Month: June 2005

Agence France Presse
11 juin 2005 samedi 5:12 PM GMT
Sarkozy: “n’y a-t-il pas d’autre urgence” que négociations avec la Turquie
PARIS 11 juin 2005
Nicolas Sarkozy, président de l’UMP et numéro deux du gouvernement,
s’est interrogé samedi sur l’opportunité d’ouvrir en octobre des
négociations d’adhésion de la Turquie à l’Union européenne, demandant
s’il n’y a “pas d’autre urgence”, lors d’une réunion des cadres de
son parti à Paris.
Après avoir appelé à “repenser notre stratégie européenne”, le
nouveau ministre de l’Intérieur a estimé que la “première priorité”
était de “fixer des frontières géographiques à l’Europe”.
“L’élargissement à l’Est que j’ai soutenu mais qui a été
insuffisamment préparé et pas du tout expliqué, a pesé lourd dans la
victoire du non” au référendum du 29 mai sur la Constitution
européenne, a-t-il estimé.
“Est-il raisonnable d’ouvrir des négociations avec la Turquie
puisqu’il s’agit d’une grande nation d’Asie mineure, pas d’Europe?”,
a-t-il demandé. “Il y aurait moins d’aigreur à proposer tout de suite
un statut de partenaire privilégié plutôt que de poursuivre des
discussions commencées il y a 40 ans et, pour cause, jamais
terminées”.
“N’y a-t-il pas d’autre urgence que celle d’engager des négociations
avec la Turquie?”, a-t-il insisté.
Patrick Devedjian, conseiller politique du président de l’UMP et
ancien ministre, s’est montré encore plus virulent sur cette
question.
“Nous devons demander que l’ouverture des négociations soit reportée.
Surtout quand les élections allemandes de septembre laissent présager
un nouveau gouvernement allemand, avec un changement radical de
politique: il serait décent d’attendre”, a-t-il affirmé, après avoir
rappelé que “le chancelier (Gerhard) Schroeder a été le militant le
plus acharné à cette cause”.
Selon lui, “le mot +décence+ a tout son sens dans cette affaire si on
veut bien considérer qu’il est inconvénient de discuter d’une
association avec un Etat qui occupe militairement une partie de notre
territoire européen (…) à savoir le nord de Chypre. Et il reste
encore un +mur de la honte+ en Europe, celui qui coupe Nicosie en
deux”, a-t-il ajouté.
M. Devedjian a également affirmé que “malgré les discours, la Turquie
n’a fait aucun progrès réel sur le chemin des valeurs qui fondent
l’Union européenne”, en insistant sur “la situation des femmes” dans
ce pays, la non-reconnaissance par Ankara du génocide des Arméniens
et “la situation faite aux minorités, kurde et chrétiennes”.

National Public Radio (NPR)
SHOW: All Things Considered 8:00 AM EST NPR
June 8, 2005 Wednesday
Recap Tayyip Erdogan discusses terrorism, relations with the US and
membership in the European Union
MELISSA BLOCK, ROBERT SIEGEL
MELISSA BLOCK, host:
This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I’m Melissa Block.
ROBERT SIEGEL, host:
And I’m Robert Siegel.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey met today with
President Bush. He is an interesting politician on the far end of an
interesting bilateral relationship. Erdogan used to advocate Islamist
politics in secular Turkey. He served a jail term for that.
Washington and Ankara are strategic partners despite complaints of
anti-US sentiment among the Turks. Relations were strained by
Turkey’s refusal in 2003 to provide a staging ground for US forces to
enter Iraq. The US backs Turkish entry into the European Union. Talks
are set for October 3rd on that. Also, Turkey faces a domestic
insurgency by the PKK, a movement of Turkish Kurds. America’s most
fervent supporters in Iraq are the Iraqi Kurds. And Prime Minister
Erdogan told me yesterday that the PKK is using Iraqi soil as a
staging ground for attacks to the north in Turkey.
Prime Minister RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN (Turkey): (Through Translator)
There are at the moment camps of the PKK terrorist organization in
northern Iraq. As you know, the Iranian terrorist organization the
People’s Mujahideen used to operate in this region. After the United
States’ intervention, the People’s Mujahideen was dispersed. We are
sharing intelligence with the United States on this matter. The
elimination of the terrorist organization is important for the future
of Turkey, for the future of Iraq and for the future of the region as
a whole.
SIEGEL: Do you think that the United States has the authority to get
those PKK camps out of northern Iraq?
Prime Min. ERDOGAN: (Through Translator) Not having the authority is
not an issue. Currently, the United States has a clear mission
against terrorist organizations. If terrorist organizations are
operating in the region while the United States is standing firm
against other terror groups, then why not the PKK, which has been
designated a terrorist organization by the United States?
SIEGEL: But what should the United States do? Should it ask the
people in Baghdad to get the camps out of northern Iraq? Should it
ask the Kurds in Iraq to get the camps out? Should it send troops in
and attack the camps in northern Iraq? What do you want the US to do?
Prime Min. ERDOGAN: (Through Translator) We will discuss these issues
with President Bush tomorrow.
SIEGEL: And what will you be saying?
Prime Min. ERDOGAN: (Through Translator) I believe that the United
States and the coalition forces are in the best position to decide
what to do more so than us.
SIEGEL: If the Americans whom you meet with in Washington suggest to
you that Turkey cool off its relations with Iran and Syria, would you
consider doing that?
Prime Min. ERDOGAN: (Through Translator) Look, these issues need to
be reviewed strategically. And, of course, we discuss these issues
with our strategic partner. Let’s not forget that in our relations
with our neighbors, we foster democracy, freedom, the rule of law and
human rights. We want to have warm relations with our neighbors in
this framework. The only way to address these issues is by
discussions.
SIEGEL: So you’re saying engagement with Iran, for example, talking
with Iran, is a way of assisting the growth of democracy in Iran?
Prime Min. ERDOGAN: (Through Translator) It’s hard to say what will
transpire in 10, 20 years. At the time of the revolution, they
weren’t holding elections as they do now. Now there are women in
parliament, Armenians in parliament, there are Shia, Sunnis, various
groups in parliament. This couldn’t have happened had there not been
elections. Now is this ideal? Of course not.
SIEGEL: Do the Americans you talk to agree with your appraisal of the
situation in Iran?
Prime Min. ERDOGAN: (Through Translator) Some do, some don’t. Not
everybody has to agree, just as I don’t have to agree with everyone
else.
SIEGEL: I want to ask you about something that happened to you
earlier in your life. You were put in prison. You were tried and
convicted, I gather, for reading a poem aloud, for reading an
Islamist poem aloud. If someone did that today in Turkey, could they
still be arrested and put in jail for doing it?
Prime Min. ERDOGAN: (Through Translator) First of all, the poem I
read was not an Islamist poem. The poet, in fact, was an ideologue of
Ataturk. The conviction was passed because it was me who recited the
poem. And since we came to power in Turkey, no one has been jailed
for expressing their thoughts, ideas or for reciting a poem.
SIEGEL: I guess I should broaden my question. Can one then read any
poem in Turkey aloud without fear that one might be arrested or
jailed?
Prime Min. ERDOGAN: (Through Translator) I think that they could, but
I’m not the judiciary. As you know, we have the principle of
separation of powers in Turkey as you do here. But I could not agree
to someone being convicted for this. A person could recite any poem
he chooses. It would not be appropriate to arrest someone as long as
the poem isn’t insulting or disrespectful to beliefs. Especially now
with the constitutional amendments we have carried out and the
democratic reforms we have undertaken, this is no longer possible.
SIEGEL: Do you regard the votes in France and in the Netherlands
about the European Constitution in effect a message to Ankara saying,
`Western Europe does not want Turkey in the European Union’?
Prime Min. ERDOGAN: (Through Translator) It’s not possible for me to
say yes to this question. This vote had nothing to do with Turkey.
The referendum was on the European Union’s constitution.
SIEGEL: But Turkey was part of the backdrop. Turkey is one of the
issues surrounding Europe.
Prime Min. ERDOGAN: (Through Translator) They’re using Turkey for
political ends; this hasn’t worked. In France, they looked at the
reasons behind the no votes, and the first reason is unemployment and
then there are the economic parameters. Turkey is not amongst the
reasons. Turkey is focused on October the 3rd. There is no question
about Turkey’s prospects for EU membership.
SIEGEL: You say that you will become a member of the EU.
Prime Min. ERDOGAN: (Through Translator) We’re continuing on our path
in a very determined manner.
SIEGEL: Mr. Prime Minister, thank you very much for talking with us.
Prime Min. ERDOGAN: Thank you very much.
SIEGEL: Recep Tayyip Erdogan is the prime minister of Turkey.

The Chronicle of Higher Education
June 10, 2005, Friday
Conference in Turkey on Armenian Question Is Canceled Under
Government Pressure
AISHA LABI
An academic conference on the 1915-23 killing of 1.5 million
Armenians by Ottoman Turkish forces was canceled last month, a day
before it was scheduled to take place at Istanbul’s Bogaziçi
University.
The conference, “Ottoman Armenians During the Decline of the Empire:
Issues of Scientific Responsibility and Democracy,” was organized by
historians from three of Turkey’s leading universities,
Bogaziçi, Istanbul Bilgi, and Sabanci.
The organizers said the conference would have been the first in
Turkey on the Armenian question that was not set up by state
authorities or government-affiliated historians. Government officials
had pressed the organizers, first to include participants of the
government’s choosing, then to cancel the event.
Armenians, most of whom are Christians, have long said that the
killings amounted to genocide, and several European nations have
passed legislation agreeing with this view.
With Turkey pushing for admission to the European Union, which would
make it the first predominantly Muslim country to join the bloc, the
Armenian issue has become freshly contentious. European heads of
state have repeatedly raised the subject with Turkey’s government,
which, despite its eagerness to demonstrate its European credentials,
flatly rejects the notion that what occurred amounted to genocide.
The conference at Bogaziçi University, known in English as
Bosphorus University, would have marked the culmination of several
years of newly invigorated academic discussion on the Armenian issue.
Fatma Müge Göçek, an associate professor of
sociology at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, was on the
advisory committee for the conference. She is working on a book
called “Deciphering Denial: Turkish Historiography on the Armenian
Massacres of 1915.” She said the Armenian issue is a hot topic for
Turkish historians now, in part because of Turkey’s European Union
bid. “All of these human-rights issues are being taken on the agenda
now,” she said, “and this one is so closely connected with the issue
of Turkish nationalism that it becomes extremely difficult to
separate the two in people’s minds.”
Ms. Göçek and colleagues have been conducting scholarly
workshops on the Armenian issue in the United States and Europe. When
they decided that the time was right to hold such a discussion in
Turkey, they decided to invite only participants of Turkish origin
and hold it at a public university, like Bogaziçi. “We wanted
to make a stand, saying that the ones saying this are not foreigners,
it is Turks themselves,” she said.
According to Ms. Göçek, government officials asked the
organizers to include participants who would represent the official
state thesis, which holds that there was no genocide. After the
organizers declined, the governor of Istanbul called Ayse Soysal, the
rector of Bogaziçi University, and asked her to cancel the
meeting. She declined, Ms. Göçek said, and also rebuffed
government requests later that day for copies of the papers that
would be presented at the conference.
Debate in Parliament
With interest building — some 720 observers had registered to attend
the sessions and listen to the discussions — the conference also
became a subject of heated discussion on the floor of the nation’s
Parliament. Justice Minister Cemil Cicek said the conference amounted
to “treason.”
In such a polarized and tense climate, Ms. Göçek said,
the organizers decided that security might become a problem and chose
to postpone the conference.
Aybar Ertepinar, vice president of the Council of Higher Education, a
government-financed organization that oversees Turkey’s universities,
said the council had been uncomfortable with some of the organizers’
plans, which it viewed as one-sided.
“They stated that they are going to invite speakers of a certain
breed plus a certain audience, and that it is not open to everybody,”
Mr. Ertepinar said. “That makes it ideological rather than
scientific, and we found that rather unfortunate.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

The Chronicle of Higher Education
June 10, 2005, Friday
Europe’s Effort to Standardize Higher Education Now Includes 45
Nations
AISHA LABI
Bergen, Norway
European education ministers meeting here in May admitted five new
participants to the Bologna process, an ambitious program aimed at
harmonizing higher-education systems across Europe.
That action means that 45 nations are now committed to the creation
of the European Higher Education Area — a region of shared academic
standards, in which universities play a central role in promoting
Europe’s culture and development. The newest members are Armenia,
Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine.
The conference marked the midpoint of a process that began in 1999,
when 29 nations signed the Bologna Declaration. Its objectives
include the synchronization of degree structures, with a first degree
cycle of three years culminating in a bachelor’s degree, and a second
cycle for master’s and doctoral degrees. Another goal of the process
is to make it easier for students, professors, and staff members to
move among institutions in different countries.
The participants in the Bologna process include all 25 members of the
European Union, which is trying to become the most competitive
knowledge-driven economy in the world by 2010, as well as European
nations whose economic development is far less advanced.
With such a range of participants, each with its own higher-education
system, the challenges include not just synchronizing degree
programs, but also ensuring adherence to common standards. A key
Bologna objective, singled out by European education ministers at
their last summit, two years ago in Berlin, is quality assurance.
The communique the ministers issued at the end of the Bergen
conference noted that “almost all countries have made provision for a
quality-assurance system.” However, it said, “there is still progress
to be made, in particular as regards student involvement and
international cooperation.”
The mention of student involvement highlights one significant change
that has taken place since the Bologna process began: Each national
delegation to Bergen included a student representative. Vanja
Ivosevic, the chairwoman of the National Unions of Students in
Europe, addressed the conference. Students represent the largest
group in higher education, Ms. Ivosevic pointed out, but when the
Bologna process was inaugurated their representatives had to sneak
into the meeting.
Americans Are Watching
Ms. Ivosevic’s organization has conducted its own analysis of the
Bologna process and is critical of some of its effects, including
what the student organization claims is a lack of flexibility in
terms of student access to graduate studies. But despite a couple of
dozen demonstrators who protested outside the conference with
placards calling for free education for all, Ms. Ivosevic said most
students are satisfied with the direction of the Bologna process.
Students were particularly pleased, she said, that the ministers in
their communique had emphasized the need for students to complete
their studies “without obstacles related to their social or economic
background.”
David Ward, president of the American Council on Education, was one
of three U.S.-based educators who attended the conference here. There
is growing awareness in the United States of the Bologna process and
its accompanying reforms, he said, driven by a practical need to
learn how to assess the new three-year undergraduate-degree
transcripts. Mr. Ward said that what interests him most about the
European undertaking is the way its architects have focused on the
social dimensions of higher education.
“The idea that while they’re going through all these changes to make
themselves more competitive, they want to improve access and at the
same time make it available to underrepresented groups — this has
been the crisis in the United States for the past 30 years and we
still haven’t solved it,” he said. “It’s important that Americans
recognize that Europeans collectively are addressing the right
issues.”
The Bologna reforms will make it easier for students to move among
institutions within Europe, and will also make Europe more attractive
to students from outside the region, said Debra W. Stewart, president
of the U.S.-based Council of Graduate Schools. International students
have always had opportunities in Europe, but the inability to move
easily across borders, especially at the doctoral level, has been a
barrier, she said. Now, the elimination of that barrier will have
direct consequences for American universities.
Her organization found that international applications to American
graduate programs declined 28 percent last year, and are expected to
fall another 5 percent below that figure this year. “It would be a
terrible mistake to assume that was all a 9/11 effect,” she said. It
would have happened anyway, she noted, “because the world, for all
the right reasons, is becoming more competitive.”
The Bologna participants are planning the kinds of changes that make
universities attractive, Ms. Stewart said. “If they do these things
they will be a very formidable competitor, and that’s good.
Competition is good. We should only attract the best students in the
United States if we’re providing the best opportunities for them.”

CATHOLICOS OF GREAT HOUSE OF CILICIA EMPHASIZES NECESSITY TO TURN
INTERCHURCH DIALOGUE INTO COOPERATION
GENEVE, JUNE 10, NOYAN TAPAN. “Religions have been opposed to each
other for many years. Then opposing turned into a competition. During
the last ten-years, religions opened a new page of mutual
understanding through the dialogue. It is necessary that the dialogue
turns into a cooperation,” Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of
Cilicia stated this, opening the International Interreligious Assembly
in Geneve. Aram I Catholicos presided the above-mentioned assembly and
was its main speaker. In his speech lasted for about an hour, Aram I
Catholicos first characterized the present world with its positive and
negative developments, then emphasized the religion’s role in the
present public life. His Holiness also touched upon those main
principals which must make advances in the interreligious dialogue,
spoke about those public values existing in religions which must be a
base for the interreligious dialogue, cooperation and coexistence.
Aram I Catholicos touched upon the moral authority of religions,
especially in the present world being in alarms. In the conclusion of
his speech, His Holiness called religions on together life, with
keeping thier independence and withstand the world’s alarms on the
basis of public values. He also stressed the imperative necessity of
leading the human society to justice and peace. As Noyan Tapan was
informed from the Patriarchate’s Press Service of the Great House of
Cilicia, more than 150 participants of the assembly welcome the speech
of His Holiness Aram I with great enthusiasm. During the
questions-answers held after Aram I Catholicos’ speech, a Turkish
University professor participating in the assembly asked if “religions
must not educate new generations with antipathy to other nations,”
which Aram I Catholicos answered: “It is true: love, mutual
understanding and respect must become a base for all religions’
education. But we must not forget about people’s collective memory. We
must not forget the done evil. We must not ignore the justice’s and
human rigths’ violation. A healthy education must never accept such an
approach.” His Holiness stressed that one may not speak about
phenomena and criticize them ignoring thier reasons: “Why is there an
antipathy, why is there a negative approach. Hence, the collective
memory has an important place and role in education.” Representatives
of the all world religions participated in the assembly held on the
Churches’ World Council’s initiative.

Renseignor
12 juin 2005
Les forces russes présentes en Géorgie seront transférées en
Arménie…
La Russie entend évacuer ses forces présentes en Géorgie et les
transférer dans la base Gouméri, en Arménie. A ce propos, un sénateur
américain s’est dit inquiet des conséquences du transfert des
équipements militaires russes de la Géorgie vers l’Arménie.
” Le transfert et l’installation des équipements militaires russes
dans les régions contentieuses au Caucase compliqueront davantage la
situation “, a rapporté dans son édition de samedi le quotidien 525
publié à Bakou, citant le sénateur américain Charles Higuel. En tant
qu’un état souverain, l’Arménie se doit d’en finir avec les bases
russes sur son sol et de trouver avec la Russie une solution à ce
problème. Environ 1 500 effectifs des forces russes sont installés, à
présent, dans la région de Gouméri, située au nord-ouest de
l’Arménie. (La voix de la république islamique d’Iran le 06-06-2005)
Igor Savolski qui dirige la délégation de Russie aux négociations sur
le retrait des deux bases militaires russes de la Géorgie, n’exclue
pas l’éventualité du financement international de cette opération. Au
cours d’un entretien avec les journalistes à Tbilissi, il a déclaré
que le retrait d’une grande quantité de matériel de guerre était un
processus laborieux qui prendrait trois ans et demi. Le financement
international aiderait à le faciliter. Le diplomate a confirmé qu’une
partie de l’armement serait transféré à la base russe en Arménie.
L’accord définitif sur le retrait des bases russes de la Géorgie a
été obtenu au terme de négociations longues et difficiles.

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH(LONDON)
June 12, 2005, Sunday
Strange power
BY Ben Thompson
System of a Down Smog
Imagine Jimi Hendrix has been magically brought back to life and you
are taking him on a voyage of discovery to find out how far rock ‘n’
roll has come (or, more accurately, not come) in the 35 years since
his tragically early demise. There is probably only one band in the
world at the moment with the power to make the great man scratch his
head in appreciative bewilderment and wonder “How on earth did that
happen?” That band is System of a Down.
On Sunday, at the third of three sold-out shows at the Brixton
Academy, this maverick Armenian-American heavy-rock quartet scales
improbable heights of frenetic precision. Playing in front of
fairground distorting mirrors which intensify the already
hallucinogenic vigour of their performance, they take a series of
disparate musical ingredients – Armenian folk styles, elements of
electro-pop, funk and rap (with the occasional Dire Straits or Wham
cover thrown in, just to keep the crowd on their toes) – and mix them
together in a very large and very metallic cauldron. The sound that
results is utterly, savagely distinctive.
Shaven-headed drummer John Dolmoyan blurs the line between human
beat-keeper and well-oiled piece of industrial machinery. His partner
in rhythm, the excellently named Shavo Odadjian, plays bass-lines as
fluid and sinuous as the plaited beard which stretches down from his
chin to his midriff. But it’s the very human entanglement of two
contrasting front-people which – as with Lennon and McCartney, Page
and Plant or Peters & Lee – makes System of a Down truly special.
Singer Serj Tankian cultivates the demeanour of an Old Testament
prophet and looks like Antony Sher playing the lead in a Frank Zappa
biopic. With his thinning hair, slightly bulging eyes and undying
admiration for the early works of Iron Maiden, guitarist Daron
Malakian initially seems a rather less imposing character, but he is
hugely talented. Not only can he play the guitar like five or six
different people at once, he also writes songs that have tunes. And
good ones, too; the kind that 4,000 people are happy to sing along
with, even though Mezmerize, the album they’re taken from, has only
been out for a couple of weeks.
Lyrics such as “What is in us that turns a deaf ear to the cries of
human suffering?” or “Eloquence belongs to the conqueror” may not be
conventional karaoke material, but that doesn’t seem to bother anyone
in this crowd. And by the time this performance reaches a thunderous
climax with “Toxicity”, the band’s signature 2001 eco-anthem (sample
lyric: “Eating seeds is a pastime/activity”), System of a Down’s
battle cry – “Somewhere between sacred silence and sleep, Disorder!
Disorder! Disorder!” – makes an irresistible kind of sense.
THOUGH HIS records have yet to sell in quite the seven-figure
quantities that System of a Down’s do, any list of America’s five
greatest living songwriters which didn’t include Smog’s Bill Callahan
would be based on a fundamental misconception. This master of the
lugubrious aperu takes to the Islington Academy stage on Thursday
night with the brittle assurance of a first-year student in an Ivy
League tutorial. As opening figures of speech go, Callahan’s “With
the grace of a corpse in a rip-tide…” certainly puts down a marker.
And before the main body of his set concludes with a much loved
earlier song about “letting himself be held like a big old baby”, he
and his band have ambled the gamut from death to life, from the rush
of a tidal race to the stillness of sleeping horses.

Czech News Agency (CTK)
June 11, 2005
Czech state attorney travels to Armenia to question witnesses
PRAGUE (CTK)
The state attorney in charge of the case of a 24-member organised
criminal group which has been charged with tax evasion involving
millions of crowns, and a police officer, have recently traveled to
Armenia to question witnesses.
“We have obtained important evidence there which can be used in a
court,” state attorney Vlastimil Rampula from the serious economic
crime office told CTK.
Police have charged 23 men and one woman of having deprived the Czech
state of 75 million crowns in unpaid taxes. Their criminal activities
were connected with imports and exports of goods. Most of the 24
defendants face between five and 12 years in prison. Apart from 18
Czechs and one German woman, two Armenians, one person without
citizenship, two Czechs of Armenian nationality and one Russian
national are being prosecuted.
The state attorney asked Armenian authorities to question five
Armenian witnesses, alleged importers of goods from the Czech
Republic, as part of international legal assistance.
“We wanted to attend the questioning also to be able to ask
additional questions and thus prevent the questioning from being
repeated,” Rampula said.
The Armenian authorities showed a very accommodating stance and even
allowed the defence lawyers of the accused to be present at the
questioning, contrary to their legal practice.
In Armenia, the defence lawyer has no right to be present at the
police interrogation, Rampula said, adding that he had also asked
Lithuania for legal assistance and intended to travel there as well.
According to the police, the criminal group organised fictitious
transactions with goods worth hundreds of thousands of crowns in the
past few years, depriving the Czech state of millions of crowns.
By busting the group, police prevented further transactions from
being implemented which would result in an additional 19-
million-crown tax evasion.
Rampula has frozen the property of four of the accused and said that
he expectd the court to expropriate property of all the defendants
given the damage they caused to the state.

The Boston Globe
June 9, 2005, Thursday THIRD EDITION
BERGE AVADANIAN; HERO KEPT FELLOW SOLDIERS IN HIS HEART
By Tom Long, Globe Staff
Berge Avadanian was a World War II hero who threw out the opening
ball for the Red Sox fifth-game victory over the Yankees in last
year’s American League Championship Series. He was 86.
Mr. Avadanian, who was born on Flag Day 1918, the year of the Red Sox
World Series victory, died in his Watertown home on June 6, the 61st
anniversary of the day he parachuted into France during the D-day
invasion of France.
“I wonder if he was just waiting for the anniversary of D-day. It
was a wonderful thing in some ways,” Mr. Avadanian’s daughter, Sandra
A. Starck of Watertown, said yesterday.
Although he worked for the Coast Guard and later dealt in antiques,
Mr. Avadanian never forgot his fellow soldiers. Each year in the days
before Memorial Day he would visit cemeteries in Belmont, Newton,
Watertown, and Waltham and place a flag and a personal letter on the
graves of about 150 veterans.
“Dear old friend Tom,” read one of the notes, according to
American Veteran magazine. “I will always remember you. Your
great-grandchildren visited me last week. They are beautiful.”
A native of Lynn, who grew up on a farm in Bellingham, Mr.
Avadanian joined the Army shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl
Harbor. As a sergeant in the 82d Airborne Division, he participated
in seven major campaigns, including the invasion of Italy, the Battle
of the Bulge, and the D-day invasion of France.
Mr. Avadanian remembered D-day in a story published in the spring
2003 issue of American Veteran: “Enemy antiaircraft fire was
intense,” he said of his jump into France with 150 pounds of
equipment strapped to his body. “And I could see cows but at first,
no people and no Germans. That changed in a hurry. I can recall a
fine young lieutenant who had gotten a haircut from our company
barber a couple of days prior to D-day, just as I had done. The next
time I saw him he was still in his parachute hanging from a tree near
the churchyard at St. Mere Eglise with his throat cut. The Germans
who had bivouacked in and around the town were merciless.”
During the 34 days of intense combat that followed, the 82d Airborne
suffered heavy casualties. “Wherever we fought, those once-quiet
little Norman towns became intense rubble within days, sometime
hours,” Mr. Avadanian recalled. “The airborne division spearheaded
inland of those beaches with almost 13,000 men and returned to
England with only 5,800 all the rest were missing, wounded, or dead.”
Mr. Avadanian was wounded twice. He was awarded a number of
decorations, including the Silver Star, Bronze Star, and Croix de
Guerre.
After the war he was a procurement officer for the Veterans
Administration in Boston for several years and principal contracting
officer of the US Coast Guard’s North Atlantic Region for decades.
Mr. Avadanian held a number of posts in AMVETS and was the national
commander of the service organization in 1973 and 1974.
He never regretted his military service and said he would be happy to
do it all over again.
“If God would allow me to be born again, I would pray to God to put
me on that same road to Normandy,” Mr. Avadanian said in a story
published in the Boston Herald in 2004. “It was the most gratifying
thing I have ever done. I was so proud to be fighting for my
country.”
Mr. Avadanian was also a lifelong Red Sox fan.
“I listened to them on one of those homemade radios on the farm
when I was a little boy,” he said in a story published in The New
York Times in 2004. “I was in Paris listening to them on a shortwave
radio when they played the World Series in 1946. And when I jumped
out of a plane in Normandy, one of the last things I said before I
went out the door was, ‘I wonder what the Red Sox are doing,’ and a
wise guy from New York said, ‘They probably lost as usual.’ ”
When Mr. Avadanian threw out the first ball for the fifth game of the
championship series last October at Fenway Park, it was like a dream
come true. “He had a wonderful time,” said his daughter. “They picked
him up in a limousine.”
In addition to his daughter, Mr. Avadanian leaves his wife, Rose
Marie (Bazarian); a son, Paul B. of Waltham; a sister, Mary
Kachichian of Stoneham; and two grandchildren.
A funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. tomorrow in St. James
Armenian Apostolic Church in Watertown. Burial will be in Mount
Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge.

St. Petersburg Times (Florida)
June 11, 2005 Saturday
Scholar to discuss Armenian genocide
PALM HARBOR
Scholar and author Vahakn Dadrian will speak on the Armenian genocide
of the early 20th century and the Holocaust at 2 p.m. today in the
social hall of Temple Ahavat Shalom, 1575 Curlew Road. Dadrian is
director of genocide research at Zoryan Institute for Contemporary
Armenian Research and Documentation. Based in Cambridge, Mass., the
institute is devoted to research of the history, politics, society,
and culture of Armenia and Armenians around the world. The Armenian
genocide refers to the slaughter of 1.5-million Armenians from 1915
to 1923 by the Central Committee of the Young Turk Party of the
Ottoman Empire. The event is being sponsored by St. Hagop Armenian
Church of Pinellas Park. Dadrian “happened to be passing by here, so
we lassoed him” for the lecture, said Dr. Hagop “Jack” Mashikian, a
retired psychiatrist and vice chairman of the church’s parish
council. A wine and cheese reception will follow the lecture, which
is free and open to the public.