Armenian Cemetery is being restored.

[Albatros]

Dear folks.

Below is the translation of an article from the turkish cypriot daily "Kıbrıs".


I have tried my best to ensure a good translation. On the other hand, being aware that there are members who are better proficient in english and also fluent in turkish, I have copied and pasted the original article right below the translated one, so anyone can easily cross-check.

Armenian Cemetery is being restored.

The armenian cemetery in the vicinity of Ledra palace in south cyprus is now undergoing restoration following its demolition due to construction of a parking lot which caused the protest of nearly 3000 armenians living in the south. Upon the reaction of armenian community and the covering of the issue by daily Kıbrıs (t/c newspaper), greek cypriot administration took a backstep, started the restoration works.

Preliminary works have started for the restoration of the historical armenian cemetery on Charalambou Mouskou street in south Nicosia. In the first stage, works have been limited to the clearing up the debris and the piling up the tombstones however.

While no one other than workers were around for the past few days, greek cypriots living nearby declined to make any comments to Kıbrıs.

Interviewed by Kıbrıs, armenians claimed that g/c administration made a donation of 90.000 Cypriot pounds for the restoration which was undertaked by the construction company Roushas Trading & Development. There are warning signs around the restoration yard indicating “that the access to the area” is forbidden.

Some armenian cypriots stated that they heard rumors that the cemetery around Ledra Palace Hotel would be rebuilt with a memorial bearing the names of the deceased.

Accusations against Hergelyan

While a group of armenians claimed that armenian church commitee was behind the parking lot attempt and the consequent demolition of the cemetery, some others accused armenian church bishop Varujan Hergelyan. Still, some other group of armenians speaking to Kıbrıs stated that, with a cigarette in his hand and standing next to the demolition equipment, Varujan Hergelyan was personally there to watch the demolition process of the historical cemetery in 2005. All the scene is kept by a g/c local tv channel, they said.
Bones scattered around during demolition
They added that the bones of deceased armenians were scattered around during demolition by bulldozers in the historical and religious place which was supposed to be a conservation area and the act was obviously a “blasphemy”.

Armenians reproaching the authorities stated that “this oldest armenian cemetery” with a past story extending back to 1877 and with last funeral having been held in 1931 would never be like before.
The cemetery holds 478 deceased including names from prominent families such as Melikian, Sultanian, Ouzounian, Papazian ve Yeremian.
The armenians living in the south have right to vote.
On the other hand, the armenian author Joy Eramian known for his book “the The Agha's Children: A Cypriot Armenian Dynasty” (Agha'nın Çocukları: Kıbrıs Ermeni Hanedanlığı/Sülalesi) is reportedly upset over the cemetry incident.
In their previous interview with Kıbrıs, armenians had warned abouth the possibility that the incident could be blamed on t/c community as an instrument of their (g/c administration) policy and misleading information could be propagated to the international opinion.
“They (g/c) could deceive tourists visiting the island by portraying it as turkish cypriot’s handiwork. We don’t want that. We are asking the question : who made this happen ? even if our asking is interpreted as an insult, then let it be. Everyone should assume his/her own responsability in this incident. Tell this to turks as well not only to armenians and let them (turks) investigate this. The accusing party should be cleaner than the accused. They should openly tell who did this. Even the man in the grave has rights which should be respected by everyone”.

Original [TR] from http://www.kibrisgazetesi.com

RESTORASYON BAŞLADI... Güney Kıbrıs'ta Ledra Palace Sınır Kapısı yakınında, otopark inşası nedeniyle tahrip edilen ve Güney'de yaşayan yaklaşık 3 bin Ermeni'nin tepkisine neden olan Ermeni Mezarlığı tamir ediliyor. Ermenilerin tepkisi ve KIBRIS'ın yayını üzerine Rum yönetimi, yıkım çalışmalarında geri adım atarak, geçtiğimiz günlerde söz konusu tarihi Ermeni mezarlığının restorasyonunu başlattı
İbrahim BEYAZOĞLU
Güney Kıbrıs'ta Ledra Palace Sınır Kapısı yakınında, otopark inşası nedeniyle tahrip edilen ve Güney'de yaşayan yaklaşık 3 bin Ermeni'nin tepkisine neden olan Ermeni Mezarlığı tamir ediliyor.
KIBRIS gazetesinin konu ile yayınları etkisini gösterdi ve Rumlar, yıkım çalışmalarında geri adım atarak, geçtiğimiz günlerde söz konusu tarihi Ermeni mezarlığının restorasyonunu başlattı.
Güney Lefkoşa'da Charalambou Mouskou Sokağı'ndaki tarihi Ermeni mezarlığının restorasyonu için ilk çalışmalar başlatılırken, ilk etapta sadece mezarlığın temizlenmesi ve içeride dağınık vaziyette bekleyen mezar taşlarının öbekler halinde ayrılarak yığılması dışında bir gelişme yaşanmadı.
Temizlik ve mezar taşlarının ayrıştırılması dışında mezarlıkta geçen birkaç gün boyunca kimse gözükmezken, çevrede yaşayan Rumların, KIBRIS'ın sorularına cevap vermekten ısrarla kaçınması dikkat çekiciydi.
KIBRIS'a konuşan Ermeniler, geçtiğimiz yıl Kıbrıs Rum yönetiminin 90.000 Kıbrıs Lirası bağışta bulunduğunu öne sürdükleri mezarlığın restorasyonunu, Güney'deki C. Roushas Trading & Development adlı inşaat şirketi üstlenirken, üzerinde "Bu arsaya girmek yasaktır" yazısını taşıyan levhayla, tadilatı sürdürülen alana girmenin yasak olduğu uyarısı yapılıyor.
Bazı Kıbrıslı Ermeniler, Ledra Palaca Hotel yakınlarındaki mezarlığın "büyük bir taş" şeklinde bir anıtmezar olarak yeniden düzenleneceği yönünde duyum aldıklarını, ayrıca anıtın üzerine Ermeni Mezarlığı'nda yatan şahısların isimlerinin yazılacağını ifade ettiler.
Hergelyan'a suçlama
Bir grup Ermeni, mezarlığın güneydeki Ermeni Kilisesi Komitesi'nin kararı sonucu yıkılarak otoparka döndürülmek istediğini iddia ederken, diğer Ermeniler, söz konusu tahribat yüzünden Ermeni Kilisesi Piskoposu Varujan Hergelyan'ı suçladı.
KIBRIS'a konuşan kimi Ermeniler ise, tarihi mezarlığın 2005 yılında tahrip edilirken, Ermeni Kilisesi Piskoposu Varujan Hergelyan'ın "Elindeki sigarayla yıkım araçlarının yakınında durarak çalışmayı yerinde izlediğini" ve söz konusu görüntülerin bir Kıbrıs Rum televizyon kanalında bulunduğunu iddia etti.
"Yıkım esnasında mezarda yatan bazı
Ermenilerin kemikleri etrafa saçıldı"
Tarihi ve dini mekânda, buldozerler tarafından yıkım işlemi gerçekleştirilirken bazı Ermenilerin iskeletlerinin yattıkları mezarlarından etrafa saçıldığını ileri sürerek öfkelerini dile getiren Kıbrıslı Ermeniler, eski eserler kapsamında korunan bir yapı olduğunu belirttikleri mezarlıkta yapılan tahribata "Kutsal değere saygısızlık" nitelemesi yaptı.
Ermeniler, geçmişinin 1877 yılına kadar uzandığı ve en son 1931 yılına kadar vefat eden Ermenilerin defnedildiğini belirttikleri "En eski Ermeni mezarlığının" eski haline dönemeyeceğinden dolayı serzenişte bulundular.
Ermeniler, söz konusu mezarlıkta 478 Emeninin yattığını, Melikian, Sultanian, Ouzounian, Papazian ve Yeremian gibi adadaki köklü Ermeni ailelerinin de bu mezarlarda bulunduğunu öne sürdü.
Ermenilerin verdiği bilgiye göre, Güney'de yaşayan yaklaşık 2 bin 500 kadar Ermeni, oy kullanma hakkına sahip.
Öte yandan, The Agha's Children: A Cypriot Armenian Dynasty (Agha'nın Çocukları: Kıbrıs Ermeni Hanedanlığı/Sülalesi) isimli kitabıyla tanınan Joy Eramian adlı Ermeni yazarın, yaşanan yıkımdan rahatsız olduğu belirtildi.
Rumların, kendilerinin tahrip ettiği Ermeni mezarlığını, politikalarına alet etmeye, sorumluluğu Kıbrıslı Türklere yüklemeye çalışabileceğini ve uluslararası kamuoyunun yanlış bilgilendirilebileceğini öne süren Ermeniler, şöyle konuşmuştu:
"Adayı ziyaret eden turistlere bu mezarlığı Türkler yıktı diyerek, onları inandırabilirler. Bu böyle olmamalı. Eğer sorularımız hakaretse, biz bu hakareti işleyip soruyoruz: Bu mezarlığı bu hale kim getirdi? Herkes kendi kabahatini kabul etsin ve sorumluluğunu bilsin. Bu söylenenleri sadece Ermenilere değil, Türklere de söylesinler. Türkler bunu sorsun, araştırsın. Suçlayan suçlanandan daha temiz olmalı. Bu insanca değil. Bunu kimin yaptığını söylesinler. Mezarda yatan adamın da hakkı var ve saygı gösterilmesi gerekir. "

[bell-the-cat]

http://www.sarafyan.com/images/Cemetery/index.htm

[bell-the-cat]

BTW, it is worth remembering that this happened at around the time the final destruction of the cemetery at Julfa was being publicised. No foot is more often shot at by its owner than an Armenian foot.


ARMENIAN CEMETERY IN CYPRUS IN PITIABLE STATE
By Georges der Parthogh

AZG Armenian Daily
04/04/2006

The Nicosia Municipality has threatened to sue the Armenian Church
for failing to implement a court order demanding that the 300-year-old
Armenian cemetery be restored.

Doctor Vahakn Atarayan, Armenian representative in the Cypriot
Parliament, said that eleven months have passed since the municipality
asked the church to bring the historic 18th century cemetery back to
its pre-bulldozer state, but nobody is dealing with the problem and
nothing is being done.

Last April demolition work at the. cemetery was halted after the
Ministry of the Interior took out an injunction to stop the work.

The Armenian Prelature had started digging up the graves, as part of
its plane to put remains together in a new communal pit adjacent to
the small chapel, and convert the area to a park, while rumors were
ripe that it would be sold to real estate developers.

The late Bedros Kalaydjian who was the Armenian Representative at the
time had deplored the decision of the Church and had said that "the
demolition was carried out in an unprofessional manner and caused a
lot of grief and an insult to the memory of the deceased."

Berge Kouyoumdjian is a concerned member of the community. In a letter
to the local press he said: "It is almost the first anniversary of
the cemetery's cynical desecration, and I remember that soon after
this outrage, the municipality delivered an order with a time limit of
one month, instructing those responsible to restore this sacred site,
repair the chapel and clean up the area.

Nearly a year on, this order remains ignored and. the cemetery is
now in an even worse state. There is rubbish all over and the area
looks like a landfill site. Shards of human bone crushed by the
bulldozers and mixed into the soil are scattered on the surface so
that it is impossible not to walk on them. Historic headstones lie
in a heap and exhumed bones fill black rubbish bags in the derelict
chapel. When will we, the descendants of over 400 souls buried there,
see restoration work started on this European heritage site?

[bell-the-cat]

Extract from an announcement of the Armenian Prelature
titled "In search of the truth", (reproduced in Gibrahayer - Nicosia, 27 April 2006).

As for the old cemetery near the Ledra Palace Hotel, the task of drawing up
the plans for its restoration was given to the 4arc+ architects office which
has over the last months been working on the project.
With their letter of the 30th March 2006, the 4arc+ architects inform us
that the drawing up of the plans has been completed and has been presented to
the Municipality of Nicosia for approval. After approval the process moves on
to tendering and then work should start on the site.
The Prelacy would have come out with an official announcement after the
completion of all preliminary work.
We have often said and we repeat, the doors of the Prelacy are open to all,
at all times and yet we have not received a single request from the local
press and in particular from "Azad Tsayn" to inform them on any of the above
mentioned subjects.
It is for this reason that we consider the mud slinging and misinformation
in "Azad Tsayn" deplorable and dishonest, wrong and unacceptable. We
understand the haste shown by "Azad Tsayn". We can read the deceitfulness and
untruthfulness hidden between the lines and the machinations concealed there.
It is well worth reminding everyone that the Diocesan Council of the
Armenian Church is not made up of individuals from one club or one side. This gives
us reason to surmise that the article targets the Church in general and
pursues wider interests. This is the reason for this response.
The Armenian Church has never sought and does not seek confrontation. We
would like to record however the fact that there are some individuals sheltering
behind "Azad Tsayn" who for their own and varied reasons keep hacking away
stubbornly at the Armenian Church without realising that their actions are
aimed at the Institution which forms the backbone of all communities in the
Armenian diaspora. We would like to remind these people that all our enemies have
targeted the Armenian Church but it remains and will remain firm and sturdy
in its continued mission of serving the people.

18 April 2006
SECRETARIAT OF THE ARMENIAN PRELACY OF CYPRUS

In other words, blame it all on those never exactly defined but conveniently ever-present external "enemies" who want to bring down the whole Armenian Church (or Armenian State, when Kocharian uses the same conveniently transferable blame, or entire Armenian race, when the self-proclaimed guardians of the Armenian nation use it).
No fool has been self-fooled more often than the owner of that previously mentioned foot.

[chinchilla]

Somewhat related - the "Sancak" Armenian refugee camp of Beirut, Lebanon (made up of descendants of refugees from Alexandretta) has fallen victim to gentrification.

Article (with two pictures): http://www.hairenik.com/armenianweekly/fea06140801.htm