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WELCOME TO OUR NEW WEBSITE WWW.DZIEDZICTWO.ORMIANIE.PL
Dear Friends,
After almost 13 years we part with the Foundation of Culture and Heritage of Polish Armenians previous website edition. The change is due to technical reasons.From the 14th of February 2020 onwards we invite yourselves to our new website which apparently is active under address known to everybody “WWW.DZIEDZICTWO.ORMIANIE.PL”
Armenian Catholic Holy Mass in the Warsaw Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist
On the 9th of February 19, 2019 there was 100th anniversary of delivering by the Archbishop Jozef T. Teodorowicz memorable so called Sejm Sermon (Parliamentary Sermon).In order to commemorate this event in the Warsaw Cathedral a plaque was unveiled , which was then consecrated by the priest Kazimierz Cardinal Nycz, Ordinary of believers to the Armenian Catholic rite.
On the 16th of February 19, 2020 in the Warsaw Cathedral we observed the first anniversary of unveiling and blessing of this plaque. The Armenian Catholic Holy Mass in the Literary Chapel of this temple was celebrated by the priest Professor Jozef Naumowicz. In the delivered sermon he recalled the merits of the Archbishop Jozef T.Teodorowicz in fighting for regaining the Poland’s independence. He solicited this matter in the Parliament in Vienna, in Vatican and in Europe, wherever he could do that. He supported Polish interests in Silesia and Poznan. He was an Armenian but also a great Polish patriot. He was a remarkable orator, distinguished theologian and splendid preacher . As a member of Parliament from Podlasie Region he was offered to deliver a sermon at the Holy Mass on 9th of February 1919 one day before the first session of the legislative Sejm (Parliament).The Priest also mentioned the echoes of his sermon. The then press described Archbishop Joseph T. Teodorowicz as undoubtedly the first Polish preacher. The Priest J.Naumowicz reminded of the fate of the remains of the Archbishop buried in accordance with his will among the heroes of the fights of 1920 at the Cemetery of Lviv Orleta.
At the beginning of the Second World War the archbishop’s ashes were hidden in the Lyczakovski Cemetery for fear of being desecrated. There were needed very difficult and lasting for many years diplomatic efforts to transfer finally in 2011 bishop’s ashes to original place of burial. Priest Jozef Naumowicz expressed his sincere thanks to all those who were engaged in this difficult undertaking. He put forward the proposal that next year in June 2021, on the tenth anniversary of the Archbishop’s Jozef T. Teodorowicz re-burial a pilgrimage to Lviv in order to celebrate this anniversary to be arranged.
In the final part of the Holy Mass its participants went under the plaque where they said the prayer “Our Father in Heaven”- Armenian “Hajr Mer” and sung the song “Boze, cos Polske”(“God whose Poland”). Priest Jozef Naumowicz gave everyone final blessing. This Holy Mass attended by many faithful and not Catholic Armenians only will certainly remain in our memory for a long time.
Congress of Social Archives has gone down in history
The Congress of Social Archives organized by the Center CHART in the POLIN Museum has gone down in history.
On 12th of October the session was traditionally open by the President of the Center CHART. Mr Zbigniew Gluza this time in the company of Mrs Katarzyna Grochola who read the letter from Director Mr Pawel Pietrzyk from the Head Office of the State Archives.
120 organizations from all over Poland took part in the Congress.
In order to discuss the subject of responsibility and importance of documenting history Zbigniew Gluza invited Mrs Malgorzata Szejnert, commentator, Mrs Joanna Kordial, curator from the National Gallery of Art “Zacheta” and Mr Pawel Rodak, Professor from the Institute of Polish Culture of Warsaw University. All above mentioned experts unanimously admitted that irrespective of the sort of activities – reporting, exhibiting or scientific research the fundamental of reliable message is to be based on authentic sources.
The strength of the social archives constitutes the total historical and ideological independence. This allows for the return to sources of information. It is mutual advantage for reporters and archivists. Thanks to making it available in case of often private archival collections one can get sometimes interesting information. Disclosing it can support archives in their existence and activities. The experts also stated that today’s humanities is based on social archives. Thanks to them so called micro-history is preserved. This applies as well to the grass-roots history which is not created by external factors. After extremely interesting discussions representatives of five archives presented their ranges of activities.
Armenia Tonight in Poznan
Armenia Tonight – This is a series of events prepared by four Armenian creators, curators and theoreticians of art (GRIGORYAN, HARUTUNYAN, PETROSYAN, TANGYAN) together with the Sense of Movement Foundation. It will be accompanied by small exhibition of postcards reflecting pictures of social and ecological challenges of the contemporary Armenia.
There will be three days of free of charge workshops – 5th ,6th, and 7th of November. The organizers invite everybody to take part in selected workshops and accompanying discussions. Registration for the workshop;: fundacjasensruchu@gmail.com
More information at the website: Fundacji Sens Ruchu
The project is being carried out from the resources of City of Poznan Office and the Adam Mickiewicz Institute within the collaboration with IK Piraeus and Open Pavilion.
The Foundation of Culture and Heritage of Polish Armenians took the media patronage over the said event.
40th number of “Awedis”
The 40th autumn number of “Awedis” has just appeared. In the opening article Editor in Chief writes :
It is hard to believe, but it has been just ten years from the release of the first issue of Awedis (autumn 2009). Then the cover theme of the issue was the unveiling of Khachkar in Gdansk . (We write about the “equipotent “ of our magazine on page 3) It is worth while taking a look at the website awedis.ormianie.pl in order to recall what else was going on among Polish Armenians then. In the pictures one can recognize familiar faces but 10 years younger. But there was also a mission of connecting Armenians in Poland and reaching them with important information. Is this mission being fulfilled by “Awedis” at present ? This is dependent on your assessment of course. We as the editors can just say only that working with changing staff and with limited resources we were doing our best to include in these 40 issues what we think is the most important both for the Armenians living currently in Poland and the future generations. After all, we, looking through annuals of “ Messenger of Saint Gregory” (Posłaniec Świętego Grzegorza) may feel those times and better understand those people. Therefore there were reports, announcements, biographies, historical, social and cultural articles, interviews and working ,working for propagating knowledge and information. Thanks are due to everyone , for these colleagues , who cooperated with us for many years and these who were doing that from time to time since everybody made one’s contribution to the creation of our magazine, that was unknown 10 years ago and that is widely appreciated in the definite environments today. We are grateful to you , of course, our dear readers for reading itself as well as your remarks, sent to us messages and all expressions of appreciation. We also pass our thanks to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration since thanks to Ministry donations “Awedis” is published and is distributed free of charge. We thank for recognizing values of media coverage of national minorities. We hope that this very number we also will remember after next 10 years.
We invite you for reading. The 40th number of “Awedis” is available in internet too.http://www.awedis.ormianie.pl/?id=10
KLIO 2019 awards and distinctions given out
At the Royal Castle in Warsaw, on November 28, 2019, the opening ceremony of the 28th Historical Book Fair and the awarding of KLIO awards took place.
The KLIO Historical Award has been awarded since 1995 to book authors and publishers for their particular contribution to the promotion of history. Not only the cognitive value of books is assessed, but also their graphic design. The publications are awarded for publishing interesting series and thematic cycles. This year’s ceremony began with a reading of a letter from the President of Poland Andrzej Duda, who took this year’s trade fair under the national patronage of the centenary of regaining independence. Then came the chairman of the Agreement of Historical Book Publishers Zbigniew Czerwiński and the official opening of the Fair was made by the director of the Royal Castle Wojciech Fałkowski. Professor Tomasz Szarota, chairman of the jury of the KLIO Award, pointed out that good, very well prepared books were awarded, and in the case of the editorial category – beautifully published. He assessed that books awarded in the editorial category were at the highest world level. And here I have to inform readers that Armenian Poland published by the Foundation for the Culture and Heritage of Polish Armenians was among the items awarded with this award. The authors of the position, professors Krzysztof Stopka and Andrzej Zięba, as well as the wonderful graphic design by Monika Zołoteńka were appreciated. This wonderful distinction is another one, after the award received in 2013 by “Armenian Warsaw”. More detailed information on the website of the Museum of Polish History and the Polish Press Agency: Klio Award 2019
The 39th number of “Awedis”
Events at the beginning of June in a rather sad way reminded us how difficult is to protect historic and cultural heritage. Gdansk fire , about that we are writing on pages 1 an 2 , might have caused more severe losses . However this what was destroyed clearly shows how historic buildings and objects related to the Armenian heritage in Poland may be sensitive to effects of elements. We still need to make great efforts, not to talk about costs ,to protect this heritage from degradation and destruction.
The protection of inheritance appears as particularly important topic in the context of consecutive anniversary ,this time 104th one, of Armenians genocide in the Ottoman Empire.
Then a great part of the Armenian heritage, both written and transmitted orally, was irretrievably destroyed. Written sources were destroyed by burning of libraries and destroying of Armenian monasteries while oral ones through murdering of people starting from clergymen, intellectuals to musicians and artists. These irreversible losses imposed on those who survived the genocide and Armenians in the Diaspora more relevant duty to save what was left.
In case of Poland the problem of protection of heritage was additionally influenced by persecutions during the world war II and postwar compulsory migrations. Items that were saved and transported across the borders of post-war Poland to this day are under the care of, among others, of Foundation of Culture and Heritage of Polish Armenians. Fortunately, contemporary Poland gives a lot of opportunities in the field of protecting the heritage and allows as well for cultivating freely own traditions and customs. It is thanks to the support of the Polish state that such an organization like our Foundation can function and magazine like this one may be published, Celebrating this year the 10th anniversary of “Awedis” in connection with the 10th (autumn) number we should remember about that.
Research Center on Armenian Culture in Poland
After many years the Polish Academy of Sciences with the consent of state authorities
called into existence the Research Center on Armenian Culture in Poland.
On 21st of September 2019 took place in Cracow unusually momentous ceremony especially for Polish Armenians community. Then the inauguration of activities of this scientific institution was held.
For this inaugural meeting the guests from Poland and abroad were invited. These were scientists interested in the subject themes. The meeting took place in the University Museum Collegium Maius. The welcoming speeches were given by the hosts of the event Prof.dr Andrzej Stopka and the President of the Academy of Sciences Prof.dr Jan Ostrowski.
Dr Andrzej Zieba delivered the lecture under the title “The culture of Polish Armenians as the subject of research”. Afterwards he also presented the program and staff of the center. In the discussion that followed took part the scientists , representatives of academic centers from Poland and abroad. There was also appointed the scientific council and the President of the Academy of Science gave in nominations to those who were called.
After break the audience had opportunity to listen to the extremely interesting lecture of the guest from the congregation of Mechitarists Father Wardapet Wahan Ohanian. Its title was “ Father Gewond Aliszan – poet and historian of bright Armenia”. The lecture was dedicated to the person of an outstanding and broadly educated scientist and poet who devoted whole his life mainly to Armenological research.
Later during the meeting we went to the senate room in order to listen to the historians mr Jakub Osiecki and mrs Jolanta Slawinska. They presented the description and history of XIX century Armenian velum from Musz being exposed there. After many complicated circumstances this velum is in the collections of the Museum of Jagiellonian University at present.
The final element of this inaugural meeting was the commemorative photo taken at the courtyard of Collegium Maius.