Bangladesh's first ambassador to Armenia

[Bengal_Tiger]

Bangladesh Amb. hands credentials to Armenian President

16:37, 22 Jan 2016Siranush Ghazanchyan



The newly appointed Ambassador of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh to Armenia Jashim Uddin (residence in Athens) presented his credentials to President Serzh Sargsyan, President’s Press Office reports.

The President congratulated the Ambassador on his nomination and wished him success in carrying out his diplomatic mission in our country. He noted that because he is the first Ambassador of Bangladesh in our country, his mission is even more important and full of responsibility. The new Ambassador is called upon to create a strong basis for the continuous development of the bilateral interstate relations and to strengthen friendly relations between the two peoples. With regard to the development of bilateral cooperation, the President of Armenian stressed the importance of creating a legal base.

Noting that the Armenian-Bangladeshi relations date back to the 17th century, and that in the Armenian quarter of Dhaka – Armanitola, there still stands the Armenian Saint Harutyun Church, the interlocutors concurred that, unfortunately, after the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, there has not been done much to develop the interstate relations and establish cooperation in different areas.

According to the parties, the appointment of ambassador to Armenia and Armenia’s readiness based on the principle of reciprocity to appoint ambassador to Bangladesh, testify to the two countries’ political will and determination to develop relations between the two states.

At the meeting stressed was also the importance of strengthening the Armenian-Bangladeshi cooperation in the framework of international structures.

http://www.armradio.am/en/2016/01/22/bangladesh-amb-hands-credentials-to-armenian-president/

[Bengal_Tiger]

1. Pakistan is one of the few countries in the world to not recognize Armenia. Bangladesh however recognizes it and on top of that is having its first ambassador there.

2. A few years ago people used to say that the Armenian lobby in the US was the second most powerful ethnic lobby after the Jewish lobby.

3. There is a district in the capital of Armenia, Yerevan, called "Bangladesh".

The official name of this district is called Malatia Sebastia.

As may often be the case, these unofficial names developed in the relatively closed world of the Soviet Union, when personal contact with people from India and Bangladesh was extremely rare. In the independent Armenia of 2014 this is not strictly the case; some Indian and a few Bangladeshi students study in Yerevan, many of whom attend the medical university and are fluent Armenian speakers. They can at times be met in the bars of Parpetsi Street on Friday nights amongst the usual crowds – American-Armenians finding their roots, Lebanese-Armenian repatriates, and slurring, strawberry-nosed western European expats.
As anachronistic as it may seem to some, Armenian links with the Indian subcontinent – given their widespread diaspora communities – are long established. The first Armenian-language newspaper, Azdarar, was printed in Chennai in 1794. In Bangladesh (the Republic) itself, an Armenian Church from 1781 stands in the capital of Dhaka. A neighbourhood in Dhaka, Armanitola, commemorates their community. The treasury of the ancient cathedral in Echmiadzin, Armenia, is a testament to the wealth and sophistication of these communities, with artefacts from Armenian churches in Calcutta and Chennai.
Bangladesh itself is a fairly conventional Yerevan suburb.

http://repatarmenia.org/eng/armenias-bangladesh-portrait-of-a-yerevan-suburb/

4. The Armenian diaspora is in the middle east, Europe (e.g. France), Argentina, USA and elsewhere.

I have met Armenians including two Armenians from Turkey (quite proud to be Turkish actually, one of them was quite respectful of Muslims and Arabs as well).

I also met an Armenian lady who disliked people from Karabagh and described them as stubborn/obstinate.


5. A lot of Turks especially in the east are said to be Islamized Armenians i.e. possibly millions of "Turks" are actually Muslim Ottomans of Armenian genes. In Turkey today you have Hemsin Muslims, Hemsin being a dialect of Armenian.



Armenians are similar in some ways to Kurds with Armenians sometimes being called "Christian Kurds" in some contexts. They are Iranic neighbours whose languages are related.


6. Some of the Armenians I met were actually conservative Christians.

Armenians proudly claim they are the first nation in the world to embrace Christianity collectively. Georgians I met however said this was propaganda and that Armenians often engage in stealing Georgian history but due to their massive and powerful international diaspora their alleged falsification of history is accepted.

7. Armenians are quite dark by European standards so in racist websites like Stormfront (neo-Nazi website) there will be no sub-forum allowed for Armenians as they are "too dark" to be "true" white Europeans.

[Bengal_Tiger]

Armenian community of Dhaka



The Armenian Church in Armanitola

Entrance to the Armenian Church

Foundation-plaque of the Church, founded 1781
The Armenian community of Dhaka played a significant role in Bengali trade and commerce in the 17th and 18th centuries.
In the early part of 18th century, Armenians settled in Dhaka, then one of the commercial centres in Bengal. They initially built a chapel and cemetery at Tejgaon, five miles from Dhaka. The oldest tombstone is “Avetis” an Armenian merchant who died on 15 August 1714.

Apart from Dhaka there was a significant Armenian presence in Saidabad (a suburb of the capital Murshidabad), Hoogli, Kolkata, Chinsura, Patna and Kasimbazar. A neighborhood in Dhaka - Armanitola - bears their name; there the Church of the Holy Resurrection and the cemetery established by the community in 1781 stand as major landmarks. The records of Church of the Holy Resurrection list over 200 deaths between 1833-1918, over 250 baptisms and over 50 marriages. Their assertive presence, however, began to decline from the beginning of British rule.[3] Michael Joseph Martin (Mikel Housep Martirossian) is reported to have been the last Armenian in Dhaka.

Armenians played a major role in the commercial life of Dhaka, led by the Pogoses, Agacy, Michael, Stephen, Joakim, Sarkies, Arathon (also spelled as Aratun), Coja (also spelled Khojah) and Manook (also spelled as Manuk) families. Khwaja Hafizullah, a merchant prince, laid the foundations for the Dhaka Nawab Family by accumulating wealth by doing business with Greek and Armenian merchants. This trend was followed by his nephew and the first Nawab of the family Khwaja Alimullah. Parts of the gardens of Shahbag, Ruplal House (a major landmark in the old part of Dhaka) and the land where Bangabhaban stands belonged to Armenian zamindars (landlords).

There is still a Manuk House inside Bangabhaban, bearing the name of the original owner's family.

They also played a major role as patrons of education and urban development in Dhaka. The Pogose School, the first private school in the country, was founded by JG Nicholas Pogose, a merchant and a zamindar. P Arathon was the headmaster of the Normal School. According to the Dhaka Prakash, a newspaper of his time, students in his school scored better in examinations than students of other normal schools in Bengal, including the one in Hoogli. Margar David, Mackertich Abraham George, Michael Sarkies, Abraham Lucas, M Highcazony, A S Mackertich, Tigran Nahapiet, Thaddeus Nahapiet, M.J. Catchhatoor, Joseph Lazarus, and M David were other prominent Armenians of Dhaka.

History

After Safavid rulers conquered Eastern Armenia in the Caucasus, Shah Abbas deported about 40,000 Armenian traders specialized in inter-Euroasiatic trade to Isfahan and New Julfa. From there these traders first came to Bengal following the footsteps of Persian adventurers, and in the course established their own trading community there, recognized as such by the Mughal government since late 17th century. They were mostly engaged in export trade paying a duty of 3.5% to the government.The Nawabs are known to have engaged them to transact their personal businesses openly or clandestinely as well as the European maritime companies, who used them as local representatives and their vakils (spokesperson or pleaders) to the royal courts. It is not known when they came to Dhaka, but on the evidence of dates on tombstones the time is assumed to be before the late 18th century.

In an estimate of the textile export from Dhaka (which was a major textile production center in Bengal) was said to have been 27% in 1747. In the silk market, there are indications that the Armenians were dominant buyers, along with Gujaratis and merchants from Delhi, Agra and Benares. They were prominent in the jute trade.

Initially not all of them lived in Armanitola, but lived in the neighborhoods of Moulavibazaar and Nolgola. Prior to building the church at Armanitola (popularly known as the Armani Church) they worshiped at a small chapel at in the same area, while deceased members of the community were interred at the Roman Catholic Church at Tejgaon, where some of the graves tombstones date back to 1741 to 1795. In 1837 they had built a Clock Tower on the west of the church that fell down in the earthquake of 1897. By 1868, five of the six European zamindars in Dhaka were Armenians - JG Nicholas Pogose, GC Paneati, J Stephan, JT Lucas and W Harney.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_community_of_Dhaka

Armenian church in Dhaka.







1. On a geo-political and economic level, I am curious as to why Bangladesh is increasing its ties with Armenia as we only open embassies when we need to and prioritize more important countries e.g. in central Asia we only have an embassy in Uzbekistan (because of cotton) but not Tajikistan, Turkmenistan etc.

2. Personally I think relations with Azerbaijan are more important as it has oil and a coast.

[Bengal_Tiger]

Azerbaijan declared its independence on December 30, 1991; on February 26, 1992, Bangladesh became the 13th nation to officially begin diplomatic relations with Azerbaijan.

In 2013, Muhammad Faruk Khan, Minister of Civil Aviation and Tourism of Bangladesh, paid a visit to Baku to participate in the 2nd World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue. Former Foreign Minister of Bangladesh Dipu Moni paid an official visit to Baku in 2013. Moni had an official meeting with the Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. She also held meetings with the Economic Development Minister Shahin Mustafayev and the Chief of State Migration Service Minister Firudin Nabiyev. Dipu Moni's official visit to Baku was termed as a "turning point" in the bilateral relations between Azerbaijan and Bangladesh. Ibrahim Hajiyev, Azerbaijan's ambassador to India, is also accredited to Bangladesh. Bangladesh Ambassador to Turkey, M Allama Siddiki, is also accredited as Bangladesh's ambassador to Azerbaijan.

Nagorno-Karabakh dispute

Bangladesh supported Azerbaijan in the UN with regard to the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute.Bangladesh supports Azerbaijan's position regarding the Khojaly genocide issue.

Cooperations

In 2013, Azerbaijan and Bangladesh signed an MoU relating to cooperation between their Foreign Service Academies. Azerbaijan supported Bangladesh on its nomination to International Maritime Organization in 2011 Both countries are members of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank initiative.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azerbaijan%E2%80%93Bangladesh_relations

Anyway this is nothing major, just opening an embassy in a country which has no major significance for Bangladesh, probably just to support some students residing there and a bit of business.