Charles Aznavour: Ankara’s Current Policy Is Nothing But Continuatio

CHARLES AZNAVOUR: ANKARA’S CURRENT POLICY IS NOTHING BUT CONTINUATION OF OTTOMAN TURKEY’S POLICY

by Tatevik Shahunyan

Monday, April 20, 19:15

Armenia’s Ambassador to Switzerland, world famous chanson singer
Charles Aznavour addressed the Armenian Genocide Centennial issue in
an article in Le Monde.

It is noteworthy that Charles Aznavour addressed not the 100-year-old
events, but the current policy of Turkey calling it, inherently,
the continuation of the Ottoman Turkey’s genocidal policy. Aznavour
points at Ankara’s refusal to ratify the Armenian-Turkish protocols
to normalize the relations with Armenia. The ambassador thinks Turkey
was behind the Islamic State militants’ attack on the predominantly
Armenian-populated Kessab in Syria and the destruction of the Armenian
Genocide Martyrs’ Memorial Church Deir ez-Zor , where hundreds of
thousands of Armenians were massacred during the Genocide.

According to Aznavour, extermination of the Yazidi and other Christian
minorities in the Middle East by the Islamic radicals is a result of
the unrecognized Genocide of Armenians.

The ambassador thinks little has changed since 1915 in the global
policy. Super powers continue to put their geopolitical interests
above moral and ethics, he said, blaming them for the situation in
the world. Aznavour said the Turkish authorities have concealed the
truth about the dark page of their history from their own people for
100 years. He is sure the Turkish people will sooner and later learn
the truth and accept their history.

From: Baghdasarian

http://www.arminfo.am/index.cfm?objectid=1C787FD0-E770-11E4-A9400EB7C0D21663

One Of Officials Guilty Of Yezidi Genocide In Iraq Arrives In Armeni

ONE OF OFFICIALS GUILTY OF YEZIDI GENOCIDE IN IRAQ ARRIVES IN ARMENIA

13:44 | April 20,2015 | Politics

Representatives of the Yezidi community in Armenia have issued a
statement saying Sheikh Shamo (pictured) has no right to participate
in the opening of a monument dedicated to the Yezidi genocide in the
Ottoman Empire.

“Sheikh Shamo, one of the people guilty of the genocide of the Yezidi
community in Iraq by the ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq), has arrived
in Armenia.

Sadly, some Yezidis in Armenia welcomed him and even invited him
to attend the solemn opening of a monument dedicated to the Yezidi
genocide in the Ottoman Empire to be unveiled on April 21. Sheikh
Shamo’s participation in the opening of the monument, which is very
valuable for the local Yezidis, will downplay the importance of
the event.

Representatives of non-governmental organizations representing
the interests of the Yezidis in Armenia condemn Sheikh Shamo’s
participation in the event and announce that a person, guilty of the
Yezidi genocide in Iraq, who is against the sovereignty of Shingal and
our flag, has no right to speak on behalf of the Yezidis. We urge the
authorities not to accept this impostor,” reads the statement issued
by the Yezidi National Union MGO, “Sinjar” Yezidi National Union NGO,
“Shams” NGO and “Yezidi National Committee” NGO.

From: Baghdasarian

http://en.a1plus.am/1209947.html

Venezuela Conmemora 100 Anos Del Genocidio Armenio

VENEZUELA CONMEMORA 100 ANOS DEL GENOCIDIO ARMENIO

La Iglesia Armenia Apostolica de Venezuela rendira homenaje a las
víctimas del Genocidio Armenio y a los sobrevivientes que contra
todos los obstaculos rehicieron sus vidas | Foto: cortesía Luisa Abad

Este tragico hecho historico es catalogado por muchos investigadores
(incluso turcos) como el primer genocidio del siglo XX y es el segundo
mas estudiado, despues del Holocausto

EL NACIONAL WEB20 DE ABRIL 2015 – 09:42 AM

El proximo 24 de abril, los armenios de todo el mundo conmemoran el
centenario del Genocidio Armenio, tambien conocido como Holocausto
Armenio. Hace 100 años, las autoridades otomanas, específicamente
los Jovenes Turcos en el Imperio Otomano, desde 1915 hasta 1923,
emprendieron y ejecutaron la eliminacion sistematica de su poblacion
armenia, que implico el asesinato de casi 2 millones de personas.

Esta tragica historia es catalogada por muchos investigadores -incluso
algunos turcos – como el primer genocidio del siglo XX y es el segundo
caso de genocidio mas estudiado despues del Holocausto.

Sin embargo, la República de Turquía, sucesora del Imperio otomano,
que no niega que ocurrieron las masacres de civiles de armenios, no
admite que se trate de un genocidio, al justificar que no existio un
plan de exterminio masivo impulsado por el Estado otomano, sino que
se debieron a luchas interetnicas, enfermedades y hambre durante la
Primera Guerra Mundial.

La fecha del comienzo del genocidio se conmemora el 24 de abril,
porque ese día, del año 1915, las autoridades otomanas detuvieron
a 235 miembros de la comunidad de armenios en Estambul, en los días
siguientes la cifra de detenidos ascendio a 600.

Luego, una orden del gobierno central ordeno la deportacion de toda
la poblacion armenia, sin posibilidad de cargar con los medios para
la subsistencia y su marcha forzada por cientos de kilometros que los
llevo a atravesar zonas deserticas, esto le implico padecer hambrunas
y sed. Lo que ocasiono la muerte de muchos. Otros fueron violados
por aquellos que debían “cuidarlos”, acompañados en muchos casos por
bandas de asesinos y bandoleros.

Celebraciones de la Iglesia Armenia Apostolica de Venezuela

La Iglesia Armenia Apostolica de Venezuela rendira homenaje a las
víctimas del Genocidio Armenio y a los sobrevivientes que contra
todos los obstaculos rehicieron sus vidas. Este tributo incluye una
serie de eventos, que estan enlazados con la conmemoracion mundial
del centenario del Genocidio Armenio y a la lucha contra la violencia.

El día jueves 23 de abril se transmitira en vivo, tambien en la Iglesia
Armenia San Gregorio Iluminador, la Ceremonia Solemne de Canonizacion
de los Martires del Genocidio Armenio que se celebrara en Yerevan,
Armenia, a partir de las 7:30 am.

El viernes 24 de abril se realizara una oracion ceremonial y se llevara
una ofrenda floral al Monumento a las Víctimas del Genocidio Armenio
en Chuao, a partir de las 10:30 am.

El sabado 25 de abril tendra lugar el Acto Conmemorativo del Centenario
del Genocidio Armenio, en la Sala Venezuela en el Hotel Eurobuilding,
a las 10:30 am.

Durante el resto del año 2015, se seguiran las actividades, tanto en
Caracas como en el resto del mundo.

From: Baghdasarian

http://www.el-nacional.com/sociedad/Venezuela-conmemora-anos-genocidio-armenio_0_613738668.html

Karabakh President Meets Genocide Studies Expert Verjine Svazlian

KARABAKH PRESIDENT MEETS GENOCIDE STUDIES EXPERT VERJINE SVAZLIAN

15:17, 20 April, 2015

STEPANAKERT, APRIL 20, ARMENPRESS. On 20 April Artsakh Republic
President Bako Sahakyan received renowned scientist specialized in
Armenian and genocide studies Verjine Svazlian.

The Central Information Department of the Office of the Artsakh
Republic President informed “Armenpress” that issues related to the
various aspects of the Armenian Genocide and their presentation in
various international platforms were discussed during the meeting.

President Sahakyan highly evaluated Professor Svazlian’s contribution
in these fields, pointing out that her works were valuable both from
scientific and humanitarian perspectives.

NKR minister of culture and youth affairs Narine Aghabalyan was
present at the meeting

From: Baghdasarian

Armenian Defense Minister Welcomes New Commander Of Russian Military

ARMENIAN DEFENSE MINISTER WELCOMES NEW COMMANDER OF RUSSIAN MILITARY BASE

YEREVAN, April 20. / ARKA /. Armenian defense minister Seyran Ohanyan
had a meeting today with the newly appointed commander of the 102nd
Russian military base in Armenia, Major-General Vladimir Ustinov.

The Armenian defense ministry said Ohanyan congratulated Ustinov
on taking over the new position wishing him success and expressing
confidence in further strengthening of the Armenian-Russian strategic
partnership.

Ustinov had also a meeting with the chief of staff of Armenian armed
forces Colonel-General Yuri Khachaturov. Vladimir Ustinov has replaced
former commander of the base Andrei Ruzinsky.

The Russian military base located in the city of Gyumri about 120
kilometers north of the Armenian capital Yerevan. The base is part of
the Joint Air Defense System of the Commonwealth of Independent States
(CIS).

In 2010 Russia and Armenia signed an agreement to extend the deployment
of the base until 2044. The agreements also provides for the expansion
of its geographic and strategic responsibility. The base is equipped
with S-300 surface-to-air missile and MiG-29 fighters. -0-

From: Baghdasarian

http://arka.am/en/news/politics/armenian_defense_minister_welcomes_new_commander_of_russian_military_base/#sthash.67XhKC6g.dpuf

Kim Kardashian turns spotlight on a forgotten holocaust that inspire

Daily Record, UK
April 18 2015

Kim Kardashian turns spotlight on a forgotten holocaust that inspired
Hitler’s Jewish death camps

09:44, 18 April 2015
By Record Reporter

KIM KARDASHIAN has used her global superstar status to shine light on
a dark, forgotten part of history: the Armenian genocide.

As she stepped forward to lay flowers at a memorial to her murdered
Armenian ancestors, Kim Kardashian walked into an unholy international
row.

With deliberately controversial timing, the reality TV star was using
her fame to nudge one of the darkest chapters in history back into the
limelight.

Her trip coincided with this month’s 100th anniversary of the start of
a massacre of 1.5million Armenians by the Turks. By tweeting her
31million followers about her “emotional day at the genocide museum”,
Kim, 34, whose great-great grandparents fled the bloodshed, helped
remind the world of a forgotten holocaust.

Her high-profile visit to the Armenian capital of Yerevan with sister
Khloe came as Pope Francis also entered the controversy.

At a special Sunday mass at St Peter’s Basilica, he met the head of
the Armenian Apostolic church, Karekin II, and branded the massacres
“the first genocide of the 20th century.” The Pope’s words have
enraged Turkey, who (along with their Nato allies Britain and America)
still refuse to acknowledge the mass hangings, death marches and
starvation as a genocide.

But many see it as Adolf Hitler’s blueprint for the extermination of
six million Jews in World War II.

“It was the lesson from history that wasn’t learned,” said Armenian
Assadour Guzelian, 85, who lost many relatives to the atrocities.

“In 1939, when Hitler invaded Poland, he said he’d order his units to
‘exterminate without mercy.’ And when one of his generals questioned
this, he replied, ‘Who remembers today the extermination of the
Armenians?’

“If the Allied powers had brought Turkey to a Nuremberg-style trial,
he would not have dared to say that, and millions of Jews would not
have been subjected to the Holocaust.

“There is no way you cannot refer to this as genocide. Before World
War I, two million Armenians lived in the Ottoman Empire. After the
war, there were a few hundred thousand.

“So what happened to the rest?”

Attacks on Armenian “vermin” began in the 1890s under despotic Sultan
Abdul Hamid II. Like the Jews in 1930s Germany, this largely Christian
minority was seen as richer and better educated than Turkish Muslims
and a potentially disloyal element.

The violence meted out was branded as “The Armenian Solution” – an
eerie pre-echo of Hitler’s Final
Solution of 1942-1945. And when Polish lawyer Raphael Lemkin first
coined the word “genocide” during the later war, it was after studying
the Armenian massacres.

Kardashian’s great-great grandparents, Sam and Harom Kardaschoff, were
among those who abandoned their homes and escaped to the US in the
early 20th century, avoiding the full-scale massacres which began on
April 24, 1915.

The family of Guzelian, a retired lecturer now living in London, were
not so lucky. His parents Garabed and Rahel survived the genocide but
his sister Varthoui was bayonetted to death when she was four by a
soldier.

“They didn’t want to waste bullets so they just drove them into the
desert and nobody heard from them any more,” said Guzelian. “My
uncles, aunts, great uncles all disappeared.

“There was almost no chance of surviving the death marches. Hunger
came, then diseases like typhoid and cholera. Some killed themselves,
others were killed by the soldiers.”

He added: “My sister was killed after my mother, her feet swollen and
bleeding, begged the soldiers for just five minutes’ rest. They were
being delayed and my mother said, ‘I am just trying to hold my child
up’ and one of the soldiers got mad and just put his bayonet into my
sister.

“But my mother was happy. She told me the child would no longer suffer.”

Guzelian’s parents escaped death only because the Turks brought them
back from the desert to build roads. They went on to have four more
sons and he is the youngest.

These death marches turned desert plains into killing fields littered
with corpses and skulls. There are stories that children were thrown
to their deaths from mountains or had their knee tendons slashed to
amuse sadistic soldiers. Young women were raped or forced into
prostitution, older women were beaten to death and babies left by
roadsides to starve.

Chillingly, the mass-murder was observed by army officers from
Germany, an ally of Turkey in World War I. Konstantin Freiherr von
Neurath, sent to “monitor operations” against the Armenians, later
became Hitler’s foreign minister, working alongside Holocaust
architect Reinhard Heydrich.

Other German officers are believed to have witnessed the scale and
methods of the killing, and aspects of both campaigns are disturbingly
similar. Both nations set up concentration camps and Armenians were
crammed 90 at a time into
railway wagons, just as the Nazis did when sending Jews to their deaths.

Igor Dorffman-Lazarev, a specialist in Armenian history at the School
of Oriental and African Studies in London, said: “In some cases,
German generals and officers even participated in the organisation of
the deporting of Armenians.

“In 1931, Hitler presented the Armenian genocide as a model. He said,
‘We intend to introduce vast
politics of transfer of populations… recall the extermination of the
Armenians’.”

But the Turkish government, still insist the conflict was a civil war
in which atrocities were com–mitted by both sides.

Dorffman-Lazarev explained: “They have always claimed the Armenians
had revolted against the state. There were several local revolts but
they started after the beginning of the killings and deportations, as
a reaction to the state’s violence.”

In Turkey, many Armenians still feel persecuted and they keep a low
profile to this day. And it is illegal to call the Armenian conflict
an act of genocide.

Newspaper editor Hrant Dink was prosecuted for doing that and, in
2007, a Turkish nationalist murdered him.

The government even helped defend a man who was prosecuted for calling
the genocide claim “an
international lie”.

In 2008, Dogu Perincek was convicted of racism in Switzerland, where
denying the genocide is illegal.

But with Turkish backing he
successfully appealed at the Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. This
was challenged earlier this year by human rights barrister Amal
Clooney, wife of movie star George.

She said the decision “cast doubt of the reality of genocide that
Armenian people suffered a century ago…the stakes could not be
higher for the Armenian people”.

A century may have passed since the atrocities but international
fallout looks set to continue for many years more. Controversially,
Turkey, now plans to stage a commemoration of the World War I
Gallipoli campaign on the anniversary of the genocide.

Armenians see this as a blatant attempt to overshadow the centenary –
and quash any discussion of a shameful episode in history.

From: Baghdasarian

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/entertainment/celebrity/kim-kardashian-turns-spotlight-forgotten-5540975

The Wrath of Bogosian: The Actor-Turned-Historian Reflects on Retrib

New York Observer
April 16, 2015 Thursday

The Wrath of Bogosian: The Actor-Turned-Historian Reflects on Retribution

By David Wallis

On Ninth Avenue and 43rd Street is a narrow Turkish joint. Great lamb
gyros, but a chilling place to read Operation Nemesis: The
Assassination Plot that Avenged the Armenian Genocide. The gripping
book details how a small group of survivors of the Turks’ systematic
massacre turned into hit men, whacking several of the architects of
the crime against humanity. And the book’s author is Eric Bogosian.
Yes, that Eric Bogosian, the actor from Law and Order: Criminal Intent
and monologist extraordinaire, famous for creating bitterly funny
characters rather than exhaustively researched historical tomes with
pages of footnotes. Mr. Bogosian, arguably the most famous
Armenian-American, aside from a certain over-exposed family of reality
stars, recently chatted over coffee in his Tribeca apartment about his
shifting view of retribution, warm memories of his grandparents and
his deep ethnic pride.

From: Baghdasarian

Armenian Genocide: A timeline

OurWindsor. Canada
April 19 2015

Armenian Genocide: A timeline

A brief history of the Armenian Genocide

OurWindsor.Ca
By Olivia Ward

Genocide Timeline

Hundreds of thousands of Armenians were massacred under the Ottoman
Empire. But the most horrifying event was to come in 1915.

1913: Coup brings the ultranationalist Young Turks to power in
Constantinople (Istanbul). Three ruling figures were Grand Vizier
Mehmed Talat Pasha, Minister of War Ismail Enver Pasha and Minister of
the Navy Ahmed Djemal Pasha: principal architects of the genocide.

October 1914: After signing a secret treaty with Germany, Turkey
launches attack on Russian ports and enters war on German side.
Armenians considered “internal enemies.”

February 1915: Talat Pasha tells the German ambassador it is time to
conclude the “Armenian question.” The ruling Ottoman Central Committee
discusses plans to “eliminate the Armenian people in its entirety.”

April 24, 1915: Talat Pasha orders arrest of more than 200 Armenian
intellectuals in Constantinople, and about 2,000 others follow. They
are deported and many of them killed.

April 1915 to May 1918: Ethnic cleansing of Armenians launched on vast
scale with murders, looting, burning of villages, rapes, deportations.
Western observers estimate more than one million are dead at the
campaign’s end.

October 1918: Turkey signs armistice with the Allies, Ottoman Empire
is subsequently dismantled.

1923: Turkey becomes republic under Kemal Ataturk.

From: Baghdasarian

http://www.ourwindsor.ca/news-story/5565481-armenian-genocide-a-timeline/

Voices: Looking back at the Armenian Genocide

LA Daily News
April 18 2015

Voices: Looking back at the Armenian Genocide

“My father had a friend named Mohammed who helped us stay in Turkey.
But when I used to look out of our door, I would hear people crying. I
would hear mothers, fathers, children saying, ‘I’m hungry, I’m
thirsty.’ The Turkish general would crack his whip and he would say,
‘You! You! You! Get out of here!'”

— Yevnige Salibian, 101, survivor, resident of the Ararat Home in Mission Hills

“I will not eat for those who were tortured, raped, abused, sent on
death marches, dehumanized and killed. I will not eat to bring
awareness to a genocide that modern-day Turkey still refuses to
recognize as well as for the genocides still taking place today.”

— Agasi Vartanyan, local activist fasting in Burbank

“Genocide still occurs today. This is a disease that still keeps
occurring today. For us as Armenian Americans, as band members who
have had family who have gone through this, it’s important for us not
only to bring awareness but justice to this cause. (The Armenian
Genocide) is still with us, and the denial is a spit in the face of us
every year.”

— Serj Tankian, musician, System of a Down, a Los Angeles-based band

“There’s a growing society in Turkey that is expanding and maturing.
Since 2007 tens of thousands (of people) have poured into the streets
and started to commemorate the genocide. This shows there is a growing
interest in Turkey. Without coming to terms (with its past), Turkey
cannot build a democracy. The denial is cracking. Once the crack
starts, it will be hard, if not impossible, to stop it. We should
really pressure the U.S. government and stop supporting a denialist
regime.”

— Taner Akcam, Turkish scholar

“This is the year, the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide,
when we need to make sure our president and Congress do the right
thing. America must play its part to help close this wound.”

— U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Burbank

From: Baghdasarian

http://www.dailynews.com/general-news/20150418/voices-looking-back-at-the-armenian-genocide

Cairo: A date with international recognition

Al-Ahram Weekly, Egypt
April 16, 2015

A date with international recognition

Described as a historic event, Pope Francis served a Holy Mass in
memory of the victims of the Armenian Genocide. Nora
Koloyan-Keuhnelian watched the service closely

photo: Gregory of Nareg as depicted on a 1173 manuscript

photo: Pope Francis, centre, flanked by Catholicoses Karekin II,
right, and Aram I, left, at the Sunday Mass in memory of the Armenian
Genocide victims, Vatican

During its plenary session on Wednesday the European Parliament
adopted a resolution on the centennial of the Armenian Genocide by
majority. The resolution was supported by all political groups in the
European Parliament. Pope Francis’ message of reconciliation and peace
was also included in the final version of the resolution which Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned. Erdogan warned the pope not
to repeat the “mistake” of describing the mass killings of Ottoman
Armenians as “genocide”.

Before the resolution passed, Erdogan said that regardless of the
outcome, Turkey will not take it seriously and that the EP’s decision
will go “in one ear and out the other”, adding that it was not
possible for Turkey to accept responsibility for such a crime. Erdogan
also threatened to deport the roughly 100,000 Armenian nationals
living and working in Turkey.

Last Sunday, Armenians around the world, across different time zones,
anxiously watched a previously announced Holy Mass service held in the
Vatican City’s St Peter’s Basilica. The Mass was dedicated to the 1.5
million victims of the Armenian Genocide committed by Ottoman Turks a
century ago. Pope Francis of the Catholic Church born Jorge Mario
Bergoglio, 79 delivered a message in the presence of the Republic of
Armenia’s President Serge Sarkissian, All Armenians Catholicos Karekin
II of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, His Holiness Catholicos Aram
I of the Holy See of Cilicia, Armenian Catholics Patriarch Beatitude
Nersess Bedros XIX Tarmouni of Cilicia, Bishop Ashod Mnatsaganian
Primate of the Armenian Apostolic Church in Egypt, Bishop
Krikor-Okosdinos Coussa of the Armenian Catholics in Egypt, other
Armenian church leaders of the Diaspora as well as intellectuals and
parliamentarians from Armenia.

In his message, Pope Francis addressed the faithful as “Armenian
brothers and sisters”, expressing his close feelings to the Armenian
people and his wish to unite spiritually the prayers that rise up from
the hearts of the families in different Armenian communities. Pope
Francis used the word “genocide” referring to the mass killings of the
Armenians in 1915. “In the past century, our human family has lived
through three massive and unprecedented tragedies,” the Pope said,
“the first, which is widely considered the first genocide of the 20th
century, struck your own Armenian people,” referencing a 2001
declaration by Pope John Paul II and head of the Armenian Church
Karekin II.

Despite of the Pope’s reference to a 15-year-old declaration, Turkey,
still in a state of denial, has reacted with anger, expressed its
disappointment and sadness, and summoned Mehmet Pacaci, its ambassador
to the Vatican, for an explanation. It later recalled its Ambassador
Aydın Adnan Sezgin from Rome. Foreign Minister of Turkey Mevlut
Cavusoglu did not accept the Pope’s statement, saying, “It is far from
the legal and historical reality.” Cavusoglu insisted that religious
authorities should not incite resentment and hatred with baseless
allegations, especially that the mass killings were not openly driven
by religious motives. Disagreeing, Bishop Ashod Mnatsaganian of Egypt
told Al-Ahram Weekly in a telephone conversation from the Vatican
immediately after the Mass was over, “Pope Francis is a respectful
churchman who spreads messages of peace and love to the world. As a
clergyman he couldn’t stay silent and not condemn slaughtering
committed with hatred. A genocide that was denounced with silence for
a hundred years and still is unaccepted by Turkey.” Mnatsaganian
explained that the Pope did not incite resentment and hatred as
Foreign Minister Cavusoglu stated. “He called on nations to live in
peace and condemn every harm that’s directed to humanity.”

According to Harut Sassounian, writer and publisher of The California
Courier, “The only person who was clueless about the Pope’s true
intentions was Pacaci, who had bragged to the Turkish press two weeks
ago that he had convinced the Pope to cancel his visit to Yerevan on
24 April, not to celebrate Mass at the Vatican on that day and
eliminate the words ‘Armenian Genocide’ from the Pope’s address during
the 12 April Mass,” for which the Turkish and Azerbaijani media
reported Ambassador Pacaci’s contentions as a major victory for
Turkish diplomacy and a devastating defeat for Armenians. “Ambassador
Pacaci’s false claims were simply intended to impress his superiors in
Ankara about his ‘good work’,” Sassounian noted in his weekly column.

Armenian Church Catholicos Karekin II and Aram I, too, addressed the
faithful, both in Armenian language. In his powerful speech, Aram I
Catholicos expressed his gratitude to Pope Francis for sharing the
Armenian people’s sorrow. Aram I suddenly switched the language of his
speech to English, determined to let each and every word he said about
the genocide reach the faithful people’s minds and souls. “Not only we
lost 1.5 million Armenians, but thousands of monasteries, churches,
community centres, humanitarian and social institutions, objects of
spiritual and cultural immense value were destroyed, lost or
confiscated. According to international law, genocide is a crime
against humanity and international law spells out clearly that
condemnation, recognition and reparation of genocide are closely
interconnected. The Armenian cause is a cause of justice and as we
well know, justice is not human made, it’s a gift of God, therefore
the violation of justice is a sin against God.” Aram I’s speech was
interrupted with applause several times.

Francis in his message reminded the Armenian faithful of Saint John
Paul II’s saying: “Your history of suffering and martyrdom is a
precious pearl, of which the Universal Church is proud. Faith in
Christ, man’s redeemer, infused you with an admirable courage on your
path, so often like that of the Cross, on which you have advanced with
determination, intent on preserving your identity as a people and as
believers.”

During the Mass, Pope Francis proclaimed 10th century monk Saint
Gregory of Nareg as a Doctor of the Church. The title has been given
to only 35 other figures. Gregory of Nareg Krikor Naregatsi in
Armenian language was an Armenian monk, poet, mystical philosopher and
theologian who is a saint of the Armenian Apostolic Church. Naregatsi
was born circa 950. He was recognised as a saint of the Roman Catholic
Church too, and Pope John Paul II referred to Naregatsi in several
addresses. He was the author of mystical interpretation, the “Song of
Songs” and numerous poetic writings. His Book of Prayers, also known
as the “Book of Lamentations”, is a long mystical poem in 95 sections
written circa 977, and has been translated into several languages. The
prayer book, the work of his early years, remains one of the
definitive pieces of Armenian literature. Naregatsi’s prayers have
long been recognised as gems of Christian literature and it was his
hope that the “Book of Lamentations” would serve as a guide to prayer
by people of all sectors around the world.

“Those two great mentionings by Pope Francis considering the 1915 mass
killings a ‘genocide’ and proclaiming our Saint Gregory of Nareg
Doctor of the Church granted me a deep spiritual satisfaction. The
Pope’s solidarity with our nation will give a new hope and strength to
our people who continuously are struggling for justice,” Bishop
Mnatsaganian told the Weekly.

Children dressed in Armenian national costume took the offerings of
the Holy Mass (bread and wine) to the Holy Altar of the church, and
the sound of Armenian duduk was heard for the first time inside St
Peter’s Basilica. Duduk is an ancient woodwind flute made of apricot
wood. It was also noticeable that some faithful intellectuals and
church choir members were wearing scarves with the forget-me-not
flower printed on them, the official emblem of the worldwide
observance of the centennial year of the genocide.

Will Pope Francis’ powerful remarks set the stage for Obama to
recognise the Armenian Genocide? During his presidential campaign in
2008, Obama made a promise to the large Armenian communities in
different states of the United States: “As a senator, I strongly
support passage of the Armenian Genocide Resolution and as president I
will recognise the Armenian Genocide.” He failed to follow through
when he became president. At least so far.

The Republic of Armenia is in build up to the formal commemoration of
the Armenian Genocide centennial next week.

From: Baghdasarian

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/10999/19/A-date-with-international-recognition.aspx