ARMENIAN REPORTER
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Email: [email protected]
April 14, 2007 — From the front section
1. UN calls off Rwandan genocide exhibit after Turkey protests (by Emil
Sanamyan)
* Armenia’s Foreign Ministry calls the decision "shameful"
2. Armenia and U.S. prepare to sign open sky agreement (by Armen Hakobyan)
* Direct Los Angeles-Yerevan flights are on the horizon
3. From Washington, in brief (by Emil Sanamyan)
* Key members of Congress "extremely concerned" about House Genocide
resolution
* More companies deny they oppose the resolution
* Turkey issues threat against French company, then withdraws it
* New York Times confirms editorial policy on the Genocide
* Nobel Laureates send a letter to Turks and Armenians
4. Armenian Assembly to hold Annual Trustees Meeting & Advocacy Conference
in Washington
5. Fuat Dündar: 1915 was part of a "systematic ethnic engineering" project
(by Talin Suciyan)
6. Armenian officer wounded in Iraq recalls his experience
* Senior Lieutenant Georgi Nalbandian looking to return to army service
7. Turkey’s con game: U.S. officials on the take, FBI provides cover (News
analysis by John Stanton)
8. Armenia briefing
* Catholicos Karekin II receives Hovnanian School students
* A grant from Project Discovery will help build a digital catalogue of
Armenia’s archaeological artifacts
* Karabakh presidential elections set for July 19
* Citizens asked to help clean up electoral rolls
* Explosion at Prosperous Armenia party campaign office
* The new trees arrive
9. The lost motherland (by Tatul Hakobyan)
* Part One: Kars: The Land of Nairi and Snow
10. SunChildren take care of Mother Nature in Armenia (by Betty
Panossian-Ter Sargssian)
* A first ever environmental festival kicks off in Armenia
11. Commentary: A reminiscence of Beglar Navassardian (by Toros Toranian;
translated by Aris G. Sevag)
12. Letters
* Aris Sevag gave us quality time before we knew what that was (by Salpi
H. Ghazarian)
* Cashing out honors (by Dr. Vrej Nersessian)
* A letter to the Chicago Sun Times (by Ross Vartian)
13. Editorial: Ignoring genocide won’t make it go away
* Write to the New York Times
14. A national newspaper, a community weekly, a free paper
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1. UN calls off Rwandan genocide exhibit after Turkey protests
* Armenia’s Foreign Ministry calls the decision "shameful"
by Emil Sanamyan
WASHINGTON – A photo exhibition on Genocide titled, "Lessons from the
Rwanda Genocide," scheduled to open on April 9, has been dismantled and
postponed because Turkey took issue with one of its sections that referred
to the Armenian experience. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was scheduled
to offer opening remarks.
The event was planned by the U.K.-based Aegis Trust, which seeks to
prevent genocide worldwide. After receiving approval from the UN
Secretariat, Aegis began to install the exhibit on April 5. The Turkish
mission intervened after one of its diplomats noticed the reference,
which read, "Following World War I, during which one million Armenians
were murdered in Turkey."
The Armenian mission sought to prevent the postponement by negotiating
compromise language that would remove the words "in Turkey" while
keeping the reference to Armenians.
Ambassador Armen Martirossian, Armenia’s permanent representative to the
United Nations, told the Reporter that in meeting last week with the UN
undersecretary general for public information, Kiyotaka Akasaka, he
wanted to make sure the Rwanda exhibit went ahead.
"We take the Rwandan Genocide, the anniversary of which is also marked
in April, as our own pain. As a nation that survived genocide, we
understand the importance of honoring the memory of the victims," Amb.
Martirossian said.
But according to Aegis chief executive officer Dr. James Smith,
officials from the UN Secretariat told him over the weekend, "the
sentence [referring to Armenians] would have to be eliminated or the
exhibition would be struck."
"We felt as a matter of principle you can’t just go around striking
things out," Mr. Smith told The Associated Press. "It is a form of
denial, and as an organization that deals with genocide issues, we
couldn’t do that on any genocide, and we can’t do this."
Armenia’s Foreign Ministry issued a strongly worded statement on the
matter on April 10: "It is unacceptable that a U.N. member-state,
committed to world peace, dares to export such intolerance to the United
Nations. Armenia cannot accept that the history of the world, the
current experiences of suffering of the people of Rwanda, of Darfur, and
Armenians’ memories of injustice are subjected to such callous, cynical
dismissal.
"It is ironic and shameful that this Turkish-led postponement should
befall an event which was to provide lessons on how to respect human
rights and prevent genocides. Instead, the lesson here is one of total
disrespect for history and memory," the Foreign Ministry statement
concluded.
Ambassador Joseph Nsengimana, Rwanda’s permanent representative to the
U.N., wrote to the UN secretary general to express "profound regret"
that the exhibit was postponed over "reasons unrelated" to the UN
mandate on the Rwanda Genocide, reported on April
9.
"If we can’t get this right, it undermines all the values of the UN,"
Mr. Smith of Aegis said. "It undermines everything the UN is meant to
stand for in terms of preventing” genocide.
He continued: ”You can’t learn the lessons from history if you’re going
to sweep all of that history under the carpet. And what about
accountability? What about ending impunity if you’re going to hide part
of the truth? It makes a mockery of all of this.”
* See editorial below.
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2. Armenia and U.S. prepare to sign open sky agreement
* Direct Los Angeles-Yerevan flights are on the horizon
by Armen Hakobyan
YEREVAN – Armenia’s Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) has been
negotiating an "open sky" agreement with the U.S. Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) through the U.S. Embassy here. Artyom Movsisian, head
of the CAA, says the agreement should be signed in 2007.
"The agreement gives greater freedom to air carriers," Mr. Movsisian
told the Armenian Reporter. Bilateral aviation agreements usually spell
out the number of flights per week, the number of seats, the carriers,
and set other such limits. "With an open sky agreement, the carriers
themselves decide the destinations and frequency of the flights; they
themselves decide their pricing policy, which allows them to be more
agile in their business planning. This makes the agreement a good
thing."
With greater freedom comes greater responsibility. "We are concluding a
separate agreement on aviation security. Under the agreement, the
aviation security systems of our two states must match each other," Mr.
Movsisian says. Or, rather, Armenia must meet U.S. transportation
security standards. The agreement allows the U.S. federal government to
audit Armenia’s transportation security situation.
"I think their evaluation will be positive," Mr. Movsisian says. "We
were audited by ICAO [the International Civil Aviation Organization]
last year and were found to be in compliance with international
standards."
The ICAO audit is enough to allow carriers to operate between Armenia
and most other countries. But travelers to the United States must change
airplanes and undergo security screening at another airport before
proceeding to the United States. The new aviation security agreement
will make it possible to have direct flights.
* Direct flights in 2007?
"Life dictates that there should be direct flights between Yerevan and Los
Angeles," Mikhail Baghdasarov, the owner of Armenia’s Armavia airlines
tells the Armenian Reporter. He expects 80 to 90 thousand passengers a
year to make the journey, slightly fewer than the number who fly between
Yerevan and Moscow.
The agreements necessary to make the flights possible will be concluded
in three to six months, Mr. Baghdasarov says.
Maybe, says Mr. Movsisian. "I believe it is possible to conclude the
agreements within the timeframe noted by Mr. Bagdasarov, but I will not
set a firm date. What matters more is the fact that the two governments
have the will to start direct flights between their two countries."
Armavia’s owner expects coach fares to be no higher than $1,400 round trip.
But can Armavia compete with U.S. and European carriers that may choose
to fly the same route? "I think so," Mr. Bagdasarov says. "Today Armavia
can compete and face the competition because it engages in confident
marketing, and it is raising the quality of service. Moreover, we have
been negotiating with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and
will soon sign a credit agreement with them." In addition to the credit,
which is said to be in the $11 million range, the IFC will lend Armavia
expertise.
"Over the next year everyone will see and feel that Armavia is becoming
an airline on the European level," Mr. Bagdasarov says. "It will have
brand-new Airbus A-320 and A-321 aircraft. The flight crews will
increase twofold. And thus Armavia will engage in long-haul flights to
China, India, and North America."
Armavia plans to fly between Yerevan and Los Angeles with a refueling
stop in Shannon, Ireland.
The CAA’s Artyom Movsisian believes Armenians from the United States
will use direct flights to visit the motherland as tourists or to see
relatives, and that Armenians from Armenia will use the flights to visit
relatives in the United States. And, Mr. Movsisian hopes, with direct
flights, many non-Armenians will find it convenient to spend some time
as tourists in Armenia.
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3. From Washington, in brief
by Emil Sanamyan
* Key members of Congress "extremely concerned" about House Genocide
resolution
Three key members of Congress cosigned a March 28 "Dear Colleague" letter
that communicated the Bush administration’s opposition to the House
Genocide resolution (H. Res. 106) and was made available to the Reporter
by the U.S.-Armenia Public Affairs Committee.
Reps. Ike Skelton (D.-Mo.), John Murtha (D.-Pa.), Roy Blunt (R.-Mo.),
and Dan Burton (R.-Ind.) joined the Congressional Turkey Caucus cochairs
Robert Wexler (D.-Fla.), Kay Granger (R.-Tex.) and Ed Whitfield (R.-Ky.)
in urging their colleagues "to take into account all factors" as they
are described in the March 7 letter from the secretaries of state and
defense opposing the resolution’s consideration on the grounds that it
might hurt relations with Turkey.
The members of Congress wrote, "While we do not seek to minimize the
historical significance of the atrocities and murders perpetrated
against Armenians from 1915 to 1923 as described in H. Res. 106, we are
extremely concerned about the ramifications of passing this resolution
and its effect on U.S.-Turkish relations." H. Res. 106 is currently
backed by 185 representatives.
Rep. Skelton chairs the Armed Services Committee, Rep. Murtha is chair
of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee (both are also members of the
Turkish caucus) and Rep. Blunt is the Minority Whip (number two in the
House Republican leadership). Rep. Murtha, who opposed U.S. affirmation
of the Genocide in the past, is known as a close ally of the House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has been a consistent supporter of
affirmation.
Meantime, the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) issued a
release on April 10 highlighting the support for the House resolution by
24 members seated on the Foreign Affairs Committee, 18 on the Homeland
Security Committee, 16 on the Armed Service Committee, 9 on the House
Intelligence Committee, and 9 on the House Appropriations subcommittee
with jurisdiction over the State Department.
* More companies deny they oppose the resolution
Xerox, American Express, Altria, and FedEx have joined Microsoft, Johnson
& Johnson, and Cargill in distancing themselves from the letter sent by
the American Business Forum in Turkey (ABFT) in opposition to the
resolution, the ANCA reported on April 4 after inquiring with some 70 ABFT
members about their position on the issue.
Altria includes the tobacco giant Philip Morris International (PMI),
which is also a member of the American Turkish Council (ATC). ATC
president Jim Holmes told Roll Call, a congressional news daily, that
ATC member companies are working to stop the resolution. But Atria
claimed in a letter to ANCA that "neither PMI nor Altria have taken a
position – and neither company plans to take a position – on the
proposed Resolution."
* Turkey issues threat against French company, then withdraws it
"Turkey sends blunt message to France. Ankara angered by Armenia bill,
halts pipeline talks," said the April 6 headline in the International
Herald Tribune.
A senior Turkish energy official told Reuters that Turkey, unhappy with
a French "bill" on the Armenian Genocide, would suspend talks with Gaz
de France (GDF) over building a gas pipeline through Turkey to Europe.
But there were a couple of problems with the story.
First, there is no active proposal on the Genocide in the French
Parliament at this time. France formally recognized the Armenian
Genocide in 2001 in a law adopted by the Senate and the National
Assembly, and signed by the president. Since then, trade between France
and Turkey has grown by 131 percent. Last year, the National Assembly
voted for a proposal to punish Armenian Genocide denial, but it did not
become law, and did not result in the threatened suspension of
French-Turkish military cooperation.
Second, GDF is not a part of the gas-pipeline consortium. The consortium
is led by the Austrian OMV company and includes the Turkish state-owned
Botas company. An OMV spokeswoman would not confirm that any talks with
GDF were underway to be suspended. And on April 7 the Turkish daily
Zaman cited Turkish Foreign Ministry officials saying "There is no
suspension decision yet."
Almost lost in the coverage was a comment from an unnamed European Union
diplomat, cited by Reuters. The diplomat suggested that the "threat" may
have been an indirect message to the U.S. Congress over H. Res. 106.
Indeed, opponents of the resolution who claim that the Genocide
resolution would "damage" U.S.-Turkish relations are hard-pressed to
find evidence that any such "damage" occurred when other countries’
parliaments passed similar resolutions.
* New York Times confirms editorial policy on the Genocide
In a "correction" published on April 5, the New York Times noted, "A
headline on Friday [March 30] about a planned vote in Congress over the
widespread killing of Armenians by the Ottoman Turkish government early in
the 20th century incorrectly described the killings, in which 1.5 million
Armenians died. It was genocide, not a ‘massacre.’"
The correction came after a number of readers wrote to complain about
the story’s headline "Planned House Vote on Armenian Massacre Angers
Turks." The headline remains unchanged in the newspaper’s web archive
even though the correction appears on the bottom of the page.
[See also editorial below.]
* Nobel Laureates send a letter to Turks and Armenians
Fifty-three Nobel Prize winners cosigned a letter that called for
"tolerance, contact and cooperation between Turks and Armenians," the Elie
Wiesel Foundation for Humanity reported in an April 9 news release. The
foundation’s executive director David Phillips told the Reporter that he
drafted the letter on the initiative of Mr. Wiesel.
The letter urged "Armenians and Turks [to] encourage their governments
to: open the Turkish-Armenian border; generate confidence through civil
society cooperation; improve official contacts; and allow basic
freedoms."
While a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, Mr. Phillips
moderated the U.S.-sponsored Turkish-Armenian Reconciliation Commission
(TARC), which created much controversy in the Armenian community but did
not bring about a breakthrough in relations.
Although Nobel laureates regularly sign joint letters on variety of
subjects, they are typically in their general area of expertise. For
example, in February 2001, 80 laureates in the sciences urged President
Bush to fund stem cell research; and in October 2006, 15 Nobel Peace
Prize Laureates called on the United Nations to initiate a treaty
restricting arms trade.
In the case of the Turkish-Armenian initiative, the cosigners were a
diverse group, including laureates in physics (14), chemistry (14),
medicine (12), economics (6), peace (5, including Mr. Wiesel), and
literature (2). They did not include Orhan Pamuk who won the latest
prize for literature and two months ago left Turkey fearing for his
safety, in the wake of the murder of Hrant Dink.
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4. Armenian Assembly to hold Annual Trustees Meeting & Advocacy Conference
in Washington
WASHINGTON — The Armenian Assembly will hold its Annual Trustees Meeting
and Advocacy Conference on April 23-24, 2007 at the Renaissance Mayflower
Hotel in Washington.
The two-day event kicks off with the Annual Trustees Meeting where
Assembly leaders review the past year and discuss the organization’s
upcoming plans and initiatives. In addition, participants will be
briefed on pending legislation and sharpen their skills with an
advocacy-training session. Activists will also embark on a full day of
meetings with members of Congress and their staff to advocate for
critical legislation and strengthen the U.S.-Armenia relationship.
"This is a great opportunity to come together in our nation’s capital to
press for key legislation affirming the Armenian Genocide," said Board
of Trustees Chair Hirair Hovnanian. "We encourage all of our members and
activists to attend."
On the evening of April 24, Armenian Caucus cochairs Frank Pallone, Jr.
(D.-N.J.) and Joseph Knollenberg (R.-Mich.) will spearhead a Capitol
Hill commemoration for the 92nd anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.
This pan-Armenian event will be held in conjunction with the Armenian
Embassy and will feature former U.S. Ambassador to Armenia John M. Evans
as the keynote speaker.
For more information on the Assembly’s Annual Trustees Meeting and
Advocacy Conference, contact Mary Garabadian at the Assembly’s
Washington Office at (202) 393-3434 x222 or via email at
[email protected].
The schedule of events is as follows:
April 23, 2007
9:30 A.M. – 1:00 P.M. Assembly Trustees Meeting
2:00 P.M. – 5:00 P.M. Advocacy Training
6:00 P.M. – 8:00 P.M. Reception
April 24, 2007
8:00 A.M. – 10:00 A.M. Final Briefing Breakfast
10:00 A.M. – 4:30 P.M. Meetings with Congressional Representatives
6:30 P.M. – 8:30 P.M. Capitol Hill Commemoration of Armenian Genocide
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5. Fuat Dündar: 1915 was part of a "systematic ethnic engineering" project
by Talin Suciyan
ISTANBUL – Speaking in Istanbul in March, historian Fuat Dündar argued
that the Armenian "deportations" of 1915 were part of a "systematic ethnic
engineering" project undertaken by the Ottoman government, which was
controlled by the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) at the time.
Mr. Dündar, who received his Ph.D. from the prestigious École des Hautes
Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris, has studied the cipher
telegrams written by members of the CUP government and tracked the
ethnic and demographic changes in Anatolia between 1913 and 1918. For
his master’s degree, he had focused mainly on the displacement of Muslim
populations, publishing a book titled Ittihat ve Terakki’nin
Müslümanlari Iskan Politikasi (The CUP’s settlement policy for Muslims).
He is also the author of Türkiye Nüfus Sayimlarinda Azinliklar
(Minorities in Turkey’s censuses).
At the "Armenian conference" held in 2005 at Istanbul’s Bilgi
University, Mr. Dündar presented some of his findings. "Deportation is
not a holistic and premeditated project," he concluded at the time. But
now, speaking before a group of about 60 activists, academics, and
journalist at Tarih ve Toplum Bilimleri Enstitusu (History and Social
Sciences Institute), Mr. Dündar declares, "deportation is a conscious
decision, the consequences of which could have been known in advance."
What follows is a conversation between this correspondent and Fuat
Dündar, which also appeared in Turkish in Agos.
Q: You wrote your Ph.D. thesis on settlement policies during the CUP
period between 1913 and 1918. Are you talking about a systematic
settling policy covering all those who were not ethnic Turks?
F. Dündar: Actually Turks were also resettled in order to obtain a
predominance or majority of Turkish identity. We can say that ethnic
engineering was conducted. The Turks’ duty was to turkify. In the
framework of this engineering, Kurds, Arabs, Armenians, Albanians,
Georgians, Circassians, Laz people, Greeks, Jews, Assyrians, Nasturies,
and Bulgarians were displaced.
Q: Was this systematic?
F. Dündar: Yes, both systematic and chronologically continuous. In 1913,
the policy targeted Bulgarians. At that time, the territories that now
belong to Greece belonged to Bulgarians. The Bulgarian army was powerful
and that posed a threat to Istanbul. So 50,000 Bulgarians were displaced
and sent to Bulgaria, and 50,000 Turks from Bulgaria came and settled in
their place. Then came the turn of Greeks. [The CUP leader] Halil
Mentese confessed this chronologic continuity. He said, "After
Bulgarians now it’s the Greeks’ turn."
On October 22, 1914, the policy of expelling Greeks was halted because
two days earlier a deal was made with Germany in which there was also
financial aid. Therefore, for the sake of the state’s stability, the
attacks against Greeks were stopped. Greeks were displaced inland from
the shores and the borders to be used as a tool to threaten [Greece] in
the future.
Toward the end of 1914, we can see the displaced [Muslim] people in
Zeitun. While Armenians were sent away, displaced Muslims were settled
in their places. The purpose of this population exchange was to create a
safe homeland. In 1915 Armenians were expelled from the region. Then, in
1916, the policy start targeting Kurds. New "replacement" commissions
were gathered. During the same period Kurds fleed from Russia.
Q: Why?
F. Dündar: Because they were pro-Ottoman Kurds. Russians too wanted to
expel and get rid of Kurds. But not by killing them. In 1917, in
Palestine, Jews become the target [of the CUP]. All these steps were
parts of the CUP’s project. Thus, the systematic character is obvious.
Q: How many people were displaced?
F. Dündar: As you know, [the columnist] Murat Bardakçi has publicized
parts of the "notebook of Talat Pasha" after keeping it to himself for
20 years. He does not even say the dates when the notebook was written.
Had Bardakçi acknowledged this notebook 20 years ago, we would have
progressed much further in our research. In my opinion the notebook was
written by the end of 1915. Only according to Talat Pasha’s notebook, 80
percent of 1.5 million Armenians were deported. Muslims who escaped from
Russian army come to around 1.2 million people, of whom around a million
are Kurds and 200,000, Turks. Turks were made to resettle in the regions
in which Armenians had been living. Kurds were scattered in
Turkish-populated areas. Tens of thousands of Assyrians, Nasturis,
Circassians, and Arabs too. At that time the population of Anatolia was
around 12 million. One-third of this population was displaced and
resettled.
Q: What are your sources?
F. Dündar: Cipher telegrams. They are the operational documents –
executive orders – of the CUP government. They are not decisions taken
in various congresses. Cipher telegrams are operational documents.
Q: What is a cipher telegram?
F. Dündar: These are telegrams written in code by special telegraph
officers and can be decoded only by those who have the key. Codes were
changed about every three months.
We can read them because Talat Pasha wrote them in a regular way and
they were coded by the telegraph officer. These documents are in the
Ottoman archives. Anyone able to read Ottoman can go and read them.
However, this does not mean that the cipher telegrams are archived
fully. The archives are open, but this does not mean that one can find
all of the telegrams there.
The fact that ethnic engineering was done through telegrams makes the
whole story even more meaningful. Over the course of five years, the
whole population structure changed in a certain geographic area. There
is no other instance of this.
Q: How were the geographic borders defined?
F. Dündar: The CUP’s target was Anatolia [defined in modern Turkish as
all of Asia Minor]. According to me, the regions to which Armenians were
sent were not within the borders of the future state project. Thus,
Armenians were to be excluded from this project [the future state].
Kurds were within the project. For instance, Talat Pasha opposed the
idea of resettling Kurds in Aleppo area. He wanted them to be resettled
in regions that are within the borders to today’s Turkey because the
number of Muslims was limited. Thus, it is the optimum use of existing
resources.
Q: You are using engineering language.
F. Dündar: The language of the documents is quite cold and distanced.
The author of these telegrams, Talat Pasha, was a lawyer, a very smart
person, who spoke foreign languages. He differentiated between the
language of the cipher telegrams and the language used in diplomacy. He
was a real "statesman-diplomat."
Q: You wrote in your book that the aim of the state was to "mix" and
then to "unify and melt." If these do not work then to "cleanse." Who
were the ones who were mixed and who were the ones who were "cleansed"?
F. Dündar: Kurds were mixed. Even if we disregard the politics of
violence, including converts, seized and adopted children, 40 percent of
Armenians survived. Only one-third of Armenians remained. "Cleansing"
does not mean annihilating all. There were Armenians who remained but
were disconnected from their land.
There was a rule of 5 percent for instance. In comparison with the
Muslim population, Armenians were not to exceed 5 percent. Even this had
some preconditions. For instance, if a family had a son over 15, he
would be counted as a second family. Then you had some loyal Armenians,
police, soldier, etc.
Q: Were Armenians taken to the army from deportation?
F. Dündar: Yes. In 1916 or 1917 in Der Zor, Armenians were taken to the
army.
Q: What is the source of this information?
F. Dündar: Cipher telegrams.
Q: Did they obey the order?
F. Dündar: I do not know. But the order exists. Of course they were to
be taken without any weapon handed to them, in what was called a
"hard-labor battalion" (amele taburu).
Q: You are saying that the CUP conducted deportations and the
resettlement project with great care. With which organizations on the
ground did they conduct this?
F. Dündar: This is the state. The state has population records. It has a
statistical agency as well. Each institution has its own statistical
department. In 1915 there were maps based on the "millet system." Still,
there were officers who were not working according to the CUP’s
mentality. They were dismissed.
Was there any attempt to persuade the officers in order to create an
intellectual or ideological organization in these telegrams?
Telegrams convey orders. But for instance in one of Talat Pasha’s
telegrams, you can see a sentence written for persuading the recipient.
He says, "By now all the Ottoman territories are a battleground." Of
course, 100-percent fulfillment of orders is impossible. Local
authorities may differ in the initiatives they take.
Q: You have said that population changes were tracked every three
months. Are there records referring to this? Are we talking about such a
well-organized structure?
F. Dündar: Yes. The number of births and the number of deaths were
added. Population movements were followed and reported to the center
every three months.
Q: You have said that the CUP succeeded in resolving many of the
problems that could have created trouble for the future nation-state.
Looking back, can you say the CUP resolved these problems?
F. Dündar: The CUP left a very "adequate" population composition to
Mustafa Kemal.
Q: What do you mean by "adequate"? There is no homogenous society, right?
F. Dündar: Well, at least we can say that compared to the time before
the CUP, a more harmonious population composition was created. Probable
Kurdish and Greek demands were halted. Of course, Armenians got the
worst of it.
Q: You assume that Mustafa Kemal would have chosen to build a totally
homogenous nation state. Do you not think there might have been other
options?
F. Dündar: There is continuity in mentality. It is possible to trace
back the mentality of assimilating Kurds in order to build a new state
to the CUP period. [The Pan-Turkist ideologue] Ziya Gökalp not only
proposed the assimilation of Kurds but also proposed projects to realize
this. He prepared a survey questionnaire in 1914, with more than 60
questions. Criminal data were collected in this questionnaire. Whether
there are ethnic divisions within the clans, or different divisions of
language, weakness of the leaders, etc.
Q: Where was it published?
F. Dündar: It is a questionnaire sent to regional authorities by the CUP
government, I mean regions in which Kurds were living. It is in the
Ottoman archives. It is going to be published.
Q: In the "Armenian Conference" in Istanbul, at Bilgi University in
2005, you said, "deportation is not a holistic and premeditated
project." Now you are saying "deportation is a conscious decision, the
consequences of which could have been known in advance." These are two
different sentences. Could you please explain?
F. Dündar: If I am not mistaken, I said, there was no policy to
annihilate all Armenians. And I still defend this argument. But of
course the partial decrease in the Armenian population was due to the
CUP’s population policies. Moreover, at that time I said I had not yet
studied the Armenian case. After having studied Armenians, one can see
that Der Zor was very well known to the state. There are statements of
authorities in Der Zor. Further, in 1912, a report had been prepared for
the government by experts. The report says, "No immigrant could be
settled in that area." Sixty percent of the population in Der Zor
consisted of nomadic groups. The state knew Der Zor very well. This
proves that even a decision only to deport is a conscious decision. The
results are not invisible. Thus, it can be said that the Armenian
deportation was a crime against humanity.
Q: What are the living conditions in Der Zor?
F. Dündar: Der Zor is a desert. Even, once upon a time, it was called
"Province of the desert" on the maps. Further, on July 6, 1914, there
was a discussion in the parliament. A Greek member of parliament asked
why the immigrants expelled from the Balkans were resettled in Greek
villages. He said, "Almost all the country is empty. What is the reason
for this resettlement?" Talat Pasha responded, "Yes, there are lots of
empty places. Yet, had those Muslims resettled in desert areas, they
would have all died."
So, the conditions were known. But only 10 months later, Armenians were
sent there.
****************************************** *********************************
6. Armenian officer wounded in Iraq recalls his experience
* Senior Lieutenant Georgi Nalbandian looking to return to army service
For about a month 27-year-old Senior Lieutenant Georgi Nalbandian of the
Armenian Army has been at the Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington.
He was seriously wounded in action in Iraq on November 11, 2006. Our
Washington Editor Emil Sanamyan sat down with the officer on April 11 to
write down his story. "From everything I’ll say, you’ll see that I am
both lucky and unlucky," Sr. Lt. Nalbandian said.
"I am from the town of Ararat originally. There I finished school in
1998 and enrolled in the Military Engineering Academy in Moscow. That
September I began my first year. After graduating from the academy with
only A’s and B’s, I was commissioned a lieutenant in the Armenian Army
in 2003.
From then on and until November 2005, I served in the Vayk-based
regiment of the 4th Army Corps – this is a forward-deployed combat unit
[on the border with Azerbaijan-controlled Nakhichevan]. I was then
transferred to the Military De-Mining Center in Etchmiadzin. After nine
months there, I on my own initiative volunteered to serve in Iraq as a
commander of a de-mining team. We were the fourth rotation going to
Iraq; we went in July 2006 for a six-month period."
The first Armenian service members arrived in Iraq in January 2005.
Armenian personnel continue to serve under Polish command in the
multinational division in central and southern Iraq.
"We arrived in the town of al-Kut. There wasn’t anything special going
on at the time. But we did get decent combat assignments. We dealt
primarily with unexploded ordinance that was all over the place there.
We found and destroyed that ammunition.
"Along with soldiers from El Salvador, we helped secure the coalition
military base in al-Kut, to make sure none of the improvised explosive
devices (IED’s) got inside the base perimeter.
"And together with Polish soldiers we drove out on field reconnaissance
missions in the area. My job was to make sure key bridges were not
rigged and again to find the unexploded ordinance. We got attacked once
at the time, but the explosion was in the front of the vehicle and we
did not take casualties. That was the first time."
What about that day?
"No, that happened at night. I remember it all. All the way to the
hospital’s operating room. We had an assignment to check out this area
of an ammunition dump. Previously we reconnoitered that area with the
Poles. As we realized, what we found was the Iraqi army ammunition
storage place. Much of it was destroyed in the [U.S.] aerial bombing.
But there was a lot of stuff still unexploded lying around, including
mines, 155-millimeter missiles, artillery shells, grenades, anything you
can imagine, I can’t really list it all. It was a large area of about
300 by 400 meters, with stuff lying around quite densely.
"We needed to clean that area up since there was evidence that
terrorists were coming in, taking some of that ammunition out to
presumably use it either directly or make it into IED’s. We could see
the tracks from their digging. It was clear they were not looking for
lost treasures there.
"So that morning of November 10, at about eight in the morning, I guided
a group of Slovak soldiers on five Humvees and several Czechoslovak-made
Tatra armored vehicles with a de-mining machine in tow to that area, to
tell them what is where, so that they could begin with the cleanup. The
place was about three kilometers off the main road. You needed to take
one of several gravel paths that had been cleared previously.
"We got in safely and they proceeded to destroy some of the
antipersonnel mines there and were generally assessing what could be
done with that place. There was no system of any kind, with various
ordinance lying everywhere, so they were trying to find a way to
organize their work.
"The plan was to go in for half a day, so we did not really bring along
much in the way of water or food. Just days earlier Saddam was sentenced
to death and there was apprehension that there might be an increase in
attacks. So by 2 p.m. we began to move out. We could not turn the convoy
around and had to take another road. But as we started moving, those big
Tatras began to sink into the gravel that in some places became really
powdery from all the explosions. As we tried to pull out some of the
vehicles, others would sink in. It was a comic situation really.
"By 6 or 7 it gets dark there and dangerous. We called in reinforcements
from the base. Salvadoran soldiers on four more Humvees arrived along
with a crane. Salvadorans secured the perimeter around the convoy. But
that crane too got stuck. Then U.S. and Iraqi special forces arrived
with an even bigger crane – that was a really powerful machine that
pulled almost all of the vehicles out, but then itself got stuck. So it
got even funnier.
"In the end, it was already past 1 a.m. when we got the order that those
who had been at that dump since the morning, and we were really dead
tired by then, could go back to the base. The others would stay until
the remaining vehicles were pulled out.
"I got into the back seat of one of the Polish vehicles together with a
Slovak. A full moon was out and we turned off the headlights so as not
to draw attention to the convoy. We talked a little, but I remember I
was falling asleep. I was asleep.
"It was a miracle or what, I don’t know, but it was as if someone pushed
me a second or two before the explosion – as if I sensed it was coming.
Instinctively, I drew my hands to cover my face and the next thing to
happen was an explosion ripping us apart.
"I would typically have gloves on my hands, but I took the left one off
to hold up the MRE [the U.S. Army-issued Meal Ready to Eat) that we just
had, and forgot to put it back on. So I lost the skin on this hand."
Sr. Lt. Nalbandian points to the burn covering much of his left hand.
"I saw that flame – on sunny days I still can’t go outside without
sunglasses – heard the screams, felt the heat. So I realized I was OK, I
was not dead.
"The Polish driver and Slovak sitting next to me were killed in the
explosion. The other Pole sitting next to the driver was hit in the knee
and has had trouble walking.
"I moved my legs – the left one was heavy, the right one also felt like
it was there. I looked up and saw bullet traces coming in and realized
we had been ambushed. I heard the shooting, the Humvee kept moving, but
the heat was getting worse and I couldn’t breath. I started feeling
around trying to find my machine gun. I would always keep it next to my
left leg, but I couldn’t find it. I started to suffocate, opened the
door and tried to jump out, pushing with my right leg and that’s when I
saw I had no right leg left and blood was gushing out of where it used
to be.
"I fell on the ground, with my right leg left under the driver’s seat. I
was in shock and for a moment began to think that was all a dream and
nothing had happened. But then the pain began and I realized my other
leg was on fire. I put it out and took cover.
"The Humvee stopped a few meters away. By then our large-caliber machine
guns opened up, and it sounded like the enemy began to disperse. At
least they could not fire at us anymore. I waved my hand, calling out
that I was still alive and needed help.
"They ran up to me with a stretcher. The medevac vehicle was right
behind me, so they quickly took me in and brought me to al-Kut. Our base
doctor, Major Vigen Tatentsian, met us at the gate and began to stick me
with needles with painkillers, an IV, and whatever else I don’t know.
They took my clothes off. I was losing a lot of blood and couldn’t
breathe, so they stuck a tube into my throat.
"In just ten minutes or so, an American helicopter arrived to take me to
the hospital in Baghdad. By then I was heavily medicated, so it felt
like the normally 45-minute flight from al-Kut only took a few minutes.
I was losing consciousness; they were bringing me back out. I was really
thirsty, but they could only give me a wet cloth – it was not even a
drop of water.
"As soon as we reached the Baghdad hospital they operated. I remember
those three round medical lamps above me. They gave me another incision
and everything I ate that day came out of me. I was high on morphine and
wondered what these ten people in white were doing around me. They kept
sticking me with needles. And after one incision I felt completely
paralyzed. I couldn’t even move my eyes. It really felt like death. Then
I either fell asleep or lost consciousness, I don’t know.
"When I came to, Captain David Gyozalian, who is our liaison officer in
Baghdad, was next to me. I was still high on morphine, so I was laughing
and smiling. He told me that they cleaned the wound and would be taking
me to a hospital in Germany in the next three hours."
All coalition soldiers wounded in Iraq, after receiving first aid and
emergency surgery, are evacuated to U.S. military bases in Germany for
further treatment.
"The pain kept coming back, so I asked for morphine and sleeping pills,
and I really already woke up in Germany after a six-hour flight. Then
there was a second surgery and four more surgeries soon after. Those
three weeks I could hardly move even in the bed. Pain continued,
including the phantom pain – that was really bad. By the end of that
third week, I for the first time got into a wheelchair and got tired
really quickly.
"Our officers based at NATO in Brussels, Colonel David Tonoyan and Major
Mher Israelian, would visit me almost every week. Special thanks to
them, make sure you write about them, they helped bring me back to life.
Talking to the doctors, everything. They were constantly there and
brought me anything I needed.
"The Defense Minister, who is now Prime Minister Serge Sargsian, called
two days after I arrived in Germany. His deputies have been calling
since then. General Seyran Ohanian, the commander of the Karabakh army,
who had a similar wound during the war and has a prosthetic and gets
around fine, also called.
"My brother came to visit for three days. (I did not want my mom to come
see me in that condition, so I asked for my brother to come.) He is also
an officer with the Defense Ministry. My cousin who is a professional
soccer player for one of the clubs in Finland also came to visit.
"Then doctors began talking about moving me to U.S. for rehabilitation
treatment. And as I was about to, go it got postponed, and then the
chief doctor said that I would stay in Germany, at the U.S. military
medical center in Landstuhl. There were probably some financial reasons
or something, so they first decided to keep me in Germany. All other
wounded coalition soldiers, Romanians, Latvians, others were treated
there and fitted with prosthetics. I got my first prosthetic leg before
the New Year. There were some problems with it, but nothing that could
not be resolved.
"But then all of a sudden they told me they would put me on the plane to
U.S. for further treatment and rehabilitation. It was just as the news
about Walter Reed was all over television. I finally arrived here at
Walter Reed on March 9."
Sr. Lt. Nalbandian is very happy with the treatment at Walter Reed,
where he is the only non-American service member that he knows of at
this time. What about the recent scandal around Walter Reed?
"I didn’t personally sense any of that. I spent a week in the hospital
ward for amputees – there were no problems and the care was excellent. I
didn’t even see any evidence of recent repairs or anything. So, I don’t
really know what the whole issue was about. I heard that one or two
doctors were not doing their work and were disciplined. But that was
before my arrival.
"They are now fitting me with a new prosthetic. With the one I have now,
I can walk quite well and even run. But I can’t walk up the stairs. The
new prosthetic would give me more agility. They also said they would
give me additional prosthetics for running, for swimming and also one as
a replacement.
"They are treating me as one of their own."
There are Armenian doctors at the hospital; one is a surgeon, another a
psychologist, Sr. Lt. Nalbandian said.
"They invited me over to their homes, including for Easter. Other local
Armenians came to visit me and took me to the local Armenian Church the
other week. So, I don’t have to stay in the room and watch TV on
weekends. I use Skype to call my brother in Armenia – we talk almost
every day.
"And of course, the Embassy here, Ambassador Tatoul Markarian and
Defense Attaché Colonel Armen Sargsian met me as I arrived here, and
they and others from the Embassy continue to visit and helping me out."
And what will he do after the treatment?
"I want to go back into the service. I always tell everyone, what
happened to me is nothing. Things are fine – I can walk, run, swim,
drive a car. What’s the difference? I am a fully functioning person,
it’s not like I am missing both legs.
"I want to go back on active duty. If I see that I can’t handle the
physical aspect of the service in the field, I’ll request a transfer to
headquarters – there is enough work there too. There are plenty of
combat officers in Armenia with prosthetics who serve both in the field
and in the headquarters."
***************************** **********************************************
7. Turkey’s con game: U.S. officials on the take, FBI provides cover
News analysis by John Stanton
This article is reprinted with permission from onlinejournal.com, where it
was published on April 6.
"Turkey is not as politically stable or as secular domestically as they
would have you believe," said one long time observer of U.S.-Turkish
relations in Washington, D.C. "The Turks do not have a large community
across the United States like, say, the Armenians and the Greeks who have
been here a long time. Because of this you see a very large Turkish
presence inside Washington."
Lacking a legitimate national grassroots organization, Turkey has built
a notable presence inside the corridors of power in Washington by
spreading cash around and buying direct access to key U.S. decision
makers in and out of the U.S. government. It all seems legitimate
enough: campaign donations and junkets for members and staff of the U.S.
Congress; consulting fees to former members of Congress, U.S. military
generals, and U.S. State Department employees; and promises of billions
of dollars in contracts to U.S. corporate representatives operating in
Washington. With so much money chasing politicians, consultants, and
contractors of all stripes, there’s bound to be some corrupt and even
criminal activity. No seasoned observer of politics anywhere is
completely surprised at the occasional and well-timed conviction of a
white-collar criminal.
But Sibel Edmonds seems to have stumbled into the really big white
collar crime ring that ties an old George Bush I family friend, Brent
Scowcroft – and his American-Turkish Council – in with former U.S.
ambassador to Turkey Marc Grossman; members of the Turkish Caucus in the
U.S. Congress; Douglas Feith (who once had his security clearance
revoked and was rumored to be watched by the FBI, once greased arms
sales to Turkey back in the 1990s, is a famed Zionist, was formerly of
the Pentagon, and is now at Georgetown University in Washington); the
Bob Livingston Group (Livingston is a former member of Congress who has
gotten very wealthy via Turkish business); and Joe Ralston, the former
air force general whose bank account has blossomed after joining
Lockheed Martin and being put on the Turkish payroll as a
counter-Kurdish insurgency expert. Finally, former Speaker of the House
Dennis Hastert seems a natural part of the ring. His claim to fame may
become that he kept debate on the Armenian Genocide resolution off the
House floor during his tenure and became the subject of a Vanity Fair
piece.
Many of us have written on Ms. Edmonds’ case and after so many years
find it infuriating that the FBI continues to shut her up behind a state
secret privilege holding. Taking recent events at the Department of
Justice as guides, it is probably safe to say that Ms. Edmonds’ is being
silenced because of some sort of state embarrassment privilege. The
Department of Justice, of which the FBI is a subsidiary, is seeing its
credibility quotient crushed under the weight of Attorney General Albert
Gonzales arrogance and the adolescent antics of his staff. Meanwhile at
the FBI, Director Mueller is under fire for the antics of his staff and
its abuse of USA-PATRIOT Act provisions to catch common criminals, not
"terrorists."
A few thoughts come to mind here. First, the FBI apparently was
illegally monitoring subjects associated, somehow, with the Edmonds
matter and, perhaps, saving a savory scandal for the right time. J Edgar
Hoover, former FBI director, was skilled at that sort of subterfuge. If
the illegal monitoring allegation is true, that’s another damaging blow
to the Justice Department and the U.S. justice system.
Second, Ms. Edmonds must have stumbled upon the payola racket that
Turkey had been running and there were so many big U.S. names involved
in so many high places that to air that laundry would damage U.S.
credibility not so much abroad as right here in the U.S.A. Imagine on
one news day former members of Congress, active members of Congress,
U.S. military personnel, U.S. State Department people, and U.S. Justice
Department folks all get nailed for being in on the Turkish gig or at
least knowing about it. And what could be worse than the FBI, DEA, and
CIA knowing about it? Foreign intelligence agencies, of course.
Third, if it is true that Turkey is not as secular or as politically
stable as its proponents in Washington and Ankara say, then the whole
Turkey as U.S. strategic partner and would-be European Union partner
would be one of the better smoke-and-mirrors acts sold to the U.S.
public, and the world, in recent memory.
The reality is that Turkey remains a distant and unknown entity for most
Americans, although if Ms. Edmonds were allowed to speak freely it may
become a well-known country. It’s a product that is difficult to sell to
citizens here in the U.S.A. as a strategic necessity, as a wonderful
vacationland, or as a dynamic society full of business opportunity. The
harsher side to the story is that Turkey has threatened to invade
Northern Iraq/Kurdistan should it declare its independence, or if an
upcoming referendum on oil-rich Kirkuk goes the Kurds’ way; the Turks
brutally repress their Kurdish population; free speech and tolerance of
government critiques are in short supply; and, in reality, the Turkish
military holds the keys to power in Ankara.
Lastly, according to the observer of U.S.-Turkish relations, "It seems
to me that the government in Ankara, Turkey, is always working on
propaganda, on slogans. Trying too hard. If you visit Turkey, you’ll
notice everywhere you go that there is a picture of Turkey’s founder
Atatürk. It reminds me sort of like Soviet times where you’d see a
picture of Lenin everywhere. The Turks spend too much time worrying
about petty resolutions like those recognizing the Armenian Genocide."
* * *
John Stanton is a Virginia based writer specializing in political and
national security matters. Reach him at [email protected].
**************************** ***********************************************
8 . Armenia briefing
* Catholicos Karekin II receives Hovnanian School students
VAGHARSHAPAT, Armenia – On April 4, His Holiness Karekin II, Catholicos of
All Armenians, received the graduating class of the Hovnanian School (New
Jersey) in the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin. The visit of the school’s
eighth grade class to Armenia and Holy Etchmiadzin has become an annual
tradition.
The catholicos extended his fatherly blessings and message to the
students, exhorting them to frequently visit their homeland. He noted
that their visit coincided with Holy Week and Easter. His Holiness spoke
with the teenagers and their teachers about the importance of prayer in
their everyday lives, and encouraged them to say a prayer every time
they visit a monastery or enter a church, throughout the course of their
pilgrimage. By so doing, he said, they will be combining their prayers
with the millions of prayers spoken by their ancestors throughout
history.
* A grant from Project Discovery will help build a digital catalogue of
Armenia’s archaeological artifacts
Project Discovery recently awarded $5,500 to Dr. Lavrenti Barseghyan,
director of the National Ethnographic Museum of Armenia in Sardarabad, to
prepare a digital catalogue of the museum’s more than 7,000 archaeological
artifacts.
Most these objects had been restored, treated, and described by museum
staff in the 1980s, in a manner consistent with the practices of that
time. But a review of the museum’s card catalogue system revealed that a
significant part of the archaeological collection was not properly
documented.
Moreover, many archaeological sites, from which the museum’s collections
originate, were re-dated in the 1990s in accordance with more recent
information regarding archaeological sequencing in the prehistoric
period.
National Ethnographic Museum, the second largest in Armenia, will
collaborate with archaeologists from the Institute of Archaeology and
Ethnography in implementing the new digital catalogue.
This will be the first attempt to catalogue an entire archaeological
museum collection in Armenia. Implementation of the project will not
only create a nationwide inter-museum network, but will significantly
increase the accessibility of Armenian historical and cultural heritage
for the world’s scholarly community. The new digital catalogue will be
available to researchers who visit the museum, and will be partially
available on its website, which is scheduled to be launched later in
2007.
The project will be implemented by using the Database of Museum Values
software, which the National Ethnographic Museum received from a
"Cultural Heritage Initiative" grant by the World Bank to the government
of the Republic of Armenia, implemented by the "Hayastan" All-Armenian
Fund.
For information on Project Discovery, visit its website at
* Karabakh presidential elections set for July 19
Voters in Nagorno-Karabakh will go to the polls on July 19 to elect the
republic’s new president, it was announced on April 4. The date was set by
Karabakh’s parliament. For an analysis of who is likely to succeed
President Arkady Ghoukassian, see the March 3 edition of the Armenian
Reporter.
* Citizens asked to help clean up electoral rolls
YEREVAN — Armenia’s electoral rolls are online at In an
April 9 press conference, Col. Alvina Zakarian, the head of the passport
and visa department of the police, asked voters to verify that their names
and precincts are recorded correctly. She acknowledged that "Armenia is
not Estonia," meaning not everyone has ready Internet access. Thus, the
rolls are also posted at the various precints. A hotline has been
established to take inquiries and complaints. Of particular concern are
conscripts who want to vote at the location where they are serving in the
armed forces, and discharged soldiers who need to be registered to vote in
the right place.
For the first time ever, Armenia’s postal sevice has been asked to
deliver notes to the address of every registered voter. The notes
confirm that addresses are corrent and inform voters of their precinct
and the time and date of the elections.
* Explosion at Prosperous Armenia party campaign office
YEREVAN — On the night of April 12, two Prosperous Armenia party campaign
offices in different parts of Yerevan were rocked by explosions two hours
apart. No one was hurt.
President Robert Kocharian’s press secretary Victor Soghomonian told the
Armenian Reporter that the president has been briefed about the
incidents. The president has instructed law-enforcement agencies to act
promptly on the matter to prevent similar incidents from happening in
the future.
"The conditions for a civilized political contest exist in the country,"
Mr. Soghomonian said. "Strongly condemning this crime, we consider it an
attempt to create instability and an atmosphere of intolerance in the
run up to the parliamentary elections. Extremist actions cannot
undermine the resolve to carry out democratic elections in Armenia."
The party itself declared in a statement, "the crime was directed not
only against Proserous Armenia but against the entire republic."
Baghdasar Mherian, the party public relations coordinator, told the
Armenian Reporter, "We are opposed to extreme measures. We say our ranks
are strong, full of determination to continue the campaign."
The first explosion took place at 3:20 a.m. in Zeitun causing loss of
property only. The second explosion followed at 5:30 a.m. in the Avan
region. The building suffered considerable damage.
–Armen Hakobyan
* The new trees arrive
Last w eek we showed you trees being cut down in Yerevan’s Republic Square
(April 7, page A5). The city’s chief arborist, Suren Maksapetian, had told
us that the trees were afflicted with Dutch elm disease. They were to be
replaced with acacias. A week later, the acacias have been planted.
**************************************** ***********************************
9. The lost motherland
by Tatul Hakobyan
Part One
Kars: The Land of Nairi and Snow
Musa, a 74-year-old carpet seller, has gotten in the habit of drinking tea
in Ali Bey’s grocery store as morning breaks over the provincial city of
Kars. Over several cups of tea, he melts sweet pieces of sugar under his
tongue.
"Armenians used to live in this town. For hundreds of years Armenians
and Turks were friends," Musa says. And then: "It was the Russians who
incited Armenian against Turk."
"Armenians left for Russia and Armenia," he goes on, Ali Bey nodding
accord, as Musa reaches for the next piece of sugar to melt.
At the start of 20th century, the poet Yeghishe Charents pictured Kars
in his poetic novel, Land of Nairi: "This ancient Nairian city was like
the other Nairian cities, old or new: small, not too crowded, ruinous
and dusty. In the modern vernacular such cities are called
‘underdeveloped’ provincial cities."
A hundred years later, at the start of 21st century, the Turkish writer
Orhan Pamuk visited Kars in his novel, Snow. In his telling, the local
people explain to Pamuk (who appears in the novel as Karim Alakushoghlu,
freshly retuned from years spent in Germany, now covering Kars as a
correspondent for Cumhuriyet investigating local elections and a spate
of suicides among the town’s young women) why Kars is in such a sorry,
poor state. There are several reasons: the Iron Curtain, the decline of
commerce, endless Armenian-Turkish quarrels, the indifference of God and
the state, percolating "nationalism" – if at one time everyone lived as
a big family, today one person declares he is an Azeri, another that
he’s a Kurd, the third that he’s Turkmen.
On the cover of the Nobel Prize-winning Pamuk’s novel of Kars is an
image of Arakelots, the 10th-century Armenian monastery, frosted with
snow. Pamuk conveys the city’s past – its glory days of Armenian
activity – and its troubled present: "There was a time when Kars was a
vivid city, where prosperous Armenians lived by their thousand-year-old
churches, which are still steady in all their intact charm."
To get an idea of this "ancient Nairian city" – part of the first
Armenian republic some 87 years ago – you’d do well to read Charents or
Pamuk. But that’s not sufficient. You have to visit Kars, and seek out
(unsuccessfully) the tavern of Barrell Nikolay, the coffeehouse of
Telephone Seto at Loris Melikyan street, which Charents described. You
have to find the gate of General Alsho on Alexandrian Street; the winery
of Egor Arzumanov; the row of small, one-story shops on the long, long
road up to the train station.
A monument to Kazim Karabekir stands at the station today. In October
1920 the forces of General Karabekir occupied the cities of Kars and
Gyumri (Alexandropol), and one year later the treaty of Kars was signed,
under which the Bolsheviks ceded to Turkey Kars, Sarighamish, Igdir –
and other fragments of the Armenian motherland.
In the course of 87 years the Turks have been able to destroy, demolish,
and otherwise consign to oblivion the traces of the city’s Armenian
presence. But 87 years has not been enough to scrape away every trace of
the Armenian monuments of Vanand in the Airarat province. The tenacity
of that Armenian presence leads you to realize that is not enough to say
that Kars was once Armenian.
From 928 to 961 Kars was the capital of the Armenian Bagratuni dynasty,
and when the capital was moved to Ani, it became the separate kingdom of
Vanand. Over the centuries the province of Vanand passed into the hands
of Byzantines, Seljuks, Georgians, Mongols, and in 1534 it was joined to
the Ottoman Empire. After a back-and-forth period of possession between
1828 and 1877, Kars passed into the control of czarist Russia.
In 1894 the British traveler Lynch wrote that the Russian garrison – not
counting the actual population of Kars – consisted of around 4,000
people, 2,500 of whom were Armenians, 850 Turks, 300 Greeks, and 250
Russians. Another traveler, Reitlinger, visiting Kars in 1931 wrote that
the major part of the city was abandoned and left in ruins, with a
population only in the hundreds. By the 1970s, though, the population of
Kars reached 80,000; and today it clocks in at about 100,000.
I have been to Kars on several occasions, the last of which was on my
way to Aghtamar. This time, the end-of-March blasts of cold wind and
snowy rain emphasized the dreariness of the city more than ever. Along
its bumpy, narrow streets one sees horse-drawn carriages, foreign cars,
heaps of rubbish, modern 10-story housing facilities – and next to them,
earthworks, all lined up side by side. The smell of horses, the clothing
and appearance of the locals, and those earth houses that seem to pop up
everywhere in the province – all this serves to transport a visitor a
hundred years into the past. It’s as if the 20th century – and
civilization itself – has taken a detour around this city, and all
Eastern Anatolia, for that matter: the region that, in reality, is
Western Armenia.
The Ottoman civilization of the 20th century ripped through Western
Armenia with all its cruelty, leaving in the heart of modern Armenians a
disconsolate pain. The magnitude of that grief and bitterness is
indescribable, and whether you call it the extermination of a whole
nation, or genocide in an historical homeland, you’re merely resorting
to diplomatic language.
* The world spins, and Nairi endures
Back at Ali Bey’s grocery story, a taxi driver, Jelal, tells me, "The
majority of ordinary people in the city want to see the Armenian-Turkish
border open. But the border will not be opened while there are Russian
soldiers left in Armenia. With the Russians gone, Turks and Armenians will
become friends."
The carpet seller Musa knows that Armenia itself lies not far away. "We
want the borders to be opened. Armenians will come to Kars to trade."
Let’s for a moment move a little further off, to the Armenian city of
Gyumri, where 37-year-old Armine agrees with Musa – to an extent. She
agrees that opening the Armenian-Turkish border would be beneficial for
commerce. Nevertheless, she is against the border opening. "It is
possible that the day will come when Armenians and Turks will live side
by side," she says. "But the inner hatred will remain. I am against
opening the border, and I think that my contemporaries share my opinion"
– though she cites no polling data.
Misha, a 65-year-old Gyumri native, has a more open approach to the
issue: "The people of the entire world want peace. Opening the
Armenian-Turkish border would be beneficial for us as well. But why does
Turkey then build the Kars-Akhalkalaki railway, when we already have a
Kars-Gyumri line?"
Ashot Mamajanyan, 57, whose father is from Kars and mother from Mush,
says: "Our people are exhausted; Armenia is in an all-round blockade.
Let the border open at least from the side of Turkey, so they can bring
goods from there, maybe at a little bit higher or lower prices, but so
that people can make a living. People cannot live like this anymore."
* Arakelots Church
The most distinctly Armenian feature still standing in the homeland of
Ashot Mamajanyan’s father, Kars, is the Arakelots church, built more than
a thousand years ago, in the reign of King Abas Bagratuni. In Land of
Nairi, Charents wrote of it: "Arakelots is the greatest and dearest
wonder, adornment, and amazement of this ancient city…. What the soul is
to the body, what the eyes are to the brain, what the heart is for a man’s
physique – that is what Arakelots is for this Nairian city. What Notre
Dame is for Parisians, Arakelots is for dwellers of this city."
Charents goes on: "Northward from the fortress, nestled in the
descending slope of a hill, like a gray stony bird perches the church of
Arakelots. The church looks like a bird when you view it from above,
from the fortress; but viewed from head on it resembles a priest. An old
stony priest, who seems to have found a seat on the slope of the hill,
who has remained sitting there for ages, and who will remain sitting
while the world spins round; and in this endlessly spinning world, the
land of Nairi remains."
Charents also wrote: "Above, at the top of the dome, is a cross: a
plain, iron cross of Nairi." But today the cross is gone, and the dome
of Arakelots is topped with a Turkish crescent instead. Inside the dome
are reliefs of the 12 apostles – that’s how the church got its name,
Arakelots, which means "of the Apostles." Several times the church has
been turned into a mosque, and its last religious service was in 1919.
After that the church was used for secular purposes only: it has been an
oil-storage pit, a museum. But today it is "Kumbeth jami," which means a
domical mosque.
The fortress of Kars, which dominates the city and the church of
Arakelots, was considered one of the major fortresses in the province of
Vanand. Today the fortress is introduced to visitors as a building of
the Seljuk period. Below the fortress flows the river Kars, which
divides the city into its old and new parts, while the old bridge brings
them together. This is "Vardan’s bridge," mentioned by Charents.
In the Soviet era, the fissures of the Cold War passed along the
Armenian-Turkish border (which at that time was the Soviet-Turkish
border). But even during those years the Kars-Gyumri railway was
functioning.
On April 3, 1993, Turkey issued a government decree closing its border
with Armenia. To be more precise, it closed its two frontier posts:
Akyaka-Akhuryan (where the Kars-Gyumri railway passes) and
Alijan-Margara, next to Igdir and Yerevan. Ankara justified its decision
to close the borders by saying that Armenian forces occupied the
Kelbajar region of its sister state, Azerbaijan.
Already 14 years have passed, with Turkey keeping Armenia in a blockade.
The majority of Kars’ population has migrated to Western Turkey, because
Kars and the entire region have not grown economically. One of the
reasons for that may be the closed border.
And so goes the dreary, lonely city, once a seat of princes, now a
depopulated ruin, its past glories and future prospects fading
simultaneously, due to the neglect and perhaps contempt of its present
rulers. But the past thousand years have witnessed many rulers, and the
words of Yeghishe Charents still echo faintly: "The world spins round;
and in this endlessly spinning world, the land of Nairi remains."
The first of a series.
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10. SunChildren take care of Mother Nature in Armenia
* A first ever environmental festival kicks off in Armenia
by Betty Panossian-Ter Sargssian
Environmental protection in Armenia will take new dimensions in 2007, as
thousands of youth from various regions and towns are mobilized to
participate in caring for Armenia’s natural habitat.
The first-ever regional environmental festival in Armenia, SunChild is
an initiative of the Foundation for the Preservation of Wildlife and
Cultural Assets in the Republic of Armenia (FPWC), an independent
nonprofit foundation committed to the preservation of nature as well as
cultural and historical monuments in Armenia. The foundation, which
seeks to change people’s attitude towards nature, has been active since
autumn 2001.
The name of the festival – actually Son of the Sun in Armenian – asks
participants to see themselves as sons and daughters of Mother Nature
and as worthy sons and daughters, to take care of their mother.
But the name of the festival in Armenian rings a different bell,
especially when paired with the festival’s activities at the pagan
temple at Garni. When I mentioned the fact that there used to be an
Armenian religious cult of the same name to Rouben Khachatrian, the
director of FPWC, and asked whether he was troubled by being identified
with them, he smiled: "Only recently did I find out that there had been
a medieval cult named Arevordiner. But hereby I state that in no
whatsoever way we are related to any cult or paganism."
The foundation and the festival receive token assistance from the
Ministry of Nature Protection, but the festival was a success because of
generous contributions from private sponsors, mainly the mobile-phone
operator Vivacell.
Our meeting was not in an office or a café, but on a hillside in the Nor
Nork suburb of Yerevan, in the vicinity of Saint Sargis Church, one of
the many targets of the festival.
The festival tries to implant a new approach toward environmental issues
in Armenian schoolchildren, students, scouts, and young people in
general. This can only be achieved on a volunteer basis because the
participants, and through them the whole country, should come to
understand "that this is their country and no one but they is going to
clear out these stones and plant trees in these abandoned lands," Mr.
Khachatrian said.
The whole approach toward environmental issues needs to be changed, he
insisted. The individual and the citizen should realize that apart from
the state, they themselves have their role in the preservation of nature
and the environment. In addition to the festival, since autumn 2006 FPWC
has been encouraging environmental education in Armenian schools,
through eco clubs. Schoolchildren are learning how to use photo and
video equipment to capture the treasures and problems of nature. It is
an artistic way to raise ecological awareness. The photo and video art
from these clubs will be displayed during the later phases of SunChild.
"Our goal is that these actions become a habit in the lives of the
youth, the new generation, and part of their lifestyles, to be
transmitted from one generation to another", Mr. Khachatrian said.
SunChild addressed another major ecological problem: trying to persuade
people that excessive consumerism bounces back with ecological damage.
* Ecotourism
SunChild kicked off in the regions outside the Armenian capital because,
"if we want to launch a regional environmental festival, then we should
start doing something in our homes, in our homeland." Based on this
experience the organizers plan to invite experts to help them adopt a more
scientific approach. Participants from neighboring countries – Georgia,
Azerbaijan, Turkey, Iran, and Russia – are to be invited to a number of
conferences on the theme of ecotourism.
"Ecotourism has a future in a country like Armenia. It is a way of
environmental education, it is a campaign for nature, to preserve and
restore it, a way of raising awareness to keep nature clean, which is
something unfortunately missing in our public."
Through this festival the organizers aim to make Armenia the center of
environmental activities in the region and a meeting place for
environmental talks, cooperation, and problem solving. "Yes, there are
disputes among the countries of this territory, but we have to
understand that we should not leave environmental problems by the
wayside." We all belong to the same global nature, Mr. Khachatrian
insists.
SunChild approaches the environmental problems in Armenia on the basis
of understanding what the most urgent problems in each area are and
planning activities accordingly: cleaning and garbage collection in
Garni and Ourtsadzor, tree planting in Yerevan, and cleaning the glass
wool from decommissioned barracks in Gyumri.
Mobilizing hundreds of young people presented problems. At first, many
did not grasp what an environmental festival would mean other than
concerts in nature and food and drink. Many girls came in high heels,
"but after that first shock, all were set to work."
The organizers faced a stronger challenge from the parents. "Persuading
them that their children are participating in a good activity was
sometimes so difficult. Many were hesitant. Why should their child
collect garbage? It is a problem with the mentality of Armenian
parents," Mr. Khachatrian says.
By the time the festival began, volunteers, members of the ecoclub
founded by FPWC in the Ourdzadzor village school, in the Vedi River
area, had already cleared most of the area of stones. The project
manager of this and other stone-clearing and tree-planting activities,
Arman Khachatourian, a young man with a sunburnt features, was still
shouting encouraging words. One might have thought he had been managing
that kind of work with the same brigade all his life.
But not everyone had to be persuaded to be a part of these activities.
The region of Ijevan had not been included in the SunChild program, but
upon hearing about it, around a hundred of young people, mostly students
and scouts from Ijevan offered to participate. And during its last days,
SunChild will visit this northeastern town to mobilize youth around
garbage collecting and tree-planting work.
Since SunChild is a recurrent festival with similar activities to be
repeated throughout the year, the success of this first phase may raise
awareness about participating in the activities of the festival.
"We hope that in the following years the festival will be more inclusive."
The first phase of SunChild 2007 was wrapped up on April 11 with an
environmental March starting at Matenadaran and finishing at the Freedom
Square. The members of various ecological clubs founded by FPWC in the
regions of Armenia were gathered in Yerevan for the final events. "It is
a protest against the consumerist attitude of our society," explained
Rouben Khachatrian.
* Garbage art
Along the march various environmental and cultural activities took place:
a concert with the participation of Armenian stars close to nature; a bird
feeder making contest; drawing; poster making; and garbage art, where
trash – such as plastic bottles gathered by the participants in the
festival during the past two weeks from such polluted natural habitats as
the Garni Gorge – is converted to art. Plastic bottle statues represented
endangered animals of Armenia, such as the Armenian mouton, whose only
habitat in the world is Armenia. These statues, a silent protest against
the still-continuing hunting of these animals in preserved areas,
indicated yet another aspect of the mission of FPWC.
The continuation of all these will be in 6-10 October. Preparations have
already commenced. No doubt the wide range and the success of SunChild
in April will bear fruit in October.
By the time we were done talking, the whole area was cleared of stones.
The fresh and damp smell of soil filled the air. On April 12, on the
once-deserted land, a new 2-hectare forest was planted.
Connect:
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11. Commentary: A reminiscence of Beglar Navassardian
by Toros Toranian
translated by Aris G. Sevag
The Reporter’s November 4, 2006 edition featured a commentary by Henrik
Boudakian titled "Recalling Beglar Navassardian," on the life and
mysterious death of the late writer and editor. What follows is another
reminiscence of Navassardian, this one by Toros Toronian.
It was outside of the realm of my hope that one day I would be able to
meet the author of the book titled The Straits and the Armenian Question,
the son of Vahan Navassardian. Our paths were divergent; he became the
editor of Housaper in the land of the pyramids, following his father’s
example, while I was a student in the shade of Mt. Ararat.
That year, like all the other years when I was a student, I had again
gone to Paris. Paris is a city of dreams somewhat for all youths. For
some, of course, Paris is the Louvre. The Louvre, whose visitors can
become intoxicated . . . without drinking a drop.
For others, Paris is Notre Dame, on the bank of the quietly flowing
Seine River. For others still, Paris is the Eiffel Tower, or Moulin
Rouge, or the Champs Elysees. It was even the poet of the Communist
tribune, Nayiri Zarian, who wrote,
I have dreamed of the Champs Elysees
With the soles of my feet
And, to a certain degree, for everybody Paris is the city of lights and
the metropolis of beautiful women. As for us Armenians, it’s something
more as well.
Paris was one of the centers of diasporan Armenian literature and
culture during the three decades following the Armenian Genocide.
So, I had gone to Paris. And, since going to Paris for me meant meeting
the cultivators of Armenian culture, I would meet up with them every
day. First of all, I would go and see Puzant Topalian, who had a
printing house named Araxes, after the Armenian river of the same name,
on rue Richer, where he published newspapers, books, and fine arts
magazines over a 50-year period. I would see Hrant Palouian, the editor
of Zvartnotz, who at that time had already ceased publishing his
periodical, while continuing to run his bookstore on the same street. I
would waste no time going to see Carzou and admiring his diligence in
painting. Like the father of Sayat Nova, this artist was a native of
Aleppo. I would see Jansem facing his large canvases; Chartres in his
effort to keep his children Armenian; Jeranian, who shouted his Armenian
identity everywhere; Dadrian, who was my friend from the Melkonian
Educational Institute; and Tutunjian, who had created quite a stir in
the 1930s as one of the progressive artists of Paris. This fine artist
from Constantinople appeared to have forgotten his Armenian.
On my insistence, we spoke Armenian. No, he hadn’t forgotten his mother
tongue; his linguistic authenticity again shined from beneath the French
peel.
I would visit Vorpuni and see Nigoghos Sarafian, who lived embittered
from his circle. I would visit Sophoglian and see Mrs. Missakian, who
had relentlessly taken the help of Haratch daily. I would meet up with
Shavarsh Nartuni and visit Aharon. I would see Daria Gamsaragan and
Avedis Alexanian, editor of Ashkharh weekly. Sometimes I’d be at the
home of A. Sema’s sister, Marie Atmajian, and other times at Meline
Manoushian’s. I would go to see the young painter Asadur or the
venerable intellectual Arsham Khontgarian. In this manner, I used to
make the rounds.
And, upon my return to Yerevan, I prepared an article for Grakan Tert
[Literary Gazette]. The topic? Encounters with French-Armenian writers.
I hadn’t discriminated among them; rather, I had written about them all.
And I had also written about Shavarsh Nartouni.
Permit me to digress a little. All those who have read Nartouni’s
writings can confirm that his articles tended to be tart and caustic,
liberally sprinkled with hot pepper and often anti-Soviet.
I got together with him a few times and was surprised to find him to be
one of the nicest of nice people. I told him:
"Unger Nartouni, prior to having seen you, I thought that I would be
meeting a frightful individual, perhaps a boxer, who can knock his
opponent to the ground with one blow. Now I see that you are a nice
person and you don’t even speak in a loud voice, fearing that the sacred
words of the Armenian language will be offended…."
He laughed. And that laugh was more reminiscent of a smile than a laugh.
And I wrote about all that.
And, to the Literary Gazette’s credit, it must be said that my article
was published in its entirety.
Once an article is published, it’s like a bird in flight. So my article
reached Cairo and found Beglar Navassardian, who became inspired and
immediately responded with an editorial, for which he chose a catchy
title: "Spiritual Fever."
That editorial took up practically the entire first page of Houssaper
with its format of the old days. And what did it say? In brief, it
praised a stance which belonged to the writer of these lines.
Beglar Navassardian did not have the opportunity to create in the
homeland. But I am writing about him because I have believed that he was
a good Armenian, that he had a distinct position with regard to our
country, and that, in the end, he came to be buried in the bosom of the
homeland.
Beglar Navassardian’s article in Houssaper, in turn, took flight, first
reaching Beirut where it fell into the hands of one of my friends, who
hastened to fold that page, entrust it to the envelope of a letter and
send it to my address in Yerevan.
So Beglar’s article came to Armenia before he did, with one line written
by my friend in the margin of the page:
"The Dashnaktsutiun is praising you; what’s at the bottom of this?"
I haven’t been able to ascertain till now if there has to be something
suspicious without fail under every praise.
Events proceeded swiftly. After making an announcement at the Cairo
airport, Beglar Navassardian took a flight to Armenia.
Many people had been surprised, considering the past of his father, the
Dashnak activist-journalist Vahan Navassardian, and his very own past.
But Beglar perhaps had taken Hovhannes Kachaznuni in particular into
consideration.
On one occasion I was speaking with Kachaznuni’s daughter, Margush, and
she told me that one day she had asked her father:
"Dad, if you knew that, as soon as you set foot inside Soviet territory,
the Soviets would execute you, would you still have come to Armenia?"
"Yes," was Kachaznuni’s response, "without hesitation, I would have
come, since I knew that the Armenian man is obligated to work on his own
soil. The one who is deprived of the soil is deprived of all earthly
blessings. It is the soil that keeps the Armenian Armenian. For that
reason I came, to fertilize the Armenian soil with my body in the event
of being executed."
This was the patriotism of that generation.
Beglar was the man of the day.
Everybody wanted to see him. When wounded Dashnaks would come to Yerevan
as tourists or pilgrims, they considered it an obligation to meet with
Beglar in his room at Hotel Armenia, to have their brief say to him, not
in connection with his repatriation but the statement he had made at the
Cairo airport. When had the Dashnaktsutiun been an agent of America? …
You, the son of Vahan Navassardian, did you not blush when you made that
statement?
This situation gave rise to crises in Beglar’s soul. What could he do,
but remain on the sixth floor of the hotel? They had promised to take
him home. He was running late. They ran late, and Friday came before
Saturday, he couldn’t help but come.
It was during those days that a group of diasporan Armenian boys
graduated from various institutions of higher learning in Yerevan, and
the Committee for Cultural Relations with Armenians Abroad judiciously
decided to organize an affair in honor of those boys.
I too had gone to take part in the evening event organized by the
committee.
I met Beglar Navassardian there for the first time.
Someone I didn’t know was conversing incessantly with him. That dialogue
lasted a long time and I, in turn, stubbornly standing near them, was
making movements indicating impatience. Finally Beglar noticed this and
said:
"Young man, apparently you wish to say something."
"Yes, if possible."
"Please, go ahead."
"Unger Navassardian, a while ago, you wrote an article in Houssaper
entitled ‘Spiritual Fever.’ Who was that article about?"
"Oh, that article, very simply, was about Toros Toranian. Toros had
written an article in Grakan Tert that was dear to my heart, and I
wanted to respond. And I was severely rebuked by our party for that
article. I thought that fellow was an Armenian native but it turns out
he’s a Syrian Armenian who’s a student here…"
"So, you don’t know Toros?"
"Where would I know him from? I almost brought misfortune upon myself on
account of him. But it’s all over now. Now I’m here. Toros, in turn, had
written a very warm article."
"Unger Navassardian, the writer of that article is the one who’s
speaking with you now."
I had barely uttered these words when Beglar embraced me. We hugged each
other. He immediately called his wife over, who was conversing with
someone a short distance from us.
"Come here, come here, my dear, see who I’ve met, let me introduce you
to our troublemaker Toros in the flesh."
He again embraced me, shook my arms and we engaged in conversation. Our
acquaintance continued with the warmth of that day until Beglar’s tragic
suicide.
During the course of the same evening, I told Beglar and his wife that,
if he had been subjected to reproof by the political party for having
written an article about me, a "rebuke" had come to me too from Beirut:
"The Dashnaktsutiun is praising you in Houssaper; what’s at the bottom
of this?"
"If I had known at that time that you would soon be coming to the
homeland, I would have replied, ‘What’s at the bottom of this is that
Beglar will soon come to Armenia.’"
"Even I didn’t know then that I would soon be coming to Armenia."
The three of us laughed, to the extent that we attracted the attention
of those around us.
After that, I used to go see Beglar periodically, and we would speak
about the past and the present. He was excited. He had been invited to
become one of the editors of the Armenian Encyclopedia. His wife was
already employed in the Yeghishe Charentz School, as an English teacher.
One of my writer friends, a native of Karabakh, had told Beglar that the
house, in which he was born, was still standing, in Karabakh. And that
that house, now, was a dormitory.
Beglar was moved, and was preparing to go see that house, where he was
born, in the near future.
One day, the how of it unclear, Beglar, prompted by an attack of nerves,
headed for the balcony of the apartment he occupied in Hotel Armenia,
from which he attempted to throw himself precipitously.
A repatriate from Beirut, who was working on the same floor, rushed to
assist and, after exerting superhuman efforts, succeeded in restraining
Beglar and bringing his foot, which had extended on the other side of
the balcony, back inside. A fierce "duel" ensued. The repatriate fellow
defeated death but was left in a pool of blood and sweat.
Months later, at the home of a friend, I met that fellow. When he
related that incident, he trembled and his face took on the color of
beeswax.
"After I saved him, my body was shaking. ‘Hey, what’s it to you?’ I was
saying to myself. ‘What if you weren’t able to save him? Many people saw
our fierce combat from below. What if I hadn’t been able to save him?
Everybody would have said, ‘We saw with our own eyes, this one pushed
and caused him to fall from above.’ This thought repeated, multiplied
inside of me. It multiplied to the point where I lay in bed sick for an
entire month. What if I hadn’t been able to save him? Right down to the
present I tremble; look at the color of my face…"
The second time, our repatriate fellow wouldn’t be there. Pushing his
wife and son aside as he made a mad dash, Beglar reached the balcony
and, with momentum, gave himself to the emptiness of Lenin Square…
When, during a vacation, I related all this to the prose writer Garo
Mehian in Paris, "I know Beglar," he said, "he knows me. He was a good
fellow but unbalanced. When he was abroad, he tried to commit suicide
too. I believe his having committed suicide. What we haven’t forgiven
him for was his statement at the Cairo airport."
He was born on a stormy day. He lived a turbulent life. He had a
turbulent return to the homeland and he agitated the souls of quite a
few individuals with his death.
May the soil of the fatherland rest lightly upon you, Beglar, son of
Vahan Navassardian.
* * *
This essay was translated by Mr. Sevag from Kirk vortiagan [Filial book],
Pazmatarian Hayastane 60 Daregan [Centuries-old Armenia is 60 Years Old],
pp. 199-206.
**************************************** ***********************************
12. Letters
* Aris Sevag gave us quality time before we knew what that was
Sir:
I was one of those lucky students who had a young, energetic, crazy,
unpredictable, completely devoted Aris Sevag as a teacher at the new and
flourishing Holy Martyrs Ferrahian High School in California, in the late
1960s.
Aris treated our group of immigrant children with respect, gave us
quality time (before we knew what that was) in and out of class, and
showed us that it’s possible to be American-born, English-speaking and a
proud Armenian all at the same time.
For me personally, his passion for words and language made me realize
that it’s OK to love and live in the world of books.
Many thanks for the detailed story on his 40th anniversary evening. I
felt as if I were there.
Very truly yours,
Salpi H. Ghazarian
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Yerevan, Armenia
* Cashing out honors
Sir:
The Catholicos of All Armenians awards three distinguished awards to
individuals of his choice: the Saint Grigor Lusavoritch, the Saint Sahak
and Saint Mesrop, and the Saint Nersess Shnorhali medals.
The oldest is the Grigor Lusavoritch award, which is bestowed in first
and second classes. It was founded in 1911 by Catholicos Gevorg V
Sureneants (1911-30), and depicts symbols of the catholicos: a mitre
(red enamel topped by a white cross in gold border), flanked by a cross
and staff (gavazan) in gold; supported by a stole (urar), and omophorion
(emiporan).
An example of this medal, produced in London and awarded to someone in
1920, is currently up for auction on eBay, for the reserved sum of
£48,238. The medal, made of silver, is gold-plated and decorated with 10
diamonds and 27 rubies. It measures 4.5 by 3.4 centimeters and weighs
10.29 grams.
Hundreds of these awards have been bestowed in the past few years; I
wonder how many of their recipients will follow the example set by the
owner of the above medal, and decide to cash in on the monetary value.
Very truly yours,
Dr. Vrej Nersessian
London
* A letter to the Chicago Sun Times
The following letter to the editor was sent to the Chicago Sun Times.
It is unfortunate that the Sun Times would run an opinion piece replete
with factual error, uncritically passing off the author as a subject
expert on Turkey, Armenia and the Armenian Genocide. He is not.
("Resolution on the Armenian Genocide Risks Foreign Policy Backlash," by
Joel Sprayregen, April 7).
Mr. Sprayregen is wrong on his asserted facts. Turkey does not border
Russia as he claims. And the Armenian Genocide resolution pending
before the House of Representatives is not "empowered by California
Democrats." The resolution has over 180 co-sponsors – 50 Republicans
and 130 Democrats – with some 135 Members of Congress representing
constituents outside California. Clearly this resolution enjoys
bipartisan, nationwide support.
Most egregiously, Mr. Sprayregen attempts to minimize the fact of the
Armenian Genocide with a characterization straight from Turkish denial,
namely the "Armenians contend" gambit. He then gives equal space to
Turkish counter claims, with a concluding understatement that "the
weight of opinion outside Turkey has favored Armenian claims". A more
accurate and fair characterization would be the preponderance of
Holocaust and Genocide expert and scholarly judgment has repeatedly
affirmed the fact of the Armenian Genocide.
In a June 9, 2000, public appeal published in the New York Times, over
120 Holocaust and Genocide scholars acknowledged the "incontestable fact
of the Armenian Genocide" and called upon Turkey to "come to terms with
[this] dark chapter of Ottoman Turkish history". The International
Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) publicly released their letter
to Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan dated June 12, 2006, that recounted
for the Prime Minister irrefutable affirmations of this crime against
humanity. The IAGS concluded with this admonition. "We would also note
that scholars who advise your government and who are affiliated in other
ways with your state-controlled institutions are not impartial. Such so
called ‘scholars’ work to serve the agenda of historical and moral
obfuscation when they advise you and the Turkish Parliament on how to
deny the Armenian Genocide". And in an open letter to Historians Who
Deny the Armenian Genocide dated October 1, 2006, the IAGS stated,
"Denial of genocide whether that of the Turks against the Armenians, or
of the Nazis against the Jews is not an act of historical
reinterpretation. The deniers aim at convincing innocent third parties
that there is another side of the story when there is no other side."
As for harming U.S. relations with Turkey, passage of a congressional
resolution affirming Armenian, American and world history so as to learn
the painful lessons of another failed attempt to prevent genocide will
not be the culprit. Even without this legislation, the Turkish
government threatens to invade northern Iraq, courts Hamas, and does
nothing to combat endemic anti-American and anti-Semitic public opinion.
As a close friend of Turkey, Mr. Sprayregen knows full well that
progressive, pro-western, pro-democracy intellectuals and activists in
that nation acknowledge the Armenian Genocide. As a consequence, many
are prosecuted by the government for "insulting Turkishness" and contend
with ultra-nationalist death threats for simply speaking the truth. If
Mr. Sprayregen truly wants to advance civil society in Turkey, he should
be defending these brave souls instead of skirting with genocide denial.
Ross Vartian
U.S.-Armenia Public Affairs Committee
Washington, D.C.
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13. Editorial: Ignoring genocide won’t make it go away
This week at the United Nations, Turkey taught the world a valuable
lesson: the enormity of genocide is easily subordinated to political
expediency.
At the United Nations, the new secretary-general was about to open an
exhibit on the Rwandan genocide. The exhibit depicted this crime against
humanity, which began in 1994 and – as the United Nations and the
international community stood by – left some 800,000 people dead.
The exhibit included a small panel on Raphael Lemkin, the lawyer who in
1933 campaigned in the League of Nations – the precursor of the United
Nations – to recognize "barbarity" as a crime against humanity and in
1943 coined a new word for the crime, "genocide." It was the Armenian
Genocide that got Mr. Lemkin interested in the concept of crimes against
humanity, and so, naturally, the panel noted, "one million Armenians
were murdered in Turkey" during the First World War.
This passing reference was unacceptable to the permanent representative
of Turkey at the United Nations. He went to see Kiyotaka Akasaka, the
new undersecretary-general for public information, to have the reference
removed.
Mr. Akasaka called up the Aegis Trust, which had organized the exhibit
and had gotten it approved by the UN Secretariat, and asked them to
address Turkey’s concern. Aegis contacted, among others, Armen
Martirossian, Armenia’s permanent representative. Mr. Martirossian met
with the undersecretary-general. "To make sure the Rwanda exhibit went
ahead," Armenia’s ambassador proposed taking out the direct reference to
Turkey.
The undersecretary-general presented the compromise language to Turkey’s
delegate, who was apparently not satisfied; Mr. Akasaka told Aegis the
entire reference would have to be removed. Aegis quite rightly and to
its enormous credit refused to remove the reference. The reference
didn’t have to be there in the first place, Aegis CEO James Smith told
The Associated Press. But once the Armenian reference "was there and
approved, we felt as a matter of principle you can’t just go around
striking things out," he said. "It is a form of denial, and as an
organization that deals with genocide issues, we couldn’t do that on any
genocide, and we can’t do this."
The undersecretary-general then ordered the exhibit postponed "until
further review."
Armenia’s Foreign Ministry rightly calls this decision "shameful." Here
was "an event which was to provide lessons on how to respect human
rights and prevent genocides. Instead, the lesson here is one of total
disrespect for history and memory."
The message from Turkey is clear. Forget the Armenian Genocide at all
costs. If that means forgetting Rwanda too, so be it. Pretend all is
well in Darfur if you must.
We say No.
The United Nations is responsible for confronting crimes against
humanity, not for sweeping them under the rug. The secretary-general
must rise to his calling and take a stand against denial.
The functionaries at the United Nations are not elected officials and
are thus not especially responsive to popular sentiment. Nonetheless,
the new secretary-general should hear from us. We should urge the UN to
proceed with the Rwanda exhibit intact.
Please contact the secretary-general at the following address:
The Honorable Ban Ki-moon
Secretary-General
United Nations
New York, NY 10017
Fax: +1 212 963 2155 or +1 212 963 7055
Tel: +1 212 963 5012
Email: [email protected]
* * *
* Write to the New York Times
The New York Times has written a powerful editorial excoriating "the
U.N.’s craven new leadership" for "bowing to Turkey’s demands" to "censor
discussion of the Armenian genocide." The editorial, which appeared on
April 13, argues that in making such demands, Turkey makes itself an
accessory to the crime of 1915: "It’s odd that Turkey’s leaders have not
figured out by now that every time they try to censor discussion of the
Armenian genocide, they only bring wider attention to the subject and link
today’s democratic Turkey with the now distant crime."
See tml?_r=1&oref=slogin
The editorial also appeared in the International Herald Tribune.
The editorial appears at a time when several major newspapers have given
space to specious and poorly argued commentaries portraying Turkey as a
reliable U.S. ally and raising false alarms about disastrous consequences
that would follow the adoption of Armenian Genocide resolutions by
Congress. Even the New York Times published such a commentary in the guise
of news last week. To their credit, the editors promptly published a
correction that addressed the article’s worst offense. (See "Washington in
Brief" in this issue.)
As we have written before, it is important to "be vigilant about what the
national and local media have to say and be diligent and prompt in letting
our views be known." (See our editorial, "Don’t forget to write," March
17.) This suggestion applies to articles we welcome as well as articles to
which we object.
Please write to the New York Times. Their email address is
[email protected] and guidelines can be found at
ttertoeditor.html The fax
number is 1-212-556-3622.
In addition to praising the timely editorial, readers may want to take it
a step further. We would reiterate the point that if the UN wants to be
taken seriously, it must stand for historical truth in the face of member
bullying.
It is true, as the editorial points out, that every time Turkey tries to
censor discussion of the Armenian Genocide, it makes itself an accessory
to the crime. But in demanding that its friends internationally join it in
denial, it makes them complicit as well. It is long past time for Turkey’s
true friends to refuse to play along.
Whatever point you may choose to make, don’t wait too long to make it.
********************************************* ******************************
14. A national newspaper, a community weekly, a free paper
Starting this week, the Armenian Reporter will be distributed free of
charge in hundreds of locations in southern and central California and
beyond. For readers who are not close to these locations or prefer the
convenience of regular home delivery, we have cut the prices for new
subsriptions and renewals. The fee now simply covers the cost of mailing.
We are proud of the newspaper we produce for you, and even as we strive
to improve on it every week, we are eager to share it with as many
people as may be interested.
The newspapers distributed in the Eastern United States and those
distributed in the West will be very similar. In Section A, you will
find the same national and international news, news from Armenia, and
commentary. Section C, our vibrant arts & culture section, covers the
whole world. It too will be the same in East and West.
Section B, our Community section, will not be the same, however. In our
Eastern United States edition, the preponderance of stories and
advertising will be oriented toward readers living east of the
Mississipi. The Western United States edition will be more focused on
the West.
The Armenian Reporter is a community newspaper, and we want you to find
yourself, your family, and your friends in it. We trust the new editions
will help us remain a community newspaper even as we reach out to new
readers.
* If you wish to distribute the Armenian Reporter free of charge in your
community center, your store, your coffee shop, please contact us at
[email protected]. We will be happy to consider providing copies at the
cost of shipping weekly.
* We are always looking for freelance writers. If you want to write for
us, please write [email protected]
* Share your news with us so we can share it with the community. Reach us
by email at [email protected]
******************************** *******************************************
Please send your news to [email protected] and your letters to
[email protected]
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