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VISITORS TO AINTOURA SHRINE MOURN SLAIN ARMENIAN ORPHANS
The Daily Star
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Local-News/2011/May-10/Visitors-to-Aintoura-shrine-mourn-slain-Armenian-orphans.ashx#axzz1LybwtKLM
May 10 2011
Lebanon
May 10, 2011 01:14 AM (Last updated: May 10, 2011 03:28 PM) By Van
Meguerditchian
AINTOURA: Hundreds of visitors flocked to a new shrine Sunday evening
at the Lazarist Saint Joseph College in Aintoura to remember more
than 350 orphans who perished there under Ottoman rule.
The shrine, which sits atop a grave of young victims of the Armenian
genocide, was built several months ago and has become a somber and
meaningful site for Lebanese and foreign visitors alike.
On Sunday evening, the Armenian Catholic Church held a mass service
for the orphans at Aintoura's grand 19th-century chapel, nearly 100
years after the end of World War I.
"Among the children buried in the grave were more than 300 young
Armenian orphans who were the victims of [a policy of] "Turkification"
at the hands of Turkish officials assigned by Jamal Pasha in 1916,"
said Missak Kelechian, an engineer who researched the history of the
site, uncovering the location of the mass grave.
Kelechian's research took over five years to complete and began with
a photograph in a book by Stanley Kerr, a volunteer of the American
Near East Relief Agency. The photograph showed Jamal Pasha on the
steps of the Saint Joseph College at Aintoura in 1916.
At the ceremony, Kelechian cited a letter he received last week from
Kerr's granddaughter, Susan.
Susan Kerr said that her family had established life-long friendships
with children who survived that chapter in the history of the Armenian
people.
"My brothers, cousins and I knew that our grandparents' lives had been
profoundly influenced by these friendships, and of having witnessed
the tenacity, perseverance and humanity of Armenians in the face of
terrible adversity," said Kerr, the daughter of former president of
the American University of Beirut, Malcolm Kerr, who was assassinated
on AUB's campus in 1984.
Visitors to the shrine's stone cross, and a bronze statue of a
10-year-old boy, underlined the site's significance.
"It is important today that more Lebanese know about the tragic fate
of Armenian orphans in Aintoura," said Vazken Nurpetlian, as he lit
a candle at the shrine. "The finding [of the grave] shows that the
international Armenian cause [for the recognition of the Armenian
genocide] is also a Lebanese cause."
During the mass, however, Kelechian expressed fears that history has
become less important for the Lebanese and questioned why Martyrs'
Day, celebrated May 6, is not being well observed in the country.
Twenty-one Arab nationalists in Beirut and Damascus were executed by
Ottoman authorities May 6, 1916.
"Martyr Abdel-Ghani Araysi said before being hanged: 'Let him [Jamal
Pasha] know that our grave will become the foundation of this country's
freedom,'" said Kelechian.
"The crimes committed by the Turks in Lebanon were not only against
Armenians, they were against all Lebanese," he continued. "How and
why did the May 6th Martyrs' Day disappear?" he asked in his remarks.
The president of Saint Joseph College, Father Antoine Pierre Nakad,
said during the mass that the young Armenian orphans met a brutal
end within three years of their arrival to the college.
"We should mark this in our history because a nation without a memory
is ultimately a nation without a future," said Nakad.
Of the 1,200 orphans at Aintoura, around 1,000 children were Armenian
and the remainder were Kurds. On his arrival to the college, Jamal
Pasha assigned Halide Edip Adivar, a well-known Turkish feminist,
to conduct the "Turkification" of the Armenian orphans, to erase
their identity.
After suffering defeat in World War I, Ottoman forces were forced
to withdraw from the college and when the French Lazarists arrived,
Father Ernest Sarlout helped the surviving orphans to remember their
original names and speak Armenian again.
And this story of renewal should be remembered alongside the tragic
history, according to Kerr.
"He [Stanley Kerr] would have settled on a story of hope - hope of a
child who in spite of everything ... managed not only to live, but to
live productively and compassionately," Kerr explained in her letter.
A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Daily
Star on May 10, 2011, on page 3.
From: A. Papazian
The Daily Star
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Local-News/2011/May-10/Visitors-to-Aintoura-shrine-mourn-slain-Armenian-orphans.ashx#axzz1LybwtKLM
May 10 2011
Lebanon
May 10, 2011 01:14 AM (Last updated: May 10, 2011 03:28 PM) By Van
Meguerditchian
AINTOURA: Hundreds of visitors flocked to a new shrine Sunday evening
at the Lazarist Saint Joseph College in Aintoura to remember more
than 350 orphans who perished there under Ottoman rule.
The shrine, which sits atop a grave of young victims of the Armenian
genocide, was built several months ago and has become a somber and
meaningful site for Lebanese and foreign visitors alike.
On Sunday evening, the Armenian Catholic Church held a mass service
for the orphans at Aintoura's grand 19th-century chapel, nearly 100
years after the end of World War I.
"Among the children buried in the grave were more than 300 young
Armenian orphans who were the victims of [a policy of] "Turkification"
at the hands of Turkish officials assigned by Jamal Pasha in 1916,"
said Missak Kelechian, an engineer who researched the history of the
site, uncovering the location of the mass grave.
Kelechian's research took over five years to complete and began with
a photograph in a book by Stanley Kerr, a volunteer of the American
Near East Relief Agency. The photograph showed Jamal Pasha on the
steps of the Saint Joseph College at Aintoura in 1916.
At the ceremony, Kelechian cited a letter he received last week from
Kerr's granddaughter, Susan.
Susan Kerr said that her family had established life-long friendships
with children who survived that chapter in the history of the Armenian
people.
"My brothers, cousins and I knew that our grandparents' lives had been
profoundly influenced by these friendships, and of having witnessed
the tenacity, perseverance and humanity of Armenians in the face of
terrible adversity," said Kerr, the daughter of former president of
the American University of Beirut, Malcolm Kerr, who was assassinated
on AUB's campus in 1984.
Visitors to the shrine's stone cross, and a bronze statue of a
10-year-old boy, underlined the site's significance.
"It is important today that more Lebanese know about the tragic fate
of Armenian orphans in Aintoura," said Vazken Nurpetlian, as he lit
a candle at the shrine. "The finding [of the grave] shows that the
international Armenian cause [for the recognition of the Armenian
genocide] is also a Lebanese cause."
During the mass, however, Kelechian expressed fears that history has
become less important for the Lebanese and questioned why Martyrs'
Day, celebrated May 6, is not being well observed in the country.
Twenty-one Arab nationalists in Beirut and Damascus were executed by
Ottoman authorities May 6, 1916.
"Martyr Abdel-Ghani Araysi said before being hanged: 'Let him [Jamal
Pasha] know that our grave will become the foundation of this country's
freedom,'" said Kelechian.
"The crimes committed by the Turks in Lebanon were not only against
Armenians, they were against all Lebanese," he continued. "How and
why did the May 6th Martyrs' Day disappear?" he asked in his remarks.
The president of Saint Joseph College, Father Antoine Pierre Nakad,
said during the mass that the young Armenian orphans met a brutal
end within three years of their arrival to the college.
"We should mark this in our history because a nation without a memory
is ultimately a nation without a future," said Nakad.
Of the 1,200 orphans at Aintoura, around 1,000 children were Armenian
and the remainder were Kurds. On his arrival to the college, Jamal
Pasha assigned Halide Edip Adivar, a well-known Turkish feminist,
to conduct the "Turkification" of the Armenian orphans, to erase
their identity.
After suffering defeat in World War I, Ottoman forces were forced
to withdraw from the college and when the French Lazarists arrived,
Father Ernest Sarlout helped the surviving orphans to remember their
original names and speak Armenian again.
And this story of renewal should be remembered alongside the tragic
history, according to Kerr.
"He [Stanley Kerr] would have settled on a story of hope - hope of a
child who in spite of everything ... managed not only to live, but to
live productively and compassionately," Kerr explained in her letter.
A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Daily
Star on May 10, 2011, on page 3.
From: A. Papazian