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05/27/2005
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1) Socialist International Council in Tel Aviv and Ramallah
2) ANCA Criticizes Turkey's Mockery of Freedom of Expression
3) Groups Ask Belgian Senate to Adopt Strong Language on Genocide Denial
4) Pallone Chides Cancellation of Armenian Genocide Conference in Turkey
5) System Of A Down's 'Mezmerize' Debuts at Number One; First week's worldwide
sales top 800,000
6) A War Photographer's South Coast Interlude
7) Youth to Hold Armenian Independence Day Festival
8) University Students in LA Stage Extraordinary Genocide Commemorative Events
9) San Francisco Armenian Film Festival Call for Entries
10) Armenian Contemporary Art at Harvest Gallery
11) Bitter Remembrances of Armenia
12) LETTERS
Ed Note: Due to the early holiday deadline, Skeptik Sinikian was unable to
write his column; he, instead, opted to travel to the White House for Georgian
dance lessons from GW.
OUR NEXT POSTING:
Due to the Memorial Day holiday, our next issue will be posted on Tuesday, May
31.
1) Socialist International Council in Tel Aviv and Ramallah
ARF delegate delivers speech on Mid-East peace
(SI)--Tel Aviv and Ramallah were the stage for Socialist International's
Council meeting on May 23-24, with the participation of leaders and
representatives from its member parties and organizations from around the
world.
Representatives from the Armenia Revolutionary Federation (ARF), included
Bureau member Mario Nalbandian, along with Hagop Sevan, Manuel Hasassian, and
Georgette Avakian. Nalbandian was one of the featured speakers at the May 24
session.
The Council, which convenes every six months, met in the Middle East on this
occasion to underline the SI's commitment to searching for peace in the region
and encouraging Israelis and Palestinians to move forward along the path of
dialogue and negotiation at a crucial juncture for the region's future.
Under the main theme "For a Middle East in peace, with political and economic
democracy: the social democratic vision," the Council meeting, hosted by the
Israel Labor Party, the Israeli Yachad Party, and the Palestinian Fatah, all
members of the International, held two sessions, one in Tel Aviv and the other
in Ramallah.
The session in Tel Aviv opened on the morning of Monday 23 with contributions
from Shimon Peres, Leader of the Labor Party and Deputy Prime Minister of
Israel; Imad Shakur, Member of the Palestinian National Council; Yossi Beilin,
Leader of the Yachad Party from Israel; and SI President António Guterres. A
number of leaders from Socialist International member parties participated in
the debate on the main theme.
On the afternoon of the first day, the Council received a report from the
Chair of the SI Committee on the Economy, Social Cohesion and the Environment,
Christoph Zopel (Germany, SPD), and the position papers 'Financial and
Economic
Issues, The Bretton Woods Institutions and Global Economic Governance' and
'Trade and Social Rights', prepared by the Committee, were approved, as were
the following declarations: 'Socialist International's Second Semi-Annual
Review on Democratic Governance for Sustainable Development in a Global
Society'; 'Millennium Development Goals', and 'World Summit on the Information
Society'. A position paper--'Reforming the United Nations for a New Global
Agenda'--prepared by a special Working Group established by the last SI
Congress was adopted, following a presentation by Maria Joao Rodrigues
(Portugal, PS). A resolution on the establishment of a global network of
parliamentarians from SI member parties, an area of work mandated to the SI
Secretary General, was approved.
The President of Israel, Moshe Katsav, delivered a special address to the
Council meeting and welcomed the presence of the International,
acknowledging a
climate of expectation concerning the latest developments in the Middle East.
The afternoon session closed with a report of the Secretary General of the
Socialist International, Luis Ayala, detailing the activities and the focus of
attention of the organization during the last six month period.
In the evening, in Ramallah, the delegates to the Council had a special
meeting with the President of the Palestinian National Authority, Mahmoud
Abbas, who thanked the International for its continuing involvement in the
search for peace in the Middle East.
On May 24, the session in Ramallah opened with addresses by Nabil Shaath,
Deputy and Acting Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority; Abbas
Zaki on behalf of Fatah; Avshalom Vilan, MK, of the Yachad Party; Colette
Avital, MK, of the Israel Labour Party; and, SI President António Guterres.
Participants continued the discussions of the previous day in Tel Aviv on the
main theme. (List of speakers, Tuesday 24 May)
At the end of the debates, a Declaration on democracy and peace in the Middle
East was introduced by Thorbjorn Jagland (Norway, DNA) on behalf of the SI
Middle East Committee which he chairs; it was unanimously adopted.
Finally, the Council agreed to recommend the upgrade of the Patriotic
Union of
Kurdistan, PUK, Iraq, and the Democratic Party, DP, Serbia, to full membership
in the International, and of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan , PDKI,
and the Assembly of Democratic Forces, RFD, of Mauritania to consultative
status. In accordance with the SI's statutes, the Council elected George
Papandreou, Leader of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement, Pasok, Greece;
Mohamed El-Yazghi, First Secretary of the Socialist Union of Popular Forces,
USFP, Morocco, and Horacio Serpa of the Liberal Party of Colombia as
Vice-Presidents of the Socialist International, to occupy positions that had
become vacant since the last Congress.
2) ANCA Criticizes Turkey's Mockery of Freedom of Expression
--Discussion of Armenian genocide silenced again
WASHINGTON, DC (ANCA)--In yet another move marking a series of Turkish
government actions to quash freedom of speech and prevent open discussion
about
the Armenian genocide, the Turkish Government compelled scholars from three
universities in Turkey, on May 24, to indefinitely postpone a conference that
would have focused on this crime against humanity.
"The Turkish government's actions reflect a long-standing, profoundly
troubling, and increasingly aggressive policy of seeking to silence any
discussion of the Armenian fenocide--domestically, through coercion and
threats
of prosecution, and abroad through blackmail and intimidation," said Aram
Hamparian, Executive Director of the ANCA. "In taking these steps, Turkey's
leadership has made a mockery of its claims to seek a dialogue with Armenians,
compounded international skepticism about its willingness to meet even minimal
standards for freedom of expression, and underscored the need for our
government and the international community to press Turkey--once and for
all--to end its campaign to deny justice for this crime against humanity."
The Conference, titled "Ottoman Armenians During the Decline of the Empire:
Issues of Scientific Responsibility and Democracy," was jointly organized by
the Comparative Literature Department of Bilgi University, the History
Department of Bogazici University and the History Program at Sabanci
University. Originally set to take place May 25th-27th at Bosphorus
University, the schedule was to include over 30 papers by Turkish scholars
from
Turkey and abroad.
In the days leading up to the conference, Turkish Government officials spoke
stridently against the conference and its organizers. Turkish Justice Minister
Cemil Cicek, in a speech before the Turkish Parliament on Tuesday, went so far
as to accuse the academics of "treason." The Minister described the conference
as a "a stab in the back to the Turkish nation." Cicek expressed regret that,
as Justice Minister, he could not personally prosecute the organizers and
participants.
Opposition parliament members concurred with the government's views.
According to the Agence France Presse, senior Republican People's Party
Parliament member and former Turkish Ambassador to the US, Sukru Elekdag,
referred to the conference as a "treacherous project."
The government crackdown on the conference is the most recent chapter in the
Turkish government's 90-year campaign of genocide denial. This effort has
intensified in recent years. In 2003, Education Minister Hikmet Cetin issued a
decree making student participation in a nation-wide essay contest denying the
Armenian Genocide compulsory. The most recent revisions to the Turkish
Penal Code criminalizes references to the Armenian Genocide and the removal of
troops from Turkish occupied northern Cyprus. World-renowned Turkish writer
Orhan Pamuk, is the latest to be charged with violation of the Turkish penal
code for references to the Armenian Genocide. According to news reports, Pamuk
stated, "30,000 Kurds and 1 million Armenians were killed in Turkey. Almost no
one dares to speak out this but me, and the nationalists hate me for that."
3) Groups Ask Belgian Senate to Adopt Strong Language on Genocide Denial
BRUSSELS--Reminding legislators that "genocide denial is not the expression of
an opinion but the continuation of the crime of genocide," several groups,
including the European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy (EAFJD),
have asked the Belgian Senate to adopt concise language that clearly
criminalizes denial of the Armenian genocide.
In the next few days, the Belgium Senate will examine a draft law that would
expand the offense for genocide denial. The draft law approved earlier by the
House of Representative is based on a judicial definition of the crime of
genocide, and does not specifically penalize the denial of the Armenian
genocide.
The House version was enacted prior to the establishment of the relevant
international jurisdiction. But the issue has come to prominence recently due
to numerous instances of Armenian genocide denial in Belgium.
As a result, nearly half of the members of the Senate are seeking to consider
this law and examine amendments to extend penalties for the denial of those
genocides recognized by Belgian federal legislative bodies and by European
legislative institutions.
"We object to all forms of grading of genocides and therefore to all
competition between victims, and we reaffirm that the denial of the Armenian
genocide--like the denial of other genocides--repulses in equal measure all
groups of victims as well as supporters of humanism," write the groups.
They also point to the scholarly works that support beyond all reasonable
doubt, the political and concerted nature of the Armenian genocide.
Signatories include the Association of Armenian Democrats in Belgium (AADB),
The Kurdish Institute of Brussels, The Info-Turk Foundation, The International
Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), The LDH Human Rights Organisation (LDH -
Belgium), The Movement against Racism, Anti-Semitism and Xenophobia (MRAX).
4) Pallone Chides Cancellation of Armenian Genocide Conference in Turkey
US Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), co-chairman of the Congressional Caucus on
Armenian Issues, criticized the cancellation of a conference on the Armenian
Genocide in Turkey that was scheduled to begin yesterday. The New Jersey
congressman gave the following statement on the House floor on Wednesday.
"Mr. Speaker, I rise today to voice my outrage and great disappointment about
a recent development in Turkey. A conference set to begin yesterday in
Bogazici
University, of Turkish scholars/academics entitled "Ottoman Armenians during
the Decline of the Empire: Issues of Scientific Responsibility and Democracy,"
was indefinitely postponed by the University organizers.
According to Agence France-Presse, Turkish Justice Minister Cemil Cicek
yesterday accused Conference organizers of committing treason, saying, "We
must
put an end to this cycle of treason and insult, of spreading propaganda
against
the [Turkish] nation by people who belong to it." In addition, Turkish
officials have demanded copies of all papers submitted to the conference.
This development further affirms the speculation that the image that the
Turkish government has attempted to create for itself is nothing more than a
desperate attempt at creating a facade. Contrary to what Turkish Prime
Minister
Erdogan and other Turkish officials would have us believe, the government of
Turkey is not democratic, is not committed to creating a democracy, is not
making an effort to create better relations with Armenia and is definitely not
ready to join the European Union.
Over the last year, we have witnessed the government of Turkey attempt to
move
towards democratization. However, the manner in which they have chosen to
do so
is an insult to any truly democratic government. Their attempts have included
the adoption of a penal code that in reality represents a dramatic display of
the Turkish government's campaign to deny the Armenian genocide. Furthermore,
this new criminal code further hindered improved relations between the
Republic
of Armenia and Turkey.
Section 306 of this code punishes individual Turkish citizens or groups that
confirm the fact of the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Turkey or call for the
end
of the Turkish occupation of Northern Cyprus--with up to ten years in prison.
Far from coming to terms with the Genocide or reaching out to Armenia- Turkey,
in adopting Section 306 of its new penal code, hardened its anti-Armenian
stance and undermined hopes for a reduction of tensions in the region. This
sets the stage for possible legal action against Conference planners and
participants. The Turkish government has refused to support rescinding this
prohibition against free speech despite international criticism.
With the cancellation of this conference, we find that the government of
Turkey will go to any length to avoid facing its own bloody past. In just two
weeks, Turkey's Prime Minister Erdogan will be in the United States for an
official visit, proclaiming that his nation is a democracy ready for full
membership in the European Community and asking for US support. The sad
reality Mr. Speaker is that when it comes to facing the judgment of history
about the Armenian Genocide, Turkey, rather than acknowledge truth, has
instead
chosen to trample on the rights of its citizens to maintain its lies.
Hrant Dink, editor of the Armenian weekly Agos in Turkey, stated, "This
(decision) strengthens the hand of those outside Turkey who say, 'Turkey has
not changed, it is not democratic enough to discuss the Armenian issue.' It
shows there is a difference between what the government says and its
intentions."
Numerous European countries, including Poland, France and Greece, have passed
Armenian Genocide resolutions, and have continuously urged Turkey to admit its
crime. Just this week, French President Jacques Chirac, urged Turkey to
recognize the genocide and said failure to do so could harm Ankara's drive to
join the EU.
We cannot sit by and allow for any nation that we consider an ally and a
nation that is desperately seeking admission into the EU to behave in such a
manner. To bring this development into perspective--consider that,
according to
current law in Turkey, dozens of US Senators and hundreds of Representatives
would be punished simply for having voted for Armenian Genocide resolutions,
spoken about the lessons of this crime against humanity, or commemorated the
victims of this atrocity. So too would the American academic establishment,
human rights groups, the mainstream media, and just about everyone else aside
from the Turkish Embassy and its paid lobbyists here in DC.
Only by being prepared to admit mistakes and make amends can the Turkish
government truly be considered a nation governed by the values of democracy.
This recent event reveals a vulnerable side of Turkey: one that is still
hiding
from its history and is incapable of learning from its mistakes so as to
ensure
that they will not be repeated in the future.
The United States prides itself in being the world's leader in spreading
democracy and liberty. As an effective leader, it is our duty to recognize
that
Turkey is not yet a Democratic state, and it will take a sincere effort on the
part of Turkey to make the transition from a government that currently
advocates censorship and lack of freedom of speech, to one that embraces the
principles of democracy in its true meaning."
5) System Of A Down's 'Mezmerize' Debuts at Number One; First week's worldwide
sales top 800,000
System of a Down has done it again. The band's fourth album, "Mezmerize"
(American Recordings/Columbia Records), enters the Billboard/SoundScan
chart in
the Number One position, as did their CD "Toxicity" when it was released in
September, 2001. Since the release of "Mezmerize" on May 17, the CD has
scanned
an astounding 453,000 copies domestically. "Mezmerize" is the first disc in a
2-disc set with disc two, "Hypnotize," expected out late this fall.
"Mezmerize/Hypnotize" was produced by Rick Rubin and System's Daron Malakian.
"Mezmerize" also came in at #1 on numerous music charts around the world
including those in Germany, Canada, Austria, France, Sweden, Japan,
Switzerland, Colombia, Greece, Brazil, and New Zealand, bringing the first
week's worldwide sales in excess of 800,000 copies.
"B.Y.O.B.," the first single from "Mezmerize," is a Top 5 track at radio, and
the companion promo video has been in high rotation at MTV, MTV2 and the Fuse
Network for weeks.
"Mezmerize" has also scored big with the press:
"A stunning work." --Associated Press
"Every track burns with urgency." --USA Today
"One of the most inventive, unique albums in years." --Newsday
"Insanely good." --Entertainment Weekly
"Everything on 'Mezmerize' hits and splits with viciously honed purpose."
--Rolling Stone
"Some of the smartest music in mainstream rock." --Wired
"SOAD's music makes you wish more rock bands would take such brave and
impressive risks." --Newsweek
"Probably the best record NME has heard all year." --NME
System of a Down kicked off a 23-date tour of Europe on Friday, May 27 that
will include appearances at major rock festivals in Spain, Portugal, Germany,
Austria, Sweden, Belgium, and Switzerland, as well as a three-night headline
stand at London's Brixton Academy. System of a Down will headline a major
North
American arena tour (with The Mars Volta as special guest) beginning early
August. Dates will be announced shortly.
For the most current news and information on System Of A Down, log onto
www.systemofadown.com.
6) A War Photographer's South Coast Interlude
By Margo Kline
Jonathan Alpeyrie is a serious young man who speaks in low, steady tones
as he
describes his life, spent flying to the far-and most troubled-corners of the
Earth.
He has been a bird of passage since starting college at the University of
Chicago in 1998, spending summers chasing exotic locales while working as a
photojournalist. He landed on the South Coast this spring.
Just back from a week's trip to Armenia, Alpeyrie explained in an interview
Monday his decision to remain in this area for the summer. It's "because of
someone I met here." She is Alissa Anderson, an alumna of UCSB now working as
an art dealer.
Alpeyrie acknowledged that a career in photojournalism might be somewhat
offbeat for someone who majored in medieval history in college and swam
competitively while earning his degree. What began with a desire to see exotic
places in his time off from classes evolved into a career chasing photos in
locations as diverse as the former Soviet Union, Congo and the Ivory Coast in
Africa, and Nepal, where Maoist rebels are warring with the royal government.
He also finds time to go to the country of his birth, France.
His recent trip to Armenia provided material for a less deadline-oriented
project, Alpeyrie said. "I've been to ex-Yugoslavia to interview veterans of
Bosnia and Croatia who were in World War II," he said. "I wanted people who
had
fought in foreign armies, mostly mercenaries." The vets he interviewed and
photographed, all Slovenians and Croatians, fought for Nazi Germany "because
they hated Russia," he said. In researching the project, he found that,
suprisingly, Hitler's Wermacht had about 900,000 Muslims, from what is now
Bosnia.
Alpeyrie, the son of a Spanish mother and a Russian father, spent his
first 14
years in Paris. Then he moved to New York with his father and sister. "I guess
I call Manhattan home," he said. His father and sister still live there. His
mother lives in Mexico, near Puerta Vallarta.
He attended the Lycee Francaise in New York City, which he enjoyed
thoroughly,
he said. "It was a lot of fun. I wasn't very happy to go to college." But the
University of Chicago proved to be "a good kick in the butt," he said.
He started working as a photojournalist for local papers. In 2001, he took
his
first trip to Armenia. From there, he journeyed on to Lebanon and Syria. "They
have Armenian communities in Lebanon and Syria, like they do now in Glendale,"
he said. "I like the Armenians. They're very nice."
These days, Alpeyrie shoots news photos for Getty and Agence France Presse. At
the same time, he pursues larger projects like the Wermacht veterans, with the
aim of publishing books.
"Went I first went [to Armenia], I had no idea what I would find," he said.
"There is a lot of heavy industry in Armenia. The factories were built by the
Russians, then the Armenians worked in them. Now, they're selling them for
scrap."
Traveling the world has led Alpeyrie to some sobering conclusions about
geopolitics. For instance, the Armenians are still mindful of the mass
killings
of their countrymen in the early 20th century by Turks. "Everybody [in
Armenia]
is very hard about this, most passionate about it. They really dislike the
Turks. The Turks want to find an agreement about this that it wasn't genocide.
In the west, we argue about what is genocide. I think it was genocide. They
[Turks] took whole families, put them in the desert...where they died."
Consequently, he is not sympathetic about Turkey joining the European Union.
"Poland and France are pretty determined against Turkey in the EU. The Turks
want to join because of money, it's not for intellectual reasons. Is Turkey
Europe? It's not."
His travels in Africa were also an awakening. He went to the Congo but "I
didn't get involved with the rebels. I did a photo essay about the Binza, kids
accused of being witches. Their families kicked them out, saying they're the
reason the families are poor."
The ongoing war among the Congo, Rwanda and Uganda "is worse for the kids."
The warring factions "really mess each other up."
Now, Alpeyrie is pausing for a few months to do freelance photography in
California, work on his book projects and enjoy spending time with Alissa
Anderson. Both his parents have met the young woman, he said, and found her
"impressive. They both like her."
She will go to Manhattan in September to attend graduate school at
Christie's,
the art auctioneers. Alpeyrie will return to New York at the same time, then
leave for a month in Nepal.
In two previous visits to the Himalayan nation, he was in a group that was
ambushed. On one of those trips, he saw a government helicopter strafe a
village.
Alpeyrie said his routine in such combat situations is always the same: "In
the field, I stay with soldiers. They know you're there shooting [photos],
that
you're there with them. That's what I do every time. I make friends with the
lieutenants and captains, the platoon leaders. They lead the men into battle."
In the same quiet voice, he added, "I am not afraid."
7) Youth to Hold Armenian Independence Day Festival
GLENDALE--The Armenian Youth Federation will celebrate Armenia's May 28
Independence Day with a large-scale picnic-festival on Monday, May 30.
Well-known singers and performers, including Nersik Ispirian, Joseph
Krikorian, Paul Baghdadlian, Armenchik, Ara Shahbazian, Vatche Hagopian, Sako,
and Antoine Bezjian, will entertain the crowd. Singers will be accompanied by
the Knar Band.
"May 28, 1918 represents one of the most significant turning points in our
history," said Shant Baboujian, chairman of the AYF Western Region. "As a free
public event in celebration of such a great turning point in our history, we
view the picnic-festival as a service to the Armenian community."
The picnic-festival, to take place at Glendale High School starting at 11am,
will offer food, music, and games. Local businesses and organizations will
also
have booths through which they will make their products and information
available to the public. For more information or details please call (818)
507-1933.
The AYF will also commemorate Memorial Day the same morning, with a wreath
laying at the Glendale City Hall Veterans Memorial.
8) University Students in LA Stage Extraordinary Genocide Commemorative Events
By Tamar Mahshigian
LOS ANGELES--As Armenians worldwide commemorated the 90th anniversary of the
Armenian genocide, university students at California State University,
Northridge and UCLA joined in organizing unique events that honored the memory
of the 1.5 million innocent lives brutally taken under Ottoman rule.
At Cal State Northridge, the Armenian Student Association and its companion
fraternity and sorority groups held a month-long observance that culminated in
a candlelight vigil on April 21. The ASA staged an impressive display in the
quad with mounds of plastic bones splattered in blood, and 1,500 carnations in
the grass (each one representing 1,000 martyrs). In the midst of this seeming
graveyard were signs, one for each of the 6 Armenian provinces. The signs
displayed the name of the province, its population before and after the
Genocide, and the number of people who were slaughtered.
Several days before the vigil, Armenian students set up 6 canvases around
campus, almost 6 feet high and 4 feet wide, painted with the question: "Who
Recognizes the Armenian Genocide?" Thousands of students and faculty signed
the
canvases, which were displayed at the vigil.
The theme of the commemoration was struggle, survival, and rebirth. Newly
elected Glendale City Clerk Ardashes Kassakhian, who was the keynote speaker,
stressed that the massacre of Armenians was a planned extermination--a
genocide--and that Armenians must continue to demand Turkish recognition of
the
heinous crimes of 90 years ago.
Ani Asatryan, vice president of the Armenian Student Association, spoke about
the youth not giving up until justice is served. "We can't heal, and we cannot
grow as a nation until Turkey says 'I'm sorry,'" she told the crowd of 200 to
300 students, some of them non-Armenians.
In addition to the speakers, there was a poetry recitation, a capella singing,
and a video display of Ara Oshagan's portraits of Genocide survivors, as well
as a special dance performance by Niree Arslanian, who graduated from CSUN
last
year, and her sister Lori.
As impressive as the commemorative activities were, the Armenian Students
Association gets credit for having the expenses paid for by the Associated
Students of CSUN. The ASA received $6,000 in student government funds for its
various commemorative programs.
"It was so gratifying that the students were so organized," says Professor
Armine Mahseredjian, director of CSUN's Armenian Studies Program and an
advisor
to the ASA. "They did it all themselves. The students worked together to
create
a cohesive event that got a lot of attention from non-Armenian students and
faculty."
At UCLA, the Armenian Students' Association in February co-hosted a panel on
"Genocide Denial--today and in the past." "We are living in a world today in
which genocide is being committed, specifically in Darfur," said Raffi
Kassabian, president of the UCLA Armenian Student Association. "If people
continue to turn a blind eye or deny such atrocities the cycle of genocide
will
continue to turn."
On April 21, UCLA Armenian students staged a Silent March through campus
holding posters and banners protesting the denial of the Genocide. Many of the
students wore black to make a statement about the severity of their sentiment.
UCLA's ASA also succeeded in having the university's student government
pass a
resolution on April 13, to ban the sale of Turkish goods at UCLA until Turkey
takes care of its human rights violations. "We are sending the Turkish
government a message that UCLA students will not tolerate human rights
violations in Turkey," says Kassabian.
UCLA also was the site for the 2005 All-ASA Candlelight Vigil on April 14.
Each year, the All-Armenian Student Association's Genocide Recognition
Committee, a coalition of Armenian collegiate student groups, chooses one or
two campuses where all Armenian college students come together to commemorate
the Genocide. The UCLA event featured the rapper Knowledge, who belongs to
System Of A Down's Serj Tankian's social justice organization Axis of Justice,
and UCLA Professor Paul Von Blum, a specialist on media and genocide.
9) San Francisco Armenian Film Festival Call for Entries
SAN FRANCISCOContinuing on their outstanding success in San Francisco and New
York in 2004, the Armenian Film Festival committee is presenting "San
Francisco
Armenian Film Festival 2006." The event is scheduled for February 2006 at the
Delancey Street Theater.
The film festival presents Armenian culture from throughout the world, in all
its living diversity, and is committed to screening high quality films and
videos produced by or about Armenians in every cultural, linguistic, and
geopolitical setting.
In seeking to familiarize Armenians and non-Armenians to the multiplicity
that
forms Armenian communities, the festival supports a large variety of works by
Armenian film and video makers--narrative and experimental, documentary and
fiction, features and shorts by and/or about Armenians. In addition to US
filmmakers, filmmakers from around the world are also encouraged to submit
works.
Deadline for submissions is June 15, 2005.
VHS tape or DVD (NTSC preferred where possible), promotional package, and
contact information should be sent to:
The SF Armenian Film Festival
c/o Film Arts Foundation
145 9th St., #101,
San Francisco, CA 94103
Email: [email protected]
There is no entry fee for submission of films. The festival does not pay
screening fees for selected films and videos.
10) Armenian Contemporary Art at Harvest Gallery May 13 through June 16
LOS ANGELES--An eclectic group exhibition featuring works by contemporary
Armenian artists Sarkis Hamalbashian, Rouben Grigorian, Karine Matsakian, Gamo
Nigarian, Vahan Rumelian and Arthur Sarkissian will be exhibited at Harvest
Gallery through Thursday, June 16.
Featuring works spanning the last decade, the exhibit presents over 20
oil-on-canvas contemporary pieces.
Harvest Gallery hours are Tuesday Sunday from 11:00 am to 7:00 pm (938 North
Brand Blvd., Glendale, CA).
For general information about the exhibit, call 818.546.1000 or visit
<http://www.harvestgallery.com/>www.harvestgallery.com.
Harvest Gallery: 938 North Brand Blvd., Glendale, CA
11) Bitter Remembrances of Armenia
The following, published in the Washington Times, is a response to Turkish
Ambassador Faruk Logoglu's May 3, 2005 commentary "To reconcile Turks and
Armenians," which also appeared in the Washington Times.
Last Tuesday's Commentary contribution by Turkish Ambassador O. Faruk Logoglu
was a vivid reminder the Turkish government still rigidly clings to its
unseemly denial of the Armenian massacres of 1915, the first genocide of the
20th century, even as it seeks admission to the European Union.
Moreover, the ambassador seeks sympathy for Turks as if they were equally
wronged. It was all a result of wartime diseases and famine and "the Armenian
revolt in the Eastern provinces of the Ottoman Empire, in which hundreds of
thousands of Turks and Armenians died." And then this, an astonishingly
mendacious thing to write: "We should ... acknowledge the grief and sadness
felt by present generations of Armenians over the terrible losses suffered by
their parents and grandparents. The same compassion must be extended to the
Turkish people."
Mr. Logoglu certainly knows better. Even the Turkish government archives show
how the Ottoman Turkish government planned and carried out the massacres of
the
Armenians because of their race and Christian religion, "ethnically cleansing"
the heavily Armenian provinces in the East and other parts of Turkey,
including
Istanbul, with the loss of an estimated 1.5 million Armenian lives.
The ambassador mentions some Armenian revenge assassinations of Turkish
officials in the 1970s and '80s--abominable events, to be sure. He does not
mention assassinations of guilty Turkish officials more than a half-century
earlier. The story of Soghomon Tehlirian suggests why.
He shot and killed the former interior minister and planner of the genocide,
Talaat Pasha, in Berlin in 1921. Tehlirian's sisters had been raped and his
brother beheaded; his parents had died on a death march that killed tens of
thousands of Armenians. Before shooting Talaat, he shouted: "This is to avenge
the death of my family."
He was exonerated by a German jury that found "the official Turkish
documents... proved beyond question that Talaat Pasha and other officials had
ordered the wholesale extermination of the Armenians." I wrote about Tehlirian
in my California weekly newspaper almost 40 years later. I found him still
careful to be as invisible as possible for fear of Turkish reprisal (justified
or not), and my story said nothing of where and how he lived. He was buried by
the Armenians as a hero. We might have done something similar if an American
had assassinated Adolf Hitler.
Hitler, by the way, told his top generals as they prepared to invade Poland
and the Nazis pressed on with the Holocaust: "Who today, after all, speaks of
the annihilation of the Armenians?"
Many Americans knew what was happening in 1915 and thereabouts and tried to
help, but too late. They included Theodore Roosevelt, who criticized Woodrow
Wilson for not sending troops into Turkey to fight to save the Armenians. "The
Armenian massacre was the greatest crime of the war," he said, "and failure to
act against Turkey is to condone it."
That failure, he said, "means that all talk of guaranteeing the future peace
of the world is mischievous nonsense." America's failure, he said, showed "our
announcement that we meant 'to make the world safe for democracy' was
insincere
claptrap."
Others who spoke out and raised funds for rescue of the Armenians over the
next few years included John D. Rockefeller, William Jennings Bryan, Clara
Barton, Julia Ward Howe, William Lloyd Garrison Jr., Stephen Crane, H.L.
Mencken, Ezra Pound and (despite Roosevelt's words) Woodrow Wilson. They all
knew this was genocide.
Henry Morgenthau, ambassador to Turkey during the massacres, confronted the
Turkish government about its treatment of the Armenians and led our diplomats'
valiant efforts to help Armenians escape. He wrote when he left in 1916: "My
failure to stop the destruction of the Armenians had made Turkey for me a
place
of horror."
Religious organizations speaking out included the Central Conference of
American Rabbis (which earlier appealed to Europe in 1909 to protect the
Armenians from barbarism in Turkey), Protestant missionaries (numerous in
Turkish Armenia, witnesses to the atrocities and sometimes rescuers and
victims) and leading American Catholics.
In due time, I hope, Turkey will be a member of the EU and by then will have
firmly emplaced democratic government and First Amendment freedoms. But it
would be another atrocity if that happens before Turkey accepts, as any
European nation should, its responsibility for the massacres. Can we imagine
Germany as a EU member if it denied the Holocaust and asked equal sympathy for
Germans and Jews because of what happened?
America once stood tall in response to the Armenian massacres. The pursuit of
oil and influence in the Middle East changed that soon after World War I. It
was easier to end the humanitarian clamor. Today some politicians even refuse
(though not President Bush) to use the word "genocide" lest they offend
Turkey.
Americans in general do not even know of these atrocities, although in one of
their finest hours Americans had cried out for the Armenians and for holding
nations accountable for genocide.
Maybe Hitler was right. But I have many Armenian and Turkish friends who do
know (the latter silent just now, because of Turkish suppression of the
truth).
I believe young people in Turkey may change this some day if they have a
chance, if they even learn what happened.
Ambassador Logoglu believes this stain will just go away. We must make sure
lies do not corrupt history as they now corrupt the Turkish government.
Reese Cleghorn
Washington, D.C.
12) LETTERS:
On April 6, 2005, Asbarez Daily published an article by Raffi Arzouhaldjian
titled "On the Eve of the 90th, Anti-turkism Should Not Equal Patriotic
Armenianism." In this editorial, the author intimates his disapproval of the
courageous Armenian students who protested against the pro-Turkish and
anti-Armenian opinions of singer Filip Kirkorov. Ultimately, the protests by
the Nigol Agbalian Youth Union were successful in the decision to cancel Filip
Kirkorov's concert in Armenia, and reiterated that Armenians, as a society,
have a low threshold of tolerance for anti-Armenian slander.
I came across the editorial by this graduate student of diplomacy at the most
inopportune time. On the eve of the ninetieth anniversary of the Armenian
genocide, it seemed odd that a self-proclaimed Armenophile would so
distastefully denigrate Armenians with his pro-Turkish agenda. Clearly, Mr.
Arzouhaldjian, your decision to come out of the closet with your Turkish
political proclivity would have been more appropriately timed around Turkish
Independence day, rather than April 24th. Given the communal and individual
losses that our parents and grandparents suffered under the hands of Turkish
atrocities, how can any individual advocate acquiescence to anti-Armenian
sentiment among Turks. Weren't the centuries of religious, cultural, and
political persecution of Armenians by the Turks enough? Based on your
editorial, I suppose that you would advocate Armenian political
acquiescence to
Turkey for the sake of diplomatic expediency.
Although the writer acknowledges the existence of anti-Armenian
intolerance in
Turkey and Azerbaijan, he seems to distort its prevalence within the
context of
Armenian history. He presents the issue as if it is a new phenomenon.
Anti-Armenian intolerance in occupied Asia Minor has been rampant and public
policy since 1064. Throughout our history, Turkish citizens have murdered,
raped, kidnapped, and pillaged Armenians. "Ermenileri Kerajaghus" ("We shall
slaughter the Armenians") has been part of Turkish lexicon and culture. This
intolerance was often uniquely directed at Armenians in a systematic campaign
to deny Armenians their intrinsic right to political, cultural, and religious
self-determination.
Rightfully, the writer also acknowledges anti-Armenian intolerance by
Azerbaijan and Turkey that continues to this day. He argues that this casts a
dark shadow over regional integration. Although the concept of regional peace
is appealing to all parties, Armenians are adamant about maintaining cultural
and political sovereignty and resisting the hostile and imperialistic pan
Turanic aspirations of its neighbor states. If regional integration is the
current state of real politics then why did the international community
recognize the state of Armenia after the collapse of the Soviet Union? Mr.
Arzouhaldjian, are you proposing to have all the nations that deservingly
declared independence from Ottoman Turkey relinquish their independence
back to
modern Turkey because you seem to advocate a regional integration? Why not
take
issue with The South integrating linguistically, culturally, and politically
from the Union before erasing borders in the Caucasus.
The writer also states that the cancellation of Filip Kirkorov's concert
plays
a disservice to Armenia's fragile democracy. The mere fact that the
protests by
the Nigol Aghbalian Youth Union were allowed by the fledgling Armenian
government, attests to high values Armenians place on American democratic
values. You forget that the democratic principles that the Armenian
diaspora in
America espouses have been instrumental in the establishment of democratic
principles in Armenia. Interestingly, the author supports the right of a
foreigner with flagrant anti-Armenian views to promulgate an overtly insulting
agenda in Armenia, but he condemns the Armenian students for their courageous
stand and pride for their Armenian culture. His biased support of Filip
Kirkorov is repulsive and damaging to our cultural history and pride.
The writer insults Armenians by stating that the Armenian political agenda
has
been hijacked by ethnic hatred and hollow nationalism. The core of our
nationalism has been the struggle to substantiate the sovereignty of our
nation. The acknowledgement of the Armenian genocide, Armenian cultural,
religious, literary and historical achievements within the context of ethnic,
political and national genocide are an important and intangible goal of most
Armenians.
Interestingly, Mr. Arzouhaldjian disguises his acquiescence to Turkish
nationalism and bigotry by claiming that he..."is a strong advocate of Armenian
rights." Armenian rights! The vagueness of the statement is comedic. He seems
to be more concerned about the Kurds and Alevis as suppressed minorities. Who
remembers the Syriac, Chaldean, Nestorians, Greeks and the Assyrians who
commemorate 1895/6 and 1915 as their genocides? What rights are Armenians
demanding today? Going back throughout recorded history, depopulating Armenia
has been an obsession of every empire. If he is advocating the rightful return
of Greater and Lesser Armenia, and Cilicia, then he should have proclaimed so
in his editorial. However, it seems more likely that he has injected that
description of himself in order to obviate any allegations of being an
Armenophobe. I don't remember Mr. Arzouhaldjian in the trenches of Sushi! Or
for that matter, advocating the rights of any Armenian living today. Why the
silence during and after the settlement of the New York Life lawsuit?
He also claims that intolerance of a neighbor's culture is borderline racist.
To allege that being intolerant of a neighbor's culture is borderline racist
misses the point. We as Armenians throughout our history have not only
tolerated but tolerated and assimilated into our receptive host countries.
This
is exemplified by many Armenians throughout the diaspora who have lived,
served, and adopted our host country's language, food and culture. We as
Armenians are not intolerant of other cultures, but rather intolerant of
individuals coming into our country and advocating an anti-Armenian agenda and
insulting our cultural pride. This is particularly true around the time of our
commemoration of the 90th anniversary of the Armenian genocide.
From the standpoint of Mr. Arzouhaldjian's editorial, we should not pick
on an
artist that has decided to hold a concert in Yerevan and perform songs in
Turkish. Filip Kirkorov, a self-loathing Armenian who doesn't deny his
ethnicity ironically behaves as an opportunistic Armenophobe. Perhaps
mistakenly, Mr. Arzouhaldjian fails to mention Filip Kirkorov's recent conduct
in Baku, Azerbaijian. According to reports in Azbarez Daily, Filip Kirkorov
proclaimed that he was "ashamed that Armenian blood flows through his body..."
during a concert in that city. This was one of the reasons why the students
protested his concert. It is almost analogous to the American public's
reaction
to comments made by the Dixie Chicks. Why was Mr. Arzouhaldjian so silent when
the Dixie Chics were condemned and many of their concerts cancelled? Why
didn't
he proclaim the United States public undemocratic and reactionary? Why didn't
he criticize the country music fans and all the citizens within these United
States as borderline racists?
One of the most disappointing comments made in the editorial was as follows:
"Unlike our grandparents' generation, who could not help but view Turkey from
the perspective of individual and communal losses after the genocide, our
generation needs a wider and more sophisticated view of Armenian-Turkish
relations." Despite the ninety years that have passed since the Armenian
genocide, the majority of Armenians are still deeply affected by the tragedies
inflicted during that era and for many centuries preceding. The lives of our
grandparents and parents, in some cases, were tragically altered in the most
brutal ways. How can he even insinuate that we, as the new generation of
Armenians, collectively move on and ignore these past crimes. Insulting our
grandparent's generation of perceiving Turkey from individual and communal
losses after the genocide not only shows the level of his immaturity but his
insolence and naiveté. His comments are a desecration of our history.
"...The very name of Armenia awakens memories of a tragic chain of broken
promises for the fulfillment of which they (allies) have not raised a finger.
After all it was a culturally gifted nation, possessing no oil wells or gold
mines..." Fridtjof Nansen
It seems that his ignorance of Armenian history is evident. Let us not
rewrite
history, but let me remind him that the Seljuk and later Ottoman Turks
instituted a systematic campaign of cultural genocide. Therefore, our feelings
towards the Turks have been a result of not only their invasion and usurpation
of our lands, but the desecration of our churches, cemeteries, and the
kidnapping, raping and murder of our people. These crimes should never be
forgotten for the sake of diplomatic expediency.
In another statement, the author writes: "We can't imitate the monolithic
positions of the establishment in Ankara and its Armenophobic policies.
"...First, the ferman (order) for massacres was issued. Then the Turkish and
Kurdish plunderers, armed with swords, hatchets, or truncheons, would break
into Armenian homes and start the blood bath. When the carnage reached a level
considered adequate for that day, the government's town crier would blow the
trumpet to signal the paydos (pause). Accustomed to the rules of the game, the
crazed populace would suddenly stop, sheathe their swords, and quietly go
home..."
In Bill O'Reilly's words, this is a "NO SPIN ZONE!" But this writer tries to
muddy the water, confuse, and distract the reader by claiming that we as
Armenians should distinguish between Ankara and the Turkish people and
culture.
I have a few comments to make: How many ordinary Turkish citizens ever
stood up
and apologized to any Armenian during or after any massacre? The ones who did
harbor Armenians only harbored them in return for financial incentives. The
direct beneficiaries of the massacres weren't the politicians in
Constantinople
or Ankara, but the ordinary Turk. When Nelson Mandela refused the Ataturk
Peace
Award, he was called an "insolent African," an "Ugly African." How many Turks
protested to Hurriet, Sahah, and Turkiye newspapers? How many Arab countries
still maintain any vestiges of Turkish culture? You want us to respect a
culture that had actively traded slaves from Africa less than 80 years ago!
All
this with no recorded apology!
Mr. Arzouhaldjian, it is ironic that you claim we should, as a society,
practice more tolerance of anti-Armenian and pro-Turkish tendencies among
individuals in our free society. You advocate that as a society we should
tolerate and respect individuals like Filip Kirkorov's pro-Turkish stance, pro
Turkish tendencies and opinions. It is also ironic that by Asbarez Daily
publishing your insolent, insensitive and ill-timed editorial, it has
demonstrated a tolerance for which you accuse Armenians of lacking.
You have SPUN this issue, knowing full well the real reason for the outrage,
but you took the opportunity to insult Armenians. Perhaps you haven't realized
that your comments may have offended a whole generation of Armenians who have
personally been touched by the tragedies during and after the Armenian
genocide. Ninety years after the genocide, Armenians have continued to
persevere and flourish as a nation and diaspora while still respecting the
tragic sacrifices our ancestors made to maintain our culture and identity. We
shall never forget these sacrifices for the sake of diplomacy. Mr.
Arzouhaldjian, perhaps you should take Henry Kissinger as a role model. He
remained committed to American national policy while persevering and
respecting
his heritage.
Hrair Karamanoukian
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05/27/2005
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1) Socialist International Council in Tel Aviv and Ramallah
2) ANCA Criticizes Turkey's Mockery of Freedom of Expression
3) Groups Ask Belgian Senate to Adopt Strong Language on Genocide Denial
4) Pallone Chides Cancellation of Armenian Genocide Conference in Turkey
5) System Of A Down's 'Mezmerize' Debuts at Number One; First week's worldwide
sales top 800,000
6) A War Photographer's South Coast Interlude
7) Youth to Hold Armenian Independence Day Festival
8) University Students in LA Stage Extraordinary Genocide Commemorative Events
9) San Francisco Armenian Film Festival Call for Entries
10) Armenian Contemporary Art at Harvest Gallery
11) Bitter Remembrances of Armenia
12) LETTERS
Ed Note: Due to the early holiday deadline, Skeptik Sinikian was unable to
write his column; he, instead, opted to travel to the White House for Georgian
dance lessons from GW.
OUR NEXT POSTING:
Due to the Memorial Day holiday, our next issue will be posted on Tuesday, May
31.
1) Socialist International Council in Tel Aviv and Ramallah
ARF delegate delivers speech on Mid-East peace
(SI)--Tel Aviv and Ramallah were the stage for Socialist International's
Council meeting on May 23-24, with the participation of leaders and
representatives from its member parties and organizations from around the
world.
Representatives from the Armenia Revolutionary Federation (ARF), included
Bureau member Mario Nalbandian, along with Hagop Sevan, Manuel Hasassian, and
Georgette Avakian. Nalbandian was one of the featured speakers at the May 24
session.
The Council, which convenes every six months, met in the Middle East on this
occasion to underline the SI's commitment to searching for peace in the region
and encouraging Israelis and Palestinians to move forward along the path of
dialogue and negotiation at a crucial juncture for the region's future.
Under the main theme "For a Middle East in peace, with political and economic
democracy: the social democratic vision," the Council meeting, hosted by the
Israel Labor Party, the Israeli Yachad Party, and the Palestinian Fatah, all
members of the International, held two sessions, one in Tel Aviv and the other
in Ramallah.
The session in Tel Aviv opened on the morning of Monday 23 with contributions
from Shimon Peres, Leader of the Labor Party and Deputy Prime Minister of
Israel; Imad Shakur, Member of the Palestinian National Council; Yossi Beilin,
Leader of the Yachad Party from Israel; and SI President António Guterres. A
number of leaders from Socialist International member parties participated in
the debate on the main theme.
On the afternoon of the first day, the Council received a report from the
Chair of the SI Committee on the Economy, Social Cohesion and the Environment,
Christoph Zopel (Germany, SPD), and the position papers 'Financial and
Economic
Issues, The Bretton Woods Institutions and Global Economic Governance' and
'Trade and Social Rights', prepared by the Committee, were approved, as were
the following declarations: 'Socialist International's Second Semi-Annual
Review on Democratic Governance for Sustainable Development in a Global
Society'; 'Millennium Development Goals', and 'World Summit on the Information
Society'. A position paper--'Reforming the United Nations for a New Global
Agenda'--prepared by a special Working Group established by the last SI
Congress was adopted, following a presentation by Maria Joao Rodrigues
(Portugal, PS). A resolution on the establishment of a global network of
parliamentarians from SI member parties, an area of work mandated to the SI
Secretary General, was approved.
The President of Israel, Moshe Katsav, delivered a special address to the
Council meeting and welcomed the presence of the International,
acknowledging a
climate of expectation concerning the latest developments in the Middle East.
The afternoon session closed with a report of the Secretary General of the
Socialist International, Luis Ayala, detailing the activities and the focus of
attention of the organization during the last six month period.
In the evening, in Ramallah, the delegates to the Council had a special
meeting with the President of the Palestinian National Authority, Mahmoud
Abbas, who thanked the International for its continuing involvement in the
search for peace in the Middle East.
On May 24, the session in Ramallah opened with addresses by Nabil Shaath,
Deputy and Acting Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority; Abbas
Zaki on behalf of Fatah; Avshalom Vilan, MK, of the Yachad Party; Colette
Avital, MK, of the Israel Labour Party; and, SI President António Guterres.
Participants continued the discussions of the previous day in Tel Aviv on the
main theme. (List of speakers, Tuesday 24 May)
At the end of the debates, a Declaration on democracy and peace in the Middle
East was introduced by Thorbjorn Jagland (Norway, DNA) on behalf of the SI
Middle East Committee which he chairs; it was unanimously adopted.
Finally, the Council agreed to recommend the upgrade of the Patriotic
Union of
Kurdistan, PUK, Iraq, and the Democratic Party, DP, Serbia, to full membership
in the International, and of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan , PDKI,
and the Assembly of Democratic Forces, RFD, of Mauritania to consultative
status. In accordance with the SI's statutes, the Council elected George
Papandreou, Leader of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement, Pasok, Greece;
Mohamed El-Yazghi, First Secretary of the Socialist Union of Popular Forces,
USFP, Morocco, and Horacio Serpa of the Liberal Party of Colombia as
Vice-Presidents of the Socialist International, to occupy positions that had
become vacant since the last Congress.
2) ANCA Criticizes Turkey's Mockery of Freedom of Expression
--Discussion of Armenian genocide silenced again
WASHINGTON, DC (ANCA)--In yet another move marking a series of Turkish
government actions to quash freedom of speech and prevent open discussion
about
the Armenian genocide, the Turkish Government compelled scholars from three
universities in Turkey, on May 24, to indefinitely postpone a conference that
would have focused on this crime against humanity.
"The Turkish government's actions reflect a long-standing, profoundly
troubling, and increasingly aggressive policy of seeking to silence any
discussion of the Armenian fenocide--domestically, through coercion and
threats
of prosecution, and abroad through blackmail and intimidation," said Aram
Hamparian, Executive Director of the ANCA. "In taking these steps, Turkey's
leadership has made a mockery of its claims to seek a dialogue with Armenians,
compounded international skepticism about its willingness to meet even minimal
standards for freedom of expression, and underscored the need for our
government and the international community to press Turkey--once and for
all--to end its campaign to deny justice for this crime against humanity."
The Conference, titled "Ottoman Armenians During the Decline of the Empire:
Issues of Scientific Responsibility and Democracy," was jointly organized by
the Comparative Literature Department of Bilgi University, the History
Department of Bogazici University and the History Program at Sabanci
University. Originally set to take place May 25th-27th at Bosphorus
University, the schedule was to include over 30 papers by Turkish scholars
from
Turkey and abroad.
In the days leading up to the conference, Turkish Government officials spoke
stridently against the conference and its organizers. Turkish Justice Minister
Cemil Cicek, in a speech before the Turkish Parliament on Tuesday, went so far
as to accuse the academics of "treason." The Minister described the conference
as a "a stab in the back to the Turkish nation." Cicek expressed regret that,
as Justice Minister, he could not personally prosecute the organizers and
participants.
Opposition parliament members concurred with the government's views.
According to the Agence France Presse, senior Republican People's Party
Parliament member and former Turkish Ambassador to the US, Sukru Elekdag,
referred to the conference as a "treacherous project."
The government crackdown on the conference is the most recent chapter in the
Turkish government's 90-year campaign of genocide denial. This effort has
intensified in recent years. In 2003, Education Minister Hikmet Cetin issued a
decree making student participation in a nation-wide essay contest denying the
Armenian Genocide compulsory. The most recent revisions to the Turkish
Penal Code criminalizes references to the Armenian Genocide and the removal of
troops from Turkish occupied northern Cyprus. World-renowned Turkish writer
Orhan Pamuk, is the latest to be charged with violation of the Turkish penal
code for references to the Armenian Genocide. According to news reports, Pamuk
stated, "30,000 Kurds and 1 million Armenians were killed in Turkey. Almost no
one dares to speak out this but me, and the nationalists hate me for that."
3) Groups Ask Belgian Senate to Adopt Strong Language on Genocide Denial
BRUSSELS--Reminding legislators that "genocide denial is not the expression of
an opinion but the continuation of the crime of genocide," several groups,
including the European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy (EAFJD),
have asked the Belgian Senate to adopt concise language that clearly
criminalizes denial of the Armenian genocide.
In the next few days, the Belgium Senate will examine a draft law that would
expand the offense for genocide denial. The draft law approved earlier by the
House of Representative is based on a judicial definition of the crime of
genocide, and does not specifically penalize the denial of the Armenian
genocide.
The House version was enacted prior to the establishment of the relevant
international jurisdiction. But the issue has come to prominence recently due
to numerous instances of Armenian genocide denial in Belgium.
As a result, nearly half of the members of the Senate are seeking to consider
this law and examine amendments to extend penalties for the denial of those
genocides recognized by Belgian federal legislative bodies and by European
legislative institutions.
"We object to all forms of grading of genocides and therefore to all
competition between victims, and we reaffirm that the denial of the Armenian
genocide--like the denial of other genocides--repulses in equal measure all
groups of victims as well as supporters of humanism," write the groups.
They also point to the scholarly works that support beyond all reasonable
doubt, the political and concerted nature of the Armenian genocide.
Signatories include the Association of Armenian Democrats in Belgium (AADB),
The Kurdish Institute of Brussels, The Info-Turk Foundation, The International
Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), The LDH Human Rights Organisation (LDH -
Belgium), The Movement against Racism, Anti-Semitism and Xenophobia (MRAX).
4) Pallone Chides Cancellation of Armenian Genocide Conference in Turkey
US Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), co-chairman of the Congressional Caucus on
Armenian Issues, criticized the cancellation of a conference on the Armenian
Genocide in Turkey that was scheduled to begin yesterday. The New Jersey
congressman gave the following statement on the House floor on Wednesday.
"Mr. Speaker, I rise today to voice my outrage and great disappointment about
a recent development in Turkey. A conference set to begin yesterday in
Bogazici
University, of Turkish scholars/academics entitled "Ottoman Armenians during
the Decline of the Empire: Issues of Scientific Responsibility and Democracy,"
was indefinitely postponed by the University organizers.
According to Agence France-Presse, Turkish Justice Minister Cemil Cicek
yesterday accused Conference organizers of committing treason, saying, "We
must
put an end to this cycle of treason and insult, of spreading propaganda
against
the [Turkish] nation by people who belong to it." In addition, Turkish
officials have demanded copies of all papers submitted to the conference.
This development further affirms the speculation that the image that the
Turkish government has attempted to create for itself is nothing more than a
desperate attempt at creating a facade. Contrary to what Turkish Prime
Minister
Erdogan and other Turkish officials would have us believe, the government of
Turkey is not democratic, is not committed to creating a democracy, is not
making an effort to create better relations with Armenia and is definitely not
ready to join the European Union.
Over the last year, we have witnessed the government of Turkey attempt to
move
towards democratization. However, the manner in which they have chosen to
do so
is an insult to any truly democratic government. Their attempts have included
the adoption of a penal code that in reality represents a dramatic display of
the Turkish government's campaign to deny the Armenian genocide. Furthermore,
this new criminal code further hindered improved relations between the
Republic
of Armenia and Turkey.
Section 306 of this code punishes individual Turkish citizens or groups that
confirm the fact of the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Turkey or call for the
end
of the Turkish occupation of Northern Cyprus--with up to ten years in prison.
Far from coming to terms with the Genocide or reaching out to Armenia- Turkey,
in adopting Section 306 of its new penal code, hardened its anti-Armenian
stance and undermined hopes for a reduction of tensions in the region. This
sets the stage for possible legal action against Conference planners and
participants. The Turkish government has refused to support rescinding this
prohibition against free speech despite international criticism.
With the cancellation of this conference, we find that the government of
Turkey will go to any length to avoid facing its own bloody past. In just two
weeks, Turkey's Prime Minister Erdogan will be in the United States for an
official visit, proclaiming that his nation is a democracy ready for full
membership in the European Community and asking for US support. The sad
reality Mr. Speaker is that when it comes to facing the judgment of history
about the Armenian Genocide, Turkey, rather than acknowledge truth, has
instead
chosen to trample on the rights of its citizens to maintain its lies.
Hrant Dink, editor of the Armenian weekly Agos in Turkey, stated, "This
(decision) strengthens the hand of those outside Turkey who say, 'Turkey has
not changed, it is not democratic enough to discuss the Armenian issue.' It
shows there is a difference between what the government says and its
intentions."
Numerous European countries, including Poland, France and Greece, have passed
Armenian Genocide resolutions, and have continuously urged Turkey to admit its
crime. Just this week, French President Jacques Chirac, urged Turkey to
recognize the genocide and said failure to do so could harm Ankara's drive to
join the EU.
We cannot sit by and allow for any nation that we consider an ally and a
nation that is desperately seeking admission into the EU to behave in such a
manner. To bring this development into perspective--consider that,
according to
current law in Turkey, dozens of US Senators and hundreds of Representatives
would be punished simply for having voted for Armenian Genocide resolutions,
spoken about the lessons of this crime against humanity, or commemorated the
victims of this atrocity. So too would the American academic establishment,
human rights groups, the mainstream media, and just about everyone else aside
from the Turkish Embassy and its paid lobbyists here in DC.
Only by being prepared to admit mistakes and make amends can the Turkish
government truly be considered a nation governed by the values of democracy.
This recent event reveals a vulnerable side of Turkey: one that is still
hiding
from its history and is incapable of learning from its mistakes so as to
ensure
that they will not be repeated in the future.
The United States prides itself in being the world's leader in spreading
democracy and liberty. As an effective leader, it is our duty to recognize
that
Turkey is not yet a Democratic state, and it will take a sincere effort on the
part of Turkey to make the transition from a government that currently
advocates censorship and lack of freedom of speech, to one that embraces the
principles of democracy in its true meaning."
5) System Of A Down's 'Mezmerize' Debuts at Number One; First week's worldwide
sales top 800,000
System of a Down has done it again. The band's fourth album, "Mezmerize"
(American Recordings/Columbia Records), enters the Billboard/SoundScan
chart in
the Number One position, as did their CD "Toxicity" when it was released in
September, 2001. Since the release of "Mezmerize" on May 17, the CD has
scanned
an astounding 453,000 copies domestically. "Mezmerize" is the first disc in a
2-disc set with disc two, "Hypnotize," expected out late this fall.
"Mezmerize/Hypnotize" was produced by Rick Rubin and System's Daron Malakian.
"Mezmerize" also came in at #1 on numerous music charts around the world
including those in Germany, Canada, Austria, France, Sweden, Japan,
Switzerland, Colombia, Greece, Brazil, and New Zealand, bringing the first
week's worldwide sales in excess of 800,000 copies.
"B.Y.O.B.," the first single from "Mezmerize," is a Top 5 track at radio, and
the companion promo video has been in high rotation at MTV, MTV2 and the Fuse
Network for weeks.
"Mezmerize" has also scored big with the press:
"A stunning work." --Associated Press
"Every track burns with urgency." --USA Today
"One of the most inventive, unique albums in years." --Newsday
"Insanely good." --Entertainment Weekly
"Everything on 'Mezmerize' hits and splits with viciously honed purpose."
--Rolling Stone
"Some of the smartest music in mainstream rock." --Wired
"SOAD's music makes you wish more rock bands would take such brave and
impressive risks." --Newsweek
"Probably the best record NME has heard all year." --NME
System of a Down kicked off a 23-date tour of Europe on Friday, May 27 that
will include appearances at major rock festivals in Spain, Portugal, Germany,
Austria, Sweden, Belgium, and Switzerland, as well as a three-night headline
stand at London's Brixton Academy. System of a Down will headline a major
North
American arena tour (with The Mars Volta as special guest) beginning early
August. Dates will be announced shortly.
For the most current news and information on System Of A Down, log onto
www.systemofadown.com.
6) A War Photographer's South Coast Interlude
By Margo Kline
Jonathan Alpeyrie is a serious young man who speaks in low, steady tones
as he
describes his life, spent flying to the far-and most troubled-corners of the
Earth.
He has been a bird of passage since starting college at the University of
Chicago in 1998, spending summers chasing exotic locales while working as a
photojournalist. He landed on the South Coast this spring.
Just back from a week's trip to Armenia, Alpeyrie explained in an interview
Monday his decision to remain in this area for the summer. It's "because of
someone I met here." She is Alissa Anderson, an alumna of UCSB now working as
an art dealer.
Alpeyrie acknowledged that a career in photojournalism might be somewhat
offbeat for someone who majored in medieval history in college and swam
competitively while earning his degree. What began with a desire to see exotic
places in his time off from classes evolved into a career chasing photos in
locations as diverse as the former Soviet Union, Congo and the Ivory Coast in
Africa, and Nepal, where Maoist rebels are warring with the royal government.
He also finds time to go to the country of his birth, France.
His recent trip to Armenia provided material for a less deadline-oriented
project, Alpeyrie said. "I've been to ex-Yugoslavia to interview veterans of
Bosnia and Croatia who were in World War II," he said. "I wanted people who
had
fought in foreign armies, mostly mercenaries." The vets he interviewed and
photographed, all Slovenians and Croatians, fought for Nazi Germany "because
they hated Russia," he said. In researching the project, he found that,
suprisingly, Hitler's Wermacht had about 900,000 Muslims, from what is now
Bosnia.
Alpeyrie, the son of a Spanish mother and a Russian father, spent his
first 14
years in Paris. Then he moved to New York with his father and sister. "I guess
I call Manhattan home," he said. His father and sister still live there. His
mother lives in Mexico, near Puerta Vallarta.
He attended the Lycee Francaise in New York City, which he enjoyed
thoroughly,
he said. "It was a lot of fun. I wasn't very happy to go to college." But the
University of Chicago proved to be "a good kick in the butt," he said.
He started working as a photojournalist for local papers. In 2001, he took
his
first trip to Armenia. From there, he journeyed on to Lebanon and Syria. "They
have Armenian communities in Lebanon and Syria, like they do now in Glendale,"
he said. "I like the Armenians. They're very nice."
These days, Alpeyrie shoots news photos for Getty and Agence France Presse. At
the same time, he pursues larger projects like the Wermacht veterans, with the
aim of publishing books.
"Went I first went [to Armenia], I had no idea what I would find," he said.
"There is a lot of heavy industry in Armenia. The factories were built by the
Russians, then the Armenians worked in them. Now, they're selling them for
scrap."
Traveling the world has led Alpeyrie to some sobering conclusions about
geopolitics. For instance, the Armenians are still mindful of the mass
killings
of their countrymen in the early 20th century by Turks. "Everybody [in
Armenia]
is very hard about this, most passionate about it. They really dislike the
Turks. The Turks want to find an agreement about this that it wasn't genocide.
In the west, we argue about what is genocide. I think it was genocide. They
[Turks] took whole families, put them in the desert...where they died."
Consequently, he is not sympathetic about Turkey joining the European Union.
"Poland and France are pretty determined against Turkey in the EU. The Turks
want to join because of money, it's not for intellectual reasons. Is Turkey
Europe? It's not."
His travels in Africa were also an awakening. He went to the Congo but "I
didn't get involved with the rebels. I did a photo essay about the Binza, kids
accused of being witches. Their families kicked them out, saying they're the
reason the families are poor."
The ongoing war among the Congo, Rwanda and Uganda "is worse for the kids."
The warring factions "really mess each other up."
Now, Alpeyrie is pausing for a few months to do freelance photography in
California, work on his book projects and enjoy spending time with Alissa
Anderson. Both his parents have met the young woman, he said, and found her
"impressive. They both like her."
She will go to Manhattan in September to attend graduate school at
Christie's,
the art auctioneers. Alpeyrie will return to New York at the same time, then
leave for a month in Nepal.
In two previous visits to the Himalayan nation, he was in a group that was
ambushed. On one of those trips, he saw a government helicopter strafe a
village.
Alpeyrie said his routine in such combat situations is always the same: "In
the field, I stay with soldiers. They know you're there shooting [photos],
that
you're there with them. That's what I do every time. I make friends with the
lieutenants and captains, the platoon leaders. They lead the men into battle."
In the same quiet voice, he added, "I am not afraid."
7) Youth to Hold Armenian Independence Day Festival
GLENDALE--The Armenian Youth Federation will celebrate Armenia's May 28
Independence Day with a large-scale picnic-festival on Monday, May 30.
Well-known singers and performers, including Nersik Ispirian, Joseph
Krikorian, Paul Baghdadlian, Armenchik, Ara Shahbazian, Vatche Hagopian, Sako,
and Antoine Bezjian, will entertain the crowd. Singers will be accompanied by
the Knar Band.
"May 28, 1918 represents one of the most significant turning points in our
history," said Shant Baboujian, chairman of the AYF Western Region. "As a free
public event in celebration of such a great turning point in our history, we
view the picnic-festival as a service to the Armenian community."
The picnic-festival, to take place at Glendale High School starting at 11am,
will offer food, music, and games. Local businesses and organizations will
also
have booths through which they will make their products and information
available to the public. For more information or details please call (818)
507-1933.
The AYF will also commemorate Memorial Day the same morning, with a wreath
laying at the Glendale City Hall Veterans Memorial.
8) University Students in LA Stage Extraordinary Genocide Commemorative Events
By Tamar Mahshigian
LOS ANGELES--As Armenians worldwide commemorated the 90th anniversary of the
Armenian genocide, university students at California State University,
Northridge and UCLA joined in organizing unique events that honored the memory
of the 1.5 million innocent lives brutally taken under Ottoman rule.
At Cal State Northridge, the Armenian Student Association and its companion
fraternity and sorority groups held a month-long observance that culminated in
a candlelight vigil on April 21. The ASA staged an impressive display in the
quad with mounds of plastic bones splattered in blood, and 1,500 carnations in
the grass (each one representing 1,000 martyrs). In the midst of this seeming
graveyard were signs, one for each of the 6 Armenian provinces. The signs
displayed the name of the province, its population before and after the
Genocide, and the number of people who were slaughtered.
Several days before the vigil, Armenian students set up 6 canvases around
campus, almost 6 feet high and 4 feet wide, painted with the question: "Who
Recognizes the Armenian Genocide?" Thousands of students and faculty signed
the
canvases, which were displayed at the vigil.
The theme of the commemoration was struggle, survival, and rebirth. Newly
elected Glendale City Clerk Ardashes Kassakhian, who was the keynote speaker,
stressed that the massacre of Armenians was a planned extermination--a
genocide--and that Armenians must continue to demand Turkish recognition of
the
heinous crimes of 90 years ago.
Ani Asatryan, vice president of the Armenian Student Association, spoke about
the youth not giving up until justice is served. "We can't heal, and we cannot
grow as a nation until Turkey says 'I'm sorry,'" she told the crowd of 200 to
300 students, some of them non-Armenians.
In addition to the speakers, there was a poetry recitation, a capella singing,
and a video display of Ara Oshagan's portraits of Genocide survivors, as well
as a special dance performance by Niree Arslanian, who graduated from CSUN
last
year, and her sister Lori.
As impressive as the commemorative activities were, the Armenian Students
Association gets credit for having the expenses paid for by the Associated
Students of CSUN. The ASA received $6,000 in student government funds for its
various commemorative programs.
"It was so gratifying that the students were so organized," says Professor
Armine Mahseredjian, director of CSUN's Armenian Studies Program and an
advisor
to the ASA. "They did it all themselves. The students worked together to
create
a cohesive event that got a lot of attention from non-Armenian students and
faculty."
At UCLA, the Armenian Students' Association in February co-hosted a panel on
"Genocide Denial--today and in the past." "We are living in a world today in
which genocide is being committed, specifically in Darfur," said Raffi
Kassabian, president of the UCLA Armenian Student Association. "If people
continue to turn a blind eye or deny such atrocities the cycle of genocide
will
continue to turn."
On April 21, UCLA Armenian students staged a Silent March through campus
holding posters and banners protesting the denial of the Genocide. Many of the
students wore black to make a statement about the severity of their sentiment.
UCLA's ASA also succeeded in having the university's student government
pass a
resolution on April 13, to ban the sale of Turkish goods at UCLA until Turkey
takes care of its human rights violations. "We are sending the Turkish
government a message that UCLA students will not tolerate human rights
violations in Turkey," says Kassabian.
UCLA also was the site for the 2005 All-ASA Candlelight Vigil on April 14.
Each year, the All-Armenian Student Association's Genocide Recognition
Committee, a coalition of Armenian collegiate student groups, chooses one or
two campuses where all Armenian college students come together to commemorate
the Genocide. The UCLA event featured the rapper Knowledge, who belongs to
System Of A Down's Serj Tankian's social justice organization Axis of Justice,
and UCLA Professor Paul Von Blum, a specialist on media and genocide.
9) San Francisco Armenian Film Festival Call for Entries
SAN FRANCISCOContinuing on their outstanding success in San Francisco and New
York in 2004, the Armenian Film Festival committee is presenting "San
Francisco
Armenian Film Festival 2006." The event is scheduled for February 2006 at the
Delancey Street Theater.
The film festival presents Armenian culture from throughout the world, in all
its living diversity, and is committed to screening high quality films and
videos produced by or about Armenians in every cultural, linguistic, and
geopolitical setting.
In seeking to familiarize Armenians and non-Armenians to the multiplicity
that
forms Armenian communities, the festival supports a large variety of works by
Armenian film and video makers--narrative and experimental, documentary and
fiction, features and shorts by and/or about Armenians. In addition to US
filmmakers, filmmakers from around the world are also encouraged to submit
works.
Deadline for submissions is June 15, 2005.
VHS tape or DVD (NTSC preferred where possible), promotional package, and
contact information should be sent to:
The SF Armenian Film Festival
c/o Film Arts Foundation
145 9th St., #101,
San Francisco, CA 94103
Email: [email protected]
There is no entry fee for submission of films. The festival does not pay
screening fees for selected films and videos.
10) Armenian Contemporary Art at Harvest Gallery May 13 through June 16
LOS ANGELES--An eclectic group exhibition featuring works by contemporary
Armenian artists Sarkis Hamalbashian, Rouben Grigorian, Karine Matsakian, Gamo
Nigarian, Vahan Rumelian and Arthur Sarkissian will be exhibited at Harvest
Gallery through Thursday, June 16.
Featuring works spanning the last decade, the exhibit presents over 20
oil-on-canvas contemporary pieces.
Harvest Gallery hours are Tuesday Sunday from 11:00 am to 7:00 pm (938 North
Brand Blvd., Glendale, CA).
For general information about the exhibit, call 818.546.1000 or visit
<http://www.harvestgallery.com/>www.harvestgallery.com.
Harvest Gallery: 938 North Brand Blvd., Glendale, CA
11) Bitter Remembrances of Armenia
The following, published in the Washington Times, is a response to Turkish
Ambassador Faruk Logoglu's May 3, 2005 commentary "To reconcile Turks and
Armenians," which also appeared in the Washington Times.
Last Tuesday's Commentary contribution by Turkish Ambassador O. Faruk Logoglu
was a vivid reminder the Turkish government still rigidly clings to its
unseemly denial of the Armenian massacres of 1915, the first genocide of the
20th century, even as it seeks admission to the European Union.
Moreover, the ambassador seeks sympathy for Turks as if they were equally
wronged. It was all a result of wartime diseases and famine and "the Armenian
revolt in the Eastern provinces of the Ottoman Empire, in which hundreds of
thousands of Turks and Armenians died." And then this, an astonishingly
mendacious thing to write: "We should ... acknowledge the grief and sadness
felt by present generations of Armenians over the terrible losses suffered by
their parents and grandparents. The same compassion must be extended to the
Turkish people."
Mr. Logoglu certainly knows better. Even the Turkish government archives show
how the Ottoman Turkish government planned and carried out the massacres of
the
Armenians because of their race and Christian religion, "ethnically cleansing"
the heavily Armenian provinces in the East and other parts of Turkey,
including
Istanbul, with the loss of an estimated 1.5 million Armenian lives.
The ambassador mentions some Armenian revenge assassinations of Turkish
officials in the 1970s and '80s--abominable events, to be sure. He does not
mention assassinations of guilty Turkish officials more than a half-century
earlier. The story of Soghomon Tehlirian suggests why.
He shot and killed the former interior minister and planner of the genocide,
Talaat Pasha, in Berlin in 1921. Tehlirian's sisters had been raped and his
brother beheaded; his parents had died on a death march that killed tens of
thousands of Armenians. Before shooting Talaat, he shouted: "This is to avenge
the death of my family."
He was exonerated by a German jury that found "the official Turkish
documents... proved beyond question that Talaat Pasha and other officials had
ordered the wholesale extermination of the Armenians." I wrote about Tehlirian
in my California weekly newspaper almost 40 years later. I found him still
careful to be as invisible as possible for fear of Turkish reprisal (justified
or not), and my story said nothing of where and how he lived. He was buried by
the Armenians as a hero. We might have done something similar if an American
had assassinated Adolf Hitler.
Hitler, by the way, told his top generals as they prepared to invade Poland
and the Nazis pressed on with the Holocaust: "Who today, after all, speaks of
the annihilation of the Armenians?"
Many Americans knew what was happening in 1915 and thereabouts and tried to
help, but too late. They included Theodore Roosevelt, who criticized Woodrow
Wilson for not sending troops into Turkey to fight to save the Armenians. "The
Armenian massacre was the greatest crime of the war," he said, "and failure to
act against Turkey is to condone it."
That failure, he said, "means that all talk of guaranteeing the future peace
of the world is mischievous nonsense." America's failure, he said, showed "our
announcement that we meant 'to make the world safe for democracy' was
insincere
claptrap."
Others who spoke out and raised funds for rescue of the Armenians over the
next few years included John D. Rockefeller, William Jennings Bryan, Clara
Barton, Julia Ward Howe, William Lloyd Garrison Jr., Stephen Crane, H.L.
Mencken, Ezra Pound and (despite Roosevelt's words) Woodrow Wilson. They all
knew this was genocide.
Henry Morgenthau, ambassador to Turkey during the massacres, confronted the
Turkish government about its treatment of the Armenians and led our diplomats'
valiant efforts to help Armenians escape. He wrote when he left in 1916: "My
failure to stop the destruction of the Armenians had made Turkey for me a
place
of horror."
Religious organizations speaking out included the Central Conference of
American Rabbis (which earlier appealed to Europe in 1909 to protect the
Armenians from barbarism in Turkey), Protestant missionaries (numerous in
Turkish Armenia, witnesses to the atrocities and sometimes rescuers and
victims) and leading American Catholics.
In due time, I hope, Turkey will be a member of the EU and by then will have
firmly emplaced democratic government and First Amendment freedoms. But it
would be another atrocity if that happens before Turkey accepts, as any
European nation should, its responsibility for the massacres. Can we imagine
Germany as a EU member if it denied the Holocaust and asked equal sympathy for
Germans and Jews because of what happened?
America once stood tall in response to the Armenian massacres. The pursuit of
oil and influence in the Middle East changed that soon after World War I. It
was easier to end the humanitarian clamor. Today some politicians even refuse
(though not President Bush) to use the word "genocide" lest they offend
Turkey.
Americans in general do not even know of these atrocities, although in one of
their finest hours Americans had cried out for the Armenians and for holding
nations accountable for genocide.
Maybe Hitler was right. But I have many Armenian and Turkish friends who do
know (the latter silent just now, because of Turkish suppression of the
truth).
I believe young people in Turkey may change this some day if they have a
chance, if they even learn what happened.
Ambassador Logoglu believes this stain will just go away. We must make sure
lies do not corrupt history as they now corrupt the Turkish government.
Reese Cleghorn
Washington, D.C.
12) LETTERS:
On April 6, 2005, Asbarez Daily published an article by Raffi Arzouhaldjian
titled "On the Eve of the 90th, Anti-turkism Should Not Equal Patriotic
Armenianism." In this editorial, the author intimates his disapproval of the
courageous Armenian students who protested against the pro-Turkish and
anti-Armenian opinions of singer Filip Kirkorov. Ultimately, the protests by
the Nigol Agbalian Youth Union were successful in the decision to cancel Filip
Kirkorov's concert in Armenia, and reiterated that Armenians, as a society,
have a low threshold of tolerance for anti-Armenian slander.
I came across the editorial by this graduate student of diplomacy at the most
inopportune time. On the eve of the ninetieth anniversary of the Armenian
genocide, it seemed odd that a self-proclaimed Armenophile would so
distastefully denigrate Armenians with his pro-Turkish agenda. Clearly, Mr.
Arzouhaldjian, your decision to come out of the closet with your Turkish
political proclivity would have been more appropriately timed around Turkish
Independence day, rather than April 24th. Given the communal and individual
losses that our parents and grandparents suffered under the hands of Turkish
atrocities, how can any individual advocate acquiescence to anti-Armenian
sentiment among Turks. Weren't the centuries of religious, cultural, and
political persecution of Armenians by the Turks enough? Based on your
editorial, I suppose that you would advocate Armenian political
acquiescence to
Turkey for the sake of diplomatic expediency.
Although the writer acknowledges the existence of anti-Armenian
intolerance in
Turkey and Azerbaijan, he seems to distort its prevalence within the
context of
Armenian history. He presents the issue as if it is a new phenomenon.
Anti-Armenian intolerance in occupied Asia Minor has been rampant and public
policy since 1064. Throughout our history, Turkish citizens have murdered,
raped, kidnapped, and pillaged Armenians. "Ermenileri Kerajaghus" ("We shall
slaughter the Armenians") has been part of Turkish lexicon and culture. This
intolerance was often uniquely directed at Armenians in a systematic campaign
to deny Armenians their intrinsic right to political, cultural, and religious
self-determination.
Rightfully, the writer also acknowledges anti-Armenian intolerance by
Azerbaijan and Turkey that continues to this day. He argues that this casts a
dark shadow over regional integration. Although the concept of regional peace
is appealing to all parties, Armenians are adamant about maintaining cultural
and political sovereignty and resisting the hostile and imperialistic pan
Turanic aspirations of its neighbor states. If regional integration is the
current state of real politics then why did the international community
recognize the state of Armenia after the collapse of the Soviet Union? Mr.
Arzouhaldjian, are you proposing to have all the nations that deservingly
declared independence from Ottoman Turkey relinquish their independence
back to
modern Turkey because you seem to advocate a regional integration? Why not
take
issue with The South integrating linguistically, culturally, and politically
from the Union before erasing borders in the Caucasus.
The writer also states that the cancellation of Filip Kirkorov's concert
plays
a disservice to Armenia's fragile democracy. The mere fact that the
protests by
the Nigol Aghbalian Youth Union were allowed by the fledgling Armenian
government, attests to high values Armenians place on American democratic
values. You forget that the democratic principles that the Armenian
diaspora in
America espouses have been instrumental in the establishment of democratic
principles in Armenia. Interestingly, the author supports the right of a
foreigner with flagrant anti-Armenian views to promulgate an overtly insulting
agenda in Armenia, but he condemns the Armenian students for their courageous
stand and pride for their Armenian culture. His biased support of Filip
Kirkorov is repulsive and damaging to our cultural history and pride.
The writer insults Armenians by stating that the Armenian political agenda
has
been hijacked by ethnic hatred and hollow nationalism. The core of our
nationalism has been the struggle to substantiate the sovereignty of our
nation. The acknowledgement of the Armenian genocide, Armenian cultural,
religious, literary and historical achievements within the context of ethnic,
political and national genocide are an important and intangible goal of most
Armenians.
Interestingly, Mr. Arzouhaldjian disguises his acquiescence to Turkish
nationalism and bigotry by claiming that he..."is a strong advocate of Armenian
rights." Armenian rights! The vagueness of the statement is comedic. He seems
to be more concerned about the Kurds and Alevis as suppressed minorities. Who
remembers the Syriac, Chaldean, Nestorians, Greeks and the Assyrians who
commemorate 1895/6 and 1915 as their genocides? What rights are Armenians
demanding today? Going back throughout recorded history, depopulating Armenia
has been an obsession of every empire. If he is advocating the rightful return
of Greater and Lesser Armenia, and Cilicia, then he should have proclaimed so
in his editorial. However, it seems more likely that he has injected that
description of himself in order to obviate any allegations of being an
Armenophobe. I don't remember Mr. Arzouhaldjian in the trenches of Sushi! Or
for that matter, advocating the rights of any Armenian living today. Why the
silence during and after the settlement of the New York Life lawsuit?
He also claims that intolerance of a neighbor's culture is borderline racist.
To allege that being intolerant of a neighbor's culture is borderline racist
misses the point. We as Armenians throughout our history have not only
tolerated but tolerated and assimilated into our receptive host countries.
This
is exemplified by many Armenians throughout the diaspora who have lived,
served, and adopted our host country's language, food and culture. We as
Armenians are not intolerant of other cultures, but rather intolerant of
individuals coming into our country and advocating an anti-Armenian agenda and
insulting our cultural pride. This is particularly true around the time of our
commemoration of the 90th anniversary of the Armenian genocide.
From the standpoint of Mr. Arzouhaldjian's editorial, we should not pick
on an
artist that has decided to hold a concert in Yerevan and perform songs in
Turkish. Filip Kirkorov, a self-loathing Armenian who doesn't deny his
ethnicity ironically behaves as an opportunistic Armenophobe. Perhaps
mistakenly, Mr. Arzouhaldjian fails to mention Filip Kirkorov's recent conduct
in Baku, Azerbaijian. According to reports in Azbarez Daily, Filip Kirkorov
proclaimed that he was "ashamed that Armenian blood flows through his body..."
during a concert in that city. This was one of the reasons why the students
protested his concert. It is almost analogous to the American public's
reaction
to comments made by the Dixie Chicks. Why was Mr. Arzouhaldjian so silent when
the Dixie Chics were condemned and many of their concerts cancelled? Why
didn't
he proclaim the United States public undemocratic and reactionary? Why didn't
he criticize the country music fans and all the citizens within these United
States as borderline racists?
One of the most disappointing comments made in the editorial was as follows:
"Unlike our grandparents' generation, who could not help but view Turkey from
the perspective of individual and communal losses after the genocide, our
generation needs a wider and more sophisticated view of Armenian-Turkish
relations." Despite the ninety years that have passed since the Armenian
genocide, the majority of Armenians are still deeply affected by the tragedies
inflicted during that era and for many centuries preceding. The lives of our
grandparents and parents, in some cases, were tragically altered in the most
brutal ways. How can he even insinuate that we, as the new generation of
Armenians, collectively move on and ignore these past crimes. Insulting our
grandparent's generation of perceiving Turkey from individual and communal
losses after the genocide not only shows the level of his immaturity but his
insolence and naiveté. His comments are a desecration of our history.
"...The very name of Armenia awakens memories of a tragic chain of broken
promises for the fulfillment of which they (allies) have not raised a finger.
After all it was a culturally gifted nation, possessing no oil wells or gold
mines..." Fridtjof Nansen
It seems that his ignorance of Armenian history is evident. Let us not
rewrite
history, but let me remind him that the Seljuk and later Ottoman Turks
instituted a systematic campaign of cultural genocide. Therefore, our feelings
towards the Turks have been a result of not only their invasion and usurpation
of our lands, but the desecration of our churches, cemeteries, and the
kidnapping, raping and murder of our people. These crimes should never be
forgotten for the sake of diplomatic expediency.
In another statement, the author writes: "We can't imitate the monolithic
positions of the establishment in Ankara and its Armenophobic policies.
"...First, the ferman (order) for massacres was issued. Then the Turkish and
Kurdish plunderers, armed with swords, hatchets, or truncheons, would break
into Armenian homes and start the blood bath. When the carnage reached a level
considered adequate for that day, the government's town crier would blow the
trumpet to signal the paydos (pause). Accustomed to the rules of the game, the
crazed populace would suddenly stop, sheathe their swords, and quietly go
home..."
In Bill O'Reilly's words, this is a "NO SPIN ZONE!" But this writer tries to
muddy the water, confuse, and distract the reader by claiming that we as
Armenians should distinguish between Ankara and the Turkish people and
culture.
I have a few comments to make: How many ordinary Turkish citizens ever
stood up
and apologized to any Armenian during or after any massacre? The ones who did
harbor Armenians only harbored them in return for financial incentives. The
direct beneficiaries of the massacres weren't the politicians in
Constantinople
or Ankara, but the ordinary Turk. When Nelson Mandela refused the Ataturk
Peace
Award, he was called an "insolent African," an "Ugly African." How many Turks
protested to Hurriet, Sahah, and Turkiye newspapers? How many Arab countries
still maintain any vestiges of Turkish culture? You want us to respect a
culture that had actively traded slaves from Africa less than 80 years ago!
All
this with no recorded apology!
Mr. Arzouhaldjian, it is ironic that you claim we should, as a society,
practice more tolerance of anti-Armenian and pro-Turkish tendencies among
individuals in our free society. You advocate that as a society we should
tolerate and respect individuals like Filip Kirkorov's pro-Turkish stance, pro
Turkish tendencies and opinions. It is also ironic that by Asbarez Daily
publishing your insolent, insensitive and ill-timed editorial, it has
demonstrated a tolerance for which you accuse Armenians of lacking.
You have SPUN this issue, knowing full well the real reason for the outrage,
but you took the opportunity to insult Armenians. Perhaps you haven't realized
that your comments may have offended a whole generation of Armenians who have
personally been touched by the tragedies during and after the Armenian
genocide. Ninety years after the genocide, Armenians have continued to
persevere and flourish as a nation and diaspora while still respecting the
tragic sacrifices our ancestors made to maintain our culture and identity. We
shall never forget these sacrifices for the sake of diplomacy. Mr.
Arzouhaldjian, perhaps you should take Henry Kissinger as a role model. He
remained committed to American national policy while persevering and
respecting
his heritage.
Hrair Karamanoukian
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