RE-BURYING THE DEAD AND THE BURIED

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RE-BURYING THE DEAD AND THE BURIED

Gibrahayer Nicosia 25 March-Alexander-Michael Hadjilyra katoomba@cytanet.com.cy -Members of the Armenian community of Cyprus, joined Archbishop Varoujan Hergelian accompanied by clergies and deacons of the Armenian Church, in a solemn ceremony for the reburial of the remains of 9 identified and 32 unidentified Armenians previously exhumed. They were laid to rest, in accordance to the rites of the Armenian Apostolic Church, last Sunday, 22 March 2009. Cypress trees were also planted on the grounds of the cemetery, with many, kindly participating in the throwing of soil with shovels. Before and after the ceremony, we wandered through the cemetery grounds, located between the Law Courts and the Wolseley Barracks, right next to the UN Buffer Zone. For me it was a journey through time, as we were able to see the historical tombstones, most of which dated to the late 19th and the early 20th centuries. The majority of the graves belonged to deghatsi families; indeed, some of the inscribed surnames are apparently uncommon today. Others were hard to read, because of the decay of the marble. My company were puzzled why Latin writing was found on some tombs located to the north part of the cemetery, but then I reminded them that it is customary to bury Armenian Catholics to the right part of a cemetery, Armenian Protestants to the left, and the Apostolics in the centre. With works expected to complete in about a month, an obelisk (houshagotogh) will be bearing the names of the 463 buried there since 1877, including the ones whose graves are still intact. The old Armenian cemetery appears to have been in use as a burial ground since the 15th century, but according to records of the Armenian Prelature it was officially registered as a cemetery in 1877. The wall and the gate were erected in 1888, and the Sourp Boghos chapel was built in 1892, in memory of the cemetery’s benefactor, Boghos Odadjian, a Bolsetsi. Due to the increase of burials - a direct result of the Armenian Genocide and the large number of refugees who fled to Cyprus - a new plot was purchased to the west of Ayios Dhometios. The last burial, carried out in 1931, was the 9-months old Bedros Aynedjian.

In 1963, because of the widening of Shakespeare street, about 100 graves had to be demolished and their remains were trans-located to the Ayios Dhometios cemetery. After the inter-communal troubles in 1963-1964, the historical cemetery was abandoned due to its proximity to the buffer zone. Ironically, in 1974 the Ayios Dhometios cemetery fell within the buffer zone; for burials, a special permission was required 24 hours in advance, with a limited number of mourners attending. After the efforts of MP Vartkes Mahdessian, visits there are allowed every Sunday. In 1998 the new cemetery was built, to the north of Lakatamia-Ayii Trimithias road. The Sourp Boghos chapel has been restored, its roof has been renovated, and the commemorative plaque in front of the door replaced, however it still needs painting on the inside. As of this year, a small service will be held there on the Sunday following Easter. We look forward to the completion of the restoration works for the cemetery, hoping it will become a gem for the region and the community.

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550 PACK ARMENIAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE'S FUNDRAISER AT PAVILLION FEATURING TATA

Gibrahayer - Nicosia Wednesday 25 March - Armenian National Committee's Tuesday night's fund-raiser featuring Tata was a community record-breaker, with more than 550 Armenian Cypriots packing The Pavilion in Nicosia. The evening also featured Eurovision Cyprus 2009 finalist Gore Melian and Maria Moskofian. The audience were reminded of the reason why the event was taking when a 10-minute film was shown on the giant screens, on the global political activities of Armenian National Committee's. The event was under the patronage of Parliament President Marios Garoyian, who was greeted warmly by his compatriots. "We will continue our noble struggle so that we give our homelands both Cyprus and Armenia the place in history that they deserve" Garoyian concluded his speech that was constantly interrupted by rhythmic applauses of his compatriots.

THE MOVIE-SCREAMERS AT K-CINEPLEX ON APRIL 7

The screening of Screamers is organised by The Armenian National Committee of Cyprus Film Director of Screamers Carla Garabedian will also be present at the event

TALAAT'S BLACK BOOK DOCUMENTS HIS CAMPAIGN OF RACE EXTERMINATION IN 1915 - 1917

“[Talaat stated that]… they had already disposed of three quarters of them [Armenians], that there were none left in Bitlis, Van, Erzeroum, and that the hatred was so intense now that they have to finish it. . . . He said they would take care of the Armenians at Zor and elsewhere but they did not want them in Anatolia. I told him three times that they were making a serious mistake and would regret it. He said, ‘We know we have made mistakes, but we never regret.’” —8 August 1915 diary entry of conversations between Talaat Pasha and U.S. Ambassador Henry Morgenthau, United States Diplomacy on the Bosphorus: The Diaries of Ambassador Morgenthau, 1913–1916, comp., ed., and intro. Ara Sarafian (Princeton and London: Gomidas Institute, 2004) by Ara Sarafian - LONDON – A handwritten black book that belonged to Mehmet Talaat Pasha, the Ottoman minister of interior in 1915, was published in facsimile form in the end of 2008. It is probably the single most important document ever uncovered describing the destruction of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in 1915–17. The Black Book draws on Ottoman sources no longer available to answer many questions about what those sources showed. Looking through the Sifre Kalemi or cipher telegram collection at the Prime Ministry Archives in Istanbul some years ago, I was struck by the number of telegrams in 1915 from Talaat Pasha ordering the deportation of individual communities, inquiring about the state of convoys, and giving instructions for further deportations. What emerged was a picture of a ruler obsessed with the progress of his signature program. Much of the responses to Talaat's inquiries were not available. What the Black Book does is to summarise the data he collected. Ottoman archives Turkish state intellectuals in recent years have insisted that the 1915 deportations of Ottoman Armenians were not part of a genocidal exercise, but an orderly population transfer and resettlement. They have insisted that Ottoman archives in Turkey today support their contention. Yet, between them, they have only managed to cite an amalgam of official deportation and resettlement regulations, certain reports related to deportations, and no substantial account of what actually happened to deportees. Indeed, no historian working in Turkish archives has managed to present a coherent picture of the deportation and resettlement of Armenians from any region in the Ottoman Empire based on Ottoman records. This is because Ottoman records do not support the official Turkish thesis on the Armenian Genocide. While there is broad agreement between Turkish archives and other sources that thousands of Armenians were removed from their homes in 1915, there is no solid account of what happened to these deportees in Ottoman records. However, foreign archives, such as the consular records of the United States, give a better qualitative assessment of actual developments than the available Ottoman documentation. This absence of Ottoman records could seem perplexing, because according to Ottoman regulations, Ottoman officials had to keep detailed records of the deportation of Armenians, as well as an inventory of their properties, as well as details of the final settlement of the people concerned. The total absence of such registers in Turkish archives today is therefore remarkable. A handwritten book The recent facsimile publication of Talaat Pasha’s Black Book may well answer many of questions with the authority of Ottoman records. At 77 pages, the book includes a substantial section on the deportation of Armenians in 1915–17. The book and its content were never disclosed in Talaat’s lifetime, including in his posthumous memoirs published in 1921. After his assassination in 1921, the book was kept by his widow and given to the Turkish historian Murat Bardakçi in 1982. Mr. Bardakçı made parts of the booklet public in Hürriyet newspaper in 2005. The full account was not published until the end of 2008. The significance of the Black Book lies in the authority of the owner, the fact that its content was drawn from Ottoman administrative records no longer available to historians in Turkey, and the actual data that it gives about the deportation of Armenians. Neither the book nor the data it yields bear clear dates, though Mr. Bardakçı thinks that the figures refer to 1915–1916 – though I think that could be the end of 1916 or even the beginning of 1917. The state perspective The data presented in this book can be considered to be a view of the Armenian Genocide from the perspective of the state. This state perspective still needs to be evaluated critically, which I am doing in a separate study. The purpose of this article is to introduce the core data that informed Talaat Pasha about the actual state of Armenians. The statistics regarding the destruction of Armenians in the Black Book are enumerated in four categories covering for 29 regions (vilayets and sanjaks) of the Ottoman Empire. These statistics are supposed to reflect: - The Armenian population in each region in 1914 - Armenians who were not deported (presumably 1915–16) - Armenians who were deported and living elsewhere (1917) - Armenians who were originally from outside the province they were living in (1917) From these statistics, we can also have an idea of the number of Armenians who were deported but not accounted for in 1917. Some of these missing Armenians undoubtedly fled the Ottoman Empire, such as those in the province of Van (where there was fierce resistance) or parts of Erzurum (which fell under Russian occupation after the Ottoman offensive collapsed in the east). However, very few Armenians were able to flee in such a manner, and for our discussion today, we will assume that the vast majority of the “missing Armenians” in 1917 were killed or died during deportations. Questions answered The figures from Talaat Pasha’s Black Book are invaluable because they answer some fundamental questions about the Armenian Genocide. more here ######### Ara Sarafian is an archival historian specializing in late Ottoman and modern Armenian history. He is the director of the Gomidas Institute, London. This article is a summary of a broader project on “Talaat Pasha’s Black Book and the Armenian Genocide.”

ΕΠΙΖΩΝΤΕΣ ΘΗΣΑΥΡΟΙ ΑΠΟ ΤΗ ΜΟΝΗ ΑΓΙΟΥ ΜΑΚΑΡΙΟΥ (Αρμενομονάστηρο) Click here to read

AZERBAIJAN CERTAIN TO LIBERATE TERRITORIES SAYS ALIYEV

Interfax, Russia - Baku - March 20 2009 - Azerbaijan will never put up with the occupation of its territory and will liberate it, Azeri President Ilham Aliyev said. "Independence will never be granted to Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan will never come to terms with the occupation of its territory," he said at the celebration of Novruz in Baku on Friday. Aliyev said he intends to use all possible ways to achieve this goal, and Azerbaijan has been strengthening its economic and defence potential to this end. "The military parade held in Baku last year demonstrated our potential to the whole of the world," he said. "We want to peacefully resolve the conflict, but this solution should be fair and based on international law," he said.

S-400 AIR DEFENCE SYSTEM DEPLOYED IN RUSSIA

MOSCOW, March 17 (RIA Novosti) - The second regimentο equipped with advanced S-400 Triumf air defence missile systems has been put into combat service in Russia, the Defence Minister said on Tuesday. In 2007, Russia successfully conducted live firing tests of the S-400 air Defence complex at the Kapustin Yar firing range in south Russia's Astrakhan Region, and deployed the first missile regiment equipped with the new system to protect the airspace surrounding Moscow and industrial zones in the center of Russia's European territory. The S-400 Triumf (SA-21 Growler) air Defence system is expected to form the new cornerstone of Russia's theatre air and missile defences up to 2020 or even 2025. The S-400 is designed to intercept and destroy airborne targets at a distance of up to 400 kilometers (250 miles), twice the range of the U.S. MIM-104 Patriot, and 2.5 times that of the S-300PMU-2. The system is also believed to be able to destroy stealth aircraft, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles, with an effective range of up to 3,500 kilometers (2,200 miles) and a speed of up to 4.8 kilometers (3 miles) per second. A regular S-400 battalion comprises at least eight launchers with 32 missiles and a mobile command post, according to various sources. The new state arms procurement program until 2015 stipulates the purchase of enough S-400 air Defence systems to arm 18 battalions during this period.