Iconic Armenian church survives war but not plunder in Turkey

Mahmut Bozarslan

 

In the 1950s, the Turkish state returned the centuries-old Surp Giragos Armenian Church in Diyarbakir to the city’s Armenian community, after having used it as a warehouse for years. Armenian writer Migirdic Margosyan, a native of Diyarbakir, describes how ironsmiths, carpenters, painters and goldsmiths from the city’s “Infidel Quarter” joined hands to “revive that wreck” and reopen it quickly to worship, keen to preserve “the legacy of their ancestors.”

Little could the volunteers have known then that the ordeal involving the largest Armenian church in the Middle East was far from over. By the early 1980s, Surp Giragos was a church without a congregation as Diyarbakir’s Armenians dwindled away. Abandoned to its fate, the church fell into decay. When a new restoration began in 2008, only its walls were standing, with the windows broken, the roof collapsed and the interiors filled with soil.

For Turkey's youngest Jews, ancestral tongue fading away

Nazlan Ertan

 

For the young generation of Sephardic Jews in Turkey, their ancestral tongue, Ladino, is just a few words for Grandma's cuisine, a line or two from old songs and some snappy insults.

UNESCO considers Ladino, also known as Judeo-Spanish or Judezmo, a severely endangered language. In Turkey, it is spoken by only about 10,000 people, mostly around Istanbul and Izmir. Other Ladino-speaking communities in Greece and North Africa have also diminished, according to the Unesco Atlas. Israel has declared Ladino endangered as well, and has established a National Authority for the Ladino language and culture.

Pizza wars: flatbread becomes latest battlefield in Turkey-Armenia dispute

 Sibel Hurtas

Translated by Sibel Utku Bila

Earlier this month, a Turkish newspaper reported that a new crisis was brewing between troubled neighbors Turkey and Armenia. The disputed issue this time is a popular foodstuff called “lahmacun” in Turkish and “lamadjo”(*) in Armenian. According to the report, the Armenians had launched an international drive to promote it as an Armenian dish, opening two restaurants in Russia.(**) The report sparked indignation among Turks, who also claim ownership of the dish, which is a thin piece of dough, topped with minced meat, vegetables and spices, ideally baked on a wood fire. Some television programs even took it upon themselves to explain why it was Turkish food.(***)

Iran: Dispute with Azerbaijan Over Polo

Rick Gladstone

 

Iran said Monday that it would oppose attempts by Azerbaijan to officially register polo with the United Nations as a purely indigenous sport, arguing that polo is an international game and Azerbaijan has no right to claim that it originated there. The official Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Mohammad-Ali Najafi, the head of Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization [ICHHTO], as saying in a letter to Unesco that “Iran strongly requests the rejection” of Azerbaijan’s application to register polo — which both nations call chogan — as an entry on the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list. (*)

Is Western Condemnation of Cultural Destruction Reserved Only for Enemies?

Simon Maghakyan



International organizations, Western governments, and mainstream media are vociferously outraged–and rightfully so–over the recent destruction of majestic Sufi Muslim shrines by Islamist extremists in Timbuktu, Mali, mirroring the reaction to the Taliban’s 2001 demolition of two beautiful Buddha statues in Bamiyan, Afghanistan.

The violators of cultural rights in both instances are anti-Western, al-Qaeda-linked groups, and that alone seems to have merited the strong Western condemnation.

Otherwise, why has the West maintained its overwhelming silence regarding the complete destruction of the world’s largest medieval Armenian cemetery by Azerbaijan, a major energy supplier to, and arms purchaser from, the West?

Ինչ տուեց 2010ը հայ[աստանեան] գրականութեանը

Ամփոփելով 2010ը՝ վստահաբար կարելի է ասել, որ այն բեկումնային էր եւ զարգացման ու վերաիմաստաւորման որակապէս նոր փուլի սկիզբը դարձաւ ժամանակակից հայ գրականութեան համար: Առաջին պատճառը ինտերնետային հաղորդակցութեան բումն էր, որ հայրենական մեդիավակումի պատճառով ներամփոփուած ու ճահճացած գրական գործընթացը հանեց առցանց տարածման ու քննարկման կենդանի միջավայր: Ողջ յետսովետական շրջանում արդի հայ գրականութիւնը երբեք ընթերցողների լայն շրջանակներին այդքան մօտ չէր եղել քան այս տարի: