World Marks 98th Anniversary of Armenian Genocide

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On 24 April, Armenians worldwide, along with many countries, commemorated the 98th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. Hundreds of thousands of Armenians went to Tsitsernakaberd Memorial in Yerevan to remember the victims of the Armenian Genocide. Turkey denies the fact of Armenian Genocide. Uruguay (1965), the Republic of Cyprus (1982), Argentina (1993), Russia (1995), Canada (1996), Greece (1996), Lebanon (1997), Belgium (1998), Italy (2000), the Vatican (2000), France (2001), Switzerland (2003), Slovakia (2004), the Netherlands (2004), Poland (2005), Germany (2005), Venezuela (2005), Lithuania (2005), Chile (2007), and Sweden (2010) recognise and condemn the Armenian Genocide. The Council of Europe and the World Council of Churches also recognise and condemn the Armenian Genocide.

The atrocities committed against the Armenian people of the Ottoman Empire during World War I are what we now call the Armenian Genocide. The Young Turk government perpetrated these massacres throughout all of the regions of the Empire. The first international reaction to the violence came in a joint statement by France, Russia, and Great Britain in May 1915, where they defined the Turkish atrocities directed against the Armenian people as “a new crime against humanity and civilisation”, with an agreement that that the Ottoman government must be punished for committing such crimes.

Why did the Armenian Genocide happen?

When World War I erupted, the Young Turk government, hoping to save the remains of the weakened Ottoman Empire, adopted a policy of Pan-Turkism, that is, the establishment of a Turkish empire comprising all Turkic-speaking peoples of the Caucasus and Central Asia extending to China, with the additional intention of Turkifying all ethnic minorities of the empire. The Armenians were the main obstacle standing in the way of the realisation of this policy. Although the government took the decision to deport all Armenians from Western Armenia (Eastern Turkey) in late 1911, the Young Turks used World War I as a suitable opportunity for its implementation.

How many people died in the Armenian Genocide?

There were an estimated two million Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire on the eve of World War I. Approximately one-and-a-half million Armenians perished between 1915 and 1923. Another half-million found shelter abroad.

The mechanism of implementation

Genocide is the organised killing of a people for the express purpose of putting an end to their collective existence. Because of its scope, genocide requires central planning and internal machinery to implement it. This makes genocide the quintessential state crime, as only a government has the resources to carry out such a scheme of destruction. On 24 April 1915, the first phase of the Armenian massacres began with the arrest and murder of hundreds of intellectuals, mainly from Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman Empire (now, Istanbul in present-day Turkey). Subsequently, Armenians worldwide commemorate 24 April as a day to memorialise all the victims of the Armenian Genocide.

The second phase of the “final solution” was the conscription of some 60,000 Armenian men into the Ottoman Army. Then, Turkish soldiers disarmed them and killed them. The third phase of the genocide was massacres, deportations, and death marches of women, children, and the elderly into the Syrian Desert. During those marches, Turkish soldiers, gendarmes, and Kurdish mobs killed hundreds of thousands. Others died of famine, epidemic diseases, and exposure to the elements. Turkish soldiers raped thousands of women and children. Tens of thousands were forcibly-converted to Islam. Finally, the fourth phase of the Armenian genocide was the total and utter denial by the Turkish government of the mass killings and elimination of the Armenian nation. Despite the continuing international recognition of the Armenian genocide, Turkey’s consistently fought the acceptance of the Armenian Genocide by any means, including false scholarship, propaganda campaigns, lobbying, etc.

24 April 2013

Pravmir.com

Orthodox Christianity and the World

http://www.pravmir.com/world-marks-98th-anniversary-of-armenian-genocide/

 

Patriarch Kirill Urged the Élites: Don’t be Tempted to Rescue Russia by Using Foreign Ideologies

Patriarch St Germogen Refuses to Sign the Polish Decree

Pavel Chistyakov

1860

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Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev of Moscow and all the Russias called the élite to remember the tragic lessons from the Smuta, so as not to be tempted to “rescue” Russia by using foreign ideologies, just as some boyars in the 17th century tried to force the Patriarch to support the Polish papist invaders and betray the Russian people. Patriarch Kirill said this on Saturday, the feastday of the Holy Martyr Patriarch Germogen, after a Molieben at the future site of a monument to the saint in the Aleksandrovsky Garden. Previously, the liberal community (that is, “conservative” in Anglosphere terms: editor) repeatedly called on Patriarch Kirill to intervene in the political and social situation. A year ago, the oligarch Boris Berezovsky addressed His Holiness with a missive asking him to “support a bloodless régime change in Russia”.

Patriarch Kirill also pointed up his position with respect to last year’s mass rallies and reminded us that he faced criticism for the fact that he’d supported the government at that time, saying, bringing to mind the events of the Smuta, “However, the treacherous boyars, as well as the Polish occupiers, understood that all would come to nought with their plans for Russia, if the Patriarch of Moscow refused to appeal to the people to believe in the principle of ‘rescue’ via foreign ideology. Patriarch [St Germogen] came under enormous pressure from some of the boyars and the Polish occupiers to ‘sign an appeal addressed to the Russian people to accept foreign domination as an excellent and necessary act, with the intention of saving the country’”.

He noted that the Polish invaders easily prevailed in Moscow because boyars in the Moscow élite “saw the occupation of Russia as a good thing, as a way to improve their material situation and level of culture by adopting European values. Why did our enemies need such assistance from the Patriarch? Indeed, it was because they knew that the people… the ordinary simple people, who always decided, and who still decide, the fate of Russia… didn’t agree with the élite, they weren’t tempted [by foreign ideas], they lived according to their conscience. Only one voice could affect the people… the voice of the Patriarch. However, [Germogen] was as one with his people, but this powerful élite group, who tried to destroy the country’s unity, was, in fact, alien to the church and to the people”.

As Patriarch Germogen disagreed with the elite’s plans to “transform their motherland”, he was imprisoned in the Chudov Monastery, where his gaolers starved him to death. Nevertheless, even in prison, Germogen continued to appeal to the Russian people, he blessed their war of resistance against the invaders, and his appeals galvanised Minin and Pozharsky, who led the opolchenie in a glorious chapter of Russian history. Vladyki Kirill remarked, “What happened to us in the 17th century is a great lesson for all time and it’s a lesson for everyone… for the government, for the élite, for the Church, and for the people”.

He noted that the Church recognises three Patriarchs of Moscow and all the Russias as saints… Patriarch St Job, who didn’t succumb to the temptation to support the False Dmitri, who “retained a true understanding of the underpinnings of Russian state power”, Patriarch St Germogen, “who remained faithful to his people and country”, and Patriarch St Tikhon Bellavin, who “in the tragic years of the 20th century Smuta raised his voice and spoke the truth”. All three patriarchs were victims of the “the powers of this world” and the “powers that be”, and the Patriarch pointed up that these men set an example of the prophetic ministry of the Church, which operates to the benefit of both the Faith and the motherland, going on to say, “I feel… both at that time, and now… that our deepest relationship is with our people, with that people who’re sometimes offensive, who sometimes feel themselves unable to make decisions, who are sometimes easily-misled, weak, and prone to failings. Yet, the Orthodox faith resides deeply in the life of the people, together with a deep loyalty to the motherland. So, the Church, being at one with its people, prays for the people, continuing the ministry carried out by the greatest Patriarchs of Moscow”.

2 March 2013

Olga Samsonova

RIA-Novosti

http://ria.ru/society/20130302/925478741.html

Editor’s Note:

Do observe that HH uses the term “Smuta” for both the period of the Polish occupation and the period of the confused era of the first years of the USSR. However, the most important takeaway here is:

What happened to us in the 17th century is a great lesson for all time and it’s a lesson for everyone… for the government, for the élite, for the Church, and for the people.

HH compares the present pro-Western neoliberals (“conservatives”) to those boyars who favoured bringing a Catholic junta to Russia. This has resonance far beyond Russia. This isn’t the place for an extended treatment of the subject, but it means that all the churchmen who compromised themselves by an overly-cosy relationship with the Western “powers of this world” and “powers that be” are treacherous and traitorous Quislings. In particular, it means that past and present figures such as Aleksandr Schmemann, Victor Potapov, Lyonyo Kishkovsky, Basil Rodzianko, Alexander Webster, James Paffhausen, and John Jillions besmirched and compromised themselves by their shameless and open service to the Western Moloch (often, for mere filthy lucre and prosperity, as in the case of Rodzianko, Potapov, Webster, and Jillions). This requires a more thorough treatment, but we don’t have the time or the space now.

However, do read Potapov’s screed against Stalin on the ROCOR official website in light of the fact that he was (or remains) a bought n’ paid-for minion of the most reactionary Russophobic elements in the American government (a fact that’s been known for at least thirty years). Remember, he who pays the piper determines the tune. That speaks volumes about those named above, no? Can you see why the Centre refuses to sign off on Paffhausen joining the ROCOR? Dig deeply… you’ll find riches. Dig superficially… you’ll end like the Monomoron crowd, making bootless predictions that never see the light of day (their forecast of Lyonyo’s imminent demise was laughable, wasn’t it?). All that glitters isn’t gold…

BMD

13 February 2013. Arrant Bullshit from the Lukianov Clan… Absolute Utter Crackbrained Vlasovtsy Nonsense

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Here’s what the REAL Church thinks of communism… a little different from the writer below, I’d say…

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Here’s absolute crapola from one Peter Lukianov (son of Fr Serge Lukianov of the ROCOR, a true example of First Family rot if there ever was such):

He [NHM Joachim] was hung in the royal doors of his cathedral after watching two of his priests get shot in front of him. The soviets (sic) came to confiscate all the church valuables “to help the poor”. St Joachim said… no problem, we’ll do an inventory of all our valuables and then personally sell them to help the poor. Obviously the soviets had no intention of helping the poor with that money so they killed him. Not to get political, but this reminds me a little of what is happening in America with all the new taxes on the rich. Government taking from one group to redistribute to another. What’s sad is how many people bought into that logic under communism and what ultimately happened to Russia. Sure, the government in the USA isn’t taking from the Church, but they have no problem dipping into peoples personal funds for “the greater good”. Today it’s the rich but Tomorrow it could just as easily be the Church. Call me crazy but look at how our government has changed it’s attitude towards religion. Saying a prayer in school is no longer acceptable. 50 years ago, if you told my grandparents that this would happen, they would have called you crazy – but now what? What’s next? Let’s pray to the New Martyrs for our beloved USA. They are closer to us than we realize.

I kept all the grammatical errors of the original… Mr Lukianov obviously slept through English Composition class. This is rightwing drivelling rubbish worthy of anything from Victor Potapov or Rod Dreher. He’s so CONCERNED for the rich… and he considers state social welfare programmes evil… which means that he’s at odds with HH and Fr Vsevolod, just to name two. HH supports Free Cuba, universal state-paid healthcare, generous allowances for families and seniors, and gives high Church decorations to communists (most of whom are believers). Hmm… I think that’s SLIGHTLY different from Mr Lukianov’s take on the matter. The Church does NOT support the ungrounded assertions like the one above made by the rightwing faction in the ROCOR… not at all. If I had to choose… make mine HH… and Peter Lukianov can go to hell in the most expeditious manner possible.

Whilst surfing the web, I found this concerning Mr Lukianov’s bloviation:

It’s about time someone exposed the chicanery! This has bothered me for several years for a few reasons. First, the Russian Church (MP) is in a country where abortion is still legal, yet, they still pray for their civil authorities. Second, even during the communist era, the MP still used the wording “for our divinely-protected country” (о богохранимей стране нашей) during the Great Litany. Some may claim it was coercion. To that I say, “Whatever!” Look how far they’ve come since. They were in a worse situation than we were, but now theirs is better. What excuse do we have? Perhaps, prayer actually works! Thirdly, our country is always a tangential mention at the end of said petition, rather than the first. The MP parishes in this country don’t even mention the Russian land in that petition. However, they do pray for this land, since after all, they’re living in it!

Perhaps our “spiritual centre” better take a long, hard look as to why it’s crumbling. No, I’m not saying that this is “the” reason, but it’s an example of all the stupid little things that have added up over the years. The bottom line… do you want change? Do, you want better leaders? Then, pray for the ones we have! Pray that God will convert their hearts and open them to the truth! God-fearing leaders don’t just drop out of the sky (at least, not in reality). Elected officials reflect the will of the people they represent, which means that we as Orthodox Christians have work to do. The correct option is to engage them, convert them, but most importantly, to pray for them. The wrong answer is to ignore them!

Let’s be clear… there’s housecleaning to be done. We can’t afford to let the Church to be allied to the godless American consumerist Moloch… something best embodied in the Republican Party. It’s up to US… but shall we do anything? It’s time for YOU to choose…

BMD

Our Father Amongst the Saints Hieromartyr Maksim Sandovich (+1914), Murdered by the Papist Hapsburgs

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St Maksim Sandovich was born in 1882 in the village of Żdynia in Carpatho-Russia (Ruthenia). At present, this area is located near the Polish-Ukrainian border, but it was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at that time. From an early age, St Maksim evidenced extraordinary piety. When he was a schoolboy, he’d get up early in the morning to read his prayers and sing hymns. He wanted to become a monk or a priest, so, after he completed his schooling, he became a novice in one of the Uniate monasteries. However, in short order, the life there disappointed him, and, after three months, he went from there to the Pochaev Monastery, famous for its rigour, the spiritual life of its brotherhood, and its adherence to Orthodoxy.

When Maksim was still a novice, Metropolitan Antony Khrapovitsky (1863-1936) of Kiev visited the monastery. He asked the abbot to release one of the novices to study in seminary, to be ordained to serve in Carpatho-Russia, where many Ukrainian Uniates had returned to the bosom of the Orthodox Church. The abbot chose to send Maksim. He left behind his dreams of a monastic life, and he followed Metropolitan Antony. After finishing seminary in Zhitomir, Maksim married a Byelorussian girl and accepted ordination to the priesthood in 1911. Metropolitan Anthony offered him the opportunity to stay with him in Kiev, but Fr Maksim refused, and he returned to his homeland.

He began his pastoral service in Grabe, near his native village. In this place, he celebrated the Orthodox Divine Liturgy for the first time after the imposition of the Unia on Carpatho-Russia in the 18th century. During a personal call on his relatives, the authorities arrested him and gave him a substantial fine and an eight-day gaol-sentence. Despite this, Fr Maksim continued to serve in neighbouring villages, which led to new measures against him and the Orthodox Christians who aided him in his mission.

In March 1912, the Hapsburg authorities imprisoned him in Lvov. Two years later, he was in court again, this time facing charges of spreading the Orthodox faith, the use of liturgical books in Church Slavonic, and collaboration with Russia, which was an opponent of Austria-Hungary. On all the charges, the saint replied, “My only politics is the Holy Gospel“. Despite numerous perjuries against him, abuse, isolation, and all kinds of suffering, in June 1914, the court acquitted St Maksim, along with his associates, so, they returned to their native places.

However, in August 1914, upon the outbreak of the First World War, the Austro-Hungarian authorities arrested Fr Maksim again, along with his wife, who was pregnant, his father, and several Orthodox villagers. They put them in gaol in Gorlice. On 6 September 1914, without a trial before a judge, Fr Maksim received an extrajudicial death sentence. They dragged him from his cell and shot him in the prison yard, in front of all the arrested Orthodox. Falling to the ground, the Holy Hieromartyr of Christ said, “Long live Holy Orthodoxy!” Then, enraged, one of the executioners rushed at him and stabbed him with a dagger.

Only in 1922 were the remains of the saint transferred to his native village of Żdynia, where the Orthodox believers buried him next to the church. Since then, many pilgrims have gone on otpust to his tomb. The veneration of Holy Hieromartyr Maksim Sandovich spread among Carpatho-Russian Orthodox, it persisted even after the Hapsburg authorities deported many of them to the Talerhof concentration camp; St Maksim became a symbol of their national and religious identity. The Local Church of Warsaw and all Poland glorified St Maksim in 1994… it was the first saint glorified by this Local Church after its autocephaly in 1924. His memory isn’t included in the current edition of the Mineya of the Local Church of Moscow and all the Russias.

19 September 2012

Hieromonk Makarios of Simonopetra Monastery (Mount Athos)

Pravoslavie.ru

http://www.pravoslavie.ru/put/56146.htm

From Synaxarion: Lives of the Saints of the Orthodox Church, published by Sretensky Monastery in Moscow

Editor’s Note:

Let’s keep it simple. Freddie M-G, Dreher, Fathausen, and all the rest of the konvertsy cavalcade schmooze up to and pander to Uniates. I’d observe that the Uniates colluded in the murder of St Maksim and that they refuse to recognise him as a saint to this day. You can stand with the konvertsy indifferentists or you can stand with the REAL Church, which honours St Maksim. Any questions? Yet, they lecture us, and call us “nominal” and “lax”… I’ll retire to Bedlam with Mr Scrooge…

This Sunday is the closest Sunday to St Maksim’s feastday on the Orthodox calendar. Don’t forget him… and those who came after him, too. Unfortunately, the Uniate clergy and leadership were (and are) busy beavers in their service of the Pope of Rome… they continue their attacks on Christ’s Church and its true ministers and believers to this day. You must trust NOTHING from Uniate sources (such as the website Byzantine Texas)… either it’s outright lies or it’s “castrated truth”… truth with vital parts cut out. Caveat lector…

Nothing is forgotten… no one is forgotten. Lest we forget…

BMD

17 July 2012. There is NO Documentary Evidence that Lenin Ordered the Shooting of the Imperial Family

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It’s important to point up on the anniversary of the martyrdom of the Royal Passionbearers that Lenin did NOT order their deaths, that’s been determined via objective historical research. As I reported last year:

Investigation has established that no documents exist that confirm that Lenin and other senior Soviet leaders gave the order to shoot the imperial family. On Thursday, at our main Interfax offices, Vladimir Solovyov, a senior investigator and criminologist at the Forensic Directorate of the SKP RF, said, “If there were verbal arrangements, they never wrote them down; hence, we don’t have any relevant documentation. A decision of the Presidium of the Ural Regional Soviet authorised the execution”.

Click here for the rest of the post. In fact, I read somewhere that Vladimir Ilyich was upset over the crime, as he felt it was illegal (no trial), it’d smear the Party in the eyes of patriots otherwise well-disposed to the Revolution, and went against the Socialist concept of rehabilitation, as with Pu Yi, China‘s last Emperor. Real history is always more fascinating, quirky, and human than made-up propaganda is. The latter is flat and tasteless… like a can of beer left open all night long… YUCK.

BMD

Macedonian Government Continues Persecution of SPC

Oh, yes, Macedonia is one of the unthrifty Balkan statelets propped up by the USA and its Western running dogs… that’s where your tax money’s being wasted. Social Security and Medicare aren’t the problems… a hubristical and pointless attempt at world hegemony is the culprit. Your taxes are subsidising the lickspittles who’re carrying out this rubbish… fancy that..

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On 21 May 2012, at 07.00 CET (09.00 MSK 06.00 UTC 01.00 EDT 20 May 22.00 PDT), a large number of police staged an organised and violent action against SPC monasteries and the homes of believers belonging to the SPC Autonomous Archbishopric of Ohrid. In Štip, the police conducted a search for Bishop Marko Kimev of Bregalnica and Administrator of Bitola {St John Maximovich taught in the seminary at Bitola when he was a hieromonk: editor}; they arrested Mother Pelagia when they couldn’t find him. In Skopje, many policemen entered the Convent of the Assumption of the Mother of God, looking for Bishop David Ninov of Stobi and Administrator of Strumica; since they didn’t find him, they arrested the abbess, Mother Kirana. The police brutalised the nuns and harassed them by carrying out a cold-blooded search of the premises, filming everything with a video camera. In addition, the police entered the Convent of St John Chrysostom in Bitola, looking for the superior, Mother Olimpiada; because they couldn’t find her, they rudely harassed the rest of sisterhood. The police also entered the Monastery of the Assumption of the Mother of God in Prilep and arrested Hieromonk Mojsej.

In all the mentioned monasteries, the police seized all computers, as well as other material goods, on the pretext that a warrant exists against the SPC for “tax evasion”. Besides this, the police detained close family members of the bishops, as well as other believers. The Republic of Macedonia refuses to register the SPC Autonomous Archbishopric of Ohrid; ergo, it lacks an independent source of income. It’s dependent on believers’ donations to survive; so, it’s obvious that this state persecution under the guise of tax evasion, together with the verdict against Archbishop Jovan Vraniškovski, is nothing more than egregious persecution. It’s legal harassment on the basis of confessional allegiance; it’s abuse of a kind not seen in democratic countries.

After sentencing Archbishop Jovan of Ohrid to 2½ years of imprisonment in Idrizovo Prison, the Macedonian authorities, in an attempt to prop up the schismatic so-called Macedonian Orthodox Church, began a campaign to wipe out the canonical SPC in our country. We appeal to:

• The First Hierarchs of all Canonical Orthodox Churches
• All foreign embassies of democratic states
• The embassy of the OSCE
• NGOs protecting human rights and religious freedom

We ask them to provide any means of protection and support, in order to halt the state-sponsored persecution of the Macedonian state authorities against the SPC Autonomous Archbishopric of Ohrid, not only that aimed personally against Archbishop Jovan, but also that aimed against all detained abbesses, monks, nuns, and believers, and to definitively end this pogrom attacking religious freedom.

21 May 2012

Official Website of the Autonomous Archbishopric of Ohrid

http://www.poa-info.org/news/2012/05/20120521.html