AGBU Europe
131, Rue Stassart,
1050 Brussels, Belgium
Tel: +32 27 62 67 97
Fax: +32 25 02 62 30
Contact: Anush Nazaryan
Email: [email protected]
Tel: +32 2 762 67 07
Web:
AGBU Europe EU Office News
Welcome to AGBU Europe’s monthly newsletter. This newsletter aims to keep
you up to date with our work with the EU.
Political decisions taken at the centre can, and do, change lives, for
better or for worse. Armenians are confronted with considerable challenges.
But much can be achieved when informed citizens, working together,
establish dialogue with public authorities. This is the spirit in which we
report on our work and seek your support.
Naturally, we only report below on our most important initiatives in
November. To find out more about our initiatives since 2008, or about AGBU
Europe itself, please go to http//en.agbueurope.org,or get in touch.
Nicolas Tavitian
Member of the Board
Armeniaca: Europe to the Rescue of Armenian Heritage
Armenian cultural heritage is at risk and urgently in need of protection.
Armenian culture has long been a prolific source of cultural productions,
including in such capitals as Tbilissi, Venice, Istanbul, Paris, Amsterdam
and Jerusalem, not to mention the Armenian historic homeland itself. Today,
invaluable documents and artefacts are scattered throughout Europe and the
middle-East, in private collections, often out of reach of researchers and
at risk of damage of loss. Most Armenian architectural heritage outside of
Armenia, and particularly in Azerbaijan and Turkey, is still imperilled by
intentional destruction, ignorance or neglect.
The European Commission granted its support to the Armeniaca project, an
ambitious endeavour to inventorize and digitalize Armenian heritage. This
two-year project under the Culture 2007-2013 programme brings together four
partners in Milan (CSDCA), Yerevan (RAA) and Brussels (Inside Europe) and
will associate all major Armenian museums and archives in Europe in the
establishment of a common database as a tool for preservation and
cooperation and as a resource for research. Crucially, the project and its
database will also serve as an instrument to educate the public, including
Armenians themselves and public authorities, of the wealth of heritage that
still exists and of the precarious conditions of its preservation.
Saint John the Baptist Monastery, Mouch, Turkey. Now disappeared, like
hundreds of other monuments.
The project held its first event in November 2009, a scientific conference
in Paris (Armenian Heritage: A Strategy for Conservation and Promotion)
which brought together key actors in the management and preservation of
Armenian heritage. It was prefaced in 2008 with a conference in the
European Parliament entitled Armenians in Turkey- a Journey of Cultural
Rediscovery where Turkish and Armenian academics, researchers and
intellectuals described how more and more Turks are rediscovering the place
of Armenian culture in Turkey’s development, a place which had been
entirely erased from official memory since the foundation of the Turkish
republic. A smaller event in April 2009 had focused on destructions in
Azerbaijan, where unfortunately state policy is still one of destroying
traces of Armenians who lived in the country until the late 1980’s.
The Armeniaca project is a significant breakthrough and AGBU Europe will
now continue to mobilize support throughout Europe and within the European
institutions for the preservation of Armenian heritage.
More on Armeniaca at
Mobilizing our MEPs
The question of Armenian heritage and culture in Europe was also one of
four key priorities AGBU Europe raised in a letter sent to each of the 736
members of the European parliament. In the same letter, AGBU Europe also
stressed that it wishes to see the institutions move fast towards Armenia’s
European integration. The Eastern Partnership launched this year is gearing
up, which may become significant for Armenia. We will return to this topic,
and to AGBU Europe’s plan on the matter, in future editions.
Our letter to MEPs also stressed that the EU must now work for development
and peace in Nagorno- Karabakh, a region ravaged by war in the early 1990s
and where the Union still has no presence whatsoever. AGBU Europe launched
its campaign for Karabakh in September. Helping the people of Karabakh and
preventing war is a common-sense action which is fully in line with EU
values and interests. But we will need all the support we can get to
achieve it.
Finally, the EU must make it clear to Turkey that a complete turnaround in
its policy towards Armenians is in order if it hopes to join the EU (yes,
including recognition of the 1915 genocide). Right now, that means the
ratification and full implementation of the protocols signed on October 10,
2009. No ifs, no buts.
Find our letter to the Members of the European parliament at:
[ ers-mep/ ]
-mep/
Home of the Karabakh campaign:
gbu-position-paper-on-nk-and-eu.pdf
Join the Karabakh campaign on facebook:
Inauguration of the AGBU Europe EU representation office in Brussels,
October 23, 2009
This is the monthly newsletter of AGBU Europe’s office for relations with
the EU institutions.
AGBU Europe is the European branch of the Armenian General Benevolent
Union (AGBU). Established in 1906, AGBU () is the world’s
largest non-profit Armenian organization and serves some 400 000 Armenians
worldwide. AGBU Europe coordinates and develops the pan-European activities
of the organization; it preserves and promotes the Armenian identity and
heritage through programmes in the fields of education,, leadership
training, cultural, cultural heritage, humanitarian and EU public affairs.
[]
As an independent, non governmental organization AGBU Europe is dependent
on the involvement of all those who share its purpose and objectives. Help,
donations and feedback are always welcome. Please contact
[mailto:[email protected]] [email protected].
Anush Nazaryan
131, rue de Stassart,
Brussels, Belgium
[mailto:[email protected]] [email protected]
+32 2 762 67 07
131,rue Stassart,1050,Brussels,Belgium.T:+32 27 62 67 97,F:+32 25 02 62
30,E:[email protected],W:agbueeurope.org
This message was sent by: Anush Nazaryan, 131, Stassart street, Brussels, Brussels 1050, Belgium