Special from Arthur Hagopian
JERUSALEM—The Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem recently lodged a strong protest against a decision by the Israeli Ministry of Interior to deport two seminarians involved in a fight with a young Jewish man who had spat on a religious procession they were involved in.
The spokesman for the Patriarchate, Father Pakrad Bourjekian, noted that this was not the first time Armenian or Christian clergymen in Jerusalem had faced unprovoked aggression.
The clergy aren’t the only ones singled out, he said. Lay members of the Armenian community who wear or display crosses are also victims of such attacks.
The latest provocation occurred on Sunday evening, Sept. 6, as Armenian seminarians returned to the Convent of St. James after holding their weekly procession in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
As they neared the convent, a young Jew wearing a kipa spat on them.
One of the seminarians accosted the youth, who responded with another blob of spit, leading to a brawl that ended when police arrested two of the Armenian seminarians and held them for 24 hours.
That same evening, the police informed the Armenian Patriarchate that the matter would be dealt with in court the next morning.
At court, however, the Armenians were informed that the police had referred the matter to the Israeli Ministry of the Interior, which had decided to deport the two seminarians, Bourjekian said.
Spitting on Christians, he added, has been occurring for the past several years, and the Ministry and police have failed to take any measures to stop it.
In addition to this “harassment by civilians,” Bourjekian said, the Ministry intentionally delays renewing the visas of Armenian monks and priests who were born in Lebanon, Syria, or Jordan, “causing them undue distress.”
He voiced concern that “this kind of persecution” against the Armenians might escalate to include not only seminarians but priests, bishops, and archbishops as well.
Really? “Shut it down”? Is that the best you can do? Is this a result of the brain drain caused by all those executed bright bulbs of your culture on April 24, 1915?
The anger Armenians feel is completely understandable and justified, and the fact that this is an unresolved hot-potato issue, weighing heavily on their cultural identity. The Armenian Genocide is the Armenian Diaspora’s childhood trauma, unresolved and incubated, and anyone of even the slightest bit of a moral compass can see the error of stifling its memory or blocking a way forward.
However If you have oil, or guns, or a pathway to Iraq, you get to call the shots. A rapidly assimilating Diaspora and a landlocked corrupt Armenia hinged on Russian interests is going to be overlooked in the scope of the Greater Game. Every million spent to educate and influence the United States Government to do the right thing is met by TENS of MILLIONS from Turkey, a somewhat Ally of the USA. Heck, the United States can’t even AFFIRM ITS OWN HISTORY (Morgenthau, Near East Relief Society, etc) within its own congress without having a scimitar dangled over its head. This is the most powerful country in the world. Some of the most powerful testimonies about the events of 1915 are in the vaults of the US government, and yet there are constant attempts to rewrite that history by foreign powers.
And they almost nearly succeed. The only real tool the Truth has is the constant reminder, the media attention, the activism that links 1915 to present day events and seeks to eradicate Genocide forever. Please consider the following: how many Armenians ARE THERE REALLY in MAINSTREAM MEDIA? How many are championing your cause or even bringing attention to this issue? On the contrary, support those in media (especially your own) and keep stirring the controversy. Make people notice. Keep the pressure on.
Put some resources into demonstrating WHY this is important to all of us now. All of us meaning the planet, not just Yerevan and Glendale.
the above was meant for the Young Turks article, BTW. Not the Jerusalem one.