Author: Garik Boshkezenian

 

 

 

The recent reports from the Armenian community of Syria are not encouraging, Armenian Minister of Diaspora Hranush Hakobyan said at the National Assembly today.

“Unfortunately, we are not expecting good news from Syria,” she said.

She noted that the Armenian-populated Nor Gyugh neighborhood of Aleppo has become a target of heavy attacks after the recent developments.

“We have had four victims in the past week – mother and son, an elderly woman and a 14-yer-old teenager,” Hakobyan said. She assured, however, that the Armenian ambulance, all Armenian religious and diplomatic structures are actively working in Syria.

According to the Minister, there are still 15 Armenian schools functioning in the country.

Hakobyan said most Syrian Armenian refugees prefer European countries and added that Armenia has sheltered about 2.5 thousand migrants since summer.

A demon lurking in the corner of a precious 17th-century Armenian gospel has reappeared centuries after he was deliberately scraped from the page by pious readers, reports.

The creature is no longer visible to the naked eye, but once vied with the angel opposite him for the souls being weighed in the balance on judgment day, captured in the superbly illustrated gospel made by the renowned Armenian manuscript scribe, illuminator and theologian, Mesrop of Xizan, almost 400 years ago.

The demon will be revealed again by David Howell, head of conservation research at the Bodleian library in Oxford, using hyperspectral imaging as part of an exhibition of Armenian treasures. Opening on 23 October, it will mark the centenary of the genocide of the Christian minority under the Ottoman empire, which scattered surviving Armenian families and their possessions across the world.

The Bodleian, one of the largest and oldest university libraries in the world, began collecting Armenian manuscripts in the 17th century, but many of the pieces are far older, including an 11th-century manuscript copy of John Chrysostom’s commentaries, and the only known copy of the first book printed in Iran, a book of psalms dating from 1638.

Another item on display, a matchbox-sized prayer book printed in Venice in 1831, has lengthy notes in frequently incorrect Mandarin, written in minute script by a former owner, the orientalist Solomon Caesar Malan who left his collection to the university. On one page he wrote “this is the wrong prayer”.

The exhibition will span more than 2,000 years of Armenian culture. Richard Ovenden, the director of the library, said the exhibition would have many objects of exceptional beauty.

“The Bodleian Libraries is honoured to take part in the commemorations for the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide by helping to share the history and culture of the Armenian people,” Ovenden said.

A crimson silk altar curtain, embroidered in silver thread, was given in 1788 to the monastery of Surb Karapet in Taron, in present-day south-east Turkey. The monastery, founded in the fourth century, was destroyed after 1915.

As well as the spectacular manuscripts, the exhibition will include more humble objects precious to the Armenian families who have loaned them, including photographs and textiles. There is a lace collar that was made in 1890 for a donor’s grandmother, and a tattered copy of a book of mystical poems by Saint Gregory of Narek passed down through generations of the same family and believed to protect the household.

A samovar and a set of coffee cups and saucers – which traditionally were used for telling fortunes from the dregs after the coffee was finished – has been loaned by the Chalvardjian family. The history of the objects illustrates the wandering lives of many Armenians after 1915. They were first used in Cilicia – now southern Turkey – and then brought with the family to Milan, Cairo and then the UK. The samovar was made in Russia, but the cups and saucers completed a circuit, originally made for export in Staffordshire.

“This year, the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide, has brought an unprecedented level of awareness of the slaughter and deportation of the Armenians, and of my grandfather’s humanitarian efforts to stop the killings,” Robert M. Morgenthau, grandson of U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire Henry Morgenthau said at on Capitol Hill hosted by the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation (IRWF) and the  in honor of visiting Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan. Robert M. Morgenthau’s full speech is provided below:

“President Sargsyan, Members of Congress, Reverend Clergy, Foundation Board Members, and Friends

I am honored in more ways than I can recount to be asked to accept the Wallenberg Medal on behalf of my grandfather.  The legacy of Raoul Wallenberg holds a very personal significance for my family.  My father, Henry Morgenthau, Jr., was Secretary of the Treasury during the Holocaust.  At a time when as many as 12,000 Hungarian Jews were being deported to certain death every day, he established the War Refugee Board to resettle the refugees and save their lives.  It was Raoul Wallenberg who ultimately would run the Board, and it was his courage and tireless effort that saved 200,000 lives – and provided a model for the kind of humanitarian sacrifice that the world so needs today.

I am honored as well to be in the presence of President Serge Sargsyan.  I can assure you that my grandfather would be especially pleased to know that one day his grandson would share the podium with the President of an independent and free Armenia.

This year, the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide, has brought an unprecedented level of awareness of the slaughter and deportation of the Armenians, and of my grandfather’s humanitarian efforts to stop the killings.  What is less well known, but what consumed my grandfather equally, is the sad history of the betrayal of the Armenian people in the quest for self-determination.

Throughout their history, the Armenians showed great courage in resisting dominance by invading armies. The rebellion in Zeitun, the defense of Van, and of course the historic resistance of the Armenians of Musa Dagh, each displayed the determination of a proud people, indomitable in spirit, and unwilling to surrender their faith or their identity.  Yet each time, Ottoman leaders responded with overwhelming force, force that escalated to all-out genocide.

In response, President Woodrow Wilson firmly committed the policy of the United States to the establishment of an Armenian homeland.  This flowed from his Fourteen Points, one of which was the principle of the self-determination of the peoples in the former Ottoman Empire.  The President appointed a commission, the King-Crane Commission, to set forth specific proposals to manifest this basic principle.

In August of 1919, the Commission concluded that the Armenians should inhabit a homeland that restored losses from the atrocities suffered periodically at the hands of the Ottoman Turks from 1894 through 1916. The homeland would comprise the Armenian highlands in Turkey and Russia, with an outlet on the Black Sea.

In August of 1920, Western powers and the Ottoman Empire signed the Treaty of Sevres.  It too affirmed the principle of an Armenian homeland, although a homeland reduced in size from what Woodrow Wilson had envisioned.

But the ink had hardly dried on the treaty when the new Turkish state attacked the Democratic Republic of Armenia and occupied parts of its territory.  Soon, the Soviet Union absorbed the remaining portion.  This land grab, so soon after the Genocide of the Armenians, presented a challenge to the conscience of the world, particularly when a German periodical published the comment of the notorious Enver Pasha:  “What do you think…Did we slaughter them just for fun?”

The response of the world community to this crisis was nothing short of shameful:  the League of Nations capitulated.  Soon there was a new treaty, the Treaty of Lausanne, which made no mention of an Armenian homeland.

This explains why, for eighty years, Armenians suffered under Soviet oppression.  It is why, for eighty years, the Armenian people, who prided themselves on being the world’s first Christian nation, were ruled by an atheist dictatorship.

Today, of course, the Soviet Union is no more, and Armenia is an independent republic.  And yet, as Armenians and their supporters all around the world marched this year for Genocide recognition, they did so under a two-fold phrase:  “I remember…and I demand.”

I leave it to others to untangle the fiercely complicated question of how to make right the injustices of history.  But let us begin by squarely confronting that history.

During the Genocide, my Grandfather witnessed first-hand what happens when the world’s conscience gives way to caution.  He was personally devastated by what he famously termed a campaign of race extermination.  And in the aftermath of that tragedy, even after he returned to the United States, even as he devoted himself to the resettlement of Armenian refugees, his greatest lingering disappointment was that he did not live to see the reestablishment of an independent Armenia.

I have said on other occasions that the principles that have largely animated my own life in public office are those that my grandfather brought back from his service in Anatolia.  I commend them to one and all.  Among those values are all of the freedoms that would later be included in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  But there is yet one more value that he taught us, one that gives life to all the rest:  a commitment that, on issues of justice, we shall never give up.

On behalf of my grandfather, I thank you for this great honor.

On the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session in New York, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu had a meeting with his Belgian counterpart Charles Michel.

The Resolution the Belgian Parliament adopted on the occasion of the Armenian genocide Centennial was high on the agenda, Ermenihaber.am reports, quoting Turkish TRThaber.com.

According to the source, the Belgian Prime Minister said the bill is of political importance and does not imply any legal consequences.

Davutoglu, in turn, expressed his discontent with sanctions against MPs that voted against the bill, meaning Mahinur Ozdemir, who is of Turkish descent.

Davutoglu added they are ready to discuss any issue, including the one of expelling the lawmaker from his party.

On 29 September Artsakh Republic President Bako Sahakyan received Defense Minister of the Republic of Armenia Seyran Ohanyan, Central Information Department of the Office of the Artsakh Republic President reported.

A number of issues related to army building and cooperation between the two Armenian states in this sphere were discussed during the meeting.

NKR Defense Minister Levon Mnatsakanyan was present at the meeting.

This week on “Keeping Up With the Kardashians,” the West family and Khloe Kardashian are still in Armenia for the tail end of their trip. Back in Los Angeles, the rest of the family is in turmoil over Caitlyn Jenner’s transition, the International Business Times reports.

Before leaving Armenia, Kanye West decides to give back to the people of his wife’s ancestral land. They were received warmly during their visit, so Kanye puts up an

Kim and Kanye clearly have a blast with the thousands of people that showed up. Unfortunately, Khloe isn’t too happy that she wasn’t invited to the event. Kim says that she texted her sister but Khloe didn’t reply.

In the end, Khloe just decides to let the whole incident pass because she wants to avoid ruining the rest of the trip. They still have a few days left on their vacation because Kim and Kanye have decided to bring their daughter North West to Jerusalem to be baptized.

They head out for the baptism held at the which is situated at the ancient Armenian quarter of Jerusalem. Kim is ecstatic to have her dream come true and to be able to honor her Armenian father.

Within the framework of an official visit to the United Kingdom, Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian had a meeting with Philip Hammond, UK Secretary of State for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs. The avenues for the expansion of cooperation in different spheres were discussed.

The Ministers referred to Armenia-EU relations, the steps toward creating new legal framework for cooperation.

The interlocutors exchanged views on the situation in the Middle East, the Syrian crisis and the ways of its resolution, the international community’s fight against terrorism and the agreements on Iran’s nuclear program.

Minister Nalbandian briefed his British counterpart on the events dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. In this context the Armenian FM expressed gratitude to for co-authoring the Resolution on the Prevention of Genocide submitted to the UN Human Rights Council in March.

Minister Nalbandin had a working dinner with UK’s Minister for Europe David Lidington. The parties referred to Armenian-British relations, Armenia-EU cooperation, the Ukrainian crisis and the ways of its settlement, and a number of other issues on international agenda.

The interlocutors discussed the ways of solving the regional conflicts. Minister Nalbandian presented the joint efforts of Armenia and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs toward the peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict. David Lidington assured of his country’s commitment to the activity of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs.

Minister Nalbandian also gave an extended interview to the BBC.

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian will visit London September 9-10 at the invitation of the Philip Hammond, UK Secretary of State for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs.

Minister Nalbandian will have meetings with his British counterpart Philip Hammond, Minister for Europe David Lidington and Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport John Whittingdale.

Within the framework of the visit Minister Nalbandian will speak Armenia’s foreign policy priorities at the Chatham House.

Armenian GM Levon Aronian will leave for Baku next week to participate in the World Chess Cup 2015.

“Unfortunately, it’s hard for us – chess players – to help settle the discrepancies between the two countries,” Aronian said in an interview with chess-news.ru.

“However, musicians, representatives of different creative professions visit Azerbaijan as people carrying peace, and I will try to follow their example,” Aronian said.

“I’ll try to show my respect for the neighboring country, to play my best and please the local chess fans,” the Armenian GM said.

The FIDE Chess World Cup 2015 will be played in Baku, Azerbaijan, from 10 September to 4 October 2015.

It will be a 128-player knockout chess tournament. The finalists will qualify for the 2016 Candidates Tournament.

“We look forward to bringing the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan together at the UN General Assembly in September,” US Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group James Warlick told APA.

He said the Minsk Group Co-Chairs are planning to visit the region in the fall, although no specific dates are set.

“We look forward to bringing the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan together at the UN General Assembly in September and exchange views on the way forward on a negotiated settlement.  We need a renewed commitment at the highest level to finding a peaceful resolution of the conflict,” said James Warlick.