GREEK WORLD MEDIA

Genocide denier ‘should not be silenced’

Source: SMH.com.au and asbarez.com

Armenians lay flowers at the Genocide Memorial in Yerevan. Professor Justin McCarthy’s views on the genocide, in which more than one million people are believed to have died at the hands of the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1923, have made him a controversial figure.

The Labor backbencher who booked a room in Parliament House for a visiting US historian who is accused of denying the Armenian genocide said the controversial academic does not deserve to be silenced.

Labor MP Laurie Ferguson booked a committee room on the request of a former constituent for a talk on Thursday afternoon by Justin McCarthy, a professor of history at the University of Louisville, Kentucky.

Professor McCarthy’s views on the so-called Armenian genocide, in which more than one million people are believed to have died at the hands of the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1923, have made him a controversial figure.

Labor MP Laurie Ferguson says he does not agree with all Professor McCarthy's views, but he doesn't think ''closing him down would be justified''.

Labor MP Laurie Ferguson says he does not agree with all Professor McCarthy’s views, but he doesn’t think ”closing him down would be justified”. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen

Professor McCarthy is held by Armenians in similar low regard as Jews hold Holocaust denier David Irving.

In the lead-up to Thursday’s event, organised by the Australian Turkish Advocacy Alliance, the Armenian National Committee of Australia’s executive director, Vache H. Kahramanian, wrote to MPs and senators urging them not to attend the talk by the “noted genocide denier”.

“It is abhorrent that the Australian Parliament will be utilised as a venue for McCarthy to spread his denialist views,” Mr Kahramanian wrote.

Organisers of Professor McCarthy’s tour had booked venues for him to speak at the University of Melbourne and the Art Gallery of NSW, but both organisations cancelled the bookings after learning of his views.

Mr Ferguson said he did not agree with all Professor McCarthy’s views, but “he’s not a denier and I don’t think closing him down would be justified”.

“I don’t put him in the same category as David Irving or [Dutch right-wing politician] Geert Wilders. If I did, I certainly wouldn’t be sponsoring him.”

Mr Ferguson said he had been critical of Turkey’s human rights record over a long period of time.

“I’m not an apologist for the Turkish government,” he said.

Before the event, Greens spokesman on multiculturalism Richard Di Natale said the event should not be held in parliament.

“Justin McCarthy is a rallying point for those who deny the Armenian genocide,” Senator Di Natale said.

“The Australian Parliament should not be providing Professor McCarthy with a platform because that just lends legitimacy those views.”

“To deny the fact that genocide occurred is to disrespect those people who lost their lives and to cause further pain for those who lost loved ones.”

Treasurer Joe Hockey, who is of Armenian descent, as well as Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Labor MP Michael Danby, have previously called for the Australian Parliament to formally recognise the Armenian genocide. The Australian Turkish Advocacy Alliance did not return a call requesting comment.

Australian politicians raise voice against genocide denier

Source: genocide1915.info

November 21, 2013 – 15:57 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – John Alexander, the Liberal Member for Bennelong, and Michelle Rowland, the Labor Member for Greenway, have both risen in Australia’s Federal Parliament to speak against visiting Armenian Genocide denier, Professor Justin McCarthy.

McCarthy, who is a well funded denier of the Armenian Genocide, earlier this week had two planned events in Sydney and Melbourne cancelled on the grounds of his unwelcome denialist views.

McCarthy spoke in a room at Parliament House on Thursday, Nov 21, at an event attended by reportedly only “two or three politicians” after the Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC Australia) wrote to all Members of Parliament and Senators about McCarthy’s denialist views. Among the attending politicians were Laurie Ferguson and Mehmet Tillem, who had helped organize the event.

While this event took place, on the same day, MPs Alexander and Rowland made addresses in the national Parliament, unequivocally confirming the historical reality of the Armenian Genocide to a far greater audience of politicians, media and members of the public.

Alexander said: “… revisionist Justin McCarthy has used parliamentary facilities to promote his well-documented views questioning the systematic slaughter of Armenians, Assyrians and Pontian Greeks from 1915 to 1923.”

“The International Association of Genocide Scholars has discredited McCarthy’s work as selective and grossly distorting history. ANZAC soldiers verify the Genocide as an irrefutable historical fact through their eyewitness accounts. Denial of this Genocide is an attack on those who perished, those who survived, and their descendants.”

He added: “This institution should never again be used to express doubt over the scope of suffering experienced by the victims of a historical atrocity nor to justify these actions as merely part of a civil war.”

Rowland, adding her voice, said: “I can also understand the heightened frustration that many Australian-Armenians feel on this matter because of the venue at which this event is scheduled to take place.”

“My views on this are well known. I have joined in the past with members of parliament and community leaders from all sides of the political spectrum including the members for Berowra and Bennelong, and the New South Wales Liberal Minister Gladys Berejiklian, to recognize the Armenian Genocide…”

“Australian POWs recorded the marches, the massacres and the complete destruction of Armenian churches, villages and city quarters. ANZAC servicemen also rescued survivors across the Middle East. Today I acknowledge the tragic events of 1915 and affirm my commitment to never forget what happened to the Armenian people who were effectively eliminated from the homeland they had occupied for nearly 3,000 years.”

She added: “This week I noted a humanitarian plea to assist people in the Philippines who were the victims of natural disaster, and I want to end this speech by noting that Australia’s first major international humanitarian relief effort was in fact to help Armenian orphans from the genocide.”

ANC Australia extended their appreciation to Alexander and Rowland for bringing to light that Armenian Genocide denial, like Holocaust denial, is unacceptable.

Executive Director Vache Kahramanian said: “Mr Alexander and Ms Rowland are champions of human rights and champions of just recognition of the Armenian Genocide. We once again appreciate their support.”

Meanwhile, to ensure the support against Armenian Genocide denialism is truly bi-partisan, Greens spokesman on multiculturalism Richard Di Natale told the Sydney Morning Herald that the event should not have been held in Parliament.

“Justin McCarthy is a rallying point for those who deny the Armenian Genocide,” the Senator said. “The Australian Parliament should not be providing Professor McCarthy with a platform because that just lends legitimacy those views. To deny the fact that genocide occurred is to disrespect those people who lost their lives and to cause further pain for those who lost loved ones.”

Armenian Genocide History and Timeline

In April of 1915 tens of thousands of Armenian men were rounded up and shot. Hundreds of thousands of women, old men and children were deported south across the mountains to Cilicia and Syria. On April 15 the Armenians appealed to the German Ambassador in Constantinople for formal German protection. This was rejected by Berlin on the grounds that it would offend the Turkish Government. By April 19 more than 50,000 Armenians had been murdered in the Van province.

Within nine months, more than 600,000 Armenians were massacred. Of the deported during that same period, more than 400,000 perished of the brutalities and privations of the southward march into Mesopotamia. By September more than a million Armenians were the victims of what later became known as the Armenian Genocide! A further 200,000 were forcibly converted to Islam to give Armenia a new Turkish sense of identity and strip the Armenian people of their past as the first Christian state in the world.

1914-1920

2/21/1914	A Turkish boycott of Armenian businesses is declared by the Ittihadists. Dr. Nazim travels throughout the provinces to implement the boycott.
2/26/1914	The police spy David notifies Reshad Bey, Chief of the Political Section of the Constantinople Police Department that he is providing the names, biographies, pictures, and speeches about reform, as well as other data, of two thousand leading Armenians.
3/2/1914	Parliamentary elections held in Turkey with only candidates approved by the CUP winning seats.
3/14/1914	The Ittihadist Mustafa Abdulhalik Renda, the vice-governor of Seghert, is appointed governor-general of Bitlis Province.
7/28/1914	Negotiations are started between the Turkish and German Imperial governments.
8/1/1914	Germany declares war on Russia. Beginning of World War I.
8/2/1914	A secret treaty of alliance is signed between Turkey and Germany virtually placing the Turkish armed forces under German command.
8/3/1914	The Turkish government sends sealed envelopes containing a general mobilization order to district and village councils, with the strict instructions that they were not to be opened until further notice. A fortnight later, with the approval of the Ittihad Committee, instructions are issued to open the envelopes.
8/8/1914	Censorship of all telegraphic communication is announced by the government.
8/18/1914	Looting is reported in Sivas, Diyarbekir, and other provinces, under the guise of collecting war contributions. Stores owned by Armenian and Greek merchants are vandalized.
8/18/1914	1,080 shops owned by Armenians are burned in the city of Diyarbekir.
8/22/1914	The male population between the ages of 20 and 45 is conscripted by the Turkish armed forces.
8/28/1914	Turkish troops are garrisoned in Armenian schools and churches in Sivas Province. In the city of Sivas, 56,000 soldiers of the 10th Army Corps are quartered in and around the Christian districts.
9/8/1914	The Turkish government abrogates the Capitulations (the commercial and judicial rights of the Europeans in the Ottoman Empire).
9/11/1914	The Armenian National Assembly, composed of civil and religious representatives, meets in Constantinople and advises Armenians in the provinces to remain calm in the face of provocation.
9/27/1914	The Dardanelles Straits are closed to foreign shipping.
9/27/1914	News reaches Constantinople about the demand made by the government of the Armenian population in Zeitun to turn in its weapons, including all types of knives.
9/30/1914	The government distributes arms to the Muslim residents of the town of Keghi in Erzerum Province on the excuse that the Armenians there were unreliable.
10/1/1914	All foreign postal services in Turkey are closed on government order.
10/1/1914	Nazaret Chavush, the most notable Armenian leader in Zeitun, is murdered on the order of Haidar Pasha, governor of Marash.
10/7/1914	News reaches Constantinople of looting under the guise of war contributions in Shabin-Karahisar.
10/10/1914	News that ‘the war contribution’ looting of Armenians was continuing in Diyarbekir Province.
10/10/1914	In Zeitun, all the Armenian notables are called to a meeting. About three score attend and are immediately arrested.
10/13/1914	News of requisitions imposed on Armenian businesses as ‘war contributions’ reaches Constantinople from every province.
10/13/1914	News reaches Constantinople of starvation and the spread of disease in Sivas Province because of the desperate conditions created by the ‘war contributions’ campaign conducted against the Armenians.
10/17/1914	Bands of chetes begin looting, violating women and children, and large-scale murdering in Erzerum Province
10/17/1914	Leaders of the Armenian nationalist Dashnak party organization in Erzerum are arrested.
10/22/1914	Enver authorizes the combined German-Turkish navy to carry out a stealth attack on Russia without declaration of war.
10/29/1914	Hostilities are opened between Turkey and Russia with the shelling of the Russian Black Sea coast by Ottoman naval vessels under German command.
11/2/1914	Russia formally declares war against the Ottoman Empire.
11/9/1914	News from the interior of Turkey reaches the Armenian community of Constantinople that persecutions already exceed earlier actions against the Armenians.
11/9/1914	A Proclamation of Jihad, directed against England, France, and Russia, is issued in Constantinople legitimating the formation of the chete organizations.
11/13/1914	Unfounded accusations are launched against the Armenians that they had revolted and were preparing to join the Russian forces.
11/14/1914	The village of Otsni in Erzerum Province is attacked at night by chete forces. The local Armenian priest and many other Armenians are killed. Every house is looted. The first attacks by chete forces on the Armenian villages of Erzerum are reported.
11/18/1914	The Jihad Proclamation is read in all the provinces of the Ottoman Empire.
11/19/1914	Mass executions of Armenian soldiers in the Turkish army takes place in various public squares for the purpose of terrorizing the Armenians, while with voluntary contributions, Armenians were building several hospitals for the use of the Turkish army through the Red Crescent Society.
11/20/1914	Orders are issued from Constantinople instructing the provincial administrators to oust all Armenian functionaries in the service of the Ottoman government.
11/21/1914	In Mush, Ittihadist agents distribute arms to the Turkish population after arousing them with false stories of Armenian outrages.
11/23/1914	Previously undisturbed Armenian schools and churches in Sivas Province, together with many private residences, are requisitioned by the Turkish army for use as barracks. The carts, horses, and other travel equipment of the Armenian villagers in the provinces are confiscated.
11/26/1914	Robbery and looting on a large scale is reported in Van Province.
11/26/1914	The War Ministry distributes explosives, rifles, and other equipment to the irregular forces of the Special Organization (Teshkilati Mahsusa).
11/26/1914	Enver’s uncle, Halil Pasha, the military governor of Constantinople, begins organizing Special Organization units in Constantinople by enrolling criminals released from prison.
11/29/1914	Halil Pasha instructs the governor of Izmid (Izmit) to identify leaders for Special Organization units and to release criminals from prisons to join these bands.
11/29/1914	The vice-governor of Izmid (Izmit) arms the Special Organization with weapons supplied by the War Ministry.
11/29/1914	Chete forces consisting of intentionally released convicts are armed by the government in Van Province. In the region of Van requisitions take the form of open robbery and looting.
11/30/1914	Having completed his job organizing the Special Organization in Artvin, Behaeddin Shakir is instructed to move on to Trebizond.
11/30/1914	The central command of the Special Organization sends instruction for supplying the chete bands with money, vehicles, and others equipment.
12/1/1914	The beginning of a series of isolated murders to terrorize the Armenian population.
12/1/1914	Reports reach Constantinople that raids by irregular chete forces on the Armenian villages of Erzerum Province are continuing.
12/2/1914	Turks loot the properties of subjects of Allied nations.
12/3/1914	The Ittihad Inspector of Balikesir sends a message to Dr. Nazim of the central committee of the Special Organization via Midhat Shukri, the Central Secretary of Ittihad, that the Interior Ministry and the Ittihad Committee, in accordance with issued orders, are busy organizing the irregular chete bands.
12/5/1914	Reports continue reaching Constantinople that chete raids on the Armenian villages of Erzerum Province are continuing.
12/6/1914	Armenians are put to use as porters of army supplies in Erzerum, Trebizond, and Sivas Provinces under the worst of cold winter conditions for the purpose of letting them die of overwork and illness.
12/14/1914	The Turkish Cabinet charges Enver with command of the offensive on the Caucasian front and assigns Talaat the position of Acting Minister of War while retaining his position as Minister of the Interior.
12/22/1914	An attack by the Ottoman Third Army corps opens the Battle of Sarikamish on the Caucasian Front.
12/23/1914	Foreign missionaries abandon the interior of Turkey as crosses on missions are broken by the Turks and replaced by crescents.
12/31/1914	Sahag Odabashian, the newly appointed Prelate of Erzinjan, while traveling from Constantinople via Sivas to Erzinjan, where he was to be installed in office, is slain in the village of Kanli-Tash, near Shabin-Karahisar, by six chetes organized by Ahmed Muammer, the governor-general of Sivas Province.
1/1/1915	The Ittihad representative of Bursa reports to the Ittihad Central Committee that local criminals and bandits have been registered in the Special Organization.
1/1/1915	Nuri, the vice-governor of Gavar District in Van Province, receives orders from the military governor to kill the Armenian soldiers in the Turkish Army who were stationed in his district.
1/5/1915	The Turkish government publicly charges that Armenian bakers in the army bakeries of Sivas were poisoning the bread of the Turkish forces. The bakers are cruelly beaten, despite the fact that a group of doctors prove the charge to be false by examining the bread and even eating it. As this marks an attempt on the part of the government to incite massacre, the government does not rescind the charge.
1/8/1915	Turkish and Kurdish chetes (Halil Pasha’s “First Corps”) attack Armenian and Assyrian villages in northwest Persia. They remain around the city of Tavriz (Tabriz) and the city of Urmia from January 8 until January 29, 1915. From Urmia alone, more than 18,000 Armenians, together with many Assyrians and even Persian Muslims, flee to the Caucasus.
1/12/1915	Ahmed Muammer, the governor-general of Sivas Province, orders the destruction of Tavra-Koy and other strategically located villages around the city of Sivas in order to make future defense impossible for the Armenians. Inside the city of Sivas strategically-located buildings were requisitioned.
1/16/1915	The last actions of the Battle of Sarikamish are reported. The Turkish army is totally defeated and almost destroyed with a loss of 70,000 men out of 85,000.
1/19/1915	Enver arrives in Sivas by automobile from Erzerum after his calamitous defeat at Sarikamish. He instructs the Army to accept only his orders and none hereafter from the German commanders and to draft at once all those deferred in the 20 to 40 age group, along with all males between the ages of 18 and 20 and 45 to 52.
1/22/1915	Enver arrives in Constantinople by automobile from Sivas. After his arrival, he makes a speech congratulating the Armenians for admirably doing their duty on the Caucasian Front and elsewhere. Enver seeks to lull the Armenians of Constantinople who had not yet experienced the general persecutions in the provinces because of the presence of a large European community in the city.
1/23/1915	Enver, now actively Minister of War again, issues a general order to shoot all persons resisting his orders.
2/2/1915	Talaat advises German Ambassador Count Hans von Wangenheim that the war is the only propitious moment to conclude the Armenian Question.
2/10/1915	S. Pasdermadjian, the Second Director of the Ottoman Bank, is murdered in the presence of German Major-General Posseldt, who reported that no investigation was carried or was any attempt made by the Turkish authorities to apprehend the guilty parties.
2/10/1915	Enver’s brother-in-law, Hafiz Hakki, dies of typhus and is replaced by Mahmud Kamil as Commander of the Third Army (Erzerum).
2/14/1915	Tahir Jevdet, the governor-general of Van Province, is reported saying that the government must begin finishing the Armenians in Van at once.
2/16/1915	The vice-governor of Mush orders 70 gendarmes to attack the village of Koms and to kill the Armenian Dashnak leader Rupen and all persons with him. Rupen and his companions resist and eventually escape to the Caucasus.
2/19/1915	Talaat, Osman Bedri, and other Ittihadist leaders decide in a meeting that should Allied naval ships force the Dardanelles, the Turks would burn Constantinople, blow up the Hagia Sophia, and slaughter the Christian inhabitants. Kerosene is distributed to all police stations in Constantinople for ready use in such an eventuality.
2/21/1915	An attack by chetes on the village of Purk near Shabin-Karahisar results in looting, murder, rape.
2/26/1915	Vramian, an Armenian parliamentary deputy from Van, writes Talaat advising him to remove the large number of chetes in Van Province.
2/27/1915	In Sivas Province a general attack is reported on many Armenian villages accompanied by raping, looting, and an increasingly larger number of killings.
2/27/1915	In the village of Chomaklu in Kayseri Province and in other places, the government demands all weapons from the Armenians.
3/1/1915	In Marash, the Armenians in the Turkish Army are deprived of their uniforms and arms.
3/3/1915	A dispatch from the Ittihad Central Committee is released announcing the decision to exterminate the Armenians.
3/3/1915	Armenian soldiers in the Erzerum army area are deprived of their uniforms and arms.
3/3/1915	The British decide to attack the Dardanelles.
3/5/1915	In Van Province, regular gendarmes and chetes are reported attacking many villages inhabited by Armenians and Assyrians.
3/7/1915	A search for weapons is conducted in Iskenderun (Alexandretta) and a mass arrest of Armenians carried out.
3/9/1915	Chetes and regular Army units attack Zeitun. Six Turkish gendarmes are killed by individuals resisting the attack.
3/12/1915	Massacres and robberies are carried in Alashkert District as part of a general campaign led by the chetes forces against the Armenian villages of the district.
3/12/1915	Mass arrests of Armenians are carried out in Dortyol and a public announcement is made that those arrested would be sent to work on road construction near Aleppo. They are never heard of again.
3/12/1915	Enver leaves for Berlin to see Kaiser Wilhelm II.
3/13/1915	A traveling commission of parliamentary deputies tours all the cities of Anatolia. The commission includes Dr. Fazil Berki, parliamentary deputy from Chankri, Ubedulla, parliamentary deputy from Smyrna, and Behaeddin Shakir, member of the Central Committee of the Ittihad Party. They address the Turkish population in the mosques describing the Armenians as internal enemies which must destroyed.
3/13/1915	In Sivas Province the population in all the Armenian villages is disarmed.
3/14/1915	Sahag, the Catholicos of Cilicia, advises the Armenians of Zeitun not to resist under any conditions.
3/16/1915	Russian forces advance between Urmia and Tavriz.
3/18/1915	An Allied attack on the Dardanelles begins.
3/18/1915	In Zeitun, the Turkish forces arrest many of the remaining Armenian notables and intellectuals whom they torture and finally kill.
3/19/1915	Six Armenian soldiers from the town of Gurun are publicly hanged in Sivas to frighten the Armenian population.
3/19/1915	Greek recruits are massacred near Smyrna.
3/20/1915	Omer Naji, a circulating Ittihad propagandist, travels to Aleppo, Adana and nearby towns to arouse the Muslims.
3/24/1915	Chetes and gendarmes attack Armenians in the towns of Bayburt (Papert) and Terchan in Erzerum Province, and in Bitlis.
3/26/1915	Sahag, Catholicos of Cilicia, renews his instruction to the Armenians of Zeitun not to resist.
3/26/1915	Thirty more Armenian community leaders are arrested in Zeitun.
3/28/1915	The Armenian Dashnak leader, Murad, resists arrest in Sivas and flees to the mountains, and after many daring escapes reaches the Caucasus.
3/28/1915	Hamid, the governor-general of Diyarbekir Province, is removed for opposing the order of massacre, and is replaced by Dr. Reshid.

The Northern Territory named among world’s best tourist destinations

Source: News.com.au

Aerial view of waterfall at Kakadu, Northern Territory. Picture: Supplied

Aerial view of waterfall at Kakadu, Northern Territory. Picture: Supplied Source: Supplied

RED earth, blue skies and the golden eyes of watchful crocodiles in the flower-tangled waterways of Kakadu National Park have won the Northern Territory the only Australian mention on a list of the best tourist destinations in the world, according to National Geographic.

The NT is listed in its 2014 top 20 Best of the World.

“This is fantastic news for the Territory,” Tourism Minister Matt Conlan said.

“It means now the whole world knows the Territory is the place to visit if you want an unforgettable holiday like no other.” The list says that apart from the NT’s undeniable physical beauty, the people make the place come alive.

National Geographic Traveller Magazine claims to be the most widely read travel magazine in the world, with 7.6 million readers, and it is published in 12 languages in 21 countries.

The Best of the World list reflects what is authentic, culturally rich, sustainable and superlative in the world of travel.

The top 20 destinations for 2014 (in alphabetical order):

• Alentejo, Portugal

• Arbil, Iraq

• Bolaven Plateau, Laos

• Cacao Trail, Ecuador

• Cape Verde

• Cathar country, France

• Cordoba, Argentina

• Derawan Islands, Indonesia (readers’ choice)

• Guyana

• John Muir Trail, Scotland

• Liechtenstein

• Nahanni National Park, Canada

• New Orleans, Louisiana

• Northern Territory, Australia

• Nyungwe National Park, Rwanda

• Puglia, Italy

• Ranthambore National Park, India

• Riga, Latvia

• Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

• Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

• Sochi, Russia

It’s a spectacular place. Picture: Supplied Source: Supplied

Cracked Flood Plains, Kakadu. Picture: Northern Pictures Source: Supplied

Temple of the Skulls is first found dedicated to Mexican god of death, Mictlantecuhtli

Source: News.com.au

The Temple of the Skulls, under excavation in the Tehuacan, Puebla, archaeological site of Mexico. Picture: Instituto Nacional de Antropologa e Historia Source: Supplied

One of the ceramic figurines found in the Temple of Skulls. Photo INAH. Source: Supplied

THE skulls should have been a dead giveaway. A recently uncovered temple in Mexico is the first found dedicated to the ancient god of death Mictlantecuhtli

Aptly named Temple of the Skulls, it was the presence of two niches containing human heads that gave archaeologists the first clue the new discovery from the 14th Century AD was something special.

Set into the west and north walls, each niche also held four femurs stuccoed to the walls around the skulls.

One of the ceramic figurines found in the Temple of Skulls. Photo INAH. Source: Supplied

But it was the red paint that was a giveaway: The position around the mouth resembled images of the god Mictlantecuhtli as found in one of the Codex Borgia one of the few remaining texts to survive from the pre-Columbus Central American civilisation.

One of the skulls set among femur bones in the walls of the Temple of the Skulls, under excavation in the Tehuacan, Puebla, archaeological site of Mexico. Picture: Instituto Nacional de Antropologa e Historia Source: Supplied

Two ceramic heads and an effigy of the god itself were found on top of the temple mound along with more than 300 bones. These were the remains of human sacrifices.

The archaeological dig at the Tehuacan, Puebla, site continues. Only 10 per cent of the 116ha city has been uncovered so far.

Archaeologist Ramon Lopez Valenzuela, in the Temple of Skulls. Photo INAH. Source: Supplied

The city was conquered by the Aztecs in 1456, after which the population moved into the surrounding hills and lowlands.

Meanwhile, a monumental stone sculpture to the goddess Citlalicue – a creator goddess whose name means skirt of the stars – also has been uncovered at the foot of another nearby temple, the Templo Mayor.

Page 56 of the Codex Borgia is one of the very few depictions of the ancient Central-Mexican god of death, Mictlantecuhtli. Source: Supplied

Vatican unveils bone fragments said to belong to first pope St Peter

Source: News.com.au

Italian archbishop Rino Fisichella holds a box purportedly containing the ashes of St Peter before a ceremony of Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ the King at St Peter’s square. Source: AFP

THE Vatican has publicly unveiled a handful of bone fragments purportedly belonging to St Peter, reviving the scientific debate and tantalising mystery over whether the relics found in a shoe box truly belong to the first pope.

The nine pieces of bone sat nestled like rings in a jewel box inside a bronze display case on the side of the altar during a Mass commemorating the end of the Vatican’s yearlong celebration of the Christian faith. It was the first time they had ever been exhibited in public.

Pope Francis prayed before the fragments at the start of Sunday’s service and then clutched the case in his arms for several minutes after his homily.

No pope has ever definitively declared the fragments to belong to the Apostle Peter, but Pope Paul VI in 1968 said fragments found in the necropolis under St Peter’s Basilica were “identified in a way that we can consider convincing”.

Some archaeologists dispute the finding.

But last week, a top Vatican official, Archbishop Rino Fisichella, said it almost doesn’t matter if archaeologists one day definitively determine that the bones aren’t Peter’s, saying Christians have prayed at Peter’s tomb for two millennia and will continue to, regardless.

“It’s not as if pilgrims who go to the altar (of Peter’s tomb) think that in that moment in which they profess their faith that below them are the relics of Peter, or of another or another still,” he told reporters. “They go there to profess the faith.”

Pope Francis blesses what are said to be some of the remains of St Peter during a ceremony at the Vatican.

The relics were discovered during excavations begun under St Peter’s Basilica in the years following the 1939 death of Pope Pius XI, who had asked to be buried in the grottoes where dozens of popes are buried, according to the 2012 book by veteran Vatican correspondent Bruno Bartoloni, “The Ears of the Vatican.”

During the excavations, archaeologists discovered a funerary monument with a casket built in honor of Peter and an engraving in Greek that read “Petros eni”, or “Peter is here”.

The scholar of Greek antiquities, Margherita Guarducci, who had deciphered the engraving continued to investigate and learned that one of the basilica workers had been given the remains found inside the casket and stored them in a shoe box kept in a cupboard. She reported her findings to Paul VI who later proclaimed that there was a “convincing” argument that the bones belonged to Peter.

Top Vatican Jesuits and other archaeologists strongly denied the claim, but had little recourse.

“No Pope had ever permitted an exhaustive study, partly because a 1000-year-old curse attested by secret and apocalyptic documents, threatened anyone who disturbed the peace of Peter’s tomb with the worst possible misfortune,” Bartoloni wrote.

The Vatican newspaper, l’Osservatore Romano, published excerpts of the book last year, giving his account a degree of official sanction.

In 1971, Paul VI was given an urn containing the relics, which were kept inside the private papal chapel inside the Apostolic Palace and exhibited for the pope’s private veneration each June 29, for the feast of Saints Peter and Paul. Sunday marked the first time they were shown in public.

Ελληνίδα μαθήτρια, ένα χρόνο μετανάστρια στην Αυστραλία και ήδη αριστούχα

Μια Ελληνίδα μαθήτρια που μετανάστευσε στην Αυστραλία μόλις πριν ένα χρόνο είναι ήδη αριστούχα στον τομέα της Φυσικής και οι δάσκαλοι της εκτιμούν ότι το μέλλον της διαγράφεται λαμπρό και θα τιμήσει την Αυστραλία στον χώρο της έρευνας.

Πρόκειται για την Τζίνα Γκαχτίδη μαθήτρια της δευτέρας λυκείου της Μελβούρνης που επελέγη μαζί με άλλους 28 αριστούχους στον τομέα της Φυσικής για να λάβει μέρος σε πανεπιστημιακή ημερίδα Σωματιδιακής Φυσικής που οργανώθηκε από το Κέντρο Αρίστων Επιδόσεων στον τομέα της Σωματιδιακής Φυσικής του Αυστραλιανού Συμβουλίου Έρευνας, σε συνεργασία με τη Διεθνή Ομάδα Προβολής Σωματιδιακής Φυσικής.

Την ίδια στιγμή το γραφείο του Αυστραλού πρωθυπουργού Τόνι ‘Αμποτ τίμησε την ομογενή πανεπιστημιακό Σοφία Καρανικόλα, ως μια από τις κορυφαίες καθηγήτριες της χρονιάς σε όλη την Αυστραλία.

Η κ.Καρανικόλα ειδικεύεται στο χώρο της οδοντιατρικής του πανεπιστημίου Αδελαίδας.

ΔΑΙΜΟΝΕΣ 2013 ΑΝΝΑ ΒΙΣΣΗ FULL ΠΡΩΤΗ ΠΡΑΞΗ VIDEO

BBC’s ‘Atlantis’ combines Greek myths and bromance

Source: News.com.au

The myths, magic and monsters of ancient Greek lore are coming to life in the BBC’s new fantasy-adventure series “Atlantis” — from the unlikely setting of a former frozen-food warehouse in Wales.

A vast space once stuffed with supermarket foodstuffs has been turned into a television studio, filled with sets recreating the fabled lost city, complete with temples and terracotta-roofed houses, ceremonial bull ring and regal palace.

“Atlantis,” which starts on BBC America Saturday, is already a sizable hit in Britain, where it fills the family-viewing weekend slot previously occupied by sword-and-sorcery series “Merlin.”

“Atlantis” was created by some of the same team as “Merlin,” and like that show takes age-old stories and seasons them with humor, thrills and a central bromance.

Actor Mark Addy, who plays a less-than-heroic version of Hercules in “Atlantis,” says the recipe involves “a lot of heart and a lot of humor and a huge amount of action and adventure.”

“They wanted it to be epic in scale and in feeling, and that’s what they’ve managed to do,” he said during a break on a busy day’s filming in August.

“We’re doing stuff that you’d only ever see in movies, because it’s difficult and it’s expensive and it’s time consuming and it’s challenging,” Addy said of the 13-part series, shot over nine months in Wales and Morocco.

“Atlantis” opens with a young man named Jason — played by the strapping, curly haired Jack Donnelly — washing up in the city of Atlantis, disoriented but somehow instantly at home. The Oracle — there’s always an oracle — hints at big secrets to be revealed.

Jason soon meets brainy, kindly Pythagoras. “The triangle guy?” asks Jason, and indeed it is the ancient philosopher and mathematician, here a young man played by Robert Emms.

The third side of the central triangle is Hercules, in the — perhaps surprising — form of Addy, the burly actor who played a steelworker-turned-stripper in “The Full Monty” and King Robert Baratheon in “Game of Thrones.”

The casting is a sign of the show’s flexible approach to the Greek myths. This Hercules has superhuman strength, but he’s no bronzed muscleman.

“He wasn’t strong because he went to the gym, he was strong because he was Zeus’s son,” Addy explained, reasonably. “Although he was a demigod, I think he’s inherited most of his mother’s mortal traits. He drinks and gambles and he’s a womanizer.”

The cast includes Sarah Parish as scheming queen Pasiphae, Aiysha Hart as comely princess Ariadne, and Jemima Rooper as Medusa — here a young woman who has yet to become the snake-haired gorgon of legend.

But the show rests on the three main actors, referred to collectively by their fellow actors as “the boys.”

For the 49-year-old Addy, being one of the boys has been fun — even if hanging out with his 27-year-old co-stars makes him feel “very old.”

He recalled nipping out for a cigarette during a meal with Emms and hearing a woman at the next table say “‘Your dad’s being very polite.’ And Rob of course didn’t disabuse her.”

Such mix-ups probably ended as soon as the first episode of “Atlantis” was broadcast in September. The show is watched by seven million people a week in Britain, and a second season has already been announced. And Donnelly has become something of a heartthrob.

On set in August, Donnelly said the feeling that his life was about to change was “amazing and daunting.”

“It’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me by a long, long way,” said the cheerful actor, looking as bouncily indestructible as his character, who is required to battle bulls, baddies and Minotaurs on a weekly basis, clad in a fetching jerkin.

“The first few weeks I was terrified. I was just waiting to get fired. … I mean, my last job before this was in (comedy show) ‘Misfits’ and I was wearing a white rabbit mask and I had no lines and no one saw my face.

“To go from that to this, I suddenly thought ‘I’m not ready.’ It has got slightly easier since then.”

Emms has a longer CV, including major film roles in “War Horse” and opposite Julia Roberts in “Mirror Mirror.” But he said he was also nervous — although that was offset by his family’s delight at his new role.

“I’ve played … some not very nice people, some weirdos,” he said. “And my mum’s like, ‘I’m so pleased you’re playing a nice person who doesn’t kill anyone.’

“She always just wanted me to play a doctor.”

Greek-Canadian stand-up comic bringing laughs to Athens

Source: Ekathimerini

One of Greece’s wayward sons is about to make a stand-up return. With the support of the Canadian Embassy, Canadian-Greek comedian Angelo Tsarouchas will take the stage at the Michael Cacoyannis Theater this Sunday, November 24. The show – in English but sprinkled with bits of Greek – forms the subject of “Back to Sparta,” a film documenting the comedian’s lifelong goal to perform live in his ancestral country.

Tsarouchas was born in Montreal, but his family originally hails from Sparta. “People would ask me how I learned to speak Greek and I would tell them it was because my mother couldn’t speak English,” notes the current Los Angeles resident. Tsarouchas has performed for audiences around the world, but this visit marks his first to Greece in a professional capacity. “This is where my parents are from. We used to spend summers here when we were younger. It’s always been a dream of mine to come back.”

Much of Tsarouchas’s humor pokes fun at his bulky figure and Greek heritage. His last stand-up special, “Bigger is Better,” premiered on Showtime and attracted upward of 14 million viewers. Past performances have also included roles in the films “Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle” and “Cinderella Man.” The production of a new sitcom series, “The Angelo Show,” was recently confirmed and will feature fellow comedian Vince Vaughn in the role of executive producer.

Tsarouchas lists Harry Klynn (Vassilis Triantafyllidis) and Lakis Lazopoulos as his greatest artistic influences. Last week he had the opportunity to meet Lazopoulos in Athens – “a very funny man and a class act.”

Touring across Canada and the United States, fellow comedians would ask Tsarouchas why Greeks were always so congenial to one another. “That’s just the way we are,” he would reply. “That’s the way we’ve been raised. We’re probably the proudest people on Earth.” Tsarouchas’s homecoming takes him back to the roots of that pride. “I only wish that more artists of the diaspora would do the same,” he adds.

General admission to Tsarouchas’s “One and Only Stand-Up Comedy Performance” costs 10 euros. Tickets can be purchased in advance by calling 210.341.8579 or visiting the Michael Cacoyannis Foundation’s website, http://www.mcf.gr. The show begins at 9 p.m. Michael Cacoyannis Foundation, 206 Pireos.

Indigenous, ethnic groups inlcuding Greeks unite against law changes

Source: SMH

George Brandis

Intends to consult ‘stakeholders and interested parties’ over changes to sections of the Racial Discrimination Act: Attorney-General George Brandis. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen

Tony Abbott is facing a fight against Australia’s indigenous, Jewish, Arab, Chinese, Greek, Armenian, Lebanese and Muslim populations, who have united in urging the government not to proceed with announced plans to abolish or weaken race hate laws.

As his first legislative act, Attorney-General George Brandis wants to introduce a bill to change sections of the Racial Discrimination Act that protect ethnic groups against hate speech. He especially dislikes provisions that make it unlawful to offend or insult people on the basis of their race.

Declaring himself a champion of ”freedom”, Senator Brandis has disparaged the laws used against Herald Sun columnist Andrew Bolt over an article he wrote in which he accused ”white” Australians of identifying as Aborigines to advance their careers.

The head of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Peter Wertheim, said he could not recall ”any other issue on which there has been such unity of purpose and strength of feeling across such a diverse group of communities”.

Jewish leaders have combined in a rare joint protest with prominent ethnic and indigenous leaders.

”We have read with growing concern that the federal government has plans to remove or water down the protections against racial vilification,” reads the statement signed by the heads of groups including the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples, Arab Council Australia, Chinese Australian Forum, Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Australian Hellenic Council, Lebanese Muslim Association and the Armenian National Council of Australia.

”We oppose absolutely any such change. Paradoxically for free speech advocates, racial vilification can have a silencing effect on those who are vilified.”

Senator Brandis has indicated he appreciates the growing backlash against his ”free speech” reforms. He sent Fairfax Media a statement in which he promised to consult with ”stakeholders and interested parties … before introducing the legislation”. ”One of my key priorities as Attorney-General is to rebalance the human rights debate in Australia,” he said.

Race Discrimination Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane said weakening the race hate laws would send a dangerous signal. ”There must be strong and effective legal protections against racial vilification,” he said.