Author: Garnik Tadevosian

Holy Martyrs Church service. “This holiday gives us another chance to be thankful for all that we have,” said Fr. Abraham during his Thanksgiving weekend homily. “We are thankful for our material gifts, but most importantly we are thankful for our faith, the greatest gift of all. God is not against material goods because these things make us happy. But, we also need to feed our soul. The message of today’s Gospel reading (Luke 12:13-31) is that spirituality must be a priority in our lives.” On Sunday. November 25th, I relived my 2018 Pilgrimage to Armenia, including the unrecognized Armenian Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) at the Armenian Church of the Holy Martyrs in Bayside.

Armenians ranks second among 34 European countries in having the most religious citizens, according to a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center.1
Romanians, and Georgians occupy the first three places on the survey. The Orthodox service was moving. I noticed the banner of the Virgin Mary and Christ, Byzantine crosses that I see in Greek Orthodox churches, the Nikolaevsky Palace, known as the Vodka Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. The church interior reminds me of early Christian churches I visited in Acquileia and Ravenna, Northern Italy. I do not know Armenian. I was able to follow the Orthodox service because of its universality in the Orthodox Christian world.

A friend pointed out that parishioners were having confession, before having Holy Communion. This is a common practice in the Russian Orthodox liturgy, that I witnessed in the  Kimisis Tis Theotokou Greek Orthodox Church of the Hamptons, before the October 15th, 2018 Russian Orthodox Church schism with the Patriarchate of Constantinople.

Refreshments followed in the church hall. A slide presentation  of the 2018 parish pilgrimage to Armenia was shared with the church family during Fellowship Hour.  Over 100 pictures were displayed with narration from pilgrimage participants: Fr. Abraham, Aram and Lara Ciamician, and Zarmi Megherian. The thirty three persons attended the 13 day Pilgrimage.

“We saw a young couple preparing for a wedding in Shushi, Artsakh Republic,” said Aram Pilgrimage members. Ciamician, Pilgrimage leader. “In the afternoon, we met the same couple at the All Saviors Church. A few days ago, a Queens newspaper published an article on this same wedding. The couple could never imagine that their wedding in Artsakh could be read about on the other side of the world in the Queens Gazette.” This weekly newspaper, with 32,000 readers a day, has published all my articles on the Greek/Byzantine influence in Sicily, Northern Italy, Russia, Asia Minor in Western Anatolia, Armenia, Albania and Greece. In 2018, the Queens Gazette presents their daily life not seen elsewhere.

“You are joining a group whose families were destroyed by the Armenian Genocide 100 years ago,” said Rev. Father Abraham Malkhasyan. “My family is from Van, Western Armenia (Turkey). My father was a brilliant engineer who went to the top and lost all in 1991, when the Soviet Union was dissolved. My mother was a professor of Modern Russian Language and Literature in Yerevan (Armenia capital). In 1991, during this upheaval, I entered the seminary in Jerusalem at 14 years old. My older brother, Ignatios, joined me in the seminary. He is an archimandrite assisting His Holiness Karekin II, the Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians at Echmiadzin, Armenia.” I have heard similar stories from my University students and persons in Albania and Russia. The slide presentation showed us the major landmarks, culture, religious and business centers of Armenia.

Why did I join this pilgrimage?  The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Hellenic Republic says on its website that “Greece was one of the first countries to recognize Armenia upon independence (21/9/1991). There is a Greek Embassy in Yerevan (since 1993) and an Armenian Embassy in Athens. Relations between Greece and Armenia are very strong both emotionally and historically, due to the co-existence of Greeks and Armenians during the Byzantine period and under the Ottoman Empire.

Rev. Fr. Abraham personally presented this writer with a khachkar in appreciation of her articles on Armenian culture.Greece is one of the countries that officially recognize the Genocide of the Armenians by the Ottomans in 1915. Our country grants development and humanitarian assistance to Armenia and has supported Armenia’s rapprochement with European institutions. Since Armenia’s declaration of independence, the two countries have cooperated within the framework of International Organizations (United Nations, OSCE, Council of Europe, BSEC), while Greece firmly supports the further development EU-Armenian relations.

Due to the Greece's long-standing cultural influence (up until the 5th century A.D., the Armenians were using the Greek alphabet), Armenian interest in Greek culture is strong. Today, the Greek community of Armenia numbers a few thousand people. The dwindling number of Greeks in Armenia of recent years is mainly due to mass migration to Greece and former Soviet Republics.

The Greek language is being taught as a second foreign language at the University of Yerevan, at the Brassov Linguistic University, the Theological School and Military Academy.2  Rev. Fr. Abraham presented this photo/journalist/educator with a Khachkar (Armenian cross-stone) in appreciation of her articles “In the Footsteps of Byzantium: Armenia”.

At the conclusion of the program, Rev. Fr. Abraham personally presented this writer with a khachkar, also known as an Armenian cross-stone, in appreciation of her articles on Armenian culture.
 
References:
1.     https://greece.greekreporter.com/2018/12/09/greeks-are-fourth-most-relig…
2.        https://www.mfa.gr/en/blog/greece-bilateral-relations/armenia/
 
Links:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/43zvKVhfqCYgiwQdA photo album Nov. 25th