A filmmaker makes a journey into her own family’s history to investigate the terrible truth behind her grandmother’s odd tattoos and, in the process, unveils the story of the Armenian women driven out of Ottoman Turkey during the First World War.
The film was screened prime-time on Al Jazeera from January 11 – 18th. (Thank you 517design for the link to the film in HD).
Posted in Armenia
Tagged History, Ottoman Empire, Ottoman Turkey, Tattoo, Twentieth Century, Wars and Conflicts, World War I, World War II
Armenia marked on Friday the 92nd anniversary of the establishment of the first short-lived independent republic that emerged from the ashes of the Russian Empire at the end of World War I.
Photo: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Scientists have uncovered in an Armenian cave what may be the oldest preserved human brain from an ancient society, which dates back to 6,000 years.
The cave overlooks southeastern Armenia’s Arpa River, just across the border from Iran. The researchers found a trio of Copper Age human skulls, each buried in a separate niche inside the three-chambered, 600-square-meter cave. The skulls belonged to 12- to 14-year-old girls, according to anatomical analyses conducted independently by three biological anthropologists.
Fractures identified on two skulls indicate that the girls were killed by blows from a club of some sort, probably in a ritual ceremony, according to Gregory Areshian of the University of California, Los Angeles. Continue reading
The year 2008 marks the 4500th anniversary of the victory of the Armenian Patriarch Hayk against Bel at the battle of Hayots Dzor (south of Lake Van). Movses Khorenatsi (V century) depicted Bel as the head of the evil forces trying to conquer the world: Patriarch Hayk was engaged in peaceful work on the Armenian land, when Bel made an attempt to subjugate him. Hayk killed Bel with his trident (the triple spear) arrow shot from his wide bow in the battle of Hayots Dzor. Hayk’s victory symbolized the victory by the forces of Light over the forces of Darkness.
The struggle against foreign invadors forms the axis of the millenia-long history of Armenia. Hayk’s victory, standing at the very source of that struggle, became a token of future victories. The day of Hayk’s victory was marked as the starting point of the Armenian calendar and if calculations are correct, on August 11, 2008 marks the turn of 4500th anniversary of the Armenian calendar.
While the figure of 4500 is much smaller then the 5768th year of the Hebriew calendar, it is certainly much greater than the 1429th year of the Islamic calendar, or the 2008th of Gregorian or Julian calendars. Indeed, we have every reason to be proud.
