Reps. Schiff and Grimm Introduce Bipartisan Resolution to Recognize the Genocide

WASHINGTON, DC — U.S. Congressman David N. Cicilline (D-RI), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, today called on Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is visiting the United States, to formally acknowledge and apologize for the Armenian Genocide. Cicilline issued the following statement:

“Two million Armenian men, women and children living under the jurisdiction of the Ottoman Empire were systematically slaughtered or forced to leave their homeland. There is no doubt that this heinous, organized assault on the Armenian people constituted the first genocide of the 20th century. And yet, even today, nearly a hundred years later, the Turkish government continues to ignore the preponderance of evidence and deny a historical reality.”

“As Prime Minister Erdogan works to improve his country’s standing in the Middle East, and develop a stronger relationship with the United States, he should take this opportunity to acknowledge the atrocities that occurred once and for all, and issue a formal apology to the survivors and the descendants of the victims. His failure to do so would serve only to deepen an indelible stain on the history of his nation.”

Also today, Reps. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Michael Grimm (R-NY), along with David Valadao (R-CA) and Frank Pallone (D-NJ), introduced a bipartisan House Resolution recognizing and commemorating the Armenian Genocide in the House of Representatives. The resolution calls upon the President to work toward equitable, constructive, and durable Armenian-Turkish relations based upon the Republic of Turkey’s full acknowledgement of the facts and ongoing consequences of the Armenian Genocide, and a fair, just, and comprehensive international resolution of this crime against humanity.

“The facts of history are well-settled – 1.5 million Armenian men, women and children were deliberately murdered in the first genocide of the 20th Century,” Rep. Schiff said. “With each passing day, we lose a few more of the dwindling number of survivors. We should all feel a powerful sense of urgency, and the profound call of moral duty to recognize the Armenian Genocide unequivocally and without delay.”

“Almost a century ago, over a million Armenian men, women, and innocent children were mercilessly put to death by forces of the Ottoman Empire in a horrifying attempt to wipe them from the face of the earth,” said Rep. Grimm. “The U.S. has tirelessly defended justice and human rights throughout the world, and we have a solemn duty to recognize, once and for all, the injustices of the Armenian Genocide. On behalf of the Armenian community in New York City, I am proud to join with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle in introducing Armenian Genocide Truth and Justice Act.”

Congressman Valadao stated, “Many of those able to flee during the genocide immigrated to the United States and settled in California. Today, their families continue to grow, thrive, and instill their cultural heritage in their adopted communities. However, the sense of loss as a result of these horrific acts runs deep as many Armenian-Americans in my district personally know a friend or family member who was unable to escape the genocide. We must ensure that the United States government properly acknowledges what so many already know to be true.”

“The time for the U.S. to officially recognize the Armenian Genocide is long overdue,” said Congressman Frank Pallone, Co-Chair of the Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues. “Armenian stands as a resilient ally of the United States and a nation dedicated to democracy and regional stability, and the Resolution introduced today shows that we will not stand idly by when the truth of this genocide is distorted by the Turkish government.”

Ninety-eight years ago, the systematic and deliberate annihilation campaign was launched by the government of the Ottoman Empire against its Armenian population. While the Armenian Genocide has been recognized by more than 20 nations including Canada, Italy, Sweden, France, Argentina and Russia, as well as the European Parliament, it has not been formally recognized by the U.S. Congress in decades.

The Armenian Council of America – PAC is proud to endorse Mitch O’Farrell for Los Angeles City Council District 13. Mr. O’Farrell has been a devoted public servant for many years in the district which encompasses a large Armenian-American constituency.

During his decade of service to L.A.’s District 13 on behalf of Councilmember Eric Garcetti, O’Farrell became a familiar household name to many residents and community groups, who praised him for his dedication and hard work; including helping restore the blighted sections of the district, and listening to the concerns of the entire community.

His dedication to improving the lives of everyone in the community equally is what separates him from other candidates and his commitment to continuously reach out to the large Armenian constituency within CD 13 is clear, as he is the only candidate in the race with a campaign Web site in the Armenian language.

“Having the endorsement of the ACA PAC is a great honor for me. I have deep respect for this organization and the services and support they provide for Armenian communities throughout the Los Angeles area.” O’Farrell said. “I stand with the ACA in solidarity and service to make all our communities stronger, safer, and more vibrant.”

CD 13 has seen many improvements over the last decade, but much remains to be done. O’Farrell is the best candidate positioned to ensure that this vibrant area continues to prosper, and that the city tackles the economic challenges that affect the entire community. We are certain O’Farrell’s leadership will continue to improve CD 13, which includes the community of Little Armenia, and look forward to working with him in the near future. All Armenian-Americans in CD 13 should vote for O’Farrell who will undoubtedly represent the best interests of not only our community, but the entire community. CD 13 includes the neighborhoods of Little Armenia, East Hollywood, Atwater Village, Glassell Park, Silverlake, and Echo Park.

The Armenian Council of America is dedicated to educating the Armenian-American community in local political affairs, as well as actively pursuing Armenian-American participation in their respective local governments, to support political candidates who share the values of the Armenian American community.

ISTANBUL — Turkey’s Supreme Court of Appeals has overturned previous rulings acquitting the Hrant Dink murder convicts of connections to a criminal organization, saying the murder was committed by an armed crime gang, Hurriyet Daily News reports.
In the ruling announced today, the court approved the sentences given to suspects but overturned the decision that acquitted them of crime gang connections.
The previous ruling, which claimed that there was no crime gang connection in the murder of Dink, had been highly controversial, causing a stir in public debate.
The suspects will now be on trial again in the Istanbul court that gave the initial rulings.
Dink, an Armenian-Turkish journalist, was assassinated in Istanbul in January 2007 by Ogün Samast, a 17-year old Turkish nationalist, in front of the offices of Agos, the weekly for which he was the editor-in-chief.
After two years of proceedings Samast was convicted on July 25, 2011, of premeditated murder and illegal possession of a firearm by Istanbul’s Juvenile Court for Serious Crimes and sentenced to 22 years and 10 months. Another suspect, Yasin Hayal, was convicted of ordering the murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Following a five-year trial, the court had ruled on Jan. 17, 2012, that it saw no “deep state” role in the plotting of the assassination, despite serious claims that a number of civil servants were “indirectly” involved. The ruling was overturned a year later by the Supreme Court of Appeals, which led to prosecutors restarting their probe into the murder.

YEREVAN — The process of normalization of the Armenian-Turkish relations failed because of Turkey, US Ambassador to Armenia John Heffern said at the meeting with students at Synopsis Armenia R&D Center.
He considers that the Presidents of Armenia and Turkey demonstrated courage by signing the protocols on establishment of bilateral relations. However, Ankara set preconditions and failed to ratify the documents, he said.
”According to the agreement, there had to be no preconditions. However, Turkey tried to link the process to the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict,” he said, adding that Turkey is now expected to take a step.
“Armenia offered its hand, while Turkey failed to make a step forward,” Heffnern added.
The meeting took place in the format of fireside chat, where the US Ambassador to the Republic of Armenia John Heffern and the Vice President of Corporate Marketing and Strategic Alliances at Synopsis and CEO of Synopsis Armenia Rich Goldman held an informal conversation on a variety of topics including the Ambassador’s career path, his expectations of Armenia, as well as, IT sector, social entrepreneurship, social media, economy and education.
The ambassador stated that he reports to the U.S. State Department directly but he also tries to put pressure on the U.S. president to recognize the events of 1915. The ambassador added that Armenia is a complicated country due to the events of 1915.
“I think I was surprised by the warmness of the people towards me and towards United States, and the talents of the people and the success, like the IT industry, how talented the people are and how Armenia despite its economic challenges found ways to make real progress in high tech areas, like IT and telecommunications,” said the Ambassador. “I really do think that IT is the transformative sector for Armenia. I really do believe that Armenia’s future is a knowledge-based economy and these talented young people are the ones that are going to make Armenia a successful, prosperous country.”
Business requires rule of law, transparency, competitiveness and predictability, he emphasized, noting that they always tell Armenian officials that SMEs need honest competition, noting that start-up a business needs to be sure that the judicial system will be fair.

On April 8, 2013 LA City Hall hosted an event featuring Anna AstvatsaturianTurcotte, lawyer and author of a book entitled, “Nowhere, A Story of Exile” based on her own diary entries as a young girl documenting the organized terror in Baku. Below is an article Anna wrote in which she reflects on the tragic events of her childhood and projects them on the current status of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.

Anna and her father Norik in Baku

Twenty five years ago the events that would later be named “The Sumgait Pogroms” took place in my home country, then Soviet Azerbaijan. These pogroms targeted the Armenian population of the town of Sumgait on 27 February of 1988. Violent rioting mobs of ethnic Azeris stormed the streets and broke into homes of ethnic Armenians of that peaceful city. They attacked and killed Armenians both on the streets and in their homes, while the police observed and let the events unfold and medical personnel refused to assist the victims. This was the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union. The events were triggered by a movement of liberation in the ancestral Armenian land of Nagorno-Karabakh. In 1920s this historic Armenian region was handed over to Azerbaijan by Joseph Stalin to instill constant tension in the region. In the beginning of 1988 Nagorno-Karabakh demanded to be reinstated back to Armenia, asserting self-determination by a referendum in accordance with the Soviet Constitution.

Anna and her brother hiding at home in December 1988 during the Kirovabad massacres

View all of Anna Astavatsaturian’s article on the Wall Street Journal

YEREVAN — Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian has held talks with his visiting Belarusian counterpart, Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

The two presidents told journalists after their meeting on May 13 that they discussed bilateral relations, including trade and economic issues.

The two leaders presided over the signing of several bilateral agreements. One of them relates to “cooperation and exchange of information” on nuclear safety.

“We are also interested in Armenia’s experience in atomic energy,” Lukashenko told a joint news conference with Sarkisian. “You probably know that Belarus is building its first-ever nuclear power plant. An exchange of information about safe exploitation of nuclear plants as well as new approaches to building energy blocks is of mutual interest.”

“You have serious experience in exploiting such facilities and we hope that Armenia will be able to send at least a dozen good specialists so that they assist us in the initial stages of operating the under-construction nuclear plant,” he said.

Lukashenko is scheduled to visit on Tuesday Armenia’s nuclear power plant at Metsamor, more than 30 kilometers west of Yerevan. The Soviet-era plant built in the 1970s generates around 40 percent of the country’s electricity.

Sarkisian similarly stressed the importance of the “solid package of documents” signed after their talks. “We expect that they will give the right impetus to the development of bilateral cooperation,” he said.

Sarkisian said the talks also focused on cooperation within the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), which includes several former Soviet republics.

“Exactly in one month’s time, we will mark 20 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations between our countries,” Sarkisian said. “We are approaching this date not merely on a decent level of mutual cooperation but with a deep understanding that a positive experience of inter-state relations we have accumulated over these years is our mutual treasure.”

PASADENA — The Armenian Engineers and Scientists of America (AESA) will be hosting an interesting lecture on the Armenian Virtual College (AVC) – an online learning institution for Armenian studies, as part of their lecture series on topics related to science and engineering. Dr. Yervant Zorian, founder and president of the college, will present the objectives and achievements of the AVC. The lecture will be held on Monday, June 10, 2013 at 7:00 pm at Parsons Corporation, 100 West Walnut Street in Pasadena, California 91124.

The Armenian Virtual College (AVC) is AGBU’s newest educational project. It is an online learning institution for Armenian studies initiated in 2004 by Dr. Yervant Zorian, who had long noted the need for an educational program that better addresses the current demands of the Armenian nation in the Diaspora and Homeland. The technology at the heart of the project has been developed largely in Armenia with the collaboration of scientists and engineers at Yerevan State University Information Technology Center for Education and Research.

Through the use of both synchronous and asynchronous online communications, AVC allows students to learn new material at their own pace, but also to confer face-to-face with their virtual teachers and classmates. With the latest advances in the world of virtual education, AVC’s mission is, in addition, to create a virtual learning community that can foster both the cultural education and social communication otherwise out of the reach of most Armenian students across the globe.

Dr. Yervant Zorian who is a Fellow and Chief Architect of Synopsys Corp, Mountain View, CA. Previously he was the Vice President and Chief Scientist of Virage Logic Inc, and a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff at AT&T Bell Laboratories. He has authored more than 300 scientific papers, four books, holds over 30 US patents, and received numerous best scientific paper awards. A Fellow of the IEEE, he was selected by Electronic Engineering Times among the top 13 influencers on the semiconductor industry in the past fifty years. Dr. Zorian was the 2005 recipient of the prestigious Industrial Pioneer Award, and the 2006 recipient of the IEEE Hans Karlsson Award. He is named the General Chair of the 50th Design Automation Conference, to be held in June 2013, in Austin, TX. Also, he is a member of the AGBU Board of Directors, serves as the chair of AGBU Silicon Valley Chapter, and a trustee of the American University of Armenia. He is a foreign member of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia.

“We would encourage Armenian community to attend this interesting lecture on an interesting topic” said AESA Vice-President Vasken Yardemian. “Space is limited, so please RSVP by e-mailing to areg.gharabegian@parsons.com”

The Armenian Council of America – PAC (ACA-PAC) is pleased to announce its endorsement (of) Dennis P. Zine for Los Angeles City Controller. The ACA-PAC joins a growing list of public officials and community leaders embracing Zine’s candidacy.

Dennis Zine has served on the Los Angeles City Council for the past 10 years while also serving as an LAPD reserve officer. Prior to joining the City Council, he spent 33 years on the front lines of the Los Angeles Police Department. He has also donated several hundred thousand dollars of his salary to local charitable organizations while serving as a Councilmember.

Representing the City of Los Angeles’ 3rd District, Zine has worked to create local jobs and speed the economic recovery. As Chairman of the Council’s Audits and Government Efficiencies Committee, Zine has displayed his intolerance towards waste, fraud and abuse that have historically plagued the City. This determination is what is needed in a Los Angeles City Controller.

Zine also has a long and fruitful connection with the Armenian American community of Southern California, supporting and participating in various Armenian-American community and church events.

“As a Lebanese American, I have had a longstanding relationship with the Armenian Community,” Zine said “I’m honored to have these deep ties and my accomplishments recognized by the Armenian Council of America. As the City Controller, I will continue to be committed to ensuring that the Armenian Community is respected throughout the City of Los Angeles.”

The LA City Municipal elections will take place on May 21, 2013. To find your polling place, please visit: www.lavote.net

The Armenian Council of America is dedicated to educating the Armenian-American community in local political affairs, as well as actively pursuing Armenian-American participation in their respective local governments, to support political candidates who share the values of the Armenian American community.

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis has canonized more than 800 15th-century martyrs who were killed after refusing to convert to Islam. The “martyrs of Otranto”, whose identities are largely unknown, were killed on a hill outside the south-east Italian town by Ottoman Turk invaders in 1480.

Along with two Latin American nuns, they became the first saints to be proclaimed during Pope Francis’s fledgling pontificate on Sunday, in a ceremony watched by tens of thousands in St Peter’s Square in Vatican City.

“As we venerate the martyrs of Otranto, let us ask God to sustain the many Christians who, today and in many parts of the world, now, still suffer from violence, and to give them the courage to be devout and to respond to evil with good,” said the pope in a homily that made no mention of Islam.

In 1480, after conquering Constantinople – modern day Istanbul – the Ottoman Sultan Mohammed II planned to invade Rome, and Otranto became his army’s port of entrance into Italy.

The local population fought back in a week-long siege, putting up a brave but hopeless resistance. When Ottoman soldiers finally overrun the town, they were ordered to kill every man over the age of 15 who refused to convert to Islam.

In an apparent attempt to avoid the move being interpreted as provocative, the Vatican said the martyrdom should be understood in “the historical context of the wars that determined relations between Europe and the Ottoman empire for a long period of time”.

Little is known of the individuals who were executed when they refused to convert. They are grouped together as the “companions” of Antonio Primaldo, thought to have been the first to die when, once the town had fallen to the Ottoman forces commanded by Gedik Ahmed Pasha.

Los Angeles, CA – The Armenian Council of America Political Action Committee (ACA-PAC) is pleased to announce its endorsement of Los Angeles Mayoral Candidate Eric Garcetti.

Garcetti has served as Councilmember of Council District 13, which includes the Little Armenia District, an area heavily populated with Armenian-Americans. Actively serving his constituency in areas of job growth, crime prevention and other major improvements, Garcetti is the only candidate that has a proven track record of revitalizing communities that have been badly hurt by the economy.

In addition, Garcetti has been an active and engaged supporter of the Armenian-American community and has participated in several community-wide events and programs, including establishing the Little Armenia Chamber of Commerce, setting in place a Sister City Program with Yerevan and contributing to the success of local Armenian community centers. For many years, the City of Los Angeles, through various means, has been highly supportive of Armenian Genocide events, namely the Genocide March in Little Armenia. Garcetti, as the area representative has been instrumental in these efforts. ACA-PAC trusts, as Mayor, Garcetti will be able to utilize his experience as Councilmember and support Armenian American issues within the entire City of Los Angeles.

“I’m very proud to receive the endorsement of the Armenian Council of America,” Garcetti said. “To have the official endorsement and trust of an Armenian organization with deep roots in Los Angeles is truly and honor and I look forward to continuing serving the Armenian-American community as the next Mayor of Los Angeles.”

The LA City Municipal elections will take place on May 21, 2013. To find your polling place, please visit: www.lavote.net

The Armenian Council of America is dedicated to educating the Armenian-American community in local political affairs, as well as actively pursuing Armenian-American participation in their respective local governments, to support political candidates who share the values of the Armenian American community.

YEREVAN — Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian unveiled late on Tuesday his new but largely unchanged cabinet that was formed as a result of Armenia’s recent presidential election.

The ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) approved the candidacies of the new ministers submitted by Sarkisian during a meeting of the HHK’s governing body. HHK spokesman Eduard Sharmazanov said they will be formally appointed by President Serzh Sarkisian on Wednesday morning.

Only three of the ministers did not serve in the previous cabinet that was also headed by Tigran Sarkisian. Those are Finance Minister Davit Sarkisian (no relation), Economy Minister Vahram Avanesian and Sports and Youth Affairs Minister Yuri Vartanian. The latter is a renowned former weightlifter who won 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow and several world championships for the Soviet Union.

Davit Sarkisian, who until now served as chief of the prime minister’s staff, and the outgoing finance minister, Vache Gabrielian will swap their previous jobs. Unlike, Sarkisian, Gabrielian will have a ministerial status in his new position.

Avanesian, who held different ministerial posts in the 1990s, will replace Tigran Davtian. The latter will be appointed as Armenia’s representative to the World Trade Organization.

Tigran Sarkisian himself was reappointed two months after President Sarkisian won a second term in the disputed February 18 election. The head of state indicated shortly after his reelection that he is not planning sweeping personnel changes because he considers the outgoing government’s economic record satisfactory. He acknowledged at the same time that “a huge number of our citizens are unhappy with our work.”

“All the ministers have been tasked with working more effectively and ensuring that the results of their work are visible,” the HHK’s Sharmazanov told journalists. “Gone are the days when the results of reforms had to be visible after one year. They must be visible today.”

YEREVAN –Leading Armenian civic organizations described the mayoral elections in Yerevan as undemocratic on Monday, alleging widespread vote buying, multiple voting and other irregularities that benefited the ruling Republican Party (HHK).

Preliminary full results of Sunday’s municipal elections released by the Central Election Commission (CEC) in the morning confirmed the HHK’s landslide victory, giving it almost 56 percent of the vote and 42 seats in Yerevan’s 65-member municipal council. The comfortable majority will enable the party to reappoint Taron Markarian, the city’s incumbent Republican mayor.

The two other forces that cleared the 6- and 8-percent hurdles set for parties and blocs in the elections, the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) and the Hello Yerevan bloc, will get 17 and 7 seats, respectively, the CEC said.

“Our joint assessment is that these elections absolutely did not meet democratic standards,” Avetik Ishkhanian of the Armenian Helsinki Committee told a joint news conference of their leaders.

“Once again we had disgraceful elections. We keep getting surprised with how diverse election violations can be,” said Sona Ayvazian, deputy director of the Anti-Corruption Center (ACC), the Armenian affiliate of the Berlin-based Transparency International.

“We witnessed cases of [multiple] ‘carousel’ voting and use of pen ink of different colors,” she claimed. “Overcrowding [at polling stations] was widespread. People were ferried to polling stations, including by taxis. Multiple voting was a regular occurrence.”

Meanwhile, observers from the Council of Europe were cautious on Monday in evaluating the weekend municipal elections in Yerevan, praising technical aspects of their conduct but reserving judgment on their freedom and fairness.

“With the exception of a few incidents in those polling stations visited by the observation team of the Congress, the vote was carried out in a calm and orderly manner and the elections were technically well-prepared,” Stewart Dickson, the British head of the mission, said, presenting its preliminary conclusions.

GLENDALE, — on Thursday, May 23, 2013, at 7pm the Glendale Library, Arts & Culture, has invited the documentary filmmaker Robert Davidian to screen his documentary film “Armenian Activists Now – Birth of a Movement”. The 41 minute film is in English, with Armenian subtitles. The Glendale Central Library Auditorium is located at 222 East Harvard Street in Glendale. Admission is free; seating is limited. Library visitors receive 3 hours FREE parking across the street at The Market Place parking structure with validation at the Loan Desk. The program is sponsored by the Library, Arts & Culture Department.

Davidian completed the production of “Armenian Activists Now – Birth of a Movement” in 2012. The documentary film shows the birth of activism in Armenia as told by the activists themselves. It aims to inspire change in Armenia. Davidian’s documentary focuses on hope and change. A change that is based on social and political justice, rule of law and participation by all.

LOS ANGELES — PIB Productions has announced the release of a new movie trailer for “Abstraction,” an intense action crime drama revolving around the heist of a half a million dollar painting.

“Abstraction” is written and directed by Armenian filmmaker Prince Ishcan Bagdasarian and stars Academy Award Nominee Eric Roberts (Dark Knight, Expendables), Ken Davitian (Borat, The Artist), Hunter Ives, Korrina Rico (School Dance, In Time), Natalie Victoria (Deadheads), Richard Manriquez, and James Lewis (Gacy House).

Although PIB Productions had a limited budget to produce the independent feature film, they utilized modern innovative methods of filmmaking and called upon certain industry professionals who supported the ambitious project in its early stages.

“It was really interesting assembling a team with the proper knowledge who also believed in the film” says writer and director Prince Bagdasarian. “We had to film sce roduction and post production for films.

www.abstractionfilm.com

Professor Mesrob Balayan, the internationally renowned psychologist, national and social activist and intellectual of many years, the founder of the psychological laboratory of Isfahan State University, the longtime professor and chair of the university’s psychology and Armenian Studies departments, passed away in Nor Jugha, Iran on Wednesday, April 3rd.

He was born in 1925 in Yerevan. Having moved to Iran at an early age, he received his primary and secondary education in Qazvin and Tehran and attended Alborz Colleges. He was the first child of the long-serving spiritual shepherd of Qazvin, senior priest Ter-Harutiun Ter-Mesrobian Balayan.

After graduating from the French-language university in Tehran, he served for five years at the Mashadi and Rashadi state secondary schools. For his commendable abilities as an instructor, he was sent by the Iranian government to France, where he met again his former classmate and by then the outstanding and well-known mathematician, Vazgen Ter-Harutiunian.

He majored in psychology and literature and graduated from the Sorbonne with honors, receiving the title of doctor. Refusing Sorbonne University’s administration’s invitation, Dr. Mesrob Balayan decided to return to Iran.

In 1961 he was invited to Isfahan to assume the role of the director of the university’s psychology program. He established the psychological laboratory, which at the time was the only one in Iran and the countries of the Middle East. During the time of these activities, he was appointed to the positions of responsibility and professor for Isfahan’s Armenian Studies department. He was a member of the International Psychological Organization. He was honored with awards from universities and research organizations in Iran, Armenia, and France.

In 1996, he was bestowed with the St. Mesrob Mashtots medal by His Holiness Catholicos Aram I.

In 1978-88, he was recognized as man of the year by London’s Cambridge International Biographical Center.

In 1990, UNESCO recognized Dr. Balayan as the world’s fourth most able psychologist.

In honor of his international achievements and successes in his field, he was bestowed with gold medals from former king of Iran, Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi, and later from the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

His name is mentioned in the sixth volume of the Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia.

Mesrob Balayan devoted a full 50 years to education, pedagogy, and national-social activities. In Nor Jugha, he organized parent conferences, lectures and taught at Armenian schools. He gave lectures in Tehran, Qazvin, and a string of other Armenian-populated cities. Through special invitation, he was a guest lecturer at Yerevan’s Khachatur Abovyan Pedagogical University. His students over the past 30 years have gone on to assume high positions in government or science. Among the noteworthy include the former president of the Islamic Republic of Iran Mohammed Khatami, the minister of education and science, Iran’s chief justice, and others.

The aforementioned individuals always remembered their instructor with a sense of gratitude and worked to carry out his requests, which concerned issues relating to the Iranian-Armenian community.
Dr. Mesrob Balayan translated into Farsi the works of Balzac and Mkrtich Armen, which were widely-respected by readers. With his advice and encouragement, Azat Matian, his student from Isfahan University’s Armenian Studies department and later professor and holder of the chair, translated into Farsi Grigor Narekatsi’s remarkable work The Book of Lamentations. An endeavor that spanned several years, this project was well-received among Farsi readers. Intent on concentrating his entire material knowledge in a single location, in 1995 Dr. Mesrob Balayan established in Nor Jugha the Foundation for Children’s Publishing, which would publish colorful books for children and the youth. For this Foundation created to benefit the Armenian community, he donated five million tumans to the Armenian Diocese of Isfahan, which would remain inviolable in the care of the bank, from where the annual proceeds would go to the publication of books. The Foundation has already published six books.

Professor Balayan is the author of more than ten books on science and psychology. He has written hundreds of articles in Armenian, Farsi, and French which have been published in journals and newspapers in Iran, Armenia, and elsewhere.

The Armenian people suffered a great loss following the death of Dr. Professor Mesrob Balayan.

The scientific community, and namely the Armenian community, lost one of its devoted, highly-merited and honored activists.

FRESNO — Dr. Matthew Jendian, Dr. Mark Keppler and Caty Perez from Fresno State have been selected for membership in the first cohort of The James Irvine Foundation New Leadership Network.

The network is a new program that brings together 12 diverse San Joaquin Valley leaders across issues, sectors and generations. The group will learn, collaborate and build relationships with one another to contribute to a better future for the Valley.

Foundation officials say the program differs from other leadership programs in two ways. First, it will include a unique mix of individuals, who are brought together across traditional divides and second, it will share innovative leadership and social change approaches to help create an enduring network of leaders committed to improving the Valley for decades to come.

Matthew Ari Jendian is founding director of Fresno State’s Humanics Program in Community Benefit Administration and serves as a professor and chair of the Department of Sociology.

He is the recipient of the 2012 President’s Award of Excellence presented by the University Advisory Board at Fresno State, the Provost’s Award for Faculty Service, the Social Action Award from Temple Beth Israel, and the Amigo Award from Vida en El Valle.

Jendian received his B.A. in Sociology and minor degrees in Psychology and Armenian Studies from Fresno State and his Ph.D. from the University of Southern California.

Mark Keppler is the executive director of The Maddy Institute for Public Affairs, a non-partison public policy institute housed at Fresno State. He also teaches in the university’s Craig School of Business. He earned his B.S. in Business, with a minor in Economics, from the State University of New York, as well as an M.S. in Industrial Relations and a law degree from the University of Wisconsin.

Keppler is a mediator for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and a labor-management arbitrator for the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. He is the founder and chairman of the Clovis Community Foundation, as well as the founder and chairman of the Coalition for Community Trails, which merged with Tree Fresno in 2005.

Caty Perez serves as a director of development at Fresno State. She spent 12 years working for the Craig School of Business and now supports the Lyles College of Engineering, College of Science and Math and College of Social Science. She works on major gifts, planned gifts and volunteer leadership.

Perez is a charter member and past president of River Park Rotary, where she has twice-received the Service Above Self award. She was named the 2004 Woman of the Year by the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, named in the inaugural class of the “Top 40 Under 40” and served as a member of Leadership Fresno Class XIX.

She has a B.A. in Applied Mathematics and minor in Business Leadership from Fresno Pacific University and M.A. in Education Leadership from Fresno State.

ISTANBUL — An unknown assailant opened fire outside an Armenian church in Istanbul during the morning service on Sunday.

No one was hurt during the incident but it has made the Armenian community extremely uneasy as it came only a day after a racist organization burned a copy of an Armenian newspaper in Igdir province, Today’s Zaman reports.

The church where the incident happened is in Gedik Pasa, not far from the Armenian Patriarchate. Garo Paylan, who was attending the event, said that someone fired seven shots into the air while standing in front of the church’s gate. He said that the congregation panicked and ran outside.

Paylan also added that he believed the reason why this happened in front of the smaller church is because there are less security cameras around it as opposed to the street where the patriarchy is located.

He said that the police had arrived at the scene and started investigations to identify the shooter. They were also to review footage from nearby cameras.

Paylan noted that an extreme right organization that calls itself the International Association to Fight Unfounded Armenian Allegations (ASIM-DER) had burned a copy of the Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos in Igdir on Saturday, adding that he did not believe it was a coincidence that the shooting came a day after the ASIM-DER incident.

Recently, the ultra-right group was active in the social media, targeting Armenian agencies, schools, churches, foundations and individuals in Turkey as part of an anti-Armenian hate campaign.

Paylan also said that the Armenian community and Agos could file all the complaints in the world but the rest of the country should stand up against such acts of racism.

ISTANBUL — The General Vicar of the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople, Archbishop Aram Ateshian gave an interview to the Turkish Bugun TV channel, where he told about the concealed Armenians living in Turkey, the number of which makes about a million. Archbishop Ateshian stated that those people were made to conceal their nation and become Muslims during the World War I, because of the well-known events, occurred to Armenians in the Ottoman Turkey.

“There are about a hundred thousand people in the present generation in Turkey, whose parents are Armenians and they are Muslims. They talk Armenian and wear a cross secretly. They do not want to attend church, as it will reveal their identity. The liturgy held in the Saint Kirakos Church in Diyarbakir was attended by more than 400 people, half of which having Armenian roots. My family as well lives in Diyarbakir as Muslims. The sons of my elder sister also live in Diyarbakir. They accepted Islam under pressure in 1950.

My son-in-law was told if he does not accept Islam, he will be killed. I was born in 1954. When I was 4-5, my sister became a Muslim. Their children became Muslims as well. My sister wore her cross secretly and spoke Armenian. I lost them, as they did not attend our church and I could not christen them. Many of the concealed Armenians told about their being Armenians only before their death.

A 30-year-old man came to me and asked to christen him. I told him to prove his being Armenian and he could not. Then his father called me and asked to accept his son. He said that he worked in the municipality and when he retires, he will return to his roots. According to his son, 90% of the population of Tunceli are Armenians and now he is a member of our church”.

by Jano Boghossian

Orange, CA – On April 17, Professor Richard Hovannisian, First Holder of the AEF Chair in Modern History at UCLA and Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Chapman University and the University of California, Irvine, engaged in “Conversation” with Dr. Elie Wiesel, Nobel Laureate and Holocaust survivor, regarding the moral obligation of mankind to honor and preserve the memory of the victims of the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust by documenting and preserving witness and survivor testimonials, advocating for recognition, and promoting education.

Before a capacity audience in the Wallace All Faiths Chapel, the scholars touched upon their unique individual experiences and that of their communities while dealing with concepts of truth and justice in the aftermath of the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust. Hovannisian posed the question of whether there can ever be real justice for Holocaust victims, even with the countless monuments and reparations they have received, to which Wiesel simply said “no”. Hovannisian added that the Armenians, on the other hand, have not even been given the satisfaction of a modicum of formal recognition by the Republic of Turkey. He wondered about Dr. Wiesel’s view of the Holocaust being beyond the bounds of history and therefore incomparable and argued instead that the Holocaust, like the Armenian Genocide, could be contextualized and historicized without making either of them seem rational.

Dr. Elie Wiesel spoke of the Armenians’ “passion for memory” and for preserving every detail of a calamity that marked and traumatized all subsequent generations of Armenians both in homeland and Diaspora. Wiesel then described how the Armenian cause “eventually became my cause,” and discussed the importance of remembrance and what might happen once the last witness eventually passes away.
Dr. Hovannisian emphasized that selectivity of memory poses a challenge for those not connected to an event, as the Holocaust has been universalized, while Armenians still struggle with denial. “The history is not just our history, but mankind’s history,” said Hovannisian, and stated that memory must not just be linked to a single victim group.

There currently exists two institutions in Los Angeles that preserve, digitize, index and utilize survivor testimonials from the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust—UCLA’s Armenian Oral History project led by Hovannisian, and the Shoah Foundation’s much more extensive collection at the University of Southern California. Hovannisian began the UCLA program in the 1970s by having students interview survivors of the Armenian Genocide. The interviews were later transcribed and translated by a subsequent generation of students.

“Elie Wiesel and Richard Hovannisian in Conversation” was moderated by Chapman University History Department Chair Jennifer Keene and was part of the University’s week-long events featuring Elie Wiesel and organized by the Rodgers Center of Holocaust Education headed by Dr. Marilyn Harran.

In the days prior to the Chapman program, Professor Hovannisian lectured in Yerevan, Armenia; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Montevideo, Uruguay; Berlin, Germany; and Scottsdale, Arizona. On April 21, he was the keynote speaker of the annual commemoration of the Armenian Genocide at St. Mary Church in Costa Mesa, California, and on May 1-2 returned to Chapman University on May 1-2 for guest lectures in two Holocaust classes. He will make a presentation on the destruction of Smyrna/Izmir in a communitywide program at St. Leon Church in New Jersey on May 17, and will be the featured speaker in Montreal on May 25 on the occasion of the 95th anniversary of the founding of the Armenian republic..

Urges to Keep Up with Assistance Efforts for Syrian Armenians

GLENDALE, CA — The Syrian Armenian Relief Fund (SARF) plans to hold a new HyeAID2 concert on Sunday, June 9, 2013, at 6 pm, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles to help raise funds for Syrian Armenians. The program includes the Gevorkian Dance Academy, singers Leyla Saribekyan and Silva Hakobyan from Armenia; and local artists, including Razmig Mansourian.

On April 18, 2013, the SARF Executive Committee of the held a press conference at the Armenian Relief Society of Western USA, regional headquarters in Glendale in regards to upcoming SARF events. Executive Committee Chairperson Zaven Khanjian and Secretary Sona Madarian were on hand, along with Vartan Gevorkian, founder and artistic director of the Gevorkian Dance Academy.

Khanjian provided an overview of the humanitarian crisis, which continues to overwhelm the Syrian Armenian community, as needs for basic daily necessities are not met. He was pleased with the ongoing support of the community, which helped to raise and transfer $450,000 to the Emergency Committees set up by the Syrian Armenian Communities through their account at the Catholicosate of Cilicia. He urged to keep up with assistance efforts for Syrian Armenians.

Madarian also expressed her gratitude for the community support for the past successes of the SARF fundraising efforts, and provided details regarding the upcoming HyeAID2 concert with local performers, as well as Leyla Saribekyan and Silva Hakobyan from Armenia.

Kevorkian, who has led the Gevorkian Dance Academy for the past two decades, where 500 students ages 5 to 25 train, urged to lend a hand to the Syrian Armenians and help them persevere by attending a top notch quality artistic program.

Following the presentations, the HyeAID2 organizers answered questions. The Dolby Theater is located at 6801 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90028 (near Highland Ave.).

The following churches, charities and organizations came together to form the Syrian Armenian Relief Fund: Armenian Catholic Eparchy in North America; Armenian Evangelical Union of North America; Western Diocese of the Armenian Church; Western Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America; Armenian General Benevolent Union; Armenian Missionary Association of America; Armenian Relief Society of Western U.S.A.; Armenian Democratic Liberal Party; Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Western U.S.A.; and Social Democrat Hunchakian Party-Western U.S.A. The web site address follows: www.SyrianArmenianReliefFund.org.

Following is the text of speech delivered by Harry Unell during Annual Armenian Genocide Commemorative Vigil held in Pasadena on April 23rd, organized by Gaidz Youth Association

By Harry Unell

On behalf of the Gaidz Youth Organization I would like to thank you all for attending this Armenian Genocide Commemorative Vigil. The 2.3 mile walk that we just took from City Hall to this sanctuary symbolizes the forced marches that Armenian women, children, and elderly were forced to embark upon through the harsh deserts; all the while Armenian men were killed and buried in mass graves. The marchers were raped, tortured, and starved on these intended Death Marches. Many died, but against all odds, some survived to build new lives in new places. More importantly though, they protected and preserved their Armenian Identity. We are the descendants of those survivors and we are proud of our heritage and identity. We are proud to say that we remain. We remain Armenian against all odds, we remain steadfast in our pursuit of justice for those who did not survive, and we remain diligent against all those who would commit genocide on any other group. This is why we remember this is why we will not waver in our pursuit of justice; to prevent our history, pain, and sorrow from becoming the history of others.

My mother is Armenian and my father is Jewish. I remember I was 10 years old when my parents sat me down and talked to me about my family’s history. My mother began by telling me of all the family members who died during the genocide. She spoke to me about the marches across the desert, about the clothes of my great-great-uncle being sold in the street. How his brother saw those clothes and took what family he could muster together and ran. She told me about family members who found shelter with others and of those who could find no shelter and were never heard from again. My father started talking about Auschwitz and the terrible deeds done to my ancestors. He told me the stories of being smuggled out of Europe and finding a route to the United States, stories of great terror and bravery, despair and hope. My father ended his story with a quote from Hitler “Who after all remembers the Armenians”. I wept, I cried for what seemed like hours. I wept for the pain and suffering that my family endured. I wept for the lives of those that I would never know, whose names on my family tree just end as though the branches on which they are written were amputated. I wept for the uncles and aunts and cousins that I might have had. I wept most importantly because it was that day that I found out how cruel people can be, and today I still weep when I think of these things. It was then that I realized that I am alive. We have prevailed and they have failed.

Each one of us can make a difference in our own way, whether it is by contacting our government representatives or by teaching our classmates and fellow community members of the Armenian Genocide. And why not, by educating the Turkish people as well. “The seeds are already planted; it is our job, as descendants of the Armenian people, to make sure we bear abundant fruits. What we need to do immediately is help fund researchers, to provide educated and undeniable truths to all the inquiries that many of the Turkish people have started to make. We need to provide resources that satisfy all inquisitive minds. It’s a challenging task but we can do it. The technological advances in today’s world must be our weapon to fight denial and help prevent future genocides. We have the means, and it is our responsibility as today’s youth, to use them and present our cause to the entire world.”

When I think of the horrors that are continuing to be committed against men women and children all around the world, against people who don’t have a voice, I think to myself that through the education of history all of this may be prevented. We must be their voice. We must cry out for them. We must demonstrate to the world that genocide in all of its many forms cannot be tolerated. We have the ability to make that difference, we have that power.

ISTANBUL — The investigation into the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink is set to start again from square one, as the new prosecutor in the case, Muammer Akkas, has collected new testimonies and asked for the re-interrogation of key witnesses, Hurriyet Daily News reports.

Akkas, who was previously one of the prosecutors in the Ergenekon coup plot case, has decided to deepen the Dink investigation, Dogan News Agency reported April 26. Ten new witnesses, including police and gendarmerie officers, have recently given their testimony, the report said.

The Prosecutor’s Office also analyzed the testimonies of key witnesses – including those of triggerman Ogün Samast and Yasin Hayal, who was convicted for being the instigator of the murder – and found a number of inconsistencies. Along with Samast and Hayal, Ersin Yolcu and Ahmet Iskender, who were both convicted for complicity in the murder, as well as Erhan Tuncel, a former suspect acquitted in the trial, were also asked to give new testimonies.

Following a five year trial, the court had ruled on Jan. 17, 2012, that it saw no “deep state” role in the plotting of the assassination, despite serious claims that a number of civil servants were “indirectly” involved. The ruling was overturned a year later by the Supreme Court of Appeals, which led to prosecutors restarting their probe into the murder.

Dink, the renowned chief editor of Agos, was shot in front of his office in Istanbul on Jan. 19, 2007.

STEPANAKERT – It’s time for us – as friends of democracy – to recognize this country,” French MP Valerie Boyer stated at the National Assembly of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic.

A group of Members of the European Parliament paid a one-day visit to Artsakh accompanied by Armenian MP Artak Zakaryan.

Members of the EU-Armenia Friendship Group of the European Parliament visited Gandzasar and Shushi, held meetings at the Artsakh State University and the National Assembly.

Also, the delegation visited the Children’s Hospital of Stepanakert, where head of the delegation Dr Eleni Theocharous, a doctor by profession, performed operations during the cruel days of the Artsakh war.

“The war for the victory of your self-determination was also a struggle for maintaining the European Christian culture,” she said.

Speaking at the meeting with EU parliamentarians, Speaker of the National Assembly Ashot Ghulyan said “it’s high time of the international community to take steps towards de jure recognition of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic.”

“It’s our duty to recognize this country,” French MP Valerie Boyer said.

“I will continue to visit Karabakh until I see that this people, which raised its voice for self-determination years ago, has fulfilled its dream,” Dr Eleni Theocharous stated.

NORTHRIDGE, CA — The Grand Salon of California State University, Northridge (CSUN), provided the setting for an academic conference exploring “Resistances to the Armenian Genocide” in the Ottoman Empire (1915-1923).

Dr. Vahram Shemmassian, Professor of Armenian Studies and Director of the Armenian Studies Program at CSUN, opened the Conference by pointing out the importance of continuing scholarship about the Genocide as its 100th anniversary in approaches in 2015. Opening remarks were also provided by John Kossakian, co-chair of the Los Angeles United Armenian Council for the Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide and principal of the Ferrahian Armenian School in Encino, CA.

An overview of the theme was provided by Dr. Rubina Peroomian, author and educator, in her talk “Armenian Resistance to the Genocide: An Assessment of Circumstances and Outcomes.” Peroomian traced the Ottoman Armenian population’s gradually increasing national awareness and determination to stand up for basic human rights, beginning with the 1862 Zeitun uprising and continuing in the 1890s with the peaceful rally at Bab-Ali, the Khanasor Expedition, the seizure of the Ottoman Bank, and the plot to assassinate Sultan Abdul Hamid. She went on to assess the impact of limited opportunities for resistance during the Genocide itself.

“Peaceful Resistance: American Missionaries in Wartime Turkey, 1914-1917” was the topic of the next presentation, by Dr. Barbara Merguerian, independent scholar and author. Merguerian pointed out that, as foreign nationals and as clergymen, educators, and medical personnel, the Americans were not in a position to offer any kind of military resistance; but they remained at their posts throughout the interior of Turkey and did all they could to attract attention to the atrocities taking place, to provide food and clothing to victims, and to find ingenious ways to save many individual Armenians, until the break in diplomatic relations between Turkey and the United States in April 1917 forced most of them to leave the country.

Dr. Garabet K. Moumdjian, an independent historian, followed with a presentation of “Muslim Resistance to the Armenian Genocide in the Southern Theater of War: Jemal Pasha and the 4th Army Corps.” His nuanced assessment of the Turkish leader Jemal Pasha, as well as other Ottoman governmental and military officials who, he said, were instrumental in saving the lives of some 150,000 to 200,000 Armenian deportees in the south, raised many questions from the audience. Moumdjian called for further scholarship to analyze the political, social, military, and other circumstances motivating Turkish leaders.

In the next presentation, “Post World War I Violence and Resistance in Cilicia,” independent scholar and editor Aram Arkun addressed conflicts that arose in Cilicia as Armenians began to return to their homes, the Turkish Nationalist movement grew, and the occupying British and French forces were forced to make difficult policy decisions. The French administration in particular, increasingly torn between promises made to the Armenians and demands from the local Turks, took contradictory positions until France decided to pull its forces out of Cilicia in exchange for economic concessions from Turkey. As a result, Armenians were left powerless and forced to flee from their homes once again.

The final speaker, Dr. Shemmassian, in his presentation about “The Musa Dagh Resistance in the Armenian Genocide Denial Campaign,” cited different forms of denial and falsification by Turkish and Turkish-leaning scholars, particularly Edward J. Erickson, a retired lieutenant colonel in the US Army, in an article in The Journal of Strategic Studies. Pointing out errors of fact, omissions, and faulty analysis that led Erickson to conclude falsely that the Armenians were engaged in a major military rebellion, Shemmassian concluded that, “nearly a century after the Armenian Genocide, we are still confronted with fabrications, falsehoods, and concoctions that aim to discredit and thus deny the fact of the Genocide.” The need to combat these falsifications continues to be as important today as ever.

Two lively discussion periods were ably presided over by the moderator, Dr. Levon Marashlian, Professor of History and Political Science at Glendale Community College. The participants were presented by Dr. Hasmig Baran, President of the Alumni and Friends of the SCUN Armenian Studies Program.

The conference was co-sponsored by Alumni and Friends of the CSUN Armenian Studies Program, the CSUN Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures, and the Los Angeles United Armenian Council for the Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide.

The CSUN Armenian Studies Program (ASP) is currently celebrating its 30th anniversary with a a special banquet to be held on May 11. During those three decades the APS has rendered an invaluable service to the Armenian community in greater Los Angeles. As such, it has acquainted thousands of youth of Armenian origin and other nationalities with the Armenian language, literature, culture, and other related topics. These subject matters may lead to a Literatures and Cultures major with an Armenian Option, or an Armenian Minor. With a solid base of about 3,500 Armenian students on campus (10% of the total student body) each year, there is an urgent need for additional resources to further strengthen the ASP by establishing an endowed professorship ($500,000) and a number of scholarships. By doing so, the Program intends to prepare a new generation of teachers of Armenian Language, History and Culture, as well as future civic leaders. For further information about the Program or the banquet, you may contact Prof. Shemmassian at vahram.shemmassian@csun.edu or (818)677-3456.

PROCLAMATION

Between 1915 and 1923, Armenians were subjected to torture, starvation, mass murder and exile from their historic homeland. 1.5 million lost their lives. The Armenian Genocide, also known as the “First Genocide of the Twentieth Century,” represented a deliberate attempt by the Ottoman Empire to eliminate all traces of a thriving, noble civilization.

Armenian communities all over the world commemorate this tragedy on April 24. On this day, we honor the victims and survivors of the genocide, and reaffirm our commitment to preventing future atrocities from being committed against any people.

NOW THEREFORE I, EDMUND G. BROWN JR., Governor of the State of California, do hereby proclaim April 24, 2013, as “Day of Remembrance of the Armenian Genocide.”

IN WITNESS WHEREOF I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Great Seal of the State of California to be affixed this 18th day of April 2013.

EDMUND G. BROWN JR.
Governor of California
4-24-2013

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the lead sponsor of the Armenian Genocide resolution in Congress, delivered his remarks in Armenian on the House Floor to honor the more than one and a half million Armenian men, women and children who were murdered by the Ottoman government.

In a historic first in the Congress, Representative Schiff said in his Armenian address, “I speak to you from the floor of the House of Representatives in the language of your grandparents and your great grandparents – the language they used to speak of their hopes, their dreams, their lives and their loves in the years before 1915 … I speak to you in the language of sons who watched their fathers murdered … I speak to you in the language of the girls begging the gendarmes for mercy …”

Watch Rep. Schiff’s speech here

WASHINGTON, DC — U.S. President Barack Obama again declined to refer to the 1915 mass killings of Armenians as genocide on Wednesday, essentially repeating carefully worded statements on the subject made during his first term.

Obama used instead the Armenian phrase Meds Yeghern, or Great Calamity, to commemorate the 98th anniversary of the start of the massacres in the Ottoman Empire.

Below is the full text of the statement:

Statement by the President on Armenian Remembrance Day

Today we commemorate the Meds Yeghern and honor those who perished in one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century. Ninety-eight years ago, 1.5 million Armenians were massacred or marched to their deaths in the final days of the Ottoman Empire. We pause to reflect on the lives extinguished and remember the unspeakable suffering that occurred. In so doing, we are joined by millions across the world and in the United States, where it is solemnly commemorated by our states, institutions, communities, and families. We also remind ourselves of our commitment to ensure that such dark chapters of history are not repeated.

I have consistently stated my own view of what occurred in 1915, and my view has not changed. A full, frank, and just acknowledgement of the facts is in all of our interests. Nations grow stronger by acknowledging and reckoning with painful elements of the past, thereby building a foundation for a more just and tolerant future. We appreciate this lesson in the United States, as we strive to reconcile some of the darkest moments in our own history. We recognize those courageous Armenians and Turks who have already taken this path, and encourage more to do so, with the backing of their governments, and mine.

The history and legacy of the Armenian people is marked by an indomitable spirit, and a great resiliency in the face of tremendous adversity and suffering. The United States is stronger for the contributions Armenian-Americans have made to our society, our culture, and our communities. In small measure we return that contribution by supporting the Armenian people as they work toward building a nation that would make their ancestors proud: one that cherishes democracy and respect for human liberty and dignity.

Today we stand with Armenians everywhere in recalling the horror of the Meds Yeghern, honoring the memory of those lost, and affirming our enduring commitment to the people of Armenia.

ACA members with Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich.

LOS ANGELES COUNTY – The Armenian Council of America along with members of the Armenian diplomatic corps, clergy and business community, Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich and the Board of Supervisors proclaimed April 24, 2013 as “Day of Remembrance for the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923″ in Los Angeles County.

“Los Angeles County is home to the largest population of Armenians in the United States, enriching our communities through their leadership in the fields of business, agriculture, academia, medicine, government and the arts,” said Antonovich.

On April 24, 1915, the Turkish government began the systematic extermination of the 1.5 million members of the Armenian community that included religious, political and intellectual Armenian leaders.

“By consistently remembering and openly condemning these atrocities, Los Angeles County demonstrates the need for constant vigilance to prevent similar events in the future,” said Antonovich.  ”We join the Armenian community in its commitment to ensure that those who died and suffered are never forgotten.”

Antonovich also urged President Barack Obama and members of Congress to raise the issue with the President of Turkey when they meet in the Oval Office in a few weeks.

“On this day, we are reminded of the tremendous loss of our people, but it is also an inspiring time to celebrate the closeness and collaboration of the Armenian community which comes together every year to mark this occasion,” said ACA Member Mehran Khatchadorian. “I applaud Supervisor Antonovich and the LA County Board of Supervisors for continuously championing this issue and educating the public about the importance of recognizing and taking a stand against man’s inhumanity to man.”

The Armenian Council of America is dedicated to educating the Armenian-American community in local political affairs, as well as actively pursuing Armenian-American participation in their respective local governments, to support political candidates who share the values of the Armenian American community.

WASHINGTON, DC — The U.S. State Department has released its “Country Reports On Human Rights Practices” for 2012, highlighting crackdowns on civil society, struggles for democratic change, and threats to freedom of expression.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry presented the reports to the media in Washington on April 19.

The State Department annual report on human rights makes quite a harsh assessment of the situation in Armenia. “The most significant human rights problems during the year were limitations on the right of citizens to change their government, corruption and lack of transparency in government, and the limited independence of the judiciary,” reads the report. “Courts remained subject to political pressure from the executive branch, which resulted in some politically motivated prosecutions and sentencing,” it says.

The U.S. State Department also accused Armenian law-enforcement bodies of continuing to arbitrarily arrest individuals and ill-treat them in custody. “Although the government took some steps to punish officials in the security forces and elsewhere who committed abuses, some members of the security forces continued to commit human rights abuses with impunity while under the direction of civilian leadership,” it said.

The report further points to “flaws” in the conduct of the May 2012 parliamentary elections, saying that those included “the misuse of government resources” by the HHK and “credible allegations of vote buying.”

Link to US State Department Country Report On Human Rights in Armenia

As the anniversary of the Armenian Genocide approaches, historian Taner Akcam suggests Turkey open its borders with Armenia as a step to normalize relations between the two countries. Talking to Today’s Zaman Akcam claims that the Armenian issue cannot be solved unless diplomatic ties are established.

Akcam, who describes the 1915 events as “genocide,” says that Turkey should stop wasting its time with the argument that 1915 was not genocide “by exploiting people’s ignorance about this matter and creating an unnecessary debate.” He argues that 1.2 million Armenians were forced to relocate under the rule of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) during the Ottoman Empire.

He also argues that thirst, hunger and diseases were among the main reasons for the deaths, but the groups that were forced to migrate were intentionally led to take the longer routes and were not provided water and food during their journey.

“Few people know this, but the Armenian genocide was one of the main reasons why the word “genocide” was first coined. Raphael Lemkin is the person who coined this word and admits that the Armenian genocide was decisive in this coinage,” Akcam said.

Asked how the Armenian issue can be solved, the historian said: “I think we should focus on a “Turkish issue” rather than on the “Armenian issue.” First of all, we, Turks, must learn to talk about what happened in the past. We must learn both what the truth was and how we can discuss it. To know the history and to talk about it are two different things. In my opinion, the first thing to do is to learn how this can be understood and share sorrows. We must be able to listen to Armenians as they talk about their heart-wrenching experiences.”

“On the state level, a government which really intends to solve this issue must first change its wording and style. The language of peace and fraternity is different from that of strife. First of all, a language that would facilitate the settlement must be created. To this end, the publications including official websites of certain ministries that are rife with hatred and animosity against Armenians must be shut down. The Board of Coordination for Combating Unfounded Genocide Claims, subordinated to the National Security Council (MGK), must be abolished. As long as there is such a board, it is a fancy to believe Turkey will launch an initiative about genocide,” he said.

“The second step is to open up border crossings. We can solve a past issue only by normalizing ties today. As long as the border crossings are kept closed and no diplomatic ties are established with Armenia, this issue cannot be solved. If people don’t know each other and if they don’t talk to each other, how will they settle a problem among themselves? Dialogue is a sine qua non component of communication among people. If Turkey opens up the border crossing with Armenia and calls it “Hrant Dink Border Gate,” this would be a good gesture,” the historian continued.

Taner Akcam believes the third step is to pay an apology. “In our time, heads of state and government pay apologies in connection with past tragedies. When they do, this does not humiliate them. Rather this boosts their prestige. Turkey must take this step. Given the fact it expected Israel to pay an apology for an attack against a vessel, Turkey should know that Armenians nurture similar expectations about the death of about 1 million people in 1915. This problem cannot be solved if the Turkish government does not accept the fact that 1915 incidents were a crime that cannot be defended ethically. For two societies and sides to make peace, Turkey must denounce the crimes against the Ottoman Armenians in 1915 and declare that those crimes were morally/ethically unacceptable.”

“The fourth step is to launch a number of moves to compensate for the past’s losses. In this scope, Armenians who have roots in Anatolia may be automatically granted Turkish nationality. Another step may be to recognize and promote the Armenian cultural heritage in Turkey. In this framework, religious, cultural and historical Armenian buildings may be renovated. Reviving the destroyed or damaged Armenian cultural heritage and civilization in Anatolia will be the best response to the past’s subversive mentality.

Another symbolic yet significant step might be to return the churches, buildings and fields seized in Çukurova region that belonged to Sis Catolichos Church, which is of secondary or even equal importance to Mother Cathedral of Holy Etchmiadzin,” Mr. Akcam said.

“Another thing we can do is to raise awareness of people. To ensure public access to correct information and eliminate the negative effects of 100-year old brainwashing and denial policies, programs may be organized to inform the public, through participation of Armenian scholars, and via the press. Joint committees at various levels (Parliament, universities, etc.) between two countries may be established and civilian initiatives to boost relations may be developed,” he said.

As for the expectations from 2015, the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, the Turkish historian said: “If Turkey does not seriously change its policies and if the US, the UK and Israel do not modify their stance, I don’t think anything special will happen. And there is nothing to suggest that these countries will change their position. I think people will conduct demonstrations and repeat the same arguments. And then April 25 will come.”

SZEGED, HUNGARY — A memorial dedicated to the victims of the Armenian genocide during WWI was inaugurated in Szeged, S Hungary, on Saturday.
The cross stone was erected in the Park of Christian Solidarity near Szeged cathedral.

Addressing the ceremony, goodwill ambassador Levon Sarkisian welcomed that a memorial of this kind was unveiled in Hungary. “Although the recent period has witnessed some difficult moments, they have been swept away like ash in the wind,” he said.

Although diplomatic relations between Armenia and Hungary were broken, ties between the two nations date back to centuries, Levon Sargsian said.
The ambassador stressed the need to pay tribute to the 1.5 million victims and fight to prevent similar atrocities anywhere in the world.

Addressing a letter to the participants, Hungarian Foreign Minister Janos Martonyi said that the two nations had been bound by centuries-long friendship, arising from a common Christian faith, common fate and the remarkable achievements of Armenians who had settled in Hungary.

Martonyi said that Hungarian-Armenian friendship should be further deepened and cooperation extended in all fields of life, including diplomatic relations.

Despite the regrettable cessation of political contacts, Hungary supports Armenia’s endeavour for integration into Europe and would welcome if talks on the association and free trade agreements were concluded at the Vilnius summit of the Eastern Partnership and the European Union, Martonyi.

Armenia unilaterally suspended diplomatic relations with Hungary last August after an Azeri officer, serving a life sentence for murdering an Armenian officer in Budapest, had been repatriated to his homeland where he had been released.

The following is the text of the speech delivered by Mr. Garry Sinanian at the 98th annual Times Square Armenian Genocide Commemoration on April 21, 2013.

Reverend clergy, distinguished guests, honorable leaders of the community, ladies and gentlemen,

I am truly privileged to be given the opportunity to speak here in New York’s Times Square about the first genocide of the 20th century. 98 years ago to this day in 1915, more than 300 Armenian leaders, writers, and professionals in Constantinople (present day Istanbul) were rounded up, deported and killed along with 5,000 ordinary Armenians who were butchered in the streets and in their homes.

Over 1.5 million Armenian lives stolen, 2/3 of ancestral land taken away. Adolf Hitler once famously said “Who still talks nowadays of the extermination of the Armenians?” How much longer is the Armenian Genocide going to be used as a template for future Genocides before it is recognized?

According to the world English dictionary genocide is the policy of deliberately killing a nationality or ethnic group. And that is exactly what the Ottoman leaders perpetrated against the Armenian people.

Unfortunately, To this day the Turkish government has not only denied the genocide, but has persecutes many of its citizens who have dared to speak about it or urge their government to recognize it.

Healing and reconciliation between the Armenians and Turks can only begin if the Turkish government musters enough courage to finally recognize the Armenian genocide.

Every tragedy has both victims and heroes, and it is important to recognize all those Turkish intellectuals, scholars, artists, writers, and ordinary citizens who so bravely stood up and declared “YES, there has been an Armenian genocide”. We cannot change the past, but we can begin to build a new era of Armenians-Turkish relations that is based on honesty and justice.

Today, we once again urge Mr. Erdoghan and his government to do the right thing and once and for all recognize the Armenian Genocide to rid the Turkish nation of the heavy burden of its painful past and begin the healing process for Armenians and Turks alike.

By Taleen Babayan

Among the thousands of tourists and native New Yorkers who crisscrossed through the bustling and overflowing streets of Times Square on Sunday afternoon, April 21, there were only three individuals whose universal message of human suffering and injustice mattered most.

Surrounded by dazzling billboards, scores of people and looming skyscrapers, Perouz Kaloustian, Arshalouis Dadir and Charlotte Kechejian stood out as the survivors of one of the most catastrophic events in world history. The three women, a century old, sat in the front row of the 98th Armenian Genocide Commemoration, huddled underneath blankets and braving the cold so they could be present in Times Square as living proof to the assembled crowd that numbered in the several thousands.

Armenian Genocide survivors (l-r) Perouz Kaloustian, Arshalouis Dadir and
Charlotte Kechejian, present at the Times Square Commemoration

But the survivors were also there to inspire. Standing just a few feet away were the disciplined and earnest Homenetmen Scouts, standing at attention in their crisp uniforms and taking turns holding the flags of the United States, Armenia and Nagorno Karapagh throughout the program. The close proximity of these two generations – those who survived to tell the story – and those who will continue the memory – culminated in a silent promise of never forgetting, which emerged as the theme of the afternoon as politicians and guest speakers promised the survivors that their struggles and stories will continue to live on.

A staunch supporter of Armenians and one of the earliest and most consistent backers of the Armenian Genocide Resolution in the U.S. Congress, Chuck Schumer (D-NY) once again exhibited his unwavering commitment to the Armenians and to the recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

“We promise that even when the last survivor is gone, we’ll keep the memory of the Armenian Genocide alive because it’s our duty,” said Schumer as his voice reverberated through Times Square to thunderous applause. “We come here to tell the world, to tell Turkey, to tell everyone, that you cannot deny the genocide.”

NY Senator Chuck Schumer

Schumer reiterated his commitment to the Armenian Genocide Resolution in Congress and to the significance of its passing.

“Every time a genocide occurs we say never again, but if we cannot remember those in the past, we might not be able to prevent those in the future.”

“The candle of truth always burns brighter than lies,” he concluded, adding Armenian spirit to his words by proclaiming “Getze hayasdan!” (long live Armenia).

New York City Comptroller John Liu, who has consistently appeared at the Armenian Genocide Commemoration in Times Square since his days as a New York City Councilman, has been a strong advocate for recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

NYC Comptroller John Liu

“This is a fact of history that has to be accounted for and confessed to,” said Liu. “Only then can we move forward.”

Drawing on his own background as an Asian-American who immigrated to the U.S. at the age of five, Liu spoke of his long-time contact with the Armenian community in Flushing, Queens, where he and his family settled. Growing up in Flushing, he said he learned of the Armenians and became involved in the community there, which included visits to the New York Armenian Home, which has served as a residence for survivors of the Armenian Genocide.

“I’m hoping action is taken by sending a strong message here in New York City and around world that the Armenian Genocide will not be forgotten,” said Liu.

Sheriff of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Peter Koutoujian

Peter Koutoujian, Sheriff of Middlesex County, Massachusetts and a former member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, delivered meaningful remarks tinged with emotion as he reflected on those killed and injured during the recent bombing of the Boston Marathon, in which he was an instrumental figure in the capture of the perpetrators. He tied in the innocence that was lost in the senseless tragedy to the innocence lost during the Armenian Genocide almost one hundred years ago. He referred to the difficult journey of his own grandparents, Abraham and Zarouhi Koutoujian, who fled their home in Marash during the genocide.

Koutoujian noted that he learned of patriotism for his country and his people from his family, who sought refuge from religious persecution in the U.S.

“We have to pass on the lessons of patriotism and perseverance,” he said. “It’s been my life’s work to bring recognition to the Armenian Genocide.” Koutoujian’s patriotism and perseverance served as the impetus for the resolution he had passed 12 years ago that brought the Armenian Heritage Park into existence in the heart of Boston.

“Together we can stand Boston strong, New York strong and Armenian strong,” Koutoujian concluded, enlivening the audience with his engaging and compassionate words.

In his remarks, Dr. Dennis Papazian, Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Michigan-Dearborn and former Grand Commander of the Knights of Vartan, said that there had been no need for recognition of the Armenian Genocide in the past because survivors and diplomats, such as U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Henry Morgenthau, Sr. served as witnesses to the atrocities of the genocide.

Dr. Papazian spoke of the compelling amount of published evidence on the Armenian Genocide, including one documenting a collection of news reporting by the New York Times during that time and a book citing the numeration of Armenians expelled from each town, city, and village in the Ottoman Empire. He noted that aside from factual evidence, prominent people have been stepping forward to recognize the Armenian Genocide.

“Times have changed and there’s reason for hope,” said Dr. Papazian. “There have been acknowledgments of the Armenian Genocide by Turkish scholars and public figures.” One influential individual who has not only accepted the reality of the Armenian Genocide, but also published a book about it is journalist Hasan Cemal, the grandson of Cemal Pasha, who was one of the architects of the genocide.

“We are winning the battle and we will continue to win,” said Dr. Papazian.

The positivism of Dr. Papazian’s words rang true in Times Square as thousands gathered in solidarity, in particular the Armenian youth, who were a strong presence this year. Wearing black tee shirts with red and white print that stated, “Our Wounds Are Still Open, 1915,” draping themselves in the Armenian flag and holding signs demanding Turkey and U.S. recognize the Armenian Genocide, they proved to the survivors – and to the world – that they will not falter in the responsibility they have inherited for worldwide recognition.

Archbishop Oshagan Choloyan, Prelate of Armenian Church of America (Eastern), gave the invocation and the Very Rev. Vazken Karayan, pastor of the Holy Cross Armenian Church in New Jersey, representing Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, Primate of the Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern), delivered the benediction. Other clergy in attendance included Archbishop Anoushavan Tanielian, Vicar General of the Eastern Prelacy and Fr. Thomas Garabedian representing Bishop Mikael Mouradian of the Armenian Catholic Eparchy of the United States and Canada.

Delivering remarks on behalf of the co-sponsors of the commemoration were Natalie Gabrielian (AGBU), Alex Karapetian (Armenian Assembly), Dr. Vagheenag Tarpinian (ADL) and Gary Sinanian (Armenian Council of America). Arpi Candan spoke on behalf of the Grand District Representatives of the Daughters of Vartan.

The winners of this year’s Knights of Vartan essay contest were announced at the program: Artur Minasyan, 1st place (University of North Carolina, Charlotte NC resident), Ariana Ferraro, 2nd place (Mount Saint Charles Academy, Franklin, MA resident), and Christopher Markosian, 3rd place (Bergen County Academies, Ridgefield, NJ resident).

Ms. Ania Avsharian and Nairi Kaprielian, under the direction of Maestro Vagharshag Ohanyan, sang the national anthems of the United States and Armenia, as well as “God Bless America.”

The Armenian Radio Hour of New Jersey, under the direction of Dr. Vartan Abdo, streamed the event live in video format worldwide, reaching over 20,000 people, with the assistance of his dedicated volunteer staff.

The 98th Armenian Genocide commemoration in Times Square was organized by the Mid-Atlantic chapters of the Knights and Daughters of Vartan, and was co-sponsored by the Armenian General Benevolent Union, the Armenian Assembly of America, the Armenian National Committee of America, the ADL-Ramgavars, and the Armenian Council of America. Participating organizations included the Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern), Prelacy of the Armenian Church, Armenian Missionary Association of America, Armenian Presbyterian Church, the Armenian Evangelical Church, the Armenian Catholic Eparchy for US and Canada and numerous Armenian youth organizations, including the Armenian Church Youth Organization of America, the Armenian Youth Federation, the Tekeyan Cultural Association, Homenetmen Scouts, Hamazkayin Cultural Association, Noyan Tapan of Brooklyn, NY, Rutgers University Armenian Club, Columbia University Armenian Club and the Armenian Students Association.

Hirant Gulian was chairman of the organizing committee, and co-chair was Dr. Dennis R. Papazian, academic advisor. Dr. Mary Papazian, President of Southern Connecticut State University and Armen McOmber, New Jersey attorney, served as MCs.

LOS ANGELES, CA – To mark the 98th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, the Armenian Council of America (ACA) participated in the City of Los Angeles’ annual Armenian Genocide Commemoration ceremony held at the Los Angeles City Council Chamber on April 19.

The commemoration was led by Councilmember Paul Krekorian and former City Council President Eric Garcetti, recognizing Rose Garjian, a 104 year old Genocide survivor, honoring Ararat Home for its immeasurable contributions to the Armenian-American elderly community, as well as honoring the AGBU Generation Next program for transforming the lives of Armenian-American youth.

Councilmember Krekorian expressed the difficulty in grasping the magnitude of Genocide – a Genocide in a tiny nation to have lost one and a half million Armenian men, women and children. To put it into perspective, he asked everyone to remember what they felt on September 11th when thousands of victims were lost to a horrible act of terror, and to imagine if that terror was experienced every day for an entire year. “It is very important for all of us to recognize and condemn man’s inhumanity towards man,” Krekorian said.

“As the Councilmember representing Little Armenia, who has traveled to Yerevan to make us sister cities, I’m deeply aware of the lasting impact of the Genocide,” Councilmember Eric Garcetti said. “It’s important that the Genocide is never forgotten–that is the best way to ensure that tragic chapter in history is never repeated.”

In previous years the City Council has honored Emmy nominated filmmaker Dr. J. Michael Hagopian, and world-renowned scholar, Professor Richard G. Hovannisian.

In a letter to the President of the United States, Congressman Adam Schiff urges President Obama to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide and call the genocide what it is – genocide. The Congressman writes:

As a Senator, you spoke of the massacres of Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman government as genocide, a view shared by the overwhelming majority of historians, including some notable Turkish historians. The Armenian Genocide has also been recognized by many local and state governments here in the United States and by many governments around the world.

I urge you to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide in your statement this year, to call genocide, genocide, and to stand with the ever-dwindling number of survivors, as well as the descendants of those who were lost, and who must otherwise continue to suffer the indignity, injury and pain of denial.”

H.E. Archbishop Derderian along with community leaders with Assemblymember Gatto (D-Los Angeles).

ACA members along with Assemblymember Chris Holden (D-Pasadena)

SACRAMENTO, CA – A delegation from the Armenian Council of America (ACA) participated in the annual State Armenian Genocide Commemoration Ceremony held by the California Senate and Assembly at the State Capitol and met with elected officials to discuss issues of importance for all Armenian-American communities throughout the Golden State.

ACA members along with Assemblywoman Kristin Olsen (R-Modesto)

The annual event, sponsored by Assemblymembers Mike Gatto (D-Los Angeles) Khatcho Achadjian (R-San Luis Obispo) and Adrin Nazarian (D-Van Nuys), marks the 98th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. It began with a requiem prayer delivered by H.E. Archbishop Hovnan Derderian of the Western Diocese of the Armenian Church of North America reminding the audience of the atrocities of 1915 and reiterating the importance of recognizing genocide as a means of preventing it from taking place in the future. He also prayed for the victims who lost their lives in the explosion at the Boston Marathon earlier that day.

In continuing the annual custom, Assemblyman Gatto’s Assembly Joint Resolution 2, designated April 15-19, 2013 the “Week of Remembrance for the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923,” calling upon Congress and President Obama to officially recognize the Armenian Genocide. Following were proclamations read by various members of the State Senate and State Assembly who reaffirmed their longstanding support of the Armenian community and the Armenian Cause.

ACA members along with California State Senator Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles).

The program ended with a reception hosted by the State Assembly where Armenian-Americans from all over California came together to mingle with their State representatives, as well as meet other activists and community leaders. ACA Board Members, along with Rev. Fr. Asoghig Jamgotchian and a delegation of Armenian-Americans from throughout California shared and exchanged ideas and proposals with several elected officials representing various pockets of constituencies with significantly large to sizable populations of Armenian-Americans.

“This annual event is an important reminder of the importance of remaining active citizens and participating in civic affairs,” ACA Chairman Sevak Khatchadorian said. “For Armenian-Americans to get official recognition of the Armenian Genocide, we must unite in solidarity and continue to advocate our cause to our elected representatives. The only way to achieve progress is to participate in government and I’m very pleased that the ACA has been instrumental to the success of the State Commemoration Ceremony for many years and we are committed to continuing that tradition.”

The Armenian Council of America is dedicated to educating the Armenian-American community in local political affairs, as well as actively pursuing Armenian-American participation in their respective local governments, to support political candidates who share the values of the Armenian American community.

AMMAN — On Wednesday, April 10, Archbishop Nourhan Manougian, the Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem, received formal recognition from King Abdullah II of Jordan, who presented Archbishop Manougian with a royal decree affirming the latter’s election as the 97th Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem and Jordan. The formal ceremony is traditionally held following the election of new church leaders in the Holy Land.

During the meeting King Abdullah stressed the importance of preserving the Islamic and Christian character of Jerusalem and supporting the Palestinians living in the holy city. He also asserted the need to support Jerusalemites whilst they brave the challenges and the difficult conditions they are living under, in reference to Israeli attempts to empty the city of its Arab residents.

His Majesty congratulated Manougian on his new post, which he assumed following a Royal Decree issued earlier to approve the nomination of the patriarch.

Stressing his commitment to foster the values of tolerance, love and co-existence among Muslims and Christians and to strengthen the common bonds between them, the King cited the historic agreement recently reached by him and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

The agreement, which was signed last month, bestows on the Monarch the role of custodian of the holy places in East Jerusalem in a bid to unify efforts to protect Jerusalem and the holy sites, especially in light of challenges and unilateral Israeli measures and attempts to change the Islamic-Christian identity of the Arab city.

The Patriarch commended King Abdullah’s continued support for the church in its efforts to preserve the holy sites, and his support for Palestinians, especially those living in Jerusalem.

In remarks during the meeting, the Patriarch said, “You have honoured me with your issuance of a Royal Decree, appointing me as the Patriarch of the Armenian Orthodox followers in Jordan and Jerusalem,” asserting that he will exert his best efforts to meet the expectations of his job and to be worthy of the King’s confidence in him.

Manougian is the 97th Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem and Jordan. He succeeded Patriarch Torkom Manougian.

By Dr Vicken Gulvartian

There are giants in this world, and then there are the rest of us. Prof. Richard Hovannisian is a giant of our times, and I would like to take this opportunity to write what I have been meaning to say since Vahe’ Oshagan, my professor from another time and place, introduced me to the work of this great scholar.

Born in Tulare, California’s Central Valley, Richard Hovannisian was educated through the UC system in the fifties and sixties. That’s when a generation of innovative Californians invested to expand their state’s network of Universities at a pace never duplicated in America since.

A year spent in Beirut studying under the tutelage of intellectuals gathered at that time at the Nshan Palanjian Jemaran, married to a genuine Armenian patriot, and father of four children all with Armenian names, Richard Hovannisian has been the making of an American-Armenian who stands out as a role model to generations of youngsters looking for a path in life and a purpose. Here was, from the day he came into the academic arena, a distinguished historian, very articulate, making a case for the plight of the forgotten, recognition of the Armenian Genocide, and well prepared to debate the denialists and the revisionists with proof. His work has singularly changed the image of Armenians in America from that of the discriminated Fresno Armenian to a voice for a cause, recognition of rights, and a place in California, US and world history. It has been an honor knowing him, and a pleasure to have introduced his highly-driven children to mine, one in particular.

It has been a life dedicated to the mind, and Prof. Richard Hovannisian has become the measure of the work of the mind: Asking questions to which answers are to be found in a tireless research of documents, letters, eyewitness accounts, forgotten manuscripts, oral testimonies and archives hidden deep in rooms in London, Washington, Paris, Berlin and Beirut.

The Armenian nation is indebted to him for his relentless search for our story in the modern era, and for transforming the international movement for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide into a case for our human right to claim the past and own it. The Turks shall not tell our story! The story of life on our ancestral lands in Kharpert, Cilicia, Mush, Daron, Van, and in all the eastern provinces of Turkey is documented by an extensive series of academic conferences organized by Prof. Hovanissian. They serve as yet another proof that the only reason why we abruptly vanished from the land after 1915 was by force, by genocide.

Not all scholars work in the realm of Armenian issues and topics, but those who do must be advised to keep in mind the standards set by Richard Hovannisian: an insistent discipline to work, write, publish, and lecture; an endless energy to travel and meet a gathering of people to talk to them, and to teach.

All said and done, what will be Prof. Richard Hovannisian’s legacy? Huge!

There will of course always be the more than two dozen books that he has authored and edited, and the more than 100 scholarly articles published; Academic seminars organized, research papers delivered, lectures and speeches given literally everywhere in the world, in the presence of Turks and Armenians alike, and others as well.

What about the rest of us on a personal level?

I believe that it is what struck me more than thirty years ago as a college student in Philadelphia: The discovery of the implications of being Armenian in this world, and the place and purpose of Armenia in the history of peoples, civilizations and nations. Richard Hovannisian has been equally effective to draw the identity of the Armenian in America. The answer to the question, “What are we to do to be relevant and effective?” has been at the core of his activism.

While the “rest of us” must work hard to keep our institutions of preservation- schools, churches, newspapers, organizations- it is important to remember that it is the trail-blazing work of the likes of Richard Hovannisian that has given us the sense of urgency to organize, rally and demand, and have a seat at the negotiating table. The historic dimensions of discussions about our common goals, dreams and aspirations; and our strive to live with pride and dignity on a piece of land of our own, are in the history that Professor Hovannisian has spent a career to document.

He has led generations of students to find their identity, many organizations to find a cause, and activists to find their voice. Our current strategy to put Genocide recognition into a narrative understandable to a general audience and to shake the wall of Genocide denial is something we owe to Richard Hovannisian.

A message to upstart republics and a warning to those who do not heed the lessons of history are loud and clear from the giant in our midst. And that is why the Professor has the podium, and he has not yet finished his lesson in history.

WATERTOWN, MA — On Sunday April 21, the Armenian Museum of America will present a Joint Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide, the Cambodian Genocide, and the ongoing Genocide in Darfur.

The Armenian Genocide provided a blueprint for many other Genocides of the 20th century; only the victims are different. Armenian-Americans understandably focus each April on commemorating the Armenian Genocide. Recognizing that our Genocide is a forerunner for countless other Genocides, we share the pain from all Genocides, and each year we commemorate with other victim groups.

This year’s joint commemoration will feature talks by Mr. Kowith Kret, a survivor of the Cambodian Genocide by the Khmer Rouge, Mr. Eric Cohen, president of the Massachusetts Coalition to Save Darfur speaking on the ongoing crisis in the region, and Prof. Armen Marsoobian of Southern Connecticut State University on the aftermath of the Armenian Genocide.

An exhibition on the Cambodian Genocide, “More Than A Number”, will be on display in the Terjenian-Thomas Gallery on the third floor, and an exhibit on the Genocide in Darfur will be mounted in the Contemporary Art Gallery on the same floor. The museum’s permanent Armenian Genocide exhibition is on display on the 2nd floor.

SOUTH FLORIDA — During the month of April 2013, Peace of Art, Inc., will be displaying Armenian Genocide commemorative billboards to honor the victims of the Armenian Genocide, calling for recognition and condemnation of the genocide. Peace of Art, Inc. is a nonprofit educational organization that uses the universal language of art to address human concerns and to promote peaceful solutions to conflict.

During the month of April genocide billboards will be displayed in South Florida and the suburbs of Boston, Massachusetts. Paid for by “Individuals concerned about the plight of Armenians,” displayed in South Florida are four 14′ by 48′ Armenian Genocide commemorative billboards on heavily traveled freeways to honor the victims of the Armenian Genocide, and to thank the countries that officially have recognized the Armenian Genocide. The billboards can be seen on I-95 and I-595 in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties.

In Massachusetts, the billboards will be located in Foxboro, Watertown, and Cambridge. One 10′ x 30′ digital billboard is on display now on Route 1 in Foxboro, MA, 1/4 mile south of the main entrance to Gillette Stadium and Patriot Place. A second 11′ x 27′ billboard will be on display on April 1st in Watertown, on Mount Auburn Street in the heart of the Armenian community, close to the Armenian cultural centers and churches. In addition, a third 11′ x 27′ billboard will be on display on Cambridge Street, near Lechmere Station, East Cambridge. This area, with high traffic and high visibility, is the gateway between Cambridge, Boston, and Somerville.

The artist Daniel Varoujan Hejinian, president and founder of Peace of Art Inc., said that “with these billboards we are honoring the memory of the victims of the Armenian Genocide, calling upon the international community to recognize the Armenian Genocide, and to condemn the perpetrators. He added, “98 years have passed but the bloody hand prints of the horrible events of 1915 stained the pages of the world history, when 1.5 million Armenians lost their lives.”

The 2013 billboard depicts the bloody handprints on the words ‘Armenian Genocide’ over a black background. Since 1996, Mr. Hejinian has been calling for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide. In 2004 Peace of Art, Inc. began to sponsor the commemorative billboards honoring the victims and calling for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide. This year’s message further calls for the condemnation of genocide.

Lebanon’s Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam began a second day of consultations Wednesday by meeting with parliamentary blocs, including the Armenian Solidarity Bloc, over the formation of a new Cabinet.

Salam is expected to form a national unity government, a process that could take him a long time because of the sharp divisions among Lebanese politicians, which have increased during the past two years as a result of Syria’s crisis.

Representing the Armenian Solidarity Bloc, MP Sebouh Kalpakian, called for a technocrat government in charge of organizing the elections as scheduled, while seeking approval of an electoral law that would guarantee a healthy representation of the Lebanese people.

“We don’t want Armenians to be marginalized. We want key [Cabinet] portfolios that suit Armenian’s role and sacrifices,” Kalpakian told reporters after the meeting.

Outgoing Prime Minister Najib Mikati resigned last month over a political deadlock between Lebanon’s two main political camps and infighting in his government. Mikati, who was prime minister since June 2011, headed a government that was dominated by the Shiite Muslim Hezbollah group and its allies.

Within the Lebanese Parliament, Lebanon’s ethnic Armenian population maintains six seats; four Armenian Parliamentarians; three SD Hunchakian Party parliamentarians along with the ADL (Ramgavar) parliamentarian constitute the Armenian Solidarity Bloc and are allied with the pro-western March 14 Forces. The two remaining Armenian parliamentarians are affiliated with the ARF (Tashnak) party and are allied with Hezbollah led “March 8” government.

 Raffi Hovannessian Holds “Inauguration of a New Armenia”

Police Clash with Protesters on Bagramian Street

YEREVAN — President Serzh Sarkisian was sworn in for a second term on Tuesday, during an extraordinary session of the National Assembly of Armenia held at the Karen Demirjian Sport and Concert Complex, boycotted by leading opposition forces.

Speaking at his inauguration ceremony, Sarkisian pledged to establish the rule of law and democratize the country’s political system. He also promised faster economic development and reducing poverty in Armenia.
“For the forthcoming five years, I consider economic development the number one priority of our state and nation,” Sarkisian said in an ensuing speech. “A whole array of problems that Armenia is facing is in this very plane. Let me highlight the three main ones: emigration, unemployment, and poverty.”

Sarkisian seemed to acknowledge widespread popular discontent with the economic situation in the country, which was exposed by his main challenger Raffi Hovannisian’s stronger-than-expected performance in the February 18 presidential election. He said Armenians who voted for Hovannisian and other opposition candidates are “demanding more efficient work” from the government. “Rest assured that all messages are duly received,” he said.

Sarkisian also mentioned the unresolved Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in his speech, saying that Armenia will continue to strengthen its armed forces in the face of Azerbaijan’s growing threats to end the dispute by force. “We do not want war but at the same time we are ready to confront any challenge,” he said.

“We offered our neighbors dignified peace, anchored to universal human values,” added the Karabakh-born president. “But the experience of recent years has demonstrated that they are not ready to accept the offer. The tougher, in their own opinion, the conditions they create for us, the stronger we become. And this will be becoming increasingly visible.”

Some 2,000 invited guests were present at the inauguration ceremony, among them international delegations and diplomats representing around 60 countries, including Nagorno Karabakh led by president Bako Sahakian, Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Secretary General Nikolay Bordyuzha, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, Russian president’s chief of staff Sergey Ivanov, FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, and others.

“Inauguration of a New Armenia”
While Sarkisian took the presidential oath, Raffi Hovhannisian, vowed to keep pressing for change. Herallyed thousands of supporters in Liberty Square for what he called “the inauguration of a new Armenia.” The rally began at noon, about the same time as President Sarkisian’s inauguration.

Addressing the crowd, Hovannisian again rejected Sarkisian’s reelection as fraudulent but, contrary to expectations, stopped short of declaring himself Armenia’s president. He instead took an oath to disobey “false laws” and “illegal orders,” and to continue fighting against the ruling regime. Many demonstrators repeated the oath word for word at his urging.

Hovannisian stated that he would keep working to return power to the people. But he left many attendees disappointed by not outlining next steps in the political struggle against Sarkisian’s administration.

After the Liberty Square festivities, Hovhannisian led thousands of his supporters on a march toward the presidential residence. Riot police blocked access to the residence, and, amid clashes, about 20 people were taken into custody.

Rows of security forces armed with shields and truncheons blocked a major street in the city center leading to Sarkisian’s residence to halt the unsanctioned march against the official results of the February 18 presidential election. They pushed back the crowd led by Hovannisian but did not disperse it despite scuffling with protesters for about 20 minutes. The former presidential candidate was knocked to the ground in the melee.

One of Hovannisian’s close associates, Armen Martirosian, was detained on the spot. Video materials posted on the internet show a member of the “red berets” (special taskforce officer) hitting Martirosian on his nose and mouth, then a police officer takes him to a police car and transfers to the police station.

The police warned the crowd to turn back as it approached Marshal Bagramian Avenue from nearby Liberty Square. Hovannisian defied the warning, saying that he and his supporters only want to walk past the presidential offices to the Armenian Genocide Memorial on Tsitsernakabert Hill. “This is our street, our right, our constitution. I’m moving forward,” he said.

Eventually, several thousand of opposition protesters were allowed to march through Bagramian Avenue where the Presidential Palace is located .

After negotiations with Police Chief Vladimir Gasparian late on Tuesday Hovannisian told his supporters that the police had agreed to remove the cordons and let the demonstrators proceed through the thoroughfare to end their march in Liberty Square for a “good night”.

Hovannisian said that while passing the Presidential Headquarters opposition supporters were free to express themselves, but he suggested that they sing the national anthem as a means of voicing their protest against Sarkisian.

Earlier, Hovhannisian had proceeded to the Tsitsernakaberd memorial, dedicated to victims of the 1915 Armenian Genocide. There, he prayed together with police chief Gasparian. “I pray for Serzh Sarkisian, for the Catholicos and for the police,” said Hovhannisian.

YEREVAN — The Armenian police warned on Monday that they will use force against opposition leader Raffi Hovannisian and his supporters if the latter march towards the presidential palace in Yerevan during President Serzh Sarkisian’s inauguration on Tuesday morning.

In a statement released on Monday, the national police warned that they are ready to use force to enforce the restrictions set by the authorities. “Therefore, in order to avoid an inevitable and adequate police intervention and possible clashes, the Armenian police are urging the organizers and participants of the gathering to fully abide by the decision made by the authorized [municipal] body,” it said.

The police also appeared to threaten to detain Hovannisian if he attempts to assume power after declaring himself Armenia’s president in Yerevan’s Liberty Square.

Hovannisian is scheduled to hold his alternative “inauguration” there parallel to Sarkisian’s swearing-in ceremony that will take place at the city’s largest concert hall. He has urged supporters from across the country to gather in the square on Tuesday morning.

Hovannisian’s “inauguration” is to be followed by daylong opposition rallies,. The opposition candidate’s campaign headquarters last week asked the Yerevan Mayor’s Office to sanction an opposition march through several major streets in the city center. Sarkisian’s official residence is located on one of those streets, Marshal Bagramian Avenue.

The municipality allowed the march on the condition that the organizers stay away from Bagramian Avenue.

Sarkisian will take the oath of office on Tuesday at a special session of the Armenian parliament that will also be attended by hundreds of local and foreign dignitaries.

Sarkisian’s inauguration will be boycotted by the three opposition forces represented in the parliament: Hovannisian’s Zharangutyun party, the Armenian National Congress (HAK) and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun).

Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) leader Gagik Tsarukian will not attend the inauguration, but It was not clear if other members of the BHK’s 36-strong parliamentary faction will be in attendance.

PASADENA — Pasadena’s Memorial Park at 30 N. Raymond Ave. on April 24 will be the site for the Armenian community coalition of Greater San Gabriel to commemorate the 98th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. The site is also the dedicated future 100th anniversary Armenian Genocide Monument.

April 24th commemoration event will start with the presentation of colors by the Marines, followed by a moment of silence for the souls of our one and a half million martyrs, the American and Armenian National anthems by the Marshal Fundamental school choir.

The program will also include remarks and messages from invited political dignitaries, and a religious service with the participation of representatives of all religious denominations of the Armenian community, according to the statement.

The program is scheduled to start at 10 a.m., concluding at 11:30 a.m. Following the program there will be a gathering around the monument site for a placement of wreaths.
For more information about the 98th Armenian Genocide Commemoration on April 24 contact (818) 612-1550 or paccoalition@gmail.com.

WINNIPEG — Calling the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks a genocide may hurt lucrative trade between Canada and Turkey but the Canadian Museum for Human Rights is not about to call the slaughter of an estimated 1.5 million people anything other than genocide, the Winnipeg Free Press writes.

When the museum opens in Winnipeg next year, information about the Armenian genocide will be included in its galleries, and it will be called “genocide,” the museum’s head of stakeholder relations said Sunday.

Clint Curle was responding to reports that Turkish Ambassador Tuncay Babali said the Harper government’s decision to brand the First World War-era killing of Armenians as genocide may be hindering a potentially lucrative trading relationship with Turkey.

“I’m a true believer in the potential of our two nations,” Babali told The Canadian Press. “Canada has a lot to offer Turkey and Turkey in return has a lot to offer Canada,” said Babali in the interview, noting Canada’s internal Foreign Policy Plan has identified Turkey as a key country of focus.

“It cannot be business as usual while accusing a nation of genocide. It’s a serious allegation. It needs to be substantiated legally, historically.”

Babali said he suspects Canada is not engaging as quickly as Turkey would like because the genocide issue is still hanging over relations. The $2.5 billion in two-way trade between the countries “is far from the potential” of what Turkey predicts would result from deeper economic ties: $10 billion to $15 billion within five years, he said.

On the genocide question, Babali said Turkey would like to see a gesture from Canada that the government is “trying to leave this behind us.”

The Armenian genocide will not be left behind when the Canadian Museum for Human Rights opens, Curle said.

“Human rights lessons from the Armenian genocide will be explored in a number of ways in the CMHR, including in an exhibit exploring Raphael Lemkim’s work (he coined the term genocide), an exhibit examining the 1948 Genocide Convention, and in a gallery that will explore a cross-section of global mass atrocities, including the five atrocities that the Canadian Parliament has recognized as genocides,” said Curle.

“This gallery will include survivor testimony, primary-source evidence and an exhibit that explores the diaspora community struggles that led to the Parliamentary recognition of the Armenian genocide.”

In April 2004, Parliament passed a resolution acknowledging the Armenian genocide of 1915 and condemning it as a crime against humanity.

In a museum blog posted last week, Curle said it’s a timely human rights issue.

“Ongoing denial of this historic atrocity, waged in the name of ethnic homogeneity, makes it a contemporary human rights concern.” He recently visited Yerevan in Armenia to see the genocide museum there and will be working to develop links between it and the human rights museum in Winnipeg.

On Sunday, he said the museum doesn’t take a position on issues surrounding trade and diplomacy.

“Our role is to promote and advance education about the importance of human rights, and to encourage and facilitate dialogue and reflection about human rights.”

LOS ANGELES — On March 26, 2013, a U.S. federal district court in Los Angeles sided with Armenian plaintiffs in a hard-fought case involving reparations for land seized from Armenians in Turkey during the Armenian Genocide. Nearly 15 months after the Turkish Central Bank and T.C. Ziraat Bankasi, a state-owned agricultural bank, asserted sovereign immunity and asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit, the court in a landmark decision determined that the Banks can be held to answer for the alleged expropriation of property of Ottoman and Turkish nationals when the taking is incident to mass human rights abuses, including genocide.

The lawsuit, filed by three descendants of Armenian Genocide victims in December 2010 under named plaintiff Alex Bakalian, Case Number 2:10-cv-09596, names as defendants the Republic of Turkey, the Central Bank of Turkey, and T.C. Ziraat Bankasi. The complaint accuses the defendants of stealing and then profiting from land that was illegally seized during the Armenian Genocide, when the Ottoman Turks drove Armenians from the Adana region of southern Turkey. The Republic of Turkey never appeared in the case despite being validly served with the complaint.

The recent decision also applies to a related case, styled as a purported class action under named class representative Garbis Davoyan, Case Number 2:10-cv-05636. The Banks filed similar motions to dismiss in both cases and the court issued a joint opinion focused on the facts alleged in Davoyan and the separate arguments developed by the two sets of plaintiffs.

Following long-established rules of immunity recognized by all nations, U.S. law abrogates the immunity from suit in U.S. courts that is traditionally afforded to foreign states and their agencies and instrumentalities in a few limited situations. The court was not persuaded by arguments that the Banks were not immune from suit because the allegations concerned commercial activity with a connection to the United States. The court also rejected an argument pursued by the Davoyan plaintiffs that the expropriation exception to the immunity rule applied because the plaintiffs’ ancestors had effectively been stripped of their Ottoman nationality at the time of the taking. Rather, the court adopted the Bakalian plaintiffs’ argument that focused on the well-developed body of human rights law that has emerged in recent decades and argued successfully that international law is violated even when a state expropriates the property of its own nationals, if the taking occurs in the context of massive human rights abuses. This decision is in line with those of other federal courts around the country, as well as human rights treaties that Turkey has signed and ratified.

Although the court’s jurisdiction to hear the case is now established, the court ultimately determined that both cases should be dismissed because they presented political questions. That issue is now subject to appeal before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Voice of Russia has published an article by Ruben Zargaryan, Associate Professor of History, Advisor of the NKR MFA. The article runs as follows:

“Armenians have commemorated the 25th anniversary of Armenian genocide by Azerbaijan. Unfortunately, the world community still has not given a proper political and legal assessment of this crime of the Azerbaijan authorities, and thus has not secured itself against the future recurrence of genocide in other regions of the world.

The genocide of Armenians in Sumgait was organized by Azerbaijani authorities in response to the peaceful constitutional ruling of the Nagorno-Karabakh Regional Council of People’s Deputies on February 20, 1988 to reintegrate Nagorny Karabakh into Armenia. Before their split during the Soviet times, Nagorny Karabakh had been an integral part of Armenia for millenia.

On February 27-29, 1988, mass pogroms broke out in the city of Sumgait, hundreds of kilometers away from Nagorno-Karabakh. The subsequent killings of Armenians, crimes against humanity stunned the world public by its savagery and brutality. During the three days of massacres and pogroms, dozens of Armenians were butchered, hundreds were wounded, many subjected to violence, torture and harassment, 18 thousand people were displaced. The genocide in Sumgait became the embodiment of hatred for Armenians that was inherent for the policy of Azerbaijan’s leadership.

Azerbaijani brutes armed with factory-made metal rods and other deadly weapons took to the streets to commit crimes. Stones were piled in the centre of the city to be then thrown at motor transport and law enforcement. Telephones of the Armenian residents of Sumgait were turned off during pogroms or when people called the militia or the City Committee of the Communist party asking for help. The phones of many Russian residents were also cut off.

Pogrom-makers knew their task very well; they had been provided with lists of Armenians and their addresses. Groups of 50 to 80 bandits broke into Armenian houses, killing people or dragging them out in the street or courtyard for public humiliation. After severe tortures, victims were doused with gasoline and burned alive. Thus entire families were slaughtered.

The Sumgait genocide gave the green light to new unprecedented crimes against the civilian population in Nagorno-Karabakh, and ultimately led to an open military aggression of Azerbaijan against Nagorno-Karabakh in 1991-94.

After the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic was created under the norms of Soviet and international law, Azerbaijan carried out a large-scale terrorist attack. The Baku administration had committed crimes against peace and humanity, planning, preparing and waging a war, murdering civilian population, killing and abusing prisoners of war and pulling down towns and villages.

In February 1992, the Azerbaijan leadership murdered their own people in the territory of Khojali controlled by the Azerbaijan army, or more precisely in the outskirts of Agdam, whence the continuous bombardment of the NKR territory and attacks on the cities and villages were carried out.

The Azerbaijan authorities have been systematically distorting events in Khojali. Azerbaijan has been pointing to computer-edited photos on this and other historical events. Photos that allegedly represent the Khojaly tragedy are in fact photos of the 1983 earthquake in Turkey, Afghan children-refugees, 1978 Alawi pogroms in the Turkish city of Marash, photos of Albanians killed in Kosovo, 1999 pogroms in the Balkans, and pictures of Hamas militants wiped out by the Israeli army.

Azerbaijan has repeatedly tried to use the Khojali incident to distract the attention of the international community from the Armenian genocide in Sumgait, Baku, Kirovabad, Khanlar and other Azerbaijani settlements, as well as in the border settlements of Nagorno-Karabakh.

In the course of the large-scale attacks of Azerbaijan against the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic in 1991-94, Azerbaijan’s army occupied the Karabakh village of Maraga on April 10, 1992, brutally killing 81 people and taking 67 people hostage. Many of them are still missing. People who couldn’t flee the village were dismembered with axes, doused with gasoline and burned alive. All these crimes of Azerbaijan against humanity have not been adequately assessed by the world community.

The modern Azerbaijan has not only refused to repent for endless atrocities and murders and try the criminals but has been only flexing muscle, threatening to take revenge on Armenians, calling to shoot down civilian aircrafts, falsifying history and insulting the Armenian people. The shameful release and glorification of the axe-wielding murderer Safarov has once again demonstrated that nationally motivated attacks in Azerbaijan have been raised to the rank of state policy, while systematic and deliberate lies and breakdowns of international agreements now serve as cornerstone of Baku policy.”

This coming July, Dr. Ara Tekian will be joining the venerated list of key speakers at the 11th Armenian Medical World Congress, he will be speaking about Education and Patient Safety. His accolades and accomplishments reach far and wide. Currently, he is an Associate Professor and the Director of International Affairs at the Department of Medical Education (DME), and the Associate Dean for the International Affairs at the College of Medicine, the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC).  He joined DME in 1992, and is involved in both teaching courses offered in the Master’s of Health Professions Education (MHPE) program and advising graduate students.  He also teaches one of the major courses in the Masters in Patient Safety Leadership program.  Dr. Tekian was instrumental in the creation of the Masters of Public Health (MPH) program when it was established in mid-nineties.

“Medical education is my passion, and I enjoy teaching and conducting faculty development activities on various topics in health professions education.  The greatest satisfaction I get is when I see positive changes happening at institutions as a result of the training that I provide to the faculty and the Administration,” Dr. Tekian said.

Prior to joining DME, he was the founding Director of the Medical Education Department at King Saud University, College of Medicine in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.  For nearly 20 years he served as a consultant to the World Health Organization (WHO) Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office (EMRO) for projects in the Division of Development of Human Resources for Health.  He was also a consultant to the Ministries of Health and Education in most of the Eastern Mediterranean countries and has established a number of medical education departments and units in the Eastern Mediterranean countries.  To add to the vertiginous list of his posts and positions, he also served as President of the Division of Education in the Professions of the American Educational Research Association, and authored the book, Innovative Simulations for Assessing Professional Competence: From Paper-and-Pencil to Virtual Reality.

“I work 14 – 16 hours a day, and the activities that I am involved in include teaching, administration, research, and international consulting,” Dr. Tekian explained.  “I believe in what I am doing, my contributions are always highly appreciated, and the positive impact that I have on individuals’ professional lives keeps me going.”

As an internationally recognized scholar and leader in health professions education, he has organized and conducted over 150 workshops in more than 40 countries and 55 cities.  His consultations and workshops have focused on curriculum development, assessment, program evaluation, and patient safety.  He has received numerous honors and awards.  He has been the recipient of several awards, including the Gold Medal Award, which is one of the most prestigious international awards in medical education.

“International recognition by all your peers is one of the greatest honors that one could ever receive in his field.  It is the ultimate stamp of approval for excellence,” Dr. Tekian said.

He was also instrumental in creating the combined MD/MPH dual track between Yerevan State Medical University and American University of Armenia (AUA).  The MHPE is one of the strongest programs at AUA, providing the theory, practice, and gives students the opportunity to be enrolled in research. Roughly 90% of all published research in international refereed journals emanate only from the College of Health Sciences (CHS) MPH program.  Dr. Tekian notes that this gives a lot of visibility and credibility to AUA.

Dr. Arsinee Kalfayan, PharmD, CME Chairwoman of the 11th AMWC emphasizes the importance of having Dr. Tekian share his expertise amongst the echelon go health practitioners. “Patient Safety espouses continuous cycles of learning, reporting of adverse events or near misses, dissemination of lessons learned, and the establishment of cultures that are trusted to not cast unfair blame. The patient safety field marries principles of adult education and effective behavioral learning with the traditional approaches of the medical profession.    We are honored to have  Dr. Tekian educate us to improve our competence and performance to First Do No Harm.”

Despite his very busy schedule, he continues to teach at AUA and credits the success of the program to past AUA Presidents and the support of Louise Simone Manougian, and the AGBU. However, he notes that during recent years, he’s seen corruption starting to penetrate AUA. He’s noticed the releasing of qualified professors and leaders, the recruitment of mediocre faculty and administrators, and the classifying funding organization’s agenda ahead of the public good and interest. “Silencing the voices of people who speak the truth, thus damaging the hard-gained reputation that once was achieved.” Dr. Tekian explained.

He believes the young generation will be a buffer against such mismanagement. “I am inspired by their motivation, intelligence, creativity, hard work. They want to make a positive difference and contribute to the advancement of their country,” Dr. Tekian said.  “They do not have any hidden agendas, and have an open mind to understand and learn about new innovations in their fields. They have the determination to minimize the influence of the various political pressures affecting the quality of the education and health care.  Sometimes they feel hopeless, but the Diaspora could play a very important role empowering and supporting them to promote democracy at all levels and stop the cancerous corruption.”

Advanced registration for the 11th Armenian Medical World Congress ends on May 1, 2013. For more information and to register please visit our website at www.aamsc.com/congress.

By Taleen Babayan

For years, the stories were told in hushed voices. The tragic true-life tales would escape the lips of the survivors in the privacy of their homes as they revealed their struggles to family members, not only to ease the burdens of their harrowing pasts, but to make sure one of the most mournful chapters in the history of their people would never be forgotten.

For too long, it had been a story only for Armenians. With the emergence of a new generation of writers, however, came a new approach. They believed that the stories previously told in secrecy should now be told to the world. The latest of these is New York Times bestselling author Chris Bohjalian’s critically acclaimed novel The Sandcastle Girls.  Bohjalian will lead a book discussion at Columbia University on Thursday evening, April 18, in an event hosted by the Armenian Center at Columbia University.

A love story that takes place during the Armenian Genocide between an Armenian engineer and an American nurse, The Sandcastle Girls follows a genocide survivor’s granddaughter as she tries to uncover her family’s history and the sorrows of the Armenian massacres that she learns about along the way.

Bohjalian, who is the author of 16 books, has received high praise and accolades from literary critics and readers since his first novel was published 25 years ago. His novel, Midwives, was chosen for Oprah’s Book Club, and Winfrey also selected The Sandcastle Girls as her Book of the Week. Literary praise for Bohjalian’s writing and for the accurate historical portrayal of the Armenian Genocide in The Sandcastle Girls have been recognized by major news outlets including USA Today, Washington Post and The Boston Globe.

Although the lamentable premise of The Sandcastle Girls is familiar to Armenians, it has been a moment of pride for a people to have such a book published, as they continue to seek justice and worldwide acceptance for the atrocities committed against their ancestors.

“I have been overwhelmed by the support for this novel by the Armenian community around the world. I am deeply and profoundly grateful,” said Bohjalian, whose Armenian grandparents on his father’s side were survivors of the Armenian Genocide. “Whenever I’ve spoken to audiences that are predominantly Armenian, I have left moved beyond words,” said Bohjalian.

The reaction from non-Armenians towards The Sandcastle Girls has been equally positive, especially in terms of readers learning about the Armenian Genocide, which has time and again, been attempted to be effaced from the annals of history.

“Consistently non-Armenians have asked me the same sort of question: Why did no one teach me this? Why does no one know this story? They are appalled and, sometimes, aghast,” said Bohjalian. “This is a part of our story that too few people know — and we all hope this novel will help open people’s eyes to a cataclysmic injustice.”

Mark Momjian, Chair of the Armenian Center, expressed the significance of Chris Bohjalian’s appearance on campus.  ”The enormous power of Chris Bohjalian’s literary art has been recognized worldwide, and his masterful novel, The Sandcastle Girls is of particular interest to the area’s Armenian-American community, who in just two years will be commemorating the centennial of the Armenian Genocide,” said Momjian. “I know the Center’s friends and supporters are eager to hear this distinguished writer, whose originality and brilliance have touched so many hearts.”

Vice Chair of the Armenian Center, Dr. Nicole Vartanian, said the Armenian Center is excited to be hosting Bohjalian upon the paperback release of The Sandcastle Girls.
“His passionate portrayal of love and loss set amidst the backdrop of the Armenian Genocide has rightly earned him widespread praise from all corners of the literary community,” said Dr. Vartanian. “It seems particularly fitting that our event will take place at Teachers College, given the rich and robust educational content which forms the foundation of Chris’ novels. The Sandcastle Girls is an especially poignant example of this, as the story has educated masses of Chris’ loyal readers who learned the horrific events of the Genocide through the quality of his research and the power of his prose.”

“My sense is that this may be the most important book I ever write,” said Bohjalian, who first attempted to write about the Armenian Genocide 15 years ago. “I hope with all my heart that this time I have gotten it right.”

The book discussion of The Sandcastle Girls will take place on Thursday, April 18, at 7 p.m. in the Cowin Conference Center (147 Horace Mann Hall) at Columbia University Teachers College, 525 W. 120th Street, between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue. A question and answer session and a book signing will take place after the presentation. Reception to follow.

YEREVAN — Opposition leader Raffi Hovannisian has ended a 21-day hunger strike to attend an Easter Service at the Holy Echmiadzin Cathedral together with his family.

Hovannisian thanked his supporters for being next to him during the last three weeks as well as the police for being nice and kind to him “despite certain contradictions”.

Before heading for Echmiadzin Hovannisian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service (Azatutyun.am) that he was going there together with his family as an ordinary Christian and follower of the Armenian Apostolic Church and did not pursue political goals or seek a meeting with President Serzh Sarkisian, who with top Armenian leadership, was also attending the mass.

To the question afterwards whether such a meeting was still possible, Hovannisian answered affirmatively. But he ruled out going to the presidential office as Sarkisian insisted through his spokesperson earlier this week.

Hovannisian, who demands that Sarkisian admit that his reelection was due to vote riggings and other major violations and refuse to be sworn in for a second five-year presidential term next month, or else make major concession to the opposition to continue as ‘de-facto’ president, earlier also indicated that he was not going to cease his anti-government protests.

In a statement earlier he promised to continue his struggle for ‘a new Armenia’, announcing plans to make trips to major cities and towns across Armenia over the next five days before gathering his supporters in the capital again on April 5.

Hovannisian said it will be at that rally in Yerevan’s Liberty Square that, after “consulting the people”, he will decide on his further actions ahead of Sarkisian’s inauguration scheduled for April 9.

Sarkisian and Hovannisian have exchanged letters over the past week regarding prospects of starting a dialogue to resolve the continuing standoff.

Sarksiain, in particular, urged his challenger to end his hunger strike, recover ‘for a day or two’ and engage in a political dialogue.

The incumbent president said that while he believed Hovannisian’s demands were in conflict with “the ideas of state governance” and the Constitution, he was still ready to open negotiations around them.

Talking to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service (Azatutyun.am) on Sunday, Hovannisian said: “He [Sarkisian] can still provide a substantive answer to my offer of a complex solution. But if he wants to initiate a meeting without replying to my proposals first, I am open to it to. I am ready to listen to any proposal from him,” said Hovannisian.

PASADENA — On Wednesday Morning, March 27, 2013, members of the Armenian Community Coalition in Pasadena met with Pasadena City officials regarding the submission of a design for the Armenian Genocide Memorial in Memorial Park. This was the second meeting between said parties.

Among the city officials attending the meeting were Siobhan Foster, Director of Public Works, Daniel A. Rix, City Engineer, and Loren Pluth, Project Manager for Parks and Landscape.

Also present at the meeting was the monument designer Vahram Hovagimyan, who introduced himself and gave a brief description of the features of the design and its contents.

The design and its features were warmly welcomed and then Mr. Pluth, Project Manager for Parks and Landscape, asked that we also submit specific proposals about the landscape around the monument.

The meeting was cordial and the discussion centered on the purpose of the monument, which was to point out “man’s inhumanity against man”. Also constructive concerns were raised about the maintenance and the upkeep of the monument, so it would be a lasting one.

The Armenian Community Coalition of Pasadena hopes to have this project realized by the year 2015, which coincides with the Centennial of the Twentieth Century’s First Genocide.

Pasadena Armenian Community Coalition

YEREVAN — Armenia’s national airline, Armavia, has declared the start of bankruptcy proceedings.

The carrier said in Friday’s statement that it will halt flights next week. Armavia currently has 14 aircraft conducting more than 100 flights a week to 20 countries. The airline is to stop flights from April 1.

The airline was established in 1996. In 2001, it had only one airplane. In 2003, the airline purchased three planes. In 2006, it operated seven planes and in 2007, 14 planes.

The airline has a debt of $5m to Eduardo Eurnekian, an Argentinian-Armenian businessman who owns the Armenia International Airports company.

Russia’s civil aviation authority said Armavia has an outstanding debt of $1.4 million to Moscow’s Vnukovo airport and smaller debts to two other airports in southern Russia.

Armavia’s owner, Mikhail Bagdasarov, announced his intention to sell the company last year, but has failed to find a buyer. Bagdasarov attributed Armavia’s troubles to the global economic downturn and losses from using a new Russian-made Sukhoi superjet.

*****
Turkish side suspends Yerevan-Van flights

In another development, the Armenian Narekavank tour agency has issued a statement saying that the Turkish authorities have suspended the first flight between Yerevan and Van. According to the agency, the decision was made on Thursday by country’s General Department of Civil Aviation.

The flight was to be operated by Narekavank Tour, the Turkish Borajet Airline company, and the Ayanis Travel Agency. The initiative was aimed at developing tourism and promoting economic and business cooperation between the two countries.

“The organizers were very enthusiastic and happy that the initiative had not met any obstacles in either Turkey or Armenia. This fact was welcomed by both the Union of Manufacturers and Businessmen of Armenia and the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies, Van Chapter. The organizers were keen on staying away from politics. It is very sad and discouraging that Turkish authorities were not able to do the same, and eventually let politics interfere with this promising initiative.

We are still expect the Turkish authorities to demonstrate understanding and reconsider their decision,” the statement reads .

By Richard Solash

WASHINGTON, DC (RFE/RL) – A landscape dissolves into reds, yellows, and greens. A mountain in New York State is filtered through an artist’s imagination, rendered on canvas in angular patches.

These were among the visions of Arthur Pinajian, an unknown Armenian-American painter whose death in 1999 prompted little more than the rental of a dumpster. The dumpster was to be filled with decades’-worth of his writings and pencil sketches and a garage-full of paintings that numbered close to 6,000.

Today, Pinajian’s work hangs on the well-lighted walls of a SoHo gallery. Leading art historians say that at his best, he ranks among America’s finest abstract expressionists. His estate has been appraised at $30 million. After several kind twists of fates, Pinajian has been vaulted out of obscurity and is now gaining improbable posthumous fame.

“I came into the house to look at it with the purpose of figuring out if it was a good house to flip (eds: buy and resell for profit) and I walked among all of this art. I was intrigued by it because it was so vast. I started looking closely at it and it was clear that the signature that was across the works was the same artist. Based on dates, it seemed like there were works spanning 5 decades at least. I knew what I was looking at was someone’s life’s work.”

Pinajian house

Thomas Schultz was living in the sleepy town of Bellport, New York in 2005 when he and a friend decided to take advantage of an uptick in the real estate market. A modest two-bedroom cottage had been listed for sale that, with a bit of renovation, seemed like it could turn a profit. Its owner, a woman named Armen Pinajian, had recently passed away.

Schultz says the woman’s cousins apologized for the unusual mess left inside — thousands of canvases, some bitten by mold and mildew, that were stuffed into the attic’s rafters and piled up in the garage. A dumpster was ready for them out back.

??The artist, Arthur Pinajian, had died at 85 ahead of his sister, whom he had lived with for most of his life. Accounts by family members indicate she was the artist’s biggest fan, working as a clerk in a pipe company to support her brother’s creative aspirations. The few attempts by the artist to win recognition during his lifetime were unsuccessful.

The cousins said Pinajian had left instructions for all of his work to be thrown away. They would have already disposed of it, Schultz says, had one of them from out of town not arrived at the last minute and literally carried paintings back from the curb.

Schultz’s friend put up around $300,000 for the house and $2,500 for the entire body of work.

The enormous collection had not only been spared, but had fallen into the right hands. Schultz happened to know a relative of the late William Innes Homer, one of the most respected scholars of contemporary American art.

After several months of study, Homer would make an excited call to noted American art historian and appraiser Peter Hastings Falk:

Pinajian house garage

“If you look at the history of abstraction in America, certainly the headlines are given to [Jackson] Pollock and Franz Kline and [Willem] de Kooning and all of the stars of that period who are now ensconced in the pantheon of American art history. And it’s long been thought that no one else could ever crack into that elite rank because, of course, everyone has been discovered and art historians already know everything. The really fun thing about this is here is the dean of American art historians who is just simply astonished — and I was, too. That’s what makes this such an extraordinary story.”

Falk is now the exhibitions director and chief curator of the Pinajian estate. (http://www.pinajianart.com/Default.htm)

While Pinajian tried everything from erotica to realism, Falk says he achieved his best in “lyric, rhythmic, abstract landscapes.”

Falk is also the editor of the first monograph on the artist, which sheds light on his psychology and formative years.

Pinajian was born in 1914 in a largely Armenian-American community in New Jersey. His parents had fled their home in Diyarbakir, present-day Turkey, before the height of World-War-I-era mass killings of ethnic Armenians by Ottoman Turks. His Armenian name was Ashod, while his friends knew him as “Archie.”

Pinajian’s artistic career began in the 1930s as a comic-book illustrator. He created “the first cross-dressing super hero” in a series titled “Madam Fatal.” (http://hyperallergic.com/63575/from-the-archives-the-first-cross-dressing-superhero/)

He earned a Bronze Star for valor for his service in World War II before training at the Art Students League in New York. Falk says that Pinajian likely came into contact with the well-known American abstract expressionists of the day.

Arthur Pinajian, Overlook Mountain, fragment, Woodstock, New York, 1955; oil on canvas

The year 1948, however, was perhaps the most pivotal in Pinajian’s development. Falk says that Pinajian had “some sort of breakdown,” which resulted in his writing a lengthy manifesto on what it means to be a great artist. It was then, Falk says, that Pinajian “embarked on his quest with single-minded focus.”

By that time, Pinajian and his sister had moved to Woodstock, in upstate New York. Falk notes that 1948 was also the year that Arshile Gorky, the most famous Armenian-American artist, committed suicide. He had been in Woodstock as well, leading some to speculate that perhaps the two had met.

In Woodstock and then in Bellport, Pinajian led a near-hermetic existence, with art consuming nearly every waking hour until his death.

Aram Aramian, one of Pinajian’s cousins, told RFE/RL:

“When we went to the house he was always laughing and joking and talking about the old times and about the relatives and he took a general interest in my family. He was really pleasant; he had a good nature about him. But all he wanted to do was paint — paint, paint, paint. Morning, noon, and night. Every day. Three hundred and sixty five days out of the year.”

Aramian says Pinajian gave his family several paintings over the years to store, as the artist ran out of room.

In Woodstock, Pinajian found his muse in nearby Overlook Mountain. The image of the double-peaked mountain became a recurring theme, progressing from a recognizable portrayal to near complete abstraction.

Falk says he later realized that the mountain may have reminded Pinajian of Mount Ararat in present-day Turkey, the site where Noah’s Ark was said to have come to rest and an important symbol of Armenia.

Linda Stepanian, the president of Stephanie’s Art Gallery in California, is one of the leading dealers of Armenian art in the United States. In 2010, her gallery was the first to sell Pinajian’s works commercially.

Three years later, she says she has sold paintings to Armenian-Americans, Russians, and collectors in London and Paris.

“I am positively sure that he will be acknowledged in his ethnic homeland one day,” she says. “That will be the next step.”

She says her prices for Pinajian range from about $3,000 to $70,000 and are only going up.

Falk puts the total value of Pinajian’s work at $30 million, a figure that was recently revealed to the public.

He says significant interest was generated by Pinajian’s first New York City showing, which he arranged this month. That was the site of the highest price paid so far for a Pinajian work, $100,000.

“I still feel that the elevator is on the ground floor in terms of value,” Falk says.

Thomas Schultz, who first stumbled upon the Pinajian cottage, has given up his day job to become the full-time registrar of the collection. He says “a major Los Angeles-area museum” has recently acquired a piece. He also says a producer is pitching the story of Pinajian’s discovery to the popular U.S. television network HBO.

But Schultz stresses that his work is about inspiration far more than it’s about money:

“I bought the Pinajian cottage from my partner. I’m currently living in it. I look at the trees here on the property that he captured in some of the beautiful landscapes that we now see. So it’s almost like I’m on sacred ground. It’s been life-changing. [My life is] all things Pinajian, basically. I wake up every day and I think of Pinajian and what I could do to bring the recognition to him that he deserves. I feel like he’s finally getting that.”

Arthur Pinajian paintings

The author – son of an Armenian father and a German mother – tries to find out where exactly he belongs: Who am I? Am I an Armenian who can’t speak Armenian? Am I a German who is (all too) often treated as a foreigner? These doubts sent the author on a journey into the past – to retrace the life of his father who had survived both the genocide of 1915 in Turkey and the Second World War, and who had lived through the conflict between East and West Germany and its many consequences.

Based on his father’s anecdotes and family documents, the author describes the everyday life of the Dolabdjian family in Turkey until 1915 and his father’s experiences leading to his arrival in Germany in 1922. Here was a stateless man who could not speak a word of German when he arrived in Germany in 1922. How was he able to go to school for the first time, pass his higher leaving certificate exams, study medicine in Berlin, qualify as a consultant, all against the backdrop of a worldwide economic crisis and the rise of National Socialism?
Today we can smile about his later experiences during the tension-ridden relationship between the Federal Republic and the GDR which even led to the temporary loss of his hard-won German citizenship. But in those days it was a deadly serious situation.

The Author
Haig Dolabdjian was born in Germany in 1951 and grew up as the son of an Armenian father and a German mother. From an early age he showed an interest in his Armenian roots and from his father’s stories learned that a catastrophe had struck the family during his father’s childhood. In 1990 Haig Dolabdjian travelled to Turkey with his family – the next generation – in the hope of finding his father’s birthplace. In 2011 he then flew with his family to Armenia and on a study trip there got to know the country and its people.
This book describes the circumstances of the Dolabdjian family in Turkey up to 1915, the experiences of the author’s father leading up to his arrival in Germany in 1922 and his father’s later experiences in Germany, all reconstructed from stories and preserved family documents. Haig Dolabdjian’s travel journals from Turkey and Armenia close the circle.

This book is intended first and foremost for the author’s immediate family, to ensure that their origins will never be forgotten. At the same time, however, it strives to inform a broader public about what happened in Turkey in 1915 and about what migration to another country involves.

Haig Dolabdjian holds a doctorate in engineering and works free-lance in the field of electrical engineering. He lives with his family south of Munich.

My Armenian Father: Journeys from the past to myself
Publisher Hay Media Verlag, Frankfurt a.M., Germany 1 edition (Februar 11, 2013)
sold by Amazon.com (KINDLE) or at LIBREKA.de (EPUB) ISBN 978-3-86320-024-4

LOS ANGELES — Infectious diseases remain the leading cause of death in developing countries, killing one in three people worldwide. Prevention and treatment can vary from simple, cost-effective measures like an insecticide-treated bednet or a vaccine to life-long anti-viral treatment for HIV/AIDS.

In the case of HIV/AIDS, the African continent has the highest disease burden since Africa currently has two-thirds of all people living with HIV worldwide.

Malaria, an age-old mosquito-borne scourge, kills approximately 660,000 people each year, primarily children under the age of five. About 90 percent of malaria deaths occur in Africa, followed by South East Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean. Despite recent strides in malaria prevention and treatment, anti-malarial drug resistance is a growing problem.

Other global threats to child survival include upper respiratory infection and diarrhea as well as dengue fever, a mosquito-borne virus.

At the other end of the spectrum, adult deaths due to respiratory infections can be mitigated by new and improved vaccines as well as diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis, but the rising global tide of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is creating new challenges.

“With the globalization of economies and the escalation of commercial travel, the interaction among people of different origins has increased, and with that the potential for the transmission of old and new infectious diseases,” says Alex Jawharjian, PharmD, MPH, Scientific Committee member and co-chair of the Pharmacy Programs at the 11th Armenian Medical World Congress.

Daniel Stamboulian, MD, Professor Emeritus of Infectious Diseases at Universidad de Ciencias Empresariales y Sociales (UCES, University of Social and Entrepreneurial Sciences); Voluntary Professor of Medicine at the University of Miami; and Honorary Professor at Instituto Universitario CEMIC, will be presenting on “New Facts in the Prevention and Treatment of Adulthood Infectious Diseases,” at the 11th Armenian Medical World Congress in Los Angeles on July 4, 2013.

“Adulthood vaccinations, especially against influenza and pneumococcal infections, are extremely important and effective in preventing infectious diseases,” says Dr. Stamboulian.
Dr. Stamboulian received his medical degree and his specialty degree in Pediatrics from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. After completing a postdoctoral training in infectious diseases at USC, he returned to Buenos Aires to begin his practice in the field of infectious diseases and played a leading role in research and teaching activities at different hospitals and institutions there.
Dr. Stamboulian is the founder of the Pan-American Association of Infectious Diseases (API) and co-founder of the Argentine Society of Infectious Diseases (SADI). In addition, Dr. Stamboulian is the founder and Chairman of the non-profit research and education organization FUNCEI (Fundación Centro de Estudios Infectológicos) in Buenos Aires. Within FUNCEI, he has led numerous academic, research and teaching programs, including the Post-Residency Fellowship Program in Infectious Diseases. In 2001, he founded FIDEC (Fighting Infectious Diseases in Emerging Countries), a non-profit organization based in the United States, that aims at promoting a regional and multidisciplinary approach for the prevention and management of infectious diseases.

Throughout his career, Dr. Stamboulian has received numerous awards. He was twice awarded the “Bicentennial Medal,” both as a prominent member of the Armenian Community in Argentina and in recognition of his work as a medical consultant for the Ministry of Health of the City of Buenos Aires. In 2011, he was pronounced “Prominent Figure of Science” by the Legislature of the City of Buenos Aires.

Claire Panosian Dunavan, MD, FIDSA, DTM&H (London), Past-President of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene is Professor of Medicine and Infectious Diseases at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. She will be discussing the “Global Health Equity in Infectious Diseases: the Case of Malaria,” at the July 4th symposium.

“Malaria not only kills, it holds back human and economic development,” states Dr. Panosian Dunavan. “Tackling this disease is now an international imperative.”

Dr. Panosian Dunavan received her education at Stanford University, Northwestern University School of Medicine, Tufts-New England Medical Center, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. In the 1980s, she became Chief of Infectious Diseases at LA County-Olive View Medical Center and later moved to UCLA’s main medical campus, founding UCLA’s Travel and Tropical Medicine Program and later co-founding UCLA’s Program in Global Health. Throughout her career, she has been a clinician, a global health policy consultant, and a popular professor on the main UCLA campus. In addition, she has frequently worked in developing countries as a consultant or visiting faculty member.

Panosian Dunavan’s second career as a print and broadcast journalist includes six years as a national editor, reporter, and co-anchor for Lifetime Television. In 1997, her interview with a dying physician won an international “Freddie” Award. In 2000, with her husband Patrick Dunavan – an 8-time Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker – she produced a television program on hepatitis B which has reached 300 million international viewers. In recent years, she has written regularly for the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, Discover magazine, and Scientific American among other popular publications. Since 2009, she has also written a weekly syndicated column called “The Infection Files” which currently runs in print and online in multiple southern California newspapers, reaching an estimated audience of 1.5 million.

For more information or to register for the 11th Armenian Medical World Congress, visit our website at www.aamsc.com/congress.

Glendale Candidates with Gaidz Youth Organization members at ACA meet and greet event

GLENDALE, CA – Over 40 members and affiliates of the Armenian Council of America (ACA) came together to welcome Glendale City Council candidates Ara Najarian, Laura Friedman and Chahe Keuroghelian on March 22nd at the Khodanian residence.

A diverse group of attendees made up of students, community activists, leaders, educators and small business owners came together to voice their concerns about issues they felt strongly about in Glendale, as well as to hear the goals and mission of the candidates in the upcoming April 2nd municipal elections.

Councilmember Ara Najarian spoke about the importance of getting the youth involved in civic affairs, including having parents in the Armenian-American community encourage their children to pursue careers in local government while Councilmember Laura Friedman stated that she was honored to be endorsed by the ACA even though she is not of Armenian descent. She also encouraged everyone to get more Armenians involved in city while Chahe Keuroghelian talked about his post-election plans for the community.

“The event drew a large crowd and was a great success,” said Jirair Guiragossian, ACA Board Member. “Our members had an opportunity to mingle, share and exchange ideas with these three hard-working candidates which we are proudly supporting. We anticipate to have many more meet and greet events like this in the future, as we prepare the next generation of community leaders and activists in Glendale and beyond.”

The Armenian Council of America is dedicated to educating the Armenian-American community in local political affairs, as well as actively pursuing Armenian-American participation in their respective local governments, to support political candidates who share the values of the Armenian American community.

YEREVAN (RFE/RL) — Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian has agreed, in principle, to start a dialogue with Raffi Hovannisian based on the proposals the opposition leader sent him last week to end the post-election standoff.

At a Friday rally attended by thousands of his supporters Hovannisian demanded at least snap parliamentary elections and other serious government concessions in what he described as his last compromise offer to Sarkisian.

Hovannisian, in particular, offered to recognize the incumbent’s continued ‘de-facto’ presidency in exchange for a promise of preterm legislative polls to be held by the end of this year, as well as sweeping electoral reforms and several key government positions to be held by people named by him.

The former candidate, who has been on a hunger strike in Yerevan’s Liberty Square since March 10, said it was his ultimate proposal to settle the dispute and warned that he was ready to continue his protests at least until April 9 when Sarkisian is due to be officially sworn in for a second five-year term as president.

In a letter addressed to Hovannisian on Monday the president said the proposals, no matter how contrary they were to “the ideas of a proper formation of state authorities” and were directly against the “constitutional regulations”, still could help kick-start an effective dialogue.

Sarkisian also hailed the readiness of his challenger to assume “serious control functions” as an opposition. At the same time, he urged him to quit his hunger strike for the sake of starting the dialogue.

“I am sure that if we start working purposefully, relying on our shared ideas, then we will certainly be able to achieve the result,” said the president, according to his press office. “My appeal to you is, please, stop your hunger strike, recover and within one or two days both of us will take up pens and paper and start serious work, without any fuss, without making a show out of it, even assuming your very raw writing as a basis.”

Hovannisian did not comment on the reply from the president immediately, promising to address the matter at another open-air press conference in the square on Wednesday. Before that, he said, he would address another letter to Sarkisian on Tuesday.

Sarkisian and Hovannisian already were in talks early on during the current post-election crisis. The two political leaders met at the presidential compound on February 21 and Hovannisian then, too, urged Sarkisian to call fresh legislative polls. The president rejected the idea and offered to appoint Hovannisian as head of a special state commission that would be tasked with drafting sweeping amendments to the Armenian Constitution, a proposal later dismissed by Hovannisian and his Zharangutyun (Heritage) party.

By Lucine Kasbarian

In April 2013, the winners of the 4th Annual International Turkish Tourism Cartoon Competition will be announced.

The purpose of the competition is to “examine tourism” in Turkey by highlighting travelers’ experiences from a cartoonist’s point of view. The theme of this year’s competition is “the resident and tourist relationship.” Tourism is one of the biggest income-generating sectors of the Turkish economy.

Open to professional and amateur cartoonists around the world, the contest will award the winners a one-week vacation for two at a five-star hotel in Turkey.

The competition is co-sponsored by the Turkish Ministry of Tourism and Culture, the Turkish Association of Tourism Writers and Journalists, the Research Center for Caricature Art at Anadolu University, and the “Anatolia” Journal of Tourism Research. A representative of the Turkish Ministry of Tourism, Turkish cartoonists, two Turkish tourism journalists, and the editor of ”Anatolia” Journal serve as judges.

As a writer and cartoonist of Armenian descent, I am aware of the overtures made by Turkey to encourage tourism by Diasporan Armenians who may be interested in embarking on “nostalgia pilgrimages” to the regions from which their indigenous ancestors were driven during the Turkish government-perpetrated genocide of 1915-1923. Turkish officials and businessmen alike are clearly eager to derive tourism revenues from what they see as a natural target demographic, namely, the descendants of the forcibly exiled Armenians. After all, the Armenian Highland, now referred to as “Eastern Anatolia” or “Eastern Turkey” and virtually emptied of its Armenian population, is now one of Turkey’s most impoverished regions.

While Turkey desperately wishes to avoid the issue of reparations and restitution for the Armenian Genocide, one wonders whether the Turkish government is nevertheless experiencing cognitive dissonance as it invites Armenians to territory inhabited by their ancestors for more than 3,000 years. It must take a uniquely wired mind to self-justify the commission of mass murder, property theft and abduction while coaxing the descendants of the victims to cough up money for the “privilege” of touring the lands stolen from their parents, grandparents and forebears.

Turkey’s tourism outreach to Armenians reached unprecedented levels in 2010, after it purportedly “renovated” the 10th century Armenian Holy Cross Cathedral on Aghtamar Island on Lake Van.

Turkey announced that it expected thousands of tourists from Armenia and its Diaspora to spill into the Van region for the ostensibly auspicious opening of a monument that holds great historical, spiritual, and cultural significance for Armenians. A condition in Turkey’s gesture of “great tolerance” and “largesse” was that Holy Cross would be a house of worship no more, as the structure was to be only a state museum. Downplayed was the fact that ongoing Christian worship inside the structure would be forbidden.

We could, of course, discuss how unsafe Turkey is, not only to tourists but also to those indigenous groups who have been made to feel like outsiders. The murder of Armenians — from journalist Hrant Dink and defenseless old women in Istanbul to visitors in the resort town of Antalya — are but a few recent examples.

Armenians commemorate April 24 every year because on that day in 1915 the Turkish government rounded up and murdered hundreds of Armenian intellectuals and community leaders. The purpose was to eliminate the top echelon of the Armenian people and, thereby, to more easily dispose of the masses.

In recent decades, the Turkish government has reserved the month of April to publicly rehabilitate its genocidal reputation. Each year, Turkish Children’s Day and Turkish Cultural Month strategically commence on April 23rd. Significantly, the Tourism Cartoon Competition’s exhibition of finalists’ cartoons and its award ceremony are also to be held in April.

As Turkey’s genocide whitewashing campaigns continue unabated, it should come as no surprise that, “coincidentally” this April, the Eurasia Partnership Foundation, its co-sponsor, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and other organizations are bringing about direct passenger flights between Yerevan and Van even as Turkey continues to close its border with Armenia.

The title of this article – derived from the opening line of Mary Howitt’s famous poem – is intended to apply to Turkey’s overtures to tourists. The line is often used in popular culture to indicate an offer of friendship that is, in fact, a trap.

“Will you walk into my parlor?” said the Spider to the Fly,
’Tis the prettiest little parlor that ever you did spy;
The way into my parlor is up a winding stair,
And I’ve a many curious things to show when you are there.”
“Oh no, no,” said the little Fly, “to ask me is in vain,
For who goes up your winding stair —
Can ne’er come down again.”

— Mary Howitt, 1829

# # #

Lucine Kasbarian is a journalist, book publicist, children’s book author and political cartoonist.

Lucine’s symbolic entry into the 4th annual Turkish Tourism Cartoon
Competition

“Little Susie Hunanyan attended her favourite class in school last week, and it wasn’t drawing, crafts or sport. The seven-year-old sat studiously through an hour of chess lessons,” Al Jazeera writes.

The agency reminds that in Armenia, learning to play the grand game of strategy in school is mandatory for children – the only country in the world that makes chess compulsory – and the initiative has paid dividends. “Armenia, a Caucasus country with a population of just three million, is a chess powerhouse.”

“Armenia has produced more than 30 grandmasters and won the team chess Olympiads in 2006, 2008 and 2012. Armenian champion Levon Aronian is currently the third-best player in the world, according to the World Chess Federation rankings,” the article reads.

The chess initiative is not only meant to scout young talent but also build a better society. Armen Ashotyan, Armenia’s education minister, told Al c the project is aimed at fostering creative thinking.

“Chess develops various skills – leadership capacities, decision-making, strategic planning, logical thinking and responsibility,” Ashotyan said. “We are building these traits in our youngsters. The future of the world depends on such creative leaders who have the capacity to make the right decisions, as well as the character to take responsibility for wrong decisions.”

More than $3m has been spent on the project so far to supply chess equipment and learning aids in all Armenian schools, Ashotyan added. The majority of the budget was allocated to train chess players to become good teachers. In coming years, spending on chess is expected to rise, he said.

The initiative is also attracting attention from other countries. Later this year, chess will be integrated into the national curriculum of Hungary’s elementary schools. Countries such as Moldova, Ukraine and Spain are showing interest in running similar projects.

Chess mania captures Armenia’s attention

Professor Richard Hovannisian receiving the Narekatsi Medal from Dr. Hasmig Baran, president of the Friends of UCLA Armenian Language and Culture Studies. Hovannisian is flanked, from left, Gia Aivazian, Professor Peter Cowe, and Banquet Co-chair Ani Aivazian.

LOS ANGELES — Professor Richard Hovannisian has been named the 2013 recipient of the Narekatsi Medal of Achievement. The award was formally presented to him by the Friends of the UCLA Armenian Language and Culture Studies on Saturday, March 16, during the Friends’ 11th annual banquet, at the Armenian Society of Los Angeles Hall, in Glendale.

Over 300 guests, representing a cross section of the Armenian community, attended the jubilant event, which celebrated the life and accomplishments of Richard Hovannisian as a teacher, historian, author, and human-rights activist.

The banquet featured a rich and multifaceted program. Remarks delivered by a distinguished roster of speakers, comprising scholars and community leaders, were interspersed with the screening of two short documentaries as well as musical performances.

Dignitaries and prominent community members in attendance included Archbishop Hovnan Derderian, Primate of Western Diocese; the Very Rev. Fr. Muron Aznikian, representing Archbishop Moushegh Mardirossian; representatives of the Armenian Educational Foundation.

In his remarks the Primate said the following about the honoree: “An honorary night for the esteemed and distinguished Professor Richard Hovannisian is much appreciated. The eloquent speeches extended to Professor Hovannisian clearly define his outstanding personality and outline his invaluable contributions as a community leader, an authentic historian, a visionary scholar, whose legacy will continue to inspire many generations to come.”

The evening’s keynote speaker, was Professor S. Peter Cowe, head of UCLA’s Narekatsi Chair in Armenian Studies, who in a riveting speech that contextualized the evolution of Armenian history as a field of study in American academia, initially against the backdrops of superpower politics and intracommunity partisanship, Cowe described Hovannisian’s crucial role in not only the establishment of Armenian Studies as an academic discipline in the US, but its growth as a dynamic, globally relevant hub for scholarly discourse and political action alike.

The Narekatsi Medal was conferred on Hovannisian in recognition of his extraordinary academic achievements and his roles as a genocide researcher and defender of the Armenian cause against denial.
Now a Professor Emeritus, Hovannisian has lectured at UCLA for 50 years, beginning in 1962. He was the first holder of the university’s Armenian Educational Foundation Endowed Chair in Modern Armenian History, which he held from 1987 until his retirement in 2011. The chair has since been renamed the Richard Hovannisian Chair in Modern Armenian History (established by the Armenian Educational Foundation), and is currently held by Prof. Sebouh Aslanian.

LOS ANGELES — “The Crime of the Ages,” a book containing documentary evidence of the Genocide written by Sebuh Aguni, a journalist who miraculously survived the 1915 Turkish massacre of Armenians, will be presented at the Zorayan Hall at the Western Diocese in Burbank at 7 pm, under the auspices of His Eminence Archbishop Hovnan Derderian.

Sebuh Aguni was a journalist, newspaper editor and resident of Istanbul. In 1919 Aguni chronicled the large-scale plunder, deportations, and massacres that were systematically perpetrated by the Turkish government against Armenians. “The Crime of the Ages” — the first English translation of Aguni’s study — is an invaluable work of historiography as it encompasses not only first-hand victim accounts of the Turkish atrocities, but a wealth of evidential information culled from Turkish, European, and American official sources found in archives in Istanbul. Brimming with the eloquent, vivid narrative of a journalist and survivor, the book portrays, in prodigious documentary detail, the first genocide of the 20th century.

Mr. Hagop Hagopian, principal of the AGBU Manoogian-Demirdjian School, and Prof. Silva Karayan, professor emeritus at Cal Lutheran University, will present the book. There will be a recitation of Siamanto’s “Ap Mu Mokhir Hayreni Tun” and performance of Komitas Vartabed’s “Garun a dzun a arel”.

The book, published by Hagop and Knar Manjikian and translated by Ishkhan Jinbashian, will be available for sale before and after the event. It is the fourth book in the Genocide Library of Armenian-language memoirs translated to English by the Manjikians and Jinbashian.

The Zorayan Hall at the Western Diocese is located at 3325 N. Glenoaks, Burbank; call 818-558-7474 for information.

PASADENA — “Lighting the Path to the Future” was the theme at a kick-off dinner for The Archbishop Hovnan Derderian Scholarship Fund Friday, March 15 at the Rococo Room in Pasadena. Under the auspices of the Western Diocese, parents, friends, principals, administrators, donors and clergy indeed paved the way to enrich the lives of Armenian students in Armenian schools by joining together to share in the Scholarship Fund mission and purpose of financially assisting students in their secondary education. An enthusiastic, sold out crowd of attendees enjoyed an evening of song, dance, camaraderie and commitment. Performance by Artur Mr. X whose operatic voice entertained and charmed the attendees, highlighted the evening.

“We are extremely pleased that the Archbishop Hovnan Derderian Scholarship Fund has received such positive response,” said Alice Chakrian, chair of the Committee. “Parents and the community realize that there is a need to fulfill unmet financial obligations of students who wish to pursue an education in our Armenian schools.”

Principals of the many Armenian Schools who shared the same vision as Archbishop Derderian and the Scholarship Fund Committee were enthused by the many aspects of assistance qualified students would receive. As one parent put it, “The Archbishop Scholarship Fund is a noble gesture toward a noble cause.” Students vying for the scholarships would have to demonstrate academic commitment; show their volunteer efforts in church and or community, and show financial need.

Archbishop Hovnan Derderian stated that he “was touched by the display of interest in a scholarship to assist young men and women of Armenian heritage.” He said, “There is a need out there to make sure that no child is denied an education he/she deserves. The success of this event is yet another aspect of our community understanding the need and taking an active role in preparing our future generation of leaders to light the path for others to follow.”

Parents whose children had already experienced the benefit of attending Armenian schools felt privileged to be a part of the event. “It is our civic responsibility and moral obligation to contribute to such a cause and give others an equal chance at attending our Armenian schools,” said Angela Parseghian, parent and co-chair of the Archbishop Hovnan Derderian Scholarship Fund Committee. The committee is comprised of representatives and members from the Armenian schools of the Greater Los Angeles area and the Western Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church of North America.

Western Diocese Armenian Church delegation congratulated the newly elected Assemblymember Adrin Nazarian (46th district, Van Nuys, D) and Assemblymember Jim Patterson (23rd district, Fresno, R). Reverend Fr. Asoghig Jamgochian (Parish Priest of St. James Armenian Church of Sacramento), Deacon Daniel Aydenian (Holy Cross Armenian Church Turlock), Yereskin Sona Jamgochian, Manoug Guederian, Nelson Afian and Karuna Koppula visited the State Capitol.

The delegates also paid a visit to some other assemblymembers such as Assemblymember Mike Gatto (43rd district, Los Angeles, D), Assemblymember Connie Conway(35th district, Visalia, R), Assemblymember Katcho Achadjian (35th district, San Luis Obispo, R) and Senator Tom Berryhill (14th Senate district, Modesto, R).

All the assemblymembers and the Senator welcomed the Armenian delegates with open arms. Revered Fr. Asoghig and Deacon Daniel gave the hosts a book on behalf of His Eminence Archbishop Hovnan Dederian. The delegates then left each office after getting the promise of the assemblymembers and Senator to support the Armenian community in any way they can.

YEREVAN — U.S., Russian and French mediators have visited Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia and met with top government officials there in a fresh round of shuttle diplomacy aimed at kick-starting the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace process.

The three diplomats co-chairing the OSCE Minsk Group began the tour with meetings with Karabakh Armenian leaders in Stepanakert on Tuesday. They met with President Serzh Sarkisian and Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian in Yerevan on Thursday. The troika is due to travel to Azerbaijan early next month.

“We don’t have results. We are still talking. “We are exchanging ideas at this point,” Ian Kelly, the recently appointed U.S. co-chair, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) after the meeting with Nalbandian.

The mediators announced plans to again tour the region after meeting separately with Nalbandian and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov in Paris early this month. In a joint statement issued in the French capital, they “repeated their concerns” regarding Armenian plans to launch commercial flights to Karabakh and Azerbaijan’s threats to forcibly prevent them. They also expressed concern at the continuing ceasefire violations in the conflict zone.

The flight controversy was apparently high on the agenda of the troika’s talks in Stepanakert. “Rest assured that we keep working in that direction and have concrete proposals which we are discussing with the parties,” Jacques Faure, the French co-chair, told jouralists in the Karabakh capital. He did not elaborate.

Armenia’s Aronian defeats Azeri opponent in the Candidates Tournament

LONDON — Armenian and Norwegian grandmasters, Levon Aronian and Magnus Carlsen, continue to share the lead after six rounds of play at the World Chess Candidates Tournament being held in London, UK. Both have 4.5 points.

On Thursday, Aronian defeated Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaaijan, while Carlsen’s defeated Peter Svidler of Russia.

On Wednesday, Aronian tied with former world champion Vladimir Kramnik from Russia, while Carlsen also ended his game in a draw with another Russian player, Alexander Grischuk.

The London Candidates Tournament will determine the challenger who will face, later this year, the current title holder World Champion Viswanathan Anand, who has reigned as World Champion since 2007.

BURBANK, CA — Thirty (30) artists will participate in a fundraising exhibit to help raise funds for Syrian Armenians on Thursday, April 11, 2013, from 7 to 10 p.m., at the Zorayan Museum, Western Diocese of the Armenian Church of North America, 3325 N. Glenoaks Blvd., Burbank, CA 91504.

This event is sponsored by H.E. Archbishop Hovnan Derderian, the Primate of Western Diocese of the Armenian Church of North America. The Armenian Musicians & Artists Center Inc., Tapan II TV, Organization of Istanbul Armenians, and Syrian Armenian Relief Fund (SARF) are jointly organizing the exhibit. The works of 30 artists will be available for purchase, the proceeds of which will be entirely donated to assist Syrian Armenians through SARF.

The following artists will be presented: Vladimir Atanyan, Volodya Babayan, Perchui (Berjouhi) Bayramian, Vahe Berberian, Raffi Boyajian, Galust Geudel, Lianna Goroyan, Maral Danielyan, Seeroon Yeritsyan, Evrika Zatikyan, Grigor Zakaryan, Samvel Zoumyan, Armine Teymourian, Ashot Khoodaverdian, Samvel Hallajian, Minas Hallajian, Vazgen Matyan, Zareh Mkrtichyan, Sarkis Mouradian, Ashot Minassian, Hilda Shagarian, Michael Jihanian, Razmik Samvelts, Ella Sargisyan, Mkrtich Sargisyan, Rafael Vagharshakyan, Henrik Vardeniktsy, Ara Tevkants, Emil Kazaz and Gagik Fahradian.

Zaven Khanjian, Chairperson of the Executive Committee of the Syrian Armenian Relief Fund, praised the artists for initiating the program, thanked Tapan II TV and the Organization of Istanbul Armenians, for organizing the event, the Western Diocese for sponsoring the event, and added, “We hope that the art-appreciating public will not miss this opportunity to enjoy the works and support our brothers and sisters in Syria.”

***

The following churches, charities and organizations came together to form the Syrian Armenian Relief Fund: Armenian Catholic Eparchy in North America; Armenian Evangelical Union of North America; Western Diocese of the Armenian Church; Western Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America; Armenian General Benevolent Union; Armenian Missionary Association of America; Armenian Relief Society of Western U.S.A.; Armenian Democratic Liberal Party; Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Western U.S.A.; and Social Democrat Hunchakian Party-Western U.S.A. The web site address follows: www.SyrianArmenianReliefFund.org.

Chahe Keuroghelian, Laura Friedman and Ara Najarian

Glendale City Council

GLENDALE, CA — After a careful evaluation of the candidates and personal interviews, the Armenian Council of America – PAC (ACA – PAC) is pleased to announce the endorsement of Chahe Keuroghelian and incumbent Councilmembers Ara Najarian and Laura Friedman for Glendale City Council.

In the past month, ACA – PAC interviewed and carefully studied the agenda of the candidates for City Council and given their records as community leaders and their commitment to issues of great interest to Armenian-Americans. These three individuals are the most qualified candidates, have the greatest chance of winning, and are best suited to represent the interests of the Glendale community as a whole.

Having a fiscally sound and responsible City government has been a priority of Councilmember Laura Friedman. Friedman has also enthusiastically encouraged cultural diversity within the City, championed creative and entertainment businesses, supported safe streets, and energetically promoted the arts.

Councilmember Najarian has been steadfast in keenly representing the interest of not only Armenian American constituency but the entire Glendale community. As a public servant, Mr. Najarian has continuously worked to improve the quality of life for all of Glendale’s residents.

As a strong advocate for improving the local economy of the City, Chahe Keuroghelian, is committed to attracting more businesses to Glendale and has proudly spoken for the often overlooked working class and immigrant population of the City. Mr. Keuroghelian will be a great addition to the upcoming Glendale City Council.

Dr. Armina Gharpetian, Greg Krikorian and Joylene Wagner

Glendale Unified School Board
ACA – PAC is also pleased to announce its endorsement of Glendale Unified School Board candidates Dr. Armina Gharpetian and incumbents Greg Krikorian and Joylene Wagner after evaluating the candidates’ responses to issues of concern to the Armenian-American community at large. Seven candidates are seeking election to the 3 seats on the Glendale Unified School District Board slated for the April 2nd Municipal election.

ACA – PAC believes that Greg Krikorian, Dr. Armina Gharpetian and Joylene Wagner are the best choices for the GUSD Board and have demonstrated, through their community outreach efforts, their willingness to lead the school district in areas of maintaining a high level of educational quality for all residents in Glendale.

Some of the goals for ACA – PAC are to not only ensure that GUSD students have equal access to receiving a quality education, but to also gain a higher level of cultural diversity appreciation in order to promote a prosperous multi-cultural coexistence. Maintaining a smaller class size and increasing the number of Armenian language courses in middle schools and high schools are also high priorities.

“I am proud and honored to receive the support of the ACA – PAC,” said incumbent Greg Krikorian. “As I run for re-election, I am reminded of the need to advocate for all the diverse students in our district in order to prepare them for the future.”

“I am truly honored and humbled to receive the endorsement of ACA – PAC and the overwhelming encouragement of its members,” said Dr. Gharpetian.

The Armenian Council of America – PAC is dedicated to educating the Armenian-American community in local political affairs, as well as actively pursuing Armenian-American participation in their respective local governments, to support political candidates who share the values of the Armenian American community.

PARIS — A group of municipalities, members of the French National Assembly and Senate, who represent France’s major political forces, announced the formation of Circle of Friendship with Nagorno Karabakh Republic (NKR).

They made a special statement appreciating the consistent efforts of the NKR people and authorities to build free and democratic society, calling for an end to the NKR’s political isolation and expressing support to the NKR people’s right of self-determination.

“Assuming as a basis the absolute significance of the liberty and democratic values stated in the General Declaration on Human Rights, supporting the right to self-determination of all the peoples including the people of Nagorno Karabakh – Artsakh, and being confident that the international isolation of the Artsakh people does not contribute to the dialogue of the peoples and steadfast peace, we – political figures, deputies, and senators of the French Republic, declare about the creation of friendship circle with Artsakh.” Reads the statement.

The Circle members are Deputy Mayor of Marseille Roland Blum, Mayor of Vienne Jacques Remiller, MPs Valérie Boyer, René Rouquet, Guy Teissier, François Rochebloine, senators Sophie Zhuassen, Philippe Marini, Bernard Fournier as well as former MPs Georges Colombier and Richard Malia.

Below is the statement on establishing Circle of Friendship with Nagorno Karabakh Republic (Republic of Artsakh):

1. Taking as basis the exclusive importance of freedom and democratic values incorporated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights;

2. Supporting the right of self-determination of all the peoples including the people of Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh);

3. Realizing the necessity of establishing long-term peace and preserving stability in the South Caucasus region;

4. Assisting the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs’ activities to settle the Karabakh issue and efforts made by the French Republic on this path;

5. Hailing the consistent steps of the people and authorities of the Nagorno Karabakh (Republic of Artsakh) to establish and develop free and democratic society;

6. Being sure that the isolation of the Artsakh people from international processes will contribute to a dialogue between peoples or to stability in the world;

We, politicians, MPs and senators of the French Republic, state our decision to establish a Circle of Friendship with the Nagorno Karabakh Republic (Artsakh).

NORTHRIDGE, CA — The Armenian Studies Program (ASP) at the California State University, Northridge (CSUN) has organized a conference on the theme of “Resistances to the Armenian Genocide” that will take place on Saturday, April 6, 2013, at the University’s Grand Salon, from 9:30 a.m.-1:15 p.m. The event is co-sponsored by the Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures, the Alumni and Friends of the ASP, and the United Armenian Council for the Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide, Los Angeles.

During the Armenian Genocide, several types of resistance existed. Where did defiance emanate from? What were the motives? Was any success achieved? How such acts have been perceived or treated? These are some of the questions that the following five experts will address:

Dr. Rubina Peroomian: “Armenian Resistance to the Genocide: An Assessment of Circumstances and Outcomes”

Dr. Barbara J. Merguerian: “Peaceful Resistance: American Missionaries in Wartime Turkey, 1914-1917”

Dr. Garabet K. Moumdjian: “Muslim Resistance to the Armenian Genocide in the Southern Theater of War: Jemal Pasha and the 4th Army Corps”

Mr. Aram Arkun: “Post-World War I Violence and Resistance in Cilicia”

Dr. Vahram Shemmassian: “The Musa Dagh Resistance in the Armenian Genocide Denial Campaign.”

To get to the Grand Salon at CSUN, conference attendees may park in Parking Structure #3 on Prairie St., off of Zelzah Ave. The parking permit is $6.00, and can be purchased at info Booth 3 or dispensers by elevators in the parking structure. The link to the campus map is: http://www.csun.edu/maps/.

For further inquiries, contact Prof. Shemmassian at (818) 677-3456 or vahram.shemmassian@csun.edu

An Inside Look at How the Ceiminal Justice System Works … and Sometimes Doesn’t

We the people, immersed in “Boston Legal,” “Law and Order,” and “The Good Wife,” believe we know what goes on in a court of law. Media attention to high-profile cases like the Casey Anthony verdict and our unprecedented access to real-life in-court drama, via the televised O.J. Simpson trial, and others, have lulled us into thinking we understand the American judicial system. We are so wrong.

Now, in MISTRIAL: An Inside Look at How the Criminal Justice System Works … and Sometimes Doesn’t (Gotham Books; April 2013; $27.00) Mark Geragos, JD, and Pat Harris, JD, upend the scales and reveal why “justice” often literally is blind in this land of stealth jurors manipulating their way onto cases so they can convict a defendant, cops who feel compelled to lie on the witness stand, detectives who sell confidential police information, defense attorneys too scared to go to trial, and clients eager to bribe judges.

Mark Geragos and Pat Harris, two of America’s leading criminal defense attorneys, take readers inside some of the most compelling and sensational trials of the past 20 years. They have worked on cases that involved celebrities (Michael Jackson, Chris Brown, Winona Ryder, Mike Tyson) and on cases that have made ordinary people into celebrities (Susan McDougal, Scott Peterson, Gary Conduit).

Going behind the legal scenes, Geragos and Harris assess the dramatic changes that have occurred in our judicial system, making it heavily weighted toward the prosecution. They examine how politics shifted the balance, the strategies that fed misconceptions that courts were soft on crime, why the O.J. Simpson trial spiraled out of control and the powerful impact it had on future jurors countrywide, and the deep influence of media coverage. Zeroing in on the wide margins of error, Geragos and Harris scrutinize defense attorneys, prosecutors, judges, jurors, clients, cops, and the media, and the roles they play in changing your perception of the truth.

Far from preserving the credo of “innocent until proven guilty,” more jurors than ever are entering the court convinced that our system could not get it wrong. The falsely accused are confessing to crimes they did not commit, and only a portion of the wrongly convicted defendants are being proven innocent and released, following re-evaluation of evidence.

MISTRIAL will change forever your outlook as a juror, and make you think twice about your rights as a defendant. You will question why the public is so willing to overlook a D.A. who jails an innocent person.
A manifesto on the ills of the criminal justice system, and outlining steps that can be taken to bring balance back, MISTRIAL is a fascinating and timely read for legal eagles and armchair arbiters, alike.

YEREVAN — President Serzh Sarkisian criticized Raffi Hovannisian on Monday for disputing the legitimacy of his reelection and claiming to represent most Armenians, saying that only a tiny segment of the country’s population is participating in demonstrations organized by his main election challenger.

In his first meeting with journalists after the February 18 presidential election, Sarkisian also voiced skepticism over possible dialogue with Hovannisian.

“When they say that the people are out in the streets it sounds very strange to me,” he told a rare news conference organized for a limited number of broadcast media outlets. “On average, only 3,000 people participate in these rallies taking place in Liberty Square … Even if the opinion of every person matters to us, 3,000 people account for only 0.1 percent of our citizens.”

Sarkisian claimed that Levon Ter-Petrosian, the main opposition candidate in the 2008 presidential election, rallied ten times as many people in the same venue when challenging official vote results, despite getting fewer votes than Hovannisian. The latter has therefore no right to speak on behalf of the nation, he said.

Hovannisian has repeatedly urged the incumbent to recognize “the people’s victory” in the ballot and “return power to the people” by leaving office. He went on hunger strike over a week ago to continue pressing those demands. The U.S.-born oppositionist, who remains camped out in Liberty Square, has also demanded that Sarkisian visit and talk to him.

Sarkisian ruled out the possibility of such a visit, however. “I’m asking myself: what should I talk with Raffi Hovannisian about? What should I negotiate on with a man who is bitter at the world and has been hungry for eight days?” he said.

“If I were to go [to the square] I would do that for one purpose: to once again urge and ask Raffi Hovannisian to end the hunger strike and choose other methods of struggle. I’m doing it now,” he said.
“But you know, there is aother very important circumstance: I don’t know the purpose for which Raffi Hovannisian went on hunger strike,” added Sarkisian.

LONDON — Grandmaster Levon Aronian is a sole leader at the World Chess Candidates Tournament after three rounds of play in the competition being held in London, UK.

Armenia’s top chess player has 2 ½ points, half a point clear of the next rival, after registering two wins and one draw.

So far, Aronian has beaten Boris Gelfand (Israel) and Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine), tying the game with FIDE’s current number one Magnus Carlsen (Norway).

The tournament brings together the world’s eight strongest players seeking the right to challenge the current titleholder, Viswanathan Anand from India, later this year.

The competition scheduled to run through April 1. On Tuesday Aronian is scheduled to play second-placed Peter Svidler from Russia.

official website: london2013.fide.com

GLENDALE, CA — My Mother’s Voice, an updated book (2013 Edition) and new documentary, tell the moving story of Flora Munushian’s teenage years, and are written and produced by her daughter Kay Mouradian. From 1914-1919, Flora traveled from Hadjin, Turkey to Aleppo, Syria then ultimately to the United States, a survivor of the Armenian Genocide.

“I am my mother’s voice,” Kay Mouradian declares in the new edition of her book and her moving documentary. “She told me in no uncertain terms that I was going to write a book about her.” This hadn’t been Mouradian’s goal or even a thought until her mother’s last years. Luckily, she did take up the challenge, presenting the story of her mother’s harrowing teenage years from 1915-1919.

Flora Munushian was a 14-year-old Armenian girl attending an American school in Hadjin, Turkey when a deportation order forced her community on a death march to Der Zor. Her father managed to stow his daughters in Aleppo, where she and her sister hid for the duration of WWI. Flora never saw her parents or her brothers again. At the age of 18, she sailed to the U.S. to marry an Armenian man she’d never met.

Mouradian’s narrative is well-paced and action-packed, with the right amount of carefully researched details. Told from her mother’s point of view, the story highlights Flora’s drive to get an education, her youthful idealism and her inner strength. The book is a great read for both young readers and adults, with a positive message and story arc.

The film based on the book takes a more historical look at the genocide’s impact on Flora and her family. Among its visuals: a copy and translation of the deportation order posted in Hadjin; a photograph of Rev. Hovhanness Eskijian, who rescued Flora, her sister and hundreds of Armenian orphans in Aleppo; and a photograph of Flora’s family – most of whom perished during the march or in Der Zor.

A neighbor introduced Mouradian to award-winning filmmaker Mark Friedman, who worked diligently with her to produce the documentary. “He was so far-sighted, and very resourceful,” Mouradian said. Together they searched out original film footage and were able to use portions of the 1919 silent film Ravished Armenia that appears on Zareh Tjeknavorian’s DVD Credo.

Tjeknavorian wrote to Mouradian, “Congratulations to you and Mark for so beautifully and affectingly bringing the message of your mother’s life to the world. Her voice speaks so eloquently through your own. This film, and the vast history it artfully distills into such a poignant and positive personal story is as much a testimony to the resiliency of family and culture across generations as it is to the evil that sought to destroy them. I am sure it will go a long way to honoring the memory of Flora and the millions she speaks for.”

Mouradian’s South Pasadena community links not only got her introduced to a top-notch film collaborator, they have also supported and recognized her educational and civic endeavors. While serving as LA Community College Professor of Health and Physical Education, she published guidebooks and studies on yoga. She was honored for her professional and literary achievements by Congressman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who named her 2012 Woman of the Year for South Pasadena.

The South Pasadena audience at a preview of the documentary last September was strongly affected by the film. “The film is tastefully, artfully done, the music is beautiful, and your narration hit all the right notes,” one viewer wrote later. “It’s a shock (and a shame) that this subject is not taught in high school history classes. I sure didn’t know much about it until I moved to Glendale and started talking with Armenian friends.”
My Mother’s Voice premiered at Toronto’s Pomegranate Film Festival in October 2012, and was also featured at Los Angeles’ ARPA Film Festival in December 2012.

Documentary trailer on YouTube

YEREVAN — Armenia’s Constitutional Court on Thursday rejected opposition leader Raffi Hovannisian’s and another candidate’s demands to invalidate the official results of the February 18 presidential election that gave victory to incumbent President Serzh Sarkisian.

In a 34-page verdict read out by its chairman, Gagik Harutiunian, the court upheld the decision by Armenia’s Central Election Commission, which said there were no legal violations during the vote.

It also rejected Hovannisian’s separate demand to declare him the rightful winner of the vote, saying that the leader of the opposition Zharangutyun (Heritage) party failed to present any compelling evidence in support of that claim.

The Constitutional Court scrapped the official vote tally in only one of Armenia’s 1,988 electoral precincts where two local observers claimed to have witnessed large-scale ballot stuffing by government loyalists. The precinct covers part of Artashat, a town 30 kilometers south of Yerevan notorious for election-related violence and other violations. The number of voters living there is too small to have any impact on the overall election outcome.

According to the Central Election Commission (CEC), Sarkisian won reelection outright with 58.6 percent of the vote, while Hovannisian finished second with around 37 percent.

The panel of nine judges at the same recognized widespread public distrust in official vote results. In a carefully-worded sentence, it blamed this on the “merger of political, economic and administrative resources” in Armenia.

Tigran Mukuchian, the pro-government chairman of the CEC, welcomed the widely anticipated ruling. He said the court highlighted “baseless judgments and evaluations” made by the opposition candidates.

Zaruhi Postanjian, one of Hovannisian’s legal representatives, condemned the decision, accusing Armenia’s highest court of “sponsoring” Sarkisian. She also said that the Hovannisian campaign plans to organize alternative “court hearings” on the election at Liberty Square, the main venue of the opposition leader’s post-election protests.

Hovannisian, who has been on a hunger strike in the Square since Sunday, is set to continue his protest until Inauguration Day, April 9, warning that President Sarkisian will be sworn in only on his, Hovannisian’s, “dead body”.

Argentina’s Armenian community has welcomed the election of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio as new Pope. The community members have stated that Archbishop Bergoglio has always been in friendly ties with them and participated in different events dedicated to the Armenian Genocide and served a liturgy in memory of Genocide victims during the visit of His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians.

Seven years ago the archbishop publicly demanded that Turkey admit the Ottoman-era Genocide of Armenians.

The Vatican used the term genocide to describe the massacres of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in an official communiqué in 2000, under Pope John Paul II.

Bergoglio was elected Pope in a surprise choice on Wednesday, taking the name Francis I and becoming the first non-European pontiff in nearly 1,300 years.

President Serzh Sarkisian and Catholicos Karekin II on Thursday congratulated the new Pope Francis I on being elected as the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, expressing hope that its links with Armenia will strengthen during his pontificate.

“We pray that the Lord will grant to Your Holiness a most fruitful pontificate blessed with many ever-lasting accomplishments for the glory of God and the splendor of the Church of Christ,” the supreme head of the Armenian Apostolic Church wrote in his letter.
Karekin II “fondly” recalled his meetings and joint prayers with Bergoglio during a 2004 visit to Argentina, saying that he got to know “a courageous, wise, and just Church Leader.” “ We are happy to avow Your sincere love and affection shown towards the Armenian people,” he said.

Karekin II also said he hopes Francis will build on “significant progress” in relations between the Armenian and Catholic Churches. “It is our prayer that our cooperative efforts will continue to grow into the future and that the relations between our two sister Churches will blossom with new achievements for the sake of meeting the challenges facing humanity,” he wrote.

In a separate message, Sarkisian expressed confidence that Pope Francis will spread his “merciful influence” all over the world. He said the Armenian government expects that its “fruitful cooperation” with the Vatican “will continue deepening and developing in the same spirit.”

By Hrayr S. Karagueuzian

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, speaking at the 5th Global Forum of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) in Vienna on February 27, 2013 said: “The world should consider Islamophobia just like Zionism or anti-Semitism or fascism, a crime against humanity.” The PM had already expressed in the past his anger with Israeli policies in blunt terms at World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland in 2009, when he suddenly stormed off the stage at the mid of a heated discussion of Israel’s Gaza offensive and after telling President Shimon Peres: “When it comes to killing, you know well how to kill.”

The irony behind these two dark and irresponsible condemnations is that Mr. Erdogan’s own government continues to uphold a policy in today’s Turkey that is precisely based not only on crimes against humanity but also on the legacy of the art of mass killings. Indeed, “crime against humanity” was first used in history on May 24, 1915 when the British, French and Russian Allies in a joint declaration condemned the Turkish authorities for the planning and the implementation of the wholesale massacres of Armenians in Turkey. The declaration reads in part: “In view of these new crimes of Turkey against humanity and civilization… the Allied governments announce publicly …that they will hold personally responsible all members of the Ottoman government and those of their agents who are implicated in such massacres. The adjective “new” appended to the words “crimes of Turkey” goes beyond the present and establishes a legacy of mass murders in the past. That legacy seems to well and alive in Turkey today. The Turkish PM may well know that the International Criminal Court on March 2009 ordered the arrest of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan, a good friend and ally of Erdogan (see attached photo), charging him with war crimes and crimes against humanity for a concerted government campaign against civilians in the Darfur region of Sudan. More than 2.5 million people have been chased from their homes and 300,000 have died in a conflict pitting non-Arab rebel groups against the Arab-dominated Islamic government and militias of President al Bashir. It seems for the PM that when a crime against humanity is committed by a Muslim country it is not a crime, however, it becomes a crime only in the case of the non-Muslims.

As for the art of mass killings, history has consistently shown that the Ittihadist regime (the party that controlled the Turkish Empire during WWI) continued what the Ottoman Sultanate did previously and the Kemalist’s “Death Squads” thereafter which became known as “finishing the genocide.” Starting 1930s and up to now the Armenophobia, and the systematic massacres of the Kurds continued of which the Dersim tragedy is just now being articulated. The legacy of brutality with which these acts of mass killings were committed during the Kemalist phase captured the attention of the post-WWI British High Commissioner in Constantinople, who included in his London report the following:

“The Turks have an expression, “yavash–yavash,” which means to go slowly. That is how clearing Trebizond of its remaining Christian population is being managed.… Now they are going after the little boys. It used to be conscription that was invoked as an excuse to take the men. When they got down to deporting the boys from 15–18, the Turks said it was to give them preliminary training. Now—as I write— they are making a new visitation of the angel of death in Greek homes, and seizing boys from 11 to 14. The poor little kiddies are gathered together like cattle, and driven through the streets to the Government House, where they are put in filthy dungeons half underground. One could not believe this was possible.”1

More so, one can not believe the audacity of the Turkish PM to preach civility and condemnation of crimes against humanity at international forums at a time when his own government continues to enforce the infamous Article 301 that bans Turkish citizens’ to expose their Armenian ancestry. Violators of Article 301 are charged with “insulting Turkishness” and become liable for prosecution, forced exile, jail terms, and even assassination as in the case of the Turkish-Armenian editor and journalist Hrant Dink in front of his office on January 19, 2007. Turkish and international news media did not dismiss the planning of the assassination by the Turkish security forces, dubbed as the “Deep State.” The motivation in the murder of Dink was to prevent him to unravel the names of millions of Turks who have Armenian ancestry but were afraid of publicly acknowledgment. In the words of the Turkish Foreign Minister Daoud Oglo, a close protégé of the PM, “he was talking too much.”

It would be thoughtful for the Grand Vizier to give a hard look at his own governments’, past and present policies of committing and covering up crimes against humanity before preaching civility at international forums.

1 Hrayr S. Karagueuzian & Yair Auron; A Perfect Injustice: Genocide & Theft of the Armenian Wealth. Transaction Publishers, Rutgers University, NJ 2009

WASHINGTON, DC — The Armenian National Institute (ANI), the Armenian Genocide Museum of America (AGMA), and the Armenian Assembly of America (AAA) issued a joint statement upon the release of WITNESS TO THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE: Photographs by the Perpetrators’ German and Austro-Hungarian Allies, a digital exhibit that the three organizations are making available for display without charge.

The newly-created digital display instructional posters are being released in advance of the month of April as a public service to educational institutions and the worldwide Armenian community. The poster set may be downloaded from the ANI, AGMA, and AAA websites and printed in any size suitable for instructional, exhibit, classroom, and public education purposes. Designed to be printed in a full-size poster format of 24″ by 36″ or bigger, the publication is also legible and usable at the 8.5″ by 11″ standard letter-size format in booklet or flyer mode.

The ten-poster set includes an introductory page, a detailed timeline, a color-coded map geographically matching the photographs with their location, and seven pages displaying 34 captioned historic photographs. The color-coded map in the exhibit is based on the previously-published ANI map of the 1915 Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire illustrating the three prevailing aspects of the Genocide: the deportations, the massacres, and the concentration camps.

Photographic evidence on the Armenian Genocide is extremely rare. Although Imperial Germany and the Ottoman Empire were military allies during World War I, the Ottoman Turkish authorities responsible for the Armenian Genocide prohibited taking pictures and closely watched anyone suspected of owning a camera. Despite the threat of a court martial, several German civilians and other German military officials assigned to the Ottoman Empire during the war disregarded the ban and secretly photographed the mistreatment of the Armenian population.

The exhibit is the product of years of research in European archives conducted by Dr. Hilmar Kaiser. Many of the photographs in the exhibit were uncovered for the first time after decades of neglect. The photographs showing Armenian deportees are matched with diary entries, reports, and memoirs of the photographers and in so doing documenting their authenticity. The photographers represented include Hellmuth von Mücke at Der Zor, Victor Pietschmann who witnessed the deportation of Armenians from Sushehri, Max Erwin von Scheubner-Richter, the German Vice-Consul in Erzerum, and Armin T. Wegner in Aleppo and surrounding refugee camps.

As part of their ongoing program to promote the teaching of genocide and human rights and the lessons of the Armenian Genocide, ANI and AGMA recommend utilizing the poster set in conjunction with the recently-released fourth edition of Centuries of Genocide: Essays and Eyewitness Accounts, by Samuel Totten and William S. Parsons, a textbook widely used in college and high school courses, that includes an extensive chapter on the Armenian Genocide.

As part of its continuing service to educators and to coincide with the release of the poster set and Centuries of Genocide, ANI previously announced the launch of its expanded Resource Guide and other sections of the Education component of the ANI website. Dozens of resources selected for their instructional value are listed for the benefit of students and teachers. Educators interested in teaching about the role of American humanitarianism and involvement in responding to the Armenian crisis can also benefit from the recently issued fact sheet summarizing The United States Record on the Armenian Genocide: A Proud Chapter in American History, prepared by the Armenian Assembly of America.

As a preview to the digital exhibit, the introduction to the posters is reproduced below:

The German Military Mission to the Ottoman Empire was established in 1913. German officers served on the Ottoman General Staff in Constantinople, and some were in leading positions with the Ottoman armies on various fronts during World War I. These men became eye-witnesses to the Armenian Genocide.

As a rule, German officers followed a policy of non-interference in what was claimed to be an internal affair of the Ottoman Empire. On the other hand, numerous officers tried to mitigate Ottoman policies and a few, in defiance of military regulations, even took part in clandestine activities to help the victims. Together, these officers, German consular staff, missionaries, and administrators of the Deutsche Bank-owned Anatolian and Baghdad Railways played a critical role in the creation of a humanitarian resistance network that included American missionaries and diplomats, surviving Armenians, and even some Ottoman officials.

Ottoman Martial Law prohibited taking photographs of the Armenian deportees. Thus, documenting the crime by photographing the reality of the deportations became an act of resistance. Many photographs were lost due to the interception of Ottoman intelligence services at the time and later destruction in Germany during World War II. Many of these photographs had been forgotten for decades and remained hidden in dusty drawers, files, and private collections.

The Armenian Genocide was a planned campaign by the Young Turk government to annihilate the Christian Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire. Embarked upon in 1915, during WWI, the deportation and decimation of the Armenians across Anatolia, modern-day Turkey, continued until 1923. The campaign resulted in the complete destruction of Armenian society across the region and in the greater part of its historic homeland.

WITNESS TO THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

YEREVAN — Opposition leader Raffi Hovannisian declared a hunger strike on Sunday in front of thousands of supporters at Liberty Square in Yerevan, pressing his demands for President Serzh Sarkisian’s resignation.

In what he called his “most responsible speech” to date, Hovannisian warned Sarkisian against being sworn in for a second term at an inauguration ceremony scheduled for April 9. “If Mr. Sarkisian takes the false oath of office on the Holy Bible and the constitution and if His Holiness [Catholicos Karekin II] thus desecrates the Bible on April 9, they will do that on my corpse,” he declared.

“Until Mr. Sarkisian withdraws [from the presidency] for the sake of the homeland, his grandchildren, my grandchildren and children, I will stay in Liberty Square, will not eat and will not accept lies and fraud from anyone,” he said.

Hovannisian also made clear that he will hold more rallies in the square during the hunger strike. He scheduled the next demonstration for March 15.
On MOnday, March 11, the Armenian Constitutional Court will hear the case of Raffi Hovannisian’s claim against the Central Election Committee to nullify the official results of the February 18 election.

MOSCOW ((R-Sport)) — A debut hat-trick from Yura Movsisyan for Spartak Moscow brought his team a 3-1 win over Terek Grozny on Sunday.

The nine-time Russian champions move to fifth in the standings, level on points with fourth-placed FC Kuban, while Terek drop to seventh.

Movsisyan, who joined the club in December from FC Krasnodar, scored an early opener, poking the ball into the corner after Artem Dzyuba flicked on a throw-in from Kirill Kombarov.
The Armenian national team forward’s second goal came on 29 minutes with a 25-yard screamer off a backheel from Ari.

The hat-trick was complete with 15 minutes left of the game, Movsisyan ghosting away from Terek’s Finnish defender Juhani Ojala before slamming the ball into the far corner of Yaroslav Godzyur’s goal.
Movsisyan becomes Russian Premier League top scorer on 12 goals, two ahead of second-placed Alexander Kerzhakov of Zenit St. Petersburg.

Terek managed a consolation goal on 78 minutes when Spartak goalkeeper Sergei Pesyakov blundered and deflected a Mauricio free kick into the net.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Mwbz2EZZWOk

YEREVAN — Renowned Armenian modern painter Hakob Hakobyan passed away on Friday evening. He was 90.

A People’s Artist and a holder of the State Prize of Armenia, Hakobyan was born to a family of Armenian immigrants in Alexandria, Egypt. At age nine, he was admitted to the Melkonian Armenian School of Cyprus, where he studied for ten years with intervals. He later continued his education at the Cairo High School of Fine Arts and the The Académie de la Grande Chaumière (academy of the large thatched cottage) of Paris.

He moved to his ancestor’s homeland in 1961 and settled in Leninakan (Gyumri) a year later.

In 1967, Hakobyan was elected a member of the Supreme Council of the Soviet Armenia. In 1977, he was honored with State Award of Armenia and the People’s Artist title.

The canvas Spring (1971) brought the artist a gold medal at the first Trans-Caucasus Biennale in 1986.

Spring landscape

In 1987, Hakobyan was awarded with the USSR State Prize for a series of watercolor paintings that stood out with a high degree of artistism.

His most prominent pieces include Park Near St. Hripsime Temple, Echmiadzin (1976), Vineyard in Winter (1979), In Artist’s Studio (1980), Forlorn Corner (1980) and Garni Gorge (1980).

Hakobyan’s art is currently part of a new exhibition of Soviet and contemporary art from Central Asia and the Caucasus that opened just four days before his death at the Sotheby’s auction house in London called “At The Crossroads: Contemporary Art From The Caucasus And Central Asia.

According to Sotheby’s catalogue notes on Hakobian written by Sabina Sadova. “Hakobyan introduced a new facet to Armenian art, a facet that makes him powerful from colorists.”

Sotheby’s catalogue also notes: “His palette is calm and dominated by muted ochres and brown hues. His linear, mostly vertical calculated compositions convey feelings of displacement, nostalgia and muteness. Hakobyan’s motifs contain none of the traditional Armenian elements as established by Saryan, though the feelings expressed by his works intimately reflect the feelings of Armenians towards their land and their turbulent past. His works exude a very contemporary feel.”

“…there is a language of symbols that the artist develops in order to construct his own version of Armenian national identity. The road is a symbol that carries a special meaning to the Armenian people. It illustrates the history of frequent and forced resettlement that shaped Armenian identity. The mathematical precision of Hakobyan’s art is perhaps as important for its understanding as the symbols he uses. The road and the pole are present in most of Hakobyan’s landscapes in both his early and late periods.”

PASADENA, CA – - On February 15-17, the Union International de Organisations Terre et Culture (UIOTC)/ Land and Culture Organization (LCO) chapters from France, the United States, Armenia, and the United Kingdom held this year’s annual meeting at the Armenian Center of Sourp Hagop Church in Geneva, Switzerland. The board discussed the successful completion of its 2012 projects and plans for the upcoming 2013 campaigns. Also during the weekend, members of the Swiss Armenian community attended a fundraising dinner and cultural program at the Armenian Center for a presentation about the OTC/LCO mission and its projects.

During the 2012 summer campaign, over 50 volunteers from Armenia, Canada, England, France, and Nagorno Karabakh worked on two sites. One group went north to the Shirakamut village, near the epicenter of the 1988 earthquake, to work on the renovation of the historic 7th Century Tchitchkhanavank Monastery, and another group went south to finalize work on the 1771 Sourp Astvatzatzin Church near the pagan era caves in Old Goris as part of the Goris-Vienne sister city project which started in 2009.

Goris’ Sourp Astvatsadzin Church Pre LCO Renovation

This summer LCO will launch a new project in the village of Shikahogh (sheg hokh/red soil) in the southern Syunik region near the city of Kapan and near the Armenian-Azeri border. It is located by the dense Shikahogh State Reserve, Armenia’s second largest forest reserve. Volunteers will live in the village while renovating the 16th Century Sourp Stepanos Nakhavegah Church which has inscriptions from the 13th Century. The church is in a state of collapse from years of neglect during Soviet era. Work will also continue at the Tchitchkhanavank site.

This summer’s campaign dates will be July 22-August 18. As LCO volunteers experience first-hand living in a rural Armenian village setting, they work on the historical restoration project during the week and discover historical Armenian sites on the weekends.

For over 35 years, LCO has been one of the earliest volunteer groups in Armenia and Karabakh working to restore, renovate, and rejuvenate the historical monuments and sites of our nation. It has performed this mission through its summer campaigns, by volunteers of every age from the Diaspora and Armenia. To learn more about LCO or join in our summer volunteer program, you may reach us at www.lcousa.org.

YEREVAN – Visisting President of the German Bundestag Norbert Lammert and his delegation, accompanied by the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia Hermine Naghdalyan, paid a visit to Tsitsernakaberd Hill dedicated to the memory of the Armenian Genocide victims. The German guests placed wreaths near the memorial of the innocent victims and flowers near the unquenchable fire. Among other things Norbert Lammert stated: “My visit to this place is one of the most emotional elements. There are a number of similar places in my country and throughout the world too. They wouldn’t be erected, if not those events, which these monuments symbolize now.”

The Director of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute Hayk Demoyan introduced the samples of the museum to the President of the German Bundestag Norbert Lammert. Among other things the President of the German Bundestag left a note in the memorial book.

Norbert Lammert has met with President Serzh Sarkisian during his official visit to Armenia. The President emphasized the importance of high-level mutual visits in the respect of the development of bilateral relations and noted that Armenia is interested in the steadfast and perpetual development of the cooperation with the Federal Republic of Germany.

Lammert congratulated Sarkisian on his re-election and whished him success.

According to him, relations with Armenia have traditionally been good and friendly, which creates a solid basis and good prerequisites for enhancing cooperation between the parliaments.
Mr Norbert Lammert assessed his meetings and negotiations at the RA National Assembly as efficient and promoting the bilateral dialogue.

WINNETKA — On Friday, March 22nd, 2013 at 8:00 PM, the Organization of Istanbul Armenians Executive Board, along with the cooperation of its Cultural and Mekhitarian Alumni Committees, is organizing a lecture / discussion session concerning Armenian Genocide Research and Study Programs in USA. During the event, the direction and progress of these study programs will be discussed as well as the achievements and failures.

The keynote speaker will be historian and sociologist Prof. Taner Akcam, Kaloosdian / Mugar Chair of Armenian Genocide Studies at Clark University and the discussant of the event will be political sciences Prof. Richard Hrair Dekmejian, Director of USC Institute of Armenian Studies.

Clark University is the only University in USA, where a graduate program is being offered researching the Armenian Genocide through training doctoral candidates. Students in this program are promising scholars and future professionals who are crucial to the historical understanding of the Armenian genocide studies. The mandate of the university is to fund graduate student fellowships, host conferences with first-rate scholars, and advance significant research on the Armenian Genocide in order to attract first-rate students to complete their PhD in this discipline. On the other hand, in order to keep pace with this demanding level of study and training, doctoral candidates require adequate financial support in order to maintain the momentum of their research and education far into the future.

The main scope and purpose of organizing this kind of a lecture is to create in our community a deep understanding and awareness about the Armenian Genocide Research and Study Programs in USA. We believe that this understanding and awareness will generate interest and support around this program and will encourage other universities to follow course.

Furthermore, it may provide a real opportunity for all of those who are really concerned, to extend their economic support to help the enhancement and the promotion of the task for our future scholars. We have to sow new seeds for our cause to create a better understanding and recognition globally, towards the first genocide of the XXth century.

Therefore, Organization of Istanbul Armenians cordially invites all Armenians to attend this important lecture / discussion that will be presented by two professors in our organization’s center. Admission is free and a reception will follow the lecture. OIA Center is located at 19726 Sherman Way, Winnetka, CA 91306.

TORONTO — The International Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies (A Division of the Zoryan Institute) (“IIGHRS”) is pleased to announce that the Genocide and Human Right University Program (“GHRUP”), now in its twelfth year, will take place in Toronto August 5-16, 2013. This year the Institute welcomes a new faculty member, Prof. David MacDonald, who will teach the unit on “The Genocide of Indigenous Peoples,” referring primarily to the native peoples of North and South America.

George Shirinian, Executive Director of the Institute, noted that “The field of Genocide and Human Rights Studies is vast, and it is not possible to cover every case of genocide in the time available. Therefore, we do rotate some of the subjects, and I am pleased that we will be examining the experience of the Native Peoples in this regard. Many people feel that it is a current and ongoing case of genocide.”

Prof. MacDonald has outlined the subject in the following way. “Indigenous peoples, also known as ‘Aboriginal Peoples,’ ‘First Nations,’ ‘Native Peoples,’ and collectively as the ‘Fourth World,’ have faced cultural destruction, forced removal from ancestral lands, deliberate killing, theft of children, and genocide, for centuries. This unit examines the genocidal experiences of selected indigenous peoples of both North and South America, with particular reference to the impact and ongoing legacies of settler colonialism. In addition to case studies, definitions of genocide and the usefulness of the UN Genocide Convention to indigenous peoples will also be discussed.”
David B. MacDonald is Associate Professor of Political Science and chair of his department’s graduate program at the University of Guelph. He has a PhD in International Relations from the London School of Economics, and has held faculty positions (as a tenured Senior Lecturer) at the University of Otago, New Zealand (2002-7), and at the ESCP Graduate School of Management Paris (1999-2002). He is the author of three books on genocide. He is also involved with Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and has contributed work on the question of genocide in the Indian Residential School system.

Now counting over 300 graduates from at least 20 different countries, the GHRUP strives to achieve multiple goals: to encourage the development of a new generation of young scholars to take up the study of genocide professionally at an advanced level; to illuminate the causes of genocide, the way it takes place, and its devastating impact; to bring a measure of healing and relief to various communities through the sharing of great trauma of many peoples; to study and teach in an interdisciplinary manner; to employ a comparative perspective in examining cases of genocide, such as the Jewish Holocaust, Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, Kosovo, Darfur, with the Armenian Genocide as a point of reference as the prototype of modern genocide; and to use this comparative approach to identify the characteristics of genocide so that it becomes predictable and in turn hopefully preventable.
Classes run for 6.5 hrs per day, resulting in a total of 65 hrs of seminar-style instruction during the course. Applicants must be current university students with three years or more of undergraduate experience. Limited scholarships are available for qualified students. The deadline for application is May 31, 2013. International students are strongly urged to apply as soon as possible to avoid any complications with obtaining a visa. In addition to the academic portion of the program, social activities are planned for after class, evenings and weekends, which allow students to establish lasting connections and relationships with like-minded individuals.

The syllabus, registration information, faculty biographies, and more are available on the program’s web site, www.genocidestudies.org. For further information, contact:
International Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies
(A Division of the Zoryan Institute)
phone: 416-250- 9807, email: admin@genocidestudies.org

YEREVAN — Opposition leader Raffi Hovannisian on Monday appealed to Armenia’s Constitutional Court to annul the official results of the February 18 presidential election and declare him its rightful winner.

Hovannisian’s representatives presented the court with a 16-page document containing purported evidence of widespread electoral fraud. The panel of nine judges has to consider and rule on the appeal within 10 days.

“We believe that there are legal grounds [to scrap the official results] and it’s now up to the court to decide,” Karen Mezhlumian, a legal counselor to Hovannisian, told reporters outside the court building in Yerevan. He said the opposition candidate submitted documentary evidence of “numerous violations.”

The Constitutional Court received similar appeals from opposition contenders after the previous Armenian presidential elections and rejected all of them. Hence, widespread skepticism in the opposition ranks about Hovannisian’s last-minute decision to request a judgment by the court.

“This is no substitute for political struggle,” said Hovsep Khurshudian, Hovannisian’s spokesman. “But this is a chance for the Constitutional Court to establish itself as an [independent] institution and for its members to clean themselves of the legitimization of the past fraudulent elections.”

Khurshudian made it clear that Hovannisian will carry on his street protests. His next Yerevan rally is scheduled for Tuesday. Hovannisian invited Sarkisian on Saturday to come to that rally and present a “public report.”

YEREVAN — The family of Armenian army officer Gurgen Markarian, who was hacked to death in Budapest nine years ago has sued Hungary and Azerbaijan in connection with the recent release of his convicted Azerbaijani murderer, it was announced on Friday.

Armenia’s Justice Ministry said the relatives of Markarian, as well as another Armenian officer who also took part in a NATO training course in the Hungarian capital in 2004 have filed a joint lawsuit to the European Court of Human Rights.

Top ministry officials said they want the Strasbourg court to rule that the Hungarian government’s decision last August to extradite the convict, Ramil Safarov, to Azerbaijan and his ensuing release and glorification by Baku ran counter to the European Convention on Human Rights. The plaintiffs specifically cited two provisions of the convention that uphold a person’s right to life and forbid any ethnic or religious discrimination.

A court in Budapest convicted Safarov of ax-murdering his sleeping Armenian colleague and sentenced him to life imprisonment in 2006. The Azerbaijani lieutenant now aged 35 received a hero’s welcome in Baku on August 31 following his extradition from Hungary and immediate pardoning by President Ilham Aliyev. He was promoted to the rank of major, granted a free apartment and paid eight years’ worth of back pay the following day.
Safarov’s release provoked a furious reaction from Armenia and strong international criticism. Armenia suspended diplomatic relations with Hungary in protest.

Ax-murderer Ramil Safarov

Deputy Justice Minister Ruben Melikian said the Armenian government could get involved in judicial proceedings in Strasbourg at a later stage if the European Court agrees to rule on the lawsuit. “We have the right to get involved in the proceedings as a third party,” he told a news conference.

Melikian could not say if the plaintiffs are also seeking material compensation from Budapest and Baku. Asked what the Yerevan government’s expectations from the case are, he said, “In general, there are different ways of implementing [Strasbourg court] rulings. They include the restoration of the situation that existed before a violation [of the European Convention.]”

“The European Court of Human Rights has never dealt with such a disgraceful breach of international law before,” added Melikian. “It is simply unprecedented.”
Markarian’s family members and their lawyers could not be immediately reached for comment.

YEREVAN (Tert.am) — Today marks the fifth anniversary of the March 1, 2008 post-electoral unrest that later developed into violent clashes between the protesting crowd and the police, leaving 10 people dead and scores of others injured.

Dissatisfied with the outcomes of the 2008 presidential election, hundreds of Armenians were holding protest demonstrations in Yerevan’s Liberty Square in late February. The crowd was led by first President Levon Ter-Petrosian who later became the head of the opposition alliance Armenian National Congress. The last days of the protests saw tents in the square with the names of different administrative regions of Armenia.

Following the calls of Nikol Pashinian, an opposition activist and the editor-in-chief of the Haykakan Zhamanak newspaper, the crowd was rallying round-the-clock, periodically cleaning the square of dirt and rubbish.
A Wikileaks cable released two years later said that the then president, Robert Kocharian, sanctioned special police operations in the area after the police forces and special services gave assurances for clearing the square of opposition activists within just a couple of minutes.

The leaked cable, dated March 10, 2008, was written by Dr. Joseph Pennington, a deputy US ambassador to Armenia, who revealed details of a secret meeting with Garnik Isagulian, Kocharian’s security advisor.
According to the diplomat, Isagulian had admitted that the police operations were sanctioned by the second president.

Early in the morning on March 1, police officers assaulted the peaceful crowd in the square on allegations of finding weapons, arm supplies and Molotov cocktails. Most protesters, including women, were being beaten in the vicinities.

A spontaneous protest erupted hours later in Myasnikian Square (outside the French and Russian Embassies) where the crowd dispersed from Liberty Square had gathered together to continue the rally. The police were redeployed in the area by the afternoon.

The atmosphere was growing tense, with several buses being turned over and rumors circulating that a child had been shot to death in Liberty Square early in the morning.
Rumors about deaths emerged a day later, but no exact number was reported.

Days later it became clear that the violent clashes has claimed the lives of 10 people, with eight being civilians. More than 200 received bodily injuries with different degrees of gravity. Over 100 activists were jailed following the turmoil. The deceased were Tigran Khachatrian, Gor Kloian, Grigor Gevorgian, David Petrosian, Armen Farmanian, Zakar Hovhannisian, Samvel Haurutyunian, Hamlet Tadevosian, Hovhannes Hovhannisian and Tigran Abgarian.

Myasnikian Square hosted a commemoration ceremony loday. A crowd headed by the leader of the opposition Heritage party, Raffi Hovhannisian and the opposition Armenian National Congress layed flowers at the Myasnikian statue to remember the victims.

Following the March 2008 events, Armenian directors Tigran Paskevichian and Ara Shirinian produced the documentary Armenia: Lost Spring, to describe the tragic developments. The film is presented below.

STEPANAKERT — The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic issued a statement on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Sumgait pogroms.

“Mass murders and pogroms of Armenians took place from 27 to 29 February, 1988 in Sumgait, a city located less than 30 kilometers away from the Azeri capital Baku. For three days, upon the silent agreement of the authorities and complete inaction of the law enforcement agencies people were being murdered, raped and maimed for the mere reason of being Armenian. Dozens of killed, hundreds of maimed and thousands of Armenians expelled from Sumgait became the first victims of Azerbaijan’s policy of terror aimed at the Armenians of Karabakh who in the preceding week had officially declared their intention to exercise their right to self-determination. In spite of the peaceful and legitimate nature of those manifestations in Nagorno Karabakh, Azerbaijan from the very beginning rejected dialogue, resorted to the language of threats and intimidation and pursued policy of violent oppression of the free will of the people of Artsakh.

Unfortunately, the Sumgait massacre has not received an adequate political and legal assessment of the international community yet. Moreover, silencing the truth about the Sumgait tragedy, concealing its true causes, and the impunity granted to its masterminds paved the way for ethnic cleansing carried out throughout Azerbaijan. It reached its climax during the bloody massacres and mass deportations of Armenians of Baku in January 1990, which later led to a full-scale military aggression against the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.

The tragic events in Sumgait laid the fertile ground and contributed to the further development of the zealous hatred towards Armenians and anything Armenian continuously and successively implanted in Azerbaijan and its society.

In today’s Azerbaijan, despite the international community’s calls to prepare its population for peace instead of war, xenophobia, intolerance and belligerence are being spread. Anyone in Azerbaijan, who stands for building any bridges to Armenians is severely intimidated and ostracized by the Government. At the same time, the Azeri officer, who was convicted in Hungary to a life sentence for the brutal Sumgait-type murder of the fellow Armenian classmate, is being glorified as a national hero and role model for youth.

25 years later we pay tribute to the innocent victims of the Sumgait tragedy, and call on the international community to express its firm and unambiguous position in relation to that crime against humanity. A clear and unequivocal assessment of those mass murders and pogroms and condemnation of the forces behind them will both prevent the recurrence of such crimes and contribute to the moral improvement of the Azeri society.”

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenian Republic Edward Nalbandian has given an exclusive interview to the Austrian news agency. Following is the full text of interview.

- Mr. Minister, efforts aimed at establishment of peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan made during years have been in vain. How one can reach a result in those negotiations?

- Azerbaijan refuses all suggestions of Minsk group Co-Chairs, Russia, USA and France regarding the peaceful resolution of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. It refuses even initiations aimed at trust strengthening, including strengthening of ceasefire, withdrawal of snipers and creation of investigation mechanism on the violation of ceasefire. They have an illusion that with the help of revenues from petrol and gas they can buy everything: friends on international arena and beneficial resolutions for them. Why the settlement process hasn’t succeeded till now. Because international community and Azerbaijan speak different languages. While we have gathered in Vienna to promote the dialogue between civilizations, civilizational abyss between Azerbaijan and international community is deepening. Higher officials of Azerbaijan propagate intolerance, hatred, war and proclaim racist murderers as heroes. And what about supporters of peace and solidarity, like in Akram Ailisli’s case, they threaten to cut off his ear.

- Doesn’t NKR issue in some point depend on such regional country as Turkey, which has a partial position regarding the conflict?

- It does, Turkey is unilaterally advocating Azerbaijan. And naturally it cannot have the role of mediator in this process. If Turkey has a willing to promote peaceful settlement, it would be better, not to intervene in this process at all. The reason that the peaceful settlement hasn’t been reached till now is the destructive policy of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijani side believes that use of force, military resolution may be a possible option. Though, of course, war is not a resolution and there is no other option but negotiating process.

- It seemed there was a tendency for the settlement of Armenian-Turkish relations in 2009. Appropriate protocols haven’t been ratified by Ankara. What was the reason of the failure?

- We reached an agreement. Armenian-Turkish protocols were signed in Zurich, nevertheless, Turkish side refused to ratify and implement those agreements. Actually, Turkey refuses the most important pacta sund servant principle of international relations, that agreements have to be respected. Positions of Armenia and international community are the same-Turkey should respect agreements, ratify and implement protocols without any preconditions.

- Why are You demanding Turkey to recognize Armenian Genocide committed about 100 years ago?

- In this issue we are responsible to humanity, in order to prevent repetitions of new genocides, crimes against humanity. Genocides must be recognized, condemned, their denial must not be tolerated. This is the way. This is not only the issue of Armenian nation, but of the all humankind. This is an issue of respect for fundamental human rights and international law.

- Austria hasn’t qualified those Turkish actions as Genocide till nowadays. Are you disappointed?

- We hope that Austria, as well as other countries of Europe and world will recognize it.

- What about the progress over negotiations on Association Agreement with the European Union?

- We have recorded a visible progress over negotiation on Association Agreement, including negotiations on establishment of deep and comprehensive free trade zone. We hope to complete negotiations till Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius in November. We signed visa facilitation regime agreement with EU on December, so that EU citizens may visit Armenia without visa.

- According to evaluations of OSCE observers, presidential elections of Armenia, held on February, were generally free and fair. Though observers have pointed out some shortcomings mainly the issue of separation of state institutions and the ruling party.

-You are right; observers have given positive evaluations to the elections. They were unanimous that elections were an important step forward. Suggestions on improvements of election process were also made. We will attentively examine the proposals and will initiate all needed steps in order to implement appropriate reforms aimed at the improvement of electoral system.
Important reforms have been implemented in Armenia recently, in a result of which, our country has leading positions in some international rankings, including freedom of press, business environment and other spheres. We are determined to continue the reform process.

ARMENPRESS

PARIS — French MP, author of the bill criminalizing the denial of the Armenian Genocide, Valerie Boyer said she will never visit Turkey because of threats she receives, Turkish Milliyet reports.

This year she presented two bills one of them relating to criminalizing the denial of the Armenian Genocide, the other offers creation of a commission to investigate the decision of the French Constitutional Council to recognize the bill unconstitutional.

She said the Turkish government has disrespected her and threatened. She said there are many videos in YouTube containing bad words and disrespect in her address.

“I am glad I do not understand Turkish. But my family and I have received threats in French, I was forced to live under police protection for a while. I am deputy head of Armenian-French friendship group. I will continue my fight for punishing the denial of the Armenian Genocide,” she said.

The French MP said she previously visited Turkey but now she does not want as she will endanger her life there. Boyer said even if the Turkish government promises to guarantee her safety she will not take the risk.

“The government did not kill Hrant Dink, while it is not known who did it,” she said, adding that besides threats she is also receiving supportive messages from Turkey.
“There are still people in Turkey who believe in human rights,” she said.

ANN ARBOR, MI — The University of Michigan’s Armenian Studies Program is pleased to announce that playwright, novelist, and actor Eric Bogosian will deliver the 2013 Berj H. Haidostian Annual Distinguished Lecture on Wednesday, March 13, 7:00 pm. Bogosian will discuss how his decision to write a screenplay about the 1915 assassination in Berlin of the Ottoman Grand Vazir, Talat Pasha, led him to write a non-fiction history of the Nemesis assassins and their context. He has dedicated the last five years to the study of Armenian and Turkish history, interviewing prominent historians around the world, translating primary texts from Armenian, French, and German, and conducting primary research in the British archives. He will talk about his public experience as a writer, as well as the private and personal self.

Eric Bogosian has most recently starred with Laura Linney on Broadway in Donald Margulies’ Time Stands Still. He wrote and starred in the play Talk Radio (NYSF, 1987; Broadway with Liev Schreiber, 2007), for which he received Pulitzer Prize and Tony award nominations. For his film adaptation of the play, Bogosian received the Berlin Film Festival Silver Bear Award. In addition to Talk Radio, Bogosian has written a number of full-length plays including subUrbia (LCT, Second Stage, adapted to film), Griller (Goodman), Red Angel (Williamstown Theater Festival), Humpty Dumpty (The McCarter), and 1+1 (New York Stage and Film). He is also the author of three novels—Mall, Wasted Beauty, and Perforated Heart—and a novella, Notes from Underground. As an actor, Bogosian has appeared in numerous films and television programs, starring in Robert Altman’s The Caine Mutiny Court Martial, Oliver Stone’s Talk Radio, Under Siege II, Wonderland, and as Captain Danny Ross on Law & Order: Criminal Intent. His six solo Off-Broadway performances between 1980 and 2000—including Drinking in America; Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll; and Wake Up and Smell the Coffee—received three Obie awards. He lives in New York with his wife, director Jo Bonney.

The Haidostian Annual Distinguished lectureship was established by the family of the late Dr. Berj Haidostian, a prominent and devoted physician in Michigan. The Haidostian family has a long and continuing relationship with the University of Michigan and the Armenian Studies Program. Every year, together with the Armenian Studies Program faculty they select a speaker from among internationally recognized experts on Armenia and Armenians. Recent Haidostian Distinguished Lecturers have included the renowned director Atom Egoyan, Dr. Gerard Chaliand of Paris, Dr. Fiona Hill of the Brookings Institution, Mr. Thomas de Waal of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and Dr. Vartan Gregorian of the Carnegie Foundation.

The lecture is open to the public and will be followed by a question and answer period, and will also be video recorded and posted on our website at www.ii.umich.edu/asp.
LOCATION: Helmut Stern Auditorium, University of Michigan Museum of Art, 525 S. State St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109
SPONSORS: Armenian Studies Program, Arts at Michigan, Department of Screen Arts & Cultures, UMS
WEB LINK: www.ii.umich.edu/asp

YEREVAN — Authorities tightened security at state-run universities in Yerevan on Monday as students boycotted classes and took to the streets to demand a rerun of last week’s presidential election.

The protesters supporting opposition candidate Raffi Hovannisian rallied outside several universities, urging fellow students to join the boycott. “We are calling on you to join this movement,” one of their leaders shouted through a megaphone outside Yerevan State University (YSU), the starting point of the protests.

Chanting “Boycott to classes”, “We are the masters of our country”, “Free, independent student” and with posters “You are taking the dead to vote, to do what?”, students rallied for 20 minutes in front of the State University.
“This [opposition] movement has no concrete political orientation, it’s everybody’s fight,” he said. “We all know well who won these elections. The people won these elections.”

“I’m against vote falsifications. This is my civic position,” another participant told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am).

Several others claimed to have been warned by university administration that they will risk dismissal in case of boycotting classes. “Of course I’m not scared,” one young woman said. “I am not taking unconstitutional actions. I’m not for sale. I’m fighting for my future.”

After the protest the students marched from YSU to other universities, urging other students to join them. The gates of Yerevan State Economics University (YSUE) and Yerevan State Medical universities had been shut down to not let them in. Despite that, a group of male students at YSUE jumped out of the ground-floor auditorium window to join the strike. They marched to their final destination – the Central Election Commission, where the second count of ballots was being summed up at that moment.

The crowd waving Armenian flags and wearing orange ribbons was briefly joined by Hovannisian at one point. The opposition leader hailed the action.

Hovannisian Rejects the Results Will Continue Protest Campaign

YEREVAN — President Serzh Sarkisian was formally declared the winner of Armenia’s February 18 presidential election on Monday amid continuing opposition protests against the official vote results.
The Central Election Commission (CEC) approved and released the final results that show Sarkisian winning 58.6 percent of the vote. His main challenger, Raffi Hovannisian, finished second with 36.8 percent, followed by another opposition candidate, Hrant Bagratian (2.2 percent), according to the CEC.

The figures are practically identical with the CEC’s preliminary vote tally released on February 19. Hovannisian rejected it as fraudulent, saying that he is the rightful winner of the election. He also launched a nationwide campaign of anti-government rallies to demand a rerun of the vote.

The CEC’s pro-government chairman, Tigran Mukuchian, again rejected fraud allegations at a news conference that followed the publication of the final results. He insisted that irregularities reported by observers and opposition proxies were not serious enough to affect the election outcome.

Mukuchain said Sarkisian would still have had enough votes to secure reelection outright even if the CEC had accepted Hovannisian’s demands to invalidate official vote results in 118 precincts. There are about 2,000 such precincts across Armenia.

Hovannisian, meanwhile, maintained that he is the rightful winner of the ballot, denouncing the CEC decision as illegal. “CEC members must be brought to responsibility in the strictest way for their clearly unlawful and antidemocratic behavior. Possessing the entire information, they have done nothing, and, therefore, they must bear responsibility for that,” emphasized Hovannisian at a press conference held shortly after the announcement by the election body.

Hovannisian also announced that he is likely to ask the Constitutional Court to scrap the official figures and call a repeat election. “I will do everything to ensure that the people are not disappointed and don’t back away,” he said. “And I don’t exclude that before we will appeal to the Constitutional Court the March 2 [legal] deadline.”

The U.S.-born oppositionist, who had served as Armenia’s first foreign minister, pledged to continue his nationwide protests at a rally held in Yerevan’s Liberty Square on Sunday. He told several thousand people demonstrating there that he will tour three more Armenian provinces this week before staging a massive “national rally” in the capital on Thursday. He earlier urged supporters to prepare for a “prolonged struggle.”
Hovannisian on Monday also divulged more details of his surprise meeting with Sarkisian held last Thursday. He said the incumbent urged him to stop challenging the official vote results and start preparing for the next national elections “as the leader of the opposition.”

“I don’t need that. The Armenian people and their young generations will have asserted their constitutional rights by 2017-2018,” he said, adding that Sarkisian did not offer him any power-sharing deals.
Hovannisian said on Friday that Sarkisian rejected his calls for the holding of fresh presidential or parliamentary elections.

WASHINGTON, DC — Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) has sent a letter to the President of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic Bako Sahakian congratulating the people of Artsakh on the 25th anniversary of the National-Liberation Movement. In the letter, Rep. Schiff praises the Karabakh people’s courage as they pursue freedom and self-determination in the face of unremitting threats by Azerbaijan.

The full letter from Schiff is below:
Dear Mr. President:

I am writing to congratulate you, the people and government of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic on the 25th anniversary of the national liberation movement. A quarter century ago the people of Artsakh raised their voices for freedom and dignity and against Soviet communism and ethnic intolerance.

Artsakh’s path forward has not been easy and it is a tribute to you and your people that the trials of the past did not break your will and determination. The tragedy of Sumgait and other Azerbaijani cities 25 years ago, proved the righteousness of Nagorno Karabakh’s choice to survive and preserve its identity by establishing a sovereign democracy.

You have my support as you work to strengthen your democracy, and I will continue to stand with the people of Artsakh in their struggle towards international recognition. I join you today in looking forward to the day when Artsakh will achieve the recognition it deserves among the community of nations.

Sincerely,
Adam B. Schiff
Member of Congress

YEREVAN — Opposition presidential candidate Raffi Hovannisian vowed to continue and expand his street protests against official results of Armenia’s presidential election as he again rallied thousands of supporters in Yerevan on Friday.

Addressing the crowd in the city’s Liberty Square, he also revealed that President Serzh Sarkisian rejected his compromise proposals made at their meeting on Thursday.
Hovannisian said he proposed that the Armenian authorities call a repeat election. “The answer was ‘no,’” he said.

Hovannisian said he then suggested that Sarkisian agree to snap parliamentary elections that would “return power to the people.” “What do you think was the answer? No,” he said.

“I have nothing to say to these de facto authorities anymore,” the U.S.-born opposition leader continued, pledging to carry on with his campaign of peaceful demonstrations and extend it to other parts of Armenia. He said he will rally supporters in Armenia’s second city of Gyumri and three major towns on Saturday before holding another demonstration in downtown Yerevan on Sunday.

“This popular struggle will not die down. We will achieve victory,” Hovannisian added to rapturous applause.

Hovannisian also repeated his appeal to the people to remain peaceful and abide by a constitutional means of reaching resolution.

Earlier in the day the Heritage Party leader held separate meetings with U.S. Ambassador to Armenia John Heffern and Ambassador Heidi Tagliavini, the head of the OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission, to discuss the post-election situation in Armenia. No other details of the meetings have been reported.

YEREVAN — The governor of Armenia’s northwestern Shirak province where President Serzh Sarkisian was defeated by his main opposition challenger, Raffi Hovannisian, stepped down on Friday.

According to official results of Monday’s presidential election, Shirak was the only Armenian region where Sarkisian failed to win a majority of votes. In particular, he suffered an unexpectedly crushing defeat in Gyumri, the regional capital and the country’s second largest city. Hovannisian won almost 70 percent of the vote there.

Ashot Gizirian, a former senior police official who has governed Shirak since 2010, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) that he tendered resignation on his own. He declined to specify if the move was connected with the election result in the province bordering Turkey and Georgia. He promised to elaborate on it on Monday.

But in separate remarks to the online version of the “168 Zham” newspaper, Gizirian acknowledged such a connection. “I conceded my defeat and tendered resignation. Let Raffi now concede his defeat [in the overall election,]” he said.

Provincial governors in Armenia are appointed by the central government.

Sarkisian’s reelection campaign in Shirak was managed by Sahak Minasian, head of the education department in the provincial administration. Minasian sought to put a brave face on Sarkisian’s performance there, saying that the incumbent president prevailed in most rural communities and trailed Hovannisian in the provincial vote tally only because of Gyumri.

The nationwide vote results also showed Hovannisian defeating the incumbent in several other major urban centers across Armenia, notably Vanadzor, the country’s third largest city. Samvel Darpinian, Vanadzor’s pro-Sarkisian mayor, reportedly rebuked local voters for the president’s defeat on Thursday, saying that they are “unconscious.”

The remarks were denounced by opposition activists in Vanadzor as well as some media outlets in Yerevan.

Darpinian responded to the outcry on Friday, accusing the media of distorting his remarks. At the same time he admitted that he “may have used an incorrect word.” “Perhaps we are to blame for not managing to convey all the work that has been done [by the government] in the last five years to the consciousness of every Vanadzor resident during the election campaign,” he said in a written statement.

LOS ANGELES — The prestigious Los Angeles Travel and Adventure Show is featuring for the third time, the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Karabakh (Artsakh). Both countries made their first appearance at the show in 2010, leaving a lasting impression on thousands of visitors.

The joint Armenia-Artsakh booth will feature some of Armenia’s major travel companies while offering information guides, films, video clips as well as cultural performances and national delights to its visitors. Yerevan, the capital city of Armenia—also a sister city of Los Angeles— will be prominently featured at the booth exemplifying the artistic and cultural diversity of Armenia.

In addition to tourism professionals, Armenian artists and celebrities will also be present to greet the visitors. Armenia and Artsakh’s joint participation at the Travel and Adventure Show is co-sponsored by the National Competitiveness Foundation of Armenia, the Consulate General of the Republic of Armenia in Los Angeles and the Artsakh Tourism Board.

Matthew Karanian and Robert Kurkjian, authors of Armenia’s first-ever commercial travel guidebook, will also be present and signing the new edition of Armenia’s best selling travel guide, The Stone Garden Travel Guide: Armenia and Karabakh.

The third edition of the book contains 320 pages, featuring 27 color maps and more than 150 color photographs. In addition to the new artwork, the book also features a never-before published map of historic Armenia, which was created shortly after the Genocide. The highly acclaimed book is Award Finalist for Best Travel Guide by the Independent Publishers Association.

Author-photographer Matthew Karanian and photographer Robert Kurkjian have each spent more than a decade traveling and working in Armenia. Their writing and photography about Armenia has collectively been featured in magazines and newspapers including the CNN Traveler magazine, Global Adventure and Photo Life.

The Los Angeles Travel Show will be held on February 22rd and 24th 2013 at the LA Convention Center: 1201 South Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, CA 90015. The “Armenia/Artsakh” booths will be located at space 1225.

YEREVAN — Raffi Hovannisian, the main opposition candidate in the Armenian presidential election, rallied thousands of supporters in Yerevan on Wednesday to again reject the official vote results as fraudulent and demand President Serzh Sarkisian’s resignation.

The rally began in the city’s Liberty Square immediately after the expiry of a deadline that was set by Hovannisian for the reelected incumbent.

Hovannisian, who has declared himself the rightful election winner, demanded on Tuesday that Sarkisian meet and discuss with him “the transfer of power to the Armenian people.” He reiterated that demand as he addressed the crowd chanting “Victory!” and “President!” on Wednesday. He also repeatedly referred to Monday’s ballot as a “stolen election.”

Speaking earlier in the day, the presidential press secretary, Armen Arzumanian, said Sarkisian is ready to receive the U.S.-born opposition leader in the presidential palace “at any time.” “The president of the republic has always been ready to meet with the leaders of all political forces in every case of necessity,” Arzumanian said.

During the rally, Hovannisian signaled his intention to launch a campaign of street protests, urging supporters to brace themselves for a “prolonged struggle.”

“We will wait here until 2 p.m. tomorrow or as much as necessary to meet him and hold a ceremony of the transfer of power right here in Liberty Square,” Hovannisian said. “We must stay here until victory. This time it won’t be a moral victory. It will be a real victory.”

In his speech, Hovannisian also appealed to other opposition forces to join his movement. Some prominent opposition figures rushed to express support for his cause at the rally. Those included Nikol Pashinian, a parliament deputy who played a major role in the 2008 post-election protests staged by another opposition leader, Levon Ter-Petrosian.

“The triumph of the Armenian citizen is unstoppable and the victory of the people inevitable,” Pashinian told the enthusiastic crowd, calling Hovannisian the legitimate election winner.
But Pashinian cautioned that the success of the movement will depend on Hovannisian’s “determination” and ability to “address the people without puzzles.” “The people of Armenia cannot be led to a defeat or disappointment. Victory or northing! Victory and nothing else!” declared the outspoken oppositionist.

STEPANAKERT — February 20th marks the 25th anniversary of the Nagorno Karabakh Liberation Movement. On February 20, 1988, reflecting the will of local population, Karabakh’s legislature petitioned Soviet leadership bodies of Azerbaijan and Armenia to transfer the autonomy from Soviet Azerbaijan to Soviet Armenia, aiming to correct Stalin’s self-willed decision of 1921.

“Our nation’s struggle against foreign yoke, nearly seven decades of persistent violence and oppression was at the very basis of the 1988 Movement”, said President of Artsakh Bako Sahakyan on this occasion.
25 years ago, Karabakh’s aspirations were fiercely opposed by the central Soviet authorities, who tried to suppress the first truly democratic movement in the crumbling USSR. Moscow deployed Soviet troops along with Azerbaijani militia to instill fear and signaling crackdown.

In response to peaceful manifestations in Stepanakert, well-organized Azeri mobs attacked and murdered hundreds of ethnic Armenians in towns and villages throughout Azerbaijan, including Sumgait, Baku and Kirovabad (former Armenian Gandzak).

By 1991, Azerbaijan launched a full-scale military aggression against Nagorno Karabakh’s demand for freedom, killing thousands and destroying Armenian towns and villages. Resolution 128 by the US Senate (May, 1991) condemned “indiscriminate use of force” by Azerbaijan against “innocent children, women, and men in … communities in and around Nagorno-Karabakh and in Armenia”. (http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c102:S.+Res.+128:)

However, Armenians could defend their houses on the battlefield, and eventually forced the aggressor into a ceasefire, which was signed by Azerbaijan, Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh Republic in May of 1994.
Since then, NKR has been developing as an independent democracy, with effective government and well-functioning civil society.

“All of us, the whole nation will do everything possible for continuous strengthening of our independent statehood that has been reached at such a high price. It is an exclusive value without which it is impossible to think about the immortality and development of the Fatherland and the native people,” President said on the occasion.

ANKARA — Blue Book, which contains eyewitness account of the Armenian Genocide, has been sent to the Turkish parliament by post, Agos reports.

The Turkish publisher Ragip Zarakolu reminded journalists of what happened four years ago.

“Like school students, the MPs were protected from ‘dan-edom there [in Turkish parliament],” he said.

The books, which were delivered four years ago, have been re-sent to the MPs – from Speaker Cemil Çiçek to Ertugrul Kürkçü, a member of the Human Right Committee.

Ara Sarafian, Director of the London-based Gomidas Institute, presented the book. He reminded the journalists that it was written in 1916 by the British Parliament on the basis of eyewitness accounts.

YEREVAN — Armenia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) has finalized the counting of votes from all of 1988 polling stations.

The CEC said that with ballots counted in virtually all nationwide polling stations President Serzh Sarkisian garnered 58.6 percent of the vote in Monday’s presidential election.
Raffi Hovannisian came in second with 36.7 percent of the vote, followed by another opposition candidate, Hrant Bagratian. The latter got almost 2.2 percent, according to the CEC.
The CEC also said that the voter turnout exceeded 60 percent.

President Serzh Sarkisian

Hovannisian is likely to reject the official results as fraudulent after effectively declaring victory in the ballot in his first public comments made after the closure of the polls. “The Armenian people have won … and I am grateful for the people’s victory,” he told a late-night news conference.
“For the first time in 20 years the citizens have said yes to our constitution, to the rule of law, to democracy and our future,” said the U.S.-born leader of the Zharangutyun (Heritage) party who had served as independent Armenia’s first foreign minister. “This is not about Raffi and Serzh. This is not about Heritage or the [ruling] Republican Party. It’s about the future of the Republic of Armenia.”

“I had the honor in 1992 of raising the Armenian flag at the United Nations,” continued Hovannisian. “That was a great honor for me. But it is a greater honor to accept the mandate of the Armenian people in its first public expression of confidence in its own authority and future so that we may together, in the next five years, put Armenia on the map once again of world civilization, democratic statecraft, rule of law and pursuing the national interests.”
Hovannisian refused to answer any questions from journalists, saying that he will elaborate on his stance at a rally on Tuesday evening.

Raffi Hovannisian

Hovannisian’s campaign spokesman, Hovsep Khurshudian, challenged the credibility of the first CEC figures, saying that the opposition candidate won in dozens of constituencies across the country. “We have results from 42 precincts which strangely do not coincide with the CEC’s preliminary data from 21 or 22 precincts,” Khurshudian told journalists. Hovannisian got as much as 68 percent of the vote in those areas, he said.

Media reports likewise listed scores of precincts in Yerevan as well as central and northern Armenia where official results showed Hovannisian defeating the incumbent president.
Khurshudian accused the Armenian authorities of pressuring election officials not to publicize vote protocols certifying the opposition victory. He also alleged fraudulent ballot counting in some precincts.

The CEC did not immediately comment on these allegations. But the Sarkisian campaign was quick to respond to Hovannisian’s declaration of victory. In a written statement cited by Armenian news agencies, Davit Harutiunian, the incumbent’s deputy campaign manager, urged Hovannisian to “accept the results and move on.” “I am sure that this way we will jointly make history,” he said.

New York, NY—A large throng is expected to participate in the 98th Anniversary Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide to be held in Times Square (43rd St. & Broadway) on Sunday, April 21 from 2-4 pm. The organizers invite people of all backgrounds to join together to commemorate the Armenian Genocide and subsequent genocides during Genocide Awareness Month and to speak out against this horrendous crime against humanity.

The theme of the Armenian Genocide Commemoration is “Turkey is Guilty of Genocide: Denying the Undeniable is Criminal.” This historic event will pay tribute to the 1.5 million Armenians who were massacred by the Young Turk Government of the Ottoman Empire and to the millions of victims of subsequent genocides worldwide. Speakers will include civic, religious, humanitarian, educational, cultural leaders, and performing artists. This event is free and open to the public.

Dennis R. Papazian, PhD, immediate past National Grand Commander of Knights of Vartan and Founding Director of the Armenian Research Center at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, and Dr. Mary A. Papazian, President of Southern Connecticut State University, will preside over the ceremonies.

Dr. Dennis Papazian comments, “Recent momentous events encourage me to believe that the long vigil of the Armenian people waiting for recognition of their genocide by the Turkish government may be coming to a positive conclusion. An influential Kurdish leader in Turkey, a member of Parliament and vice-president of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Congress, Ahmet Turk, admitted that the Kurdish people played a significant role in the “torture and massacre of Armenians, Assyrians and Yezidis” during the Armenian Genocide and apologized to the Armenian people. Turk stated, “Our grandfathers and fathers were used in the injustices perpetrated against Armenians, Assyrians and Yezidis. There is blood on their hands. With the blood of these peoples they bloodied their own hands. Thus, as their children and grandchildren, we apologize.”

Dr. Papazian continues, “A second momentous event was the publication of a book in Turkey entitled “The Armenian Genocide” by Hasan Cemal, the grandson of Cemal (Jamal) Pasha, one of the three main authors of the Armenian Genocide. Hasan Cemal, a member of the Turkish establishment and a newspaper columnist, began his inquiry into the Armenian Genocide following the killing of Turkish diplomats by a group of young Armenians who went by the name of ASALA. At first, Hasan Cemal supported the official government point of view, and as he became more knowledgeable, finally concluded that indeed there was a genocide of the Armenians perpetrated by the Young Turk party which controlled the Ottoman government in 1915-1923. The book has inspired many members of the Turkish elites to reevaluate their denial of the Armenian Genocide.”

Papazian adds, “Itzak Alaton, the owner of one of the largest corporations in Turkey, urged the Turkish Socio-Economic Research Center to pursue the Turkish recognition of the Armenian Genocide.” “April 24, 1915 is just around the corner,” stated Alaton, “let us change our denialist policies. I am tired of the fear to face our past. Let us raise our voices to our deputies in Ankara and those deputies should raise their voices to their political parties and leaders in order for us to open our skeleton-fill closets.”

Dr. Papazian concludes, “These three significant events which took place without any reprisal from the Turkish government imply that a positive change may be in the air.”

The 98th Commemoration is organized by the Mid-Atlantic chapters of the Knights & Daughters of Vartan, an international Armenian fraternal organization headquartered in the United States, and co-sponsored by Armenian General Benevolent Union, Armenian Assembly of America, Armenian National Committee of America, Armenian Council of America and the Armenian Democratic League-Ramgavars.

Participating Organizations include the Diocese of the Armenian Church of America, Prelacy of the Armenian Church, Armenian Missionary Association of America, Armenian Catholic Eparchy for US and Canada, Mid-Atlantic ACYOA, AYF, Armenian youth organizations, Armenian university and college clubs.

YEREVAN — Armenians voted in a presidential election on Monday which was widely expected to give President Serzh Sarkisian a second five-year term in office.

According to the Central Election Commission (CEC), 60.5% (1,518,407)  of Armenia’s 2.5 million eligible voters cast ballots in 1,988 polling stations across the country by voting closing 8.00pm local time. Sarkisian and his two main opposition challengers, Raffi Hovannisian and Hrant Bagratian, were among the early voters.

But with none of Sarkisian’s serious opposition rivals choosing to stand, election observers expressed concerns over the democratic credentials of the vote.

Officials from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) said they found apathy towards the vote and a lack of confidence about the electoral process among the public when they visited the country in January.

“I voted for Armenia’s future,” Sarkisian said after casting a ballot in central Yerevan. “I voted for a secure Armenia, for the security of our citizens and families.”

Hovannisian, meanwhile, voted at a polling station in Yervan’s Nor Nork district. “Today is the most fateful day in our modern history,” he told reporters. “For the first time in 20 years our people are going to celebrate not somebody’s victory and others’ defeat but the results of elections belonging to themselves.”

Bagratian likewise cited vote buying and other “numerous” irregularities reported by his campaign offices as he visited another polling station in the Armenian capital. He said he is already thinking about “post-election developments.”

During the first several hours of the election observers have reported a number of violations that have been typical for past national elections as well.

Violations connected with the early oxidation of ink stamps in the passports of voters, crowding at polling stations, interference by candidate proxies in the voting process were observed.

Allegations of people being bussed to polling stations have also been made during the current vote. In some cases voters (most of whom are supposed to be residents of nearby buildings) are brought on taxis.

Also voting on Monday was former President Levon Ter-Petrosian, another opposition leader who was Sarkisian’s main challenger in the 2008 presidential election. Ter-Petrosian, who is not running for president this time around, refused to disclose whom he voted for.

“I voted for the Republic of Armenia,” said the leader of the opposition Armenian National Congress (HAK). “I would love to vote for all seven candidates but the law doesn’t allow that,” he added jokingly.

Robert Kocharian, another ex-president who handed over power to Serzh Sarkisian in 2008, did not take part in the voting. His press secretary, Victor Soghomonian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) that Kocharian is not in Armenia at the moment.

An Interview with Dr. Christina Maranci

By Lucine Kasbarian

MEDFORD, MA — Dr. Christina Maranci, Arthur H. Dadian and Ara T. Oztemel Associate Professor of Armenian Art and Architecture at Tufts University in Medford, Mass., has issued a call to save the 7th century Mren Cathedral of Western Armenia, located in the Kars region of present-day Turkey. Prof. Maranci’s areas of expertise include Byzantine art and architecture, and the art and architecture of the Transcaucasus—principally Armenia. She is considered one of the world’s authorities on the Mren Cathedral.
According to Dr. Maranci, “the cathedral of Mren is now in danger of collapse.  Constructed circa 638 AD, Mren is a masterpiece of world art and a product of the ‘Golden Age’ of Armenian architecture. Bearing an inscription naming the Roman emperor Heraclius, and a unique sculpted relief image of Heraclius returning Christendom’s greatest relic­—the True Cross—to Jerusalem, Mren preserves precious material evidence for one of the most dramatic and yet poorly documented moments in history. It is also the largest domed basilica surviving from the region, and a key example of the architectural achievements of the seventh century.”

Prof. Christina Maranci

Dr. Maranci stresses that Mren may not be standing much longer. “Photographs from the 1990s to the first decade of the 21st century show the progressive collapse of the south façade. Now the entire south aisle lies in rubble on the ground, severely compromising the domed superstructure of the monument and opening the interior and its wall paintings to the elements,” she says. “The prospect of stabilizing what is left is at present doubtful, however, because of Mren’s position within a military zone in Eastern Turkey (Kars province) next to the closed Armenian-Turkish border. Visiting the site is forbidden.”
Dr. Maranci is campaigning to raise awareness about Mren’s precarious condition. “Mren has stood for over a millennium, bearing world history on its walls,” she says. Its collapse would represent a tragic loss to human knowledge.”
Following is an interview with Dr. Maranci.
Lucine Kasbarian: For years, scholars and travelers have been unable to obtain official permission to visit this site. When was the last time that architectural experts had access to Mren?
Christina Maranci: The last time anyone was able to do substantial scientific work there was in the 1960s when Nicole and Jean-Michel Thierry visited multiple times. I have never been there although I have tried to get permission.
LK: Observers say that Mren Cathedral seems to rival in size the Great Cathedral of Ani, and contains bas-reliefs and remnants of frescos not unlike those at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Aghtamar.  Is forbidden access the reason why Mren is not as well known as these other two monuments?
CM: Mren and Ani are comparable in size, and Mren probably served as a local model for Ani Cathedral in its domed basilica layout and form, although Ani exhibits typical features of the 10-11th century Armenian architectural tradition. Mren has sculpted bas-reliefs on its portals and over some windows, and preserves fragments of wall painting in the eastern end. However, it bears nothing like the program of figural reliefs at Aght’amar—something that makes this church anomalous even in the Armenian tradition. Aght’amar’s wall painting is also better preserved. But the inaccessibility of Mren surely shaped its scholarly reception and public awareness about it. Toros Toramanyan, known as the father of Armenian architectural historiography, tells us that he himself was only able to visit it for one day.

The cathedral of Mren seen from the north-west

LK: The website VirtualAni.org describes Mren as being one of four structures similar in design and which were likely built around the same time, the other three being the St. Gayane Church—built between 630 and 641 AD at Etchmiadzin; the church of St. John at Bagavan—built between 632 – 639 AD and north of the Lake Van region but now destroyed; and the Odzun Basilica—probably built in the first half of the 7th century AD in the Odzun region of Armenia.  How does Mren compare in historical importance to these other structures?
CM: Gayane is obviously important for its connections to the conversion to Christianity tradition and because of its connections to the Patriarch Ezr, who is thought to have built it. If the church of Bagavan were standing today, it would have been, by far, the largest domed basilica in the region. Odzun is difficult to discuss, because it has been renovated so many times. While it dates to the early medieval period, it is generally thought to have a 9th century phase and perhaps even later ones. Mren is the only one of these monuments that is linked to the broader global world via its epigraphy and sculpture. It speaks directly to the network of relationships between empire, frontier, and local Armenian nobility. There is much more to say but this is a start, one hopes.
LK: Even as Mren is on the brink of collapse, would you say that it is one of the more intact monuments still standing in the Kars/Ani region?
CM: Well, it is hard to say. So many are in danger, so many have collapsed, and so many have been lost to historical record. But it is remarkable in many ways that a 7th century monument, so isolated and in such a seismic area, has survived as well as it has—so far.

Mren Cathedral early 20th century

LK:  How can readers of this interview help bring attention to Mren Cathedral so that scholars and restorers might conduct important inspection and preservation work and so that Mren may become a protected site?
CM: I am in the midst of contacting UNESCO and, of course, nominating the monument to the World Monuments Fund. I will also be organizing a global petition in the very near future. In the meantime, readers who would like to get involved in the campaign to save Mren Cathedral may signal their interest by contacting me at: Christina.Maranci@tufts.edu

ANN ARBOR, MI — Zara Pogossian, Adjunct Professor Department of History & Humanities, John Cabot University, will present a lecture titeled “Women, War, and Social Change in Armenia during the Mongol Domination” on Wednesday, February 20th, organized by Armenian Studies Program at the University of Michigan.

The Mongol conquest of Armenia precipitated social changes that were in motion since the late 10th-early 11th centuries, such as the dissolution of some princely houses, the realignment of others, as well as the rise of new ones. The increased fluidity of social structures especially after the Mongol conquest in the 1230s also affected the position of women in Armenia and we can outline certain transformations that took place with regard to noble women’s role and socio-political position. A careful reading of the sources from the Mongol period, particularly the History of the House of Sisakan by Stepanos Orbelean, allows us to understand women’s history in quite different ways than previously narrated by Armenian authors. Women appear in leadership roles and even in military contexts much more both quantitatively and qualitatively than in previous centuries. In this talk, Professor Pogossian will present source evidence from the 13th century and compare it to the previous time periods. She will then propose some hypotheses as to the influence of the Mongols’ Central Eurasian culture and women on contemporary Armenian culture and social structures.

Zara Pogossian , Adjunct Professor Department of History & Humanities, John Cabot University

Zara Pogossian is a scholar of medieval Armenian history who resides in Rome and teaches at John Cabot University. She holds a Ph.D. in Medieval Studies from Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. Her work has focused on the history of Armenian Cilicia, to which she has contributed by preparing a critical text and a study of the Letter of Love and Concord. In recent years she has carried out extensive research on Armenian apocalyptic traditions from the Cilician and Mongol periods, particularly focusing on Armenian royal ideology and the perception of Mongols and Jews in Armenian apocalyptic texts. Her other research interests include the history of monasticism and asceticism, with a focus on female asceticism in early Christian Armenia, as well as Jewish-Christian-Muslim relations in the middle ages, especially as depicted in Apocalyptic texts. Dr. Pogossian has held a number of prestigious scholarships, including a fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and one from the Käte Hamburger Collegium at the Center for Religious Studies: Study of Dynamics in the History of Religions, University of Bochum (Germany).

Co-sponsors: UCLA Department of History, Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies, Medieval and Early Modern Studies.

The lecture is free and open to the public.
Room 1644, International Institute 1080 South University, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109

By Ragip Zarakolu

Conscience is a distinctive moral quality of mankind. The conscientious, the honest, the righteous or whatever you may choose to call them represent the true pride and honour of a country, but criminals wielding an axe never can!

A writer in Azerbaijan who should have been the pride of his country is presently in mortal danger, and the threat emanates from the President of the country, who is a post-Soviet autocrat. The title of “People’s Writer” of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the associated state award have been rescinded, his author’s pension has been cancelled, and his wife and son have been fired from their jobs.

This writer is Akrem Aylisli, an author, scriptwriter and dramatist who adopted the great Soviet writer Maxim Gorky’s philosophy of the fraternity of peoples at Maxim Gorky Literature Institute in Moscow, dedicated to that great man. He is presently 75 years old, a prolific writer published in many magazines and newspapers. He was elected to the parliament in 2005. His literary life had begun in 1959 with poetry, and continued with stories, plays, scripts and novels. He has also translated many works by humanist writers such as Gabriel G. Marquez, Turgenev and Chinghiz Aitmatov into the Azeri language. His plays have been performed in many former Soviet cities including Yerevan.

Lynch mobs are now mobilized in front of his house, very much like we had once witnessed in Maras and Sivas. An outstanding slogan is «Come and bring your axe!», calling on the Azeri officer Ramil Sahiboglu Seferov who decapitated an Armenian officer called Gurgen Margaryan with an axe in his sleep in 2004, twenty days before they were to return home (*). They were co-trainees in the NATO-sponsored «Partnership for Peace » program in Budapest.

Melahet Ibrahimqizi –an Azeri parliamentarian who had been a part of the delegation flown in to Ankara to talk with parliamentary chairman Köksal Toptan (**), CHP leader Deniz Baykal, MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli, as well as various AKP functionaries, and eventually to block the move altogether when a protocol was signed in 2009 between Armenia and Turkey to normalize relations and open the border – now tries to extend the lynch campaign to Turkey as well, saying in an aggressive speech delivered in the Azeri parliament that Aylisli insults not only Azerbaijanis, but the Turkish nation as a whole. Demands were even made in that parliamentary session that the writer be subjected to a DNA test and that he should be deprived of citizenship.

The reason for all this is the publication of Aylisli’s latest novella “Stone Dreams” in the Russian literary magazine Druzhba Narodov (Fraternity of Peoples). The novella has not even been published in Azeri yet. An enraged mob gathered in front of Aynisli’s home in the capital Baku, shouting “Shame on you, traitor!”, and burning his books, and his portraits with a cross printed on his forehead.

The novella tells the story of two Azeri men who tried to protect their Armenian neighbors from ethnic violence. It also mentions pogroms against Armenians in Sumguit and Baku cities in a vein of conscientious criticism. The novella was actually finished in 2007, but could only be published 5 years later in Russian.
It is interesting to note that an Armenian writer also dealt with the Armenian-Azeri conflict in a conscientious tone –at about the same time— and was awarded a prize in the Republic of Azerbaijan. The Writers Union where he was a member reacted to his acceptance of an Azerbaijani award (though not to his writing of the story itself), whereupon the writer resigned from the Union in protest. However, he never became the target of a hate campaign as is the case in Baku now.

Researcher Sarkis Hatspanian says that the Armenian writer Levon Cavakhyan wrote the story “Kirve” (Godfather) in 2008, saying “Azeris are not my enemy” (***). Azeri writer Ekrem Eynisli – who had said “Armenians are not my enemy” at about the same time – now faces a lynch campaign 5 years later for having uttered the same sentence.

Though invited by Western countries and Russia, Akrem Aynisli takes a proud stance, saying “This is my homeland and I will not leave it”.

I call upon international public opinion as well as the democratic public in Turkey and Azerbaijan to solidarize actively with Akrem Aynisli in order to avert a new murder similar to that committed against Hrant Dink.

Ragip Zarakolu (****)

(*) Seferov was condemned to life imprisonment in Hungary, but Azerbaijan’s president Aliev had him immediately released by presidential pardon on August 31, 2012, when he was extradited to Azerbaijan.
(**) Köksal Toptan was to exercise his powers as Chairman of the Turkish Parliament in 2009 in impounding and returning –at the behest of CHP’s MP Sükrü Elekdag—books sent to members of parliament by the Gomidas Institute, thereby violating the parliamentarians’ freedom to communicate.
(***) facebook.com/notes/sarkis-hatspanian/kirve/489684637733351
(****) Founding Member of Human Rights Association and of Social History Foundation; member of PEN Turkey and of the Writers Union of Turkey; member of Turkish Publishers Association and of the International Committee for the Freedom to Publish; nobel Peace Prize Nominee by Swedish Parliament members and by the French Section of GIT [the International Work Group (GIT) ‘Academic Liberty and Freedom of Research [in Turkey]’ (www.gitfrance.fr and www.gitinitiative . com).” ]

PARIS — New bill criminalizing denial of the Armenian Genocide was introduced to French National Assembly again. Valérie Boyer, representative of the Bouches-du-Rhône Department and five other parliament members representing the Union for a Popular Movement party have drafted the new bill. It is anchored on the European Parliament’s Genocide and military crimes’ denial penalization clause.

The new measure threatens two years of imprisonment and a fine of 45,000 Euros to anyone denying a crime of genocide.

Last year a similar bill was approved by the French Senate and later the Constitutional Court prevented its enactment citing to its contradiction to the freedom of speech.

French President François Hollande has repeatedly pledged to adopt a new law criminalizing denial of the Armenian Genocide.

BAKU — A pro-government party in Azerbaijan has offered a reward to anyone who cuts off the ear of prominent novelist Akram Aylisli, who is under attack from critics of his new book for its sympathetic depiction of Armenians.

Muasir Musafat (Modern Equality) leader Hafiz Haciyev told journalists on February 10 that his party will pay 10,000 manats ($12,700) for the ear of Aylisli.
Aylisli was officially stripped of his “People’s Writer” title and his presidentially-awarded pension last week.

He was also expelled from the Union of Azerbaijani Writers. The actions were taken because of Aylisli’s novel “Stone Dreams,” published in a popular Russian magazine last year.
The furor over the novel sparked a week of protests and book burnings, as well as calls for Aylisli to give up his citizenship.
Aylisli told journalists on February 11 that he might leave the country because of the threat.

The Baku-based Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety (IRFS) issued a statement in which it “strongly condemns” Hajiyev’s “[call] for physical violence against Arkam Aylisli, one of Azerbaijan’s well known authors.” The IRFS described the recent events as a “smear campaign…amid a pre-election crackdown.”

“While IRFS welcomes the Ministry of Interior’s…statement that such calls for violence are unacceptable and that they will be properly investigated, we are dismayed that the blatant attack against Aylisli has not been condemned by the Interior Ministry, Ministry of National Security and Prosecutor General’s Office,” the group said. “IRFS urges…government agencies to urgently react and guarantee the safety of Akram Aylisli and his family as long as the pressure exists.”

YEREVAN — Paruyr Hayrikian, a presidential candidate wounded in an apparent assassination attempt, petitioned Armenia’s Constitutional Court to postpone the upcoming election on Sunday only to withdraw the demand the following day.

Hayrikian, who is recovering in hospital, formally filed the application Sunday afternoon seeking a delay due to being unable to conduct a full-scale campaign.
The Court was to decide on Monday whether it would accept it for consideration or not.

Hayrikian’s final decision to let the presidential vote go ahead as planned on February 18 was the latest in a series of contradictory moves that baffled the Armenian political class and media.
Under the Armenian constitution, a presidential election has to be postponed by at least two weeks if one of the candidates is faced with “insurmountable obstacles” to their campaign. Hayrikian said on February 5 that he will not invoke this clause. But he said afterwards that that decision was not final.

“I have made a final decision,” Hayrikian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am). “We are not changing election day. My premise remains the one which I had right at the beginning: we must not allow any scum to affect our democratic processes.”

“Even appealing to the Constitutional Court was very difficult for me because I declared right at the beginning that launching that [postponement] process is tantamount to aiding terrorists,” he claimed. “But later on I had to listen to opinions, take into account the fact that my rights are violated, that I am not campaigning on equal terms. Ultimately I found all that secondary.”

The court action came shortly after President Serzh Sarkisian, who is thought to be against an election delay, again visited Hayrikian in a Yerevan hospital on Sunday.

By Lucine Kasbarian

BELMONT, MA — He documented monumental, now-vanished Armenian architecture. He painted representations of our women in folkloric dress. His reproductions launched public awareness of Armenian manuscript illumination. He illustrated the creativity of Armenian ornamental inscription and sculpture. And he designed the currency and postage stamps of the First Republic of Armenia in a way that celebrated our artistry and traditions. The man was Arshag Fetvadjian (1866-1947), and through the meticulous research of eminent Armenian art historian Levon Chookaszian, the global Armenian community and art lovers alike have been given the opportunity to rediscover a true son of the Armenian nation whose love of homeland highlighted nearly all of his accomplishments as a leading Armenian artist and art historian of the 19th century.
Chookaszian, founder and director of the UNESCO Chair of Armenian Art History at Yerevan State University, has embarked on a lecture tour to celebrate Fetvadjian and the release of Chookaszian’s book about the art legend. (“Arshag Fetvadjian,” in English, Armenian and Russian, $75, Yerevan, Armenia: Printinfo, 2011.) In an intimate, engaging and inspiring multi-media lecture, Chookaszian did justice to the many facets of Fetvadjian the man and the diversity of his artistic aptitudes.
This event was held on Nov. 7 at the National Association of Armenian Studies and Research’s (NAASR) in conjunction with an exhibition of Fetvadjian’s work at the Armenian Library and Museum of America (ALMA), a co-sponsor of this event.

Levon Chookaszian

Born in the Black Sea region of Trebizond, Fetvadjian, at age 16, enrolled at the Imperial School of Fine Arts in Constantinople. Graduating with high honors, he was awarded the school’s “Rome Prize,” which would allow him to study in Italy with the proviso that he return to Turkey and accept a state position. As Chookaszian explained, Fetvadjian turned down this prize on the recommendation of a trusted advisor, Voskan Bey Mardikian.
Under the veil of anonymity, Mardikian bequeathed a sum for Fetvadjian to pursue his art studies in Rome but advised him to never return to Turkey. Instead, he urged Fetvadjian to go forth into the world and promote the unsung greatness of a beleaguered Armenia through his art.
While in Italy, Fetvadjian “became inspired by the heroic spirit of the Italians who were freed from Austrian control,” wrote Chookaszian in his book. “That inspiration was essential for the formation of artistic and political views of Fetvadjian.”
As was evident from the body of work he left behind, Fetvadjian was an ardent defender of “hayabahbanoum,” or preservation of the Armenian identity. “It was as if a voice from within was telling him to mark out our national treasures on the ground,” said Chookaszian. And this was with good reason, he continued, “as many if not most treasures did not withstand the depredations of the Genocide, nor was the Western world aware of them.”
Fetvadjian’s many illustrious colleagues included the father of Armenian architectural historiography, Toros Toramanian, with whom Fetvadjian studied the remains of medieval Armenian architectural monuments, particularly at Ani, the famed Armenian city of 1,001 churches. Among Fetvadjian’s best-known paintings is “Woman of Sassoun,” a rifle-clad matron defending the Armenian highlands from the Turkish onslaughts while suckling a child said to metaphorically represent Armenia. Many elder Armenian-Americans will recall when Fetvadjian was commissioned to create his magnificent painting of a very Armenian-looking “Madonna and Child” that still graces the altar of St. Illuminator’s Armenian Cathedral in NYC. All in all, Chookaszian’s presentation made abundantly clear that Fetvadjian is to be venerated for documenting and popularizing many aspects of our ancient culture and customs through his works.
Even though Fetvadjian has been honored with two large exhibitions in Yerevan, in the 1950s he was all but forgotten by the Soviet Armenian authorities, and by extension, the natives of the land. Fetvadjian was undoubtedly neglected in the Soviet era because of the patriotic nature of his work and his close association with the first Republic of Armenia. Had Fetvadjian’s works been made available during Soviet times, asserted Chookaszian, his paintings, research, reviews and documentation would have been able to influence and inform generations of multi-disciplinary scholars, artists and others, not only in Armenia but the world over.
After studying and creating art around the world, Fetvadjian came to NYC to pursue his profession while living under spartan conditions. Weary, depressed and longing for his native land, he was urged by Manuel Der Manuelian, one of the four consuls of the first Republic of Armenia, to immigrate to Boston, where he lived for the last 25 years of his life. Manuel’s offspring, Vigen, Haig and Lucy Der Manuelian, were all deeply affected by Fetvadjian’s presence as an adoptive member of their family. This is greatly evidenced by the accomplishments of all three children: Vigen and Haig pledged to open a museum as a tribute to all that they had come to love about Armenia and its people, resulting in their establishment of ALMA. And Lucy became a prominent historian of Armenian art and architecture in her own right.
Just as the government of Soviet Armenia in 1947 extended an invitation for Fetvadjian to return and live in Armenia, he passed away in Massachusetts, but not before packing up his life’s work to bequeath to the National Gallery of Armenia for safeguarding and exposition. It was Levon Chookaszian’s grandfather’s cousin, Barkev Chookaszian, who led the drive to return Fetvadjian’s art, archive and human remains to Armenia.
While master artists such as Vartkes Sureniants and Krikor Khanjian are roundly celebrated for capturing the imagination and reverence of the Armenian people, we have visionary art historians such as Chookaszian to thank for reinstalling Fetvadjian into our collective memory and into the very same pantheon of illustrious Armenian national artists.
Among their many other accomplishments, Levon Chookaszian and his brother Karekin are to be thanked for initiating the Virtual Museum of Armenian Art, a multimedia software series created to safeguard and promote the endangered world of our Armenian art heritage.
The lavishly illustrated “Arshag Fetvadjian” book is available at NAASR Bookstore in Belmont; Abril, Sardarabad and Berge Bookstores in Los Angeles; and Artbridge, Noyan Tapan, and Matenadaran Bookstores in Yerevan, among others.

BAKU — Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has stripped a prominent novelist of the title of “People’s Writer,” as well as his presidentially awarded pension.
Azerbaijani media reported on February 7 that the actions were taken against Akram Aylisli because of his novel “Stone Dreams,” which was printed in a popular Russian magazine last year.
The novel is set during the wake of a bitter war between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh, which drew protests after its publication for its sympathetic depiction of Armenians.
Azerbaijani media quoted Aliyev’s decree, which said Aylisli was punished “for distorting facts in Azerbaijani history and insulting the feelings of Azerbaijani people.”
Angry crowds gathering this week outside a Baku apartment block shouting “Shame!” and setting photos of Akram Aylisli alight. The protesters’ complaints were hardly aesthetic. Few, in fact, appeared to have read the book.
In the novel Aylisli refers to mob violence by Azerbaijanis against helpless Armenians in Baku.
One passage vividly describes the scene of a mob beating up a man they thought was Armenian and another episode suggests that an Azerbaijani man threw an elderly Armenian woman from a balcony.
Aylisli described the novel as a message of peace and said that he didn’t expect such a heated response.
“I wanted to show that Azerbaijanis and Armenians aren’t enemies,” he told The Associated Press. “I never thought it would be so politicized.”
He said that he hoped that an author in Armenia would consider writing similar material dwelling on atrocities against Azerbaijanis.

Azerbaijan’s Orhan Pamuk
While Aylisli has voiced such sentiments informally in the past, “Stone Dreams” marks the first time the author has expressed his political views in his fiction writing.
A former lawmaker, Aylisli has also been a staunch critic of the ruling regime. “Stone Dreams” makes thinly veiled, and deeply negative, references to Heydar Aliyev, the former president and father of the current leader, Ilham Aliyev.
Ali Akhmedov, the executive secretary of the ruling Yeni Azerbaycan Party, said Aylisli had dealt a “moral blow” to the country and even accused the writer of secretly being Armenian.
Azerbaijani lawmakers meeting on February 1 in parliament went so far as to call for a DNA test to determine Aylisli’s ethnic heritage. Others called for him to be stripped of his status as a state writer and even his citizenship.
Other critics have compared Aylisli to the Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk, the internationally celebrated author who has come under fire at home for comments related to the Ottoman-era massacre of ethnic Armenians, a taboo subject in Turkey.
Mubariz Gurbanli, a ruling party lawmaker, this week queried Aylisli’s motivations in writing “Stone Dreams.”
“Perhaps he wants to win a Nobel Prize as Orhan Pamuk?” he said. “He wants to please somebody by distorting the history of his people?”
Aylisli told RFE/RL he dismissed such criticism and accused Azerbaijani officials of exploiting the Azerbaijani-Armenian impasse for their own political gain.
“There are people who have made a fortune out of the sufferings of two people — Azerbaijanis and Armenians,” he said. “They’ve built careers, gotten rich, gotten good jobs [in the government]. I knew that those people would react angrily to my novel. Because they see this novel as something that speaks against them. They would never say that they were wrong in inflaming this war and causing the suffering of these people. They don’t want this conflict to be solved. They want to continue their luxurious lives, live in their villas, and let common people continue to suffer.”
Aylisli, 75, graduated from the prestigious Gorky Literature Institute in Moscow. He won appreciation for his focus on rural and provincial life, basing his pen name — Aylisli — on the name of his native village in Azerbaijan’s Ordubad region.
His most famous works include the 1963 “When the Mist Rolls Over the Mountains,” and “What the Cherry Blossom Said,” published in 1983.
He has won numerous awards during both the Soviet and post-Soviet periods, including the Lenin Komsomol Award in 1968 and the Independence Award in 2002, the highest order in post-Soviet Azerbaijan.

YEREVAN — Armenia’s National Security Service says two suspects have been arrested in connection with the shooting of presidential candidate Paruyr Hairikian.
The service released a statement on February 8 saying that that two, Khachatur Pogosian, 47, and Samvel Harutiunian, 41 — have confessed to involvement in the attack.
The statement described Poghosian and Harutiunian as unemployed men illegally residing in Yerevan. It said they both were convicted of drug trafficking in the past.
Investigators say the motive for the attack is still not clear.
Hairikian, 63, was wounded outside his house in Yerevan on January 31. Surgeons successfully removed a bullet from his shoulder and he is recovering.
Hairikian, who says he will continue his presidential campaign, is one of eight candidates in the February 18 election.
He heads the Union of National Self-Determination Party and is not seen as a strong challenger in the upcoming poll.

GYUMRI –The Paros Foundation successfully completed its Gyumri Winter Operation project, one of its 100 for 100 Projects for Prosperity, through the generous sponsorship of the New York-based Dadourian Foundation.
“As with all Paros 100 for 100 projects, The Paros Foundation underwrote all administrative expenses allowing The Dadourian Foundation’s contribution to be allocated 100% to the project,” reported Peter Abajian, Executive Director of The Paros Foundation. “This unique commitment to our donors provides them with the assurance that their entire contribution goes directly to the project.”
Winter in Gyumri, Armenia’s second largest city, is extreme. For the unfortunate families living in the inadequate housing called “Domiks,” the severe cold leads to desperate living conditions. For these people, heating and cooking fuel is typically scavenged from the trash and consists of various toxic materials including plastic bottles, old shoes and cardboard. Children face the difficult task of attending school without proper winter clothing and warm winter boots.
For three days, a team of staff and volunteers made unannounced visits to targeted families, to distribute firewood for heating and cooking and to witness first hand the harsh living conditions. Families were invited to bring their children to the Shirak Center NGO (which worked in coordination with the Paros Foundation on this project) and were fitted for warm winter boots and coats. In total, 350 children received winter boots, 160 children received winter coats and 60 families received a large supply of firewood. Although this effort does not address the root cause of these economic problems, it does provide immediate relief and hope for these families.
The Paros Foundation expresses its deepest appreciation to the Dadourian Foundation for their generous support of this effort and to the Shirak Center for their cooperation. A video regarding this project can be viewed by visiting www.paros-foundation.org/paros100.
Please consider having your family sponsor a project in memory of the 100th anniversary of the Genocide, through the Paros Foundation’s 100 for 100 Projects for Prosperity, by visiting www.paros-foundation.org. The Paros Foundation underwrites all administrative expenses allowing all sponsor contributions to be allocated 100% to the project. Donations to The Paros Foundation, a 501(c) 3 private foundation, are tax-deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law.

Archbishop Vicken Aykazian, the Diocese’s Ecumenical Director, was elected president of Christian Churches Together in the U.S.A.—a nationwide ecumenical association of church leaders—on Wednesday, January 30, during the organization’s annual meeting in Austin, Texas.

“Christian Churches Together has become one of the most important Christian organizations in the United States,” Archbishop Aykazian said. “In the coming years, I look forward to working together with fellow church leaders to promote the common good for our society.”

Participants in the annual meeting, from January 28 to February 1, focused on immigration reform, and heard from immigrants and advocates, including representatives of the Hispanic Christian community and Catholic Relief Services of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

In a statement released after the meeting, Christian Churches Together calls on “people of faith, people of good will, elected officials in Congress and the President of the United States to work together to enact just and humane immigration reform legislation in 2013.”

“The 11 million individuals now in the U.S. without authorization should be given an opportunity to earn citizenship, if the individual chooses,” the statement reads. The organization also calls for family reunification options, just enforcement measures, and special protection for refugees and asylum seekers.

Some 100 church leaders attended the annual meeting in Austin. Also representing the Armenian Church were the Very Rev. Fr. Aren Jebejian and seminarian Eric Vozzy.

Archbishop Aykazian will serve a four-year term as the head of Christian Churches Together. He previously served as President of the National Council of Churches, from 2007 to 2009. He is also a member of the Central Committee and the Executive Council of the World Council of Churches.

Established in 2001, Christian Churches Together is comprised of more than 40 churches and organizations, including Evangelical, Pentecostal, Orthodox, Roman Catholic, historic Protestant, Racial and African American churches. Archbishop Aykazian was among the founding members of the organization. He is also the first to serve as president of both the National Council of Churches and Christian Churches Together.

ISTANBUL — A Kurdish independent MP has extended apologies to the Armenian nation on behalf of his ancestors who took part in the 1915 anti-Armenian massacres in the Ottoman Empire.
“We – as their sons, children and grandchildren – ask for forgiveness,” Agos quoted Ahmet Turk, an MP elected from the Mardin Province, as saying
He reportedly called upon the Turkish state to follow suit and apologize to the Armenians, Assyrians and Yezidis.
Noting that the Armenians suffered a big grief in 1915, Turk said his nation was used as a tool for committing the massacre against the ethnic minorities residing in the Ottoman Empire.
“The Armenians saw much grief in 1915. And the Kurds too, have their share [of guilt] in that. Our grandfathers and fathers were used for [fighting] against both the Armenians, and Assyrians, as well as the Yezidis. We today – as their children and grandchildren – apologize to them. Receiving apologies is important to my mind. If those events happened before our republic came into existence, what obstacles are there?” he said.

BoxingScene.com

Vladimir Yengibaryan, the second Olympic champion in the history of Soviet boxing, passed away at age 80 in Los Angeles, California.
Yengibaryan, a proud Armenian and the native of its capital Yerevan, started his career as a bantamweight. His first of three European championship wins came in the 1953 competition, where he captured the Gold as a lightweight. Yengibaryan would repeat honors in 1957 and 1959 – both in the light welterweight division – and also captured Bronze in the 1955 Games.
His crowning achievement as an amateur came in the 1956 Summer Games in Melbourne, scoring four consecutive decisions to capture Olympic Gold in the welterweight division. Yengibaryan was one of three Soviet boxers to win Gold that year, marking the beginning of its dominance in Olympic competition.
An attempt to repeat honors fell short when he was eliminated in the quarterfinal round of the 1960 Rome Summer Olympics.

“I have never been knocked down throughout my entire career”, recalled Yengibaryan, who also founded the Children and Youth Sport School in Yerevan shortly after retiring from boxing. “I was the Pretty Boy, had no scars and no swellings, but my hands were crushed by boxing because of so many hits I have delivered to my opponents”.
Yengibaryan moved from Armenia to Los Angeles in 1992. He will be sorely missed not only by the Armenian boxing community but also by all those, who were lucky enough to witness his fights from the ringside position.

YEREVAN — Paruyr Hayrikian  a candidate in the current campaign for the presidency of Armenia was shot in unclear circumstances late Thursday evening in Tpagrichner street, downtown Yerevan. The wound was not fatal and it is reported that he was shot in the shoulder.
Doctors at Yerevan’s Surp Grigor Lusavorich hospital said a gunshot wound sustained by him is not life-threatening. “He suffered a gunshot injury to the right side of his rib cage,” said Gagik Manukian, a deputy director of the hospital. “It’s a skin injury and his lungs were not damaged. The patient’s condition is of medium gravity and he remains conscious.”

“There is no need for surgery for now,” added Manukian.

The shooting occurred at the entrance to an apartment block in the city center where Hayrikian lives with his family. According to his relatives, the veteran politician was returning home from the offices of his National Self-Determination Union (AIM) party. They said he had never heard of any death or violence threats addressed to Hayrikian.
The Armenian police chief, Vladimir Gasparian said that an unknown gunman apparently fired two gunshots and one of them hit Hayrikian in the shoulder. He said the police will conduct a “meticulous” investigation to identify the shooter and his motives.
“Doctors assured me that his life is not in danger,” Gasparian told journalists in the hospital. “Thank God, I personally spoke to Hayrikian.”
A number of other politicians and senior government officials also visited Hayrikian at the hospital overnight. Among them were Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian, parliament speaker Hovik Abrahamian as well as two major opposition presidential candidates, Raffi Hovannisian and Hrant Bagratian. Both Sarkisian and Abrahamian condemned the shooting as a blow to the Armenian government.
“This crime is directed against our people and our state,” Abrahamian told reporters. “It’s a political crime and everything must be done to solve it.”
Representatives of the Hayrikian campaign were also angered by what they described as an assassination attempt connected with Hayrikian’s participation in the presidential campaign.
The shooting called into question the planned conduct of the forthcoming ballot in which President Serzh Sarkisian is seeking a second term in office. Under the Armenian constitution, a presidential election must be postponed by at least two weeks if one of the candidates faces “insurmountable obstacles.”

WASHINGTON, DC (RFE/RL) — John Kerry, a veteran pro-Armenian senator who will take over as the new U.S. secretary of state on Friday, has reaffirmed Washington’s strong support for an unconditional normalization of Turkey’s relations with Armenia.

Kerry did that in his written answers to questions that were filed by other legislators last week during confirmation hearings in the U.S. Senate on his candidacy for the top U.S. diplomatic post.

“The United States is encouraging Turkey at the highest levels to engage productively with Armenia on the [2009] normalization protocols, to open the border, to reinstitute transportation, communication, and utility links between the two countries, and to re-establish diplomatic relations,” he said.

“If confirmed, I will continue to strongly support all efforts to normalize bilateral relations between Armenia and Turkey so that together, they can forge a relationship that is peaceful, productive, and prosperous,” the Massachusetts Democrat wrote to Robert Menendez, the staunchly pro-Armenian incoming chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Kerry referred to the U.S.-brokered agreements that were signed by Armenia and Turkey in 2009. The two protocols envisaged the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two neighboring states and opening of their border.

The Turkish government has made their parliamentary ratification contingent on a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict acceptable to Azerbaijan, a precondition rejected by Yerevan.

The administration of President Barack Obama likewise says that the protocols must be implemented without any preconditions. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton repeated that “the ball remains in Turkey’s court” when she visited Yerevan last June.

Risking criticism from Armenian-American groups that have long supported him, Kerry also stopped short of referring to the 1915 mass killings of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey as genocide. He spoke instead of “one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century.”

Responding to Senator Barbara Boxer, Kerry made clear he will stick to the Obama administration’s policy on the sensitive issue. “As the President has emphasized in his April 24 Remembrance Day statements, the achievement of a full, frank, and just acknowledgement of the facts of what occurred in 1915 is in all our interests,” he said.  “He also has said that the best way to advance that goal is for the Armenian and Turkish people to address the facts of the past as a part of their efforts to move forward.”

As senator, Kerry has backed numerous draft resolutions calling for an official U.S. recognition of the genocide. In 2005, he joined 30 senators in urging then President George W. Bush to reaffirm “the United States record on the Armenian Genocide.”

Kerry also criticized the Bush administration in 2006 for recalling U.S. Ambassador to Armenia John Evans for publicly using the word “genocide” with respect to the events of 1915. He accused the administration of bowing to pressure from Turkey.

PARIS (RFE/RL) — The foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan discussed Armenian plans to launch commercial flights to Nagorno-Karabakh when they met in the presence of international mediators in Paris on Monday.

A statement issued by the U.S., Russian and French co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group said “issues pertaining to civilian flights to and from the airport in Nagorno-Karabakh” were on the agenda of the talks aimed at breaking the deadlock in the Karabakh peace process. It did not give details of that discussion or report any agreements on the matter reached by Foreign Ministers Edward Nalbandian and Elmar Mammadyarov.
The Trend news agency quoted an Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying that Mammadyarov reaffirmed official Baku’s position that any flight service between Armenia and Karabakh would be illegal until the end of “the occupation of Azerbaijani territories.”
The Armenian Foreign Ministry did not immediately comment on the Paris talks.
Earlier this month, Azerbaijan formally authorized its air force to shoot down any aircraft flying above Karabakh without Baku’s permission if there is “no precise information about civilian passengers on board.” Azerbaijani warplanes will have to force them to land at an Azerbaijani airport if they are known to transport civilians, according to that decision.
The Armenian side dismissed the fresh Azerbaijani threats, with Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian saying that his forces “will ensure the safety of planned flights by civilian aircraft.” A spokesman for the Karabakh Armenian leadership, for his part, warned that an attack on Armenian planes would be an act of war.
Not surprisingly, the international community has repeatedly expressed concern over the flight dispute, urging the conflicting parties to seek a “diplomatic solution.” The Minsk Group co-chairs said on Monday that they reminded Nalbandian and Mammadyarov of their earlier statements on the issue.
The mediators said in July that they “received renewed assurances from the sides that they will reject any threat or use of force against civil aircraft, pursue the matter through diplomatic steps, and refrain from politicizing the issue.”
The troika’s latest statement says that the Paris talks also touched upon an unpublicized “working proposal to advance the peace process” that was submitted to the parties last October. “The Foreign Ministers reiterated their support for a peaceful settlement and their determination to continue negotiations,” it adds. “The Ministers and the Co-Chairs agreed to a further discussion of the peace process in the coming weeks.”
The process has been essentially deadlocked since the failure of an Armenian-Azerbaijani summit that was hosted by Russia in June 2011.

ISTANBUL — Residents, civil society groups and political party representatives gathered in the central square of Istanbul’s Samatya neighborhood on Sunday to protest a number of attacks committed against elderly Armenian women in their homes over the past few months, one of which resulted in a death, with police failing to capture the assailants.
Organized by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and Turkey’s main Armenian organization, the march saw Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) deputies Ertugrul Kürkçü, Sabahat Tuncel and Sirri Süreyya Önder, former chair of the Freedom and Solidarity Party (ÖDP) Ufuk Uras and Hrant Dink’s brother Orhan Dink participate.
“Don’t touch my neighbor” and “I will not let you hurt my brothers and sisters” read some of the signs held by the protesters. The march drew support from members of Istanbul’s other minority communities, including Syriacs, Kurds and religious conservatives
The crowd also lay carnations in front of the apartment building of one of the victims, presumably that of Maritsa Küçük, who was brutally murdered in her apartment.
All the speakers condemned the police department and accused it of covering up the reality behind the attacks.
Five women were attacked in the past two months. Police say there is no ethnic targeting, claiming that only three of the women attacked were Armenian. But civil society groups insist that the events were no ordinary cases of robbery, as nothing valuable was taken from the houses of the attacked women. There were also claims that the attacks could have been perpetrated by construction mafia seeking to prevent elderly homeowners from holding up new constructions in the region.
However, the message in Sunday’s march was clear, with most protesters saying they did not buy the police’s interpretation of the events.
On Saturday, a group of 30 members of the Freedom and Democracy Party (ÖDP) protested the attacks in front of the Kocamustafapasa Train Station. ÖDP Istanbul provincial branch secretary Çiçek Çatalkaya in a speech she made here referred to the attacks as “racist and fascist,” and asserted that these were not isolated incidents. “We know that these attacks are not related to profit seekers from urban renewal projects. We know this because the blood that was shed on this land 100 years ago has still not dried,” Çatalkaya said, in reference to the 1915 massacre of Armenians in Turkey’s Southeast.
The first attack in the past few months was on Nov. 1, 2012. A woman named Gönül A. was beaten by an intruder, and her valuables were stolen. On Nov. 28, Tuivat A. (87) was attacked inside her house. She lost one eye in the attack and her valuables were also taken. On Dec. 28, Maritsa Küçük (85) was brutally murdered in her house, where she lived alone. In the fifth attack, Sultan Aykar (80) was stabbed as she entered her house.

PASADENA — History shows that the first Armenians to settle in Pasadena in 1889 were the Pashigian Brothers. One of these business minded brothers even became the Grand Marshall of the Rose Parade in 1915.
Later, in the aftermath of the 1915 Armenian Genocide, perpetrated upon our people in Western Armenia by the Ottoman Turks, more Armenians started to immigrate to the United States and settle in Pasadena.
Armenians never forgot the horrors of the Genocide and to commemorate its centennial anniversary, a community coalition was formed which included representatives from the Armenian political parties and cultural organizations.
The Armenian Community Coalition, to immortalize the memory of the Genocide victims, came up with the idea of building a memorial in Victory Park. This idea was widely accepted by the people and Pasadena Mayor Bill Bogaard. Design samples submitted by artists were on display in Victory Park at the Armenian Community Coalition’s Armenian Identity Festival in July of 2011.
Hence, a special committee was formed headed by retired judge Dikran Tevrizian, to properly pursue this important project. This committee included all the active organizations in the Armenian Community. As a first step, an ad was placed in the newspapers for design proposals, according to work order number 17.
Unfortunately, cooperation lacked in the committee and as a result, Chairman Dikran Tevrizian resigned. This was a great loss, after which, mistrust caused the remaining organizations to withdraw from the committee, including the Armenian Community Coalition.
Consulting with the City Council, The Armenian Community Coalition negates all the decisions taken with regards to the Memorial design during the meeting on November 2, 2011.
Accordingly, those who have specific designs with regards to the Memorial are asked to submit them by February 28, 2013 to the Armenian Community Coalition office at the following address:
2390 Cooley Place
Pasadena, CA 91104
(626) 399-1799
Paccoalition@gmail.com
We invite all the organizations to take part in this noble project and help us erect said Memorial in time for the centennial anniversary. Please be aware that there might be individuals who could work against us.
We thank you in advance for all of your efforts and willingness to participate in a constructive manner.

Armenian Community Coalition of Pasadena

LISBON — The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation announced the appointment of Dr. Razmik Panossian as the new Director of the Armenian Communities Department in Lisbon. He will assume the post on 1 February 2013.
Panossian holds a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics and Political Science, where he also taught. He has published widely on Armenian-related issues, including a critically acclaimed book on Armenian national identity. He has extensive experience in senior management, including the administration of multi-million dollar programmes, as well as the allocation and distribution of international development grants. For many years he served as the Director of Policy, Programmes and Planning at a Canadian governmental organisation based in Montreal. He has worked for the United Nations Development Programme. He is fluent in English, French and Armenian.
“I am both thrilled and humbled by this appointment,” said Panossian. “This is one of the most important positions in the Armenian diaspora. I am looking forward to continuing the work of my predecessors and further strengthening and expanding the activities of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in a focused and systematic manner within Armenian communities around the world.”
Martin Essayan, the Trustee responsible for the Armenian Communities Department, and great grandson of Foundation founder Calouste Gulbenkian, said: “I am delighted that Dr. Panossian will be the new Director of the Armenian Communities Department. He comes with outstanding credentials for this role and brings the international, integrative perspective we need. The appointment followed a global search during which we were able to consider many excellent candidates.”
The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation is one of the top ten Foundations in Europe and one of the largest in the world with assets of €3 billion and annual spend of around €100 million. It operates in four areas defined in its statutes: Arts, Education, Science, and Social Welfare. It was founded by Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian, an Armenian businessman and art collector who became a British citizen, conducted much of his work in Britain and France, and finally settled in Portugal. The Foundation was established in Portugal in 1956, a year after his death.
The Armenian Communities Department dates back to the creation of the Foundation and was set up by the founder’s son-in-law Kevork Essayan. Since then the trustee in charge has always been a member of the founder’s family. The mission of the department is: “to create a viable future for the Armenian people in which their culture and language are preserved and valued”. Its work is inspired by the example of the founder who never forgot his Armenian roots but sought to engage with non Armenians and to bring different groups together.

BELMONT, MA — Prof. Steven L. Jacobs, Aaron Aronov Chair of Judaic Studies at the University of Alabama, will give a lecture entitled “Raphael Lemkin and the Armenian Genocide,” on Tuesday, February 19, 2013, at 8:00 p.m. at the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR), 395 Concord Avenue, Belmont, MA. The lecture is co-sponsored by Temple Isaiah (Lexington, MA) and NAASR.
Steven Leonard Jacobs, one of the foremost authorities on the life and work of Raphael Lemkin, will provide a detailed critical overview and discussion of the importance of the Armenian case in the development of Lemkin’s thinking and conception of the term genocide and its formulation as an international crime. Lemkin coined the term “genocide” and was the motivating force behind the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Punishment and Prevention of the Crime of Genocide.
Prof. Jacobs’ most recent book, Lemkin on Genocide (2012), provides an annotated commentary on two unpublished manuscripts written by Lemkin. He serves as the International Editor of The Papers of Raphael Lemkin. Jacobs’ other books include Raphael Lemkin’s Thoughts on Nazi Genocide (1992); Contemporary Christian and Contemporary Jewish Religious Responses to the Shoah (1993); Rethinking Jewish Faith: The Child of a Survivor Responds (1994); The Holocaust Now: Contemporary Christian and Jewish Thought (1997); The Encyclopedia of Genocide (1999, Associate Editor); Pioneers of Genocide Studies (2002, Co-editor); Dismantling the Big Lie: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (2003); and Post-Shoah Dialogues: Re-Thinking Our Texts Together (2004).
This lecture is made possible through NAASR’s Ethel Jafarian Duffett Fund. Mrs. Duffett (1915-2005), a longtime NAASR member and generous benefactor, was the youngest child of Boghos and Nazley Jafarian from Mezireh in the Kharpert region. A survivor of the Armenian Genocide, Mrs. Duffett created a legacy of education about Armenian history and culture, especially memorializing the Armenian Genocide which claimed many of her family members and destroyed the community into which she was born.
More information about Prof. Jacobs’ lecture may be had by calling 617-489-1610, faxing 617-484-1759, e-mailing hq@naasr.org, or writing to NAASR, 395 Concord Ave., Belmont, MA 02478.

MEXICO CITY — Statue of Azerbaijan’s ex-president Heydar Aliyev that has been erected along a main boulevard of the Mexican capital has been removed from the place in thAbout 400 riot police cordoned off the vicinity of Friendship Park on Paseo de la Reforma, Noticieros Televisa reported.
The place where the bronze statue will be permanently relocated is still unknown.
The monument was placed in a park the center of Mexico City last summer. Azerbaijani side reportedly spent about five millions for renovation of the park.
Earlier mayor of Mexico City Miguel Angel Mancera stated that the municipality would cover the removal expenses. The official cause of the removal the city authorities say is the violation of construction norms.
Mexico City’s municipality had set up a commission to consider the issue of removing the monument which aroused indignation of capital’s residents.
The Commission recommended the government to transfer the monument to another place. In response Azerbaijan warned to stop investments in Mexico.
On January 22 the municipality announced it would relocate the monument. They also decided to change the text on the plaque of the Khojalu memorial removing the word “genocide.”

ISTANBUL — Turkish Human Rights Organization (IHD) has published a report about the attacks on ethnic Armenians in Istanbul’s Samatya district.
According to Istanbul-based Armenian-Turkish newspaper Agos, the report stresses that the attacks are of racist nature and demanded that police intensify its activity.
“The victims of the attacks are alike – they are old women of Armenian descent. It is obvious that the aim of the attack is not robbery. Old and weak women who may easily be “unarmed” beaten and subjected to violation,” the head of the organization Meral Cildir said.
One of the reporters present at the news conference said on the day of the attack on Sultan Aikar the local Greek church was stoned.
Cildir noted that as long as the word “Armenian” is used as a swearword in Turkey, the assaults against the country’s Armenians will continue.
The Istanbul-Armenian community keeps remaining concerned over the continuing violence against Armenians in the Samatya district.
The Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos has devoted a report to the recent assault against an 80 year-old Armenian woman. It has brought up more details of the incidents.

“The 80-year-old Sultan Akyar was entering the house when a masked man, aged 35, assaulted her. The neighbors, who had heard the woman’s voice, rushed to the scene to save Akyar at the last moment. Injured on the head and face, Akyar had her vision in the right eye deteriorated.
The witnesses, two young girls, said they had seen the perpetrator smoking at the door-entrance. They had also noticed a car, with two men leaning against it and ‘reading a magazine’ while keeping an eye on the scene.
This witness evidence proves that the assault was pre-arranged,” says the publication, adding that a Turkish parliamentarian from the Republican People’s Party (CHP) has sent a note to the country’s interior minister, Idris Naim Shahin, expressing concerns over the assaults against the ethnic Armenians in the Istanbul district.