THE BATTLE OF VARTANANTZ

[A.R.]

THE BATTLE OF VARTANANTZ

 

One of the most significant battles for the Armenian Nation was the Battle of Vartanantz.. The battle took place on June 2, 451 on the field of Avarayr, and will long be remembered as the as the greatest spiritual and moral victory for all Armenians.

 

About the year 450 A.D., when Armenia had lost its own kingdom and was divided between the Byzantine and Persian Empires, Christianity was a strong force in the land.

 

Thus, it was, that when the Persian King Hazgert tried to abolish Christianity and turn the people back to sun worship (paganism), the Armenians proclaimed their willingness to accept the Persian mandate in all respects providing their freedom to practice Christianity remained intact. Persian refusal to accept these views laid the groundwork for further dissension by the Armenian people.

 

There lived in Armenia at this time, a nobleman, Vasag Suni, who with some other Armenian military leaders and noblemen leaned toward the Persian viewpoint. These men, along with other noblemen and Vartan Mamigonian, were suddenly invited to Central Persia for consultation with the King, and there, were detained and ordered to accept Sun Worship for their country. This was really part of a clever Persian conspiracy to leave Armenia without leadership and, hence, to facilitate the Persian plan to converting the common people.

 

After consultation amongst themselves, these imprisoned military leaders, in a plot of their own, pretended to accept the Persian demands, and thus, were returned to Armenia laden with gifts and accompanied by Persian soldiers and religious leaders who would initiate the re-conversion to paganism.

 

Back in Armenia, however, the people heard of the faithlessness of their leaders, and did not realize that it was a plot. Furious and indignant, they decided to fight even there own "traitorous" husbands and fathers in an attempt to keep Christianity alive at any cost!

 

The great Yeghishe Badmakir , who later described the Battle of Vartanantz, related in detail of the noblemen’s wives who, forgetting their finery, pomp, and splendor, organized the common people and patriotically prepared to fight against their kin under the leadership of some of the military nobility who took command in the crisis.

 

As soon as the Armenian nobles and soldiers set foot on their own land, they overtly passed back to the side of their nation, determined to fight for Christianity to the very end, and chased back the group of Persians who had accompanied them.

 

Realizing that they needed military and moral aid, they appealed to another Christian people, The Greeks of the Byzantine Empire. They were refused, but their decision to fight to the end did not falter. A popular revolt broke out, led by Prince Vartan Mamigonian. Unfortunately, a group of princes, under Vasak of Suni, withdrew from the struggle and made peace with the Persians.

 

On the eve of the battle, all soldiers took Holy Communion in the open field of Avarayr. They listened to Hovsep Catholicos speak to them on the strength of the Christian faith. They listened to the vibrant Ghevont Yeretz, whose memorable speech has since been immortalized as the driving spirit of Vartanantz. And they listened respectfully to Vartan Mamigonian, Commander-in-Chief of the Armenia troops, give his historic speech preparing the 66,000 Armenians physically and spiritually for the holy battle.

 

The Battle started at dawn on June 2, 451. The 66,000 Armenians, under Vartan Mamigonian, encountered an army of 220,000 Persians, reinforced by squadrons of armed elephants, which were used as tanks at the time. The battle was a furious one, but a losing one for the vastly outnumbered Armenians. Brave Vartan Mamigonian fought to the last, and fell on the battlefield of Avaryr, as a martyr for Christianity, along with eight other generals. At the height of the battle, however, Vasag Suni and some of his followers realized the inevitable outcome, and defected to the Persians. Their traitorous conduct has not been forgiven nor forgotten by Armenians to this very day!

 

Although the Battle of Vartananatz was a military defeat for the Armenians, it has gone down in Armenian history as the greatest spiritual and moral victory, and is celebrated by all Armenians everywhere with pride and respect as a personification of the freedom of thought, faith, and conscience! It is the most important national and religious Holy Day.

 

And out of the struggle, there emerged two of the greatest figures in Armenian history: Ghevont Yeretz, spiritual leader, and Vartan Mamigonian, military leader-unsurpassed! The End

 

 

 

Furious and indignant, they decided to fight even there own "traitorous" husbands and fathers in an attempt to keep Christianity alive at any cost!

 

AR

We must be the same way to ANY "Armenian" who

trys to take the Christianity out of Armenia. These so called "Armenian" Jews like "Hagarag" are poision to Armenia and Christianity.

[THOTH]

Very nice rendition of the story AR. But I must dissent with your view that the only "good" Armenain is a Christian one (etc). I believe that those who hate others (Armenians and outsiders of any particular ethnic/religious stripe) are in fact the "enemy" among us and can only lead to our demise. Hate and intolerance are (or should not be) attributes of any civilized religion - nor should they be acceptable in any group of people.

 

[ April 05, 2002, 07:49 AM: Message edited by: THOTH ]

[A.R.]

I believe that those who hate others (Armenians and outsiders of any particular ethnic/religious stripe) are in fact the "enemy" among us and can only lead to our demise.

 

AR

I believe that those who sell out Armenia and Christianity are the enemies from within. Armenia is a Christian Nation and the only way that is gonna change is over my dead body. The enemy from within are the Armenians who want to make friends with Turks and Jews. TARC is the enemy from within. TARC supporters are the enemy from within

and it will lead to there own demise. No Justice No Peace.

[A.R.]

Statement by Professor Israel Shahak on the Jewish hatred towards Christianity

 

Dishonouring Christian religious symbols is an old religious duty in Judaism. Spitting on the cross, an especially on the Crucifix, and spitting when a Jew passes a church, have been obligatory from around AD 200 for pious Jews. In the past, when the danger of anti-Semitic hostility was a real one, the pious Jews were commanded by their rabbis either to spit so that the reason for doing so would be unknown, or to spit onto their chests, not actually on the cross or openly before the church. The increasing strength of the Jewish state has caused these customs to become more open again but there should be no mistake: The spitting on the cross for converts from Christianity to Judaism , organized in Kibbutz Sa'ad and financed by the Israeli government is an act of traditional Jewish piety. It does not seize to be barbaric, horrifying and wicked because of this! On the contrary, it is worse because it is so traditional, and much more dangerous as well, just as the renewed anti-Semitism of the Nazis was dangerous, because in part, it played on the traditional anti-Semitic past.

 

This barbarous attitude of contempt and hate for Christian religious symbols has grown in Israel. In the 1950s Israel issued a series of stamps representing pictures of Israeli cities. In the picture of Nazareth, there was a church and on its top a cross - almost invisible, perhaps the size of a millimeter. Nevertheless, the religious parties, supported by many on the Zionist "left" made a scandal and the stamps were quickly withdrawn and replaced by an almost identical series from which the microscopic cross was withdrawn.

 

Then there was the long-drawn-out battle about Christian influence in elementary arithmetic. Pious Jews object to the international plus sign for it is a cross, and it may in their opinion, influence little children to convert to Christianity. Another "explanation" holds; it would then be difficult to "educate" them to spit on the cross, if they become used to it in their arithmetic exercises. Until the early 1970s two different sets of arithmetic books were used in Israel. One for the secular schools, employing an inverted "T" sign. In the early '70's the religious fanatics "converted" the Labour Party to the great danger of the cross in arithmetic, and from that time, in all Hebrew elementary schools (and now many high schools as well) the international plus sign has been forbidden.

 

Similar development is visible in other areas of education. Teaching the New Testament was always forbidden, but in the old time conscientious teachers of history used to circumvent the prohibition, by organizing seminars or sending the students to libraries (not the school libraries, of course). About 10 years ago there was a wave of denouncing such teachers. One in Jerusalem was almost sacked, for advising her history pupils, who were studying the history of Jews in Palestine around 30-40 AD, that it would be a good thing if they would read a few chapters of the New Testament as a historical aid. She retained her post only after humbly promising not to do this again.

 

However in recent years, anti-Christian feelings are literally exploding in Israel (and among Israel-worshipping Jews in Diaspora too) together with the increase of the Jewish fanaticism in all other areas too.

 

The real enemies of truth here, as in many other aspects of the Israel reality, are the socialists, "liberals", "radicals", etc. in the USA. Imagine the reaction of the US Liberals, and of such papers as The Nation and New York Review of Books, not to speak of the New York Times if in any state whatsoever, the government financed spitting on a Star of David? But when here in Israel, the government finances the spitting on a cross, they are and will continue to be, quite silent. More than this, they helpt to finance it. United States taxpayers, who are of course mostly Christians, are finacing at least half the Israeli budget, one way or another, and therfore the spitting on the cross too.

 

Professor Israel Shahak is an Israeli citizen, former concentration camp inmate during WW II, and the founder of Israel's Human Rights League. His new book "Jewish History, Jewish Religion" about Jewish hatred and contempt toward Gentiles, is highly recommended

 

[ April 05, 2002, 06:04 PM: Message edited by: A.R. ]