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California Courier Online, June 9, 2005

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  • California Courier Online, June 9, 2005

    California Courier Online, June 9, 2005

    1 - Commentary

    Foreign Service Agency Wrongly
    Withdraws Award from Amb. Evans

    By Harut Sassounian
    California Courier Publisher
    2 - UCLA Plans Armenian Studies Colloquium
    3 - Jerusalem Institute on Holocaust and Genocide
    Protests Turkish Cancellation of Conference
    4 - AGBU Oakland-San Francisco
    Hosts Yeretzian Art Exhibit
    5 - USC Education Pioneer
    Jack Munushian Dies at 81
    6 - Grape Leaves Filling
    Worth $1.7 Million
    7 - Romanian-Armenian Journalist
    Details 51 Days of Iraq Captivity
    8 -
    ************************************************** ***********************
    1 - Commentary

    Foreign Service Agency Wrongly
    Withdraws Award from Amb. Evans

    By Harut Sassounian
    Publisher, The California Courier

    The American Foreign Service Association took the very unusual step this
    week of rescinding the prestigious "Constructive Dissent" award that it had
    decided to bestow upon U.S. Ambassador to Armenia John Evans, during a
    special ceremony that was to be held at the Benjamin Franklin Diplomatic
    Reception Room of the State Department on June 17.
    The AFSA is the professional association of the United States Foreign
    Service. It represents 26,000 active and retired Foreign Service employees
    of the Department of State and Agency for International Development. The
    Secretary of State usually attends the group's annual award ceremony.
    Last February, during his tour of various Armenian communities in the
    United States, Amb. Evans publicly referred to the extermination of the
    Armenians in Ottoman Turkey as genocide. "I will today call it the Armenian
    Genocide," the U.S. Ambassador said. "I informed myself in depth about it.
    I think we, the US government, owe you, our fellow citizens, a more frank
    and honest way of discussing this problem. Today, as someone who has
    studied it, ...there is no doubt in my mind what happened.... I think it is
    unbecoming of us, as Americans, to play word games here. I believe in
    calling things by their name." Referring to "the first Genocide of the 20th
    century," Amb. Evans said, "I pledge to you, we are going to do a better
    job at addressing this issue."
    Amb. Evans knew that his frank comments ran counter to the official line of
    recent U.S. administrations that have avoided using the term genocide to
    characterize the mass killings of Armenians.
    After complaints from Turkish officials to the U.S. government, Amb. Evans
    was forced by his superiors to issue "a clarification," stating that he
    used the term "genocide" in his personal capacity -- and he now found that
    to be "inappropriate." To make matters worse, Amb. Evans was then forced to
    correct his clarification," replacing the word "genocide" with "Armenian
    tragedy."
    Since Amb. Evans had dared to challenge the position of his own superiors,
    he was nominated for the AFSA's coveted "Constructive Dissent" award. The
    AFSA's web site explains that this award "publicly recognizes individuals
    who have demonstrated the intellectual courage to challenge the system from
    within, to question the status quo and take a stand, no matter the
    sensitivity of the issue or the consequences of their actions." The AFSA
    states: "The purpose of the Dissent Awards is to encourage Foreign Service
    career employees to speak out frankly and honestly." It also states that
    the Constructive Dissent Awards "offer an opportunity to publicly recognize
    and honor the courageous and thoughtful actions of our colleagues, over and
    above their responsibilities."
    Last week, Haygagan Jamanag, a newspaper published in Yerevan, reported
    that Amb. Evans was the winner of this year's "Constructive Dissent" award.
    Since the name of the honoree was not yet officially announced, I contacted
    the AFSA in Washington, D.C., and was told that Amb. Evans was indeed the
    winner of this prestigious award. I was also told that he was selected
    because of his stand on the Armenian Genocide.
    As this column was about to go to print, I received an unexpected call from
    an AFSA official in Washington, informing me that the Award Committee had
    just met and decided to reverse itself and "withdraw the award" from Amb.
    Evans. When I asked why, the answer was "no comment."
    We can safely speculate that the same cast of characters at the upper
    echelons of the Bush Administration, who had earlier forced Amb. Evans to
    withdraw his remarks on the Armenian Genocide, had now succeeded in forcing
    the AFSA to rescind this award.
    Incredibly, what they were taking away from Amb. Evans was not just any
    award. It was an award for dissenting from the Bush administration's
    immoral position on the Armenian Genocide. It was an award for simply
    telling the truth! Amb. Evans was basically repeating what Pres. Ronald
    Reagan had said back in 1981 in his Presidential Proclamation,
    acknowledging the Armenian Genocide. It would seem that Bush administration
    officials are not afraid to go after an Ambassador, but they would not dare
    to take on Pres. Reagan who committed the same sin of telling the truth!
    It is a telling sign of our decadent times that an individual has to be
    given an award for having "the courage" to tell the truth -- and worse yet,
    have that award unfairly taken away from him.
    All those who side with truth and justice, should complain to the AFSA
    ([email protected]) for its withdrawal of Amb. Evans' award and ask that
    Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (http://contact-us.state.gov) have it
    reinstated promptly.
    ************************************************** ************************
    2 - UCLA Plans Armenian Studies Colloquium
    LOS ANGELES - The UCLA Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures is
    sponsoring a Graduate Student Colloquium in Armenian Studies for February
    2006.
    Invited to participate are graduate students and recent post-docs (Ph.D.
    within the last two years) in the various disciplines associated with
    Armenian Studies broadly defined. The participants are asked to present the
    results of their recent research and interact with peers and more senior
    scholars.
    Finalized presentations are not essential. Work in progress is encouraged
    and ample time for discussion will be allotted to each paper. Comparative
    themes and interdisciplinary treatments are particularly desirable,
    organizer said.
    Interested parties are requested to submit a one-page abstract (preferably
    by e-mail) for peer review before November 15, specifying audiovisual
    requirements.
    The final program will be announced by December 15. A reception will be
    held on to welcome participants to the campus and the colloquium will
    conclude with a banquet. Accommodation will be provided for out of town
    presenters. Speakers are asked to look into travel subsidies available at
    their home institution. UCLA has a limited amount of funds to assist those
    who would otherwise be unable to attend.
    To submit abstracts, send a copy to both Ani Moughamian at
    [email protected] and Prof. Peter Cowe at [email protected]. If you
    have any questions, contact Moughamian at (310) 207-2080, or Professor Cowe
    at (310) 825-1307, fax. (310) 206-6456. Mail address: UCLA, Department of
    Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, 295 Kinsey Hall, Box 151105, Los
    Angeles, CA 90095-1511.
    ************************************************** ***************
    3 - Jerusalem Institute on Holocaust and Genocide
    Protests Turkish Cancellation of Conference

    JERUSALEM - The Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide in Jerusalem,
    Israel protested the Turkish Government's cancellation of an important
    scholarly conference on "the Armenian question" sponsored by a consortium
    of Turkish universities, which was to have been conducted in Turkish at
    one of the universities with an expected attendance of more than 700
    registrants.
    They noted: "The program titles of many of the presentations made it very
    clear that many of the scholars addressing the conference intended to
    recognize the historical validity of what is known in history in the free
    world as "the Armenian Genocide."
    "They were going to do so despite the fact that current Turkish law
    prescribes jail sentences of several years for statements either about the
    Armenian Genocide or calling for Turkey withdrawing from Cypress. These
    speakers are loyal Turks who love their country and want to see it advance
    and grow. Several of them have written about the importance for Turkey
    itself to achieve a free society, with guaranteed academic freedom, freedom
    of speech, and freedom of ideas; and thus also for Turkey to demonstrate
    its readiness to be accepted in the European Union.
    "Our Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide in Jerusalem was perhaps the
    first in the world to hold an interdisciplinary, multiple ethnic conference
    on the genocides of all peoples when we convened the "First International
    Conference on the Holocaust and Genocide" in 1982. Six lectures out of a
    total of 300 at our conference were scheduled to deal with the Armenian
    Genocide. As reported in many stories in the New York Times and other
    world press, Turkey pressured Israel to remove these six lectures, the
    government of Israel shamefully complied, and when we refused to do so the
    government attempted with considerable use of government powers to close
    our conference down entirely. Fortunately, even when Israel errs, it is
    overall a genuine democracy, and our insistence on holding the conference
    including the lectures on the Armenian Genocide could not be broken. The
    process of our resistance and success has been honored many times in
    articles and books by many writers ever since (for example, in the Yale
    Review).
    "The Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide calls on all governments of
    the world to strive for a high level of accuracy, objectivity and
    transparency about genocidal massacres and genocides, including by its own
    peoples for many of our peoples in our shared Earth-world have committed
    genocidal atrocities against others. In the long run, the goal of human
    life, and all government, should be to protect human lives more and more."
    The protest was signed by Prof. Israel Charny, Executive Director, Prof.
    Yair Auron, Associate Director; Marc Sherman, M.L.S., Assistant Director.
    ************************************************** ************
    4 - AGBU Oakland-San Francisco
    Hosts Yeretzian Art Exhibit
    SAN FRANCISCO - On May 7, at St. John Armenian Apostolic Church in San
    Francisco, the AGBU Oakland-San Francisco Chapter hosted an exhibit of
    artist Seeroon Yeretzian's paintings and illustrations in commemoration of
    the 1600th Anniversary of the creation of the Armenian alphabet. Yeretzian
    also conducted a children's workshop on illustrated Armenian calligraphy
    inspiring eager local youth to learn the art form.
    Yeretzian was born in Beirut, Lebanon where she attended AGBU
    Tarouhi-Hovagimian Secondary School. Yeretzian's diverse artistic talents
    include graphic design and illustration and she is renowned as a
    practitioner of the ancient art of Armenian miniature illumination.
    Her work has been shown in over 25 exhibits throughout California,
    including the AGBU Young Professionals of Los Angeles Arvest festival, the
    J. Paul Getty Museum, AGBU's Pasadena Center and the Otis/Parsons Gallery.
    To view Yeretzian's artwork, visit the Roslin Art Gallery online at
    www.roslin.com.
    AGBU Oakland-San Francisco is dedicated to preserving and promoting the
    Armenian identity and heritage through educational, cultural and
    humanitarian programs.
    ************************************************** ************************
    5 - USC Education Pioneer
    Jack Munushian Dies at 81
    LOS ANGELES - Jack Munushian, a scientist, educator and leader who played a
    major role in the development of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering,
    died on May 29 of heart failure at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles.
    He was 81.
    Funeral services will be held June 2, at St. Gregory Armenian Church, in
    Pasadena.
    "To an extent few people realize, we at the Viterbi School live in a house
    that Jack built," said USC Viterbi School Dean Yannis Yortsos. "Our
    eminence in computer science and distance education grows directly out of
    his hard work and foresight."
    Educated as a physicist, Munushian became a part-time lecturer at USC's
    school of engineering in 1957 - a job he kept while holding management
    positions at Hughes Aircraft Co. and Aerospace Corp. He joined the USC
    faculty as a full professor in the fall of 1967 and was an emeritus
    professor at the time of his death.
    Munushian had a vision for a new way to educate engineers by using
    television. He persuaded the Olin Foundation to help the engineering
    school establish the Instructional Television Network (ITV) in 1972 and
    used his ties with Hughes, Aerospace Corp. and other Southern California
    aerospace companies to make ITV successful. State of the art for its time,
    ITV beamed graduate lectures directly from USC to numerous specially
    equipped classrooms located at aerospace company offices and factories
    throughout Southern California. This arrangement enabled working engineers
    to continue their education without interrupting their careers, a concept
    that continues today in the USC Viterbi School's Distance Education Network
    (DEN).
    In 1988, when the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers awarded
    its highly coveted Major Educational Innovation Award to Munushian for his
    ITV achievement, the USC Viterbi School had recorded more than 50,000 ITV
    enrollments.
    Though trained as a materials scientist, Munushian organized USC's
    Department of Computer Science, now one of the USC Viterbi School's largest
    and strongest departments, and served as its first chair from 1972 to 1976.
    He also found a home for the unit in the Henry Salvatori Computer Science
    Center.
    Born in Rochester, N.Y., Munushian received a B.S. in physics from the
    University of Rochester in 1948 and a Ph.D., also in physics, from the
    University of California Berkeley in 1954. He was a resident of the Bel Air
    neighborhood of Los Angeles.
    ************************************************** ************************
    6 - Grape Leaves Filling
    Worth $1.7 Million
    YEREVAN (Arminfo) - Armenian customs officers detained Kazakh citizen Aishe
    Haroutyunyan while she was trying to smuggle diamonds and gold valued about
    $1.7 million as filling in yalanchi grape leaves in a glass jar thru the
    Zvartnots Airport.
    The Armenian State Customs Agency reported that Haroutyunyan was going from
    Yerevan to Actau.
    Haroutyunyan says that she bought the jewelry in Yerevan, but feared that
    she would not be able to take them legally to Actau She was fined $1.247
    million..
    ************************************************** *************************
    7- Romanian-Armenian Journalist
    Details 51 Days of Iraq Captivity
    BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) - Romanian-Armenian journalist Ovidiu Ohanesian,
    held hostage in Iraq for nearly two months recalled how he and his fellow
    hostages were confined in a hot cellar, blindfolded and ordered not to
    speak by Iraqi kidnappers.
    Ohanesian, home after the hostages' release May 22, also said in an
    interview that they received new clothes as a parting gift from their
    captors.
    Ohanesian, of the daily newspaper Romania Libera, and reporter Maria Keanne
    Ion and cameraman Sorin Miscoci of Prima TV were taken captive March 28
    along with their Iraqi American guide, Mohammed Monaf.
    A negotiating team led by Romanian President Traian Basescu won the
    journalists' freedom. A previously unknown group calling itself Maadh Bin
    Jabal claimed responsibility for the kidnapping in a videotape aired on Al
    Jazeera television.
    The abductees were blindfolded and ordered not to speak, Ohanesian said.
    They were punished if they broke the rules - handcuffed or denied meals.
    "We spent 51 days underground, crowded in a small cellar with a weak light
    bulb, and blindfolded. There was no air, I was sweating abundantly, worse
    than a sauna," he said.
    Romanian prosecutors have accused Monaf of helping to orchestrate the
    kidnapping along with a Syrian-born businessman. Monaf's wife and the
    businessman have denied the charge. Monaf is being held in Iraq by US
    authorities.
    Ohanesian said he found it hard to believe Monaf was involved in the
    kidnapping.
    "I think he was a collateral victim," he said. "Monaf was held with us the
    entire time."
    ************************************************** ************************
    8 -
    ************************************************* *************************
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