Voices From The Lake

A documentary on the Genocide, focusing on the tragedy during the last days of Kharpert. 83 min.

Concerto del musicista armeno Djivan Gasparyan

Concerto presso Mater Ecclesiae del musicista armeno Gasparyan tenutosi a Bari il 20 dicembre 2005 What a wonderful concert by Djivan Gasparian(jivan Kasparian) and his Duduk ensemble at a performance in Italy. A rare eclectic treat. You'll hear a sampling of songs collected by father Gomidas. Cultural treasures that would have been forever lost with the people that perished in the genocide. Father Gomidas collected these folk songs from the cities and villages that were ethnically cleansed from its indigenous population, the western Armenians.

Armenian Genocide/System Of a Down

Peter Jennings documentary about the Armenian Genocide.

Govdantsi Bar

Traditional Armenian Folk Dance

Sharing

The advent of the internet has enabled us to share ideas, pictures, videos, etc. that would not have been possible before. Within just a couple months, my perceptions of it's capabilities have increased tenfold.
To counteract the effects of the cultural genocide, the internet could become a great tool to share the rescued remnants of that culture.
Hopefully this blog will encourage people from around the world to start posting what they have in their, or in their friends/relatives, possession; whether that be a practiced art such as dance, crafts, music, or rescued cultural relics such as books, poetry, pictures, stories, or memoirs, etc.
I have posted a dance that I discovered on google videos. A great armenian dance, and will be posting an authenthic village dance as practiced by some old timers somewhere in America at a picknick.
As evidenced from watching the Govdantsi Bar, the dancers are advanced in their age and
there are no youngsters among them to learn and preserve the dance. One can only imagine how much livelier and how many more dances were enjoyed by the people from this village in their own town before they were deported, marched to the desert and massacred by the turks.
We should all make an effort with the present technology in our disposal, be it in Australia or Swaziland, to be witnesses to these bits of cultural treasures. Record and post them on the internet whether through personal blogs or through sending them to others if one can not.
Only then would we be able to pay respect the spirits of the martyrs that perished in the first genocide of the twentieth century.
Enjoy the two videos
Share your videos, pictures, literature, or arts and crafts or stories from the lost villages in Western Armenia.
And, above all.
Learn to dance the govdantsi dance as you watch it, save it, share it(and any others like it) whether you are 5 year old or 105 year old so you can join the old timers if you are lucky or teach them to a few others and keep the spirit of our ancestors alive and those who survived and kept what they could alive in far away places.

Memories of lost cultures

April 24th is the memorial day of the Armenian genocide .Often the cultural loss is not remembered because of the overwhelming physical extinction and extensive effort required by the few survivors to establish, regroup what's left of their families.
Learning different languages, adapting to the new environment and legalities of a foreign country prevented them from rescuing what was left from the oral history, tradition.
April 24th of each year, flowers in hand we walk toward the memorial to remember lost cities, villages and loved ones.
We all walk together to create a human wall around the monuments as to say silently
"NEVER AGAIN as a group we would allow this to happen to us or to others in this world".
Each flower is layed at the monument in memory of a victim of the genocide, a lost song, a forgotten dance, a lost city, a rare book that remained behind, cultural traits that we might never recover, masterworks of architectural monuments that are decaying to extinction in turkey, and we as a group are incapable of doing anything to stop the destruction in front of our eyes.
Are we strong enough now to shake ourselves out of the commatose trauma state that is a natural effect of the horrendous crime,
and start rebuilding our unique culture based on what was left behind?
Are we Strong enough to wear our national costumes at least once a year just as many other cultures do on many occasions throughout the year?
Are we strong enough to devote some resources and money and hire the few who could teach our children the traditional dances in junior high and high school besides all the other dances?
Has the time come yet to move on???

Video Of Destruction Of The Historic Armenian Cemetery And Stone Crosses

Original Video Content From http://www.armenica.org

Is this a Church or a slaughtered cultural relic?
More examples of destruction of Armenian Cultural heritages
that have remained behind in Western Armenia

An Example of Cultural Genocide

The statement that comes to mind everytime I look at this picture is the famous quote by Victor Hugo "The turks must have passed through here"
This church is one of thousands that have been and are still being destroyed by the turks to eliminate every evidence of a differing religion and culture that lived gracefully, peacefully in that country.
Instead of being a house of the lord, standing tall as it's builders intended, and songs of praise emanating from the faithful parishioners, it's awaiting for someone (anyone) who cares to come and rebuild it.
is that not what we are supposed to do?
If a few families a year made the effort to rebuild one of these ruins, pretty soon, instead of the negative image we would be filled with the joy that there are still a few people left on eath that care about stopping the destruction of these wonderfull cultural relics.

INDEPENDENCE FOR A FEW OR ....

for all who aspire for it?

The effort to liberate from oppressive, uncivilized, abusive regimes is a noble cause that should be encouraged by civil societies for the benefit of all humanity.
Had it not been for the valiant effort of our forefathers, democracy would not have blossomed to the extent that it has. And, we are all better off because of the constitutional rights we inherited in the U.S.A. through the effort to reach freedom of thought, expression, assembly, religion...Rights that were denied to the founding fathers previously.
Happy Independence day
Unfortunately, there are still countries in this world that deny those same rights to their citizens.
While everyone is aware of the plight of the kurds under S. Hussein's regime because of their contribution to the war effort in Iraq, not many hear about the horrendous condition that the kurds are living in the neighboring country of Turkey.
Just as they tried to exterminate the Armenians in the early 20th Century through legislation, exhoberant taxation, and forced relocation and assimilation, they are using those same inhumane, uncivilized techniques on their last remaining minority, the Kurds. The imposed legislation that denies them their basic human rights, their cultural and physical existence.

Article 66 of the turkish constitution (as amended on October 17, 2001):

"Everyone bound to the Turkish state through the bond of citizenship is
a Turk. The child of a Turkish father or a Turkish mother is a Turk."

This can be defined as "identity genocide": wiping Kurds from the surface of earth. It is disturbing. No individual can be born from Kurdish parents, even when they are born from Kurdish parents. They immediately become Turkish by the magic of this article. This is a clear denial of the existence of Kurds. Please note this article has been amended to meet EU criteria, or more correctly, to fool naïve EU politicians.(fatah, 2006)

"those who do not study and take lessons from history are bound to repeat it"

This is an old tactic that the Turks used on Armenians whose surnames had been butchered and Turkified. No Armenian could carry their original armenian family name even though they were outstanding citizens of Turkey then and now. A Turkish last name was imposed on them whether they liked it or not.

The Turkish constitution does not mention the Kurdish language at all. Article 3 states:
"The Turkish state, with its territory and nation, is an indivisible
entity. Its language is Turkish."

Article 42 elaborates this further:

"No other language than Turkish shall be taught as a mother tongue to Turkish citizens at any institutions of training or education.
Foreign languages to be taught in institutions of training and education and the rules to be followed by schools conducting training and education in a foreign language shall be determined by law. The provisions of international treaties are reserved."(fatah, 2006)

The Extermination of a culture "Any Culture" from the face of the earth is a crime against civilization and the effort should not be tolerated. Furthermore, no country that has these oppressive rules and practices should be allowed to join the European Union where people are proud to speak different languages, and appreciative of the contribution of various cultures that comprise the E.U.

The Turkish government has not stopped committing genocide as evidenced by its treatment of Kurds today, its invasion and division of Cyprus, and its continued destruction of the cultural remains of the martyred Armenians. The numerous churches built by the Armenians could not be marched to the Arabian desert and slaughtered/massacred, so they converted them to mosques, barns and continue to this day to destroy those churches that could be the pride of European cultural heritage.
So, what is the EU doing to stop the repetition of these atrocities?
How can the EU admit to its membership a country that has practiced physical, cultural and ethnic genocide on its previous citizens (Armenians, Greeks, Kurds, Assyrians) and continues to commit the same hideous crime on it's last remaining minority, the Kurds.
Enough is Enough
The EU should demand from Turky to treat its citizens right, give them the freedom to speak any language they wish, to communicate in their native language, enjoy and preserve their native culture, and be proportianaly represented in government.
Otherwise, it's high time for the Kurds to have their own country and be rulers of their own destiny.

"A partitioned Turky would much better serve the security, stability needs of the EU and USA"

The EU should be the guarantor of human rights, preservation of the cultures that exist and the peaceful cohabitation of all the people within without any discrimination.

"A third of Turkey's population have Kurdish blood. These Kurds speak
Kurdish and occupy vast areas of 'Kurdistan' - what has always been
their homeland but cannot be found in the Turkish Constitution."

KURDISH IDENTITY IS DENIED IN TURKISH CONSTITUTION
By Dr Rebwar Fatah

There was a time, not too long ago, that a third of the population of Turky was Armenian. While the Turkish government organized twentieth century's first ethnic cleansing and massacred 90 % of the Armenians, illegally appropriated their property, and destroyed their cultural heritage; the wold stood idle, ignored the genocide and still is not demanding from Turky to acknowledge its high crime and change its ways.

IS THE SAME FATE AWAITING THE KURDS?

NEVER AGAIN SHOULD THE WORLD STAND IDLE AND IGNORE THE REALITIES .....

May the aspirations of self determination of the Kurds come true.........