Jerusalem’s Armenians camped in the Garden of the Cows (Goveroun Bardez) on New Year’s Eve in a climate of tension and fighting spirit. Determined and mobilized, they are continuing to fight, even though the situation on the ground deteriorated considerably last November and especially over the past week.
It all began with a contract signed in March 2020 between the Patriarchate and the Jerusalem municipality. According to this agreement, the cow garden, a parking lot in a dilapidated condition, was supposed to be developed by the municipality in exchange for 90 residential units in the Jewish quarter. This contract was valid for ten years. But, in July 2021, a plot of land called Cows’ Garden was leased by the Armenian Patriarchate to Danny Rubenstein, a Jewish businessman from Australia.
In April 2023, anger and incomprehension had welded the ranks of the community at the news of cascading revelations concerning contracts signed by the patriarch and a defrocked priest in charge of real estate with Israeli developers.
According to the former priest, Father Baret Yeretzian, director of the Patriarchate’s real estate department, the land was leased for 98 years and Rubenstein plans to build a luxurious hotel on the property.
This 99-year lease was signed in defiance of the Synod and the General Assembly of Saint James, made up of thirty Armenian religious leaders, who were neither consulted nor informed of this iniquitous and illegal decision.
There is reason to speak of an existential threat to the future of the Armenian Quarter in Jerusalem, since the lease of the land concerns not just the parking lot, but an area of 11500 m² including five properties inhabited by Armenian families, a private parking lot, the private garden of the patriarchate and the seminary hall.
Yet these are lands that are the common property of the Armenian nation. Land acquired over the centuries, five hundred years ago, through 19 successive transactions. The Armenian Quarter occupies one-sixth of Jerusalem’s Old City; every square centimetre of territory is of crucial importance, whether Israeli, Palestinian or Armenian. The latter have come together in a pacifist self-defence movement: Save the Ar-Q. The flags of Artsakh are flying, the faces are serious and determined.
The Armenian Patriarchate said the deal, approved by the Holy Synod, was signed with “a corporate from the United Arab Emirates” and was expected to receive a net income of hundreds of thousands of dollars. The Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, the leading body of the Armenian Church, said the situation had disrupted the “internal solidarity and unity” within the Patriarchate and “reduced [its] reputation.” Catholicos Karekin II urged Patriarch Nourhan Manougian to “reflect on the concerns through proper interpretation, and to restore solidarity in the Brotherhood.”
Ramzi Khoury, head of the Palestinian Higher Presidential Committee for Churches Affairs in Palestine, called the land transactions in the Armenian Quarter a violation of international law as Palestinians consider the area an “integral part of the Palestinian occupied territories.” Armenia’s Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan discussed the issue with his counterparts from Jordan (Ayman Safadi), Palestine (Riyad al-Maliki), and Israel (Yair Lapid). Surveyors started working at the site in 2023 and a sXANA Capital sign was placed in the area. The Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem released a statement on 1 November 2023 announcing the cancellation of the agreement to lease the property. Bulldozers arrived soon afterwards and began tearing up the carpark portion of the leased land.
The test of sacred union
The young people who founded the Save the Ar-Q movement are aware of the existential stakes involved. The courage, intelligence, and self-sacrifice of young people like Setrag Balian Jr and Hagop Djernazian must be highlighted. The fact that these young people have shown such maturity and combativeness should serve as a lesson to us, when the demons of discord and the search for scapegoats are present. These young people have understood perfectly well that this is not a time for folklore, or for seeking a buzz in the international media. It’s about the responsibility of passing on an intact heritage inherited from our elders over the last 1,500 years.
Jerusalem is home to a priceless library containing the largest collection of Armenian manuscripts outside Armenia; and the treasury contains Armenian (mostly Cilician) gold, silver, and wooden items made by craftsmen, manuscripts, doctrinal and episcopal items, including King Hetum’s mace, a rare handicraft, and a large collection of manuscripts illustrated by Toros Roslin. The printing house was founded in 1833 where Armenian and philological works were published. Since 1843, the seminary, known as “Heritage Seminary” has been operating (its founder was Patriarch Zakaria). Since 1850, the “Targmanchats School” was founded for Armenian children living in Jerusalem. “Zion” magazine has been published since 1866. The monastery with its patriarchal seat is still functioning today.
At a time when the extreme Israeli right in power in Tel Aviv is leading the country’s entire population into a form of collective suicide, having fallen into the trap of the Hamas fanatics, what is happening in Jerusalem is a test. A test for national unity, a test for the moral and spiritual regeneration of a nation that is paying an immeasurably high price for the greed of its elites.
At a time when the Armenian world has been plunged into darkness since the ethnic cleansing of Artsakh, these young people invite us to believe in hope and in the promise of a national renaissance.
