As the war in Gaza rages, Syria’s government transforms, and the Israeli-occupied West Bank seethes, Armenian residents of the Old City of Jerusalem fight a different battle — one that is quieter, they say, but no less existential, the Associated Press writes.
One of the oldest communities in Jerusalem, the Armenians have lived in the Old City for decades without significant friction with their neighbors, centered around a convent that acts as a welfare state.
Now, the small Christian community has begun to fracture under pressure from forces they say threaten them and the multifaith character of the Old City. From radical Jewish settlers who jeer at clergymen on the way to prayer, to a land deal threatening to turn a quarter of their land into a luxury hotel, residents and the church alike say the future of the community is in flux.
“Walk through the narrow passageways of the Armenian Quarter, past a perpetually manned guard post and into an open lot with a towering pile of shrapnel crested with the Armenian flag. You’ve arrived at the headquarters of the “Save the Arq” movement. It’s where some residents of the Armenian Quarter have decamped, in a structure with reinforced plywood walls hung with ancient maps, to protest what they see as an illegal land grab by a controversial real estate developer,” author Julia Frankel writes.
The patriarchate has batted away offer after offer to sell the land. That changed in 2021, when an Armenian priest signed a deal leasing the lot for up to 98 years to a company called Xana Capital, registered just before the agreement was signed. The patriarchate cancelled the deal in October, but Xana fought back, and the two are now in mediation over the contract. Xana Capital has since sent armed men to the lot, the activists say, attacking members of the community, including clergy, with pepper spray and batons.
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Father Aghan Gogchyan, the patriarchate’s chancellor, told the Associated Press he’s regularly attacked by groups of Jewish fundamentalists.
He recalled one instance, a month ago, when clergy were headed to prayer. He was intercepted by a group of settlers, who asked if they were Christians.
“’You know that you don’t have a future here in the Holy Land. You’re not going to continue to live here,” he recalled one man saying. “’This is our country. We are going to eradicate you.”
“This is the word he used,” said Gogchyan. “We are going to eradicate you from our country.”
Despite the fractures, Armenian clergy and activists told the AP they want the same thing: a continued presence in the Old City.
