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09/03/2004
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1. ANCA Endorses Senator Barbara Boxer
2. Bush Administration Disastrous for Armenian American Voters Announces AADLC
3. Injuries, Lack of Funds Justification for Poor Olympic Performance
4. For Whom The Zell Tolls
5. Cultural Amnesia: The Museum of Tolerance
6. Glendale Police Department Seeks to Diversify Force
1. ANCA Endorses Senator Barbara Boxer
WASHINGTON, DC–The Armenian National Committee of America announced on
Thursday it will endorse two term Democrat from California, US Senator Barbara
Boxer for reelection. Boxer is challenged by Republican Bill Jones who most
recently served as California’s Secretary of State.
The ANCA endorsed the Senator based on her long and faithful record of public
service with special consideration to Armenian-Americans living in the
State of
California. Since her tenure in Congress, Boxer has held an open door policy
toward her constituents, carrying their message to the halls of Congress. In a
letter to Senator Boxer, the ANCA stated that while the Senator’s
responsibilities as an elected official have increased, she has managed to
maintain close working relationships with even her smallest constituencies.
California is the nation’s most populous state and home to the nation’s
largest
Armenian American community.
On issues of concern to her constituents of Armenian heritage and to the
Armenian-American community at large, Senator Boxer has time and again
defended
their history and rightful place in American society. As recently as this
year,
she made statements of support for the official reaffirmation of the Armenian
Genocide, including letters to President Bush urging to end the illegal
Turkish
blockade of Armenia. In addition to these measures, Senator Boxer has
co-sponsored legislation, and actively sought the support of Democratic party
leaders, on the issue of Genocide reaffirmation. Additionally, Senator Boxer
has been a staunch advocate of aid to the Republic of Armenia as it undergoes
the difficult process of transition towards democracy and a free market
economy. Senator Boxer traveled to Armenia to witness firsthand these changes
and returned as an even stronger advocate than before.
2. Bush Administration Disastrous for Armenian American Voters Announces AADLC
LOS ANGELES–The nation’s largest Armenian American Democratic political
organization announced on Friday that the Bush Administration has compiled one
of the most anti-Armenian American records in history. From actively denying
the Armenian Genocide, seeking to slash US assistance to Armenia in half,
attempting to list Armenian immigrants on a terrorist-watch list, to
forcefully
attempting to provide four times more military aid to the Republic of
Azerbaijan than to Armenia, the Bush track-record represents an affront to
tens
of thousands of Armenian American voters in California and other Western
States, according to the Armenian American Democratic Leadership Council
(AADLC).
“George W. Bush and his advisors in the Pentagon, like Paul Wolfowitz, have
carried on a four year sustained campaign of attacking Congressional
legislation that is of concern to the Armenian American community,”
remarked an
AADLC spokesman. “At the behest of foreign governments, like the Republic of
Turkey, the Bush Administration has denied the Armenian Genocide, weakened US
ties to Armenia, and worked hard to boost the military strength of
Azerbaijan –
a nation which is committed to the total destruction of Armenia,” the
spokesman
added.
The AADLC is working with Democratic Party officials and the Kerry
campaign in
reaching out to Armenian American voters in swing states like Arizona, Nevada,
and Oregon. All three states already boast Armenians for Kerry groups and are
working with the official Armenians for Kerry organization
(<;).
In its evaluation of the Bush Administration, AADLC officials stressed
that in
2002, the Bush Administration attempted to require that Armenian immigrants
register with an anti-terrorism program. Armenian Americans learned of the
Bush
Administration registration plan only after the Federal Register–the official
record of government regulations–stated that males age 16 and up from Saudi
Arabia, Pakistan and Armenia would join a list of men from 18 other countries
considered at risk for terrorism. Such men would be required to visit local
Immigration and Naturalization Service offices to be photographed,
fingerprinted and show certain documents. Only a massive grassroots protest,
led by the ANCA, overturned the Bush Administration’s attempt to list
Armenians
as individuals “at risk for terrorism.” The Bush Administration never
offered a
full explanation of why Armenians were listed in the initial Federal Register
notice.
According to the AADLC, the Bush Administration has also continued to support
the Republic of Turkey, even after Turkey’s refusal to allow access for the
United States to mount a northern front in the war against Iraq. Specifically,
the Bush Administration supported a $1 billion taxpayer aid package to Turkey
that was passed by Congress in 2003. The Bush Administration also continues to
be the one of the few countries pushing for Turkey’s admission into the
European Union.
3. Injuries, Lack of Funds Justification for Poor Olympic Performance
YEREVAN (RFE-RL)–Senior sports officials and coaches on Thursday blamed
Armenia’s extremely poor performance at the Olympic Games in Athens on a lack
of state funding and injuries suffered by their top athletes.
None of the 18 Armenian athletes that participated in the games won
medals–the country’s worst Olympic showing since independence; several
Armenian-born athletes now representing other countries won silver and bronze
medals.
The results sparked an outcry from the media and leading politicians who
unanimously pointed the finger at Ishkhan Zakarian, the head of the State
Committee on Sport and Physical Fitness and the National Olympic Committee,
who
was accused of incompetence and mismanagement.
In a newspaper interview published on Thursday, Zakarian rejected the
accusations, saying he will not resign voluntarily. “I could not have stepped
on the arena in place of a boxer, wrestler, or weight-lifter,” he said.
Zakarian did not appear at the news conference, but was represented by his
deputy Mikael Ispirian who said that only seven Armenian athletes had
realistic
chances of doing well in Athens and most of them suffered injuries in the
middle of the competitions. Asked about the quarterfinal elimination of
Aleksan
Nalbandian, Armenia’s sole boxer at the Olympics, he said, “Maybe he lost
narrowly. But in essence, it was a victorious bout.”
“If we felt that resignation would change things positively we would all be
ready to quit,” Ispirian said. “And if you think that the specialists sitting
here are not as professional as you journalists are, then you are wrong.”
The coaches, for their part, complained that government funding allocated to
sports is highly insufficient for proper training of their athletes. The Sport
Committee’s budget for this year is only 350 million drams ($680,000).
“To win medals you need money, money and money,” said Vahan Bichakhchian, the
head coach of the national weight-lifting team. “What do you think I can
achieve with a monthly salary of $50?”
4. For Whom The Zell Tolls
By Skeptik Sinikian
Asbarez Columnist
This has been some week! The Olympics are finally over and I heard that an
Armenian from Uzbekistan or Khazakhstan or one of the other stans (except
Hayastan) finally won a bronze medal (that’s third place for the metallurgic
challenged)! My friend who called me to tell me about this medal reassured me
that even though the medal is only a bronze, the winner has some relatives who
work in the Jewelry District in Downtown LA who will have it gold plated at no
extra charge. So I guess that should hold us over until 2008. But the
Olympics aren’t making headlines anymore, so let’s put the ancient games to
bed. The fabricated CNN and Fox News headlines are being churned up in New
York where the Republican Convention has captured the attention of the
nation.
On Wednesday night the key note speaker was US Senator Zell Miller, an
unabashed Democrat turned Bush supporter. Senator Miller, or Zell as we will
call him, took the podium and delivered a fiery “Armageddon is upon us if
Kerry
is elected” speech that had Republican delegates hooting and hollering like
the
Dukes of Hazzard. Zell tore into Kerry’s voting record like a rabid hyena
attacking a carcass. Even if you disagree with his statements, almost
everyone
agrees that Zell was the best speaker so far at the convention, outshining
even
Dick “potty mouth” Chenney. But even with the Zellmeister beating up on Kerry
like a birthday piñata, there was very little substance in his remarks.
Now wait! (I can hear Republican Party loyalists and conservative readers
grinding their teeth or sharpening their knives). I think that Zell did a
heck
of a job of painting Senator John Kerry as the flip-flopper who wants to arm
the US army with spitballs instead of bombers, missiles, and jet fighters. In
fact, if I were Kerry and were watching this speech, I’d make sure to have my
assistant or butler or sidekick take Zell off the Christmas card list. But
there’s more to this speech than meets the eye. Aside from being a superb
Republican hatchet job, it was rift with moronic rhetoric. Here’s my favorite
line from the speech that exemplifies the ignorance of war mongers in our
country.
“In the summer of 1940, I was an 8-year-old boy living in a remote little
Appalachian valley. Our country was not yet at war, but even we children knew
that there were some crazy men across the ocean who would kill us if they
could.”
That’s right folks, a brilliant gem of a statement (not taken out of context,
I assure you) from Senator Zell Miller. What a brilliant child he was at the
tender age of 8. Apparently young Zell thought the Germans and Italians were
“crazy men across the ocean who would kill us if they could.” The same
Germans
and Italians who gave us Mozart, Beethoven, the Roman Republic, the Catholic
Church, spaghetti and pizza, hamburgers and hotdogs, Sigmund Freud, Johann
Wolfgang von Goethe, not to mention Michalengelo, Leonardo Da Vinci, and
countless other contributions which this country is based on. These same
folks
have been reduced to being irrational homicidal maniacs. But I guess if
you’re
running around the Appalachian valley in overalls covered in mud, chasing
frogs
and playing the banjo when you’re not steeling moonshine from the neighbor’s
still, then it’s pretty hard to see Germans and Italians as anything other
than
“crazy men” bent on killing innocent children. Is it any wonder why this
administration and the Republicans see Arabs as maniacs and wild freaks who
live in the desert, one notch above the Jawas and one notch below the Tusken
raiders (Star Wars reference folks).
I haven’t met one person yet who thinks that if Kerry is elected
President, he
will ask everyone in the army to turn in their guns for rhythmic gymnastics
batonsthe ones with long flowing ribbons like Will Ferrell’s in “Old School.”
I’m just tired of having patriotism shoved down my throat night after night
after night. We get the point already! The Republican party claims to be the
party of Homeland Security and superior intelligence; yet before the
convention
even started, a well-known news agency reported that “a welcome e-mail that
was
sent to hundreds of volunteers for the Republican National Convention
inadvertently included the name, address, social security number, race, and
other personal information of those volunteers.” This is the Party of
securitydefending the rights of every Americanyet they can’t even send out an
email without botching the job.
The real sad thing about this whole election is that Kerry is taking all of
this without any comebacks. Maybe it’s part of the “play dead and they’ll
leave you alone” campaign strategy that’s going to pan out later on. But
seriously, there are two months left until the election and Kerry just got
handed the ass whooping of a lifetime. In fact, the Republicans hit him so
hard that he should pack his bags and head back to his palatial resort getaway
in the Cape. When you can’t harm a monolingual President who can’t even speak
English coherently, then you have problems.
Anyway, Zell has spoken and regardless of what people say about this
political
Judas, he has dealt Kerry a body blow. Kerry needs to win states in the
southand having pretty boy Edwards by his side just won’t cut it. It’s time
for Kerry to follow the Boston Red Sox motto from last year and either “Cowboy
Up!” or resign himself to the Michael Dukakis Massachusetts Presidential
Candidate Hall of Shame. Time is running out.
Skeptik Sinikian loves to make bold accusatory statements with no factual
foundation. Skeptik claims that if you’re not with him, then you’re against
him and if you’re against him, then you don’t love America. If you would like
to “bring it on,” do so at [email protected] or visit
5. Cultural Amnesia: The Museum of Tolerance
By Farris Wahbeh
“The world should know we are not building a bunker. We’re building something
that breathes with life, just as God breathed life into us.”
So said Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger last May 2, in Jerusalem at the
groundbreaking ceremony for a new Simon Wiesenthal Center for Human Dignity
and
a Museum of Tolerance, which is the Center’s educational arm. The Simon
Wiesenthal Center (SWC), named after the Ukrainian-born survivor of the Nazi
Death camps who later became a world famous Nazi-hunter, was founded in
1977 as
an international center for “Holocaust remembrance, the defense of human
rights
and the Jewish people.” The organization is supported by an international
member base of 400,000 and is headquartered in Los Angeles, with offices in
New
York, Toronto, Miami, Jerusalem, Paris and Buenos Aires. The SWC’s first
Museum
of Tolerance (MOT) was opened in 1993 in Los Angeles as a “high tech, hands-on
experiential museum that focuses on two central themes through unique
interactive exhibits: the dynamics of racism and prejudice in America and the
history of the Holocaustthe ultimate example of man’s inhumanity to man.”
The new MOT in Jerusalem, which was conceived by SWC’s Dean and Founder,
Marvin Hier, is slated to open between 2006 to 2008 with a price tag of $150
million. The MOT Jerusalem will be designed by the esteemed international
superstar-architect-of-the-moment, Frank Gehry. The SWC in Jerusalem will
house
not only MOT but also a full three-acre museum campus including an
international conference center, a grand hall, an education center and a
library.
While the SWC in Jerusalem seems like an ideal ground for highlighting
violations of human rights against the Jewish people, something seems to have
been forgotten in the processhuman rights violations against Palestinians in
Israel by the Israeli government. One example of this historical amnesia is
the
fact that the SWC will be built on top of an ancient Muslim cemetery that has
now become a dilapidated parking lot.
The leftist politician and former Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem, Meron
Benvenisti,
writing in Ha’aretz, confirms the hesitation that many feel about the SWC and
MOT moving into Jerusalem: “It is difficult to imagine a project so
hallucinatory, so irrelevant, so foreign, so megalomaniac, as the Museum of
Tolerance. The mere attempt to stick the term tolerance to a building so
intolerant to its surroundings is ridiculous.” Benvenisti also acknowledges
the
plight of Palestinians in the occupied territories: “Fanatic, brutal
Jerusalem,
saturated with the ambition to gain exclusive possession over it, will take
pride in a site that preaches equality between communities and the brotherhood
of nations, and from its rooftops will be seen the homes of Palestinians,
whose
struggle for freedom is always defined as ‘terror.'”
According to Samuel G. Freedman in the New York Times, while the museum’s
content is still in the early stages, the director of Los Angeles’ MOT, Liebe
Geft, has already solicited ideas from Israeli novelists, political scientists
and religious leaders. So far, however, the central exhibition at MOT
Jerusalem, which is conceived by Mr. Hier, will highlight the journey of the
Exodusa ship that carried Jews from Europe after WWII and was later denied
entry into British controlled Jerusalem.
Since the museum’s mission is to specifically highlight the violations of
human rights against Jews, Mr. Hier, speaking to the New York Times, has said
that MOT is not about Palestinians. “It’s not about the experience of the
Palestinian people. When they have a state, they’ll have their own museum.”
For
a museum that boasts of highlighting the effects of human rights violations
and
the practice of tolerance, it seems rather odd that such an intentional
omission would be allowed.
The SWC’s MOT Jerusalem directly conflicts with their mission of confronting
“important contemporary issues,” such as racism, terrorism and genocide, when
it turns its back on the Palestinian situationa situation that is known
worldwide as an “important contemporary issue.” For instance, in 1949, the
United Nations General Assembly passed resolution 302 (IV) to carry out direct
relief and works programs for Palestinian refugees that were displaced
following the Israeli incursion into Palestine, otherwise known as the
Arab-Israeli conflict. In 1950, The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for
Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which works with refugees and
refugee camps in Israel and has seen the number of Palestinian refugees
rise to
4 million in 2002, was the off-spring of Resolution 302 (IV), and the General
Assembly has renewed UNRWA’s mandate repeatedly since 1949 until June 2005.
After Israel invaded East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza in the 1967
Six-Day-War, the United Nations Security Council passed resolution 242 which
calls for the “withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in
the recent conflict” and highlights the “inadmissibility of the acquisition of
territory by war.” Interestingly, the SWC is an accredited NGO at both the UN
and its cultural division of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Even if this form of cultural etiquette may come as a surprise to many, this
is not the first time that the SWC has turned its back on human rights
atrocities. The center’s MOT in Los Angeles came under fire by the city’s
Armenian communitywhich is one of largest outside of Armenia todayin 2003 when
the museum retracted their pledge of including the Armenian genocide by the
Turkish Ottoman Empire as part of their permanent installation. A group of
Armenian-American college students [Armenian Youth Federation members] even
staged a six-day hunger strike in front of the MOT as a sign of protest
against
the museum’s refusal to incorporate the topic into the permanent exhibition.
Another Los Angeles-based artist/activist group created an on-line museum
titled Museum of Amnesia (MOA) in protest against MOT’s omission of the
Armenian genocide. One of the members, speaking to F News about MOT’s handling
of political themes within their museum, responded by saying, “In general I
think the MOT (LA) appears as this fortress that exhibits filtered-down
(Wiesenthal’s filter) and in some cases filtered-out information on complex
issues. I think the Palestinian writer/ scholar Daoud Kuttab who was quoted in
the [New York Times] article really echoes part of MOA’s position when he said
“What we often see is an attempt to give a superficial meaning to tolerance.”
In response to the Armenian community’s protest, MOT’s Director Geft
responded
the Jerusalem Post, saying, “Whatever we do, it won’t be enough for some
members of the Armenian community.”
Clearly, the SWC’s track record in recording human rights violations at their
museums is shaky at best. What that means for Palestinians living within
Israel, in a museum meant to display Tolerance and Human Rights abuses within
that very same country, remains contentious.
Israeli Reservist Art
While Israel is bracing herself for a new cultural display of “tolerance,”
several Israeli reservists are exhibiting the exact opposite. In a June
exhibition titled “Breaking the Silence” at the Academy for Geographic
Photography in Tel Aviv, three Israeli Reservists, Micha Kurz, Yehuda Shaul
and
Yonathon Baumfeld, who finished their three years of mandatory service in
Hebron, exhibited videotapes and photographs detailing the mistreatment of
Palestinians under Israeli army rule. The exhibition was intended to portray
what actually occurs during mandatory service with the Israeli army. In a
letter addressed to visitors at the entrance of the exhibit, the soldiers
said:
“We decided to speak out. Hebron isn’t in outer space. It’s one hour from
Jerusalem.”
Among the exhibition photographs, some images included Palestinians that are
blindfolded and bound, and countless pictures of racist and near fascist
graffiti created by Israeli settlers and directed towards the Palestinians.
One
such photo includes the phrase: “Arabs to the Gas Chambers.”
The videotapes included in the exhibition comprise testimonials by 70 Israeli
soldiers who reveal the use of Palestinians as human shields and the overall
mistreatment of Palestinians in general. The Israeli Military Police
interrogated several of the artists-cum-reservists, including Micha Kurz.
Kurz,
after a seven-hour questioning session, responded to the press: “The army
wants
to keep us quiet and scare us way. They’re not going to shut us up, because we
have a lot to say, and they’re not going to scare us off.”
6. Glendale Police Department Seeks to Diversify Force
By Ani Shahinian
Asbarez Staff
GLENDALENever in the history of the Glendale Police Department have more
positions been available for those thinking of pursuing a career in law
enforcement. “It’s a golden opportunity; there are positions for officer
recruits, police cadets, and community service officers,” says Sergeant Vahak
Mardikian who is always ready to talk to potential applicants. “It is always
helpful to talk to any officer within the department to gain a better
understanding of what it takes.”
Lt. Bruce Fox, who heads the department’s Professional Standards Bureau
and is
responsible for all hiring, said that while the department is working more
diligently to be representative of the community, the task becomes difficult
when trying to expand and hire in larger numbers.
“The pressure is on to not only expand but to also diversify the
department at
the same time,” says Fox, addressing the number of applicants who actually
qualify.
While there were a good pool of applicants seven to ten years ago, there has
been a huge shrinkage among all nationalities since then.
Fox explained that all Southern California departments face the same problem,
and attributed the trend to the current low level of unemployment, along with
the public’s perception of police in general.
But Fox says that the opportunities are expansive. He especially described
the
department’s Cadet Program as an ideal means to attain experience in law
enforcement.
The part time program is open to full time college students currently
enrolled
in an accredited college or university carrying 9 units or more per semester,
or eight units or more per quarter, with a GPA of at least 2.0.
The program allows participants to tailor work schedules around school
schedules, allowing exposure to a variety of areas in the police department,
and the opportunity to attain diverse experience.
The process to become a police officer begins by filing an application,
followed by a written test covering basic writing, vocabulary, and
comprehension skills in English. If successful, applicants go through a
physical agility test, followed by an oral examination. It is during the oral
examination that maturity level and decision making skills are measured.
Once an applicant successfully completes these stages, a background check,
which can take up to three months, is conducted.
It is during this stage of the process, says Fox, that many problems arise.
Considering that trustworthiness is a must for all positions, Fox emphasized
the importance of a clean background.
In order to better inform the community about what it takes to become a
successful police officer, an information session will be held on Tuesday,
September 7, at the Glendale Police Department’s Community Room. It is
presented by the Glendale Human Resources Department in conjunction with the
Glendale Police Department. “The session will allow prospective applicants to
better understand whether they are ready to serve the community,” says Lt.
Fox.
The program, which begins at 6:30 p.m., will have speakers and officers on
hand to answer any questions, including Sgt. Mardikian who says that the
Glendale Police Department is ready to assist in any way it can.
“The community has so much potential and is such a positive place to work. In
the bigger departments you get lost in the shuffle, but in Glendale, you feel
like you accomplish something every day. It’s a good balance,” says Lt. Fox,
who has wanted to be a Glendale police officer since 8th grade.
For more information go to or call (818)
548-3117.
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