Peabody ceremony memorializes Armenian Genocide victims
By Brad Harrison /

The Daily Item of Lynn, MA
April 22 2005

PEABODY — More than 100 people filled the Wiggin Auditorium at City
Hall Thursday to observe the 90th anniversary of the Armenian genocide,
which began in 1915.

The annual event was started in the mid-1980s by then-mayor Peter
Torigian, who was the son of two survivors of the decimation of the
Armenians by the Turks.This year’s event was the first that included
a Requiem service to memorialize the victims, and also to remember
the late Mayor Torigian.

The event is usually held the Thursday prior to April 24, which is the
actual date in 1915 that the massacre of 1.5 million Armenians began.

Speaking for the Torigian family, Mary Torigian Foley described her
parents’ experiences.

Mary recounted the story of how her mother, Sara, had last seen
her father chained to a cell wall. At that time, he told her to
never visit him again and to find the money he had buried behind
their house and go to live with a Turkish neighbor, who had agreed
to care for the children. Sara stayed with her brother, Megurdich,
at the neighbor’s house, and Lucia, her younger sister, was sent to
live with another family.

The three were then sent on to an orphanage and spent the next seven
years being shipped from city to city, country to country, starving
and watching those around them die. She finally reached an orphanage
in Greece, which received help from actor Jackie Coogan’s Armenian
Relief Society.

“My mother would sing ‘We welcome you Jackie Coogan’ to us often,”
Foley recalled. Andon Torigian, Sara’s husband, had suffered in another
way.Already a family man, he traveled to America to save money and
bring his family to the United States.Working in the tanneries, he
was not able to save money fast enough, and his family – parents,
his wife and his young son, and his brother, Bedros, for whom the
late mayor was named. “My father never spoke about his family. Now,
I regret not asking more questions about it,” Foley said. “We’re
down to two survivors in this area. This has become more and more
important to me the older I get.”

The purpose of the event, in addition to honoring the families of
Peabody residents who died during that time, is to remind the world
that it happened – the Armenian genocide is not often remembered,
nor has it been acknowledged by the government of Turkey.

In fact, in 1939, a week before the German invasion of Poland, and
the start of World War II in Europe, Adolph Hitler justified his
orders “to kill without pity or mercy all men, women, and children
of Polish race or language,” by saying: “Who still talks nowadays of
the extermination of the Armenians?”

Jeanne Burbridge and Sara Runnals, daughters of the late mayor,
read the proclamation signed by Mayor Michael Bonfanti, declaring
April 21, 2005 a Day of Remembrance of the 90th anniversary of the
Armenian Genocide, 1915-1923.

Absent from the commemoration was U.S. rep John Tierney and his wife,
Patrice, who are ardent supporters of the efforts to get the Armenian
genocide recognized.

Tierney has introduced a resolution to Congress formally recognizing
the Armenian genocide, which has yet to be assigned a House Resolution
number.

This week, Tierney signed a letter to President George W. Bush asking
that he acknowledge the genocide in his next speech this month.

The Armenian Genocide: 90 Years Later Turkey Continues to Deny the Extermination of a People

Democracy Now, NY
April 22 2005

——————————————————————-

This week marks the 90th anniversary of the Armenian genocide when
more than a million Armenians were exterminated by the Young Turk
government through direct killing, starvation, torture, and forced
death marches. Another million fled into permanent exile. Almost
a century later, Turkey continues to deny the genocide. We speak
with Colgate University professor Peter Balakian, author of “The
Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America’s Response”
and Zanku Armenian of the Armenian National Committee of America.

——————————————————————-

This week marks the 90th anniversary of the Armenian genocide. On
April 24, 1915, the Young Turk government of the Ottoman Empire
began a systematic premeditated genocide of the Armenian people
– an unarmed Christian minority living under Turkish rule. More
than a million Armenians were exterminated through direct killing,
starvation, torture, and forced death marches. Another million fled
into permanent exile. An ancient civilization was expunged from its
homeland of 2,500 years.

Today, almost a century later, the Turkish government continues to deny
this genocide. Books about the genocide are banned in Turkey and its
government funds chairs in Turkish studies at American universities
to ensure a certain version of history is presented. To this day,
Turkey and Armenia do not have diplomatic relations.

But now, Ankara’s ambitions to join the European Union are in
jeopardy. French President Jacques Chirac has said Ankara must first
acknowledge the genocide before being allowed to become a member of
the EU. In response, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has
called for a “impartial study by historians” concerning the fate of
the Armenian people during World War I.

Today we commemorate the 90th (ninetieth) anniversary of the Armenian
genocide.

Peter Balakian, author, “The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide
and America’s Response.” He is also the Professor of English at
Colgate University

Zanku Armenian, of the Armenian National Committee of America.
To purchase an audio or video copy of this entire program, click here
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To listen/download:

Statehouse ceremony today to mark anniversary of Armenian genocide

Providence Eyewitness News, RI
April 22 2005

PROVIDENCE, R.I. Ceremonies are in store at the Rhode Island Statehouse
today to mark the 90th anniversary of the Armenian genocide.

The Rhode Island Day of Remembrance of the Armenian Genocide begins
with a memorial service at 7 pm at Saints Vartanantz Apostolic
Church in Providence. Participants then will march to the Statehouse,
followed by a ceremony in the governor’s Stateroom.

About one-point-five million Armenians were killed by the Ottoman
Turks between 1915 and 1923.

Ancient Armenian books tell a story not written in their pages

Agence France Presse
April 22 2005

22/04/2005 AFP

YEREVAN, April 22 (AFP) – 4h34 – Over a meter (yard) wide when opened
and weighing 32 kilograms (15 pounds), the Homilies of Mush is the
largest ancient Armenian book to be rescued from eastern Anatolia
during anti-Armenian massacres in Ottoman Turkey almost a century ago.

Archivists say the story of how the manuscript and many others like it
were saved could be more telling of the plight of the Armenian people
then what the intricate Armenian lettering describes within the pages.

Armenia marks the 90th anniversary Sunday of mass killings by the
Ottoman Turks, a slaughter that is among the most painful episodes
of Armenia’s history, the costs of which Armenians measure not only
in lost lives but also a destroyed cultural heritage.

Some 9,000 rare manuscripts are estimated to have been destroyed
as Armenians were driven from their homeland in World War I, but
about 30 books currently on display in Armenia’s Archive of Ancient
Manuscripts are believed to have been rescued by fleeing peasants.

One of these texts are the Mush Homilies. In 1915 when Ottoman forces
attacked Mush, an illiterate peasant woman is said to have found the
massive book in the courtyard of a church.

Too heavy to carry whole, she cut the 800-year-old book in half
and took one half, according to the director of the Archive, Sem
Arevshatyan.

The unnamed woman initially brought the text to the seat of Armenia’s
Gregorian Apostolic church in Echmitzin where it was later to be
joined by the other half, discovered by a retreating Russian colonel
named Nikolai de Roberti.

“Many of these books were brought by illiterate, unread people, who
nevertheless understood that these texts were immensely important,”
Areshatyan said.

“Instead of taking their personal belongings they carried these books.”

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kinsmen perished in
orchestrated killings between 1915 and 1917 as the Ottoman Empire
executed a genocidal plan to wipe Armenians and their culture off of
the map.

Ankara counters that 300,000 Armenians and thousands of Turks were
killed in “civil strife” during World War I when the Armenians rose
against their Ottoman rulers and sided with invading Russian troops.

Either way, little today is left of the numerous Armenian settlements
that once characterized Eastern Anatolia, known as Western Armenia
to Armenians.

Many churches have since been converted to mosques or taken apart
so their stones could be used to build homes, and the some 40,000
Armenians that remain in Turkey rarely speak the language outdoors.

According to Arevshatyan not all of the attacking Turks were willing
to follow through completely on the alleged plan.

“Many books were destroyed but some were sold to collectors in
Europe by Turkish officers who understood that they had value,”
Arevshatyan said.

A slow trickle of antique texts continues to fill the archive’s shelves
to this day as more Armenian works pillaged in Anatolia are discovered
by collectors around the world and donated to the repository.

Earlier this week a Diaspora Armenian from Paris was able to convince
the sister of a collector who recently passed away to donate a page
from a lost tenth century bible to the archive.

“Hopefully when she sees that it is good hands she will be willing
to donate more works from the collection,” said Claude Mutafrian,
a 62-year-old historian on medieval Armenia who carried the sheepskin
sheet to Yerevan from Paris.

Rawlings Foundation honors four in education
By Lisa Coffey Mahoney

Contra Costa Times, San Francisco
April 22 2005

STAFF WRITER

“Inspirational.” “Dedicated.” “Creative.” “Remarkable.”

School board President Ronnie Caplane used these words to describe
the 2005 Lois Blair Rawlings Educational Inspiration Award winners.

They are Piedmont Middle School Principal Carol King, Piedmont Middle
School teacher Debby Sorenson, Wildwood Elementary School kindergarten
teacher Andrea Weidkamp, and Mandarin language federal grant program
director Linda Lei.

“These people, by their work and example, are inspirational to
students,” said Caplane, who is a member of the Lois Blair Rawlings
Foundation Board.

Caplane said she and other Rawlings Foundation Board members sifted
through more than 50 nominations, “which speaks volumes about our
schools that there are that many people that other people felt worthy
of the award.”

Nominations were received from school administrators, teachers,
parents and students, Caplane said.

Rawlings’ son, Ken, created the awards to honor his mother, a teacher
in the Oakland School District for many years.

Established in 2000, the awards were designed to recognize individuals
in the Piedmont education community who have demonstrated exceptional
ability to inspire, motivate and encourage the youth of the city in
their education, character development and personal growth.

This includes, but is not limited to, the faculty and staff at each
Piedmont school, administrators, coaches and Recreation Department
employees.

A teacher at the middle school since 1981, Sorenson said she was
“completely shocked and surprised” to learn she had been selected as
a Rawlings Award winner.

“It’s pretty overwhelming,” she said. “Getting singled out and rewarded
for something I love doing is amazing.”

Sorenson teaches eighth-grade history and English.

Sorenson’s former and current students were excited to hear she is
being recognized.

Rachel Zimmerman, 27, a graduate of Piedmont High School in 1995,
still feels Sorenson’s influence.

“Junior high school is not easy. Debby Sorenson got me through it,”
said Zimmerman, now a Hollywood producer. “I often think of her.
She’s always had a special place in my heart.”

Sorenson turned eighth-grader Paul Strauch into a history lover.

“I was never too interested in history, and now it’s my favorite
class,” he said. “She really puts a lot of energy into the class, so
you really want to give her answers and be a part of the conversation.”

Strauch, of Armenian descent, was particularly impressed that Sorenson
took him up on his suggestion that she attend a local conference
about Armenian genocide.

“She went and was eager to learn something new and will be putting
(information about the topic) in her curriculum next year,” he said.

Lei was also shocked to learn she had been selected as a Rawlings
Award winner.

“It’s a great honor. I’m really speechless,” she said.

During the years her daughter Adrienne attended Piedmont schools,
Lei volunteered for various positions on parent club boards and served
on boards for support organizations like Dress Best For Less, PAINTS
(Promote Art in the Schools), and the Piedmont Educational Foundation.

Lei also has served on the Piedmont Asian American Club board.

Lei has also taught Mandarin at Piedmont Middle School.

Two years ago, on behalf of the Piedmont school district, Lei
spearheaded the effort to secure a three-year federal Mandarin language
grant worth nearly $300,000.

“The goal of the grant is to improve and expand the curriculum,”
Lei said. “And we will produce a model K-12 curriculum for other
schools to duplicate.”

Mandarin is taught at the middle and high schools and is part of
the Piedmont Language School’s after-school enrichment program for
younger students, Lei said.

Each Rawlings Award recipient receives $5,000, half of which will be
donated on the recipient’s behalf to a nonprofit of their choosing
that has been approved by the Lois Blair Rawlings Foundation Board.

A special ceremony honoring the award winners is scheduled for May
6 at Ken Rawlings’ Piedmont home.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

No genocide should be forgotten
By Max Boudakian

Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, NY
April 22 2005

(April 22, 2005) – The citation in the story “Month of Misfortune”
(April 18) – “April is the cruelest month” – from T.S. Eliot’s
poem The Waste Land could be applied to another cruel event that
began April 24, 1915. On that day, nearly 250 Christian Armenian
intellectuals and cultural leaders in Constantinople (now Istanbul)
were arrested, deported or killed by the Ottoman Turks, the dominant
Muslim group in Turkey at that time. The following ensued in 1915-1923:
1.5 million Armenians perished; 500,000 survivors were exiled; and,
a 3,000-year-old Armenian presence was wiped out.

However, the world soon forgot about the Armenians. Twenty years
later, on Aug. 22, 1939, Adolph Hitler cynically remarked at
Obersalzburg: “Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of
the Armenians?” That is why the Armenian genocide is often referred
to as the “forgotten genocide.” Hitler thought that he could carry
out the Jewish Holocaust with impunity.

The last Armenian genocide survivor in Rochester was my mother,
Gadarine Boudakian, who died in 2000 at age 94. Let me share
some personal experiences about her. In April 1915, the family of
Garabed Topjian, his wife, Haiganoush, and their three children (Leo,
Gadarine and Mariam) were ordered deported. However, before they left
the country, her parents died. At age 9, she buried them. She also
lost her siblings. We also know that Gadarine later paired with two
other orphan girls. To survive, they ate grass and cut their hair
to disguise their gender and avoid being raped. Gadarine’s odyssey
led her to the American orphanage and hospital in Konya, Turkey. My
mother was remarkable. She never expressed bitterness toward those
who had destroyed her family and childhood.

In a precedent-setting statement in early 2005, the U.S. ambassador
to Armenia, John Evans, referred to these atrocities as “the first
genocide of the 20th century.” The Armenian genocide, the Jewish
Holocaust, the Khmer Rouge and the “killing fields” of Cambodia,
and, the Rwandan genocide: What a waste of human life! Now in the
21st century, the Darfur region of the Sudan heads the new list of
genocides. Will this madness ever end?

Boudakian, of Pittsford, is corresponding secretary, Armenian Church
of Rochester.

A little modesty might serve U.S. well
By Christoph H. Stefes*

The Messenger, Georgia
April 22 2005

Fifteen years after the revolutions that overthrew the communist
dictatorships of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, the region
has witnessed once again a wave of political upheaval, starting
with Georgia in November 2003, followed by Ukraine a year later and
Kyrgyzstan last month. In these former Soviet republics, massive
demonstrations toppled political leaders who failed to fulfill the
hopes of their citizens for a better, more prosperous and democratic
life.

The Bush administration welcomes these so-called democratic
revolutions, emphasizing the success of the American battle to spread
democracy worldwide. Yet the Rose, Orange and Tulip “revolutions” in
Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan, respectively, were not revolutions
by any stretch of the term. It is not even clear if they can be
called “democratic,” as democratic institutions look feeble in these
countries.

Furthermore, U.S. democracy assistance has only been one factor
among many that have caused these recent transitions. By claiming
differently, the Bush administration downplays the role of domestic
factors and provokes the authoritarian leaders of surrounding countries
to further crack down on the opposition. The U.S. also risks further
disrupting cooperation with Russia on Chechnya and terrorism. In
short, it might be better if the U.S. government continued to promote
democracy in the region but was less ostentatious about it.

First, the events in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan bear striking
similarities. In all three countries, the post-Soviet leaders initially
appeared to embrace the values and institutions of democratic and
free-market societies. They rapidly privatized state companies and
liberalized the economies. Moreover, they encouraged the formation
of civic groups and a free media and refrained from repressing their
political opponents.

Unfortunately, from the mid- 1990s on they allowed relatives and
political supporters to seize the most prosperous economic sectors
at the expense of the general population of which more than half
live in deep poverty. As clientelism and corruption sparked public
outcry and threatened to defeat the ruling parties at the ballot box,
they relied on massive electoral fraud to stay in power.

Moreover, in Georgia, Ukraine and (to a lesser degree) Kyrgyzstan the
popular uprisings were orchestrated and led by opposition leaders who
had served as top-ranking officials under the previous regime. These
leaders are unlikely to seek a radical transformation of the societal,
economic and political structures of their countries.

>>From this brief analysis, it should have become clear that we are
not dealing with a replication of the 1989-’91 revolutions. This may
not be worrisome, since strong, democratic leadership can be just as
responsible for the improvement of people’s lives as can revolutions.

Viktor Yushchenko provides this leadership in Ukraine, but we can
be less sure about his Georgian counterpart, Mikhail Saakashvili,
who has recently amassed presidential power at the expense of the
parliament. In Kyrgyzstan, the outcome of the recent events is even
less clear, as the opposition is divided and new clan networks have
already begun to infiltrate government structures. In short, it might
be a bit too early for the Bush administration to celebrate the rise
of democracy in Georgia and Kyrgyzstan.

Second, although U.S. democracy assistance has played a role in these
events, the numbers do not show that it was a decisive role. Over
the last few years, the U.S. government has provided about as much
assistance to Armenia, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, which continue to
be ruled by authoritarian leaders, as do Georgia and Kyrgyzstan.

Moreover, to triumphantly declare credit for the rise of democracy
is not only premature but also counterproductive. Russia’s President
Vladimir Putin and his colleagues in the neighboring countries have
nervously reacted to the toppling of their erstwhile counterparts.

Blaming Western involvement for bringing political instability
to the region, they have begun to crack down on Western-sponsored
organizations. By exaggerating its role in the political transitions,
the U.S. administration does a disservice to the reformers in the
region.

In short, depending on many factors, of which U.S. democracy assistance
is just one, the recent wave of political transitions might reach
other countries, opening doors for the possible establishment of
new democratic regimes (though not a guaranteed outcome). In order
to facilitate this process, the U.S. government is well-advised to
understate its role in the region.

*Christoph H. Stefes is an assistant professor for Comparative European
and Post-Soviet Studies at the Political Science Department of the
University of Colorado at Denver.

Students remember deaths of 1.5 million Armenians in 1915 with campus rally
By Neal Larkins

The UCLA Daily Bruin, CA
April 22 2005

March recalls genocide

DAILY BRUIN CONTRIBUTOR
[email protected]

For a week now, students walking along Bruin Walk may have seen
grotesque images of the Armenian Genocide – emaciated children,
dismembered bodies and dead Armenians swinging from the noose.

These images were displayed in commemoration of the Armenian Genocide.

Thursday, Armenian and non-Armenian students at UCLA mourned and
condemned the genocide with a silent march throughout campus and a
rally at Bruin Plaza.

A bill recognizing the genocide was passed in the state Senate on
Thursday.

Armenian Student Association President Raffi Kassabian said the
graphic images are needed to inform students of the genocide.

“Many political science and 20th century history classes don’t talk
about the genocide,” he said. Approximately 50 students quietly
carried signs in memory of those killed in the genocide.

“Genocide unpunished is genocide encouraged,” read one commemorator’s
sign. Another called Mount Ararat “Turkey’s prize from the genocide.”

Armenians identify Mount Ararat with their 3,000-year-old historic
homeland.

On a very hot and bright day, for an hour-long outdoor march, all
participants wore black to remember what happened 90 years ago, as
their ancestors began a 19-day, 215-mile forced march through the
arid deserts of Syria.

This act began nine years of violence that Armenians say killed 1.5
million of their people.

The marchers were solemn, yet willing to answer the questions of
passersby, especially if in regard to the continuing Turkish denial
of genocide and the United States’ and other countries’ refusal to
classify the events as genocide.

“The unrelenting denial by the Turkish government deprives it of
moral standing in the international community,” said Armenian history
Professor Richard Hovannisian in an e-mail. He is currently in Armenia
for a genocide conference.

Some students feel that the Turkish denial both insults their past
and makes the world more hospitable to other perpetrators of genocide.

“By saying it didn’t happen, you deny our history,” said Johnny
Apikian, a fourth-year business economics student. “It may be cliche
to say history repeats itself, but it does.”

Armenian Americans have tried unsuccessfully to get the United States
to recognize the events as genocide.

Naz Koulloukian, a fourth-year communication studies student, said
he has been attending the annual protest at the Los Angeles Turkish
consulate since he was eight years old, and would be there again
this Saturday. He said his family’s history was forever altered
after his grandmother’s parents were killed by the Ottoman Turks,
and his grandmother was then raised in a Syrian orphanage.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

The UCLA Daily Bruin, CA
April 22 2005

People march in memory of Armenian Genocide
By Adrienne Lynett
DAILY BRUIN STAFF
[email protected]

For almost three weeks, students, young professionals and even a
grandmother put their lives on hold to remember the lives of others.

These Armenian-Americans walked the 215 miles from Fresno to
Sacramento to honor those killed and displaced by Ottoman Turkey
between 1915 and 1923 during the Armenian Genocide.

The participants in “March for Humanity” ended their journey Thursday
morning at the state Capitol, after walking about 15 miles each day
since April 2. They were greeted by California legislators and
invited onto the floors of the House and Senate, both of which
unanimously approved legislation establishing April 24 as the
“California Day of Remembrance of the Armenian Genocide.”

“We must never forget the 1.5 million innocent Armenian victims who
perished and others who were tortured and driven from their historic
homeland,” said California Sen. Charles Poochigian, R-Fresno, in a
statement. Poochigian, who was instrumental in drafting the
legislation, spoke at the rally Thursday.

While recognition at the state level is a big step, the ultimate goal
of the march was to convince the governments of the United States and
Turkey to recognize the genocide. The Turkish government maintains
that the atrocities committed against Armenians were unfortunate
casualties of World War II and not a genocide, while the United
States, taking care not to alienate an ally, has also refrained from
recognizing the genocide as such.

“Our goal is to get … the message out that we want the denial to
end,” said Ani Garibyan, a fourth-year history student at UCLA who
walked for two weekends and helped organize the march.

A core group of 16 people walked the entire way from Fresno to
Sacramento. They were joined by others at various points throughout
the journey, Garibyan said. At one point, she said, there were 150
people walking.

Some nights, the marchers were provided with a place to rest at
churches, community centers and homes. On other nights, they simply
pitched a tent near the road.

“Toward the end, your feet really start hurting,” Garibyan said.

Garibyan said she was participating to honor the memory of her
family.

“It’s my duty to my ancestors, so hopefully they can rest in peace,”
she said.

While some marchers were acting out of obligation to family members,
many also had in mind other human rights abuses.

Raffi Kassabian, president of the UCLA Armenian Students Association,
said recognizing the Armenian genocide is one way to help prevent
future injustices.

“Without recognition, there’s this pattern of genocide,” he said,
citing the current atrocities being committed in the Darfur region of
Sudan, whose status as genocide is also being contested.

Politicians supporting the legislation agreed that recognition is
key.

“It’s vitally important that false depictions of the tragedies of the
genocide are rejected,” Poochigian said.

The effort to solicit support from the federal government will
continue in the form of letter-writing campaigns to senators and
representatives, but, Garibyan said, Thursday’s recognition by the
state government was a major achievement.

“Everyone’s really tired, but it was very exciting,” Garibyan said.

Armenian cemetery demolition stopped after injunction
By Leo Leonidou

Cyprus Mail, Cyprus
April 22 2005

ALL demolition work at the Armenian Cemetery near the Ledra Palace
Hotel in Nicosia has been stopped after the Ministry of the Interior
took out an injunction to stop the work.

The Armenian Prelature last week started digging up graves, as part
of their plans to put remains together in a new communal pit in the
new Armenian Cemetery in Deftera, on the outskirts of the capital.

Bedros Kalaydjian, parliamentary representative of the Armenian
community in the House of Representatives, said “the demolition was
carried out by unprofessional people, which was hurtful to the memory
of the deceased.”

He went on to say that the cemetery “was declared a heritage site by
the Interior Ministry last June, meaning no work could be done without
their permission. But the Church committee started work without having
the required permit from the Ministry’s Town Planning Committee. The
Church were not aware of the cemetery’s status as a heritage site
and were not aware of the need to secure a permit. There was uproar
in the Armenian community because demolition started without their
knowledge. It is only fair and democratic that the community are kept
informed of what is going on.”

A meeting took place on Wednesday evening between the Prelature,
Kalaydjian and Green Party leader, George Perdikis, to discuss the
matter, where the Prelature agreed to stop the work. “I am very
satisfied that work has been stopped,” said Perdikis. “The Prelature
admitted that they were in the wrong and we will now keep a close
eye on future developments.

“At Wednesday’s meeting, the Church Council decided to send out
circulars to members of the Armenian community, inviting them to the
Prelature for an open discussion on the matter in a couple of weeks,”
Kalaydjian said. “Nothing further will happen until then.”

It is believed the Prelature was planning to make the land available
for redevelopment after work finished, but Kalaydjian said “there is
no clear future master plan. The cemetery’s future will be discussed
with the public.”

The cemetery contains the remains of Armenians who lived and worked
in Nicosia from the 18th century until 1931.

There are approximately 2,500 Armenians living in Cyprus, in addition
to the 500 non-Cypriot Armenians that work on the island.