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[Yervant1]

NEW BOOK HIGHLIGHTS WALES' SIMILARITIES WITH THE FORMER SOVIET REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA

ARMENPRESS
APRIL 23, 2012
YEREVAN

The mysterious disappearances of King Arthur and Wales' foremost
rebel Owain Glyndwr have a remarkable similarity with that of one of
Armenia's greatest heroes, according to a leading Welsh clergymen,
reports Armenpress citing Wales Online. Canon Patrick Thomas, the Vicar
of Christ Church Carmarthen and Chancellor of St David's Cathedral,
is the author of a highly praised new book which finds numerous
similarities between Wales and Armenia, which until 22 years ago was
a republic within the Soviet Union.

In recent years close ties have been established between the two
countries, prompting Canon Patrick to visit Armenia for the first
time in 2005. He immediately fell in love with the eastern European
country and kept going back, becoming increasingly aware of the
parallels and contrasts between Armenia and Wales.

His book has a unique structure: each chapter has an introduction,
three sections focusing on related themes from Armenia and a final
section that points out relevant similarities with Wales.

In a section about Welsh and Armenian heroes, Canon Patrick writes:
"Some heroes are meant to vanish leaving no known burial place.

"Moses is an obvious Biblical example. In Welsh tradition two of our
greatest warriors similarly disappear: King Arthur and Owain Glyndwr.

"I was once rebuked by a Church of England clergyman for having
described King Arthur as Welsh rather than English in one of my books.

'Who do you think he was fighting against, then?' I asked.

"An embarrassed silence ensued."

The burial place of King Arthur is a mystery, as is that of Owain
Glyndwr.

"The legend that haunted the popular imagination told of an encounter
between Owain and the abbot of Vale Crucis," writes Canon Patrick.

"The latter had gone out in the early morning mist to say his prayers
when he met the fugitive hero. Owain rebuked the cleric for getting
up too early.

"The abbot replied that Owain himself had risen too early by 100
years. From this grew the feeling that Owain (like Arthur before him)
would one day return. He too was said to be sleeping with his warriors
in a cave - perhaps one of those in which he had hidden during his
years on the run.

"In Armenia a similar role was given to Pokr Mehr, the last of the wild
heroes of Sassoun, whose exploits form a part of the national epic.

"Pokr Mehr and his horse disappeared into the Rock of Van and, so
the legend goes, remain there."

Canon Patrick also writes movingly about the murder of more than a
million Armenians in Ottoman Turkey during the First World War - an
event recognised officially as a Holocaust by the National Assembly,
but not by the UK Parliament.

The book has been praised by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan
Williams, who writes in a foreword: "Patrick Thomas' distinctive voice
- learned, thoughtful, compassionate and witty - has become more and
more widely known and appreciated through his writings about Wales
and the imaginative legacy of Christian faith in Wales.

"Here he turns to another subject, though without at all leaving
behind his characteristic rootedness in the local realities of
Carmarthenshire.

"His love affair with Armenia began, as he tells us, some six years
ago, and it has worked itself out through many visits, through
passionate advocacy and through a deep immersion in the culture of
this extraordinary nation.

"Unsurprisingly, he finds analogies with another small and mountainous
country, jealous of its language and its heritage.

"And in these pages he introduces us to some of the most poignant and
beautiful literature of the Armenians, shaped as it is by a history
of appalling suffering."

Archbishop Vahan Hovhanessian, Primate of the Armenian Apostolic
Orthodox Church in Britain and Ireland, writes: "Those of us who know
Canon Patrick well know that through his passion to learn more about
the culture and history of Armenians and pursue the parallel between
the Armenian and Welsh people, he has earned the right to be an
honorary ambassador of the Armenian people to the rest of the world."

[Zartonk]

Thanks Yervant!