IMPRESSION OF ARMENIAN COMMUNITIES IN MIDDLE EAST AND GEORGIA
Azg/arm
23 Feb 05
We met father Haroutyun Bezdikian from Mkhitarian Congregation in
Venice upon arrival in Yerevan after a trip to Armenian communities in
the Middle East. The aim of this trip to Lebanon and Syria with the
president of Paradiz Company Martun Adoyan and few other members was
to get acquainted with historic places of Syria for shooting a feature
film on “Ara the Beautiful and Shamiram” epopee. We met Syrian
officials as well as representatives of Syrian c inematography for
this purpose. The film is an attempt to present to international
spectators the famous story of Armenian king Ara (his name was
mentioned in”The Armenian History” by Movses Khorenatsi) and the queen
of Assyria Shamiram.
During our stay, archimandrite Bezdikian had a chance to meet Armenian
families in Aleppo and to deliver a lecture titled “National Ideology”
at the Levon Shant hall of Aram Manukian Center. His impression of
Armenian communities of Middle East was not that optimistic. “The
Syrian community, famous for its warmth, has much changed, as I
see. There are less Armenians in Syria with every year, and the
majority of those who did not leave the country for the US or Europe
did so out of national feelings and wishing to keep their children
away from depravity. Few of them, mostly craftspeople, come to
Armenia. The Syrian community makes every effort to revive: they
opened a new benevolent centerand organize cultural arrangements. But
I think that the Armenian community of the Middle East is devoid of
its previous glamour and needs attention from the Armenian
government. Something has to change, and those reforms should come
from Armenia. The Armenian government should awake”.
In three days after he arrived in Yerevan he learnt about acts of
vandalism in Georgia against Armenian churches and headed for
Tbilisi. Upon his return from Georgia he visited daily Azg to share
his impression and to show pictures he shot. “I left for Tbilisi to
find out whether the media ruckus that Georgians began using Armenian
churches and replacing Armenian tombstones with Georgian ones was true
or not. I saw that sacrilege with my own eyes. The Armenian Norashen
church was deprived, Karmir Avetaran church was blown up by dynamite
and other churches were remade into Georgian ones.
“This savagery aroused Armenian community’s indignation, and the
Armenian diocese of Georgia took measures by urging mass media to
inform about these falsifications, writing letters to the Georgian
president and prime minister. A group of patriots – director of
Sundukian Theatre, lawmakers â=80`demand punishment for those
vandals. Those acts were committed by Georgian clergy mainly. The
fanatic mob attacked the churches blowing one of them and setting
another one on fire. There was a TV interview scheduled for Saturday
with father Abgar Hovakimian from the Armenian diocese.
“I am hopeful that the uproar will make Georgians settle down and
cease their barbarism”.
Nevertheless, the member of Mkhitarian Congregation was impressed by
the Georgians’ watchful attitude towards their language (Georgian
language predominates on signboards in Tbilisi).
By Melania Badalian