[ad_1]
Introduction to translation:
Attacks broke out in the state of Armenia against the Jewish minority in the country after the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation, driven by global anger towards the occupying state and its crimes in the Gaza Strip on the one hand, and indignation on the other hand at the attempts of an Israeli company to seize part of historic Armenian lands in the city of Jerusalem that are under the control of the Patriarchate. Armenians, in addition to the Armenians’ anger at Tel Aviv due to its close alliance with the state of Azerbaijan in recent years, and the weapons and equipment it provided to it, helped the latter control the Nagorno-Karabakh region in 2020, and inflicted on Armenia its worst defeat since its independence from the Soviet Union. In this article, Armenian writer Arben Hovhannisyan reviews the details of the “Armenian-Jewish tension,” saying that its causes are related to recent events and Israel’s policies, and that it does not mean that there is an anti-Semitism problem in Armenia.
Translation text:
Israeli weapons played a crucial role in Azerbaijan's defeat of Armenia during the Second Karabakh War in 2020. The same applies to Azerbaijan's military takeover of the entire Nagorno-Karabakh region late last year, which resulted in the mass exodus of the entire Armenian population from the region. Now, an ownership dispute in Jerusalem threatens to undermine the nearly 1,600-year-old Armenian presence in the Holy Land. In light of these events, a series of riots against the only synagogue in Armenia led to talk about the possible rise of “anti-Semitism” in Armenia. Members of the small Jewish community in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, categorically reject this idea, as they believe that the attacks are aimed at discrediting their chosen country of residence and nothing more.
Attacks on a Jewish synagogue
One of the first attacks occurred on the Mordechai Nephi Synagogue in Yerevan on October 3, without causing significant material damage. A Molotov cocktail was thrown at the synagogue, but it did not catch fire. However, this attack prompted one of the senior rabbis in Azerbaijan, a neighbor and arch enemy of Armenia, to declare that the latter is no longer safe for the Jews. As Rabbi Zamir Isayev, director of the Jewish school in Baku, said on the X website (formerly Twitter): “I repeat my call to the Jews in Armenia: Leave, and if you need help, I am for it. Leave before it is too late.”
In another attack on November 15, an unknown person set fire to the doors of the first and second floors of the building. The video clip of the attack, along with the claim of responsibility for both attacks, was released on a small channel recently created on the Telegram application, and its name indicates affiliation with the army. The Armenian Secret Liberation of Armenia (ASALA), an Armenian extremist and armed group that was active during the Cold War, but is largely dormant now, and its official representatives have denied any connection to the attack. The video quickly resonated on Azerbaijani social media accounts, which declared Armenia a den of anti-Semitism.
The Armenian Investigative Committee announced two days later that the perpetrator was a citizen of a foreign country and left Armenia immediately after the attack. The committee did not provide further information. Armenia's chief rabbi, Gershon Meir Burstein, told Civil Net that the attacks were acts of “provocation” and were not an expression of anti-Semitism in Armenia. Nathaniel Trubkin, a prominent member of the Jewish community in Yerevan, also said the same thing in an interview with Eurasia Net. He added: “The attack on the synagogue was not an attack against the Jews, but rather against the image of Armenia as a tolerant country.”
Trubkin is considered one of hundreds of Jews who migrated to Armenia from Russia at the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war. He is the artistic director of the “Mamajan” café in the capital, Yerevan, which has become a center for Jewish community activities. He also runs the Jewish Home in Yerevan, and the Jewish Home serves as a group that helps Jews who move to the city are involved in finding housing, and in dealings with the local bureaucracy.
The fact is that there is great resentment in Armenia against Israel, because it provided 70% of the weapons that Azerbaijan obtained between 2016-2020, according to estimates by the Associated Press. Thus, in the wake of Hamas's attacks on Israeli targets on October 7, and the Israeli war on Gaza, the space has opened for more expressions of anti-Israel sentiment to emerge on Armenian social media. However, Trubkin argues that none of these sentiments can be translated as anti-Semitism, since Armenian society, he says, “distinguishes its position on the government and the people, and even if Armenians do not like Israel or Russia, we do not feel that way about ourselves.” .
A dispute in the cow garden
In conjunction with these events, the Armenian Patriarchate in Jerusalem issued a statement warning that the church faces “the greatest existential threat in its history since the sixteenth century.” Armenians, one of the oldest Christian nations in the world, have lived inside Jerusalem for centuries, and have a share of the Old City. The Armenians in Jerusalem are considered the oldest Armenian community in the diaspora, with a population of about two thousand people.
The dispute began after Armenian Patriarch Nurhan Manoogian signed an agreement with Zana Capital, owned by Israeli businessman Danny Rothman, in 2021. The details of the agreement were not revealed until June of this year, and as it turned out, he agreed The patriarch agreed to grant the company a 98-year lease on a piece of land popularly known as the Cow Park (so named because it was historically used for grazing livestock), and the deal was concluded to build a luxury hotel.
The situation worsened after the Armenian Patriarchate in Jerusalem, under pressure from the Armenian community, announced the cancellation of the deal on October 26, 2023 (after Operation Al-Aqsa Flood and the Israeli ground invasion of the Gaza Strip)*. On November 5, representatives of Zana Capital entered the cow park to claim what they called “their land.” Some of the men were armed, and some had barking dogs on chains. After that, the Patriarchate criticized the company for resorting to “acts of provocation, aggression and other inflammatory and harassing methods, including the destruction of property.”
After the incident, local Armenians organized what they described as a “round-the-clock sit-in on our land.” Setraj Balian, one of the leaders of the “Save the Armenian Quarter” movement that opposes the transfer, told Eurasia Net that “the deal is not legal, as under patriarchal law Internally, deals extending over 25 years must receive approval from the Holy Synod and the General Assembly of the Fraternity of Saint James. Accordingly, the Patriarch did not have the legal authority to sign such an agreement on behalf of the Synod.” Balian praised his community for revolting against the transfer, saying: “We are all now united with the Church to fight for our land that we have gained with our sweat and blood.”
[ad_2]
Source link