"Hrant Dink et les Arméniens en Turquie" (traduction Georges Festa)
par Hratch Tchilingirian
[L’assassinat du journaliste turco-arménien Hrant Dink, le 19 janvier 2007, et ses conséquences mettent en lumière à la fois les changements et les résistances aux changements dans la société turque. Pour comprendre le long chemin traversé par les dernières générations en Turquie, Hratch Tchilingirian examine le rôle personnel de Hrant Dink dans le contexte de la communauté arménienne dont il était le porte-parole, le critique et le symbole.]
Armenian International Magazine (AIM), Vol. 12, Issue 3, April 2001, pp. 30-36
THE FORGOTTEN DIASPORA Bulgarian-Armenians after the end of Communism
By Hratch Tchilingirian
"As long as my neighbor is worse, I don’t have to be better," goes the Bulgarian saying. When faced with enormous problems, a sense of relative wellness might provide temporary comfort. A decade after the fall of Communism, Bulgarian-Armenians describe the current state of their community with both pessimism and hope -- and offer many ideas for a preferred future.
Armenian International Magazine (AIM), Vol. 12, Issue 3, April 2001, pp. 30-36
THE FORGOTTEN DIASPORA Bulgarian-Armenians after the end of Communism
By Hratch Tchilingirian
"As long as my neighbor is worse, I don’t have to be better," goes the Bulgarian saying. When faced with enormous problems, a sense of relative wellness might provide temporary comfort. A decade after the fall of Communism, Bulgarian-Armenians describe the current state of their community with both pessimism and hope -- and offer many ideas for a preferred future.
Armenian International Magazine (AIM) Vol. 12, Issue 2, March 2001, pp 22-24
Cover Story
CELEBRATION OF FAITH The Armenian Church celebrates 1700th Anniversary of its Establishment and Adoption of State Religion in Armenia
By Hratch Tchilingirian
Imagine a giant organization with over 350 offices and branches in some 40 countries, with 500 top executives, thousands of full- and part-time employees, tens of thousands of volunteers, serving millions of people. That's the Armenian Apostolic Church today and, this year, it's celebrating the 1700th anniversary of its founding.
Armenian International Magazine (AIM) Vol. 11, No. 3, March 2000, pp. 62-64
Witness of His Time The Oppressed and the Rejected Find Dignity and Respect in Norikian
By Hratch Tchilingirian
"The different faces I paint have the same agony and suffering," says Krikor Norikian, 58 -- popularly known as Norik -- who is one of the Diaspora’s most well-known painters. "I don’t know where that agony comes from. It’s from nature, from human suffering. It’s from my past, my family and my life experience. It might come from a specific source, but it is universal."
Armenian International Magazine (AIM) February 2000, Volume 11, No. 2, pp. 54-56
Medieval Lobbyists
AUB Professor Explores Armenian-Moslem Relations in the Middle East
By HRATCH TCHILINGIRIAN
The political and cultural history of the Armenians in the Near East is one of the least explored areas within traditional Armenian Studies. But Seta Dadoyan, Professor of Cultural Studies, Philosophy and Art at the American University of Beirut (AUB), has created a new interest in the subject — with a particular focus on its contemporary significance.
Armenian International Magazine (AIM) February 2000, Volume 11, No. 2, pp. 50-52
Seven Years in Prison “If one suffers, but does not believe, life becomes meaningless.”
Compiled by Hratch Tchilingirian
Father Manuel Yergatian, a 33-year-old priest and citizen of Turkey was arrested in October 1980 while preparing to leave Istanbul en route to Jerusalem. He was charged with anti-Turkish activities in the years when various acts of political violence against Turks by Armenians were reported. His whereabouts were not known and no one was able to contact him. Archbishop Shnork Kalustian, Patriarch of Istanbul, was called to testify before the military court. The Turkish press reported on the trial of the “priest who is Turkey’s enemy.” The US State Department turned down a request to intervene in the case. Amnesty International did investigate the arrest. After his conviction, Yergatian served nearly seven years in Turkish prisons. Since his release, he has remained silent about his ordeal. At this writer's request, Fr. Yergatian, 46, describes for the first time and in great detail, what happened when he was arrested and convicted on charges of inciting terrorism.
Armenian International Magazine AIM Vol. 11, No. 1, January 2000, pp. 52-53
HAIGAZIAN UNIVERSITY IN LEBANON
Hratch Tchilingirian
One of the most valuable contributions of the Armenian Evangelical Church and its commitment to education is the establishment of the Haigazian University in Beirut. After four decades, it remains the only Armenian institution of higher education in the Diaspora. Haigazian — which has graduated over 1,600 students since its founding in 1955 — is accredited by the Ministry of Higher Education of Lebanon and is a member of the Association of International Colleges and Universities. It offers 19 undergraduate and four graduate degree programs.
Armenian International Magazine AIM Vol. 11, No. 1, January 2000, pp. 52-53
The Armenian Evangelical School in Anjar
Providing a brighter future
Hratch Tchilingirian
Ara (not his real name) was four years old when a social worker brought him to the Armenian Evangelical boarding school in Anjar, the Armenian village in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley. The school was already in session and the principal insisted that Ara should come at the beginning of the following year. But the social worker could not take Ara back. “You wouldn’t send him away if I told you where this child comes from,” pleaded the desperate social worker. Ara was very quiet and looked disturbed, says Rev. Nersess Balabanian, 40, who is in charge of the school. “The child’s father is a drug addict, his mother is a prostitute and he lives in a tiny room with two other little siblings,” explains Balabanian, “we couldn’t possibly return this child to that place.” They took him in.
Armenian International Magazine (AIM) Vol. 11, No. 1, January 2000, pp. 35-38; 43.
WHEN SMALL IS BIG
Armenian Evangelicals Render a Century and a Half of Service
By Hratch Tchilingirian
Numbering only 50 to 70,000 around the world, Armenian Evangelicals are among the most organized, visible, and active of the world’s eight million-plus Armenians. Despite their small numbers and their periodic conflicts with the Armenian Apostolic Church, the legitimacy, value and mission of the Armenian Evangelical Church has become indisputable over the last century and a half. Just the fact that it is politically incorrect to call them Protestants – they’re Evangelicals – attests to a change of attitude and acceptance; they are no longer seen as “protesters” but as believers genuinely involved in Christian mission and evangelization.
Armenian International Magazine (AIM) December 1999 Volume 10, No. 12, pp. 42-45
The Historical Present Two Scholars See the Present in the Annals of Ancient Times
By Hratch Tchilingirian
Putting together the dismembered body parts of gods — discarded in museum warehouses around the world — is not an easy job. But for archeologist and Egyptologist Hourig Sourouzian, 51, it is a professional passion. Painstakingly searching, identifying and matching pieces of heads, torsoes and legs of ancient statues has made Sourouzian one of the most sought-after experts of Egyptian art.
Armenian International Magazine (AIM) December 1999 Volume 10, No. 12, pp. 24-25
The Istanbul Summit
Fifty-Four Nations Discuss Regional Security and Conflicts
By HRATCH TCHILINGIRIAN
The much touted European security summit of the 54-nation Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) was held in Istanbul in late November. President Robert Kocharian headed an Armenian delegation to the summit, where member heads of states and governments adopted a new Charter for European Security and a revised Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE).
Armenian International Magazine (AIM) November 1999, Vol. 10, No. 11, p. 57
Catholics Elect New Patriarch The Armenian Catholic Hierarchy and Community Face Daunting Challenges
By Hratch Tchilingirian
In mid-October, Cairo-born Bishop Bedros Tarmouni, 59, was elected Catholicos Patriarch of the Lebanon-based Armenian Catholic Church by the Synod of Bishops at the Monastery of Bzommar. Unlike the Armenian Apostolic Church, lay representatives do not participate in the election of a Catholic patriarch. The Synod is made of clergy delegates representing Catholic communities in Europe, the Middle East, the US, South America and Armenia. The new leader will be known as Patriarch Nerses-Bedros XIX.
Armenian International Magazine (AIM), November 1999, Vol. 10, No. 11, pp. 24-25
A New Beginning Catholicos Garegin II Faces the Task of Healing and Leading the Church
By HRATCH TCHILINGIRIAN
The Armenian Apostolic Church elected the 132nd Catholicos of All Armenians on October 27. Archbishop Garegin Nersissian, Vicar of the Ararat Diocese, succeeded Catholicos Karekin I, who passed away in June after serving for only four years as the head of the 1700-year old Church.
Armenian International Magazine (AIM), Volume 10, Number 10, October 1999, pp. 48-51
Back In Karabakh Diocese of Artsakh Celebrates 10th Anniversary of Re-establishment
By Hratch Tchilingirian
The Diocese of Artsakh celebrates the 10th anniversary of its re-establishment in Mountainous Karabakh. Under the most trying circumstances, the Diocese was officially reopened in the spring of 1989 with a special encyclical by Catholicos Vazgen I of All Armenians, and with the appointment of Bishop Barkev Martirossian as Primate. (He became an Archbishop in June 1999).
Armenian International Magazine (AIM),October 1999, Volume 10, Number 10, p. 24-27
Turkish Tragedy A Devastating Earthquake Shakes the Land, People and Government of Turkey
By Hratch Tchilingirian
The devastating earthquake that hit Turkey’s Marmara region in August killed almost 20,000 people, left more than 27,000 people injured and hundreds of thousands homeless. The epicenter of the 7.4 magnitude earthquake was near Izmit, an industrial city about 104 km (60 miles) east of Istanbul.
Armenian International Magazine (AIM) July 1999, Volume 10, Number 7, pp 29-33
The End of a Journey Karekin I, Catholicos of All Armenians, 1995-1999; Catholicos of Cilicia, 1977-1995
By Hratch Tchilingirian
In April 1995, Karekin I was elected the 131st Catholicos of All Armenians in Ejmiatsin by the National Ecclesiastical Assembly, arguably, the most pan-Armenian body representing almost nine million Armenians in the republic and 32 countries in the Diaspora. Unlike other elections in the last five hundred years, this one was the first in a free and independent Republic of Armenia. And for the first time in history, the Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia, in Lebanon, was elected Catholicos of All Armenians in Ejmiatsin.
Armenian International Magazine (AIM) April 1999, Vol. 10, No. 4, p 34
From Activism to Diplomacy Karabakh finds a place in the geostrategic architecture of the Caucasus
By HRATCH TCHILINGIRIAN
In the last decade, the Karabakh leadership has effectively transitioned from the political activism of the late 1980s and armed conflict in the early 1990s to serious diplomacy-with a combat-ready, disciplined army to back its political and geostrategic interests. Today, having acquired the constituent elements of statehood, Karabakh functions as a de-facto independent state.