Armenian Quarter In Jerusalem

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eurasianet

Aug 2 2024

 

 

Armenians and Israeli settlers clash over land parcel in Old City Jerusalem

Jerusalem’s Armenian Quarter threatened by real estate dispute.

Ella Chakarian Aug 2, 2024

For more than 200 days, Setrag Balian, a fourth generation Jerusalemite-Armenian, has camped out in a tent in the Armenian Quarter of the Old City in Jerusalem. A ceramicist by trade, Balian is a co-founder of Save the ArQ, a group dedicated to blocking a murky development project that would forever alter the quarter’s character.

In trying to scuttle the deal and preserve the Armenian Quarter, Balian’s group is facing off against Israeli developers who have been photographed with top representatives of an organization called Ateret Cohanim, which bills itself as “the leading urban land reclamation organization in Jerusalem, which has been working for over 40 years to restore Jewish life in the heart of ancient Jerusalem.” Ateret Cohanim has been involved in contentious property disputes in the past: most notably an almost-two-decades-long legal battle with the Greek Orthodox Church over control of three properties in the Old City. Ateret Cohanim representatives deny any connection to the Armenian quarter dispute, which involves a valuable patch of the Old City known as Cows’ Garden.

The catalyst for confrontation is a sweetheart real estate leasing deal under which Israeli developers would gain the right to build a luxury hotel in Cows’ Garden in exchange for a surprisingly low annual payment of $300,000 to the Armenian Patriarchate, which controls the property. Members of the Armenian community in Jerusalem, alleging skullduggery on the part of those who secretly negotiated the deal, have sued to block it. But those who stand to benefit are not giving up easily— hence the standoff. 

“Armenians have been in Jerusalem since the fourth century,” said Balian. “The Patriarchate has been there as an institution since the 7th century. It is a very important plot of land.” 

Under the original agreement, signed in secret in 2021, the Armenian Patriarchate granted an Israeli entity, Xana Gardens Ltd, a 98-year lease to develop Cows’ Garden and some adjacent areas, including land covering the Patriarchate’s seminary. When the deal became public it caused an uproar among local Armenians. Responding to the backlash, the Patriarchate moved to invalidate the agreement in October 2023. Since then, the matter has been mired in legal wrangling. 

The process that led the Patriarchate to sign the deal in the first place remains a source of contention. The man who headed the Patriarchate’s real estate department and who negotiated the deal, Khachig (Baret) Yeretsian, was defrocked and has since fled Jerusalem, following allegations that he misled Archbishop Nourhan Manougian. Meanwhile, Palestinian and Jordanian authorities responded to the news by freezing their recognition of Archbishop Manougian as the leader of the Armenian Church in Jerusalem.  

Yeretsian has claimed in interviews that he is a “scapegoat,” insisting that others within the church hierarchy were fully aware and approved of the arrangement. He declined an interview request from Eurasianet, saying: “I have spoken before on many occasions, and I stick to my principles and will never change.” In an apparent effort to prove his version of events, Yeretsian posted a letter on social media seemingly signed by a top official within the Patriarchate, Fr. Samuel Aghoian, showing that the deal enjoyed the backing of the Patriarchate’s entire hierarchy. The letter emphasizes that the deal will supply “a steady income of hundreds of thousands of dollars annually, to support the Armenian Patriarchate with all its departments and its congregation.”

When queried by Eurasianet, Aghoian declined to confirm the validity of the letter or provide comment due to the ongoing legal case to invalidate the deal. 

Balian says that since the Patriarchate moved to cancel the deal, there have been five separate incidents involving violence and intimidation against Cows’ Garden, undertaken by Jewish settlers set on seeing the deal through. 

“Within 24 hours of the Patriarchate issuing the cancellation letter to Xana Gardens, Israeli settlers attacked the boys on the ground with attack dogs and [brandishing] automatic weapons,” said Karnig Kerkonian, co-founder of Kerkonian Dajani LLP, the law firm representing the Armenian community of the Old City in its lawsuit to invalidate the deal. In later incidents on Cows’ Garden, Kerkonian alleged that Israeli police abetted efforts to get opponents of the deal to back down. 

Xana Gardens Ltd. was registered in Israel on July 8, 2021, which, according to Kerkonian, was one day after the signing of the real estate deal with the Armenian Patriarchate. Kerkonian said that his law firm's research of the company raises questions about possible ties to “certain Jewish settler groups.”  

Israeli-Australian developer and head of Xana Gardens, Danny Rothman, also known as Rubinstein, has been known to associate with leaders of the settler group, Ateret Cohanim. He did not respond to a request for comment from Eurasianet.

George Warwar, another Xana Gardens representative who clashed with Armenians in Cows’ Garden last year, did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Eurasianet.

Kerkonian said that since the creation of the state of Israel, the Armenian Quarter has lost 90 percent of its pre-1948 population. According to a census from 2006, 790 Armenians resided in the Old City— a 50 percent decline from the number in the 1960s. Kerkonian claimed that “there is clearly an attempt to remove the Armenian presence from places in the Middle East where they have had strongholds.” 

For centuries, Jerusalemite-Armenians have lived amicably with other communities in the Old City. Balian and other members of Save the ArQ believe that the current pressure against the Armenian Quarter is an outgrowth of the hard-right policies pursued by the Israeli government. 

Daniel Seidemann, a Jerusalem-based attorney providing non-legal counsel to the Armenian community, said there are precedents for shadowy dealings across the Old City in Jerusalem— even in the Armenian Quarter. He cited Shahe Ajemian, the Armenian archbishop of Jerusalem who was detained in 1986 on suspicion of being part of a bribery scheme that “allegedly involved identification cards, land deals and inside information on planned future projects.” 

What makes the current situation in the Armenian Quarter different, according to Seidemann, is “the attempt at physical intimidation here of an entire community” that, he says, “goes beyond anything we've witnessed in the past.”

“As serious as this is to the Armenian community, it is indicative of a much greater challenge to the Christian and the Palestinian presence in Jerusalem and a very, even deeper threat to the character of the city,” he said.  

Armenians who live in the quarter describe the current situation as a land grab. They contend that if the deal goes through, it will effectively mean the end of the Armenian presence in Jerusalem. Sensitivities among local Armenians in Jerusalem have been heightened by Armenia’s loss of Nagorno-Karabakh in late 2023.

The legal battle could take years to resolve. As it plays out, members of the community keep watch over Cows’ Garden in shifts, ready to resist any settler effort to occupy the parcel. Armenian volunteers play cards to pass the time and spend hours in conversation, while sacrificing time from their families and jobs. Balian said he feels motivated by the togetherness displayed in the tent. 

“Everybody has understood that this is an existential battle,” said Balian. “We all have to fight it.”

Ella Chakarian is a journalist based in New York City and current M.S. Candidate at Columbia Journalism School. Follow her on Twitter @ellachakarian.

https://eurasianet.org/armenians-and-israeli-settlers-clash-over-land-parcel-in-old-city-jerusalem

[Yervant1]

Aug 14 2024

 

 

Armenian Museum in Jerusalem’s Old City Reopens Amid Holy Land Conflict

The Edward and Helen Mardigian Armenian Museum seeks to preserve 1,700 years of Armenian presence in the Holy Land.

The museum has a collection of ecclesiastic vessels, including crosses and miters, some painted and inlaid with precious stones, used by generations of Armenian priests to perform the Divine Liturgy. (photo: Courtesy photo / Rachel Jaskow )

Michele Chabin WorldAugust 13, 2024

JERUSALEM — Numerically, Israel’s Armenian Christian community is barely a blip on the radar of Israel’s population of nearly 10 million, but its rich history and artistic traditions have left their mark in Jerusalem, where most of the country’s nearly 3,000 Armenians live. 

Although the community is famously insular — many of those who reside in the Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City live in a church compound behind high stone walls — the quarter’s recently reopened Edward and Helen Mardigian Armenian Museum attests to the community’s deep roots in the Holy Land.

In the year 301 — 12 years before Constantine’s Edict of Milan — Armenia became the first country to declare Christianity as its official religion. Soon afterward, pilgrims from the kingdom of Armenia arrived in Jerusalem, and over the 400 years that followed, Armenians built more than 70 monasteries and churches in the city.  

The community swelled to 15,000 following the 1915-1916 Armenian genocide perpetrated by Muslims against Armenian Christians in the Ottoman Empire. But thousands fled what had been British Mandatory Palestine in 1948, after Israel declared independence and was attacked by neighboring Arab armies. 

 

Originally a monastery and theological center for Armenian priests, in 1922, the large stone building was transformed into an orphanage for 600 Armenian children and teenagers who had survived the genocide. Today, the children’s etchings can still be found on a wall, and one room of the museum displays the names of every refugee child who once lived there.   

“The children and grandchildren of those orphans come to the museum and are so happy to see a tangible record of their family,” Tzoghig Karakashian, the museum’s general manager, said during a private tour. 

When the building was no longer needed as an orphanage, it was turned into a museum to house the many artifacts related to Armenian life. 

 

Before its renovation in late 2022, the museum “was dark and old and strangely weird,” Karakashian said with a smile. Now revitalized, thanks to funding from the Edward and Helen Mardigian Foundation, she noted it is modern and bright; sunlight streams through the triangular glass roof, which was inspired by the Louvre. 

Upon entering the museum, visitors encounter a gorgeous sixth-century mosaic floor depicting vines, many species of birds and the “Tree of Life,” a popular theme in Christian and Armenian art. It bears the inscription: “This mosaic is dedicated to the memory and salvation of all Armenians whose names God knows.” 

A local Muslim family discovered the 13-foot-by-21-foot mosaic, a remnant of an ancient Armenian church, in 1894 while digging their future home’s foundation. Discovered under part of the mosaic were the 1,700-year-old skeletons of 300 Armenian soldiers and priests who died defending their Christian faith. The Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem purchased the land, ensuring the preservation of the mosaic and bones. 

Sacrificial Faith    

The soldiers’ remains — like the rest of the museum — are a somber reminder of the sacrifices Armenian Christians have endured due to their faith. When the mosaic was restored and relocated to the museum, priests of the Armenian Apostolic Church interred the soldiers’ remains beneath it. 

The ground-floor rooms that surround the courtyard house collections of ancient decrees, illustrated books, church vessels, coins, pottery and copper objects, with explanations in English, Hebrew, French, Arabic or Armenian. The upper floor focuses on the genocide that killed 1.5 million Armenians. 

 

Visitors with an interest in liturgical vessels will be moved by the intricately designed sacred objects, including crosses and miters, some inlaid with precious stones, used by generations of Armenian priests in the Divine Liturgy. The manuscript room contains exquisitely illustrated religious texts, some with artistic renderings not only of Jesus and Mary but the rulers who commissioned the work. 

Some artifacts on display were used by generations of Armenian priests to perform the Divine Liturgy.(Photo: Courtesy photo)

One of the museum’s more surprising artifacts is a robe sewn out of Napoleon Bonaparte’s tent. In 1799, after the French general’s army was defeated in what is today northern Israel, the Armenian community treated the wounded French soldiers. A grateful Napoleon wanted to show his appreciation, so when the priests requested a piece of his field tent, he readily offered it.   

Another surprise is an Armenian-owned printing press from 1833 — the first printing press ever used in Jerusalem — along with the metal type it used to print everything from posters to pamphlets. Armenians were also the first to introduce photography to the city.  

 

Anyone familiar with Jerusalem’s handcrafted Armenian pottery will be gratified to see the museum’s collection, which combines examples of 100-year-old pottery with more modern pieces. The first Armenian ceramicists were invited to Mandatory Palestine by the British a century ago to replace some 40,000 tiles at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. 

Although the Al-Aqsa project was ultimately given to Muslims, the Armenians stayed in Jerusalem and opened the first Armenian pottery studio. Today, a handful of Armenian potters continue to sell their decorative tiles, vases and bowls in shops in the Old City. 

Impacted by War

Unfortunately, due to the war that has ensued since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, there are few tourists. This has negatively affected the museum. 

“On Oct. 7, 150 visitors, Jews and Arabs from Israel, were scheduled to visit,” Karakashian said. “When they hadn’t arrived by 11 a.m., we knew they had canceled.” 

 

That morning, Hamas launched hundreds of rockets toward Israel. The museum, which closed its doors for all except private groups from that day forward, reopened July 2 and now has regular visiting hours — though this could change if the war intensifies. 

Despite the many generations that Armenian Christians have been in Jerusalem, they live with the constant knowledge that their well-being and future relies on others. 

The exclusive control by Muslims over the Holy Land’s sacred Christian sites, afforded by a decree by Saladin following his 1187 conquest against the Crusaders (the museum has a replica of the decree), has been superseded over the subsequent centuries by other decrees, rulers and wars. Today, the state of Israel rules the territory, and Christians of all denominations have a stake in holy sites. 

Despite the many challenges the Armenian Christian community continues to face, Karakashian says the museum “gives me perspective and the hope for better days to come.” 

 

Michele Chabin Michele Chabin is the Register’s Middle East correspondent. She writes from Jerusalem.

https://www.ncregister.com/news/armenian-museum-jerusalem-holy-land-conflict

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Jerusalem Post

Aug 27 2024\

 

Jerusalem’s Armenian Quarter under threat: Urgent call for protection - opinion

Jerusalem’s Armenian Quarter faces a critical threat from real estate deals and far-Right ambitions. Urgent action is needed to protect this vital part of the city’s cultural and religious heritage.

By NADAV TAMIR

 

Jerusalem’s special status as one of the world’s cultural centers and an attractive tourist destination stems from it being the cradle of three monotheistic religions. It is center to which a significant number of the world’s citizens feel a religious, cultural, or historical connection. The strength and uniqueness of Jerusalem, as well as its economic potential for residents, depends on the ability of the capital’s leaders and the state to maintain its interreligious and cultural identity.

The Armenian community is one of Jerusalem’s oldest, with the first Armenians arriving as early as the 4th century CE and the Armenian Patriarchate being active in the city since the 7th century. Jerusalem is the most important center of the Armenian community outside its homeland; and the Armenians were the first to convert to Christianity as a nation in 301 AD. But this glorious history does not help the small community in dealing with the ambitions of the far-Right to take over the Armenian Quarter. 

The Armenians in Jerusalem are one of the smallest and most vulnerable communities; they are neither Palestinian nor Israeli, and have no interest in being dragged into the ongoing conflict. They do not have the support of strong churches or states such as the Catholics, Greek Orthodox, Russian Provo Slavs, or Protestants. Being in this vulnerable position, they are reluctantly at the forefront of an ongoing struggle to prevent settlers and real estate moguls from harming the multiculturalism and multi-religiosity of Jerusalem – the city’s most important resource and what makes it a lodestone to the entire world.

 

Though a small community of only 2,000 people, their real estate is in high demand and is causing them to experience distress and harassment. This is the reality of Jerusalem’s Armenian Quarter, situated in a highly desirable location on the road leading from the Jaffa Gate to the Jewish Quarter and the Western Wall.

A major distress for Armenian Quarter residents is that it is the last undeveloped space of the Old City, a plot of 11.5 dunam (3 acres) that has been the focus of takeover efforts by Jewish settler organizations. Recently, a company owned by an Israeli-Australian businessman has managed to lease the plot and several adjacent buildings from the Armenian Patriarchate into the next century, for the laughable sum of only $2 million. The entrepreneurs have denied any connection to right-wing NGOs, but were seen meeting with Mati Dan, head of the 40-year-old Ateret Cohanim, the self-defined “leading urban land reclamation organization in Jerusalem,” the leader of settlement efforts in the heart of the east Jerusalem neighborhoods. 

 

For two years, the space continued to serve as a parking lot for residents and visitors, until a few months ago when developers attempted to begin preparations for the construction of a hotel. 

Issues surrounding the deal have led to the departure of the Armenian Patriarchy’s real estate manager who headed the deal, and a public and legal struggle has been initiated by residents of the quarter to stop the takeover attempt. 

 

Questions regarding the deal

The questions hovering over the deal are many, from transferring half of the ownership from the buyer to a third party (which is legal but suspicious); documents proving that the Patriarchate had no authority to sell the land; the price of the deal which is a fraction of the real value of the land; to the strange timing of increased harassment against quarter residents.

Now is the time for the State of Israel and the Jerusalem Municipality to intervene. 

Turning this charming and unique quarter into an arena for interreligious confrontations will only continue to harm Jerusalem’s status. The defense of the quarter is not only a moral imperative to protect a small but rooted minority that has tied its fate to the city, but a basic need to protect the name, image, and location of Jerusalem as a city that constitutes a spiritual and religious center for three different monotheistic religions.

 

The state and the municipality have a moral and strategic obligation to prevent the expulsion of Armenians from the quarter and to turn the crisis into an opportunity by helping the Armenian community turn the disputed territory into a site that will attract Christians from all over the world to Jerusalem as this holy and beautiful city deserves.

The writer is J Street Israel’s executive director. He has served as an Israeli diplomat in Washington and Boston and as a political adviser to the president of Israel.

 

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-816488

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Christian Post

Sept 14 2024

 

Armenians, too, have a formidable history in the Holy Land

By Bedross Der Matossian, Op-ed contributor Sunday, September 15, 2024

An Armenian church in the Armenian Quarter, Jerusalem. | Kate Salo

In 1894, the American archeologist Frederick J. Bliss made a seminal discovery: a richly decorated sixth-century mosaic from an Armenian mortuary chapel dating to the Byzantine period. Discovered in Musrara, a few hundred meters from the Damascus Gate of the Old City of Jerusalem, it is the only intact mosaic ever found outside Armenia proper with Armenian inscriptions — which in turn are the oldest examples of Armenian writing to have survived over the centuries.

I am reminded of these startling facts as I reflect on the controversy raging over the sale of the “Cow’s Garden” in the Old City of Jerusalem, which has stirred up Armenian anger amid charges of corruption, and in turn has agitated Jewish radicals against Armenians. As an Armenian born and raised in the Old City of Jerusalem (now teaching at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln), I feel compelled to set the record straight, for things are much misunderstood.

I think many would be surprised to learn not only of the profundity of the Armenian presence in the Holy Land, but of how many similarities there are between both peoples, being diasporic groups scattered around the globe in the course of history that suffered the most horrendous genocides of the 20th Century: The Armenian Genocide (1915-1923) and the Shoah (1941-1945).

Even though the Holy Land was never part of Historic Armenia, our historical roots here are deep; our place should be not only protected but cherished.

The first recorded Armenian pilgrimage to the Holy Land occurred in the early 4th century AD when a delegation of priests arrived in the Holy City. When Anastas Vartabed Akoretsi (c. 636-650) visited Jerusalem several centuries later, he could already count 70 monasteries in and around Jerusalem built by Armenians (as well as Caucasian Albanians). 

Such archeological and historical facts attest to the connection of Armenians to the Holy Land and the Old City of Jerusalem in particular. Indeed, outside historic Armenia, the Armenian presence in Jerusalem is the oldest. Our community uses the term “Armenian Jerusalem” due to the solid historical presence of the Armenian Patriarchate as well as of the lay community, the core of which are the descendants of those first Armenian pilgrims. 

In a way, Jerusalem can be viewed as the most important religious and cultural center in Armenian history. Armenian kingdoms and principalities in historical Armenia fell one after another, the last being the Cilician Kingdom (1098-1375). That left only today’s small rump state in the South Caucasus, whose borders were defined by the Soviet Union. But our corner of Jerusalem remained intact. 

Over the centuries, it survived many rulers: Roman, Byzantine, Persian, Arab, Crusaders, Ayyubids, Mamluks, Ottomans, British, and Jordanians. Despite political upheavals in the region, “Armenian Jerusalem” persevered. 

The Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem in its present form came into being in the first decade of the 14th century when the Brotherhood of St. James was founded. Today, it shares guardianship of Christianity’s holy sites — including the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and the Church of the Nativity — with the Greek Orthodox and Latin (Roman Catholic) churches.

This critical function helps explain the resilience of the Armenians in Jerusalem. Of all the “Little Armenias” scattered not around the world, the one in Jerusalem is perhaps the most authentic — driven by its role for all Christendom and symbolized by the physical presence of countless cultural treasures. 

The beautiful Church of St. James, the Convent of Holy Archangels, and the Church of St. Toros are spiritual and artistic gems. The Patriarchate houses 4,000 manuscripts, considered as the second-largest collection of Armenian manuscripts outside Armenia. The Gulbenkian Library in Jerusalem is regarded as the largest Armenian library outside Armenia, housing more than one hundred thousand books. The Mardigian Museum contains the most important artifacts, detailing the history of the Armenians of Jerusalem.

The Armenian Patriarchate has also played a dominant role in resurrecting the Armenian nation from the brink of extinction. It housed and fed thousands of refugees who survived the 1915 Armenian Genocide perpetrated by the Ottomans and established orphanages in the Armenian Cathedral and other nearby places. Some stayed on, enriching the Armenian community here. Community members excelled in photography, ceramics, goldsmith, and silversmith, among other professions. 

The community began a dramatic decline due to the 1948 and 1967 wars when many Armenians lost their homes and businesses in West Jerusalem as well as other areas in Israel. Sadly, for decades, spitting and harassing Armenian priests has become the norm among some within the Ultra-Orthodox community.

I know that the abuses by radicals do not represent the general attitude of Israeli society towards Armenians. Some groups of Israelis have visited the encampment site on multiple occasions to show solidarity. But this entire situation is endangering our valuable and longstanding presence in Jerusalem. Without international pressure on the Israeli government, Jewish religious leaders, and Israeli society, the Armenian community and the Armenian Patriarchate will continue to suffer these abuses.

During the 1948 War an editorial in Sion (the organ of the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem), described well the deep attachment of Armenians to this corner of the world: “Considered in conventional [military] terms, (we) did not engage in an epic battle during the bloody events in Palestine. (Yet it) still can be seen as an epic stance, as the Brotherhood and the civilian population, united, demonstrated their resolve in defending our spiritual and national heritage, our lives and possessions, and, above all, our honor, which for centuries has always been illustrious and praiseworthy in these Holy Lands.”

Today, the Armenian Community of Jerusalem and the Armenian Patriarchate are united once more, in preserving the 1,700 years of Armenian presence in Jerusalem. The dispute is not only about a land deal but about preserving a great cultural heritage. 

And that mosaic from Musrara? It has been relocated from Musrara to the newly renovated Mardigian Museum in the Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem. Let’s hope that’s where it stays.

 

Bedross Der Matossian is a professor of Middle East History at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

https://www.christianpost.com/voices/armenians-too-have-a-formidable-history-in-the-holy-land.html