What We Carry

On April 24, everyone in Armenia has the day off of work.  This day is dedicated to remember the 2 million Armenians who were massacred by the Ottoman Empire (now Turkey).  April 24 is the day of remembrance because on that day, in the year of 1915, Armenian intellectuals were hanged in Turkey, marking the first official day of the genocide.  Though this genocide is most commonly referred to as the “Armenian Genocide”, not only Armenians were massacred.  All Christians were targeted including the significant Syrian Orthodox and Greek Orthodox Christians in the region. 

My mother’s family is Syrian Orthodox and our ancestors were brutally massacred because they were Christians.  All four of my great-grandparents were orphaned.  They were taken to Lebanon where orphanages and churches were established to take care of them.   That is how my family came to be Lebanese citizens.  Over the past century, the Syrian Orthodox and Armenian communities pulled themselves up from nothing, from orphanages and refugee camps, to become thriving and successful communities in the countries to which they fled.    

Many Syrian Orthodox and Armenians found a safe haven in Syria.  In Aleppo, there was an especially large and thriving Armenian community.  However, the current war is emptying Syria of its Christians just as they have been forced out of Iraq.  Those who have not been killed are taking refuge with relatives or trying to live off their dwindling savings in Lebanon, Armenia, the United States and other countries where they can find safety. 

Yesterday, I should have gone to Armenia’s Genocide Memorial.  On April 24, everyone buys a flower and masses of people wait their turn to enter and lay a flower on the heaping pile which surrounds a single flame that always burns in remembrance.  However, yesterday I could not force myself to focus my thoughts on our Christian brothers and sisters who were massacred in 1915 because the current war consumes my thoughts and prayers. 

This week, a bishop from my church, Youhanna Ibrahim, was kidnapped by terrorists in Syria.  While all of my friends in Syria are currently either hiding in villages or have fled to other countries, Bishop Youhanna was determined to stay behind and provide as much spiritual and material comfort as he could for the people left behind. Bishop Youhanna is an old friend of my mother and her family and is known and loved by all in our congregation in Villa Park and our churches in Lebanon and Syria. 

Four months ago, two priests were kidnapped, Isaac Mahfood (Greek Orthodox) and Michael Kayyal (Armenian Catholic).  Bishop Youhanna was on his way, along with Bishop Paul Yazigy of the Greek Orthodox Church, to try to rescue the two kidnapped priests.  Rebels had agreed to release the priests if the two Bishops met them personally and handed over the ransom money.  On the way, their car was attacked by rebels.  Their driver, a deacon from the church, was killed and no one has heard anything from or about the two bishops since the kidnapping.

Yesterday, I should have gone to Armenia’s Genocide Memorial.  On April 24, everyone buys a flower.  But yesterday, I could not understand the connection between that beautiful delicate rose and remembering the genocide.  I could not comprehend the sense in it.  All those flowers that we have lain there year after year, those flowers which have already wilted and will soon be gathered by old women before the sun comes up and thrown in the trash. 

Why don’t we carry something heavy?  Or something hard?  Or something more permanent?  Why don’t we wrap our fingers around something that bares a greater resemblance to our stories and our pain and lay that at the flame that burns in memory of our ancestors? 

I can only speak for myself, but I think that to carry something as beautiful as a flower to the memorial of one of history’s ugliest stories is not something that I could do in memory of my ancestors but rather, in hope of my own future.  I can’t carry it for them, I can’t carry it for our Bishop who is captured in Syria but maybe I could carry it for my own children.  In hope that they will be born into a world that still has beautiful things, delicate things, gentle things.  In hope that they will be able to grow up in a world where it is still possible to understand the word “sacred”…in hope that my children will cling to what is beautiful and be able to live out all their days with unwavering faith in a God who loves them.

The stories that I carry in my heart, the stories I tell again and again, those jagged boulders are what I carry for my ancestors, for Bishop Youhanna and the others in captivity, for all those who have suffered in the name of Christ.  But I must admit that this flower, I carry for myself.  This candle, I light for myself. 

And I know God understands that it is only because sometimes I need to hold Him in my hands.  To feel, on earth, some physical manifestation of words that I will only be able to understand fully when I come into His presence.   I know that what I carry in my arms bears no significance compared to the cross that is written in my heart.  It is my greatest sorrow and greatest hope. 

However you choose to remember those who have suffered in the past and those who suffer today, I ask that you take some time to pray that people will one day stop repeating the same evils.  Today I also ask that you say a special prayer for our brothers being held captive in Syria.  Pray that they will be released soon and in good physical condition, pray that they are not being tortured, pray that, even as they are held captive, they feel the peace in having Jesus nearby.  May every evil we suffer in this world make our love and understanding of God more complete. Thank God that no matter what they do to our bodies, they can never remove the cross from our hearts. 

Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is heaven.  Amen.

Statement on the Kidnapping of Christian leaders in Syria. Please pray.

Church leaders call for prayer after kidnapping of Syrian Christian leaders

We join the voices in Syria, the Middle East, and around the world that deplore the abduction of Metropolitan Paul Yazigi of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Aleppo and Mar Gregorios Yohanna Ibrahim of the Syriac Orthodox Archdiocese of Aleppo. As their brothers and sisters in Christ, we call for the immediate release of these two bishops.

 

We ask Presbyterians to join in prayer for the bishops and for the Christian community in Syria and the wider Middle East. We pray for a just peace where all Syrians are welcomed, respected, and protected.

 

We recognize the significant roles played by these bishops. Faithful shepherds, they have been working in humanitarian efforts, accompanying the beleaguered Syrian Christian community and encouraging their members to remain in their land. Additionally, these bishops are recognized as pillars in Muslim-Christian dialogue in the region, working for mutual respect, mutual understanding, and solidarity.

 

The abduction of the bishops is but one example of the threats the Christian community faces in Syria. Our partners report the abduction of a number of Christians including other members of the clergy. They note that opposition forces often seize Christian property as they move their troops through the country. Many churches have been destroyed by heavy bombing and mortar attacks. We grieve to see religion being used as a weapon.

 

Presbyterian ties to Syria date to the early 1800s. We remain deeply committed to the people of Syria and the Middle East. During the current crisis, we have supported our sisters and brothers in Christ through prayer, advocacy for a peaceful solution to the crisis, and financial gifts to help care for those who are displaced by the fighting.

 

Through Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, we are at work with our church partner, the National Evangelical  (Presbyterian) Synod of Syria and Lebanon, and our ecumenical partner, ACT (Action by Churches Together) Alliance, to help meet the needs of the millions of Syrians who have been displaced by violence.

 

As followers of Jesus Christ, we live, act, and pray in the hope that peace and justice will prevail. May it be so.

 

 

See statements on this issue by the World Council of Churches, the World Communion of Reformed Churches, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, the Orthodox Church in America, the Arab Group for Muslim – Christian Dialogue and the Forum for Development, Culture and Dialogue.

LAST PICTURE TAKEN OF MOR GREGORIOS YOHANNA IBRAHIM - SYRIAC HELP MET HIM 1 WEEK AGO

An executive team assigned by Syriac Help was sent to Lebanon to meet His Eminence Mor Gregorios Yohanna Ibrahim. The Team, included the chairman Ersen Bethersen and Milad Afrem Malki. They crossed the border to Syria together with His Eminence to inspect the humanitarian affairs of the Syriac community and to study the feasibility of a Joint project of safety housing of the Christian destitute people.

This picture was taken in the outskirts of Homs on 17 April 2013, when His Eminence together with our executive volunteers. Despite our executives’ p...lea to His Eminence to stay with them, he bravely and selflessly decided to go back to Aleppo to negotiate the release and the rescue of the two kidnapped members of his Metropolitanate.

The metropolitan went on to Aleppo to meet the kidnappers, and successfully negotiated the release of the 2 kidnapped young men. Now that we have been informed that the metropolitan himself with his brother, bishop of the Greek Orthodox Church have been kidnapped and so far there is no news from them or demand by their captives.

Our discomfort, anguish and anxiety is beyond words. We are constantly on the phones since the news has reached us, and can only pray to God to help and encourage His Eminence and his brother bishop, so they can handle the ordeal.

 We plead to all believers around the world to intensify your prayers to God, and to request esteemed governments to intensive their effort, to secure the safe release of our heroic metropolitans and unite them with their flocks who are at this juncture in desperate need of a good shepherd.






 

URGENT APPEAL FOR PRAYER AND ACTION

Please share and write to your senators!

Metropolitans Paul Yazigy (Greek Orthodox) and Youhanna Ibrahim (Syrian Orthodox) of Aleppo were abducted by Syrian rebels after their driver (a deacon) was killed. The two hierarchs were trying to release two kidnapped priests, and the rebels finally agreed to do so only if the money was handed over by them personally. The kidnapped priests Isaac Mahfood (Greek Orthodox) and Michael Kayyal (Armenian Catholic) were kidnapped four months ago. The support for these terrorists must stop! Our nation has enough blood on its hands! May God have mercy on us all!

A letter from my Syrian friend...

Dear friends and partners,

 

Thanks a million for all you do to support the ministry with the refugees.

 

Last week I visited northern Lebanon with the Rev. Tramper, who was visiting on behalf of the GZB of Holland.  We passed by some of the miserable tents under which the refugees are living. After that, we passed through some buildings where more than one family lives in every apartment. When children saw a camera they would shout, “Do not take pictures!” The misery is beyond what anyone would want to see in any circumstances.

 

Yesterday, I visited the Biccaa valley with two Presbyterian pastors. We wanted to see about the work in an old Presbyterian school that is being turned into apartments to host refugees.  While the work has been in process for weeks now, it will take few more before it will be furnished and ready to receive families who need comfort.

 

The tragedy seems to go on and the horror stories are on every tongue. As I mentioned in a previous letter, the National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon (NESSL) has made the decision to go ahead and establish a disaster relief program that can immediately respond to the needs of people.

 

This morning I was told that at a road near one of the hot areas, a service car was stopped and 80 bodies were shoveled into a truck. Unbelievable!!!

 

Please let me tell of a meeting with one of the relief agencies who cooperate with the UN in relief work in Lebanon.  They work with 20-50 thousand refugees.  People must be officially registered in order to receive vouchers to buy food and other daily needs. Many Christians do not register, and thus they do not receive help. These are not rich people at all. They do not want to reveal that they left the country. We can only guess why they don’t register!

 

Personally and on behalf of the NESSL, I appeal to you, dear friends and partners in the service of God, to pray with us and urge those who are making decisions to help bring the people of Syria together to dialogue and plan a future together. There is no other way to end this tragedy.

 

 

This aricle reminds me of the elderly who came into the Dispensary when I was working in Lebanon last year...

Many Lebanese elderly socially isolated

By Samya Kullab

Medical and social centers have long catered to the needs of the socially isolated elderly, most of whom have no contact with relatives.

 

At times the onus to take care of them falls on the goodwill of nonprofit organizations, raising the question of whether Lebanese society has lost touch with values that once held the elderly in high esteem. “So, we are going to talk about loneliness, then?” asks Gharabet, a man in his 70s, when informed The Daily Star is profiling the elderly demographic.

 

Having lost both parents in the Civil War, Gharabet, who refused to provide his last name, has been living by himself in a small Burj Hammoud flat ever since.

 

“Up there is God,” he says, pointing his finger toward the ceiling, “and down here it’s me, alone.” He takes comfort in his faith, and expresses thanks to the church and social centers in his neighborhood for catering to his needs. Without this support, he says, he would not manage.

 

There were eight in his immediate family, he recalls. Those that did not perish in the war moved to Canada, and were never heard from again.

 

“They feel dignified here, because they receive attention and are invited to various events and activities,” explains Seta Pamboukian, director of Jinishian, a social center in the area that provides services to 120 elderly people, all of whom are impoverished and living alone.

 

“There is some materialism in society, if [an] elderly [person] has money, or property, then they are valued, because they [members of society] expect to inherit. If the elderly [person] is poor, it’s a burden for them. We are seeing it, in the society. When people come and ask for assistance and tell their stories, then we see this side of the story.”

 

Social isolation within the elderly population is not limited to Burj Hammoud, it is a problem in most urban centers. All the social workers who deal with the elderly that The Daily Star spoke to described similar living conditions among their clients. Without the existence of comprehensive surveys, however, social workers are reluctant to generalize the condition of their clients.

 

Typically, they say, their clients fall under two categories: Either they are isolated in old age because they never had children and are widowed, or they receive no assistance from their children, most of whom have emigrated.

 

The onus to take care of them, then, often falls on these nonprofit centers that try to meet their medical, nutritional and social needs. These organizations, unable to financially sustain a full-fledged program, usually help the elderly on an ad hoc basis.

 

Social workers report that they usually learn their clients have died from people who become accustomed to seeing them on a day-to-day basis, and become concerned when they don’t.

“It’s a complicated issue,” says George Massoud Khoury, director of Caritas in Lebanon. Caritas was one of the first organizations to recognize that social isolation among the elderly population was becoming a problem.

 

From his perspective, rural exodus, resulting from poor economic conditions and a transitioning economy, paired with rising living costs are to blame for the plight of the elderly, as their children are effectively forced to move away to earn a living.

 

“They [the children] want to support them, but they are unable to support themselves and their families,” he continues. “For those who emigrate, most live making a minimum wage wherever they live.”

 

Ten percent of University of Balamand psychiatrist Dr. Georges E. Karam’s patients are impoverished elderly citizens living alone, and he says they are the most difficult to treat. These patients in particular exhibit higher rates of mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety and schizophrenia.

 

“The fact that they are socially isolated explains the rates of depression and anxiety, because isolation makes these conditions worse,” he says, adding he tends to see more severe illnesses among those elderly people who are isolated.

 

Karam also points out that the risk of suicide is higher among elderly males who live alone. Because people tend to normalize mental diseases as a feature of old age, most – erroneously – don’t think it’s a problem.

 

“These people are just sitting at home and withering away and there is nothing geared to take care of them at a national level” he says, adding their plight would worsen as the demographic increases.

Sister Gioia Sawrma finds the neediest of the elderly on the streets with her organization Mission de Vie’s program that also administers a home in Antelias.

 

“We find them under the bridge, sleeping in gas stations, on the streets. There are so many in Lebanon, and we know all of them,” she said.

 

The home currently houses 35 people, but many homeless elderly found on the streets simply don’t want to live there, Sawrma says.

 

“Some prefer to stay outside,” she laughs, “They say they are happy, but I think they are worried to change places. Old people don’t like to change their lifestyles.”

 

These elderly people have become so dependent on the kindness of strangers, such as local shopkeepers, restaurant owners and neighbors, that they prefer the street lifestyle over a more regimented one indoors: “They don’t want to leave because they have gotten used to the people around who help them regularly.”

 

During the winter, many old people come to the mission’s house just to sleep, but with the coming of warmer months, they leave because “they’ve come to love the streets.”

 

“Some had conflicts with their families and left, some were abandoned by their children,” Sawrma explains.

 

She continues that she typically encounters widows, many of whom become poor and neglect their own needs after their spouses pass away. Others who never married find that they reach old age alone and without proper resources.

 

Usually, the mission tries to contact the relatives of the elderly who pass away, “but they don’t come.” Often, the missionaries are the sole witnesses to the burial.

 

“Once, an old man at home used to be a benediction,” says Sawrma, who believes these values are steadily being lost in urban centers.

 

Back in Burj Hammoud, Gharabet, too, feels less respected now that he is an old man. “There is something in the way people communicate with me, I feel it all the time.”

 

“It was different when I was a boy. We grew up respecting the elderly, because we were more obedient back then.”

Attacks on Elderly Armenian Women in Turkey Awaken Fears

The man in the ski mask struck in the twilight of late afternoon, strangling the elderly woman from behind, beating her senseless and leaving her for dead. He ran off with 50 Turkish lira, about $30, and her engagement ring, a last memory of her long-dead husband.

 

 

Turfanda Asik, 88, was attacked and robbed in Samatya, the Armenian quarter of Istanbul. “He just beat me, over and over again,” she said.                           

“He just beat me, over and over again,” said the woman, Turfanda Asik, 88, who spent two weeks in an intensive care unit. “He hit my back, my skinny back. What have I done to him? What did he want?”    

Ms. Asik was left bruised and blinded in one eye. Her beating is thought to be the first of a string of attacks in the last few months on elderly Armenian women in Samatya, Istanbul’s historic Armenian quarter. Until recently in Samatya, a neighborhood of wooden houses built long ago and centuries-old churches, residents left their doors unlocked.  

     

As brutally as she was beaten, Ms. Asik was lucky. One victim of the attacks died from her wounds.

Along the crooked streets of Samatya, where a conquering sultan resettled Armenian Christians after capturing Constantinople in 1453, and in its teahouses, churches and social clubs, the attacks have awakened fears — rooted in past episodes of repression that residents say had waned in recent years as Turkey became more accommodating toward its minorities.

      

“The community is always living with fear because the Armenian community has always been under pressure,” said Rober Koptas, the editor of Agos, an Armenian newspaper here that has devoted several issues to coverage of the attacks. “We were always regarded as foreigners, as second-class citizens.”

       

Armenians and other minorities were once widely discriminated against in modern Turkey, subject to violent attacks by nationalists and shut out from prestige professions like the army officer corps. In Samatya, Armenians were typically artisans and merchants, many toiling in the maze of stalls at the nearby Grand Bazaar.

      

But in recent times their lot has improved, thanks to reforms brought on by Turkey’s efforts to join the European Union, a process that has lately stalled. Mr. Koptas, the newspaper editor, said younger Armenians like him — he is 35 — are speaking and writing “side-by-side with our Turkish compatriots.”

      

“The fear has decreased,” he said. “But for the older generation, it is always there.”

When the authorities recently arrested a suspect in the attacks who they said was mentally disturbed and of Armenian origin — not a fanatical Turk motivated by hatred, as many assumed — it only raised more suspicions among some residents of Samatya, who said they thought the police had merely found a convenient scapegoat.

      

Regardless of the perpetrator, the violence has recalled a tortured past and, perhaps, hinted at future tensions as Turkey prepares to face the 100th anniversary of the genocide of its Armenian population in the last years of the Ottoman Empire.

      

Even though that milestone is two years away, in 2015, the country is already questioning how the anniversary will be treated: as a chance for reconciliation and full recognition of the massacres by the Ottoman Army or an occasion for more tension and hate speech of the sort that appeared on social networks after the recent attacks.

      

“Turkey has to face this,” Mr. Koptas said. “Only with this will Turkey become a democracy.”

On a chilly afternoon in January, a few hundred protesters marched down a narrow street that connects with Samatya’s main square, which is bordered by cafes and open-air fish shops. “The Armenian people are not alone!” was one chant. “Shoulder to shoulder against fascism,” was another.

“This is normal,” said Ayse Demir, a student who participated in the protest, reflecting the sentiment that Armenians are constantly under threat. “Armenians can be killed.”

      

Another student, standing beside Ms. Demir, said, “There are lots of racist people in Turkey.”

Sedat Caliskan, 35, a taxi driver who is Muslim, stood watching the marchers. “For years, nothing like this has happened,” he said of the attacks. “I want to believe that these are isolated incidents.”

In simple terms, he spoke of a sense of harmony between Christians and Muslims in the neighborhood. “On Sundays they go to church, and on Fridays we go to the mosque,” he said.

Mr. Caliskan lives three doors down from the murdered woman’s home, which is adorned with red carnations and signs that read: “Don’t touch our Armenian neighbor” and “Don’t remain silent. Don’t be intimidated.”

      

As he sipped tea and watched the protesters, one longtime resident, a Greek man named Yorgi Eskargemis, a retired textile merchant, said that the neighborhood is still as beautiful as the days it was called “Little Paris.” But the attacks, he said, are a “stain” on the community.

Overhearing the conversation, a man standing at the cafe door piped up. “We are all brothers here,” he said.

       

Ms. Asik, whose first name means “fresh fruit” in Turkish, has outlived a husband and two children. Years ago, she gave up her day job in a butcher shop but kept her tiny apartment in Samatya. Recently, she lay on a daybed and wept.

      

“It really hits me hard in the heart,” she said, recalling what went through her mind as she was attacked in her building’s vestibule. “How could you keep hitting me so hard? Don’t you fear God?”

Easter in Armenia

 

I spent Easter with friends in the town of Stepanavan this year.  You can see that the traditional Armenian Easter table consists of colored eggs, fish, rice with raisins and a special sweet bread with raisins.  The town was very busy on Easter morning and the churches were very full.  Many people go to the Sunday service and even more go just to light a candle and pray.  Lighting candles, usually symbolizing a person who you are praying for, is a very important tradition in the Armenian Apostolic Church.  I went to the small ancient church which you can see in the photo below.  The Monday after Easter is a national holiday in Armenia when families go to put new flowers at the graves of their loved ones who have passed away.  After going to church, I went fishing with a few families at the lake you can also see pictured below.  Well, as usual, I didn't actual fish.  I went a picked flowers in the fields nearby.  There is only one flower that has come up and it is called "dzindzaghig" in Armenian which means "snowflower".  This is the first flower that sprouts up after Spring as the snow is melting.