The Armenian Weekly Magazine
April 2015: A Century of Resistance
In March I spent three days at “Responsibility 2015,” the conference on the Armenian Genocide sponsored by the Armenian Revolutionary Federation held in Manhattan. At the end of the final day, I was at once invigorated and exhausted. I was inspired by the passion of the artists and activists and intellectuals, and I was emotionally wrung out by the realities of imagining for three days the genocide that a century ago this m
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Let us hope and pray that Shakespeare and you are correct.
I feel pain in my heart when I see these type of images! This a crime against art and culture, which are more important than humanity! They stay forever and we move on! What these barbarian Turks have been doing is no different than what ISIS is doing in Syria, Iraq…… Shame on them and shame on our government that supports them!
Yes, let’s not forget what happened to our ancestors. Ever.
Keep it up, lest they forget. I miss my relatives.
I am deeply touched with the published story about the visit to Saint Sargis Church. It’s existence tells that Armenian nation will leave forever and no one can kill us. We have to become stronger and stronger, larger and larger and hopefully sometime in future we will reside our homeland that turks have robbed… I wish I could publish my poems in Armenian Weekly, which are devoted to Centennial of the Armenian Genocide. Please, tell me how I can do that. Whom I should address my e-mail message with poems?
It is too painfull to read the story let alone step into the ravine and witness the ruins. I commend Chris for his courage to go on such a difficult pilgrimage and share his experience with his readers.
Arthur Schopenhawer: All truth passes through three stages:
First, it is ridiculed;
Second, it is violently opposed;
Third, it is accepted as self-evident
I was very touched as well. What an experience it must of been,visiting the ruins of St.Sargis,Kharpet,Diyarbakir, and all the other villages and towns. Sand Castle Girls is a must read for everyone,would make a great movie.
Chris, this is one of the saddest and yet most beautiful reflections to appear in these pages. Thank you for writing it, and for sharing the haunting photograph.
St. Sargis church looks like one of the half-collapsed churches at Ani. We hope it can be preserved.
Khtzkonk monastery was actually demolished in two stages. The damage to the St. Sarkis church was inflicted in the early to mid 1960s. It is this event that is remembered by the villagers in Digor. The other four churches were probably destroyed in the 1950s. The scatter pattern of the masonry fragments indicate that both stages involved the use of high explosives. There is no particular difficulty in visiting Khtzkonk – one merely has to walk there. From Digor is the longest route at two hours, but is the easiest. From the pumice quarry on the plateau down to the valley via one of the numerous trails is shorter, taking maybe one hour, and still fairly easy. The shortest route, the original approach to the monastery, is about 40 minutes: from the plateau along the track to the stone-paved “platform” is very easy but the scramble from there down to the monastery is a bit difficult. Whatever route chosen, the goal of actually entering the church will soon not be possible. There are plans by the World Monuments Fund, the current experts in destroying Armenians sites in Turkey, to prohibit access to the surviving church, probably by surrounding the site by a security fence and walling up the gaps in the church’s walls.
Enough telling it to ourselves! Send a copy of this or forward it to Mr. Moon, the United Nations Secretary General, and all the others of same ilk, who piously toe the Turkish line “let the historian examine and decide”, like he shamelessly did around April 24. Besides, there is a sure way to turn the table on that excuse for not taking responsibilty, if we will just have the guts to do it, but that is another subject.
What good will it do ?
Very impressive and very touchy article. God bless your perseverance mission.
“Justice never dies, it gets sick then recovers”.
Baruyr Sevag
Just remember one thing and one thing only. The world knows about this destruction historically and turkey will have to answer at some point. These are all documented events of which turkey was counting on towards eradicating our past but instead brought direct attention to themselves.