Author: Kalantarian Kevo

VATICAN
Le pape François utilise le terme de génocide à propos des Arméniens

Le pape François a utilisé dimanche le terme “génocide” pour le
massacre des Arméniens il y a cent ans. Une déclaration en public
inédite qui pourrait perturber les relations entre Rome et la Turquie.

“Au siècle dernier, notre famille humaine a traversé trois tragédies
massives et sans précédent. La première, qui est largement considérée
comme le premier génocide du XXe siècle a frappé votre peuple
arménien”, a déclaré le pape François dans le cadre solennel de la
basilique Saint-Pierre de Rome, en citant un document signé en 2001
par le pape Jean Paul II et le patriarche arménien.

François s’est exprimé à l’ouverture d’une messe à la mémoire des
Arméniens massacrés entre 1915 et 1917, concélébrée avec le patriarche
arménien Nerses Bedros XIX Tarmouni, avec des éléments du rite
catholique arménien et en présence du président du pays.

Une première pour un pape

Même si Jean Paul II avait utilisé le terme de “génocide” en 2000 dans
le document commun et que Jorge Bergoglio l’avait utilisé plusieurs
fois avant de devenir pape et même au moins une fois en privé depuis,
c’est la première fois que ce mot est prononcé publiquement par un
pontife.

dimanche 12 avril 2015,
Stéphane (c)armenews.com

Raw Story
April 12 2015

Here are ten things you should know about the Armenian ‘genocide’

April 12, 2015
Elizabeth Whitman

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide. Above,
members of an Armenian community in Romania hold banners in downtown
Bucharest April 24, 2012, during a rally observing the anniversary of
the beginning of the mass killings of Armenians within the Ottoman
Empire.Reuters/Bogdan Cristel

It’s been 100 years since the Armenian genocide began and Ottoman
Turks started killing as many as 1.5 million Armenians over the course
of several years, primarily in what is now eastern Turkey. The
genocide is commemorated April 24 every year, but the descriptive term
itself remains the subject of fierce controversy. Below are 10 key
facts to know about the Armenian genocide.

1. Most estimates indicate between 600,000 and 1.5 million Armenians
died at the hands of the Ottoman Turks from 1915 to 1918. In an
attempt to keep Armenian men from joining forces with the Russians
during World War I, Ottoman authorities deported them to Iraq and
Syria. Many starved to death or were killed.

2. The U.S. refuses to officially call it a genocide, out of deference
to its ally Turkey. During his U.S. senate and presidential campaigns,
President Barack Obama promised to use the word “genocide” to describe
the mass killing. In 2008, he said, “The Armenian genocide is not an
allegation, a personal opinion or a point of view, but rather a widely
documented fact supported by an overwhelming body of historical
evidence.” As president, however, Obama has yet to declare it a
genocide.

3. A few U.S. politicians have proposed legislation or resolutions
that would officially recognize the Armenian genocide as such, but
Turkey has rejected these efforts. In 2014, the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee adopted a resolution to label the massacre a
genocide, and Turkey quickly condemned it. In March, four members of
Congress also proposed legislation to recognize the genocide.

4. Turkey claims the number of deaths is exaggerated and that they
came about not because of genocidal policies targeting Armenians but
because of civil war. According to Agence France-Presse, Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called for an impartial review of
the events and said, “If the results actually reveal that we have
committed a crime, if we have a price to pay, then as Turkey we would
assess it and take the required steps.”

5. Armenians in the diaspora are hopeful that this could be the year
Obama recognizes the genocide. Aram S. Hamparian, executive director
of the Armenian National Committee of America, told the Los Angeles
Times “very senior people in the White House” told him that the
administration would thoroughly review the matter this year, for the
first time since 2009.

6. The genocide is officially commemorated April 24, the date in 1915
when the Young Turks arrested about 200 leaders in the Armenian
community and later executed them. The date is frequently marked with
rallies and marches in Armenian communities around the world.

7. The modern-day Armenian diaspora is estimated to encompass 10
million people, and its members are scattered all over the world, from
Europe to Asia to North America.

8. The dispute over the term “genocide” still plays out in courts. In
January, attorney Amal Clooney, representing Armenia, faced off
against Armenian genocide denier Dogu Perincek in the European Court
of Human Rights. The court had overturned Perincek’s 2007 conviction
for denying the genocide, on the grounds that it violated his right to
free speech, and Armenia was appealing that decision.

9. When the genocide happened, it was largely condemned by the
international community, but no country took action directly against
the Ottoman Empire for the genocide. However, some governments
sponsored reports to document what the Armenians had gone through.

10. Massacres of Armenians during the genocide didn’t occur in Turkey
alone. Armenians were killed in Syria, as well. This map illustrates
the routes many Armenians were forced to follow during “death
marches,” not only throughout Turkey but also into Iraq and Syria.

Pope Francis proclaims St. Gregory of Narek Doctor of Universal Church

12:14, 12 April, 2015

YEREVAN, APRIL 12, ARMENPRESS. At the course of the Divine Liturgy
dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide offered by
Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Basilica today, the leader of the Catholic
Church proclaimed St. Gregory of Narek the Doctor of the Universal
Church.

As reports “Armenpress”, Cardinal Angelo Amato, Prefect of the
Congregation for the Cause of Saints, stated that by his life and
teaching, St. Gregory of Narek preached a teaching of beauty and the
people appreciated the beauty of his words and his teaching.

Among other things, Cardinal Angelo Amato underscored: “One of the
leaders of the Oriental Church, St. Ephrem the Syrian, was proclaimed
the Doctor of the Universal Church 100 years ago. Today, we ask to
proclaim Doctor of the Universal Church another leader of the Oriental
Church – St. Gregory of Narek. His continuous popularity is connected
with his major work “The Book of Lamentations”, called “Narek” by the
Armenian people, which is considered to be his most popular work among
the Armenians.”

“St. Gregory of Narek’s thoughts and words can be compared with those
of St. John Chrysostom and St. Gregory the Illuminator. All the
theologians gave their positive assessment at the course of the
session of the Congregation for the Cause of Saints and signed the
declaration, by which St. Gregory of Narek will receive that honorable
title. All the Cardinals have also given their assent,” Cardinal
Angelo Amato concluded.

In addition, the Cardinal emphasized that this year marks the 100th
anniversary of a horrible evil the Armenian people was subjected to
and St. Greogry of Narek also came forth as a creator of hope and
peace amid this tragedy.

Grigor Narekatsi (951-1003) is a canonized saint. He was an Armenian
monk, poet, mystical philosopher and theologian, born into a family of
writers. His father, Khosrov, was an archbishop. He lost his mother
very early, so he was educated by his cousin, Anania of Narek, who was
the founder of the monastery and school of the village. Almost all of
his life he lived in the monasteries of Narek (in Greater Armenia, now
Turkey) where he taught at the monastic school. He is the author of
mystical interpretation on the Song of Songs (977) and numerous poetic
writings. Narekatsi’s poetry is deeply biblical and is penetrated with
images, themes and realities of sacred history, distinguished with
intimate, personal character. The mystical poem “Book of Lamentations”
(published in 1673 in Marseille) has been translated into many
languages and has played a significant role in the development of the
Armenian literary language.

For Narekatsi, peoples’ absolute goal in life should be to reach to
God, and to reach wherever human nature would unite with godly nature,
thus erasing the differences between God and men. As a result, the
difficulties of earthly life would disappear. According to him,
mankind’s assimilation with God is possible not by logic, but by
feelings.

Numerous miracles and traditions have been attributed to the saint and
perhaps that is why he is referred to as “the watchful angel in human
form”.

In 1984-1985, Alfred Schnittke composed Concerto for Mixed Chorus
singing verses from Gregory’s Book of Lamentations translated into
Russian by Naum Grebnev, according to the Russian edition Kniga
Skorbi, transl. by Naum Grebnev, Preface by Levon Mkrtchian, Sovetakan
Grokh, Yerevan, 1977.

The monastery of Narek was utterly destroyed in the 20th century after
the Armenian Genocide.
Born circa 950 to a family of scholarly churchmen, St. Gregory entered
Narek Monastery on the south-east shore of Lake Van at a young age.
Shortly before the first millennium of Christianity, Narek Monastery
was a thriving center of learning. These were the relatively quiet,
creative times before the Turkic and Mongol invasions that changed
Armenian life forever. Armenia was experiencing a renaissance in
literature, painting, architecture and theology, of which St. Gregory
was a leading figure. The Prayer Book is the work of his mature years.
He called it his last testament: “its letters like my body, its
message like my soul.” St. Gregory left this world in 1003, but his
voice continues to speak to us.

Written shortly before the first millennium of Christianity, the
prayers of St. Gregory of Narek have long been recognized as gems of
Christian literature. St. Gregory called his book an “encyclopedia of
prayer for all nations.” It was his hope that it would serve as a
guide to prayer by people of all stations around the world.

In 95 grace-filled prayers St. Gregory draws on the exquisite
potential of the Classical Armenian language to translate the pure
sighs of the broken and contrite heart into an offering of words
pleasing to God. The result is an edifice of faith for the ages,
unique in Christian literature for its rich imagery, its subtle
theology, its Biblical erudition, and the sincere immediacy of its
communication with God.

Turkey anger at Pope Francis Armenian ‘genocide’ claim

39 minutes ago/12/04/15
>From the section Europe

Turkey has summoned the Vatican ambassador after Pope Francis used the
word “genocide” to describe mass killing of Armenians under Ottoman
rule in WW1 100 years ago, reports say.

Armenia and many historians say up to 1.5 million people were
systematically killed by Ottoman forces in 1915.

Turkey has consistently denied that the killings were genocide.

The Pope’s comments came at a service to honour a 10th Century mystic,
attended by Armenia’s president.

The dispute has continued to sour relations between Armenia and Turkey.

‘Bleeding wound’

The Pope first used the word genocide for the killings two years ago,
prompting a fierce protest from Turkey.

At Sunday’s Mass in the Armenian Catholic rite at Peter’s Basilica, he
said that humanity had lived through “three massive and unprecedented
tragedies” in the last century.

“The first, which is widely considered ‘the first genocide of the 20th
Century’, struck your own Armenian people,” he said, in a form of
words used by a declaration by Pope John Paul II in 2001.

Analysis: David Willey, BBC News, Rome

The Pope was perfectly conscious that by using the word “genocide” he
would offend Turkey, which considers the number of deaths of Armenians
during the extinction of the Ottoman Empire exaggerated, and continues
to deny the extent of the massacre.

But the Pope’s powerful phrase “concealing or denying evil is like
allowing a wound to bleed without bandaging it” extended his
condemnation to all other, more recent, mass killings, including those
in Cambodia, Rwanda, Burundi and Bosnia and today’s massacres by
Islamic State.

Pope Francis’ focus today on Armenia, the first country to adopt
Christianity as its state religion, even before the conversion of the
Roman Emperor Constantine, serves as yet another reminder of the
Catholic Church’s widely spread roots in Eastern Europe and the Middle
East. More than 20 local Eastern Catholic Churches, including that of
Armenia, remain in communion with Rome.

Pope Francis also referred to the crimes “perpetrated by Nazism and
Stalinism” and said other genocides had followed in Cambodia, Rwanda,
Burundi and Bosnia.

He said it was his duty to honour the memories of those who were killed.

“Concealing or denying evil is like allowing a wound to keep bleeding
without bandaging it,” the Pope added.

Many members of the Armenian clergy were at the ceremony Turkey
rejects the use of the term “genocide” to describe the 1915 mass
killings of Armenians

On Sunday, Pope Francis also honoured the 10th Century mystic St
Gregory of Narek by declaring him a doctor of the church. Only 35
people have been given the title, reports AP.

Armenia marks the date of 24 April 1915 as the start of the mass
killings. The country has long campaigned for greater recognition of
what it regards as a genocide.

‘Political conflict’

In 2014, Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan offered condolences to the
grandchildren of all the Armenians who lost their lives for the first
time.

But he also said that it was inadmissible for Armenia to turn the
issue “into a matter of political conflict”.

Armenia says up to 1.5 million people died in 1915-16 as the Ottoman
empire split. Turkey has said the number of deaths was much smaller.

Most non-Turkish scholars of the events regard them as genocide. Among
the other states which formally recognise them as genocide are
Argentina, Belgium, Canada, France, Italy, Russia and Uruguay.

Turkey maintains that many of the dead were killed in clashes during
World War I, and that ethnic Turks also suffered in the conflict.

Patheos
April 12 2015

Pope recalls slaughter of Armenians in ‘first genocide of the 20th century’

Rome, Italy, Apr 12, 2015 / 08:24 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis
today referred to the mass killing of Armenians by the Ottoman Turks
in 1915 as a “genocide,” prompting the Turkish government to summon
the Vatican’s ambassador for questioning.

“In the past century our human family has lived through three massive
and unprecedented tragedies. The first, which is widely considered
‘the first genocide of the twentieth century,’ struck your own
Armenian people, the first Christian nation,” the Pope said April 12.

Francis’ reference to the genocide was taken from a common declaration
signed by both Pope Saint John Paull II and Supreme Armenian Patriarch
Karekin II in 2001.

His comments took place before celebrating Mass on Divine Mercy
Sunday, which is a feast instituted by St. John Paul II and celebrated
on the Second Sunday of the Church’s liturgical Easter season.

Francis offered the Mass for faithful of the Armenian rite in
commemoration of the centenary of the “Metz Yeghern,” or Armenian
“martyrdom.” April 24 is recognized in Armenia as the official date of
the start of the event.

Many faithful and members of the Armenian rite were present for
Sunday’s Mass, including Armenian president Serz Azati Sargsyan,
Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of all Armenians Karekin II,
Catholicos Aram I and Patriarch Nerses Bedros XIX.

The Pope has kept strong ties with the Armenian community since his
time as archbishop of Buenos Aires, and a group of Argentinian
Armenians were among those gathered for the Mass.

During the Mass, Francis also proclaimed Armenian-rite Saint Gregory
of Narek a Doctor of the Church, making the 10th century priest, monk,
mystic, and poet the first Armenian to receive the title.

Widely referred to as a genocide, the mass killings took place in
1915-1916 when the Ottoman Empire systematically exterminated its
minority Armenian population who called Turkey their homeland, most of
whom were Christians. Roughly 1.5 million Armenians lost their lives.

Turkey has repeatedly denied that the slaughter was a genocide, saying
that the number of deaths was much smaller, and came as a result of
conflict surrounding World War I. The country holds that many ethnic
Turks also lost their lives in the event.

However, most non-Turkish scholars refer to the episode as a genocide.
Argentina, Belgium, Canada, France, Italy, Russia and Uruguay are
among the 22 nations that formally recognize the massacre as a
genocide.

Reports have circulated saying that the Turkish government summoned
the Vatican’s papal nuncio, Archbishop Antonio Lucibello, for
questioning after the Pope’s genocide comment.

When CNA phoned the Turkish embassy to the Holy See, they declined to
comment, however the apostolic nunciature in Ankara responded by
saying that the nuncio had in fact been called.

After Francis made his comments, the Turkish Foreign Ministry released
a statement expressing their “great disappointment and sadness” at the
Pope’s remarks. They said the words signaled a loss of trust and
contradicted his message of peace, the Associated Press reports.

The foreign ministry also held that Francis’ words were
discriminatory, because he only mentioned the pain suffered by
Christians, and not Muslims or any other religious group.

In his greeting ahead of Sunday’s Mass, Pope Francis noted how
“bishops and priests, religious, women and men, the elderly and even
defenseless children and the infirm were murdered” in the 1915
massacre, which targeted Catholic and Orthodox Syrians, Assyrians,
Chaldeans and Greeks.

Francis also called to mind other tragic events of the 20th century,
including the violence perpetrated by Nazism and Stalinism, as well as
other mass killings carried out in Cambodia, Rwanda, Burundi and
Bosnia.

“It seems that humanity is incapable of putting a halt to the shedding
of innocent blood (and) has refused to learn from its mistakes caused
by the law of terror,” he said, noting that the enthusiasm to end such
violence that came at the end of the Second World War seems to be
“disappearing.”

By the “complicit silence of others who simply stand by,” the agenda
of those who seek to eliminate others continues, the Pope said.

“Today too we are experiencing a sort of genocide created by general
and collective indifference, by the complicit silence of Cain, who
cries out: ‘What does it matter to me? Am I my brother’s keeper?'”

It is both necessary and a duty to honor the centenary of the “immense
and senseless slaughter” the Armenians had to endure, Pope Francis
said, because when memories fade, evil can enter and make old wounds
fester.

“Concealing or denying evil is like allowing a wound to keep bleeding
without bandaging it!” he said, and stressed that evil is never
something that comes from God.

In a message given to the Armenian community after the celebration,
Pope Francis said that to remember the event is the responsibility of
the whole world, so that it can serve as a warning not to repeat
similar “horrors” in the future.

He expressed his hope that Turkey and Armenia would work toward a
greater reconciliation, and prayed that the Mass and proclamation of
St. Gregory as a Doctor of the Church would be an occasion for all
Christians to unite in prayer.

At the close of the Mass, Catholicos Karekin II spoke in English,
saying that the Armenian genocide is “an unforgettable and undeniable
fact of history.”

The genocide is deeply engrained into the consciousness of the
Armenian people, the patriarch said, therefore “any attempt to erase
it from history and from our common memory is doomed to fail.”

Karekin observed that according to international law, genocide is a
crime against humanity that closely intertwines with condemnation,
recognition and repatriation for the act, so therefore the Armenian
cause is one of “justice.”

In the years after the genocide the Armenian Church has never
forgotten “the continuous concern, assistance and solidarity of the
Church of Rome toward Armenians,” he said.

The patriarch then expressed his “deep gratitude” to Pope Francis,
praying that he would be strengthened in body and spirit so as to
continue his ministry “with renewed dynamism and spiritual courage.”

More People Left Than Arrived in Zvartnots Airport

Roza Hovhannisyan, Reporter
Country – 11 April 2015, 18:18

18,918 more passengers left than arrived in Armenia via Zvartnots
Airport in the first quarter of this year. According to statistics
published by the General Civil Aviation Department, in the first
quarter 183,698 people left and 164 781 arrived in Armenia via
Zvartnots Airport. The net negative balance was 19,917.

At the same time, the number of departures from Armenia in the first
quarter is down compared with the first quarter of 2014 – 183,698
against 186,493.

3558 people left and 2043 people arrived in Armenia via Shirak Airport
of Gyumri in the first quarter of this year.

UNECE PARTNERS WITH THE GOVERNMENT OF ARMENIA TO IMPROVE SUSTAINABLE URBAN DEVELOPMENT

Targeted News Service
April 9, 2015 Thursday 10:18 PM EST

GENEVA

The United Nations Economic and Social Council’s Economic Commission
for Europe issued the following news release:

Published: 09 April 2015UNECE experts are visiting Armenia this week to
conduct the research mission for the second Country Profile on Housing
and Land Management of Armenia. The recommendations to be formulated
in the Country Profile will form the basis of the country’s national
action plan on sustainable housing and urban development.

The Republic of Armenia is committed to improve its housing condition
and urban development. The country is actively working towards the
preparation of the UN Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban
Development – HABITAT III (October 2016) and has already submitted its
national report on housing and urban development to the secretariat
of the conference.

UNECE formalized its cooperation with the Government of Armenia on
9 April 2015 via two Memoranda of Understanding, with the Ministry
of Urban Development and the UNDP office in Armenia. These provide
the framework for cooperation for the Country Profile and for the
development of a smart city pilot project in the town of Goris,
initiated within the UNECE-led “United Smart Cities” initiative. As a
result, UNECE and UNDP Armenia will support Armenia in conducting the
analysis of the housing and urban development situation and developing
specific policy recommendations and action plans at both country and
municipal levels.

Commenting on this cooperation, the Minister of Urban Development of
the Republic of Armenia Narek Sargsyan stated that, “The mission of
urban development is to create a human habitat that is favourable,
safe, and enabled with high aesthetic features, including all the
multifunctional and sophisticated processes of urban development.

International organizations, national and local self-government,
private sector and civil society should join their efforts for reaching
that goal.”

Coherent actions of the government and international partner
organizations, efficiently facilitated by the UNECE, will be an
essential stimulus for implementation of the national goals of
sustainable urban development prioritized by the Republic of Armenia,
which in its turn will be a contribution in the global action towards
the implementation of the New Global Urban Agenda.

The National, UAE
April 11 2015

Armenians’ pain should have the right name

James Zogby
April 11, 2015

We will soon commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Armenian
genocide. April 24 is Armenian Remembrance Day, recalling the
horrifying events that resulted in the deaths of more than one million
Armenians and the forced expulsion and ethnic cleansing of many more
from their ancestral homeland at the hands of Turkish nationalists. It
is an event that has defined Armenian history. And it has left an open
wound that must be acknowledged and addressed for there to be closure
for both peoples.

For Armenians, the healing process requires that the events of 100
years ago be called what they were: a genocide.

Six years ago, Armenian Americans were deeply disappointed by the
Remembrance Day statement issued by the White House. Barack Obama did
not term the horrors of 1915 a genocide. They had great hopes that the
president would do so. During his 2008 presidential campaign, he
declared that the events of 1915 were a genocide, and criticised those
who would not use that word.

Armenian Americans were further encouraged in April 2009, when
president Obama urged the Turks to deal with this blot on their
history in his address to the Turkish Parliament. By beginning with
some of the “darker periods” in US history, he sought to prod his
hosts into dealing with their own past.

To be fair, the president’s statement on Armenian Remembrance Day in
2009 was more forceful than any of those by his predecessors. His
hesitation about using the term “genocide” was most probably prompted
by the fact that the Turkish and Armenian governments had agreed to a
“road map” for normalising relations just a couple of days before. He
was probably concerned about disrupting this process by provoking a
hostile Turkish response.

Thus, the statement the White House issued on April 24, 2009 read, in
part: “Ninety-four years ago, one of the great atrocities of the 20th
century began. Each year, we pause to remember the 1.5 million
Armenians who were subsequently massacred or marched to their death in
the final days of the Ottoman Empire.

The Meds Yeghern must live on in our memories, just as it lives on in
the hearts of the Armenian people. I have consistently stated my own
view of what occurred in 1915, and my view of that history has not
changed. My interest remains the achievement of a full, frank and just
acknowledgement of the facts. The best way to advance that goal right
now is for the Armenian and Turkish people to address the facts of the
past as a part of their efforts to move forward. To that end, there
has been courageous and important dialogue among Armenians and Turks,
and within Turkey itself. I also strongly support the efforts by
Turkey and Armenia to normalise their bilateral relations … the two
governments have agreed on a framework and road map for normalisation.
I commend this progress, and urge them to fulfil its promise.”

In the end, both Turks and Armenians were left angry. The Turks
because of the strong language the US president used, and the
Armenians because he had failed to deliver on his promise to call the
horrors of 1915 a “genocide”.

Six years later, Armenians are still waiting for recognition of their
national tragedy so that their healing process can progress. And the
Turkish government has remained intransigent, still not coming to
grips with the country’s past. The White House is not in an enviable
possession. It is engaged in a battle against ISIL and has been
pushing the Turks to “step up their game” as part of the international
coalition fighting this evil movement. I must admit that, although I
understand the demands of politics and diplomacy, I am also acutely
aware of the demands of history that cry out for recognition.

On a personal note, I was struck by how, this past week, Deir Yassin
day passed almost unnoticed. It was that day, April 9, that marks the
1948 massacre of over 200 Palestinian civilians in the small village
of Deir Yassin. They were slaughtered and many of the dead were
stuffed into a well and left to rot.

It was one of the many horrors that accompanied the Nakba, the name
given to the programme of ethnic cleansing that left thousands of
Palestinians dead, and forced hundreds of thousands more into exile.

It is wrong to tell victim nations to “just get over it”. For there to
be reconciliation, there must be acknowledgement and justice. Just as
we demand that Israel acknowledge and make recompense for its original
sin, we can want no less for the Armenian people.

James Zogby is the president of the Arab American Institute

Ha’aretz, Israel
April 11 2015

David and Goliath in the Caucasus

The Armenian-Azerbaijan ‘soft war’ over the Nagorno-Karabakh region is
still claiming lives. A recent visit there provoked questions
concerning Azerbaijan’s close ties with Israel.

by Yair Auron

YEREVAN ` Ever since I learned that I would be traveling to the
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, my ears have hummed with the words of a
song that I’d heard in my youth and that was still etched in my
memory, though it had been many years since I heard it. The song was
`At the Edge of the Volcano,’ written by Dan Almagor and Danny Litani
in 1972; I remembered Chava Alberstein’s hauntingly evocative
rendition well. Even 40 years ago, the song left me restive and edgy.
Since rediscovering it, I have been listening to it nonstop, singing
the lyrics: `Why don’t they run away from there, and seek a safer
place, where they can finally live in peace, once and for all¦ ‘

I thought I was traveling to a dangerous, sad, perhaps forlorn and
hopeless place, a place where again people are being persecuted due to
their ethnic Armenian identity.

Now, after six extraordinary days in Nagorno-Karabakh, I think I know
the answer to the question of why they don’t run away from this small
republic in the southern Caucasus: It is an incredibly beautiful
place; legends say it is the entrance to paradise.

Still, even a beautiful place, in my opinion, it is not worth dying for.

Three-hundred-and-fifty kilometers separate Yerevan, the capital of
Armenia, from Stepanakert, the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh, at
opposite ends of a road that traverses a flat plain, and most of which
passes through stunning mountains bisected by deep canyons. Most of
the mountains are covered in snow ` snow that fell on us as we drove
and even more heavily once we’d arrived in Stepanakert.

About 51,000 people live there, all of them Armenian. It is a small
but beautiful city, astonishingly clean and well designed. Stepanakert
is the seat of an elected parliament, an elected president, a
government and a cabinet.

Nevertheless, not a single country in the world recognizes the
Nagorno- (Russian for `mountain’) Karabakh Republic. Even Armenia
cannot recognize the de-facto independent state, because then
Azerbaijan would cut off the tenuous channel of communication it
maintains with Armenia in the hope of furthering conciliation, via
mediating parties.

The republic was established on May 12, 1994, following a cease-fire
agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Its total population is
140,000 ` 98 percent of whom are ethnic Armenians. (The total
population of Armenia is approximately three million.) The cease-fire
ended a bloody war that had begun in 1988, and that ended with the
Azeris being driven out. At the time, military observers and experts
assessed that Armenian Karabakh would not survive for long. They
estimated that it would vanish within days and that the region would
be reoccupied by the army of Azerbaijan, a force that is better
equipped and more advanced than that of Armenia.

Approximately nine million persons live in Azerbaijan, which defines
itself as a secular Muslim state (although it has recently exhibited
some extremist Islamic phenomena). The border between it and
Nagorno-Karabakh is 370 kilometers long; along it, on the Karabakh
side, are hundreds and perhaps thousands of bunkers.

I have no doubt that I am being subjective, and also probably
partisan: My prolonged efforts in favor of the State of Israel’s
recognition of the Armenian genocide have forged deep bonds between me
and the Armenian people.I am currently teaching at the American
University of Armenia in Yerevan, and enjoying myself immensely. From
my first day here, I have felt at home.

I decided to go to Karabakh for a few days. I am an `official
visitor,’ if that can be said about a state that has no official
visitors. For even when senior-level visitors from other countries
arrive, they take pains to emphasize that they are on a private visit,
so as not to antagonize neighboring Azerbaijan. I was received by the
president, Bako Sahakyan and the head of parliament; I toured the
border zone and spent a few hours in an Armenian bunker, where I was
able to speak with complete freedom with the soldiers.

A sign at the entrance to the bunker read, roughly: `If we lose
Artsakh [the Armenian name for Karabakh], we will be sealing the fate
of Armenian history.’ This feeling is shared by many of the Armenians
with whom I spoke.

A `prolonged war’ ` or `soft war’ ` is now under way, one that is
liable any day to develop into a full-scale conflict. This is the
tensest and most difficult period since the cease-fire was declared,
21 years ago. Twelve Armenian soldiers were killed in January alone,
and farmers working their land along the border are also killed every
so often. Thirteen soldiers serve in the military position I visited;
the Azeri military post is a mere 200 meters away. The Armenian
outpost was clean and orderly and heated; the temperature outside was
below freezing.

The Armenian soldiers are forbidden to shoot without explicit orders.
However, the Azeris fire indiscriminately, and one mustn’t walk erect
through the tunnels of the outpost. The Azeris also employ snipers. I
was allowed to peer toward the Azeri lines for only a few seconds.

The Armenians are also forbidden to use aircraft other than
helicopters in Karabakh: Azerbaijan has vowed to shoto down anything
else. Several weeks ago, an Armenian helicopter was shot down during a
training flight, and crash-landed inside the 250-meter-wide
no-man’s-land that separates the two armies. For 10 days, the Azeris
refused to return the bodies of the three pilots. International
mediation efforts failed. It was then decided at the highest levels of
Armenian and Karabakh officialdom to enter the border zone in the
darkness and extricate the frozen corpses of the three pilots from
where they had been left in the field, and bring them home for
burial.Two Azeri soldiers were killed during the rescue operation,
which could have served as the trigger for all-out war. The Karabakh
army was placed on high alert.

A civilian airfield that was built in recent years near the capital
city of Karabakh and that is ready to commence operations has been
paralyzed, because Azerbaijan has openly declared that it will shoot
down any civilian aircraft flying in proximity to it.

Seeking peace,¨ready for war

The biblical story of David and Goliath stayed with me all through the
week. The Karabakh David is certain of the justice of his ways and of
his eventual victory. Everyone shares this feeling of certainty, from
the president to the head of the parliament and senior army officers,
down to the lowest-ranking soldiers. The prevailing sentiment is “We
want and we seek peace, but we are ready for war and we will win it.
Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan told me he is prepared to make
significant territorial connection between Nagorno-Karabakh and
Armenia. Armenia has only held off from officially annexing the
enclave and the additional section of Azerbaijan it has occupied
because it knows it will lead to all-out war.

The Armenians in Karabakh receive significant aid in the conflict from
Armenia, but not from anywhere else. `We have no one to rely upon
other than ourselves,’ is another refrain I hear more than once during
my visit. `We are alone, totally alone.’

The Karabakhis exude determination, and confidence in their power and
in the righteousness of their struggle. They speak proudly of the
`Karabakhi spirit’ as a significant factor in bolstering their
military prowess.

Often, during my visit, I thought of my own country, Israel, in its
early years, during the 1948 War of Independence. And in the 1950s and
the early 1960s, times when the nascent country fought for its
existence. The pre-1967 years eventually gave way to an extraordinary
military victory, which has been leading us to the brink of an abyss
ever since. Today Israel’s is no fighting for its existence, but is
rather in a struggle over control of territory. I am nagged by the
thought that we Israelis, too, are fighting a David and Goliath war,
only with the roles reversed from what they were a half-century ago.

I told this to the Karabakhis I met ` students, men of letters and
writers with whom I had fascinating and instructive conversations.
They were familiar with the story. They belong to the Armenian
Apostolic Church, and they know the Bible; some even know it well. But
the thought ` which I share with them ` that in our dispute with the
Palestinians we are like the Azeris and the Palestinians are the
Karabakhis ` this thought is disconcerting.

The Israeli weapons that are shipped to Azerbaijan, valued at billions
of dollars, and the denial over the years by the State of Israel of
the Armenian genocide have in the past few weeks been supplemented by
new developments in the complex relationship between Israel and the
Armenians.

Rafael Harpaz, Israel’s ambassador in Baku, Azerbaijan, told a press
conference there in January that Israel would not recognize as
`genocide’ the killings of Armenians perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire
100 years ago. (He did not, however, use the word `never,’ as some
Armenians charge.) No Israeli diplomatic representative has ever said
such a thing. Asked who gave him the authority to make this statement,
the envoy replied, `I am not saying anything new. Foreign Minister
Avigdor Lieberman has said the same thing.’

I have found no evidence of that claim, but there is no doubt that the
ambassador’s position meets with the approval of the Israeli foreign
minister.

This is another `gift’ from the State of Israel to the Armenian people
on the occasion of the centenary of the genocide, which has not been
recognized by most of world’s other countries either. But it’s not
only that the genocide is merely `not recognized’ ` it is denied by
Israel, a country of many Holocaust survivors. Without a doubt, the
prime minister, defense minister and president all know that the
sophisticated Israeli arms sold to Azerbaijan are intended to achieve
a single goal: that of defeating and occupying Karabakh. Of banishing
the Armenians from there.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has publicly reiterated this
objective, in nearly every speech he has made in recent months.
Nonetheless, as early as 2012, there were published reports that
Israel had agreed to a colossal arms deal, valued at $1.6 billion, by
which it would supply drones to Azerbaijan.

Moreover, last summer, immediately after Operation Protective Edge,
Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon saw fit to travel there for a visit.
Afterward, Aliyev declared to his soldiers on the border: `We have
beaten the Armenians in politics, we have beaten them in terms of the
economy. Now we will be victorious over them in the battlefield. We
will destroy their villages and cities and we will restore our lands
to us. We have the most advanced weapons in the world.’

He was referring to the weapons sold by Israel, among other countries.

For their part, during the war, the Armenians seized a substantial
amount of territory from Azerbaijan, mainly in that country’s
southwest, and they have expelled nearly all of the ethnic
Azerbaijanis from both there and Karabakh. They also lost some
territory ni the north. The Karabakhis justifiably claim that the
latter are territories belonging to historic Karabakh that were
wrested from them by the Soviet Union in the 1920s, during the rule of
Lenin and Stalin. They cite the presence of ancient Armenian churches
in the area, some dating back to the 10th century and even earlier.

The Soviet Union divided up the regions inhabited by the various
ethnic groups it controlled, as part of a well-known imperialist
policy of divide and conquer. So it was that Karabakh was annexed to
Azerbaijan, against the will of the Karabakhis, who were ethnically
Armenian, and the region was severed from the Armenian Soviet
Socialist Republic. `Soviet Karabakh,’ however, was not identical in
terms of its territory to historic Karabakh.

During the years of Soviet rule, the Azerbaijanis adopted a variety of
methods to augment the proportion of their compatriots in Karabakh and
to reduce the number of Armenians, who in the early 1920s numbered
about 95 percent of the residents.

`We’re not barbarians’

At the start of the war, in the late 1980s, war crimes and crimes
against humanity were almost certainly perpetrated by both sides. I
saw several destroyed Azerbaijani villages close to the border. The
remnants of the houses and fences now stand as monuments, in a
stunningly beautiful region. The sites remind me of destroyed cities
from other wars in other places. However, in all of the villages the
mosques were left intact. `We are not barbarians,’ one soldier told
me.

The Ottoman Empire, Turkey in its wake, and then Soviet Azerbaijan
demolished hundreds of churches ` converting some of them into
mosques.

In a wide-ranging and informal conversation with President Sahakyan
over lunch, he refused to say a bad word about the Azeris. He said
repeatedly that his country seeks peace, but is certain of victory in
the event of an all-out war. But he wishes to emphasize: Our long-term
vision is to gain independence and peace, and to take our place in the
family of enlightened and democratic peoples.

The days I spent in Karabakh were formative ones for me, and I intend
to return.I identify with the struggle of the Karabakhis for freedom
and independence, and as much as possible will endeavor to take part
in that effort. I am doing so, first and foremost as a human being,
but also as a Jew and an Israeli.

If out-and-out war breaks out in Nagorno-Karabakh during the centenary
year of the Armenian genocide, the Karabakhis will once more be alone,
with only Armenia to rely on. The world was silent in 1915, was silent
during the Holocaust, was silent during the genocide in Rwanda, and
has been silent in the face of many other similar events.

The thought of Israeli weapons going to Azerbaijan makes me lose sleep
at night. This is a betrayal of the memory of the Holocaust and the
memory of its victims; it is an act of moral bankruptcy.

While I was there, I heard from Itai Mack, an Israeli lawyer who has
been working with me to expose the Israeli arms sales that were made
to the governments of Rwanda and Serbia during the months when
genocide was occurring in those countries. Up until now, Israel’s
judicial system has rejected our petitions ` based on the Freedom of
Information Law ` for the release of information, citing security
considerations. We are now awaiting a ruling from the Supreme Court,
which Mack told me has not been scheduled fro Decemebr of this year.

For the past few months, we have been raising the call to end
widespread arms shipments to Azerbaijan. The entire region is
recognized by international organizations as one of tension, where
humanitarian catastrophes and war crimes are liable to occur.

Yoram Ziflinger, the acting director of the Defense Export Controls
Agency, an arm of the Ministry of Defense, wrote us this past February
24: `Every decision embodies a variety of considerations, the common
denominator of all of them being the national interest.’

In response to a Haaretz request to address the subject of defense
industry sales to Azerbaijan, a Ministry of Defense spokesman said:
`The ministry is not in the habit of relating to issues of subjects
related to security exports.’

Prof. Yair Auron is a genocide researcher who has for the past 30
years struggled on behalf of recognition of the Armenian genocide by
the State of Israel.

NEW-YORK TIMES JOURNALIST INCLUDED IN LIST OF UNDESIRABLE PERSONS OF AZERBAIJANI MINISTRY

Trend, Azerbaijan
April 10 2015

Baku, Azerbaijan, April 10

By Seba Aghayeva – Trend:

New-York Times journalist Seth Kugel has been included in the list
of undesirable persons of the Azerbaijani foreign ministry for an
illegal visit to the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, spokesman
for the Azerbaijani foreign ministry Hikmet Hajiyev told Trend.

“An article of the journalist, distorting the real situation in the
occupied territories of Azerbaijan, is disrespectful to the readers of
the newspaper,” Hajiyev said. “It is also disrespectful to the rights
of more than one million Azerbaijani refugees and internally displaced
persons who have been subjected to the bloody ethnic cleansing in the
occupied territories. It is regrettable that such an article appeared
in New-York Times.”

Hajiyev was commenting on the journalist’s illegal visit to the
occupied territories of Azerbaijan.

Hajiyev said that the facts of looting the property in the occupied
territories belonging to Azerbaijani people, destruction of samples of
material culture, Islamic monuments and shrines were not purposefully
reflected in the article written by the order of the Armenian lobby.

“I would like to remind the management of New-York Times, which
published this biased article about the “tourist” trips to the occupied
territories, that such transnational crimes as human trafficking,
production and sale of drugs, illicit arms trafficking, training of
terrorists are committed in these territories,” he said.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in
1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a
result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied
20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and
seven surrounding districts.

The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs
of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US are currently
holding peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented the
UN Security Council’s four resolutions on the liberation of the
Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.