ABOUT MY NAME: WHAT MEANS NAREK, WHEREFROM ORIGINATE

    Narek is the name of village which was located on the southern shore of Lake Van (see the map), in the Rshtunik district of Vaspurakan province of historic (Greater) Armenia (Now it is occupied by Turkey). The Village had monastery named Narekavank (Monastery of Narek). The monastery was established by the Armenian monks who found shelter in Armenia after suffering religious persecution in Byzantium. It was founded during the reign of King Gagik I (908-943) of the kingdom of Vaspurakan.

   The monastery was an important intellectual center and one of the most active centers of illumination & manuscript writing whose most famous pupil was Grigor Narekatsi (Gregory of Narek). In this monastery Grigor Narekatsi wrote his prayer book "Matian Vokhbergutian" ("Tragedy Diary") which is also called Narek and was considered as a medical book. He is buried in monastery. 
    The Monastery was functioning until the Armenian Genocide of 1915, when it was pillaged, during which a piece of Christ's cross kept there for centuries was lost forever. Turks murdered two millions Armenians all over 'Turkish' Armenia during three genocides following each others: 1894-96, 1909 and 1915-23. Corpses of tortured to death women, children young and old people layed everywhere. Vaspurakan (the local province) was also emptied of Armenians. But Narekavank remained standing up to 1950. Since the 1920, Turkish republic tried to erase every Armenian trace in all Armenian lands. Most of those 3,500 Armenian monasteries that escaped of destruction in 1915 found itself as Turkish military bases but soon after their relocation Turks just blown up them. Turkish army destroyed the monastery of NAREKAVANK approximately in 1948. The Kurdish-populated village of Yemişlik grew up on the site, and a mosque now stands where the monastery once stood. Not a single trace of the complex survived today. But almost all homes are decorated of numerous fragments of Narekavank. Chunks of cross stones, bas reliefs and Armenian inscriptions are placed into the walls of houses all around.

   Turkish state's genocide of this region's Armenian population being later extended to their cultural monuments too. After Armenian population were massacred Turks starts hunting on Armenian cultural heritage, especially on monasteries that many centuries served as schools and containers of Armenian books and manuscripts showing Armenian identity to the world. Since 1920 Turkish authorities trying to get rid of any mentions about Armenian past and targets Armenian monasteries for military exercises, converts them to mosques, scratching out Armenian letters from the stones and add some Arabic text to show allegedly this is a Seljuk monument. Numerous crying examples of this vandalism had flooded all Western Armenia and Armenian Cilicia. But UNESCO keeps persistent silence in almost all cases of destruction of Armenian heritage in post-genocide Turkey. It seems like it copies a cliché of Western politicians using double standards to Armenia, because of contradictions between West and Russia.

Van, region of Rshtoonik (Gevascd), the Village-Monastery of Narek, South Western view, early 1900s - See more at: http://www.genocide-museum.am/eng/cultural_genocide.php#sthash.99825br5.dpuf

Before...

Van, Region of Rshtoonik (Gevascd), the village-monastery of Narek, South Western view, early 1900s

After turks... (

Van, Region of Rshtoonik (Gevascd), mosque built on the site of destroyed Narek monastery in 2004

Cultural Genocide

Cultural Genocide

Links about Cultural genocide in Armenia, left without Armenians:

• Culture Genocide - The Armenian Genocide Museum-institute (National Academy of Science of Republic of Armenia).
• Культурный геноцид в Армении, оставшейся без армян: ИА REGNUM публикует уникальные фотографии. 
• Культурный геноцид в Армении, оставшейся без армян: фото (часть вторая). 
• Культурный геноцид, Министерство Иностранных дел Республики Армения

Cultural Genocide