In 1894, the American archeologist Frederick J. Bliss made a seminal discovery: a richly decorated sixth-century mosaic from an Armenian mortuary chapel dating to the Byzantine period. Discovered in Musrara, a few hundred meters from the Damascus Gate of the Old City of Jerusalem, it is the only intact mosaic ever found outside Armenia proper with Armenian inscriptions — which in turn are the oldest examples of Armenian writing to have survived over the centuries.
I am reminded of these startling facts as I reflect on the controversy raging over the sale of the “Cow’s Garden” in the Old City of Jerusalem, which has stirred up Armenian anger amid charges of corruption, and in turn has agitated Jewish radicals against Armenians. As an Armenian born and raised in the Old City of Jerusalem (now teaching at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln), I feel compelled to set the record straight, for things are much misunderstood.
I think many would be surprised to learn not only of the profundity of the Armenian presence in the Holy Land, but of how many similarities there are between both peoples, being diasporic groups scattered around the globe in the course of history that suffered the most horrendous genocides of the 20th Century: The Armenian Genocide (1915-1923) and the Shoah (1941-1945).
Even though the Holy Land was never part of Historic Armenia, our historical roots here are deep; our place should be not only protected but cherished.
The first recorded Armenian pilgrimage to the Holy Land occurred in the early 4th century AD when a delegation of priests arrived in the Holy City. When Anastas Vartabed Akoretsi (c. 636-650) visited Jerusalem several centuries later, he could already count 70 monasteries in and around Jerusalem built by Armenians (as well as Caucasian Albanians).