Category: News

 is displaying a large-scale electronic billboard in Foxboro, Mass., thanking Germany for recognizing the Armenian Genocide, the reports.

Titled “Truth Vs. National Interest,” this billboard illustrates, on the left side, the German flag and, on the opposite side, the dome of the U.S. Capitol building, where the United States Senate and House of Representatives come together to debate and discuss national and political issues.

Peace of Art president Daniel Varoujan Hejinian stated that “with this billboard, we express gratitude on behalf of our organization for Germany’s recognition of the Armenian Genocide; simultaneously, we are  calling on the United States to follow Germany’s act of courage, and set aside its commercial interest for the sake of the truth.”

During World War I, Imperialist Germany was an ally of the Ottoman Empire and had its share of guilt in the implementation of the Armenian Genocide, by justifying and encouraging the crime against humanity.  In 1918, Hans von Wangenheim, the German ambassador in Constantinople, said in an interview with an American journalist, “I do not blame the Turks for what they are doing to the Armenians… They are entirely justified.”  It has been argued that this justification was the motivation for Hitler to organize the mass extermination of Jews during World War II.

The recognition of the Armenian Genocide by Germany this month was the answer to a question asked 75 years ago by Adolf Hitler: “Who today remembers the annihilation of the Armenians?”

The Presidents of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan could hold a trilateral meeting, and work on this matter is underway, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday, Sputnik News reports.

“Work in this direction is being carried out. We are not excluding that such meetings could take place. If this gets finally confirmed, we will provide information,” Peskov told journalists, answering a question about reports that the three leaders would be meeting in St. Petersburg.

Through the Armenian Church of the Holy Resurrection on Church Road in Old Dhaka architect Adnan Morshed explores the Armenian history in Dhaka. Excerpts from the article published by are provided below:

The church is modest in its architectural scope, yet its history offers a rich tapestry of the Armenian footprint on the commerce, politics, and education of East Bengal. More important, the church is an architectural testament to the story of how the Armenian diasporas spread out from their historic homeland, located between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, to far-flung regions, and thrived as a versatile cosmopolitan community.

Armenia occupies a crucial geographic location at the intersection of various civilizations and trading routes, such as the Silk Road from China to Rome. A vital link between East and West, the country was under the domination of various competing political powers, including the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Arabs, the Persians again, the Ottomans, and the Russians. Their long political subjugation, on the one hand, made it difficult for them to maintain their Christian faith, language, culture, and national identity. (The Armenians were the first people to embrace Christianity as a state religion in 301 CE). On the other hand, challenging circumstances exhorted Armenians to be resilient in the face of political repression, to develop entrepreneurial acumen and mediating skills, and to be a “trade diaspora.” Wherever the Armenians went to trade, they typically learned the local language – unlike other Asian or European merchants – and they benefitted from the ability to communicate with primary producers.

The Armenians also played a significant role in the history of world architecture. In the early medieval period, when the Byzantine world abandoned classical stonework in favor of brick masonry (the sixth-century Hagia Sophia in Istanbul is basically a brick construction), only the Armenians retained the knowledge of concrete work and continued the Hellenistic attitude to buildings as a compact, object-like impression in space. Their contribution had a crucial influence on subsequent development of church architecture in Europe.

There is no consensus on exactly when the Armenians arrived in Dhaka. Some historians, however, suggest that they were in Bengal in the early 17th century, most likely arriving with the southbound migration of Armenian diasporas from Persia. During the Safavid-Ottoman wars of 1603-1605, the Safavid monarch Shah Abbas (r. 1587-1629) deported up to 300,000 Armenians from the Armenian mercantile town of Old Julfa to what became known as New Julfa in the suburb of Isfahan.

Because the official language of the Mughal court was Persian, the Persian-speaking Armenians could easily adapt to the life in the Mughal Empire. Being skillful in the textile business, the Armenians naturally gravitated to Dhaka, one of the trading hubs for fine textile, contributing significantly to the city’s commercial life. In addition to textile and raw silk, the Armenians engaged in the trade of saltpeter (used as gunpowder), salt, and betel nut. They pioneered jute-trading in the second half of the 19th century and popularised tea-drinking in Bengal. When they began to lose the textile business to the British private traders in the late 18th century, the Armenians reoriented their focus to landholding, eventually becoming prominent and wealthy zamindars (or landowners). Examples of Armenian zamindars in Dhaka include: Agha Aratoon Michael, Agha Sarkies, and Nicholas Marcar Pogose.

Another major Armenian contribution to Dhaka was the introduction of the ticca-garry (or horse-carriage), which became the main mode of transportation in the city until the first decade of the 20th century. Armenians also introduced western-style department stores for European and British goods, including wines, spirits, cigars, bacon, reading lamps, shoes, toys, table cutlery, shaving soap, saucepans, frying pans, traveling bags, and umbrellas, among other items.

The Armenian community contributed significantly to Dhaka’s civic life and urban administrative bureaucracy. Nicholas Pogose founded the first private school of the city, Pogose School, in 1848. It still functions as a prestigious school in Old Dhaka. In response to Nicholas Pogose’s resolution that the Dhaka Municipality Committee had no corporate entity and that steps should be taken to remedy the problem, the British colonial administration enacted the District Municipality Act of 1864. Subsequently, the Dhaka Municipality became a statutory body with its own legal jurisdiction.

Compared to those in Calcutta and Madras, Dhaka’s well-knit Armenian community was small but wealthy, exerting a great deal of influence on local and regional businesses. The Armenians resided in Armanitola, an Old Dhaka neighbourhood that was named after their colony where they once lived (although not all Armenians lived there).

Many of Dhaka’s wealthy Armenians lived in European-style bungalows in Old Dhaka. One of the most famous was the Ruplal House (now derelict), built by the Armenian zamindar Aratoon. The religious life of the community revolved around the Armenian Church of the Holy Resurrection, built in 1781 on the ruins of an earlier chapel and cemetery. The land for the Armenian Church was originally gifted by the Armenian noble man Agha Catchick Minas, whose wife died in 1764 and is buried inside the church.

The Armenian Church stands today like a quiet and dignified monument amidst the frenzied urban growth surrounding it. Residential apartment towers dwarf its two-story structure and the belfry (or the bell tower). The oblong plan of the church is a simple basilica type with a double-height nave flanked by a pair of one-story, 14-foot wide arcades that open to the surrounding graveyard. The three-tier bell tower, capped with a conical roof, on the west provides a square-shaped and arched vestibule, followed by a ceremonial entrance to the nave.

The high boundary wall around the Armenian Church in Dhaka shields the property from rampant land speculation that characterises the capital city today. The main entrance to the site is from the east, near the circular apse. Visitors must walk through the graveyard all the way to the western forecourt of the church. Reading the tombstones of the graveyard feels like a journey back to a time when the Armenians played pivotal roles in the life of the city.

Photo: AFP

 

Two Palestinian gunmen killed four people and wounded six others after opening fire at a popular open-air shopping and restaurant area of central Tel Aviv, Israeli authorities say, the BBC reports.

The attacks took place in two locations in Sarona Market, close to Israel’s defence ministry and main army HQ.

Police said the gunmen were from Yatta, a Palestinian village near the West Bank town of Hebron.

Both are in custody. One is undergoing surgery in hospital, police added.

There has been a rise in Palestinian attacks on Israelis since last year, with a series of shootings, stabbings and car rammings, although the number of incidents had dropped in recent months.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who visited the scene of the attack late on Wednesday, called it “a savage crime of murder and terrorism”.

“HIV/AIDS is worse than a war. But this war can be won,” Nelson Mandela once said.

“What’s worse – AIDS or war?” Armenian Minister of Healthcare Armen Muradyan asked, addressing the UN General Assembly High-level Meeting on ending AIDS.

“Where is the justice, when an innocent baby is born with immunodeficiency? Where is the justice, when children willing to live and study in their Motherland, to learn their language, to believe their God, respect the traditions of their parents and ancestors are being bombarded? Where is the justice, when 90-year old people, willing to live their old age at home, are being killed? I’m speaking about the events in Nagorno Karabakh a month ago. What is worse – AIDS or the infection of inhumanity and hatred that affects even the highest-ranking official, clouds his consciousness, turns a civilized person into a barbarian, who orders to kill children and elderly people? It’s hard to answer this rhetoric question,” Minister Muradyan said.

He noted that the coming generations may not know what AIDS is and what war is, if we give a clear answer to the question.

“I’m confident that the coming generations should compare which one is better – peace or prosperity,” Armen Muradyan concluded.

The situation was calm at the line of contact between th armed forces of Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan last night , NKR Defense Ministry reports.

The parties remained committed to the agreement on ceasefire.

 

From June 24-26th,  Pope Francis will visit the land where tradition says that Noah’s Ark stopped after the Flood, at the foot of Mount Ararat.

Armenia is a country of rich and ancient history, full of joys and sorrows like the genocide of 1915. The Pope defined it as the first genocide of the twentieth century. During his trip, he is expected to honor the Yerevan memorial, on behalf the 1.5 million victims who perished as a result of hatred.

“The Armenian nation, the entire Armenian people is preparing to welcome the Pope on this special occasion and show their gratitude for having taken into account and commemorate, as he did the centennial of the Armenian genocide, ” Monsignor Boutros Marayati, Armenian Catholic Archbishop of Aleppo (Syria), said in an interview with

In April last year, Pope Francis presided over a mass in St. Peter’s to honor the victims of genocide to mark the centenary. His words infuriated Turkey and even Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who filed a complaint. But for Boutros Marayati, the Pope’s next trip should not be looked at in the light of any political interest.

“The Holy Father will come to Armenia as a pilgrim, as a pastor, as a promoter of unity because he will visit an ancient Apostolic Church. He will also come as an apostle of peace because he will pray for Armenia to be in a place of peace with its neighbors,” the Archbishop said.

Besides the tension with Turkey, the situation on the border of Armenia with Azerbaijan remains committed to the territorial dispute of Nagorno-Karabakh, as it is a site of reoccurring conflict, especially in the last few weeks.

Referring to the recent escalation of tensions at the Nagorno Karabakh line of contact and the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, Monsignor Boutros Marayati said: “We need to do a reading of peace, openness, a reading that says that everyone should live together. The problem of Nagorno-Karabakh has to do with Azerbaijan, which is a problem because we still don’ know how the Pope is going to face this. It is a very, very delicate problem.”

Rome Reports reminds that Armenia was the first country in the world to adopt Christianity as its official religion in 301 AD, even before the Roman Empire with the Edict of Milan in 313 at the hand of Emperor Constantine.

European Parliament President Martin Schulz, a German Social Democrat, has written an open letter to Erdogan, saying differences of opinion among elected officials should not prompt allegations of terrorist sympathies.

“Such an act constitutes a complete breach of a taboo, which I condemn as strongly as possible,” Schulz wrote. “As the president of a multi-national, multi-ethnic and multi-faith parliament, allow me to make the following point: MPs’ freedom to carry out their mandate as they see fit is a fundamental pillar of our European democracies.”

Turkey is one of several countries recognized as a candidate for potential EU membership one day. Schulz sought to defend both German MPs and those in Turkey opposed to Erdogan’s policies.

“A string of the German Bundestag MPs you have personally attacked, but also Turkish parliamentarians affected by measures which you support, are amongst longstanding colleagues of mine, some of them are very close to me personally,” Schulz said. “I feel obliged to protect these colleagues wherever I can.”

Germany’s speaker of parliament has sharply criticized Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, following threats against German-Turkish MPs. Norbert Lammert said top Turkish politicians had fuelled the fire, reports.

Norbert Lammert expressed the outrage in Germany’s lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, on Thursday, over comments made by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Lammert also denounced the “sometimes hate-filled threats and smears” targeting the 11 German lawmakers with Turkish heritage.

“I would not have thought it possible in the 21st century, that a democratically elected head of state would criticize members of the German Bundestag by voicing doubts on their Turkish heritage, by labeling their blood as impure,” Lammert told parliament on Thursday.

He was criticizing Erdogan’s reaction to last week’s contentious Bundestag resolution, which repeatedly referred to the killings of Armenians in Ottoman-era Turkey during World War I as genocide. Turkey disputes this definition of the massacre of Armenians.

Erdogan had said the German-Turkish parliamentarians were a “mouthpiece for the PKK,” the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party seeking an independent Kurdish state. The president also suggested that the 11 lawmakers should undergo blood tests, to see “what kind of Turks they are.”

“Also, I reject in all its forms the insinuation that members of this parliament are terrorist mouthpieces,” Lammert said.

 

Turkey’s economy minister said a German parliament resolution declaring the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman forces a genocide threatened the friendship between the two countries, but he stopped short of detailing specific retaliatory measures, Reuters reports. 

Asked whether any economic steps could be taken against Germany, Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci said on Thursday the response should be in the “same areas” as the German resolution, suggesting Ankara may be more likely to take political measures than announce any trade sanctions.