Ancient Passageway Named "The Armenian Bridge"

[Yervant1]

Keghart.com

 

Ancient Passageway Named "The Armenian Bridge"

 

http://www.keghart.com/sites/default/files/images2/Assen-Khatchkar.jpgBy Jirair Tutunjian, Toronto, 5 September 2013

An ancient Amsterdam bridge , which was a frequent passageway for Armenian merchants in the 17th century, has been named "Armenian Bridge", thanks to the efforts of one man--60-year-old Nikolai Romashuk.

Jerusalem-born Romashuk, whose mother was Armenian, emigrated to Holland in 1976 and settled in the northern city of Assen. Since then he has been an active member of the Dutch-Armenian community.

He said that he spent years researching the history of the Julfa Armenian merchants at the Dutch National Archives at the University of Amsterdam. And after that several more years to convince the Amsterdam municipality that naming the old bridge after the Armenian merchants was a worthwhile idea.

To help get the green light from city hall, Romashuk also pointed out that he had discovered the graves of a number of Armenian priests and merchants in the Old Church in the heart of Amsterdam. One such grave bears the number 444. To further buttress his case of the long-time and Armenian-Dutch relations, he added that Soviet Armenian soldiers, veterans of the Second World War, are buried in the Dutch city of Leusden.

This is not the first time Romashuk has raised the Armenian profile in his adopted country. Some years ago, Romashuk--founder and chairman of the Armenian Social and Cultural Foundation--helped bring to Assen a huge khachkar from Armenia. Now every year, on April 24, Assen Armenians commemorate, in front of the khachkar, the genocide of the Armenians by Turkey in 1915. There are 300 to 400 Armenians in the city, mostly from Armenia, Iraq, Iran, and Turkey.

Romashuk has also helped establish an Armenian cemetery in his town--the only one in Holland. It's named after Hrant Dink. Time and funds permitting, he also publishes "Parev Tsez", the only Armenian journal in Holland.

Married to a Dutch woman, Romashuk has three children and two grandchildren.

 

[MosJan]

Grate Find Yervand jan

[Yervant1]

Grate Find Yervand jan

[Arpa]

Yes, yes. Of course we know that furkish kahve was named so by mehmet osmanoghlu.

http://savvytraveler.publicradio.org/show/features/2001/20010330/feature2.shtml

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The legend goes that when Turkish forces abandoned their seige of Vienna in the late 1600s, they left behind two things Austrians had never seen before - delicate little loaves of bread shaped liked Islamic crescents which we now call croissants, and burlap sacks full of olive-colored beans which the Viennese thought were camel fodder. A worldly Polish mercenary named Kolschitzky, however, knew coffee when he saw it, and asked for the beans as payment. Before long, Kolshitzky was the wildly successful proprieter of Vienna's first coffee house.

The truth is that it was probably Armenian merchants who in fact introduced coffee to Vienna in the late 1600s.

But, however it got here, savoring the beverage at a marble-topped table while scanning the daily newspapers is practically a civic duty in Vienna - an experience that no visitor to the city, no matter how much of a hurry he's in, should pass up.

You might begin your immersion in Viennese café culture at the city's oldest surviving coffee house, Café Frauenhuber, in the heart of Vienna's historic first district. Established in 1788, in what was once a medieval bathouse, the Frauenhuber has all the ingredients of a classic Viennese coffee house: glass chandeliers, crimson- and cream-colored marble tables, uncomfortable wooden chairs, an assortment of dog-eared newspapers, and decorous waiters in tuxedos.

[Arpa]

Some day I may get back to reading articles by so called Armenians with names like tutunji-oghlu-ian

When did tutun/tutunji become an Armenian word?

Edited October 22, 2013 by Arpa

[onjig]

Father told me, when I was a boy, that as books were printed, less information from and about Armenia and Armenians was included. That as history is written, Armenians were taken out. Growing up, when asked: what I was, answering Armenian, it was amazing how many asked " what is that"

 

When I hear today Armenians or Armenia given credit, somewhere for something it feel good.

 

Thankyou for postings this, thankyou for finding this.