August 7 is the day of memory of the martyrs of ASALA who gave their lives to the sacred struggle for the Motherland. In Armenia, along with this day, the day of the first operation of this organization is also regularly held, as a rule, in the Pantheon Yerablur — on January 20.
On August 7, the memory of national martyr fighters was also noted in the Armenian community of St. Petersburg. In the announcement in the Facebook group there was a link to four dozen publications on the ASALA theme in recent years, this illustrates that the topic is one of the popular among the 7300 members of the group.
For many, the theme is not only connected with the memory of selfless heroes in the past, since the main goal remains — the liberation of part of the Homeland occupied by Turkey. However, at the first stage since 1975, the liberation movement was of one character, and it was largely thanks to ASALA that the topic of the rights of the Armenian people to the lands of the Homeland became known widely in the world, but since the 1990s started a democratic process of restoring legitimate state structures of the Republic of Western Armenia in a format, which is possible at the current time. The Republic itself was recognized de jure as early as the beginning of the 20th century, but de facto structures did not function for a long time. As a result, after the elections with the participation of about 18,000 Armenians from 40 countries around the world, in late 2014, a legitimate successor of Western Armenian state structures was elected — the parliament, also a government was elected, and since 2015 these structures have been working regularly, interacting with different countries and international organizations. In addition, since the activity of ASALA, the global epoch has also changed, becoming informational. Therefore, at the present time, the need for the previous nature of ASALA activities, as in the 1970s and 1980s, has essentially disappeared, but there became a need for «information ASALA», and the strategy of struggle must be linked to the strategy, documents and decisions of the state bodies of Western Armenia.
In connection with the above, the headline of the newsletter prepared in the Armenian community of St. Petersburg by the Armenian Comradeship in conjunction with the structure of Western Armenia was «From the liberation struggle to the Republic of Western Armenia.»
PDF file of the newsletter is available upon request.
By the way, on September 1, 2018, the second election of the parliament of Western Armenia will take place, and any Armenian can take part in them.
The newsletter (in Armenian) contains:
— photos of 40 martyrs,
— brief biographies of some members of ASALA,
— the ASALA programs of 1980 and 1991,
— chronology of the activities of ASALA,
— a list of books and publications about ASALA,
— a famous poem by Silva Kaputikyan,
— photos of different years.
Also, an excerpt from the Appeal of the state bodies of the Republic of Western Armenia to the UN dated May 29, 2018, (with reference to the web site) with the demand to implement Woodrow Wilson’s Arbitral Award, which does not have a statute of limitations.
— brief biographies of some members of ASALA,
— the ASALA programs of 1980 and 1991,
— chronology of the activities of ASALA,
— a list of books and publications about ASALA,
— a famous poem by Silva Kaputikyan,
— photos of different years.
Also, an excerpt from the Appeal of the state bodies of the Republic of Western Armenia to the UN dated May 29, 2018, (with reference to the web site) with the demand to implement Woodrow Wilson’s Arbitral Award, which does not have a statute of limitations.
At 17:00 in the Armenian Church of St. Catherine in St. Petersburg, a moleben was held for the martyrs of ASALA.
Video fragment (12 min)
Video fragment (12 min)
The priest Ter Efrem read 40 names of martyrs who gave their lives for the struggle for the liberation of the Homeland from the genocidal invader Turkey. Among these names are those who were over 60 years old and also 16-year-olds — Raffi Palyan, Zaven Hovhannisyan, Arut Gyulujyan. Mkrtich Madaryan and Vache Talhyan were only 19, Aramais Ohanian and Khachatur Khurshudyan were 21, Garnik Vahradyan — 22, Hakob Tarakchyan, Zohrab Sargsyan, Pierre Gyulumyan and Arshak Ter-Sahakyan were 23, Levon Ekmekchyan, Andranik Sasunyan and George Vardanyan 25, Silva Chilinkiryan — 26 …
After the moleben, the community activists laid flowers to the khachkar near the church.
Video fragment (1 min)
A few minutes later, an earlier announced meeting was held with prime minister of the Republic of Western Armenia Tigran Pashabezyan. He was on a working trip from Yerevan to Quebec (Canada) and the connection was remote via Skype. The video of the beginning of the meeting, which lasted more than an hour, was in live mode on Facebook.
Looking at the faces of the heroes in the newsletter, a rhetorical question arises: how many percent of young people in the Diaspora, particularly in the Armenian community of Russia today are given at least just for information, even virtual attention to the practical movement for restoring the rights to the Armenian Homeland, for which the martyrs of ASALA, dozens of Sons Armenian people gave their young lives? Therefore, such activities as on August 7 are important, as well as the regular and systematic work to eradicate the virus of indifference and to increase the number of people involved in the ongoing movement.
This article in Facebook — https://www.facebook.com/groups/Armenian.community.in.Russia.English/permalink/1975697609118930/
Фотографии в Фейсбуке — https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.1618306444946675&type=3
