A trip to Rome by Gayane Simonyan (first part): Italy paid a tribute to Armenian Genocide in 1915

Author: Gayane Simonyan

A Holy Mass was held in Armenian Catholic Church of St. Nicholas of Tolentino in Rome, Italy in memory of the innocent victims of Armenian Genocide in 1915: the total number of people killed as a result has been estimated at 1.5 million. The starting date of the genocide or the systematic extermination of Armenians, is conventionally held to be in 1915.

The representatives of the Catholic Church, the Coptic Orthodox, Greek Orthodox and Maronite Catholic, as well as diplomats, representatives of the Italian legislative body and Italian society attended the ceremony.

After the Holy Mass, the Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, Prefect of the Congregation for the Eastern Churches of the Holy See, and the rector of the Pontifical Armenian College in Rome, Archbishop Kevork Noradounguian, near the “khachqar” (Armenian memorial stone) placed in the courtyard of the church, have officiated at the requiem for the victims of the Armenian Genocide.

Armenian Ambassador to Italy, Sargis Ghazaryan, who attended the ceremony stressed the importance of historical memory and the fight against Holocaust denial.

The message from the mayor of Rome, Ignatius Marino was also read during the ceremony...
The ceremony ended with the laying of wreaths.

On the same day, during the plenary session of the Italian Senate, the President of the Parliamentary Group of the Italian-Armenian friendship, Sen. Emilia Grace De Biasi, in his speech said about his respect the innocent victims of the Armenian Genocide, stating in particular the importance of fighting against the denial of genocide.

The President of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Senate, Pier Ferdinando Casini, has sent a message regarding the 99th year of the Armenian Genocide in which he said:

"There are many ways to honor our history, the first of which is to keep the memory. Nowadays we feel very close to Armenian people to remember their Genocide, one of the most gray pages of the modern history.

All Italians, regardless of their religious, political and cultural views, are on the side of the Armenians who have an important role in human history."

The next day on April 25 Armenian Church organized an event during which the Italian version of the poetry “Barev” (Salve) written by one of the greatest Armenian poets of the 20th century- Paruyr Sevak- was heard.

Archbishop Kevork Noradounguian who is also the Archimandrite of the Pontifical Armenian College in Rome told about the college right next to the church.

“This is a center for young people from all around the world who want to be a Archimandrite and serve the church and their nation. There are two Armenian churches in Rome and the Churches are organizing different events for Armenians to keep them together, to communicate, share their problems, hopes, and we encourage them to be together,” he said.

We have 6 inheritors/godsons in our college: one from Armenia, two from Lebanon and 3 from Syria.

According to Archbishop Kevork Noradounguian, the exact number of people living in Italy is not verified. There are Armenian Communities in Rome, Milan, Venice, Bari, and in some other small cities and villages spread. Even though they are not so many Armenians living in Italy, this way they all are trying to keep all the traditions and celebrate them in Italy.

To be continued...

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Gyumri and Nardò, sister cities

Marcello Rizzi and Samvel Balasanyan

by Gayane Simonyan

Samvel Balasanyan, the mayor of the second largest city in Armenia, Gyumri, hosted several officials from the Italian city Nardò (Puglia) on Wednesday.

The Italian delegation from Nardò city is headed by Mayor Marcello Rizzi. Mr. Balasanyan greeted the delegation and shortly discussed the Armenian-Italian cooperation, relations and issues concerning the two cities. He expressed his great hope that the bilateral visits and a memorandum to be signed later would contribute to the reinforcement of economic and cultural ties between the two sister cities.

In his turn, the Nardò mayor pointed the importance of the bilateral spiritual relationships stressing that Gregory the Illuminator, a religious leader confided to converting Armenia from Paganism to Christianity in 301, is the angel-guard of their city, and this appends to the warmth and fever of the bilateral relationships.

Mr. Rizzi expressed his great excitement and admire over Armenia as well as towards his Armenian colleagues’ self-determination of developing and improving the future cooperation.

At the end of the meeting the memorandum was signed between Armenia’s second largest city and Nardò. This memorandum consists of 6 points that cover cooperation in architecture, tourism, urban development, restoration construction, IT sector and some other fields of cooperation.

Exchange of experience and possibilities of investments are the key points in all these spheres.

Gyumri and Nardò were proclaimed as sister cities.

After the signing ceremony, the two mayors held a joint news conference. 

During his speech Samvel Balasanyan mentioned that according to the co-mayor of Gyumri, Ruben Sanoyan, Italian city Nardò is very similar to Armenian city Gyumri: Nardò is also a historical city with nearly the same number of population as Gyumri has.

Mr. Balasanyan also stressed that Nardò has a rather big Armenian community there and Armenians play quite an important role in the development of that city. As for Gregory the Illuminator, these people have a very interesting story which creates spiritual connections between Gyumri and Nardò cities.

“I have been in Italy for several times and I can say that Italians are similar to Armenians with their character, the way of speaking and the energy we both have”, Mr. Balasanyan said.

According to him, tourism will surely develop between these two cities as Gyumri airport has been restored, the roads reconstructed, so the direct connection between these two cities are becoming quite realistic.

“We can organize youth events, youth forums concerning art, painting and so on. And if they consider that they can produce paints for stones here, we can provide some place in our city. This is my idea and I will try to implement it”, Mr. Balasanyan said.

In contrast, Mr. Rizzi mentioned that after the proclamation of Gyumri and Nardò as sister cities, their expectations are really high, though he was sorry to say that he had got to know this city only during the disastrous earthquake of 1988.

According to Mr. Rizzi Armenia is the country that is worth supporting.  He can see cooperation opportunities in such fields as tourism and agriculture although entrepreneurial activities can also be developed.

Source http://www.aravot.am/2013/12/11/413991/

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The Temple of Garni a Greco-Roman temple in Armenia

Written by Gayane Simonyan

The Temple of Garni (latin “Gorneas”) is a first century Hellenic temple near Garni district and the only pagan temple in Armenia that survived the adoption of Christianity as its official religion in 301AD.

The fortress of Garni became the last refuge of Armenian king Mithridates where he and his family were killed by his son in law and his nephew Rhadamitus.
Several buildings and constructions have been identified within the appended space.

The earliest traces of habitation date back to the Neolithic time. A Bronze Age and a Classical layer followed by 3 distinct medieval layers complete the occupation history of the site. The fortification circuit is built of huge basalt blocks with the weight of up to 6 tonnes. The curtain wall has been cleared to a 314 meters length revealing a series of rectangular towers, two of which border the ancient gate of entrance.

The peristyle temple is located at the edge of the cliff. It was dug in 1909–1910 but the full recognition of its architecture appeared merely in 1933. It was assumed to be constructed in the first century AD by the Armenian King Tirdates I, presumably funded by the money the king received from emperor Nero when he visited Rome.

In 1945 there was found on the territory of local graveyard by Martiros Saryan, a Hellenic inscription about the construction of the temple. The superscription named Armenian king Tiridates who built this temple. Probably the inscription meant Tiridates I of Armenia, despite the fact that some historians assumed that the inscription indicated Armenian King Tirdates III.

The actual building is a peripteros temple- a special name given to a type of ancient Greek or Roman temple surrounded by a portico with columns- resting on an elevated podium and was most persumably dedicated to the god Mihr. The entablement is supported by 24 columns resting on Attic bases.

Unlike other Greco-Roman temples, this one is made of basalt. Due to a different interpretation of the existing literary testimonial and the witness provided by composure, “montage” of the temple started in AD 115. The pretext for its construction could be the declaration of Armenia as a Roman province and the temple would have housed the imperial effigy of Trajan. 

Recently another theory has been launched. According to it, the building must actually be recognized as the grave of an Armeno-Roman governor Gaius Sohaemus, a famous person in the Roman Empire in the 2nd century from the Syrian Roman Client Emesene Dynasty. If it is so, then the temple’s construction would be dated to AD 175.

The temple of Garni was ultimately sacked in 1386 by Lenk Temur. In 1679 it was destroyed by an earthquake. A vast majority of the original architectural members and building blocks stayed at the site until 20th century, letting the building to be reconstructed in 1969 - 1975.

After the adoption of Christianity, several churches and Catholicos’ palace were also constructed at the fortification site, but they are now ruined like most of the other constructions except the temple of Garni.