Month: October 2006

Turkey, EU discuss common foreign and security policy

The New Anatolian
Oct 7 2006

Saturday , 07 October 2006

Turkish and European officials on Friday discussed Ankara’s progress
in aligning its foreign and security policy with that of the European
Union, as part of the country’s accession talks with the 25-member
bloc.

The meeting in Brussels was the 31st of 35 major meetings of the
detailed screening process, which is expected to continue with
the opening of substantive talks on this chapter. Turkey has to
successfully conclude substantive talks on 35 chapters to be eligible
for membership, a process expected to last least 10 years.

Diplomatic sources told The New Anatolian on Friday that Turkey,
as a candidate country, has done a great deal of harmonization for
the EU’s common foreign and security policy.

Recalling Turkey’s contribution to the largest peacekeeping mission
ever undertaken by the EU, in Bosnia-Herzegovina , the same sources
stressed that Turkey had contributed 370 personnel to the EU Force
in Bosnia-Herzegovina (operation EUFOR-ALTHEA).

"Turkey’s combat group with Romania and Italy will have been
established by the end of 2009 and they will be ready for inclusion
in the EU’s forces," one source said.

Highlighting that Turkey has harmonized its foreign policy with the EU
on the Southern Caucasus, Middle East, Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan,
diplomatic sources also underlined that Turkey, like EU countries,
decided to send forces to the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL)

But despite parallel policies between Turkey and EU on major foreign
policy issues, there are also differences. Sources have highlighted
that the EU’s approach to a normalization of relations with Armenia,
allowing Greek Cypriot participation in EU-NATO strategic cooperation
and the Aegean problems with Greece are where the most differences are.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Newsweek
Oct 6 2006

A Quick Guide to Orhan Pamuk
(So when they announce that he’s won the Nobel Prize in Literature
next week, you’ll be totally up to speed).

WEB EXCLUSIVE
By Owen Matthews and Malcolm Jones
Newsweek
Updated: 4:53 p.m. ET Oct. 6, 2006

Oct. 6, 2006 – Once again, Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk is rumored to
be a leading candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature. The author
of "Snow" and "My Name Is Red" has been here before, along with
Philip Roth and Joyce Carol Oates, the writers most frequently
mentioned as his competition. But this looks like the 54-year-old
Pamuk’s year (a bad year for a writer can be good for his Nobel
chances-see below).

In the interest of dispelling any Orhan Who? confusion, we’re
providing a crib sheet. So by the time the Nobel committee makes its
announcement Oct. 12, you’ll be up to speed. Of course, the more we
say and the more you prepare, the worse his chances will probably
get. On the other hand, he’s someone you should know about whether he
ever wins the prize or not. He’s that good.

Who is Orhan Pamuk?

Pamuk is Turkey’s greatest novelist-and its most controversial. Last
year he sparked a furor when he told a Swiss newspaper that "a
million Armenians and 30,000 Kurds were killed in this country
[during World War I and between 1986 and 1999, respectively], and I’m
the only one who dares to talk about it." In response,
ultranationalist Turkish lawyers brought charges against Pamuk,
accusing him of "insulting Turkishness." The charges could have
landed him in jail if the case hadn’t been thrown out. Even so, Pamuk
received multiple death threats and was branded an "abject creature"
by Hurriyet, Turkey’s largest newspaper. In the process, though, he
became an international hero of free speech. The European Union’s
enlargement commissioner called Pamuk’s trial a "litmus test" of
Turkey’s commitment to the European values, and some of the world’s
top authors, including Gabriel García Marquez, Gunter Grass, Umberto
Eco and John Updike publicly backed his stand.

In the interest of dispelling any Orhan Who? confusion, we’re
providing a crib sheet. So by the time the Nobel committee makes its
announcement Oct. 12, you’ll be up to speed. Of course, the more we
say and the more you prepare, the worse his chances will probably
get. On the other hand, he’s someone you should know about whether he
ever wins the prize or not. He’s that good.

One of Pamuk’s most enduring themes is the tension between the values
of East and West. "Snow" (2002), his latest novel, is set in a
snowbound city on the edges of contemporary Turkey-and, symbolically,
on the margins of Western civilization. Its protagonist, a poet,
finds himself caught in a web of conflicting ideologies, from
religious extremism to totalitarianism-all the -isms that have
stalked the Turkish Republic since it first emerged as a secularized,
Westernized state out of the ruins of the Ottoman past a century ago.

"Snow" takes place in the 1990s in the actual Turkish city of Kars,
but while the story, packed with nationalists, socialists and
militant Islamists, has a superficial currency, its reality is
dreamlike. Snow falls for most of the novel, isolating the town,
where a poet, called Ka, has come to investigate a series of suicides
by teenage Muslim girls who refuse the secular government’s order to
remove their headscarves. Artistically blocked for years, Ka, a
Westernized sophisticate, suddenly begins to write poetry again. He
falls in love so deeply that he begins to betray everything-even his
own scruples-to preserve his happiness. Because he believes in
nothing beyond his own desire, he is marked for tragedy.

In "Istanbul" (2005), which is both an autobiography and a brilliant
portrait of modern Turkey, Pamuk uses his native city-which is
located literally on the geographical dividing line between the
Christian West and the Muslim East-as a metaphor for a culture that
wants to look forward but can’t help simultaneously looking
backward-with melancholy and a terrific sense of loss-at the glories
of its past civilization. It is also a very sensual, almost
street-by-street celebration of a very real place. Few writers mix
ideas with the grittiness of the real world better than Pamuk, who
has always identified with the outsider, the observer, the recording
angel: the "imaginative exploration of the other, the enemy who
resides in all our minds" is a novelist’s most important function, he
says.

What’s his writing like?
Here’s a sample, from "Istanbul":

To see the city in black and white is to see it through the tarnish
of history: the patina of what is old and faded and no longer matters
to the rest of the world. Even the greatest Ottoman architecture has
a humble simplicity that suggests an end-of-empire gloom, a pained
submission to the diminishing European gaze and to an ancient poverty
that must be endured like an incurable disease. It is resignation
that nourishes Istanbul’s inward-looking soul. To see the city in
black and white, to see the haze that sits over it and breathe in the
melancholy its inhabitants have embraced as their common fate, you
need only to fly in from a rich western city and head straight to the
crowded streets; if it’s winter, every man on the Galata Bridge will
be wearing the same, pale, drab, shadowy clothes. The Istanbullus of
my era have shunned the vibrant reds, greens and oranges of their
rich, proud ancestors; to foreign visitors, it looks as if they have
done so deliberately, to make a moral point. They have not-but there
is in their dense gloom a suggestion of modesty. This is how you
dress in a black-and-white city, they seem to be saying; this is how
you grieve for a city that has been in decline for a hundred and
fifty years.

–Boundary_(ID_xIuiyQJgsxriZ0kes4L2wQ)–
From: Baghdasarian

El Vaquero, CA
Oct 7 2006

Club Rush Week Introduces Students to New Clubs
By VARTANOOSH KIOURKTZIAN
El Vaquero Staff Writer

October 06, 2006

Balloons, cookies, posters and Smoosh balls kicked off the beginning
of Club Rush Week, which started Oct. 2.
During Club Rush, many clubs on campus set up tables to get new
members. Many of them put up posters and gave out candy and muffins.
Some club members approached students and enticed them to sign up by
offering freebies. For instance, Game Club member Rodney Shaghoulian
promised free cupcakes to anyone who signed up. The Persian Club
played music and sold T-shirts as a way to raise funds and at the
same time attract new members.

For many clubs, it is important to recruit new members for reasons
such as funding. Robert Cannon, president of the Debate Club, said
that new members are important because the administration did not
award as much as they had requested because of low membership.

"We are very successful," Cannon said. "We got third place at the
four-year nationals, but we need to boost our numbers so we can get
more funding. The more people we have, the more talent we have for
our team."

Andrey Seas, Vice President of the Game Club, saw Club Rush as a way
to bring people that have similar interests together.

"Many students might not be aware of all the others on campus who
share common ground with them," said Seas. "My job is to network and
bring people together, to provide a new venue for people to meet each
other through the games we play."

The Korean Christian Club uses club rush as a way to bring Christian
students together. Vice President Jin Kim said "the club is open to
all and any student who wants to worship."

Some clubs use the week to raise awareness for a cause. The Justice
Coalition hosted a film, "A Soldier’s Refusal to Wage War: The Case
of Conscientious Objector U.S. Army 1st Lt. Eheren Watada" on Oct. 3
followed by a discussion with Lt. Watada’s father, Bob Watada, to
raise awareness for the lieutenant’s case. He is currently being
prosecuted because of his refusal to go to war.

Armenian Student Association (ASA) member Sevada Simounian said that
Club Rush is important because it raises awareness for the club.

"GCC boasts the largest population of Armenians on a school campus,"
said Simounian. "If everyone joined and gave five dollars, we could
have enough money to send to Armenia to help students there. We’re a
nonprofit organization so whatever money we raise goes to help out
others."

According to Simounian, ASA raised enough money a year ago to bring
His Holiness Aram I, the leader of the Armenian Apostolic Church, to
GCC.

Arturs’ mystery ‘abduction’ in Dubai
By Standard Team

Standard, Kenya
Oct 7 2006

The gold-bedecked so-called Armenian brothers – Artur Margaryan and
Artur Sargasyan – have mysteriously gone missing from their Dubai base.

And their disappearance is keeping various transcontinental
intelligence agencies guessing.

Interpol confirmed they are for the moment unaware of the whereabouts
of the two, a fact that seems to introduce the latest mystery to the
operations of the Armenians who strode Kenyan streets with confidence,
flashing police identifications and all-access passes to airports.

And as the mystery deepened, their Kenyan "friends" also appeared
to be in frenzy. One of them is a suspended civil servant who flew
out to Dubai via a European route only to give up the bid to see the
Arturs after five days. She could not trace them.

Sources within the Arabian intelligence networks say various theories
have been advanced for the absence of the Arturs, the most sensational
being that a Euro-Russian criminal ring, with which they fell out in
an unexplained operation, may have abducted them.

There are also those who think the Arturs, who the government deported
to Dubai after a gun-drama at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport,
could actually be in a neighbouring state and running their overt
business in Kenya through "remote control".

The proponents of the abduction theory, about which some of Kenya’s
security managers have been discreetly tipped, say "irreconcilable
disagreements" illicit trade, or even money laundering precipitated
the bitter fall-out.

"They have not been seen for over a month, Sargasyan, a family man
managed to speak to his wife just the other day. Details of their
conversation are scanty but it is very much unlike him to leave his
wife Alice and children in financial straits," revealed our sources.

The sources added: "The report we are getting is that they were
abducted from their residence. Alice has been in panic."

Because of the sensitive nature of the covert underworld-like tactics
in the disappearance, sources declined to be quoted on this matter.
They however made it clear it was authentic and Kenya was monitoring
keenly the goings-on in the United Arab Emirates.

Our sources believe the brothers could have a connection with Russian
gangs, who are also a part of or are related to the operations of
the dreaded Armenian mafia.

The Russian Mafia or the "Red Mafia" are mostly active in fraud,
transnational money laundering, drug-trafficking, weapon smuggling,
auto theft, prostitution, hostage taking, transportation of stolen
property for export, counterfeiting credit card, forgery, murder,
among other crimes.

The recovery of guns and balaclavas in the Arturs’ residence at Runda,
together with the string of fake number plates, police letters showing
they were reservists, and even fake passports, smack of illegal deals
on the part of the Armenians.

Reached for comment, the regional Interpol chief, Mr Awad Dahia, said
his unit had not received any communiquÈ from the Dubai authorities
regarding the whereabouts of the Armenians.

He said they had not heard about the two brothers, branded
international criminals since they were deported from Kenya in June.
"I have checked with our headquarters Lyons, France, and they seem
to be in the dark over the same, but if there is such a thing I will
be happy to let you know," he added.

Dahia said Interpol is always on the alert as regards the activities
of the two "brothers" after it was established that their activities
in Kenya were criminal.

Deputy Criminal Investigations director Mr Peter Kavila too said they
had not received such a communication from their Dubai counterparts.

Kavila said Kenya as a member of Interpol relies on the agency on
such security matters.

"As usual we are alert but no such information has reached our office
so far," he said. Commissioner of police Maj Gen Hussein Ali who also
said he was unaware of the development referred us to the Interpol
sub-regional offices for more.

The sub-regional offices in Nairobi serve as the headquarters of
Interpol in Eastern Africa countries.

Other sources in Dubai claim that when the two brothers arrived in
Dubai after they were deported from Kenya they did not stay long
but chose to move to a neighbouring country where they continue with
their shady business deals in Kenya.

A source said that the two Armenians have registered a company in
Dubai with Kenyan connections and business dealings in Kenya, the
neighbouring country and other countries in Africa.

"We have heard about some abduction here but it involves spies and
the personalities involved are of Israeli and Iranian origin," the
sources added. .

"We are not sure who the Artur brothers are connected to but these
people all belonged to the former USSR before it collapsed," a source
told The Saturday Standard.

Most Russian and Armenian mafia have a military background and are
allegedly implicated in gunrunning and drug trafficking.

The two Armenian brothers had arrived in Kenya on different dates in
late 2005.

Intelligence sources had warned the government about the Arturs’
activities in March 2006, with an intelligence officer describing
them as "dangerous individuals ready to kill for the sake of money".

The sources also warned that the two are international criminals who
had excelled in organised criminal activities.

–Boundary_(ID_e2RvtwvCuRZE3m8d60ZcGw )–

Turkish Daily News
Oct 7 2006

France may lose Turkey if it adopts ‘genocide’ bill, Ankara warns
Saturday, October 7, 2006

Tan: The Armenian issue has poisoned bilateral ties in the past, but
the bill will inflict irreparable damage to our relationship

The Turkish capital warned Paris Friday that political and economic
ties between them will suffer if the French Parliament approves a
highly contentious bill that penalizes any denial of an Armenian
"genocide" at the hands of the Ottoman Empire.

"The Armenian issue has poisoned bilateral ties in the past, but
the bill will inflict irreparable damage to our relationship,"
Foreign Ministry spokesman Namik Tan told reporters during a regular
press briefing.

The spokesman, with clear remarks, warned the move could jeopardize
"investments, the fruit of years of work, and France will — so to
speak — lose Turkey."

The French National Assembly’s decision for the vote, scheduled for
Oct. 12, came at the request of the main opposition Socialist Party,
the bill’s architect.

Appealing to the assembly to block the bill, Tan argued that
adoption of the bill would mean the elimination of freedom of
expression in France. "Our expectation is that France will avoid
taking the wrong step."

Though the conservative majority in the French assembly opposes the
bill, Turkey fears many opponents will not vote against it for fear
of upsetting France’s 400,000-strong Armenian Diaspora ahead of
elections next year.

Tan said Turkey, too, faces presidential and parliamentary
elections in 2007.

"The people of Turkey will perceive this development as a hostile
attitude on the part of France," he said. "This draft will deliver a
heavy blow to bilateral relations and to the momentum previously
achieved."

Letter to Chirac:

President Ahmet Necdet Sezer sent a letter this week to his French
counterpart, Jacques Chirac, on the issue and Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdoðan will discuss the problem Saturday with French
businessmen in Istanbul, Tan said.

A delegation of Turkish lawmakers also warned of harm to French
trade during a visit to Paris earlier this week. They said Ankara
might expel an estimated 70,000 Armenians working illegally in Turkey
if the French law passes.

The Armenian bill was first brought to the French assembly in May,
but the vote was postponed to October after filibustering by the
ruling party. Turkey had at the time threatened trade sanctions
against France and briefly summoned its ambassador in Paris back for
consultations.

France, which has already passed a law recognizing the 1915
massacre as genocide, had $5.9 billion of exports to Turkey last
year, French Trade Ministry data show.

Turkey is stinging from comments by Chirac last weekend in the
Armenian capital Yerevan that Ankara must recognize the Armenian
killings as genocide before joining the European Union.

Ankara says it is ironic that France is preparing to punish those
who express a particular view of history at a time when Turkey is
under heavy EU pressure to change some of its own laws, which are
viewed as restricting freedom of expression.

Last week, Ankara reacted angrily to news that two Dutch political
parties had dropped three election candidates, all of Turkish origin,
for denying the alleged Armenian genocide.

The Netherlands, like the European Parliament and some other
countries, has urged Turkey to recognize the genocide claims.

–Boundary_(ID_JqD0E4u3DRlYgRH34adz9Q)–

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Turkish Daily News
Oct 7 2006

Diplomacy Newsline
Saturday, October 7, 2006

Report: Turkish-Dutch MP admits existence of ‘genocide’:

ANK – Turkish Daily News

As a heated debate on the pressure that is being applied by the two
largest political parties in the Netherlands on candidates of Turkish
origin concerning an alleged Armenian genocide is still on the
agenda, a member of the Dutch parliament of Turkish origin has
reportedly admitted the existence of "genocide."

While the public, government figures and diplomats in Turkey have
expressed disappointment and anger over the fact that three
Turkish-Dutch candidates for parliament were bumped off the electoral
lists for refusing to acknowledge the alleged Armenian genocide,
Nebahat Albayrak of the Labor Party, said in an interview she
"accepted that a genocide took place," the CNN-Turk’s Web site
reported yesterday.

"But I’m also of the opinion that the way this took place should
also be researched," she was quoted as saying by the channel.

The two largest Dutch political parties recently removed the names
of ethnic Turkish parliamentary candidates from a candidate list
after they refused to acknowledge that the killings of Armenians
during World War I amounted to genocide, despite the fact that
whether or not the issue could correctly be termed "genocide" remains
a matter of academic and political debate.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Houston Chronicle, TX
Oct 7 2006

Dark memories rekindled in Lebanon
Armenians irked by Turk presence in U.N. troops

By GREGORY KATZ
Middle East Bureau

BOURJ HAMMOUD, LEBANON – After a 90-year absence, Turkish forces are
returning to Lebanon this weekend, but their impending arrival as
U.N. peacekeepers is opening up old wounds in this Armenian community
on the edge of Beirut.

Turkey will contribute about 800 ground troops plus a naval
contingent to the U.N. protection force known as UNIFIL. It was
established as part of the cease-fire that ended the 34-day war
between Hezbollah and Israel in mid-August.

The 222 Turkish sailors are expected to arrive in Lebanese waters
Sunday aboard a frigate. They will join a German-led force tasked
with preventing seaborne weapons deliveries to Hezbollah. Diplomats
said Friday that the frigate was already steaming toward Lebanon.

The return of the Turks – an odd postscript to the war – has sparked
little debate inside Lebanon. But the Armenian community in Bourj
Hammoud seems deeply troubled by their inclusion in the 15,000-member
U.N. force.

"The Turks are our first enemy, and if I see any Turkish army coming
in here I will kill them," said Manushat Ekmejian, practically
spitting her words as she left a food market.

Ancestors fled Turkey
Bourj Hammoud is home to about 60,000 Armenians whose ancestors fled
eastern Turkey in 1915 to escape the killings of their countrymen at
the hands of the Ottoman Turks. The deployment of the Turks, who were
Lebanon’s colonial rulers until World War I, is rekindling memories
of what the Armenians in this tightly knit Christian community call
the genocide, the darkest chapter in their history.

In every household, people remember how their ancestors were
slaughtered, said Jack Mandalian, owner of a gift shop filled with
carvings and portraits of Jesus Christ.

The Ottoman Turks would not allow them to practice their religion and
tried instead to force them into adopting Islam, Mandalian said.

"They said if you become Muslim, you could live in peace," said
Mandalian, 63. "We could not become Muslim, and we said we would die
but we won’t become Muslim for your sake. And they collected our
people and killed them."

Mandalian and other Armenians in Bourj Hammoud assert that 1.5
million Armenians were massacred. The figure has been disputed, but a
growing number of countries have denounced the Turks’ actions.

Survivors fled on foot, and many ended up in Lebanon where they were
welcomed and allowed to practice Christianity without repression,
Mandalian said.

"We want to be honest about the genocide," he said. ”We want (the
Turks) to apologize for what they did and pay a penalty, like Germany
and the Jews. You have to accept the truth, and they deny it."

The Turkish government steadfastly denies that anything resembling a
genocide took place. Speaking in Washington this summer, Deputy Prime
Minister Abdullah Gul called the charges "baseless" and said Turkey
wants a joint committee of historians to address the matter in depth.

A Turkish diplomat in London said Friday that the Armenian charges
should have no impact on the Turkish deployment.

"The Armenian claims are quite irrelevant to the UNIFIL deployment,"
he said. "We want to contribute to peace and stability in the region,
and all the Lebanese political parties agree with that position."

The diplomat said Turkey is "extremely opposed" to the use of the
word genocide to describe the events of 1915 and 1916.

"According to our interpretation, there were mutual killings, there
was a civil war in progress, and the Armenian elements fomented
insurgencies and collaborated with the invading army," he said. "And
measures had to be taken."

U.N. officials in Lebanon maintain that the Turkish presence, and the
addition of troops from other predominantly Muslim countries, will
give the expanded armed force added credibility. The U.N. force is a
centerpiece of the cease-fire reached in August between Israel and
Hezbollah. The soldiers are expected to demilitarize the border
region and prevent more fighting.

"It’s very good to have them," U.N. spokesman Khaled Mansour said of
the Turkish contingent. "We didn’t want this to be only a European
force, or only Asian or African, but a U.N. force so people have
confidence in it."

Not all the Armenians are critical of the Turks’ role in the U.N.
force. Sarkis Kournajian, owner of a video and electronics store in
Bourj Hammoud, said he is not troubled by their arrival.

"Attitudes are changing in the long run," he said. "We are Armenian,
but we are also Lebanese. In 50 years, we won’t be Armenians. If I
meet a Turk I will not kill him. I have them as customers. They are
very much like us … I don’t see that much difference."

‘We will never forget’
The return of the Turks is a hot topic in Bourj Hammoud, said Rafi
Bogosian, a 34-year-old policeman who spends most days directing
traffic in the city center.

"My grandmother told my father what they did, and he told me what
happened," Bogosian said. "She said they killed my grandfather and
threw him into the sea. We have taught our children that the Turks
never respect any human being. And now they are coming back. How can
we forget if they killed our parents? We will never forget."

He is chafing to take action against the Turkish soldiers but does
not want to jeopardize his job.

"I would like to do something to the Turks, but I can’t because I’m
in the Lebanese police," he said. "But inside I feel so bad about
this."

.mpl/world/4242332.html

An eye for an eye

Sabah, Turkey
Oct 7 2006

One day before France negotiates the Armenian Genocide bill, the TBMM
(Grand National Assembly of Turkey) will discuss a bill that France
committed genocide in Algeria.

The law bills of three deputies regarding France’s Algerian genocide
have been postponed for months in order not to ruin Turkey- France
relationships. However, TBMM (Grand National Assembly of Turkey)
took one step when France took action to accept Armenian Genocide bill.

Turkish people will consider your actions as being hostile, we can not control this!

Sabah, Turkey
Oct 7 2006

The spokesman of foreign affairs warned France about the Armenian
bill: "This will result in a deep impact which will be difficult to
compensate for. You could lose Turkey."

Warnings in a harsh tone and a diplomatic voice went to France who
will negotiate the bill assuming denial of Armenian genocide a crime.

Spokesman of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Namýk Tan, said that the
approval of the bill will have a deep impact on the relationship
between the two countries and it will not be possible to control
Turkish people as they will consider this action as hostile."

–Boundary_(ID_TW0bpJAjUIG5sVUKsMk hUA)–

Dallas Morning News, TX
Oct 7 2006

Troupe retraces ancestors’ footsteps

Carrollton: Dancers explore, help preserve Armenian history

12:00 AM CDT on Saturday, October 7, 2006

By LYNDA STRINGER / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News

>>From a young age, Rachel Andonian wanted to study under well-known
Armenian choreographer and dance instructor Datevig Gharibian.

MONA REEDER/DMN
Groung, a traditional Armenian dance troupe, rehearsed Thursday at
Saint Sarkis Armenian Church in Carrollton. The group will perform at
this year’s Armenia Fest, which begins Friday in Carrollton. Mrs.
Gharibian, who teaches at the Institute of Dance in Yerevan, Armenia,
comes from a family of dance instructors and choreographers.

At age 9, Ms. Andonian got her chance to learn the traditional folk
dances of her father’s homeland when Mrs. Gharibian accepted an
invitation to come to Dallas. Once here, she formed the amateur dance
troupe Groung.

"I wanted to be closer to my roots, to get closer to the people in
our [Armenian] community," Ms. Andonian said of her interest in
dance. "There’s a lot of hand movement and footwork in the
traditional dances. It’s very graceful."

The dance troupe first performed in 1993 at Dallas’ Festival of
Nations. Members of Carrollton’s St. Sarkis Armenian Church invited
Mrs. Gharibian back each year, and in 1995, the church began hosting
its own festival to highlight Groung’s repertoire of dances.

This year’s three-day Armenia Fest, which features traditional
Armenian dance, food and entertainment, begins Friday in Carrollton.

With Mrs. Gharibian’s absence from the festival this year, Ms.
Andonian and fellow church member Diana Avidisian are taking the lead
as dance instructors for Groung. Ms. Andonian, 22, is teaching the
young people – including her 12-year-old brother, Raffi – the same
steps she learned 13 years ago. Some are energetic and fun, some
flirty and graceful. Mrs. Avidisian is teaching the adults.

The two Carrollton women are also the lead dancers in the
performances at the 11th annual festival.

"It’s in my blood," Mrs. Avidisian said. "I get a good feeling
because that’s me. I like to perform; I like my music and my
traditional dances."

Festival coordinator Paul Kirazian of Dallas says bringing Mrs.
Gharibian to Dallas most years and having the unique dance troupe she
created provide links to his community’s heritage.

"We were getting a linkage to our history through her," Mr. Kirazian
said. "It also brings a new refreshed view and a sense of pride to
the [Armenian] community."

The family-oriented festival showcases that heritage and pride and
brings the traditions of Armenia to the larger community.

"It’s like going into your attic and finding the things your
grandmother left you and showing them to your kids and your friends,"
he said.

As for taking charge in her teacher’s absence, Mrs. Avidisian said,
"I’ve done two dances I choreographed myself. I owe it to her. We are
following her footsteps."

Lynda Stringer is a North Richland Hills-based freelance writer.