Month: April 2007

US States News
April 20, 2007 Friday 1:40 AM EST

PUBLIC INVITED TO WORLD WAR I SYMPOSIUM ‘BRINGING ‘OVER THERE’ BACK
HERE’ TO BE HELD ON MAY 5

SPRINGFIELD, Ill.

Lincoln Land Community College issued the following news release:

A symposium to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the United States’
entry into World War I will be held Saturday, May 5, in the Trutter
Center of Lincoln Land Community College.

The public is cordially invited to the free symposium entitled
"Bringing ‘Over There’ Back Here" which begins with a continental
breakfast and World War I exhibit at 8:30 a.m. Keynote speaker will
be James Barkley, Director of Education at the National World War I
Museum in Kansas City. The symposium will also feature presentations
and displays by LLCC faculty and students on varied aspects of the
war, and will conclude at 1:00 p.m. with an announcement of a World
War I trench project on campus.

"We chose the theme of Bringing ‘Over There’ Back Here to shine a
spotlight on the continuing relevance of World War I," said Chris
McDonald, Ph.D., professor of political science and symposium
coordinator. "World War I was the first global war and in many ways
led to the birth of the modern United States. The war reshaped the
roles and expectations of women and African-Americans in domestic
society, and broader perceptions about the place of the U.S. in the
world. Even the creation of the modern Middle East came about because
of World War I. It was the war that shaped the century and was the
first time the U.S. acted as a world power."

The symposium will feature an "interview" with Woodrow Wilson, an
examination of both home front and military issues, and panel
discussions on such topics as the Armenian genocide, "shell shock"
and the role of women in the conflict. Audience participation and
questions will be encouraged throughout.

Also featured will be a reader’s theatre and a display of WWI
uniforms, weapons, diaries and other historic memorabilia such as
gramophones and sheet music, from both home and "over there."

Registration (encouraged but not required) is available by calling
786.2218.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

La Nouvelle Republique du Centre Ouest
21 avril 2007 samedi
Edition DEUX SEVRES

Un film et un debat pour l’annee de l’Armenie

A l’occasion de l’annee de l’Armenie en France, l’association des
Radioamateurs de Saint-Maixent-l’Ecole s’associe a l’evenement en
proposant une projection audiovisuelle et un debat.

L’association des Radioamateurs saint-maixentais a prevu vendredi 27
avril prochain a 20 h 30, salle Balizy, la projection d’un film
documentaire realise en 2006 par une cineaste-conferencière niortaise
Marie-Dominique Massol et commente par elle-meme.

Mme Massol est la presidente du conservatoire audiovisuel sur les
peuples (CAP-Monde). Et en 1991, Daniel Barot avait participe a une
operation humanitaire dans ce pays suite au terrible tremblement de
terre.
Très marque par la culture mais aussi par l’incroyable hospitalite de
la population, il y est retourne dix après. A travers ce film, il
veut nous faire partager la vie de ce pays du Caucase mais aussi son
histoire.
L’Armenie, terre de culture et d’emotions a l’honneur dans notre pays
toute l’annee 2007, possède une architecture unique. " Le voile se
lève enfin sur ce dernier bastion de la chretiente. Est-ce encore
l’occident, ou est-ce deja l’orient ? "
Après la presentation, Marie-Dominique Massol et Daniel Barot
animeront un debat sur ce pays et ses habitants si genereux et
attachants, l’Armenie mise a l’honneur par la France durant toute
l’annee 2007.
Ses monastères, ses forteresses, les " Katchkars ",ces pierres en
croix sculptees si finement qu’on les croirait de dentelles brodees,
temoignent du genie artistique d’un peuple a travers ses deux mille
ans d’histoire.

Une Armenie " a fleur de vie "

Dans cet univers montagneux, a la beaute sauvage, resonnent encore
aujourd’hui ses mythes fondateurs, a l’ombre du celèbre mont Ararat
(5.165 mètres) où, selon la Bible, s’arreta l’arche de Noe et qui
aujourd’hui, se trouve en Turquie.
Helas, l’histoire de l’Armenie est aussi faite de douleurs. Le
terrible genocide, le Karabagh, enclave chretienne en terre
musulmane, les larmes des guerres sont toujours dans les âmes, mais
le Karabagh " fait preuve d’un dynamisme surprenant ".
L’association des Radioamateurs et Mme Massol invitent le public a
venir decouvrir Erevan, la ville rose toute de tuf vetue, Gumri qui
efface peu a peu les traces du seisme, le quotidien des Armeniens qui
se racontent avec pudeur et sincerite. Marie-Dominique Massol fait
partager " son " Armenie, celle qu’elle a ressentie " a fleur de vie
".

Saint-Maixent-l’Ecole, vendredi
27 avril a 20 h 30, salle Balizy.
Entree : 5 , demi-tarif pour
les scolaires et etudiants.

GRAPHIQUE: Daniel Barot et Marie-Dominique Massol animeront la soiree
vendredi prochain a 20 h 30, salle Balizy.
Paysage typique et rugueux de l’Armenie, entre les puissants massifs
du Caucase, de l’Iran et de l’Asie mineure.

–Boundary_(ID_7+Ec+YiesJasmEDrWEVehg)–

Israel’s Trump Card for the Treatment of Palestinians
The Holocaust as Political Asset
By AMIRA HASS

counterpunch.org
April 20, 2007

The cynicism inherent in the attitude of the institutions of the
Jewish state to Holocaust survivors is not a revelation to those
born and living among them. We grew up with the yawning gap between
the presentation of the State of Israel as the place of the Jewish
people’s rebirth and the void that exists for every Holocaust survivor
and his family. The personal "rehabilitation" was dependent on the
circumstances of each person: the stronger ones versus the others,
who did not find support from the institutions of the state.

During the 1950s and 1960s we saw the demeaning view of our parents as
having gone "like sheep to the slaughter," the shame of the new Jews,
the Sabras, over their misfortunate, Diaspora relatives.

It can be argued that during the first two decades, much of this
attitude could be attributed to the lack of information and the
very human lack of an ability to grasp the full meaning of the
industrialized genocide perpetrated by Germany. But the awareness
of the material aspects of the Holocaust started very early, with
Jewish and Zionist institutions starting in the early 1940s to discuss
the possibility of demanding reparations. In 1952, the reparations
agreement with Germany was signed, by which that country agreed to
pay hundreds of millions of dollars to Israel to cover the absorption
costs of the survivors and pay for their rehabilitation. The agreement
obligated Germany to compensate survivors individually as well,
but the German law differentiated between those who belonged to the
"circle of German culture" and others. Those who were able to prove
a connection to the superior circle received higher sums, even if
they emigrated in time from Germany. Concentration camp survivors
from outside the "circle" received the ridiculous sum of 5 marks per
day. The Israeli representatives swallowed this distortion.

This is part of the roots of financial cynicism that the media is
being exposed to today, due to several reasons: the advanced age
and declining health of survivors, the intentional weakening of the
welfare state, the presence of survivors from the former Soviet Union
who are not included in the reparations agreement, the media activism
of nongovernmental welfare organizations and the welcome enlistment
of social affairs journalists.

They are shocked by the gap between the official appropriation of the
Holocaust, which is perceived in Israel as understood and justified,
and the abandonment of survivors.

Turning the Holocaust into a political asset serves Israel primarily
in its fight against the Palestinians. When the Holocaust is on one
side of the scale, along with the guilty (and rightly so) conscience
of the West, the dispossession of the Palestinian people from their
homeland in 1948 is minimized and blurred.

The phrase "security for the Jews" has been consecrated as an exclusive
synonym for "the lessons of the Holocaust." It is what allows Israel to
systematically discriminate against its Arab citizens. For 40 years,
"security" has been justifying control of the West Bank and Gaza
and of subjects who have been dispossessed of their rights living
alongside Jewish residents, Israeli citizens laden with privileges.

Security serves the creation of a regime of separation and
discrimination on an ethnic basis, Israeli style, under the auspices of
"peace talks" that go on forever. Turning the Holocaust into an asset
allows Israel to present all the methods of the Palestinian struggle
(even the unarmed ones) as another link in the anti-Semitic chain whose
culmination is Auschwitz. Israel provides itself with the license to
come up with more kinds of fences, walls and military guard towers
around Palestinian enclaves.

Separating the genocide of the Jewish people from the historical
context of Nazism and from its aims of murder and subjugation,
and its separation from the series of genocides perpetrated by the
white man outside of Europe, has created a hierarchy of victims, at
whose head we stand. Holocaust and anti-Semitism researchers fumble
for words when in Hebron the state carries out ethnic cleansing via
its emissaries, the settlers, and ignore the enclaves and regime of
separation it is setting up. Whoever criticizes Israel’s policies
toward the Palestinians is denounced as an anti-Semite, if not a
Holocaust denier. Absurdly, the delegitimization of any criticism of
Israel only makes it harder to refute the futile equations that are
being made between the Nazi murder machine and the Israeli regime of
discrimination and occupation.

The institutional abandonment of the survivors is rightly denounced
across the board. The transformation of the Holocaust into a political
asset for use in the struggle against the Palestinians feed on those
same stores of official cynicism, but it is part of the consensus.

Amira Hass writes for Ha’aretz. She is the author of Drinking the
Sea at Gaza.

***PRESS RELEASE***

April 17, 2007

The Genocide Education Project
51 Commonwealth Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94118
(415) 264-4203
[email protected]
www.GenocideEd ucation.org

Contact: Raffi Momjian – [email protected]

LINCY FOUNDATION AWARDS GRANT TO THE GENOCIDE EDUCATION PROJECT
4_17_2007.htm

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – The Lincy Foundation has awarded a grant to
The Genocide Education Project to support The Genocide Education
Project’s teacher training, outreach and educational resource
development projects.

"The Lincy Foundation’s support is a vote of confidence for our
rapidly developing organization and expands our ability to reach more
teachers and schools to teach about the Armenian Genocide," stated
Raffi Momjian, Executive Director of the Genocide Education Project.

In addition to reaching out to public school districts about
the importance of genocide and human rights education, organizing
workshops for teachers, distributing resources and lesson plans to be
used in the classroom, The Genocide Education Project also maintains
a cyber-resource library site at This website
offers teachers resources for classroom use about the Armenian Genocide
and other gross human rights violations. Lesson plans and training
opportunities are regularly posted on the site.

The Genocide Education Project recently launched a new site,
, which serves as an online classroom for
students to learn about the Armenian Genocide through a series of
interactive activities. The Genocide Education Project also provides
a comprehensive binder for educators, Human Rights and Genocide:
A Case Study of the First Modern Genocide of the 20th Century, that
includes several step-by-step lesson plans enabling teachers to give
Armenian Genocide courses ranging from one to ten days.

Collaborating with organizations such as The National Council for
the Social Studies, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the
Choices Program at Brown University, and Facing History and Ourselves,
The Genocide Education Project has been able to successfully reach
out to non-Armenian communities through out the country.

Other ground-breaking work of The Genocide Education Project includes
launching the first curriculum-based competition for educators who
teach about the Armenian Case. The Aharonian Award challenges teachers
to develop innovative and effective lesson plans about the Armenian
Genocide, rewarding an educator each year whose efforts in this field
are exemplary.

"The workshops we conduct for educators at both national conferences
and at the district level are one of this organization’s most
meaningful activities," said Sara Cohan, Education Director of The
Genocide Education Project. "This year we are preparing to launch a
series of online workshops to reach individual educators in districts
that cannot afford face to face training sessions," she explained. "Our
ultimate goal is to ensure that every teacher in the United States who
wants to teach about the Armenian Genocide has the resources to do so."

For more information about the work of The Genocide Education Project,
please visit

###

The Genocide Education Project is a nonprofit, tax-exempt 501(c)(3)
organization that assists educators in teaching about human rights
and genocide, particularly the Armenian Genocide, by developing and
distributing instructional materials, providing access to teaching
resources and organizing educational workshops.

Hardship didn’t steal life’s joy: Survivor of massacres in Syria served God,
others.

Jim Steinberg, The Fresno Bee – California – KRTBN
Published: Apr 20, 2007

The Rev. Harry M. Missirlian of Fresno survived Ottoman Turkish
massacres of Armenians in Syria, suffered his parents’ and siblings’
disappearance and began life as an orphan with nothing.

Then he began a new lifetime of learning and prayer.

The Rev. Missirlian, who arrived in Fresno in 1953 to become minister
of Pilgrim Armenian Congregational Church, died April 11 at 94.

Reflecting on his life, he wrote in his book, "Treasures in Earthen
Vessels": "Bitterness takes the glory out of sunset, the joy out of
life, the song out of a gurgling brook, the light out of stars. Let
bitterness bury itself. There are more important things to do."

The Rev. Missirlian spoke Armenian, Arabic, French, Turkish and
English. He read the Old Testament in Hebrew and the New Testament
in Greek.

He did not dwell on his traumatic childhood but told daughter Dora
Crawford about early terror.

"He was in a train car or on a wagon with a bunch of boys in the
Syrian desert," she said.

"Dad realized this was not good, that they were being taken to
be killed."

Young Missirlian, about 4, managed to free himself, running literally
for his life. He heard others screaming.

He lived in doorways, begging for food, Crawford said, but his
harrowing memories never drowned the Rev. Missirlian in mourning.

He wrote in the third person in his book that he "carries no hatred
in his heart" and "is grateful to God for having miraculously survived
the massacres."

He became a ministry student and did field work in the slums of Beirut,
elsewhere in Lebanon and in Syria.

He married his first wife, Lydia, and worked toward a doctorate at
the University of Chicago.

Before he could write his dissertation, he received a call from the
Pilgrim church in Fresno. He had become used to subzero temperatures
in Chicago, but arrived in Fresno on July 1, 1953. It was 104 degrees.

He served 27 years, drawing satisfaction from construction of its
present campus at First Street and Dakota Avenue, particularly the
sanctuary.

Architect Richard Manoogian designed the church in close consultation
with the Rev. Missirlian, accentuating Armenian history and the life
of Jesus on Earth.

"He was overjoyed about a new sanctuary," Manoogian recalled.

Lydia Missirlian died in 1991. The Rev. Missirlian married his second
wife, Arousiag, a lifetime family friend, in 1993.

She recalled her husband’s compassion, religion and memory of hardship.

"He gave his heart and soul to that congregation," she said. "He
loved the children."

The Rev. Karl Avakian said that the Rev. Missirlian considered
the evil he had seen and suffered within his understanding of God:
"It is remarkable what he overcame. He did not hold that against
humanity and the world."

Arousiag Missirlian said her husband’s outstanding qualities were
compassion, his Christian faith and understanding of hardship: "He
loved the Christian church. He loved visiting people in sickness and
bereavement. People said that whenever anything happened, Harry was
right there."

A memorial service will be held at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Pilgrim
Armenian Congregational Church, 3673 N. First St. The family requests
that any remembrance be sent to the Armenian Evangelical Union of
North America, 609 E. Colorado St., Glendale, CA 91205.

The reporter can be reached at [email protected]_
(mailto:jsteinberg@fres nobee.com) or (559) 441-6311.

PERSONS INVOLVED IN ARMED INCIDENT IN ROSTOVIAN STREET COME TO MAIN
DEPARTMENT OF CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION

YEREVAN, APRIL 21, NOYAN TAPAN. In connection with the expolosion
and exchange of fire in Yerevan’s Rostovian Street on April 19,
three persons – Arsen G., 37, Garik H, 37, and Babken G, 26 – came
to the RA Police Main Department of Criminal Investigation on April
20. According to the RA police website, Aresn G. handed over an AKSU
gun and said that he fired several times from it in Rostovian Street
at about 0.45 pm, April 19.

An unknown person called the RA Police Erebuni Unit on April 20 and
informed the police that he had left the TT pistol, which he fired
from during the incident at the crossroads of Artsakh and Rostovian
Streets, on the right side of the street leading from Glinka Street
to Tigran the Great Avenue. The operative group later found the pistol
in the indicated place.

Both the above mentioned pistol and gun were sent to the RA Police
Expert Examination Department.

The investigation is being conducted by the RA Police Main
Investigative Department.

RA CASSATION COURT REVERSES RULING ON FINING ARMEN MAZMANIAN FOR
DISCREDITING TIGRAN KARAPETIAN

YEREVAN, APRIL 21, NOYAN TAPAN. The RA Cassation Court reversed the
February 14 decision of the court of first instance of Yerevan’s
Kentron and Nork-Marash communities, according to which a fine of
300 thousand drams (about 840 dollars) was imposed on film maker
Armen Mazmanian for insulting and discrediting Tigran Karapetian,
Chairman of ALM Holding. A. Mazmanian told this to reporters on April
19, adding that he did not attend the court sitting. He said that
T. Karapetian withdrew his application for opening a criminal case
against A. Mazmanian. "We have come to an agreement that I will no
longer watch his programs, while he will leave me alone," said the
film maker, who during one of his television speeches called Tigran
Karapein a "populist parrot", "semi-literate person", "pickpocket",
and "one who was convicted in Volgograd for pedophilia".

"Russia-Armenia" press club to participate in World Congress of Journalists

PanARMENIAN.Net
21.04.2007 15:24 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "Armenia-Russia" Moscow International Press Club
will participate in the World Congress of Journalists due to be
held from May 29 till 1 June in Moscow, Viktor Krivopuskov, head of
Russian Society for Friendship and Cooperation with Armenia (RSFCA)
told the PanARMENIAN.Net. This decision was made at the first session
of "Russia-Armenia" international press club. Co-Chairs of the press
club – Secretary of Russian Union of Journalists and member of RSFCA
board of directors Nadezhda Azhgikhina and RSFCA First Vice-President,
member of Supreme Creative Council of the Union of Russian Writers
Valentina Osipova said "Russia-Armenia" press club will prepare a
wide program of professional meetings and cultural events reflecting
Russian-Armenian relations and role of media in its development for
the sake of peace and progress. Over 1 500 media representatives from
all over the world will participate in the congress.

Armenia has been and continues to be US’s valuable ally

PanARMENIAN.Net
21.04.2007 15:55 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ U.S. Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-Chairmen
Frank Pallone and Joe Knollenberg congratulated Serzh Sargsyan
on his appointment as RA Prime Minister. "Armenia has been and
continues to be US’s valuable ally and partner in the fight against
terrorism. Congratulating You on the appointment, we express hope that
Armenia and the United States will continue to cooperate in a number
of issues important for both countries," the message of congressmen
says, the RA Press Office reports.

Bekir Coskun: We need to ask: Are we the real murderers?

Ana sayfa
Monday, April 23, 2007

This is a difficult column for me to write. The Malatya murders are
neither the first nor the last of their type. So maybe someone needs
to look back, and ask: "Is it we who are the murderers?"

It is difficult to recall anything said during our school days by our
Turkish elders about peace and love. But there’s a lot I recall being
said about three pointed javelins. And castles made from skulls. We
were always told about the Ottoman’s state order, and about where
the stability and continuation of the Ottomans derived from: the
pasha would tie his siblings to the caste vaults, and cut off their
heads. These stories were told to us with great pride, and thus we
would repeat them in pride to others…….

Pushing aside history for a moment though, we have a culture that
believes in letting blood flow, like when we are born, and when we get
out first diploma. Even people who get their first driving licenses
get told "…..make a sacrifice, at least a rooster if nothing
else." And of course, there was always the greatest show of belief,
the sacrificing of the lamb in the backyard of the house.

We all know the three men whose throats were cut in Malatya were
neither the first, nor will they be the last. Because the children of
this society have grown up hearing up the length of swords in schools,
seeing the lambs slaughtered in the backyards, and hearing the stories
of Ottoman skulls.

No one has ever taught them simply: "First, be human." Just as
we saw when the chants of "We are all Armenian" arose after Hrant
Dink’s funeral, those who have try to cry out "First, be human,"
have been labeled as "aetheists and traitors" by others. We need to
ask ourselves then, is it we ourselves who are the murderers, and
not just the handful of youngsters who carried out what they have
been taught in this society?