Jerusalem Armenian Fear For Future

[Aratta-Kingdom]

 

In Quarter of Jerusalem, Armenians fear for future

http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFTRE65R1QE20100628

 

Jun 28, 2010

 

 

 

By Alastair Macdonald

 

 

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - In Jerusalem's Armenian Quarter, a library stores precious memoirs which are all that remain of hundreds of Armenian communities, erased from the map of Turkey a century ago in what many regard as genocide.Now the Armenians in Jerusalem itself, many descended from refugees, fear their own 1,500-year-old Christian presence may disappear, too. Their society and extensive landholdings risk becoming collateral damage in a demographic conflict for land and power in the holy city between Israel and the Palestinians.

 

"It's a dying community. Only the church holds us together," lamented 97-year-old Arshalouys Zakarian, as she sat with family and friends in her garden near St. James's Armenian cathedral.

 

The church, with its distinctive rites and dozens of black clad singing monks, dominates a Quarter which the Armenians, now just 2,000 of them, have held since Ottoman times alongside the Old City's bigger Muslim, Jewish and Christian Quarters.

 

Over tea, Zakarian's guests, some living locally, others back on visits from overseas, joined in tales of children gone abroad in search of jobs and of struggles, often in vain, with Israeli bureaucracy to retain rights to come back home to live.

 

"For the first time in our history, we are not sure we can stay, after 1,500 years," concluded one man, now working for the Armenian church after a career spent in the United States. His daughter, born here, can visit, but may no longer live here.

 

Officials of the church, at the Armenian Patriarchate, share a view held by the mostly Muslim Palestinians -- that Israel's designation of the whole city as capital of the Jewish state means its control of residence and building permits is being used to press Arabs and other non-Jews to give up and leave.

 

"The withdrawing of ID cards is becoming very serious," said historian George Hintlian, a former Patriarchate secretary. Five local-born Armenians lost residence rights last month, he added.

 

 

 

Non-Jews, a third of today's 750,000 population in greater Jerusalem, have had residence rights but not citizenship since Israel seized the Arab east, including the Old City, from Jordan in 1967. Israel, which promotes Jewish immigration, says it is not obliged to grant re-entry to other residents who emigrate.

 

It says it respects the access of other faiths to Jerusalem and denies any policy to discriminate or to push non-Jews out. But the Armenians see double standards and fear for their land.

 

SENSE OF SIEGE

 

In the library, Hintlian leafs through volumes of memoirs detailing names, families, anecdotes, plans and sketches of lost Armenian communities in Turkey, from where refugees came to Jerusalem after World War One, bolstering the local population.

 

"What remains of historical Armenia is these books. For a people who suffered genocide, it is very important," he said.

 

But while many Jews had sympathy for a people whose history of dispersal and suffering has echoes of their own, Armenians are wary of the Israeli state: "For the private Israeli, we are full-time genocide survivors," Hintlian said. "But for the Israeli bureaucracy, we are full-time Palestinians."

 

Many fear territorial designs on their Quarter, which covers a sixth of the square kilometre (230 acres) inside the walls but houses only a small fraction of the Old City's 40,000 people. It lies next to the Jewish Quarter, ravaged under Jordanian rule after 1948. Israelis have rebuilt and expanded it since 1967.

 

A rash of spitting at clergy in the street by ultra-Orthodox Jews in recent years add to a sense of siege among a community which traces its roots back to monks and pilgrims who settled in the 5th century. By the mid-1940s, the community numbered 16,000 across Jerusalem and other cities of British-ruled Palestine.

 

Many were refugees from Turkey who revived Armenian language among native compatriots assimilated in Arabic. They brought, too, colourful ceramic work which still fills their shops today.

 

 

 

Many left when British rule ended in 1948. More followed in 1967. Those who stayed on in the Old City under Israeli rule were cut off from 400,000 other Armenians in the Middle East -- in countries like Syria and Lebanon, at war with Israel.

 

They are part of a global diaspora of 10 million whose language and religious roots lie in a Caucasian kingdom that was the first to adopt Christianity as a state religion, in 301.

 

St. James's Cathedral is a serene jewel, hung with precious lamps and treasures donated by Armenians scattered far and wide and infused with the haunting singing of its black-cowled monks.

 

DEMOGRAPHIC STRUGGLE

 

The Armenian Church has parity at Jerusalem's Christian holy places with the much bigger Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox Churches, 6,000 of whose Palestinian Arab adherents live in the Christian Quarter. Its history, income from local rents and gifts from the diaspora, should assure the Church's future here.

 

But the lay community surrounding it does question whether future generations will be here; residents say Armenians feel disadvantaged in getting work with Jewish or Arab employers and so move abroad and then face Israeli refusal to allow them back.

 

"It's a demographic struggle," said Hintlian, as he strolled the quiet courtyards that distinguish the Quarter from the crowded lanes typical of the rest of the Old City. "The basic struggle is to have numbers," he added. "Diplomats say, 'Look, the Armenians have a lot of space and very few people...'."

 

Among Armenian fears is that Israel and Palestinian peace negotiators might revive an idea to divide sovereignty over the Old City by allotting the Muslim and Christian Quarters to a Palestinian state and handing the Armenian Quarter to Israel.

 

The end of Communism in Armenia has thrown a lifeline to the church, bringing a supply of novices from the ex-Soviet state, said Archbishop Nourhan Manoogian, who himself came from Syria just before the 1967 war. But having returned now from 20 years abroad, he too faces a problem renewing his residence permit.

 

"What kind of freedom of religion is there?" he asked.

 

Life can be uncomfortable beyond the walls of the monastery compound. Relations with Muslims have cooled, Manoogian said. There have been fights between Armenian and Greek clergy around Jesus's tomb. And some ultra-Orthodox Jews are openly hostile.

 

But, consoled by a history that has seen Armenians survive bloodier sieges and regimes in Jerusalem down the centuries, Manoogian has confidence after four decades of Israeli rule:

 

"In another 40 years, we'll still be here," he said.

 

And for all the anxieties that tinge the nostalgia round the tea table in Arshalouys Zakarian's garden, there too there is a note of cheerful defiance: "The Armenians had a hard life," the retired schoolmistress concluded. "But they are survivors."

 

 

[Arpa]

What the hell kind of business do Armenians have in Jerusalem?

When did Jerusalem become part of Armenia?

I Verin Yerusaghem. Up their .... noses

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHJ1_AUZBUQ

Then this piece of garbage.

Yeah right, “world history” like the Armenians invented the GLOBE or the circular WHEEL.

Like A(Ararat)to Z(Zion Who are these Z-idiots?

An English-language film on Armenians’ role in world history

By Karine Ionesyan

ArmeniaNow reporter

A documentary premiered in High Definition in Yerevan last night, according to its authors, has a long future before it both in Armenia and well outside.

From Ararat to Zion, a full-length film presenting Armenia as the first Christian nation and telling about the contribution of Armenians to world history, is originally made in English, with the narration by well-known Hollywood actor Aidan Quinn and music by Golden Globe Award winning composer Lisa Gerrard. The film was shot by Vem Media Arts Studio and the sponsor of the show in Yerevan is Armenia’s leading mobile operator VivaCell-MTS.

It took the film crew four years to produce the documentary as scenes were shot in Jerusalem and different parts of the world, presenting the Armenians as the oldest Christian nation, living by Mount Ararat where the human race got a second chance for life according to Old Testament history, and that salvation is now happening on Mount Zion, where there is an Armenian district. As evidence the film cites ancient mosaics with Armenian letters preserved in Jerusalem, Armenian inscriptions on Mount Zion and other historical facts. The film uses only foreign sources of historiography, such as Greek, Assyrian, Hebrew and others. The authors of the film say foreigners know very little about Armenians being the first nation in the world to have adopted Christianity as their state religion. They say within the space of 70 minutes, the duration of the film, viewers will be constantly provided thought-provoking information. Film director Edgar Baghdasaryan first of all blames Armenians themselves for the fact that little is known about Armenia and Armenians outside. “We, Armenians, know very little about ourselves. And what can we expect the world to know about us then? If we want to go further, we shouldn’t be shouting about who we were, as it is of interest to no one. The first thing they ask in the modern world today is who you are today, that is, first of all we should ourselves digest our history and then present it to the world,” Baghdasaryan told ArmeniaNow. Scriptwriter and producer Father Mesrop Aramyan added that the film is a call of sorts on young people to follow the path of their forefathers and become owners of their history. And VivaCell-MTS General Manager Ralph Yirikian said: “Let the nations of the world know that Christianity for our nation is not simply a religion, but a matter of existence, and we have done everything to survive due to our faith, and should continue our existence onward.” From Ararat to Zion is expected to be shown in Great Britain on May 12. And it has been included in the shows of eight large international film festivals. It will be on at Moscow Cinema in Yerevan till May 21. Tickets to late afternoon and evening shows (three a day, after 5 pm) are on sale for 1,500 drams (about $4).

 

Source URL: http://www.armenianow.com/arts_and_culture/22936/from_ararat_zion_armenia_documentary

Edited June 28, 2010 by Arpa

[Zartonk]

Once again we undermine the singular significance our Highlands in the genesis of human civilization and carry on parading the fact that we were sold a stranger's myth first (I won't get into the origins of the reawakening god here).