4/24/2007

Arax - Danse d'erzeroum - Armenian Folk Music

A song/dance to remind us of Erzerum in Western Armenia.

Dle Yaman by Isabel Bayrakdarian

Thanks Isabel for singing this wonderful song with a refreshing arrangement with the duduks. In memory of father Gomidas who collected these songs, but could not withstand the brutal, inhumane events that his people were subjected at the hands of the turks.
Is there anyone out there that could fund the rebuilding of this Architectural treasure of a church called Zvartnots. Should it still remain in ruins?

Shushan-Haleh, from Dikranagerd

A dance from Dikranagerd region of Western Armenia. Thanks Tomzara for keeping the dance alive on this April 24th, when many other dances from this area have disappeared/lost because of the brutal crime committed by the turks. Video posted in memory of all Dikranagerdtzi's who did not survive the genocide.
P.S. Please videotape/rescue any living cultural treasures from the Western Armenian regions so we can share it with the whole wide world. Post them to the net like Tomzara has done, or send them to us and we will post them for you. Thanks for keeping the spirit of our Martyrs alive.

Kessab Dance II, Western Armenia

A group of survivors from Kessab, Svedia region of Western Armenia dancing a traditional dance that survived the genocide.
Video posted in memory of all those who did not survive the genocide

4/01/2007

Turkey's Shame?

Out of 2500+ Armenian churches they try to rebuild one as a publicity stunt. But, they do not reopen it as a church but as museum. They talk about being a secular muslim society but can not allow church services being held in the reconstructed church. They want the European Union to accept them as they are but they can not accept christianity as a valid religion and prosecute every minority within their society??
When will they join civilazation.
What about the other churches that are decaying and getting destroyed?
Hayastani Petakan Nvagakhumb - The Dance Of The Mountaineers

Had to post this video for the amount of energy it contains, and the indication of where Aram Khachatourian's music is derived from and why he so treasured visiting his homeland.
Armenian Dance - Dance Teachers from California

The rebirth of cultural heritage.
An Armenian traditional dance being preformed by various teachers from the Armenian Dance Association of California at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre in Los Angeles during the Annual Armenian Dance Festival 2004
THE NEW TEARS OF ARAXES

CULTURAL GENOCIDE DOCUMENTED.
Featuring a never-seen-before satellite image of a vandalized medieval cemetery at the Iranian-Azerbaijani border, "The New Tears of Araxes," a five-minute film, tells the tragic story of thousands of ancient Armenian headstones flattened to the ground by the Azerbaijani authorities in Djulfa (Jugha), Nakhichevan.

On December 15, 2005, eyewitnesses across the River Araxes videotaped Azeri soldiers destroying Armenian burial monuments - khachkars (cross stones) - some as old as 1,500 years. Azerbaijani officials denied the vandalism, but banned European Parliament members from visiting the site in March of 2006. Only a few outside news sources tried to publicize the tragedy.

"The New Tears of Araxes" is written by Sarah Pickman, a University of Chicago student, who was the only American reporter to cover the tragedy when she interned for Archaeology Magazine. Producer and narrator Simon Maghakyan, who is among America's top 20 college students according to USA TODAY (April 24, 2006), hopes the film will break a year of ignorance and silence. When asked why others should care, Maghakyan quotes Martin Luther King Jr. as saying, "Injustice anywhere is threat to justice everywhere."
Jivan Gasparyan - Eshkhemed

Jivan playing with his heart the soulful messages left to us in those stone churches and cross stones that have been destroyed. Can anyone feel the call to help rebuild all those churches and turn them into houses of worship.
Masterpieces of architecture waiting to be resurrected. Heed Jivan's call. Do something to rescue all these churches and cultural treasures from total destruction. The turks have already destroyed what was left behind in Western Armenia and from the thousands that they destroyed they rebuilt one but would not allow a cross on it and would not allow any religeous services to be performed in it.
Yeghish Manoukyan

A traditional rendition of a wonderful song by Ashough(minstrel) Ashot.
Voch mi tzaghik ko pourmounke chouni (No flower has your perfume)