BUCKNACKT'S SORDID TAWDRY BLOG
We should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive & well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate, bier or wein in hand, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WHOO-HOO, WHAT A RIDE!!!!!!"
NORTON META TAG
12 December 2024
These Forgotten Christians Know What It’s Like To Be Without a Country DEZEMBER 2024
MOST of the world recognizes Israel is guilty of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity similar to those committed by hitler's third reich, fortunately they still have no built the ovens. Most of the world recognizes the hypocrisy of the jewish mantra "Never Again" because they only apply it to Israeli jews and the jewish diaspora. The palestinian attack on Israel by hamas on 7 Oktober 2023 was an orgy of rape, brutal carnage, murder, and kidnapping that was also similar to the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by hitler's third reich. The crimes committed by palestinians on 7 Oktober do not justify the crimes committed by Israeli jews in Gaza as well as the intensification of Israeli jews war crimes and crimes against humanity on Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank. Nor are the 7 Oktober attacks justification for intensified discrimination, economic and physical attacks against the Armenian, Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Ethiopian Orthodox Christian communities in Jerusalem, communities that are over 1000 years old. Americans need to e mail our representatives, senators, and the president and tell them to stop the flow of weapons to Israel until they stop their war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza as well as in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. This from Sojourners.....
JERUSALEM’S OLD CITY has often been a focal point of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but within its walls lies a lesser-known story of occupation and resilience. The Armenian Quarter, a Christian enclave that has endured for centuries, now finds itself under threat.
Residents of the Armenian Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem protest in 2023 a land deal that threatens to displace them from a site Armenian Christians have lived on since the 5th century. / Maya Alleruzzo / AP Photo
In the context of occupied East Jerusalem, where Palestinians continually face displacement and erasure of their cultural and physical presence, the Armenian community’s struggle reflects a larger pattern. Though they make up a small portion of the city’s population, Armenians have called Jerusalem home for more than 1,700 years, surviving waves of conflict and colonial powers.
As a critical component of a shared Jerusalem between Jews, Christians, and Muslims, the Armenian Quarter has been a haven for this Christian community since a group of Armenian monks and priests established St. James monastery there in 420 C.E.
The enclave is now fighting to preserve its heritage amid mounting pressures. In April 2023, the community was shaken by plans from an Israeli-Australian developer, Xana Capital, to construct a luxury hotel on land purportedly owned by the Armenian Patriarchate. This development mirrors the land confiscation and settlement expansion that Palestinians know all too well.
Like the rest of the Christian population in the Old City, including the Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Ethiopian Orthodox, the Armenian community is navigating increased challenges, from economic strain to political pressures and demands to shift the historic status quo. These communities, increasingly pressured by Israeli authorities and settlers, face a myriad of problems, including property disputes, confiscation of church lands, new and prejudicial tax demands, and occasional acts of vandalism against religious sites. All Christian groups are grappling to maintain their historical presence in the face of growing threats in this contested city.
‘The last battle for Jerusalem’
IN NOVEMBER 2023, a large group of Israeli settlers entered the Armenian Quarter and threatened to take control via violent means. The initial provocation began with the signing of what many consider an illegitimate deal that would lease around 25 percent of the Armenian Quarter to an Israeli company for 98 years. The company plans to build a hotel on the land, which is situated strategically between several pilgrimage sites. Many Armenians see this as another step in the efforts of Israeli far-right proponents to strengthen their hold over disputed East Jerusalem.
Hagop Djernazian and Setrag Balian are co-founders of the Save the ArQ movement, whose goal is to preserve and defend the Armenian Quarter (or “ArQ”) of Jerusalem. They have been among the most ardent community activists responding to the threats of settlers attempting to confiscate the land.
“We established a movement,” Djernazian told Sojourners, “following an illegal land deal, which was signed by the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem with an Israeli company, Xana Capital ... it turns out that the company has alleged ties with settler organizations.” Djernazian described attacks with bulldozers and by armed settlers and said, “The existential threat we as a community are facing is a huge threat not only for the Armenian community and church and the Christians in Jerusalem but also for the mosaic of Jerusalem that we believe in.”
Armenians have taken the issue to Israeli courts, which have not yet ruled. Peaceful protests of the deal have led to violent crackdowns by the Israeli military in which many activists have been injured and arrested. Representatives of Xana Capital recently came to the Armenian Quarter with Israeli settlers armed with assault rifles and German shepherds. When a scuffle ensued, Israeli police only arrested the unarmed Armenians while allowing instigating Israeli settlers to leave the area. The Armenians were later released without charge, after hours of detention. Armenians have since set up an encampment in the area to guard against attempts by settlers to squat on the land and take it over by using strategies of confiscation and displacement employed in other parts of East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Djernazian and Balian speak not only about protecting the Armenian Quarter, but also about a shared Jerusalem. “We consider the battle and the struggle for the Armenian Quarter the last battle for the Jerusalem that we all love, the Jerusalem that is holy to the three monotheistic religions,” Balian said. “Our main goal is to ... preserve the cultural mosaic, the multiethnic, multicultural, and multifaith character of this unique and holy city.”
THE STRUGGLES FOR the protection of Armenians in the Old City are not isolated incidents. Extremist Israelis are known for their targeted hate crimes against indigenous Christians. These include physical assaults as well as spitting attacks, emboldened by the rise of the far-right establishment in Israel. Armenian priests and others have long complained about being physically and verbally assaulted by settlers and the lack of meaningful action taken by the police and government to stop these attacks.
For Armenians facing displacement in Jerusalem, the current threat is reminiscent of their experience historically, having survived ethnic cleansing and attempts at genocide — an estimated 1.5 million Armenians were killed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries — ignored until recently by much of the world. In 2010, the U.S. Congress finally acknowledged the Armenian genocide despite pressure from Turkey, supported by President Barack Obama, not to pursue the matter. In 2021, President Joe Biden declared April 24 Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day. To this day, Turkey continues to deny the genocide of the Armenian people.
The decades-long displacement of Armenians from Turkey and other parts of Asia resonates with the experience of Palestinians, several hundred thousand of whom remain residents of Jerusalem without any permanent nationhood status. Palestinians also have a history of ethnic cleansing and displacement stretching back to the Nakba (“great catastrophe”) of 1948, which resulted in roughly three-quarters of a million Palestinian refugees.
Armenian Christians in the Old City are not the only members of the walled city facing the threat of displacement as far-right settler presence increases — the Muslim and Christian quarters face similar challenges. After Israel took control of Jerusalem and the West Bank in 1967 in the Six-Day War, Armenians and Palestinians in East Jerusalem were given a special “Jerusalem ID” instead of Israeli citizenship; some Armenians also retained Jordanian citizenship. Consequently, the Armenian community is treated similarly to Palestinians by Israeli authorities, facing delays in obtaining permits and difficulties at checkpoints and airports. Without Israeli citizenship, Armenians and Palestinians often describe themselves as people without a country, lacking the protections of a state to address their civil and human rights concerns.
Today, Armenians face an existential crisis — both in Jerusalem and in their historic homeland. The additional displacement of 120,000 Armenians from the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region by Azerbaijan in September 2023 only added to their collective trauma. Armenian American attorney Lenna Hovanessian described the recent forced displacement as hauntingly reminiscent of the genocide a century earlier. “I feel like parts of me are being erased,” Hovanessian said. “I am becoming invisible.”
The Israel-Azerbaijan connection
ARMENIA, THE FIRST country in the world to adopt Christianity as its state religion, in 301 C.E., is a landlocked nation bordered by Turkey, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Iran. The Armenian homeland, however, extends much further than the current state borders and encompasses vast swathes of Eastern Anatolia, in modern-day Turkey. Most of the approximately 11 million Armenians worldwide trace their heritage from these lands. Due to the loss of land from foreign conquest, subjugation, massacres, and eventually genocide, these ancient Christian people live mostly as a diaspora around the world.
The ongoing Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has much in common with that in Jerusalem. Both locations are home to some of the world’s most sacred Christian heritage sites. Ancient churches have been systematically destroyed in the last 30 years of war between Armenia and Azerbaijan. However, the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region — which had a majority Armenian population but is controlled by Azerbaijan — still contains a wealth of ancient monasteries, stone crosses (called khachkars), and other sacred places. The renewed outbreak of war here is one of the great concerns within the threat of a broader Middle East escalation and further complicates the already rife geopolitics of the Middle East and neighboring regions.
When Armenia won the first Nagorno-Karabakh war in the early 1990s, the territory (known as Artsakh by Armenians) declared independence but was unrecognized internationally. Massacres and interethnic conflict occurred as a part of the violence on all sides, including numerous pogroms against the Armenian people perpetrated by Azerbaijan, which was supported by both Turkey and Israel. This played into another Israeli-Armenian dynamic: the close cultural and military ties between Israel and Azerbaijan.
In 2020, Azerbaijan launched a military campaign aimed at reclaiming all the land it had lost in the 1990s war. Using Israeli drones, ammunition, and training, the much larger and better-equipped Azerbaijani army conquered large parts of Nagorno-Karabakh before a ceasefire was signed. The ceasefire did little to stop escalations in violence. Emboldened by its victory and with its military stocks replenished by Israel, Azerbaijan launched a 10-month blockade on the remaining Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh, soon resulting in deaths by starvation. In September 2023, Azerbaijan forces once again attacked. The local Armenian forces surrendered, and a mass exodus ensued.
These military campaigns were widely celebrated in Israel. Videos emerged of Israelis ripping down Armenian flags in Jerusalem and attacking Armenian property, such as restaurants in the Armenian Quarter. Israel continues to deepen its military and intelligence relationship with Azerbaijan.
THESE DAYS, CHRISTIAN residents of Jerusalem, including those in the Armenian Quarter, watch as Israel continues its onslaught in Gaza that, after more than 12 months, has caused the death of more than 41,000 Palestinians, including dozens of the small Christian population. The most immediate threat for Armenians in the Old City may be the confiscation of their historic land, but it transpires within the context of increased hostilities between Israel and Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran.
As Israel’s war on Gaza continues and regional violence escalates, the United States has continued to arm Israel and has increased its military presence in the Middle East in hopes of deterring an expanded war. Azerbaijan is backed by Turkey and Russia, which have opposed the war on Gaza. In July, President Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey said he was considering “entering Israel” in support of Gaza. “We must be very strong so that Israel can’t do these ridiculous things to Palestine,” Erdogan said. “Just like we entered [Nagorno-]Karabakh, just like we entered Libya, we might do similar to them.”
While Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran, in addition to pro-Iranian militias throughout the Middle East, may be on one side of Israel’s war against Gaza, it is important to note the other actors waiting in the wings. As of early August, Russia and Iran had begun talks about more significant political allegiances moving forward.
As a broader regional war breaks out, it is possible that Azerbaijan would use this as a distraction to attack Armenia once again. Armenia, a tiny democratic country with profound Christian historical importance, remains significantly vulnerable, as do the small Armenian Christian communities in both Nagorno-Karabakh and the Old City of Jerusalem.
The co-founders of the movement to save the Armenian Quarter are still hopeful. “We pray for peace, stability, justice for our region, and peace for the Holy Land and Jerusalem,” Djernazian said. Balian added a plea: “Let us all come together and pray for the peace of not only Jerusalem as a whole, but specifically for Christian Jerusalem, which is more and more under threat, and which is facing today some of their biggest existential threats.”
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