Tags
Armenia, Artsakh, Daniel Varoujan, grief, justice, Kremlin, liberation, prayer, self-determination
In one of the mountainous villages of Artsakh (known also as Nagorno-Karabakh), I helped to rebuild a medical clinic nearly destroyed by Azeri artillery fire. Last week news outlets reported that Artsakh, surrounded entirely by Azerbaijan, surrendered to Azerbaijan after a blockade that began December 12, 2022 kept food, medicine, other supplies, and people from entering or exiting the area.
As a consequence of the surrender, Armenians are leaving the area, becoming refugees on the sole road that leads beyond Azerbaijan.
Today comes news that Azerbaijan arrested Ruben Vardanyan, Artsakh’s former Prime Minister, on that road’s checkpoint.
The area known as Artsakh was for centuries Armenian territory. After the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire and the development of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin decided to move the territory of Artsakh out of the Armenian Soviet Republic into the Azerbaijan Soviet Republic—all very much controlled by those in power in the Kremlin. In 1988 Artsakh petitioned, as guaranteed in the Soviet Constitution, the Supreme Soviet to become an
independent state within the USSR. The Soviet Union collapsed before making a decision. War began and continues to this day.
Antasdan is an enacted or embodied Armenian Church liturgy held outdoors. The priest and deacon move in turn to the four major compass points with prayers at each “corner” of the world and the response “Der voghormya” (Lord, have mercy).
Events in Artsakh and elsewhere bring me to a solitary Antasdan for the state of the world. Instead of the lengthy liturgy, I invite you to reflect on the work of Daniel Varoujan, an Armenian poet who died in August 1915. Here is his poetic version of Antasdan, which I offer as a prayer guide:
Antasdan
In the Eastern corner of the earth
Let there be peace…
Let sweat, not blood, flow
In the broad vein of the furrow…
And at the toll of each hamlet’s bell
Let there rise hymns of exaltation.
At the Western part of the earth
Let there be fertility …
Let each star sparkle with dew,
And each husk be cast in gold
And as the sheep graze on the hills
Let bud and blossom bloom.
At the Northern part of the earth
Let there be abundance …
In the golden sea of the wheat field
Let the scythe swim incessantly
And as gates of granaries open wide
Jubilation let there be.
At the Southern part of the earth
Let all things bear fruit…
Let the honey thrive in the beehive
And may the wine run over the cups
And when brides bake the blessed bread
Let the sound of song rise and spread.
(Translated by Tatul Sonentz)
Until the day when justice embraces peace and love triumphs.