Merrimack Valley will join communities throughout the world in rallying around efforts to aid Armenians caught in the turmoil currently taking place in Syria.
A visual aid presentation titled “Armenia Unseen: Among the Mountains, Valleys, and Villages,” will be given by photojournalist Joe Dagdigian, who makes annual trips to his beloved land of Ararat documenting unusual sites.
The program will also include an update on conditions in Syria by Rev. Karekin Bedourian, pastor, St. Gregory Armenian Church, a native of Kessab, Syria, which continues to remain at risk, the Armenian Weekly reports.
“Conditions are rapidly deteriorating in that battered land,” said Rev. Bedourian. “Schools and churches are being destroyed. People are at unrest. We owe it to ourselves to come to their aid and support a necessary cause. My heart goes out every day to the families who have been tormented, including my very own.”
Dagdigian’s talk will surround photographs he took during his trip to Armenia last summer.
“Most of these sites are almost never visited by travelers,” he said. “They include places near the center of Yerevan which are largely unknown, even by residents in that locality.”
Pictured are monasteries in the province of Lori, accessible only by hiking, along with rare scenes in Artsakh (Karabagh).
