Sunday 11 October 2015

Armenian News... A Topalian... Dates for your diary...




12 October  Lecture: Fragments of a Lost Homeland
Remembering the Armenian Genocide
by Dr Armen Marsoobian
Wiener Library, 29 Russel Square, WX1B 5DB
library is hosting an exhibition talking to the lecturer's newly published book.
organised by the Armenian Institute

15 October -  Louys i Louso
Tigran Hamasyan and Yerevan State Choir 
Union Chapel, Islington, London 
organised by Music of Armenia
click on www.unionchapel.org.uk 

19 October -  Politics, Aesthetics and the Missing Witness: 
 Armenian Literature in the Aftermath of 1915 
Room 4429, SOAS (University of London)
Dr Talar Chahinian (California State University, Long Beach)
organsed by Programme of Armenian Studies

23 October :  Armenia Masterpiees from an Enduring Culture
Boolean Library, Oxford
opening day
28 October -  Ecemenical Service at Westminster Abbey, London 
entrance by ticket only, apply to Primate's Office
waiting list in operation 

29 October  The Armenian Tragedy, a commemorative symposium 
a joint initiative by the Armenian and Turkish residents
University of Brighton
see attachment for more details
email to book: Memorynarrativehistories@brighton.ac.uk 

31 October -  Orphans of the Genocide
Projection of film in presence of director from USA
nominated for regional Emmy award
Navasartian Centre 223 Northfiled Avenue London W13 9QU
under the auspices of the Armenian Genocide Commemoration Committee

3 November - An Evening of Poetry to mark the Centenary of the Armenia Genocide

7 November - AGBU London Chamber Orchestra and International Armenian Soloists
St John Smith’s Square, London
Programme includes: Komitas, Gananchian, Hovannes, Tassone, 
Beethoven’s Emperor Piano Concert and young composers
Tickets from SJSS box office only

5 December - Dedication of Khatchkar 
within the grounds of the Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin 
the Mother Anglican Church of Ireland
details from the Dublin Mission Parish

19 December - Dedication of stone tablet 
 in the grounds of St David's Cathedral, Pembrokeshire,
the Mother Church of the Anglican Church in Wales
details from the Cardiff Mission Parish

18-19 December  - Performances of the opera Davit Bek 
Royal College of Music,London
details from London Armenian Opera



IRELAND SHOULD RECOGNISE THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
Irish Examiner
October 6, 2015 Tuesday
OPINION
In a significant development in Turkey, the pro-Kurdish Peoples'
Democratic Party (HDP) in their election manifesto for the November 1
parliamentary elections, have stated that if elected it will recognise
the Armenian Genocide.

HDP co-chairs Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag said the
state should issue state-level apologies for genocides and massacres
committed against different groups over the years.

Armenian Genocide recognition refers to the formal acceptance that
the massacre and forced deportation of Armenians committed by the
Ottoman Empire in 1915-1923 constitutes genocide.

So far the governments of 28 countries, including Russia, Brazil,
France, Germany, and Canada as well as 43 states of the United States
of America and the European Parliament have recognised the events as
'genocide'.

The Irish Government and Dáil Ã~Iireann have so far refused to
recognise the Armenian genocide. Given the similarities between
Irish and Armenian histories and cultures, it is very important that
Ireland should formally recognise the Armenian massacres as genocide,
especially in this centenary year of those tragic events.

JUSTIFYING GENOCIDE: GERMANY AND THE ARMENIANS 
FROM BISMARCK TO HITLER HARDCOVER- JANUARY 4, 2016
by Stefan Ihrig (Author)

The Armenian Genocide and the Nazi Holocaust are often thought to
be separated by a large distance in time and space. But Stefan Ihrig
shows that they were much more connected than previously thought.

Bismarck and then Wilhelm II staked their foreign policy on close
relations with a stable Ottoman Empire. To the extent that the
Armenians were restless under Ottoman rule, they were a problem
for Germany too. From the 1890s onward Germany became accustomed to
excusing violence against Armenians, even accepting it as a foreign
policy necessity. For many Germans, the Armenians represented an
explicitly racial problem and despite the Armenians' Christianity,
Germans portrayed them as the "Jews of the Orient."

As Stefan Ihrig reveals in this first comprehensive study of the
subject, many Germans before World War I sympathized with the Ottomans'
longstanding repression of the Armenians and would go on to defend
vigorously the Turks' wartime program of extermination. After the war,
in what Ihrig terms the "great genocide debate," German nationalists
first denied and then justified genocide in sweeping terms. The Nazis
too came to see genocide as justifiable: in their version of history,
the Armenian Genocide had made possible the astonishing rise of the
New Turkey.

Ihrig is careful to note that this connection does not imply the
Armenian Genocide somehow caused the Holocaust, nor does it make
Germans any less culpable. But no history of the twentieth century
should ignore the deep, direct, and disturbing connections between
these two crimes.


armradio.am
MICHAEL ARAM UNVEILS SCULPTURE IN NEW YORK TO HONOR 
ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
08 Oct 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan


Michael Aram has created a sculptural piece to commemorate the 100th
anniversary of the Armenian genocide, giftsanddec.com reports.

In an event held on October 6, 2015, the designer unveiled Migrations.

The dedication was led by Archbishop Khajg Barsamian at the plaza
of St. Vartan Armenian Cathedral in New York City. Many attended the
unveiling, including clergy and dignitaries.

This piece holds special meaning for Aram who is of Armenian descent.

"Migrations is inspired by the multiple migrations of the Armenian
population. It was a migration of spirit, of soul and of place. For
me, the piece is as much a tribute to the events of 1915 as it is a
reflection of family histories and the immigrant experience," he said.

The sculpture features a flock of birds in a vertical shape that
references the Khatchkars, stone cross markers characteristic of
medieval Christian Armenian art. In this piece, the khatchkar has a
void in the shape of the former Armenian provinces. The map is turned
on its side which signifies the upheaval of the country; the missing
piece suggests the emptying of the Armenian people from their land.

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