Author: Andres-Papazian

EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS RULES AGAINST TURKEY’S 2003 CLOSURE OF PRO-KURDISH PARTY

Asbarez
Tuesday, December 14th, 2010
ISTANBUL

The European Court of Human Rights ruled Tuesday that a 2003 decision
by Turkey’s top court to ban the pro-Kurdish People’s Democracy Party
(HADEP) violated freedom of assembly and association.

In March 2003, the Turkish Constitutional Court disbanded HADEP
and banned several of its members from politics for five years for
“spreading terrorist propaganda” and aiding and abetting the outlawed
Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

In its decision released Tuesday, the European court said the
Constitutional Court violated Article 11 of the European Convention on
Human Rights in its decision to dissolve the party. The court also
ordered Turkey to pay former HADEP Secretary-General Turan Demir
24,000 euros plus 2,200 euros for legal expenses.

The European court ruled that members of HADEP “did not incite
hatred, revenge, recrimination or armed resistance” by referring to
the ongoing conflict between the Turkish military and the PKK as a
“dirty war.” The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey,
the United States and the European Union.

The ruling, which is subject to appeal to the court’s Grand Chamber,
also noted HADEP’s stated purpose of advocating “a democratic solution
to the Kurdish problem.”

“Even if HADEP advocated the right to self-determination for the Kurds,
that would not in itself be contrary to democratic principles and could
not be equated with supporting acts of terrorism,” the statement read.

HADEP’s closure in 2003 was part of a wave of pro-Kurdish party
closures since the PKK took up arms against the Turkish state in the
1980s. Most recently, the Democratic Society Party (DTP) was shuttered
in December 2009 for links to the PKK.

From: A. Papazian

ARMENIAN-AMERICANS SUE TURKISH GOVERNMENT FOR $63.8 MILLION OVER LAND CLAIMS

Associated Press
,0,4888178.story
12:47 PM PST, December 15, 2010
LOS ANGELES

Three descendants of Armenians who lost their property in the Ottoman
Empire have filed suit in Los Angeles against the Turkish government
for restitution of more than $63 million for acreage that includes
the strategic Incirlik Air Base used by the U.S.

military.

The lawsuit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court says that ancestors
of the litigants had their property confiscated in the alleged Armenian
genocide. The families say they have deeds to the parcels.

In the past, Turkey threatened to withhold access to the base when
Congress reconsidered recognizing the Armenian genocide.

Turkey has long denied that the loss of 1.5 million Armenian lives
between 1915 and 1919 constituted genocide and instead describes the
deaths as resulting from civil unrest that accompanied the collapse
of the Ottoman Empire.

From: A. Papazian

TURKISH-ARMENIAN PLATFORM’S WORK PAVES WAY FOR GOMIDAS CONCERT

Hurriyet Daily News

Dec 15 2010
Turkey

Turkish and Armenian youth began working for more understanding between
the communities at the beginning of 2010 when they organized a platform
to commemorate Kutahya-born Armenian composer Gomidas Vartabed in
Turkey. On the 140th anniversary of his birth, Gomidas is being honored
not only in the diaspora and Armenia but also in his native land

Turkish and Armenian artists will continue to build bridges between
their respective communities when they honor Kutahya-born Gomidas
Vartabed, a seminal figure in Armenian music, when they perform
Thursday night in honor of the great composer.

“Respect for Gomidas: Songs of This Land,” which is being organized
in honor of the 140th anniversary of Gomidas’ birth in the Aegean
province of Kutahya, begins at 8:30 p.m. at Istanbul’s Lutfi Kýrdar
Congress and Exhibition Hall.

The concert marks the latest in a series of events commemorating the
great composer and ethnomusicologist, who has already been honored with
a number of ceremonies both in Armenia and the diaspora. In Istanbul,
the 2010 European Capital of Culture agency supported the Kusan 2010
concert to commemorate Gomidas last month.

Gomidas Platform helping preserve music

During a conference titled “Cultural Genocide” held last April in
Armenia in collaboration with the Diaspora Ministry and the Genocide
Museum, a speaker said Turkish artists had begun to claim Gomidas’
music as their own, citing a group of young people from Istanbul and
Armenia that had formed the Gomidas Platform.

Members of the Gomidas Platform, however, merely “want to commemorate
Gomidas in the land where he was born,” said Istanbul University
Radio and Television Department student 23-year old Sayat Daðlýyan,
who heads the group.

The platform was formed to commemorate Gomidas in his homeland with
music and hymns; thanks to the group’s tireless work, a number of
events and concerts were organized throughout the year to commemorate
the great ethnomusicologist.

Thursday’s concert is being held in collaboration with Anadolu Kultur,
the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts and Kalan Music and
features American piano virtuoso Sahan Arzruni, as well as the Istanbul
State Opera and Ballet’s Armenian soloists Sevan Þencan, Kevork
Tavityan and Ari Edirne. The Boðazici Gosteri Sanatlarý Topluluðu,
Aþkýn Ensemble, Aynur Doðan and Þevval Sam will also be on stage.

Tickets are available at Biletix.

A life of suffering

Born Soðomon Kevork Soðomonyan in 1869, Gomidas had a musical intellect
that was ahead of his time. Orphaned at a young age, he was discovered
by clerics and sent to the Armenian Apostolic Central Church, or
Etchmiadzin, in Armenia to receive religious education.

Though he eventually became a priest – at which time he took the
clerical name with which he later became famous – Gomidas was known to
devote most of his life to music, researching and working on Turkish,
Kurdish, Azeri and Iranian music.

Despite studying music at Berlin University and organizing important
conferences there, his immense talent was little recognized or
appreciated in Armenia.

Gomidas also recorded the polyphonic “Badarak” (Divine Liturgy)
for the Armenian Apostolic Church on a gramophone record at the
beginning of the 1900s but the act led to large problems with both
Etchmiadzin and the Armenian Patriarchate in Istanbul. Still, the
composer persevered and formed the historic Kusan Choir in Istanbul.

He also had close relations with Turkish intellectuals, such as one
of the Ottoman Empire’s pioneering female authors, Halide Edip Adývar,
and her husband, Adnan Adývar.

His prolific work was effectively cut short on April 24, 1915, when
his home was raided by authorities, who burned all his notes and
compositions before him, including a key manuscript from Turkish
classical music, the notes of Baba Hamparsum.

Gomidas was arrested along with 230 Armenian intellectuals on the date,
which formed the beginning of the deportations against the empire’s
Armenians during World War I. The composer was rescued thanks to the
intervention of Turkish intellectuals but his experiences during the
tribulations left him with severe psychological health problems,
leading him to abandon music. He eventually died in 1935 in exile
in France.

From: A. Papazian

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE DOCUMENTARIAN HAGOPIAN DIES
by C.J. Lin / Los Angeles Daily News

Fresno Bee
December 14, 2010 Tuesday
California

J. Michael Hagopian, a former Fresnan whose 70 documentaries on the
Armenian Genocide won more than 160 awards, has died. He was 97.

Mr. Hagopian, a survivor of the genocide that killed an estimated 1.5
million people in Turkey from 1915-23, died Friday of natural causes
at his home in Thousand Oaks.

Mr. Hagopian filmed nearly 400 interviews of survivors and witnesses
to the genocide from around the world, and made 17 documentaries
about Armenian heritage, culture and history.

“Mr. Hagopian’s documentary films on the Armenian Genocide are
a path-breaking work that will help inform generations to come of
the facts of the first genocide of the last century,” said Rep. Adam
Schiff, D-Pasadena, who screened some of the films on Capitol Hill and
worked with the filmmaker on a variety of local Armenian issues. “He
will be deeply missed.”

Born in 1913 in the village of Kharbert in what was then Western
Armenia, Mr. Hagopian eventually settled in Fresno in 1927.

He attended Fresno State and received his bachelor’s and master’s
degrees in political science from University of California at Berkeley
and earned another master’s and a Ph.D. in government and international
relations from Harvard University.

He served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II before
teaching at UCLA and other universities. He later attended USC
film school.

Mr. Hagopian received two Emmy nominations in 1976 for “The Forgotten
Genocide.” His last film in a trilogy on the genocide, “The River
Ran Red,” won Best International Historical Documentary at the
Amnesty International Film Festival in November and at the New York
International Film & Video Festival in 2009.

“Michael Hagopian was the Simon Wiesenthal of the Armenian people,”
said Jerry Papazian, vice chairman of the AFF. “He left a huge legacy.

He was a revered figure in the world of human rights.”

In April, Mr. Hagopian signed an agreement with USC’s Shoah Foundation
Institute — which gathers video testimonies from Holocaust survivors
— that will preserve and disseminate the Armenian Genocide interviews.

Mr. Hagopian is survived by his wife, Antoinette, and four children.

Funeral services will be held today at California Lutheran University
in Thousand Oaks.

From: A. Papazian

ARMENIA TO REVAMP ARMED FORCES IN NEXT FIVE YEARS
BYLINE: Lilit Gevorgyan

Global Insight
December 14, 2010

The Armenian government on 13 December approved an army modernisation
plan which was endorsed by president Serzh Sargsyan. According to
the president’s office, the “State Program for Developing Weaponry
and Military Hardware in 2011-2015” will see the army acquiring
“state-of-the-art weapons” and improving its military capabilities.

The decision was the final state endorsement of the two documents
designed by the defence and national security committee back in
August. The plan will see not only modernisation of the army but also
increased domestic production of military hardware. The secretary
of the National Security Council, Artur Baghdasarian, commented on
the news by saying that the programme will help Armenia to neutralise
potential military threats to its security. Meanwhile Defence Minister
Seyran Ohanyan did not hide that wanting to modernise the army is
directly linked to the possible conflict over the Armenian-populated
Nagorno-Karabakh region that declared its independence from Azerbaijan
22 year ago.

Significance:The army modernisation plan is a step in the arms race
between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Revamping the Armenian army with
artillery with long-range strike capacity as well as modern military
hardware is largely triggered by the Azerbaijani government’s
repeated threats to launch a war if the breakaway republic is
not returned to its control. For impoverished Armenia, the arms
race is certainly an economic challenge. Azerbaijan’s 2011 defence
budget of US$3 billion–largely fuelled by revenues from its energy
exports–dwarfs the US$400 million allocated by Armenia for the same
purpose. Hence the Armenian government has been seeking other means
to cover the shortfall. Military co-operation with Russia as well as
membership to the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO),
the military wing of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS),
provides not only guarantees of military assistance but also creates
an opportunity to get predominantly Russian military hardware for
discounted prices. The modernisation of the Armenian army could have a
positive impact on regional security as it will act as a deterrent for
a possible Azerbaijani military attack on Armenia or Nagorno-Karabakh,
leaving peace talks as the only viable option for determining the
final status of the breakaway region.

From: A. Papazian

DATA FROM A.R. MKRTCHYAN ET AL PROVIDE NEW INSIGHTS INTO PHYSICS

Physics Week
December 14, 2010

PHYSICS

“Transition radiation from relativistic electrons is investigated
in an ultrasonic superlattice excited in a finite thickness plate,”
scientists in Yerevan, Armenia report.

“In the quasi-classical approximation, formulae are derived for
the vector potential of the electromagnetic field and for the
spectral-angular distribution of the radiation intensity. The acoustic
waves generate new resonance peaks in the spectral and angular
distribution of the radiation intensity,” wrote A.R. Lazarian and
colleagues.

The researchers concluded: “The heights of the peaks can be tuned by
choosing the parameters of the acoustic wave.”

Lazarian and colleagues published their study in Modern Physics
Letters B (Optical Transition Radiation In Presence Of Acoustic Waves.

Modern Physics Letters B, 2010;24(27):2693-2703).

For additional information, contact A.R. Lazarian, Institute Applied
Problems Physics, 25 Nersessian St., Yerevan 0014, Armenia.

The publisher’s contact information for the journal Modern Physics
Letters B is: World Scientific Publ Co. Pte Ltd., 5 Toh Tuck Link,
Singapore 596224, Singapore.

From: A. Papazian

NEW ASTROPHYSICS DATA HAVE BEEN REPORTED BY A.A. SAHARIAN AND CO-AUTHORS

Physics Week
December 14, 2010

ASTROPHYSICS

According to recent research from Yerevan, Armenia, “We examine
the spectrum of perturbations for a scalar field with an arbitrary
curvature coupling parameter in the de Sitter stage of cosmological
expansion when a cosmic string is present.”

“These perturbations are caused by vacuum fluctuations in the field
and serve as seed perturbations for the formation of galaxies in the
postinflationary stage. A cosmic string disrupts the homogeneity of
a de Sitter space, so that the spectrum of the perturbations depends
on the distance from the string,” wrote A.A. Saharian and colleagues.

The researchers concluded: “This dependence is oscillatory in character
with a period on the order of the perturbation wavelength.”

Saharian and colleagues published their study in Astrophysics
(Perturbation Spectrum In The Inflationary Stage When A Cosmic String
Is Present. Astrophysics, 2010;53(3):434-445).

For additional information, contact A.A. Saharian, Erevan State
University, Academician G Saakyan Dept. of Theoret Physics, Yerevan,
Armenia.

From: A. Papazian

NEW ELAPID VENOMS STUDY FINDINGS RECENTLY WERE PUBLISHED BY A.A. GALOYAN AND CO-RESEARCHERS

Science Letter
December 14, 2010

“We tested the action of proline-rich peptide (PRP-1) and cobra
venom Naja Naja Oxiana (NOX) on Deiters’ nucleus neurons at 3rd, 15th
and 35th days after unilateral labyrinthectomy (UL). Early and late
tetanic, post-tetanic potentiation and depression of Deiters’neurons
to bilateral high frequency stimulation of hypothalamic supraoptic
and paraventricualar nuclei was studied,” researchers in Yerevan,
Armenia report (see also Elapid Venoms).

“The analysis of spike activity was carried out by mean of on-line
selection and special program. The complex averaged peri-event time and
frequency histograms shows the increase of inhibitory and excitatory
reactions of Deiters’ neurons at early stage of vestibular compensation
following PRP-1 and NOX injection, reaching the norm at the end of
tests. In histochemical study the changes in Ca2+-dependent acidic
phosphatase (AP) activity in neurons was discovered. It was shown
that in UL animals the total disappearance or delay of decolorizing
of Deiters’ neurons lead to neurodegenerative pattern as cellular
“shade”. AP activity after UL and PRP-1 injection exerts more effective
recovery of neurons in comparison with events, observed after the
administration of NOX,” wrote A.A. Galoyan and colleagues.

The researchers concluded: “The data of this study indicate that PRP-1
and NOX are protectors, which may successfully recover the disturbed
vestibular functions.”

Galoyan and colleagues published their study in Neurochemical Research
(Protective Effects of Hypothalamic Proline-Rich Peptide and Cobra
Venom Naja Naja Oxiana on Dynamics of Vestibular Compensation
Following Unilateral Labyrinthectomy. Neurochemical Research,
2010;35(11):1747-1760).

For additional information, contact V.H. Sarkisian, NAS RA, Orbeli
Institute Physiol, Yerevan, Armenia.

Publisher contact information for the journal Neurochemical Research
is: Springer, Plenum Publishers, 233 Spring St., New York, NY 10013,
USA.

From: A. Papazian

FREEDOM HOUSE CALLS ON ARMENIA TO LIBERALIZE ITS BROADCAST MEDIA

Targeted News Service
December 14, 2010 Tuesday 5:49 AM EST
WASHINGTON

The Freedom House issued the following news release:

Freedom House today called on the Government of Armenia to grant a
broadcasting license to A1+ television station, which has effectively
been shut down by the Armenian state since 2002.

On December 16th the Government of Armenia is expected to announce its
decision regarding new broadcast licenses after a moratorium on new
licenses, instituted in 2008, expired in July of this year. Armenian
authorities have denied twelve previous requests by A1+ for the
re-issuance of its license, despite a ruling in favor of the
independent outlet by the European Court of Human Rights in 2008.

A1+’s license was rescinded in 2002, in a move that was widely
thought to be due to the outlet’s criticism of the government. In
a show of symbolic support for the station, thousands of Armenians
have reportedly donated small amounts of money to a fund created to
assist A1+.

“A thirteenth denial of A1+’s lawful request for a license would be a
slap in the face to advocates of free media everywhere,” said David J.

Kramer, Freedom House Executive Director. “The people of Armenia,
through their efforts to assist A1+, have clearly shown their support
for press freedom. By re-issuing this license, Armenian authorities
will answer their call for a more pluralistic and independent media.”

In its 2010 Freedom of the Press index, Freedom House expressed
skepticism about a media law Armenia passed in April 2009 impacting
the issuance of broadcast licenses, specifically because it afforded
too little independence to the National Commission on Television
and Radio. The report also points to troublesome legislation passed
in August that places further restrictions on journalists through
registration requirements. Armenian press is currently considered
Not Free by the index.

“Ahead of 2012 parliamentary elections, there is a real opportunity
for the Government of Armenia to demonstrate its willingness not
only to turn the page in relation to the events of March 2008,
but to correct past wrongs from more than two years ago,” Freedom
House Senior Program Manager for Eurasia Sam Patten said, adding,
“friends of Armenia everywhere would no doubt welcome these two
concrete steps in the right direction.”

Armenia is ranked Partly Free in Freedom in the World 2010, Freedom
House’s survey of political rights and civil liberties, and Not Free
in Freedom of the Press 2010.

For more information on Armenia, visit:

Freedom in the World 2010: Armenia

Freedom of the Press 2010: Armenia

Nations in Transit 2010: Armenia

Freedom House is an independent watchdog organization that supports
democratic change, monitors the status of freedom around the world,
and advocates for democracy and human rights.

From: A. Papazian

ALEX PILIBOS STUDENTS WIN MOCK TRIAL AWARDS

Asbarez
Tuesday, December 14th, 2010
HOLLYWOOD

Haig Ter-Ghevondian and Harout Hamzoian, students at Rose and Alex
Pilibos Armenian School in Hollywood, received major awards at the
Los Angeles County Mock Trial competition awards ceremony on Monday,
November 29, 2010 at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse.

The Mock Trial competition is open to all schools, public and private,
in Los Angeles County. Each Mock Trial team is composed of prosecution
and defense attorneys and witnesses, and each team argues the case
created for the competition that year. Each team has a faculty sponsor
and an attorney coach to help them understand and argue the finer
points of the law in the case.

This year the Pilibos Mock Trial team’s attorney coach was an alumnus
of the school, Garo Daglian of the Daglian Law Group.

Haig Ter-Ghevondian was recognized for his performance in questioning
and cross-examining witnesses and delivering the defense’s closing
argument with the award for Outstanding Defense attorney.

Harout Hamzoian did such a good job of portraying the witness Chris
Draper that he was given the award for Outstanding Prosecution
Witness. This year almost 60 high schools, public and private,
participated in the Los Angeles county Mock Trial competition, and
the awards make no distinctions between public and private schools,
or between large and small schools.

“We are, of course, very proud of our students,” said Nazo Apanian,
principal of Rose and Alex Pilibos Armenian School, “who were
recognized out of the almost 1,000 total students who participated
in this competition. We are also equally proud of our school and our
teachers who provided them with the preparation and skills to perform
in such an outstanding manner. Special thanks must go to Garo Daglian
of the Daglian Law Group who generously donated his time and efforts
to help make our team such a great success this year.”

From: A. Papazian