Month: October 2005

Thursday, October 27, 2005
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If you compare the contents of your local daily with those of an Armenian weekly, you may notice that odar papers cover an encyclopedic array of subjects and issues, while the Armenian weeklies seem to be obsessed with Turks. Today, for instance, after counting thirteen headlines on Turks in the latest issue of an Armenian weekly of 16 pages, I gave up in disgust. Focusing on Turks also means (a) reinforcing our image as victims, and (b) ignoring or covering up our own present problems of which we have more than our share.
*
Even when, on those rare occasions, we focus on a specific Armenian problem, we do so monomaniacally. During the last couple of months, for instance, I have been reading a veritable eruption of articles, commentaries, and letters to the editor about a couple of Armenian-American benefactors who were cheated by a crook in Yerevan and abused by a thoroughly corrupt or inept justice system.
*
My question is: Why is it that some Armenians who have been fully aware of corrupt practices in the Homeland from day one are heard from only when they are personally stung by them? Don’t they know that by keeping silent they actively legitimize the very same system whose victims they now claim to be? What about the countless other victims, who cannot afford lawyers, are in no position to make headlines, and whose sole alternatives are either emigration or prostitution?
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Friday, October 28, 2005
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In what we think and believe we are all dependent on experts and we tend to forget that experts, very much like Armenophile and Turcophile historians, seldom agree on anything. They may be able to reach a consensus in another planet or life, but in this one, never! If it were up to laymen like us, we would continue to think the earth is flat.
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In the eyes of laymen, televangelists and ayatollahs, or for that matter, popes and bishops are more trustworthy than Socrates.
*
In our belief systems we resemble parrots, and in our defense of these belief systems, we behave more like cannibals.
*
No one has ever killed or died in defense of the flat-earth theory, but millions have been massacred in the name of a fictitious god.
*
All wars and massacres may be said to be consequences of laymen and dupes (but I repeat myself) placing their trust in the judgment of preachers and politicians, whose very survival depends on their self-assessed expertise to rewrite history.
*
Religious leaders not only rewrite history but also the word of god, to the point that a god of love, compassion, and mercy becomes a god of prejudice, intolerance, hatred, and murder. Figure that one out if you can.
#
Saturday, October 29, 2005
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Armenians come in all sizes and shapes and not all of them are what they pretend to be. Some look like Germans, others like Mongols, Arabs, Jews, and Indians. I even know an Armenian whose name is Kurdoghlanian (literally, son of a Kurd). Speaking of myself: since, on a clear day, I can trace my ancestry all the way back to my father, I could be a combination or permutation of several dozen tribes in all the colors of the rainbow. When I was a little boy, I remember, two neighborhood Greek girls nicknamed me Hirohito.
Raffi may have been wrong when he said “treason and betrayal are in our blood.” What is in our blood may well be divided loyalties and in such a situation to be loyal to one side means to betray the other. And those who want to be loyal to humanity, as opposed to a fraction of it, may have to betray two or more sides.
Something similar could be said of Turks. Since intermarriage (to be politically correct about it) was practiced for centuries in the Ottoman Empire, identifying oneself as a Turk today may serve some vague political classification but is not and cannot be a racial or national or tribal designation.
What about Canadians and Americans? I will never forget the answer of an unbelievably attractive teenager when I asked for her nationality. “Canadian,” she replied; and when I pressed for more details, she said: “Polish, German, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Indian, French….”
The Turks maintain what they did to us at the turn of the last century can’t be called genocide because it had nothing to do with race; it was civil war. Which raises the question: Does civil war justify indiscriminate fratricidal massacre?
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Sunday, October 23, 2005
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GUARD DOGS AND DISSIDENTS
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Intellectuals may be divided into two categories: defenders of the status quo (or, in the words of a French philosopher “guard dogs”) and dissidents. It goes without saying that the guard dogs enjoy the full support of those in power, and the dissidents are ostracized, alienated, and, whenever possible, silenced, starved, poisoned, or shot.
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The history of our literature is rich in dissidents. But when guard dogs compile anthologies and textbooks they tend to cover up the dissent and emphasize the patriotism and nationalist propaganda. Writers like Raffi, Baronian, Odian, and Avedik Issahakian, who were merciless critics of our leaders, are misrepresented as patriotic versifiers, historical novelists or comedians. Many others (Voskanian, Massikian) are relegated to the status of non-persons.
*
Was Narekatsi a guard dog or dissident? Hard to say. He was quintessentially non-political. He concentrated on himself as a sinner. He blamed no one but his own evil inclinations. If he were a contemporary and if he took it upon himself to write about our genocide, my guess is he wouldn’t even mention the Turks. He would have said what a born-again, Bible-thumping, fundamentalist friend of mine in his 80s once said to me: “Armenians were massacred because they were evil and they deserved to be punished by God.”
*
Were Khorenatsi and Yeghishe, two of our greatest historians of the Golden Age, guard dogs or dissidents? It is true that most of our medieval chroniclers were propagandists of a prince with dynastic ambitions. In order to fulfill their duties they had no choice but to attack political adversaries and expose corruption in high places. In so far as they did that, they too may be said to have been dissidents.
*
What about Sylva Kaputikian? When the USSR collapsed she declared herself to have been a proud member of the Communist Party, the very same Party that had systematically eliminated some of our ablest intellectuals. Shortly thereafter she also published an autobiographical book in which she portrayed herself as a dissident. If true, she must be the only Soviet dissident who was awarded the Stalin Prize.
#
Monday, October 24, 2005
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RELIGIOUS TRUTHS ARE BIG LIES
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In a recent interview published in a learned French periodical, a Muslim scholar proves to his complete satisfaction that Islam is a better religion than Christianity, and the only reason Christians outnumber Muslims is that Christianity is six centuries older. In the next six centuries, he goes on, Islam will surpass all other organized religions in popularity. That is one of the central problems with all men of faith: they think they know better and they are closer to God even when they behave like swine. And you may have noticed by now that it is not the good and the honest who assert moral superiority but charlatans and riffraff. “If I am no good,” they seem to be saying, “the least I can do is pretend to be better even if it means engaging in double-talk and lies.”
*
The world will be a better place on the day scholars concentrate their efforts in exposing the shortcomings of their own belief systems and the blunders of their own tribes instead of asserting moral and intellectual superiority with arguments that convince no one but themselves and their dupes.
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If the Pope doubts his faith seven times every day, as Italians are fond of saying, let him say so if only because in matters of faith doubt is more civilized than certainty.
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And if God is infallible, why has He created an imperfect world in which man’s inhumanity to man is a constant and war and massacre are routine occurrences? To those who say wars and massacres are men’s doing, not God’s, because God has given man free will that allows him to choose between good and evil; I say, the free will argument may apply to the victimizer, not the victim. Given the choice, who would freely choose to be the victim of fanatic butchers?
#
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
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A headline in our local paper today reads: “Rosa Parks’ defiance changed a nation.” What it does not say, or what it covers up, is that the compliance of millions of others perpetuated an unjust, not to say, an evil system.
*
If in crime it’s cherchez la femme, in all verbal communications it’s cherchez the unsaid or the covered up – there it is, step on of deconstruction 101.
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To believe a nation’s own version of its past amounts to believing a criminal’s plea of not guilty.
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If a ruthless serial killer were to write his memoirs, you can be sure of one thing: he would portray himself as a victim rather than a victimizer.
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Every nation thinks of itself as a role model among nations.
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Propaganda may also be defined as emphasizing the positive in us and the negative in our enemies.
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To believe in an Armenophile’s version of Armenian history makes as much sense as believing in a Turcophile’s version of Turkish history.
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The history of our literature is rich in writers who, like Rosa Parks, defied the status quo. But their voices have been silenced so effectively that whenever they are quoted or paraphrased, our propagandists are scandalized. I speak from experience.
#
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
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So far we have been emphasizing our status as victims or extensions of someone else’s will, be they foreign aggressors, tyrants, denialists, revisionists, Turcophiles, and ultimately our own mini-sultans and neo-commissars. How do we liberate ourselves from that mindset? There are no easy answers. But we could start by seeing things as they are.
*
One of the functions of leadership is to convince the people that their leaders know better even when they don’t. That’s because all leaders prefer sheep to wolves. If the German nation had followed Hitler to the end, it would have committed suicide and that would have been the end of their story. Something similar could be said of the Japanese.
*
Leaders may pretend to know better, but they don’t. Our status as perennial victims and losers is a result of foreign barbarism and domestic incompetence. All other explanations are propaganda whose sole aim is to mislead us into thinking that patriotism consists in allowing ourselves to be an extension of our leaders’s will, in other words, to adopt the mindset of sheep.
#

Thursday, October 20, 2005
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In the latest issue of NEWSWEEK I come across the following highlighted sentence: “For many Iraqis, the only sense of security they can find after so much chaos is in the bosom of their sect or tribe.” There it is, I thought, the roots of our tribalism.
Perhaps one of our problems is that we have too many political pundits and very few or no psychologists; either that or we have them too but they have given up on us as beyond repair.
If you ever suggest to an Armenian that he may be in need of a shrink, he will start analyzing you and prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that you were conceived in an asylum for the criminally insane. I speak from experience. Once when I quoted Jung to a reader, he counter-quoted Freud, Adler, and half a dozen other Germanic names I knew nothing about.
#
Friday, October 21, 2005
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When it comes to analyzing Turks, we speak like experts in the field; but when it comes to analyzing ourselves, we cannot even tell the difference between self-analysis and flattery. And whenever an Armenian dares to suggest that we may not be paragons of virtue, he runs the risk of being labeled a Turcophile and a denialist. Again, I speak from experience.
*
We analyze Turks as if our aim in life were to improve them, and we avoid analyzing ourselves on the grounds that one should not fix what ain’t broken. Why else would our dime-a-dozen pundits spend more time exposing foreign misconduct and ignoring our own?
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It’s astonishing how many decent people allow their paycheck to dictate their code of ethics and to ignore the fact that “grub first then ethics” is no ethics.
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If you lie down with an Armenian don’t be surprised if you wake up with a Turk.
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Sometimes a man reveals himself less by what he says and more by what he does not say.
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I don’t understand everything and I don’t want to understand everything because I already understand enough; I also understand that there isn’t one hell of a lot I can do with what I understand except to become more aware of my own powerlessness.
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Man is unpredictable even to himself.
#
Saturday, October 22, 2005
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In one of their anthems (it may be “Rule Britannia”) the Brits pride themselves of the fact that they have never been slaves. When I first heard that song it occurred to me that we have more reasons to be humble than proud. Which is why the sight of a “proud Armenian” annoys the hell out of me. First of all I consider pride, including British pride, not an asset but a liability. Second, the so-called proud Armenians I have met are as a rule full of bombast or what we call “borodakhosoutiun” (thunder-talk, empty loud verbiage, b.s. for short), that is more a mask of inferiority than self-esteem. Unless we admit that we have been slaves most of our collective existence, we will continue to be slaves to our agha-babas and alienate all decent Armenians who can tell the difference between baloney and straight talk.
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To those who accuse me of having a very low opinion of my fellow Armenians, I can only say, nobody really gives a damn what I or anyone else thinks. What matters, what really matters, is whether or not I can tell the difference between fact and fiction.
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A writer by the name of Robin Abcarian has just published an article in the LOS ANGELES TIMES (reprinted in our local paper today) titled “Bush nominee knows the art of sucking up,” about U.S. Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers, where he explains that brown-nosers create a toxic environment in which objective assessment and honest talk become less valuable than flattery and b.s. Two questions: Why is it that articles like this one are never reprinted in our papers? And why is it that Robin Abcarian is not more widely known and respected in our environment as one of the sharpest and most insightful observers of the contemporary American scene?
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Sunday, October 16, 2005
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All the Turks have to say is Armenians are prone to engage in acts of terrorism if their demands are not met and they will have majority support in Washington. And if, on top of that, Yanks discover the fact that some Armenians harbor anti-Israeli and pro-Arab sentiments, then you can kiss acknowledgement of the Genocide goodbye.
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Several readers have pointed out that my testimony cannot be relied on because I am a traumatized witness. I am more than willing to plead guilty as charged. But if these very same readers imply that six centuries of Ottoman oppression followed by massacres and dispersion have not traumatized them, they deceive themselves. Either that or they have been so thoroughly dehumanized that it doesn’t even occur to them that they may be in denial.
#
Monday, October 17, 2005
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In an interview published in SOCIAL SCIENCE RECORD: THE JOURNAL OF THE NEW YORK STATE COUNCIL FOR THE SOCIAL STUDIES (Volume 24, Issue 2), Professor Vahakn N. Dadrian has some kind words for Armenians of Zeitun and Sassoun who “defied authority, retaliated, engaged in reprisals, in consequence many Turkish hordes as well as regular and superior army units were held at bay and in some instances even defeated and humbled.” What the good professor fails to discuss is, to what extent this kind of isolated defiance provoked the Turks to retaliate by massacring innocent and defenseless civilians who were in no position to resist?
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Nikol Aghbalian is right, we are a tribal people; or, in the words of Gostan Zarian, our concept of nation begins and ends with our mountain, our valley, our village, our church, and our chickens.
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Dadrian sets the stage for the interview by describing Armenians as a “historically persecuted race…an orphan nation” that has experienced “massacres, atrocities, and massive destruction.” What he fails to explore is to what extent our own tribalism, lack of solidarity, and incompetent leadership – things that have been discussed at some length by our own historians, novelists, essayists, satirists, and poets – were a contributing factor to our perennial status as losers and victims.
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Elsewhere in this same interview and speaking of other academics who, unlike him, have so far ignored the study of genocides, Dadrian explains that it may be because they prefer to explore topics “that yield them dividends in terms of research money, prestige, publicity and publication.” Dadrian thus illustrates another notorious Armenian idiosyncrasy – the widely held illusion that our status as victims empowers us to assume a morally superior stance by viewing Turks as Asiatic barbarians, the West as thoroughly corrupt, degenerate, and cynical, and, as if that weren’t enough, to express outrage when the world fails to support our claims.
#
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
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THEME AND VARIATIONS
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History makes one point very clear: in time of trouble, when we need them most, our political parties are nowhere to be seen. But in time of peace they are all over the place – in schools, churches, community centers, and the media, speechifying, sermonizing,editorializing, organizing demonstrations, lobbying, and, above all, rewriting history in their efforts to cover up their blunders and inability to face facts and to come to grips with reality.
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As a case in point, consider the Ottoman Bank caper at the turn of the last century in Istanbul – the theme of many future variations. A small group of self-appointed heroes do their thing, clear out, and as a result of their actions, innocent civilians are massacred by the thousand. And, as if that weren’t enough, they add insult to injury by misrepresenting that debacle as a glorious page in the annals of our history.
#
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
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Somewhere in his STUDY OF HISTORY Toynbee writes that the uneducated or poorly educated masses are no match for the educated bourgeoisie. Elsewhere he explains that the aim of an educational system is to maintain the status quo and to protect the privileges of the ruling class. To put it more bluntly, we are all brainwashed to believe that the political system in which we live is fair and we should be satisfied with our lot.
Long before Toynbee, Napoleon said if it weren’t for religion, the poor would butcher the rich.
Both Napoleon and Toynbee were members of the privileged classes or the Establishment, and both could afford being honest.
One positive feature of the bourgeoisie is that, in addition to producing swine, it has also produced some men of integrity and courage. Jean-Paul Sartre comes to mind. This Nobel-Prize winning philosopher, novelist, and playwright was born and raised into a petit-bourgeois family and he hated the bourgeoisie so much that he allowed himself to be a dupe of Stalin, Mao, and Castro.
On the day the average Armenian becomes aware of his status as a dupe, our bosses, bishops, benefactors with all their hirelings, flunkeys, hangers-on and brown-nosers will be consigned to the dustbin of history before anyone can say Jack S. Avanakian.
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ASBAREZ ONLINE
TOP STORIES
10/18/2005
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1) Armenia’s Military Spending to Keep Pace with Azerbaijan
2) ‘Hamshen and Hamshen Armenians’ conference concludes in Sochi
3) Turkey Warns it May Take Action against PKK in North Iraq
4) Orange County Community Welcomes His Holiness Aram I

1) Armenia’s Military Spending to Keep Pace with Azerbaijan

YEREVAN (RFE/RL)–A nearly 20 percent increase in Armenia’s military spending
next year is a response to the drastic rise in similar expenditures in
neighboring Azerbaijan, officials in Yerevan said following Tuesday’s closed
meeting of parliamentary commissions.
National Assembly Standing Defense, Internal Affairs and National Security
Commission Chairman Mher Shahgeldian confirmed plans to increase next year’s
military budget to $150 million.
Saying that the move was planned considering Azerbaijan’s drastic increase in
military spending, the lawmaker added: “We should pay attention to this
correlation. Our task in this case is to preserve our qualitative level to
ensure the country’s defense capability and security.”
Minister of Defense Serge Sarkisian said the sum is sufficient to ensure the
country’s defense.
“This amount of spending is the minimum to ensure a due level of our army’s
combat efficiency,” he told the media. “For the first time the defense budget
has been made not proceeding from the absolute sum of previous years, but from
the percentage of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP), that is, there is an
agreement that at least 3 percent of our GDP should be spent for defense
purposes.”
Meanwhile, Azerbaijan plans to double its military spending in 2006
increasing
it to $650 million.
During the press conference, Sarkisian also spoke about the possible outcome
of upcoming elections in Azerbaijan and how they could influence the Karabagh
peace process.
“It is natural that if the opposition suddenly wins perhaps the negotiating
process would have to begin from scratch, and if the authorities win, I think
the negotiating process will be continued,” the minister said.
Regarding his trip to Washington slated for late October, Sarkisian said it
was a routine visit, and not one to intensify military cooperation with the
US–at the expense of Armenian-Russian relations. “We wish to be friends with
both sides,” the minister said.
Talking about the upcoming referendum on constitutional amendments, Sarkisian
said: “I don’t want this referendum to be compared to a football match. I
think
that in case of proper work, a sufficient number of voters will turn out and
will say ‘yes’ to the constitutional amendments.”

2) ‘Hamshen and Hamshen Armenians’ conference concludes in Sochi

YEREVAN (Yerkir)–A three-day conference about Hamshen and Hamshen Armenians
ended on October 15 in the southern Russian city of Sochi, home to over
100,000
Hamshen Armenians.
Currently a part of Turkey, Hamshen was a historic Armenian region that was
conquered by the Ottoman Turks in 1491. Some Hamshen Armenians adopted Islam,
while others emigrated to the Russian Empire.
The conference was organized by the History Institute of the Armenian
National
Academy of Sciences in cooperation with the Armenian Revolutionary
Federation’s
(ARF) Moscow Armenian Affairs office, with the support of Hamshen Union of the
Krasnodar region, and Yerkramas Armenian news center located in southern
Russia.
Scholars from Armenia, Russia, Iran, and the United States, including UCLA
Professor Richard Hovannisian, participated in the conference.
ARF Bureau representative Hrant Margarian, ARF Bureau member and National
Assembly Vice-speaker Vahan Hovhannisian, ARF’s Moscow Armenian Affairs Office
Director Yura Navoyan, European Armenian Federation Chairwoman Hilda
Tchoboyan,
and ARF Bureau’s Armenian and Political Affairs Office Director Giro Manoyan,
also participated.
The reports of the conference will be published in Armenian, Turkish, Russian
and English.
Organizers and participants noted that the event holds not only scientific
significance but that it also served as a bridge between Hamshen Armenians,
Armenia, and diaspora Armenians.
There are currently 400,000 Hamshen Armenians, half of which are Muslims.
Most
Christian Hamshen Armenians reside in Abkhazia and the Krasnodar region of
Russia.

3) Turkey Warns it May Take Action against PKK in North Iraq

ANKARA (Reuters)–Turkey said on Tuesday it would take steps to end the
presence of Turkish Kurd rebels in the mountains of northern Iraq, but stopped
short of directly threatening military action.
Turkish officials have repeatedly demanded US, Iraqi Kurd, and Iraqi
government forces crack down on Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) forces in north
Iraq from where rebel leaders direct their fight for Kurdish self-rule in
nearby Turkey.
“The principal point which we have stressed at these meetings is that the
terrorist presence in northern Iraq must be combated,” Prime Minister Tayyip
Erdogan told a meeting of his parliamentary party.
“So far, Turkey has maintained a patient stance.”
But, he said: “Our nation expects us to take effective measures to clean up
the terrorist presence in the region. We will take clear and effective
steps to
bring this about. I remind you we will do what is necessary when the time is
right.”
In the 1990s, Turkish forces launched repeated raids into northern Iraq to
hunt down PKK rebels in the mountainous region. Turkey still keeps several
hundred soldiers inside Iraq, close to the Turkish border, despite Iraqi calls
for them to leave.
But since the 2003 Iraq war, Turkish troops have not mounted any operations
inside Iraq against the PKK which is based on the Qandil Mountain in the far
northeast of the country.
US officials admit their troops are too tied up fighting the insurgency in
Iraq to turn their attention to the PKK which rarely engages in any hostile
activity inside Iraq.

4) Orange County Community Welcomes His Holiness Aram I

Pontiff meets World Vision, students, and visits Glendale Adventist and Ararat
Home

LOS ANGELES–His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia
kept to his busy schedule, reaching out to all parts of the southern
California
community and on October 13, traveled to Orange County to visit Forty Martyrs
Armenian Apostolic Church in Santa Ana. Greeting His Holiness were leaders
from
Forty Martyrs Church and the various community organizations as well as clergy
from the Coptic Church and Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido with the welcoming
procession led by the Homenetmen scouts. Anticipating the visit, The Orange
County Register newspaper had printed a lengthy article that day about His
Holiness.
After presiding over Hrashapar service, the community proceeded to the large
community center adjacent to the church for a special welcoming banquet
cultural program. In his remarks during the banquet His Holiness stressed that
there should consistently be greater collaboration and unity in the community
and the church with a renewed level of proactive participation, especially
with
the youth.
Earlier His Holiness started his day meeting with the international Christian
relief and development organization World Vision in Monrovia, California,
where
he held leadership meetings to discuss strengthening ecumenical collaboration
and partnerships between churches and humanitarian organizations. His Holiness
also spent some time at Glendale Adventist Medical Center where he met with
the
medical center’s President Scott Reiner, the center’s leadership, and visited
patients. The Glendale News-Press and the Associated Press wire service
covered
his visit to Glendale Adventist.
On Thursday afternoon, His Holiness met with over 250 college students at
Glendale Community College, an event organized by the ARF Shant Student
Association and co-sponsored by the Armenian Student Associations of Glendale
Community College, the University of California Los Angeles, California State
University Los Angeles, and Loyola Marymount University. His Holiness partook
in a lengthy open forum question and answer session in order to make the
session interactive. He answered questions regarding religion, faith,
education, the church, Christianity, and moral and family values. Students
came
away from the forum feeling enlightened and inspired because of their intimate
interaction with His Holiness as he clearly articulated his philosophy on the
many current issues facing students in everyday life. As with all the events
during the visit, the college student session received an enthusiastic
response
because of the ability of His Holiness to connect with all people, including
the youth.
On the previous day, His Holiness visited the Ararat Home in Mission Hills,
immediately after returning from Fresno, California. There he met with the
Ararat Home’s Board of Trustees and staff and spent time with residents.
Archbishop Moushegh Mardirossian, Prelate of the Western United States stated:
“His Holiness specifically wanted to visit the Ararat Home to share his love,
care, and respect toward our mothers and fathers.”

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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenian National Committee of America
888 17th St., NW Suite 904
Washington, DC 20006
Tel: (202) 775-1918
Fax: (202) 775-5648
E-mail: [email protected]
Internet:

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 18, 2005

Contact: Elizabeth S. Chouldjian, ANCA
[email protected]
Harout Mardirossian, ANC ~V France
[email protected]
Laurent Leylekian, European Armenian Federation (EAFJD)
[email protected]

TIME-EUROPE PUBLISHES APOLOGY FOR
DISTRIBUTING GENOCIDE-DENIAL DVD

— Prints Full Page Letter from ANC-France and Other Human
Rights Groups Demanding that TIME take Concrete
Steps to Reverse the Profound Damage it has Caused

— ANC-France Considering Legal Action

WASHINGTON, DC ~V Responding to months of protests organized by
Armenian National Committee branches around the world, TIME
Magazine’s European edition published, in its October 17th issue, a
brief apology to the Armenian community and all its readers for its
dissemination earlier this year of a 70-minute DVD advertisement
denying the Armenian Genocide.

TIME’s apology was printed alongside an extensive letter to editors
of TIME-Europe by leading Armenian, Jewish and human rights
organizations. This response was published under France’s “right
to reply” laws, which require a publication to provide editorial
space to those unfairly attacked in its pages. The controversy
over this issue began on June 5th, with the dissemination of a DVD,
funded by the Ankara Chamber of Commerce, which featured denialist
propaganda as part of a print and electronic advertisement package
promoting tourism in Turkey.

Joining the Armenian National Committee of France in writing to
TIME-Europe were the Coordinating Council of Armenian Organizations
of France, J’Accuse, Le MRAP and the Memoire 2000. In the letter,
they noted that:

“As representatives of French associations whose aim it is to fight
against racism, anti-Semitism and to preserve the memory of the
Armenian Genocide, we were shocked and disappointed to see that you
chose to include in your June 6, 2005 issue of TIME-Europe a DVD
spreading such the grotesque denial of the Armenian Genocide, and
leveling so many hateful allegations against the Armenian people.”

The letter was printed on a full page in the print edition and can
be read in its entirety on-line. Its authors identified specific
instances in the DVD of genocide denial, and stressed that, just as
TIME-Europe would rightfully not accept hateful Holocaust denial
advertisements, it should not have circulated similarly false
materials denying the Armenian Genocide. The letter concluded by
calling on TIME-Europe to take three specific steps to rectify the
situation it had created, including:

1) Disclose what, if any, official standards TIME Magazine employs
in accepting or rejecting advertising. For example, would TIME
have accepted a similarly hateful DVD denying the Holocaust.

2) Distribute, free of charge, a DVD prepared by the European
Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy (EAFJD) documenting
the history of the Armenian Genocide and the modern-day
consequences of this crime.

3) Donate the advertising revenues from this campaign to nonprofit
organizations raising awareness about the Armenian Genocide and
other instances of genocide.

Following the letter, TIME-Europe printed an apology for the
dissemination of the DVD, stating that they had failed to properly
review the DVD to establish its full contents before distributing
it to their subscribers.

“TIME regrets distributing the DVD and we are very sorry for the
offense it has caused. The so-called documentary portion of the DVD
presents a one-sided view of history that does not meet our
standards for fairness and accuracy, and we would not have
distributed it had we been aware of its content. Unfortunately, the
DVD was not adequately reviewed by anyone at TIME because it was
believed to be a benign promotion piece. We have since changed our
review process so as to guarantee more vigilance in future. We
apologize to the Armenian community, and to our readers.”

The letter was published according to the France’s “right to reply”
law, first adopted in 1898, which compels a newspaper or magazine
to allow an individual who has been defamed to provide a response
of equal length. The law was later expanded to audio-visual
material as well, with certain restrictions.

ANC of France Chairman Harout Mardirossian commented that the TIME-
Europe apology and printing of the letter to the editor was the
“the first result of a joint effort and long-term engagement by
associations fighting against racism, anti-Semitism and for the
defense of the memory of the Armenian Genocide.” Mardirossian
added, however, that the effort to rectify the situation has not
ended, noting that, “If TIME Magazine thinks that this “right of
reply” will settle the score on this issue, it is seriously
mistaken. A one-paragraph response does not match the outreach of
a 70 minute DVD and cannot address the humiliation and degradation
felt by Genocide `survivors and their descendants as a result of
this denialist propaganda.” continued Mardirossian.

In an interview with the Armenian Weekly, Mardirossian did not rule
out legal action in the TIME-Europe case, stating that “We, along
with our partners [J’Accuse, Mémoire 2000, Council of French
Armenian Organizations, Union of French Jewish Students] are ready,
if necessary, to initiate a lawsuit against TIME, as well as the
authors, producers and distributors of the DVD.”

Mardirossian added that the ANC-France had successfully taken on
similar anti-defamation cases in the past, including a recent court
victory against French encyclopedia company, QUID, whose 2002, 2003
and 2004 editions included historically inaccurate references
denying the Armenian Genocide. The recently published 2006 edition
of the QUID encyclopedia has removed all revisionist references,
and correctly characterizes the events of 1915-1923 as genocide.

In the months leading up to the TIME-Europe apology, the ANC of
France teamed up with the Armenian National Committee of America
and European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy (EAFJD)
in initiating an international letter-writing campaign to TIME-
Europe calling for swift action in response to DVD. Thousands
responded to the call to action, expressing grave concern that TIME
had sacrificed journalistic principles for a million dollar
advertisement campaign.

A parallel effort to address the TIME-Europe DVD misinformation
issue has also been pursued by the Switzerland-Armenia
Organization, based on violations of Swiss law.

To read the complete letter to the editor and the TIME-Europe
response, visit:

rticle/0,13005,901051017-1113684,00.html

[Scroll down to the article titled “Turkish Tourism DVD”]

#####

–Boundary_(ID_A/Gpf+wrnxL2eqnCa4UfF Q)–

Justice needed for Armenian genocide
By Mona Karaguozian

Opinion

Daily Sundial
October 17, 2005

According to Merriam Webster’s dictionary, the term genocide is
defined as the “deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial,
political or cultural group.”

In April 1915, during World War I, the Ottoman Empire began
systematically annihilating Armenians, by first ridding the
intellectuals, men, elderly, women and then children in the Eastern
Anatolia and Western Armenia region, in what should be known as the
first genocide of the 20th century.

The Turkish government has continuously refused to accept
responsibility for the atrocities that have taken place, and it also
refuses to acknowledge the existence of this “alleged” genocide.

The Turkish government makes claims now that the Armenians who were
killed during that period died as wartime casualties and that many
Turks were killed as well. This is false because only the Armenians
that were living in that region in Turkey were being “relocated”
for safety. Why weren’t the other residents of that region being
relocated? It was a deliberate destruction of a specific group
of people.

Who alleges the massacres of 1.5 million people? How could the
destruction of a substantially large number of people be alleged? The
evidence is in the death toll. There are also photographs, hundreds
of chronicles from American newspapers and documentation depicting
the massacres as they were taking place not to mention countless
horror stories passed down generations.

The issue of the Armenian genocide is less than ten years shy of
being a century- long struggle for recognition. Ninety years might
seem like ages ago, but I, as an American born Armenian, still feel
the effects of the massacres. My grandfather was a survivor of the
genocide. I hold knowledge of eyewitness accounts and experiences of
the genocide that were passed down through him. It pains me to be
a third generation Armenian after the genocide and to see that the
struggle for recognition continues to this day.

There are numerous advocacy groups, such as the Armenian National
Committee of America and the Armenian Assembly that are seeking
justice on behalf of the Armenian people. These activists dedicate
their time and effort to spread awareness of the genocide and to gain
recognition for its occurrence.

In a letter sent to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Oct. 5, ANCA
Chairman Ken Hachikian voiced the profound moral outrage of Armenians
over the Bush administration’s ongoing complicity in Turkey’s campaign
of genocide denial.

Turkey has also been trying to gain admission into the European Union,
yet they continue running into complications. European Union foreign
ministers have attempted to agree on terms for Turkish membership,
but many countries, like Austria, have refused to agree on full
membership. They are only willing to offer Turkey a “privileged
partnership” with the EU until such claims as the Armenian genocide
have been resolved. If the EU is unable to agree on terms with the
Turkish government, there must be a reason. For being just an “alleged”
claim, the Armenian genocide is a substantial cause for concern among
many European countries.

This is not the first attempt by Armenian-Americans to gain a political
voice regarding this issue. Many bills have been presented to Congress,
each of which would have been instrumental toward the fight for
justice, but none have been passed yet.

Instead, all these bills have been shot down. Armenian activists
have also organized many public events, such as marches, protests,
vigils and pickets at the Turkish embassy in Los Angeles as well as
all over the world.

Throughout the years, these activities have gained some local
media exposure. None, however, have had a national effect on
legislation. Many of the local media outlets are familiar with the
commemoration of April 24 due to the heavily concentrated Armenian
community Los Angeles, but the voice is barely heard.

As the years pass the story gets old and people begin to forget. This
is the goal of the denial.

This situation may change with another attempt to pass legislation. On
Sept. 15, after nearly three hours of debate, the House International
Relations Committee, voted overwhelmingly in favor of two measures
calling for proper U.S. recognition of the Armenian Genocide (H.Res.316
and H.Con.Res.195) and urging Turkey to end its decades-long denial
of this crime against humanity.

The Senate should finish the work started by the House and call
for recognition of the Armenian genocide. Only with the support of
the United Sates will the movement to have the Turkish government
recognize the past crimes of the Ottoman Empire succeed.

Justice needs to be served and not withheld because of politics.

Mona Karaguozian can be reached at [email protected].

ws/display.v/ART/2005/10/17/4353cb4fb78e4

Former U.N. prosecutor seeks GOP nomination

The Sacramento Bee
Tuesday, October 18, 2005

By Andy Furillo, Bee Capitol Bureau

A former Bush administration official has taken out papers to challenge
state Sen. Charles Poochigian for the Republican nomination for state
attorney general, a spokeswoman for the new candidate said Monday.

Pierre-Richard Prosper had served in President Bush’s State Department
as ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues until he recently departed
the administration to enter the attorney general’s race, spokeswoman
Elizabeth Blackney said.

The Denver-born Prosper, 42, had previously served in the Clinton
administration as a top assistant in the criminal division of the
Department of Justice and as special counsel and policy adviser to the
war crimes ambassador.

Prosper also is a former United Nations war crimes prosecutor who
obtained a 1998 genocide conviction against a local official named
Jeal-Paul Akayesu who allowed Hutu police to rape and murder Tutsi women
during the ethnically based Rwandan civil war, according to his official
State Department biography.

From 1994-96, Prosper served as a drug prosecutor for the U.S.
attorney’s office in Los Angeles. Before that, he worked five years as a
Los Angeles County deputy district attorney, including two years he
spent in the Hardcore Gang Division.

The Colorado native was raised in New York and graduated from Boston
College before moving to Southern California and getting his law degree
from Pepperdine University.

“He has a real passion for the rule of law and helping the rule of law
take root,” spokeswoman Blackney said. “Whether it’s in Inglewood or
Compton, where he served, or in Rwanda, the world is growing smaller,
and in California, being the seventh-largest economy in the world, we
need that kind of experience.”

Blackney said Prosper signed organization and statement of intent papers
Monday and mailed them to the secretary of state’s office.

In Poochigian, Prosper will be taking on a Republican stalwart with more
than $2 million in cash on hand as of June 30 and the endorsements of
former Govs. Pete Wilson and George Deukmejian, of every GOP lawmaker in
the state and most of the party’s congressional delegation in
Washington, according to Poochigian’s strategist, Ken Khachigian.

Poochigian has served more than 10 years in the Legislature as a senator
and Assembly member. His resume also includes a three-year stint as
Wilson’s appointments secretary and three years of work as senior staff
member to Deukmejian.

Khachigian said he views Prosper’s candidacy as “inconsequential.”

“I’m looking at somebody who has no ties here …, has no family here,
has no roots here, and has done nothing for the Republican Party here,”
Khachigian said. “It doesn’t make any sense at all. He’s not a Californian.”

On the Democratic side, Los Angles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo has
officially announced for the attorney general’s race that is expected to
pit him against Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown.

The Bee’s Andy Furillo can be reached at (916) 321-1141 or
[email protected].

nt/politics/story/13732076p-14574914c.html

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PRESS RELEASE
Diocese of the Armenian Church of Australia & New Zealand
10 Macquarie Street
Chatswood NSW 2067
AUSTRALIA
Contact: Laura Artinian
Tel: (02) 9419-8056
Fax: (02) 9904-8446
Email: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>

18 October 2005

PRESENTATION OF 2005 ARCHBISHOP’S WRITING AWARD HONOURING 1600TH
ANNIVERSARY OF THE ARMENIAN ALPHABET

Sydney, Australia – Saturday, 8 October, 2005 on the Feast of the
Holy Translators, His Eminence Archbishop Aghan Baliozian, Primate
of the Diocese of the Armenian Church of Australia and New Zealand
presided over the Award Ceremony of the Inaugural 2005 Archbishop’s
Writing Award that was launched in this special 1600th anniversary year
marking the discovery of the Armenian Alphabet by St Mesrob Mashdotz.

The Writing Award was established to stimulate thought and
consciousness in Armenian youth about the relevance of maintaining the
values and faith of Armenian heritage in communities of the Diaspora
in the 21st Century.

Submissions to the competition were received from students in Years 5
to 11 from schools in Sydney and Melbourne including AGBU Alexander
Primary School, St Gregory’s Armenian School, Toumanian Saturday
School, Aginian Saturday School (Melbourne), Armenian HSC Class
as well as two independent entries. The topic for the prose was
“The Armenian Alphabet is important for the Armenian identity”.
Students were given the option of presenting their submissions in
different writing styles and in either Armenian or English. 80%
of written essays were in Armenian.

Parents and students gathered in the Edgarian Hall on the Feast Day
in eager anticipation for the announcement of the award recipients.
However, it was clear from the high-spirited gathering that all
students who participated in the competition were the winners of the
day for the time and effort spent researching the topic will continue
to have long-lasting impact on their understanding and value of the
Armenian Alphabet as a founding block to preserve the Armenian legacy.

His Eminence Archbishop Aghan Baliozian presented each and every
student with a special award certificate and a gift that would
be symbolic of their participation and their cultural identity.
The Primate gifted each student a wooden Armenian cross that he brought
back from the Holy Land just one week earlier. The keystone of the
Armenian Alphabet, the motivation and driving force to establish it,
lay in the Holy Cross to ensure the first Christian nation would have
a written language that would propagate the Great Commission of Jesus
to spread the Word of God and lead them to faith.

Awards and prizes were presented in three categories and recipients
of prizes were as follows: Junior Category – Sergei Krjatian (St
Gregory’s Armenian School), runner-up Lenia Kelleyan (St Gregory’s
Armenian School); Middle Category – Natalie Mengolian (Aginian
Saturday School), equal runners-up Rhaya Ratevossian (Toumanian
Saturday School) and Zaven Fenerci (Aginian Saturday School); Senior
Category – Maya Aghajanian (Aginian Saturday School), runner-up Talar
Ohanessian (Armenian HSC). A special award was also presented to Nayiri
Derartinian from St Gregory’s Armenian School for outstanding thought.

On Sunday, 16 October the Primate visited the Armenian Community of
Melbourne and presented awards to students of the Aginian School.
Students and parents were thrilled at having the Archbishop present
to personally award their certificates and prizes. His Eminence
took the opportunity to reflect on the occasion inscribing the deep
value of Armenian heritage in the hearts and minds of the students.
Befittingly, on Saturday, the school celebrated the 20th anniversary
of the completion and inauguration of its school building and dedicated
its celebration to the 1600th Anniversary of the Armenian Alphabet.

PRESS RELEASE

UN Department of Public Information, Yerevan Office
2 Petros Adamyan str., First Floor
Yerevan 375010, Armenia
Contact: Armine Halajyan, UN DPI Information Assistant
Tel.: (374 1) 560 212
Fax/Tel.: (374 1) 561 406

“ARAM KHACHATURIAN: THE LIFE AND WORKS” HAS BEEN RECOGNIZED AS THE WORLD’S
BEST E-CULTURE DVD/CD-ROM IN 2005

“THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE: 1915-1923” DVD/CD-ROM – AMONG THE FIRST TEN
BEST PROJECTS IN E-EDUCATION

“Aram Khachaturian: The Life and Works” DVD/CD-ROM of the Armenian
company “ITE” (Information Technologies Education), has been selected
by the World Summit Award 2005 () Grand Jury as
the world’s best cultural CD/DVD multimedia product of 2005.

Another project of the same company, the interactive CD-ROM “Armenian
Genocide of 1915-1923” was recognized by the World Summit Award 2005
Grand Jury as one of top 10 products in e-learning category and was
specially mentioned.

Those products were selected in a five-stage process from over 20,000
candidates from 168 countries. The selection of the best products in
the world included national evaluations, a 35 member Grand Jury review
of over 750 nominations and a 6-day methodical judging process. The
overall process meets near-scientific requirements of independent,
inter-subjective judgment and of establishing the best available
expert views.

The success of ITE “Bazmaweb” studio proves its further significance
when we consider the fact that other major projects that were chosen
as the world’s best five e-culture products, were the websites
“Eternal Heritage of Egypt” created by IBM, “Virtual Roman Paris”
created by Ministry of Culture of France, “Lakota Winter Counts” of
USA Smithsonian Institution, and the Russian website about the history
of the Second World War (see ).

Shortly before, in June 2005, both Armenian products won All Armenian
2005 National e-content contest “Mashtots 1600″().

As projects with best content, both of them will be officially
announced and presented at the World Summit Award 2005 Exhibition
in the framework of the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS)
2005 in Tunisia, from November 16 to 18.

Garegin Chugaszian, president of ITE company will accept the award
on November 16 at a special Gala ceremony to be attended by more
than 500 VIPs from all over the world, including heads of States,
leading representatives of international organizations, the private
sector and civil society.

The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), initiated by
the United Nations and directly organized by the International
Telecommunication Union (ITU) is a twofold process. The first phase
has been held in Geneva from 10-12 December 2003, while the second
will take place in Tunisia from 16-18 November this year.

The Armenian delegation to participate in WSIS this year will be
headed by the Prime Minister of Armenia Andranik Margaryan. Armenia
will also have the opportunity to present its best e-content products
to consumers in an individual pavilion.

The second Phase of WSIS together with the awards giving ceremony of
the e-contents world contest will take place in Tunisia from 16-18
November of this year. Heads of States (Presidents and Prime Ministers)
and other 500 high ranking guests will participate.

The World Summit Award is organized under the patronage of Austrian
chancellor Wolfgang Schussel, Argentine President Nestor Carlos
Kirchner and other presidents intending to observe existing worldwide
electronic contents be it Internet, DVDs, or CDs. The awards have 8
nominations: e-learning; e-culture; e-science; e-government; e-health;
e-business; e-environment; and e-inclusion.

It is worth mentioning that, amongst 168 countries only 14 had the
chance of gaining the World Summit Award twice and Armenia is one
of these few counties. At the first Phase of WSIS in Geneva (2003)
Armenia was awarded with the WSA 2003 in e-science for the website
“A Space Weather Aerie” created by Ashot Chilingarian’s Cosmic Ray
Division Center (CRD) from the Institute of Physics in Yerevan.

“ITE” (Information Technologies Education), and its “Bazmaweb” studio
are founded in 1998, and represent software company specializing in
the design and development of multimedia products (CD/DVD-ROMS),
as well as knowledge management applications based on portal
technologies(“Armino Web Solutions”).

For getting further information, both in Armenian and English, about
the WSIS Armenia’s participation you can visit the Summit’s website:
which has been prepared by the “Information
Technologies Foundation” (ITF) with the assistance of UN Resident
Coordinator and UN Department of Public Information in Yerevan.

* * * * *