|
By Sarah Rainsford
BBC News, Istanbul |
Hrant Dink campaigned for his country to confront one of the darkest chapters of its past: the mass killing of Ottoman Armenians in 1915.
He was convicted of "insulting Turkishness", which many say labelled him a traitor to extreme nationalists.
Despite EU pressure on Turkey to change or abolish the law under which he was convicted, Article 301 still remains.
Thousands of people are expected to gather close to the spot where Hrant Dink was murdered.
It was 1457 local time (1257 GMT) - and at that time exactly, one year on, the crowd will mark a moment of silence.
Target
At a short ceremony led by Hrant Dink's close friends and family, they will remember a man who dared to speak out about one of the most sensitive issues there is here - the killing of hundreds of thousands of Ottoman Armenians.
Modern-day Turkey denies it was genocide. Hrant Dink's stance made him a hate figure for extreme nationalists.
But his friends believe it was his conviction under the controversial Article 301 - for "insulting Turkishness" - that singled him out as a target.
The government has long pledged to amend that law, which is a major obstacle to free speech here, and to Turkey's ambitions of EU membership.
Its critics say the revisions it has proposed are superficial at best, but even those have not been agreed on officially, or unveiled, yet.
A year after the killing of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, the BBC's Sarah Rainsford in Istanbul finds that the Turkish nationalism he challenged remains a potent force.
"Why was I chosen as a target?"
That is the now prophetic-sounding title of an article written by Hrant Dink some time before his murder.
The Turkish-Armenian writer was referring to his trial and conviction for "insulting Turkishness".
A year later Hrant Dink became a physical target, when he was shot and killed in the street. A teenage nationalist, now on trial, has admitted killing him.
To mark the first anniversary of his murder on 19 January, 19 Turkish celebrities have recorded a selection of his articles onto tape.
They are now part of an audio exhibition in an Istanbul side-street, where photos of Hrant Dink gaze down from all the walls.
"The best way to make people know about Hrant Dink is to let him talk himself, with his articles," explains Sibil Cekmen.
She is one of a group of young Turkish Armenians who organised the event.
"I think what's most important is that we remember Hrant Dink not only by crying every 19 January, but by remembering why he was killed and what he was saying. By taking his legacy and carrying it to the future," she says.
'We're all Hrant Dink'
It was Hrant Dink's stance on the mass killing of Ottoman Armenians by Turks in 1915 that led to his murder.
Armenia and more than 20 other countries say it was genocide; Turkey - equally adamant - denies that.
Hrant Dink believed - and wrote - that Turkey must confront and examine that chapter of its past for the sake of all its citizens, including the Armenians.
To some Turks, that was intolerable.
Hrant Dink was shot from behind in broad daylight, just a few metres from the office of his Turkish and Armenian language newspaper, Agos.
A teenage boy from northern Turkey is on trial for murder.
The writer's killing provoked a mass protest in Istanbul.
Tens of thousands of Turks took to the streets. As the coffin passed they shouted "We're all Hrant Dink, we're all Armenian!"
It was an unprecedented act of solidarity with Istanbul's tiny Armenian community.
Hrant Dink's close friend, Karin, calls that a miracle in the current nationalistic climate in Turkey.
But she does not feel that spirit has since spread.
"Let's look. There are more trials; there was a song praising the murder. There are all these attacks against Christian clergy. Do we have anything to be positive about?" Karin asks.
"It was one of the darkest years, but what can we do? We have to go on. But I have no reason to be hopeful."
Like many, Karin believes Hrant Dink was singled out for murder after his trial for "insulting Turkishness", under the now notorious Article 301 of the penal code.
"It was the beginning of the end," she says. "It was a sign - this man is a target, do what you want. That was the message, and the message was understood."
Scars of history
Under pressure from the EU to guarantee free speech, the government has pledged repeatedly to amend the law.
So far it is just talk. Article 301 was used against at least 55 more people in 2007, according to a new report from the organisation Bianet, which monitors press freedoms.
"In Turkey everyone knows they can talk about sensitive issues, but they also know they will probably end up in court," says Bianet editor Erol Onderoglu. "It's a high price to pay."
"We want just to speak and write freely. If people like Hrant Dink want to say what happened in 1915 was genocide, then it's not necessary to stop the debate with a stupid article of law," he adds.
But Hrant Dink has not been silenced.
At the exhibition where his articles are displayed this week there is a notebook in one corner.
Inside, visitors have written him messages.
An Armenian man describes how he was taught to keep quiet about the events of 1915.
"Now I am clear in my thoughts, but I can't voice them," he writes. "When will I be able to speak out?"
And a couple of pages on, there is a message from a Turk.
It is addressed to "Brother Hrant".
"They can kill you, but they cannot kill your ideas - your thoughts," Onur writes. "They can't stop those of us who agree with you expressing your views, unless they kill each and every one of us.
"We miss you. Sleep in peace."
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/7196308.stm
Published: 2008/01/19 05:36:17 GMT
© BBC MMVIII
New York– Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, Primate of the Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern) is pleased to announce that the Diocese has received a generous gift from the United Armenian Charities. The grant was given specifically to make possible web casting throughout the Pontifical Visit of His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, to the Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern).Beginning on Friday afternoon, October 5th, regular video programming can be seen daily on the official Pontifical Visit web site: (click on the logo below). Armenian-Americans in the Diocese, across the United States and throughout the world, as well as the ecumenical and interfaith friends of the Armenian Church, can take part in the Pontifical Visit of His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians by following liturgies, programs and activities as His Holiness travels throughout the Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern). His Holiness Karekin II will be visiting 18 different cities in 14 states throughout the Eastern United States between October 4th and November 3rd, 2007.
To download/view informational flyer
click the links below
Memorial Plaque Stolen from San Francisco's Mt. DavidsonSeptember 26, 2007
|
Armenia has recently begun a tourism campaign.
There are two videos currently playing on CNN International.
Created by Hayk Hovakimyan, The theme is "Armenia, Noah's route, Your route".
Click on the links below to view these exciting spots.
The story of a Church without a Cross
AGHTAMAR CHURCH OPENS AS MUSEUM
Turkish restoration of Armenian church leaves no room for apology
By Ian Herbert in Van - 30 March 2007 - Across
a blue salt lake on an island surrounded by snow-capped mountains in
eastern Turkey, Armenian Christians were invited yesterday to witness
how the Turkish nation has restored one of their most holy sites.
From
the bas-relief etched out of red tufa stone, to the frescoes on the
high conical roof, most of the ancient treasures were back on view
again at the 1,000-year-old Church of the Holy Cross, on the island of
Aghtamar in Lake Van, eastern Anatolia. Except for the cross; the same
cross which was visible in early sketches of the church and
photographed in 1908, just before Armenians were rounded up, never to
return, in the city of Van at the beginning of what they describe as
their genocide at the hands of the Ottomans.
The
church's restoration had been sold to the world - and specifically to
the US, whose House of Representatives is about to consider a
resolution labelling the Armenian deaths genocide - as proof that
Turkey want to put things right with the Armenians. But, despite the
protests of the restoration project's Armenian architect, a cross was
ruled out - as is any immediate prospect of this Christian church being
consecrated so Armenians might, occasionally at least, pray here again.
"The church is reopening as a museum and doesn't need a cross," Yusuf
Halacoglu, the head of the Turkish Historical Society, insisted this
week. "Around 22,000 Ottoman buildings have had crescents taken off
when attacked. Other countries don't give as much attention to that."
The
insensitivity set the tone for yesterday's ceremony which, despite the
Turkish posters everywhere declaring Tarihe saygi, kulture saygi
("Respect the history, respect the culture"), was a painful and almost
provocative statement of Turkey's national identity. The Armenian
architect/bishop Manuel, who started building the church in AD 915,
employed Armenian master carvers to create Christian reliefs of Adam
and Eve, Noah's flood and David and Goliath. But Turkey has
appropriated the holy site in a three-year, $2m (£1m) rebuild and was
making no secret of the fact. The Turkish crescent and a giant Ataturk
hung from the front of the church where, after a triumphal rendition of
the Turkish national anthem, the culture and tourism minister, Atilla
Koc, Turkey's most senior government representative, made his address.
"We protect the cultural diversity and assets of different cultures,"
he proclaimed during a speech in which the word "Armenia" was not used
once.
Perhaps it was just as well that
only 29 people from Armenia had travelled here - by road, via Georgia,
because the Turks would not open the borders to their cars or Van
airport to their planes. But those who did make the journey bore
witness to the most extraordinary man in the place.
Patriarch
Mesrob Mutafyan believes his people were the victims of genocide - he
calls it medzegherm(the great slaughter) - and he would like the
Turkish government to say "a simple sorry to my people to ease the
tensions". But he was prepared to take the Turks' Aghtamar gesture at
face value in the hope that Armenians and Turks can live together. "The
government ... has courageously completed the restoration project," he
said when he clambered to his feet. "It is quite a positive move in
Turkish-Armenian relations and I offer my profound thanks." His only
request was that the Turks allow the church to become the site of
annual pilgrimage, concluding in a Christian ceremony, once a year.
It
remains to be seen whether Turkey's modernising Prime Minister Recep
Tayip Erdogan can let that pass. It is an election year and a rising
tide of nationalism is being fuelled in large part by the EU's
frostiness about Turkish accession. Antagonising those who consider
further concessions to the Armenians an "insult to Turkishness" might
be politically contentious. It might also explain why Mr Erdogan, a
progressive who started the Aghtamar project and has also launched a
History Commission to investigate the events of 1915, thought it best
not to attend yesterday's ceremony.
So
desperate is Mr Erdogan's government to demonstrate its tolerance of
Turkey's 70,000 Armenian minority that it took journalists around the
country this week. The trip revealed more than the government might
have intended: Armenian schools in Istanbul where only the Turkish
version of history - ignoring 1915 - is taught; Armenian priests who
need metal detectors at their churches because of the threat of
extremists; and, at the newspaper offices of the murdered
Turkish-Armenian writer Hrant Dink, a stream of abusive emails from
nationalists. (Dink's last article communicated his exasperation at the
Turks' initial selection of 24 April - the day when Armenians mark the
anniversary of the round-up of intellectuals in 1915 - as the day of
the Aghtamar church reopening. That date was later changed.)
With
the Armenian government unwilling to join Mr Erdogan's History
Commission, Patriarch Mutafyan invokes the memory of Levon
Ter-Petrossian, Armenia's former president, and his search for common
ground. Mr Ter-Petrossian wanted a monument on the countries' border
with the inscription, in Armenian and Turkish, of the words "I'm
sorry". It was never built.
The Turkish
Foreign Ministry said yesterday that a request by Patriarch Mutayfan
that the cross be returned to Aghtamar was being referred to the
culture ministry. "I'm praying that one day it will be there," another
Armenian church leader, George Kazoum, said before the ceremony.
For
now, the Armenians can only take comfort from the crosses which no one
can take from them. They were bathed in sunshine yesterday, away from
all of the Turkish stage-managed razzmatazz, on gravestones in the
Aghtamar churchyard which have stood here through 1,000 years of snow,
storms, earthquakes and human carnage.
more Aghtamar photos from BBC
the following is taken from the Worcester T&G for Sunday March 25, 2007
Restored Armenian church sign of Turkey’s good will
|
By Christopher Torchia THE ASSOCIATED PRESS |
| Frescoes of saints inside the Akdamar church shown after Turkey completed restorations. (THE ASSOCIATED PRESS) |
|
|
AKDAMAR ISLAND, Turkey—
An ancient Armenian church, perched on a rocky island in a vast lake,
has become a modern symbol of the divisions and fitful efforts at
reconciliation between Turks and Armenians whose history of bloodshed
drives their troubled relationship.
The Akdamar church, one of the most precious remnants of
Armenian culture 1,000 years ago, deteriorated over the last century, a
victim of neglect after Turks carried out mass killings of Armenians as
the Ottoman Empire crumbled around the time of World War I. Rainwater
seeped through the collapsed dome, treasure hunters dug up the basalt
floor, and shepherds took potshots with rifles at the facade.
Next week, the church will showcase Turkey’s tentative steps
to improving ties with its ethnic Armenian minority, as well as
neighboring Armenia. Turkey completed a $1.5 million restoration of the
sandstone building, and invited Armenian officials to a ceremony there
being held Thursday to mark what Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip
Erdogan, has called a “positive” message.
An Armenian deputy culture minister and other prominent
Armenians plan to attend the church’s opening near the city of Van in
eastern Turkey. Armenia’s foreign minister welcomed the restoration,
but said Turkey mistakenly believed the project would prove that it was
dedicated to better ties with its neighbor.
“A positive sign and a move on the part of Turkey ... would be
the opening of the border with Armenia and establishment of diplomatic
relations,” the news agency Armenpress quoted Foreign Minister Vartan
Oskanian as saying this week. He said the Armenian delegation could
reach the church by land in just a few hours if the border were open,
but instead will have to fly to Istanbul, and then take another flight
back toward the Armenian border.
Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 during a war
between Armenia and Azerbaijan, a Muslim ally of Ankara. The move hurt
the economy of tiny, landlocked Armenia. Turkey also lobbied against a
proposed U.S. congressional resolution that would recognize the
killings of Armenians in the last century as genocide. Some of Turkey’s
65,000 Armenian Orthodox Christians say they endure harassment in
Turkey, which has an overwhelmingly Muslim population.
Hrant Dink, the ethnic Armenian journalist murdered in
Istanbul in January, was apparently targeted by nationalists for his
commentaries on minority rights and free expression.
Patriarch Mesrob II, the spiritual head of the Armenian
Orthodox community in Turkey, has asked the government to mount a cross
on top of the church, which used to have one, and to allow periodic
religious services there.
The government has yet to respond, but placement of a cross
could be sensitive for Erdogan, who plans to attend the inauguration
ceremony, and his Islamic-rooted government. The symbolism could upset
some Muslims, and Turkey’s powerful military might regard it as a
concession to Armenia and the Armenian diaspora.
“It speaks well of the Turkish government that they paid for
it and took the initiative to make it happen,” said David Phillips, an
advocate of Turkish-Armenian reconciliation who helped gather
international restoration experts and architects for the church
project. But he noted that Turkey views the site as a museum rather
than a place of worship.
“It runs the risk of being viewed as an antiquity, instead of
a living symbol of Armenian culture and spiritual life,” said Phillips,
executive director of the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity in New
York.
Relief carvings on the outer walls of the Akdamar church
depict Jesus Christ, barefoot and bearded, holding the book of Gospels;
a sea creature devouring Jonah as he is tossed from a ship; David with
a slingshot facing Goliath.
“Akdamar is an extroverted church,” said Zakarya Mildanoglu,
an ethnic Armenian architect who helped restore it. “It doesn’t hide
its face.”
ACYOA Jrs. host first Lenten Dinner
Armenian Christmas celebrations
|
WORCESTER— The Armenian Church of Our Saviour celebrated Orthodox Christmas (Theophany) yesterday with a Divine Liturgy. At left is the Rev. Aved Terzian and Deacon Lou Mikitarian, both of West Boylston, just before the transfer of the gifts. Today the church at 91 Salisbury St. will also mark the feast day of the baptism of Christ with a Divine Liturgy and Blessing of the Water, beginning at 11:30 a.m. |
|
December 17, 2006
(under construction)
December 16, 2006
(under construction)
