The rooms of the little museum are in some disrepair. The minimal exhibit documents the Armenian people from their beginning under King Artaxias (190-159 BCE) through the advent of Christianity in the first century, and into contemporary times. A number of religious images, pieces of beautiful Armenian pottery, books, and relics are on display. The kingdom of Armenia was located around the Tigris River, and today, Armenia is bordered by Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Iran. The story goes that the apostles Thaddeus and Bartholomew brought Christianity to Armenia as early as 43 CE, and by the fourth century, Christianity was declared the state religion. From around that time, church leaders began working with Greek Orthodox officials to establish a presence in the Holy Land. Armenian pilgrims began to flock to Jerusalem and set up residence around the Armenian Patriarchate and its church, St. James. This area of Jerusalem is now known as the Armenian Quarter.
Beginning in 1915 until 1917, nearly 1.5 million Armenians were systematically murdered by the "Young Turks," the ruling party of the Ottoman Empire. During this time, Armenia lost much of its territory to Turkey. The genocide was carried out through deportations, concentration camps, and mass killings. Just before Hitler invaded Poland in 1939, his advisers warned him about his tactics. He responded, "Go and kill without mercy. After all, who remembers the extermination of the Armenians?" The details of the Armenian Genocide are still a matter of some international dispute, and there are many nations (Israel and the United States among them) that do not acknowledge the event as a genocide for political reasons. Two countries with a strong Armenian presence, France and Switzerland, have recently reversed and officially recognized the genocide. In 2002, Atom Egoyan wrote and directed "Ararat," an excellent film dealing with memory and the genocide in Armenia.
