according to the Russian edition Kniga
Skorbi, transl. by Naum Grebnev, Preface by Levon Mkrtchian, Sovetakan
Grokh, Yerevan, 1977.

The monastery of Narek was utterly destroyed in the 20th century after
the Armenian Genocide.
Born circa 950 to a family of scholarly churchmen, St. Gregory entered
Narek Monastery on the south-east shore of Lake Van at a young age.
Shortly before the first millennium of Christianity, Narek Monastery
was a thriving center of learning. These were the relatively quiet,
creative times before the Turkic and Mongol invasions that changed
Armenian life forever. Armenia was experiencing a renaissance in
literature, painting, architecture and theology, of which St. Gregory
was a leading figure. The Prayer Book is the work of his mature years.
He called it his last testament: “its letters like my body, its
message like my soul.” St. Gregory left this world in 1003, but his
voice continues to speak to us.

Written shortly before the first millennium of Christianity, the
prayers of St. Gregory of Narek have long been recognized as gems of
Christian literature. St. Gregory called his book an “encyclopedia of
prayer for all nations.” It was his hope that it would serve as a
guide to prayer by people of all stations around the world.

In 95 grace-filled prayers St. Gregory draws on the exquisite
potential of the Classical Armenian language to translate the pure
sighs of the broken and contrite heart into an offering of words
pleasing to God. The result is an edifice of faith for the ages,
unique in Christian literature for its rich imagery, its subtle
theology, its Biblical erudition, and the sincere immediacy of its
communication with God.

BosNewsLife
April 12 2015

BREAKING NEWS: Pope Calls Mass Killings Armenians ‘First Genocide’ Of
20th Century

Sunday, April 12, 2015 (9:14 am)

By BosNewsLife News Center with reporting by Stefan J. Bos, Chief
International Correspondent BosNewsLife

VATICAN CITY, VATICAN (BosNewsLife)– In historic remarks Pope Francis
marked the 100th anniversary of the mass killings of mainly Christian
Armenians by calling it “the first genocide of the 20th century,” a
move that was expected to provoke anger in Turkey.

Francis, who has close ties to the Armenian community from his days in
Argentina, said it was his duty to honor the memory of the innocent
men, women, children, priests and bishops who were “senselessly”
murdered under Ottoman rule.

“Concealing or denying evil is like allowing a wound to keep bleeding
without bandaging it,” he said during a Mass on Sunday, April 12, in
the Armenian Catholic rite in St. Peter’s Basilica honoring the
centenary.

Among those listening was Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, whose
country has long been lobbying to recognize the killing of some 1.5
million Armenians as genocide.

Turkey denies claims by Armenia and several historians that they were
systematically killed by Ottoman Turks around the time of World War I,
saying many died as a result of hunger and general warfare.

TURKEY DENIES

The Turkish government also says the death toll was much smaller.

Ahead of the pope’s announcement Turkey’s embassy to the Vatican
reportedly canceled a planned press conference, apparently after
learning that the leader of more than a billion Catholics would utter
the word “genocide” despite its opposition to the term.

Several countries recognize the massacres as genocide, such as
Argentina, Belgium, Canada, France, Italy, Russia and Uruguay. However
only Italy and the United States have avoided using the term
officially because Turkey is a crucial ally, including in the NATO
military alliance.

The pope’s remarks came on the say he was to declare the mystic St
Gregory of Narek a doctor of the church. Only some 35 people have been
given the title, according to estimates by the Associated Press news
agency.

Pope Francis has in recent weeks called for prayers for persecuted
Christians around the world.

NEW-YORK TIMES JOURNALIST INCLUDED IN LIST OF UNDESIRABLE PERSONS OF AZERBAIJANI MINISTRY

Trend, Azerbaijan
April 10 2015

Baku, Azerbaijan, April 10

By Seba Aghayeva – Trend:

New-York Times journalist Seth Kugel has been included in the list
of undesirable persons of the Azerbaijani foreign ministry for an
illegal visit to the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, spokesman
for the Azerbaijani foreign ministry Hikmet Hajiyev told Trend.

“An article of the journalist, distorting the real situation in the
occupied territories of Azerbaijan, is disrespectful to the readers of
the newspaper,” Hajiyev said. “It is also disrespectful to the rights
of more than one million Azerbaijani refugees and internally displaced
persons who have been subjected to the bloody ethnic cleansing in the
occupied territories. It is regrettable that such an article appeared
in New-York Times.”

Hajiyev was commenting on the journalist’s illegal visit to the
occupied territories of Azerbaijan.

Hajiyev said that the facts of looting the property in the occupied
territories belonging to Azerbaijani people, destruction of samples of
material culture, Islamic monuments and shrines were not purposefully
reflected in the article written by the order of the Armenian lobby.

“I would like to remind the management of New-York Times, which
published this biased article about the “tourist” trips to the occupied
territories, that such transnational crimes as human trafficking,
production and sale of drugs, illicit arms trafficking, training of
terrorists are committed in these territories,” he said.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in
1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a
result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied
20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and
seven surrounding districts.

The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs
of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US are currently
holding peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented the
UN Security Council’s four resolutions on the liberation of the
Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.

LAVROV: WE CANNOT IMAGINE KARABAKH CONFLICT TO ENTER HOT PHASE

Interfax, Russia
April 8 2015

MOSCOW. April 8

Russia dismisses the possibility that the conflict over
Nagorno-Karabakh can enter a hot military phase, Russian Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

“We dismiss even a thought that the Karabakh conflict might enter a
hot phase. I am convinced that, despite the rhetoric, none of the
parties concerned wants this,” Lavrov said at a press conference
following a meeting with Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian.

Asked what Russia’s actions would be if Azerbaijan steps up military
escalation, Lavrov said, “All obligations that the CSTO [Collective
Security Treaty Organization] members have undertaken on a reciprocal
basis are stipulated in the treaty itself. The cases in which the
fulfillment of the obligations is envisioned are also listed there.”

***There is no alterative to the peaceful resolution of the Karabakh
conflict, Armenian Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian said.

“The position of chair countries has been presented in five statements
issued by their presidents. As soon as the Azeri position is harmonized
with the approach of the international community, we will really
have a chance for political settlement of this conflict,” he said at
a press conference, after negotiations with his Russian counterpart
Sergei Lavrov.

“Regretfully, Azerbaijan has been rejecting proposals of the cochairmen
on the essence of the conflict settlement process and confidence
building measures,” the minister stated.

“There is no alternative to negotiations. The efforts of Armenia and
the cochairmen will be focused on the exclusively peaceful resolution
of the conflict,” Nalbandian emphasized.

LOCAL MUSICIAN CELEBRATES ARMENIANS’ RESILIENCE

Worcester Telegram
April 10 2015

By Richard Duckett TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

When the Ed Melikian Ensemble performs during dinner Friday evening
at the Third International Graduate Students’ Conference for Holocaust
and Genocide Studies taking place at Clark University in Worcester, it
will be more than just a prestigious engagement at an important event.

The music could speak from the heart about much that the conference,
running April 9-12, is pondering.

The ensemble will play Armenian music, Melikian said. “Some of it is
rather sorrowful. Some of it is brighter and happier.” The sadness is
for the 1.5 million people who died during the Armenian Genocide of
1915-23 at the hands of Turkey’s Ottoman Empire. But the music also
gives note “to the fact we’re still here,” Melikian said. “We still
carry on with our traditions and music and life.”

The first genocide of the 20th century started nearly 100 years ago
the night of April 24, 1915, when more than 600 leading Armenians in
Constantinople (now Istanbul), Turkey’s capital, were arrested, taken
out of the city and executed. A paranoid government had chosen the
wrong side to back in World War I and was seeing enemies everywhere,
especially in its Armenian minority population.

The Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Clark
University is hosting the conference for which scholars from around
the world have convened for lectures and workshops on the theme of
“Emerging Scholarship in Holocaust and Genocide Studies 100 Years
After the Armenian Genocide.”

The Ed Melikian Ensemble will follow the private engagement at the
conference Friday with its regular second-Saturday-of-the-month
performance at Sahara Restaurant, 143 Highland St., Worcester,
starting at 9:30 p.m. April 11.

Melikian plays the oud, a short-necked, half-pear-shaped string
instrument that dates back to ancient Persia and is featured in
Armenian and Turkish music, Jewish music, and much of the music of
the Middle East. “It’s the forerunner to the lute. It’s the forerunner
to the guitar. It’s a very unique sound,” Melikian said.

Melikian’s father loved Armenian and Turkish music and would play
recordings by groups.

“I would listen to them. I was just mesmerized by the music,”
Melikian said.

One year his sister gave him a ukulele as a birthday present. Then
“I graduated to mandolin.” He got his first oud when he was around 16.

One of his first public performances was at a party celebrating an
Armenian couple’s 50th wedding anniversary in Worcester.

Meanwhile, Melikian remembers that as a child he would often be awoken
by the sound of his father having nightmares and his mother trying
to comfort him.

“I couldn’t figure out why until I got much older,” he said.

Both his father and mother were survivors of the Armenian Genocide.

They were from the Turkish city of Sivas (Sepastia from historical
Armenia) although they did not know each other there. Melikian’s father
lived just outside the city and tended sheep for a Turkish family. “The
family actually protected him, so in good conscience I can’t blame all
Turks for what happened. It was the Ottoman government,” Melikian said.

His mother’s father was a barber in Sivas, and his customers included
Turkish officials who evidently liked him enough to warn him to
take his family and flee. One day he was told, “You won’t be harmed,
but you have to leave,” Melikian said.

It has been documented that thousands of Armenians were force-marched
into the desert where they perished.

Melikian isn’t sure what his parents saw. “Neither one of them talked
very much about what happened or how they got out,” he said.

His father settled in Worcester, his mother in Springfield. “They
got fixed up by relatives.”

Melikian was born in Worcester, and the family lived first on Chandler
Street (“there were many Armenian families in the Chandler Street
area,” Melikian said) and then the Greendale section of Worcester.

Melikian now lives in North Grafton.

Worcester and Fresno, California, were the two major places Armenian
immigrants gravitated to from the late 19th century on. In Worcester,
the new immigrants worked in the mills. The Armenian Church of the
Martyrs in Worcester was the first Protestant Armenian Church in the
Western Hemisphere. Worcester was also the first parish of the Armenian
Apostolic Church in America — the Armenian Church of Our Saviour.

Times change, but the Turkish government has never recognized that
there was an Armenian Genocide.

Adolf Hitler, however, knew about it. A week before invading Poland
in 1939 and precipitating World War II, Hitler said to his generals:
“Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?

The world believes in success only.”

“We won’t let anyone forget what happened,” Melikian said. “There
are lots of events around April 24.”

The music also plays on. Melikian has played with groups at many area
clubs, and had performed as far away as Honduras.

“I’ve done the gamut for Middle Eastern music, including belly dance
music,” Melikian said. He is also a member of the group Jubilee
Gardens, and is one of the alternating hosts of the radio station
WCUW 91.3 FM program “Music of the Whole Earth,” which airs every
Saturday from 4 to 6 p.m.

The Ed Melikian Ensemble is led by Melikian, oud; Leon Janikian,
clarinet; Ken Kalajian, guitar; and David Gevorkian, duduk (an Armenian
wind instrument). Other musicians also join. The group will play a
good deal of Armenian music at the Sahara Restaurant on Saturday. Its
repertoire is world music from Anatolia, Asia Minor and the Middle
East, and there is usually a lot of dancing, including belly dancing.

The ensemble has been a popular attraction there for a while.

“The audience is a real mix,” Melikian said.

Upcoming events to mark the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide
include a march from Lincoln Street tunnel to Worcester City Hall
starting at noon April 18. The march will be followed by remarks
from civic leaders, the planting of a Genocide Memorial Tree, and an
ecumenical service at 2:15 p.m. in St. Paul’s Cathedral, 38 High St.

At 6 p.m. April 24 there will be a service in Armenian Church of Our
Saviour, 87 Salisbury St., Worcester.

CULTURAL EVENTS CELEBRATE ARMENIAN SPIRIT, REMEMBER GENOCIDE

Fresno Bee, CA
April 9 2015

By Donald Munro

With April 24 fast approaching, there is a flurry of cultural
commemorations of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide. Some
have direct allusions to the genocide itself while others celebrate
the Armenian spirit. Here are some highlights:

Historic

* “The Armenian Genocide: A Centennial Exhibition, 1915-2015”
at Fresno State’s Henry Madden Library, includes a wide array of
compelling and dramatic images. The exhibition features the newly
released “Iconic Images of the Armenian Genocide,” which features
photographs of the Armenian genocide assembled as an instructional
guide for human rights education.

The photographs were collected from numerous repositories, sources
and individuals, including the U.S. National Archives, Library of
Congress, Near East Foundation, Oberlin College Archives, University
of Minnesota Library and the Fresno State Armenian Studies Program,
which is presenting the exhibition.

Another part of the exhibition is “The First Refuge and the Last
Defense: The Armenian Church, Etchmiadzin, and the Armenian Genocide,”
which details the importance of the church during a horrific time.

The exhibition opens 6-8 p.m. Friday, April 10, in the Leon S. Peters
Second Floor Ellipse Gallery with a reception co-hosted with the
Friends of the Madden Library. The reception and the exhibition
are free and open to the public, but reservations are needed (go to
and enter code AGR).

The show runs through May 29.

* At the Jewel fm Gallery, a searing painting titled “Massacre” by
Arshag Amirkhanian is featured in an exhibition with works by noted
local artist Nancy Youdelman, his grand-niece. It depicts Turkish
soldiers killing Armenians with Mt. Ararat as a backdrop. Amirkhanian
was an untrained artist who began painting in early 1960s after he
retired from a long career as a house painter. The painting’s graphic,
primitive style adds to the emotional pull of the piece.

Art

* Many of Fresno’s art galleries and cooperatives are marking the 100th
commemoration this month by featuring Armenian artists. One of the best
works is found at Gallery 25: a multi-media installation by Lorraine
Peters (who has a separate show of intriguing paintings) and Carol
Tikijian. Their “An Armenian Experience,” consisting of three richly
dressed mannequin forms representing the past, present and future
“Armenian woman,” is laden with symbolism, such as a raven perched
near the headless form of the “past” woman. It’s a powerful piece.

* I could find some direct references to the genocide in Ronald
Dzerigian’s “Allegorical Portraiture: New Paintings” at 1821 Gallery
& Studios, but mostly the show is a musing on the general human
condition in terms of family, loss, love, judgment, evaluation,
intimacy, aloneness and history. Immersive and disturbing, the show
has a lot of impact.

Music

* There have already been a number of musical events commemorating
the 100th anniversary events. The big one still to come is the Fresno
Philharmonic’s “Witness & Rebirth: An Armenian Journey” featuring
soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian. The program includes Kradjian’s “Cantata
for Living Martyrs.” The performance is 7:30 p.m. April 25 at the
Saroyan Theatre.

Remembrance

* A Requiem service will be held 5 p.m. April 23 at Ararat Cemetery,
1925 W. Belmont Ave.

* The Armenian Genocide Centennial — Fresno Committee will unveil
a monument dedicated to the victims and survivors of the Genocide
in a 7:30 p.m. ceremony April 23 at Fresno State near the Satellite
Student Union.

* A flag-raising ceremony at Fresno City Hall will be held 9
a.m. April 24.

* A traditional community commemoration will be held 7:30 p.m. April
24 at St. Paul Armenian Apostolic Church, 430 S. First St.