| alazaro |
Enviado - 15 noviembre 2006 : 23:06:17 |
Council of Europe Framework Convention for the Protection of National
Minorities: news concerning Armenia
PUBLICATION OF THE SECOND OPINION OF THE ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON ARMENIA
STRASBOURG 13.11.2006 #150; The opinion of the Advisory Committee of the Council of Europe's Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities on measures taken in this field by Armenia has been made public at the country's initiative. The comments are also available.
The Advisory Committee of 18 independent experts drew up the opinion on the basis of the state report and other materials and after conducting a visit to Armenia. The opinion will soon be examined by the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers, which will then adopt its conclusions and possible recommendations.
The opinions of the Advisory Committee are made public upon the adoption of the Committee of Ministers' conclusions and recommendations, unless the country concerned agrees to make the opinion public at an earlier stage.
(http://www.coe.int/t/e/human_rights/minorities/1._general_presentation/1._news/
News(2006)037%20Armenia_OP_public.asp#TopOfPage
copy/paste link into Word documents if broken)
Nicola Markes-Goerlach
Council of Europe
Directorate General of Human Rights
Secretariat of the Framework Convention
for the Protection of National Minorities
F-67075 Strasbourg-Cedex
nicola.markes-goerlach@coe.int
http://www.coe.int/minorities
|
| alazaro |
Enviado - 28 septiembre 2009 : 23:49:42 |
Council of Europe publishes report on minority languages in Armenia
a1+
September 24, 2009
The Council of Europe Committee of Ministers has today made public the second report on the situation of minority languages in Armenia. This report has been drawn up by a committee of independent experts which monitors the application of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.
On the basis of the report, the Committee of Ministers calls on Armenia to develop a structured policy to make available sufficient teacher training and up-dated teaching materials in Assyrian, Yezidi and Kurdish at all education levels.
Furthermore, the Armenian authorities should ensure that regional or minority languages can be used in court and that courts and the public are aware of their rights and duties to use these languages.
Armenia should also take measures to improve the presence of Assyrian and Greek on radio, and of Assyrian, Yezidi and Kurdish languages on television.
Finally, the Committee of Ministers recommends to clarify whether there are any regional or minority languages used in Armenia other than those mentioned in Armenia's instrument of ratification.
Full text of the report and the Committee of Ministers' recommendations:
http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/education/minlang/Report/EvaluationReports/ArmeniaECRML2_en.pdf
(http://www.a1plus.am/en/politics/2009/09/24/report) |
| alazaro |
Enviado - 15 julio 2009 : 14:29:06 |
Visiting Yaghdan: The last Greek village in Armenia
Greeks in Armenia have retained their language, customs, and strong ties with Greece
by Tatul Hakobyan
THE ARMENIAN REPORTER, Yerevan
Friday July 10, 2009
Yaghdan, Lori Province, Armenia. - Frontik Nikolayid was born in the village of Yaghdan in the Lori province. He later moved to Yerevan and today heads up the Greek "Pontic" NGO. Mr. Nikolayid knows the exact number of Greek-Armenians living in the capital city - 615 families, 1253 people. He also stresses, however, that there are very few pure Greek families, where the husband and wife are both Greek. "My wife is Armenian, therefore she is not part of that 1253," Frontik says jokingly.
Armenia is one of the most monoethnic states in the world, where only 2.5-3 percent of the population isn't ethnic Armenian. Of the ethnic minorities that do exist in Armenia, the Greek community is unique because it has existed here for 350 years. During the second half of the 18th century, close to 800 Greek families moved from the Ottoman Empire's Gyumushan region and established themselves in the present-day city of Akhtala in the province of Lori and the surrounding regions. The Greeks were considered specialists in mining and for that reason they moved to these areas. In later years, some of them moved to the mining regions of Hankavan and Kapan, thereby spreading their knowledge of mining throughout Armenia.
"Our forebears came from the shores of the Black Sea, from historic Pontos and then Gyumashan. Our language is closer to old Greek and is different from modern Greek. Apart from language, our organization has arranged for Greek history classes twice a week at Number 132 School in Yerevan," Mr. Nikolayid said.
The number of Greeks in Armenia severely dropped after the 1988 earthquake. The Greek government invited over 300 Greek children, whose homes were damaged during the earthquake, to Greece. After staying in Greece for six months, when the children returned to Armenia in May 1989, they, along with their families and other Greeks from the village of Yaghdan and other areas affected by the earthquake, returned back to Greece for good.
The allure of leaving for Greece was justifiable. Aside from returning to their historic homeland, the Greeks were escaping a country that was becoming poorer and poorer and collapsing daily into darkness. In those days, even Armenians were escaping en masse.
Thereby, the 6,000-strong Greek community by 1994 had diminished as a result of migration to Greece. The same phenomena occured to the Greek community of Georgia as well. Here, once again, Armenians and Greeks lived side by side, primarily in the region of Tsalka. The Armenians and the Georgians referred to the Pontic Greeks as Bertsens.
At one time in Armenia, there were purely Greek or majority-Greek villages such as Yaghdan, Madan, Koghos, Hankavan, Shamlugh, and Akhtala. In 1922, the entire population of Koghes moved to Greece. Today, outside of Yerevan, it is possible to come across some Greeks in Gyumri, Stepanavan, Noyemberian, Vanadzor, Alaverdi, Hrazdan, Akhtala, and Shamlugh. But the only village that is considered Greek is the village of Yaghdan, found not far from Stepanavan. However, even there the Greeks are a minority.
Valentina Kerkhanacheva is the village head of Yaghdan. Today, there are 209 homes in Yaghdan, 89 of which are inhabited, while the others are empty and are already slowly decaying. Of those 89 homes, only 36 families are natives of Yaghdan; the rest have come from the surrounding areas, even from Yerevan, Vanadzor, and Alaverdi. In the 1990s, during the cold and dark years, people were moving from the cities to the villages.
The village head told us that during the Soviet years, there were only four ethnic Armenian families here; the rest were all Greek. "Today we have 238 inhabitants, of which only 60-70 are Greek and the rest Armenian who came from different regions and took up residence in the abandoned homes. Until 1936, the school in the village was a Greek school; then it became Russian; and after independence, it is now an Armenian school," said Mrs. Kerkhanacheva.
The residents of Yaghdan are primarily occupied with dairy farming and agriculture, cultivating potatoes.
A Greek village has also been preserved in Nagorno-Karabakh: the village of Mehmana in the region of Martakert, where there continue to live several Greek families.
The Greek government, through its embassy in Yerevan, provides different kinds of assistance to the Greeks of Yaghdan and other regions. "In 2005, through the funds supplied by the Greek government, a 1.5 km water pipe was built. Officials from the Greek Embassy visit Yaghdan from time to time," said the village head.
The Pontic Greeks, after living in Armenia for centuries, continue to retain their language, customs, and traditions, and after independence have managed to maintain close ties with their homeland, Greece.
The director of the Pontic NGO, Mr. Nikolayid, says that the Greeks in Armenia observe all Greek holidays, the most important of which is March 25, Greece's National Day.
"May 19 is the day Pontic Greeks commemorate the massacre perpertrated by the Ottoman Empire. Every year on that day, we go to Tzitzernakaberd. On October 28 we celebrate Okhi day; that is the day that Greece was able to throw out the Italian fascists from Greece. In terms of religious observances, we celebrate Greek Easter and Greek Christmas," he said.
For those Greeks living in Armenia, their ancient history and culture, their gods and mythology are a source of great pride. They are also proud of friendly Armenian-Greek relations, which has survived for centuries.
(http://www.reporter.am/go/article/2009-07-10-visiting-yaghdan-the-last-greek-village-in-armenia) |
| alazaro |
Enviado - 05 julio 2009 : 14:51:05 |
Kurds and Armenians: Finding Common Cause
By Serouj Aprahamian
ASBAREZ.com
Jul 2nd, 2009
On September 2, 1938 an editorial appeared in the Hairenik Weekly condemning the Turkish government’s brutal crackdown of its Kurdish population in Dersim. The editorial drew the following link between the common struggle for freedom waged by both Armenians and Kurds:
“The case with the Kurds is a fight born of desperation, similar to the stand of the Armenians in 1918, a resistance which takes into account neither numbers nor odds. It is the natural instinct for self-preservation and self-determination to which all peoples aspire.”
Such an expression of solidarity with the Kurdish Cause was not an aberration but, rather, a direct extension of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation’s rich legacy of standing shoulder to shoulder with all groups struggling against oppression. Drawing such links between other movements for social justice and the Armenian Cause is an important principle which deserves proper attention, not only for its moral and historical significance, but also for its political implications in today’s context of Hai Tahd activism.
Motivating Factors
There are two major underlying aspects behind the principle of solidarity. One is the moral aspect which considers freedom to be a social, rather than mere individual, pursuit. It is based on the belief that one can only truly be free when freedom becomes achieved for all others around them as well; for how can one truly be content and secure in their freedom if they are surrounded by suffering and injustice? This concept is perhaps best captured in Martin Luther King Jr’s famous quote, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
The other dimension for solidarity hinges on a more practical political calculation: the belief that by coming together with others around a common goal, one can help build a broader base of power and improve social conditions. Indeed, by pooling resources and manpower, movements which are able to collaborate with one another are logically much more likely to achieve victories. The smaller a group or movement is, the more central this consideration becomes in their hopes for pursuing justice.
The ARF Legacy
Mjoyi KhoumpsmallIn the history of the Armenian Cause, both of these dimensions have played a role in motivating initiatives to form bonds with non-Armenian circles. From very early on its existence, the ARF cultivated ties with other peoples who similarly struggled for liberation against despotic regimes. Such groups included the Russians, Kurds, Persians, Assyrians, Macedonians and even ordinary Turks who suffered under the Sultan.
Within the Armenian communities of the Ottoman Empire, the Kurdish masses stood out as an especially important group to establish cooperation with. Like Armenians, Kurdish peasants lived a servile existence under Ottoman rule and faced similar levels of exploitation. The ARF sought to explain that both peoples had a shared interest in resisting Turkish tyranny and the brutality of Kurdish landowning chieftains.
Several early ARF World Congresses passed decisions calling for the establishment of relations with Kurds; the pages of Droshak, the ARF’s official publication, commonly featured calls for peace with the Kurds; and fedayees such as Ishkhan, Vartkes, Goms, Roupen, Kevork Chavoush, Rosdom and many others made attempts to build bridges with the Kurdish working class. Although these attempts did not bear full fruit, there were in fact a handful of Kurds who were courageous enough to go against their powerful chiefs and join with the ARF in its struggle against the Sultan. Kurdish figures such as Msto, Valad Nuri, Kerpela Abbas, and Hamzeh put their lives on the line and fought shoulder to shoulder with Armenians. There was even a mixed Armeno-Kurdish ARF group led by the fedayee Mjo.
Nevertheless, the lack of a revolutionary consciousness and the grip of the feudal clan system within the Kurdish community served as an obstacle to broad-based collaboration. Many Kurds succumbed to the divide and conquer policies designed by the Turkish state and participated in the massacre of Armenians.
Following the Genocide, however, as the Turkish government turned its genocidal focus against the Kurds, the ARF once again extended a hand of harmony and collaboration to the Kurdish people. Figures such as Vahan Papazian worked to bring Kurds together and help them organize resistance against the increasingly repressive policies of Kemalist Turkey. Due to Papazian’s efforts, a first-ever national Kurdish league called Hoybun was formed in Lebanon in 1927. ARF leaders such as Garo Sassouni also allied in favor of the Kurdish struggle and the ARF officially raised the Kurdish issue at meetings of the Socialist International, beginning in 1925.
Securing Solidarity
Thus, as can be seen, attempts at solidarity between Kurds and Armenians persevered even in the face of past Kurdish involvement in atrocities against Armenians. This was due to the fact that Kurds are a people whose fate has been inextricably linked to that of Armenians. Both have been victims of Turkish brutality and have had their national rights denied.
Just as Turkish authorities once viewed Armenians’ call for equality and democracy as a “threat” to their empire, Ankara today interprets the Kurdish people’s demand for basic human rights as meaning “separatism.” Just as the Ottoman authorities refused to recognize the national identity of Armenians and called them “Christian Turks,” the Kurdish people have had to fight Turkey’s attempts to officially classify them as “Mountain Turks.” Just as they once did to Armenians, the Turkish government continues to suppress the language, history, and identity of Kurds; ransacks their schools and cultural monuments; bans their political parties and newspapers; pillages their towns and villages; terrorizes their families and children; subjects Kurds to a policy of Turkification; and attacks their human rights workers and journalists.
There is no better example of the horrific consequences of allowing Turkey to get away with the Genocide than what is happening today to the Kurds. Allowing a crime to go unpunished only tells the criminal that they can get away with the same crimes over and over again. We see this very clearly today in the case of Turkey’s policy toward the Kurds.
In this sense, there is a moral imperative to show solidarity with the Kurdish people’s struggle. At the same time, there is a tactical imperative to form cooperation with all those who share an interest in putting an end to Turkey’s inhumanity. The strength of all movements demanding justice from Turkey would be amplified if such diverse groups came together around their mutual points of concern. Not doing so would only serve the interests of the Turkish state and continue the divide-and-conquer policy it has so long pursued.
In addition, as has been pointed out by academic Bilgit Ayata, dialogue between Armenians and Kurds has the potential to serve as a counterweight to the counterproductive approach being pushed on the state level between Turkey and Armenia. Instead of succumbing to Turkey’s imposition of dominance under the guise of Turkish-Armenian ‘reconciliation,’ Armenians should seek common cause with the Kurdish people and ask themselves how there can ever be genuine friendship with a country that still systematically oppresses over 20% of its own population.
Although there have been many disappointments and negative experiences in the ARF’s attempts to form coalitions with other struggles, there have also been many positive achievements. Indeed, some of the instances of collaboration with other liberation movements have undoubtedly formed one of the most remarkable chapters in ARF history. In this light, the benefits of collaboration should continue to be pursued, albeit carefully and with the vigilance that ensures that the rights of Armenians are never made expendable.
Editor’s Note: This article is featured in the Summer 2009 issue of Haytoug, a quarterly publication by the Armenian Youth Federation. The upcoming issue will focus on the theme of solidarity between peoples and causes. Visit the AYF Booth at the Navasartian Games (July 2-5) to pick up a free copy. It will also be available at community centers, schools and local Armenian book stores. You can also download it in PDF today and visit the website to sign up for a free subscription: http://www.ayfwest.org/haytoug.php
(http://www.asbarez.com/2009/07/02/kurds-and-armenians-finding-common-cause/) |
|
|
