Armenian ambassador to India Armen Martirosyan with Cultural Affairs Minister of Bangladesh Asaduzzaman Noor. Photo: UNB
Armenian Ambassador to India Armen Martirosyan met on Tuesday with Cultural Affairs Minister of Bangladesh Asaduzzaman Noor at his office in Dhaka, the United News of Bangladesh reported.
Minister Noor said that Armenia’s culture is rich and requested Armenia to participate in International Film Festival in Dhaka. He invited a cultural team of Armenia to visit Bangladesh to increase the cooperation in this sector.
Armenia’s Ambassador Armen Martirosyan said that the Armenian Church in Old Dhaka is a traditional church and asked the Bangladesh Minister to take necessary measures to list it as UNESCO World Heritage site.
Tale of Darkest Night in Bengali Genocide
On March 1971. 1.5 million Bengalis genocided by Pakistani militant
I never knew poor Bengalis
Had also their genocide
Till I met a young gardener, Mubarak,
Who spoke about all the details with a broken rank.
Every Friday, he tended our garden
To plant flowers, arrange the pots and remove dead leaves.
Each time he demonstrated how Pakistanis
Killed their villagers, even those with white beards,
How their militants raped most of the women,
Leaving them pregnant, humiliated, speared.
However, they never killed pregnant women like the Ottomans did
With Armenians—they were raped and escaped to have illegal sons.
The gardener made me interested in their genocide.
I read what I found till I understood the “slayers dine”!
They started killing university scholars and their
Students when they wanted to protect their teachers
From military savages, scary and inhuman,
Who wanted to vanish unarmed Bengalis,
Impose their jungle rule on East Pakistan.
This all was designed by the evil “Pak militants.”
Stories of victims are many, unwritten yet.
After I was Informed, I asked others; few knew about “slayers grade”!
Bloodthirsty Pakistani army enjoyed and covered unpaid.
Bengalis genocide named “deadly night”*still hidden unread.
Dr. Sylva Portoian
From my Poetry collections ” A Poetic Soul Shined from Genocides” (2008)
___________________________________________________________*
The killing of Bengali intellectuals began at the night of March 25, 1971, in Dhaka and continued till the surrender of Pak army on December 14, 1971.This date is called ‘Martyred Intellectual Day.’ It is estimated that at least one and half million people were killed during the nine-month period. The genocide continued till 1975.