THE UNSILENCEABLE BELFRY

Vahe H. Apelian

In a few days, Armenia will observe May 28, one of its national holidays. It is called Republic Day. On that day the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Armenia in 1918 is celebrated. But well before o Many from Diaspora traveled to Armenia not to miss celebrating the national holiday on its centennial.

The first republic was short-lived, from 1918 to 1920, but it laid down the foundation of the Armenian statehood after the collapse of the last Armenian kingdom, the Kingdom of Cilicia, in 1375. 

During the past 100 years, a few generations of Armenians grew up taking for granted that the Armenians have a state of their own, albeit under the Soviet rule for seventy years. On September 21, 1991, the citizens of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Armenia voted overwhelmingly in a referendum to gain independence from the Soviet Union. The date is marked as the Independence Day of Armenia (Armenian: Հայաստանի Անկախության օրը) and is observed as another state holiday in Armenia. 

May 28, 1918, has become a historically distant date, distancing us from the life and death realities of the day. The Supreme Patriarch of the Armenians then was Catholicos of all Armenians Kevork Soureniants (1911-1930).

Catholicos Kevork's poignant appeal to the nation best captures the precarious state of the Armenians who came together to secure a portion of the real estate that was theirs, as present-day Armenia.  

Here is what the Catholicos proclaimed:

"Armenian nation. Our age-old enemy, the Turks have subjugated Alexandrapol (present-day Gumri) and are advancing towards the heart of our nation, our faith, and our history. It is coming onto the land of Ararat.

The Turks are advancing massacring and plundering. Our commanders see no way out of the disaster and are pushing the Patriarch of the Armenians to flee. They are suggesting to me to leave the Holy See Etchmiadzin, our holy sanctuary, the last remnant of the Armenian people.

No, and no. Thousand times no. I will not abandon the legacy of our saintly forefathers. If the Armenian people are not able to stop the enemy's advances, is unable to salvage our holy sites, I will then bear a sword and fall in the courtyard of our Mother Temple but I will not abandon the depository of our faith, the Holy See.

If the end has come, then why not accept it with honor and courage? And not by submissively crawl in front of our enemy. Our history through the ages is full of valor colored with blood. It has not exhausted our blood and courage. Throughout the centuries the Armenian people have struggled for the sake of preserving their identity. It is for that reason that our history, laden with large-scale massacres, has not come to its end, nor will it. Therefore, as a nation, why not rise against the enemy that is coming thirsty to our last blood?" (Catholicos of all Armenians Kevork Soureniants, May 1918).

Catholicos also requested that all the churches across the land to toll their bells. The sound of these bells surely reverberated the souls of the emaciated survivors who had found refuge there. But the Armenians were not all that unprepared. The Armenian army commanders had forged an army ready for battle. The soldiers, along with the people met their enemy on three battlefronts and carried the day.

Nowadays visitors to the Sardarabad Monument will see symbolic bells held high by three columns of bells symbolizing the three battlefronts. These bells symbolically toll for succeeding generations as they did once at that precarious moment in our history calling upon the Armenians to be ready to rise up in defense of the fatherland.