Author: Andres-Papazian

US PLAYS GENOCIDE CARD TO PRESSURE TURKEY ON NATO MISSILE SYSTEM

armradio.am
22.10.2010 16:20

With already-troubled Turkey-U.S. ties further challenged by NATO
plans for a missile defense system, Washington is now attempting to
use one of the touchiest issues in the two countries’ relationship
to gain Turkish cooperation.

Frustrated by the growing divergence of views, the United States
has warned Turkey that it will not be able to block the adoption by
the U.S. Congress of a resolution on Armenian Genocide, the Hurriyet
Daily News & Economic Review has learned.

In official talks with Turkish authorities, U.S. officials said
Ankara’s policies on Iran, tensions with Israel and position on the
anti-missile system would determine the course of Turkish-American
relations and be a test case for how Turkey wants to position itself
going forward. Unless there is some improvement in these three areas,
Washington made clear through diplomatic channels, Turkey should not
be surprised to see a resolution recognizing Armenian Genocide pass
before the end of the year.

From: A. Papazian

THE EU-ARMENIA CIVIL SOCIETY SEMINAR ON THE RIGHT TO A FAIR TRIAL AND INDEPENDENCE OF THE JUDICIARY

armradio.am
22.10.2010 15:31

The EU-Armenia Civil Society Seminar on the Right to a Fair Trial
and Independence of the Judiciary will be held in Yerevan on November
9-10, 2010. The seminar, organised by the European Commission, will
feature civil society actors from Armenia and the EU including human
rights activists, litigants, and researchers; academics, members of
professional legal organizations, legal practitioners, and others.

The aim of the EU-Armenia Civil Society Seminar is to contribute to
the existing official EU- Armenia human rights dialogue by creating
a space for constructive discussions between academics and members
of civil society from both Armenia and the EU with the aim of feeding
the agenda of the official human rights dialogue with their knowledge
and views. The conclusions and recommendations of the seminar will
be discussed during the subsequent session of the bilateral human
rights dialogue between the EU and Armenia, which will be held in
December 2010 in Brussels.

The EU-Armenia Civil Society Seminar will provide an opportunity
for open discussions and recommendations for action regarding the
implementation of the right to a fair trial and the principle of
judicial independence with participants from Armenia and the EU. This
EU-Armenia Civil Society Seminar on the Right to a Fair Trial and
Independence of the Judiciary will discuss the problems and challenges
of, as well as the strategies for better implementation of the right
to a fair trial and ensuring the principle of judicial independence
in Armenia.

From: A. Papazian

STATE AGRARIAN UNIVERSITY OF ARMENIA MARKS 80TH ANNIVERSARY

armradio.am
22.10.2010 14:10

President Serzh Sargsyan participated in the sitting dedicated to the
80th anniversary of establishment of the State Agrarian University
of Armenia.

President Sargsyan congratulated the faculty and staff of the
University, the students and guests on the 80th anniversary of
establishment of the State Agrarian University and noted that it had
always been one of the leading higher educational establishments of
our country.

“Undoubtedly, great is the contribution of your alumnae in the
development of the Republic of Armenia. We could not have such Armenia
without the contribution of your alumnae and lecturers. Times change
and demands change. You face new requirements today. I’m confident that
you’ll manage to combine the experience of past 80 years and modern
science to find the key to the solution of the problems existing in
the agrarian sector,” the President stated.

President Serzh Sargsyan handed Anania Shirakatsi Medals to a number
of faculty members of the State Agrarian University of Armenia.

From: A. Papazian

SITTING OF THE ARMENIAN-RUSSIAN INTERGOVERNMENTAL COMMISSION DUE IN YEKATERINBURG

armradio.am
22.10.2010 11:25

The delegation headed by Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan has left for
the Russian Federation today to participate in the 12th sitting of the
Armenian-Russian Intergovernmental Commission on Economic Cooperation
to take place in the city of Yekaterinburg.

The delegation headed by the Prime Minister comprises the head of
Government Staff, David Sargsyan, Finance Minister Tigran Davtyan,
Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Armen Movsisyan, First
Deputy Minister of Economy Karine Minasyan, First Deputy Minister of
Territorial Administration Vache Terteryan, Deputy Foreign Minister
Shavarsh Kocharyan, Deputy Minister of Transport and Communication
Artashes Avetisyan, Deputy Minister of Education and Science Ara
Avetisyan, Deputy Minister of Culture Arthur Poghosyan, Deputy Minister
of Diaspora Stepan Petrosyan, Deputy Minister of Urban Development
Ruzan Alaverdyan, Armavir Marzpet Ashot Ghahramanyan, other officials.

From: A. Papazian

PAN-TURKIC SUMMIT IN ISTANBUL LOOKS TO FOSTER UNIFIED TURKIC IDENTITY

Asbarez
Thursday, October 21st, 2010

ISTANBUL (Hurriyet)-Delegates from Turkic countries gathered Thursday
in Istanbul at the World Turkic Forum to highlight the common ties
among their countries while promoting steps toward the creation of
a more overarching Turkic identity.

“In a globalized world, we want to spread our message to the world as
Turkic citizens,” said Nazim Ibrahimov, Azerbaijan’s Diaspora minister.

Participants made many references to the Silk Road and military
conquests in the same breath as goals for the countries to unite
under a common set of values.

“The main target of the forum is to improve our values, expand our
national values and make them international,” said Mahir Yagcilar,
the minister of environment for Kosovo, which has a sizeable Turkish
population. “The Turkish Republic is the mainland.”

Ahat Andıcan, a former state minister and professor at Istanbul
University, echoed Ibrahimov’s call, saying: “In the 21st century, we
will be the part [of the world] that is shaping the world. We should.
We must.”

Many proposed that Turkey adopt the role of steward and leader for
the Turkic world. But the idea didn’t receive unanimous support,
with some delegates raising issues with the notion.

“Our main problem is that we can’t put forward a country as the
regional leader. We lack a regional state that will pile up the
other countries under its roof,” said Fazil Mustafa, a member of the
Azerbaijan National assembly.

Turkey, in the past, had been unable to fulfill this role, Mustafa
said, citing as evidence the country’s inability to prevent the
Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh from breaking free from Azeri rule.

Meanwhile, Hakan Kirimli of Bilkent University said Turkey’s most
important task was to first protect the Turkic diaspora within its
own borders, including Tatars, Kazakhs, Turkmens, and people from
the Caucasus, Crimea, and the Balkan area.

He said many of these diaspora groups in Turkey actually outnumber
the population of their groups in their own homelands. “Protecting
those societies means protecting a whole culture.”

Pinar Akcali from Middle East Technical University said Turkey’s
improving relationship with Turkic countries was partly the result
of its deteriorating relationship with the West and added that such a
trend would give Turkey a chance to develop its relations with other
parts of the world, including the Turkic one.

Although some Turkic countries are performing well economically and
others have the benefit of natural resources, many Turkic countries
are not particularly rich economically, according to Mustafa. “The
21st century, in terms of the economy, will not be a Turkic century,”
he said.

There are also many political problems between Turkic countries, with
Hasan Ali Karasar calling attention to the brutal violence that has
sporadically occurred between the local Uzbek community and ethnic
Kyrgyz in Kyrgyzstan.

“For four years we have been discussing how to improve inter-Turkic
relations,” said Karasar. “Still the government [of Kyrgyzstan]
has not been effective. The Kyrgyz president made some important steps.

Luckily we have stopped the violence – for now.”

From: A. Papazian

PRESS RELEASE
Armenoid Productions Inc.
1913 NW 49TH Ave.
Coconut Creek, FL 33063
Contact: Bared Maronian
Tel: 954-646-0944
Email: [email protected]
Web:

October 19, 2010

`Orphans of the Genocide’ gets nominated for an Emmy

On October 18, 2010 The Suncoast Chapter of the National Academy of
Television Arts and Sciences nominates the seven minute version of
`Orphans of the Genocide’ for an Emmy Award in the category of
Historical Documentary.
`Orphans of the Genocide` is an 18 minute documentary produced by
the Armenoid Team about the untold story of over 130,000 Armenian
children left parentless as a direct result of the Armenian Genocide
perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire during WWI. These orphans were saved
and documented
by the United States Congress commissioned, Near East Relief
organization.
`Our Emmy nomination is great news, it will generate more
confidence in our next phase of production’, says Bedo Der-Bedrossian,
one of the producers of `Orphans of the Genocide’. Currently, the
Armenoid Team is working on expanding this 18 minute documentary to a
one hour film. `We have interviewed orphans and their families and
have lined up a number of experts and scholars in this field for
interviews`, adds co-producer Paul Andonian.
For the production of the one hour version, The Armenoid Team has
widened its scope of research and coverage beyond United States and has
explored the international arena for fact finding missions. In Canada
the team documented and filmed the designation ceremony of the
`Georgetown Boys’ farmhouse into a historical sight in Ontario,
Canada this past June.
`Georgetown Boys’ is a group of Armenian orphans brought to Canada
in early Twenties and given shelter. `We just returned from filming
three crucial locales in the Middle East where Armenian genocide orphans
were housed. One of them is the Antoura Orphanage where 1,000 armenian
orphans were being turkified under direct orders from the commander of
the 4th Ottoman Army, Djemal Pasha, who appointed Halideh Edib Adivar,
the most prominent feminist of the Ottoman Empire as the directress of
this turkification center ‘, concludes the director of the documentary
and founder of the Armenoid Team, Bared Maronian.
[email protected]

From: A. Papazian

CNN INTERNATIONAL TO FEATURE THE DEFENSE OF MUSA DAGH

Asbarez
Thursday, October 21st, 2010

CNN International will feature this weekend a report covering the
heroic defense of Musa Dagh during the Armenian Genocide. The segment,
produced by Yerkir Media for broadcast on CNN, will mark the 95th
anniversary of the famed resistance against the Turkish army in 1915.

Reporting the story will be Yerkir Media correspondent Gayane
Avetisyan. It will feature footage from a recent commemoration of
the anniversary in Armenia, as well as interviews with Musa-Dagh
descendants living in Armenia.

Armenian communities around the world that trace their heritage to
this once thriving city in Asia Minor celebrate the anniversary every
year, with a unique festival and reenactments of the resistance. Of
the hundreds of villages, towns, and cities across the Ottoman Empire
whose Armenian population was ordered removed to the Syrian desert,
Musa Dagh was one of only four sites where Armenians organized a
defense of their community against the deportation edicts issued by
the Young Turk regime beginning in April 1915.

By the time the Armenians of the six villages at the base of Musa
Dagh were instructed to evict their homes, the inhabitants had grown
suspicious of the government~Rs ultimate intentions and chose instead
to retreat up the mountain and to defy the evacuation order. Musa
Dagh, or the Mountain of Moses, stood on the Mediterranean Sea south
of the coastal town of Alexandretta (modern-day Iskenderun) and west
of ancient Antioch.

With a few hundred rifles and the entire store of provisions from
their villages, the Armenians on Musa Dagh put up a fierce resistance
against a number of attempts by the regular Turkish army to flush them
out. Outnumbered and outgunned, the Armenians had little expectations
of surviving the siege of the mountain when food stocks were depleted
after a month.

Their only hope was a chance rescue by an Allied vessel that might be
patrolling the Mediterranean coast. When two large banners hoisted by
the Armenians were sighted by a passing French warship, swimmers went
out to meet it. Eventually five Allied ships moved in to transport
the entire population of men, women, and children, more than four
thousand in all.

The Armenians of Musa Dagh had endured for fifty three days from
July 21 to September 12, 1915. They were disembarked at Port Said
in Egypt and remained in Allied refugee camps until the end of World
War I when they returned to their homes. As part of the district of
Alexandretta, or Hatay, Musa Dagh remained under French Mandate until
1939. The Musa Dagh Armenians abandoned their villages for a second,
and final, time when the area was annexed by Turkey.

In the face of the complete decimation of the Armenian communities
of the Ottoman Empire, Musa Dagh became a symbol of the Armenian
will to survive. Of the three other sites where Armenians defied
the deportation orders, Shabin Karahissar, Urfa, and Van, only
the Armenians of Van were rescued when the siege of their city was
lifted by an advancing Russian army. The Armenians of Urfa and Shabin
Karahissar were either massacred or deported. Musa Dagh stood as
the sole instance where the Western Allies at war with the Ottomans
averted the death of a community during the Armenian Genocide.

The CNN segment on this positive moment in a dark history will air
on CNN International on the following dates and times:

Friday, Oct. 22: 10:30PM PST Saturday, Oct. 23: 6:30 AM PST
Sunday, Oct. 24: 6:30 PM PST Monday, Oct. 25: 1:30 AM PST Tuesday,
Oct. 26: 8:30 PM PST It will also be available online Monday at

From: A. Papazian

Armenian National Committee of America-Western Region
104 North Belmont Street, Suite 200
Glendale, California 91206
Tel: (818) 500-1918

PRESS RELEASE
October 21, 2010
Contact: Shant Nahapetian
Tel: (818) 500-1918

ANCA-WR ENDORSES CANDIDATES FOR CALIFORNIA STATE ASSEMBLY AND SENATE

GLENDALE, CA—The Armenian National Committee of America-Western Region
(ANCA-WR) on Thursday announced the endorsements of the following candidates
for the California State Assembly and Senate based on their commitment to
supporting issues important to Armenian Americans and their relationship
with our community. The ANCA-WR urges Armenian Americans across the state to
cast their ballots for these candidates on November 2nd.

State Assembly Districts

1 – Wesley Chesbro
2 – Jim Nielsen
3 – Dan Logue
4 – Ted Gaines
6 – Jared Huffman
10 – Alyson l. Huber
12 – Fiona Ma
13 – Tom Ammiano
14 – Nancy Skinner
15 – Joan Buchanan
16 – Sandré R. Swanson
17 – Cathleen Galgiani
18 – Mary Hayashi
19 – Jerry Hill
22 – Paul Fong
24 – Jim Beall
26 – Bill Berryhill
27 – Bill Monning
33 – K.H. “Katcho” Achadjian
34 – Connie Conway
36 – Steve Knight
38 – Cameron M. Smyth
40 – Bob Blumenfield
41 – Julia Brownley
42 – Mike Feuer
43 – Mike Gatto
44 – Anthony J. Portantino
45 – Gil Cedillo
46 – John A. Perez
48 – Mike Davis
49 – Mike Eng
50 – Ricardo Lara
51 – Steven Bradford
52 – Isadore Hall
54 – Bonnie Lowenthal
55 – Warren Furutani
56 – Tony Mendoza
58 – Charles M. Calderon
60 – Curt Hagman
61 – Norma J. Torres
62 – Wilmer Amina Carter
64 – Brian Nestande
65 – Paul Cook
66 – Kevin D. Jeffries
67 – Jim Silva
69 – Jose Solorio
71 – Jeff Miller
72 – Chris Norby
73 – Diane L. Harkey
74 – Martin Garrick
75 – Nathan Fletcher
78 – Marty Block
80 – V. Manuel Perez

State Senate Districts

2 – Noreen Evans
6 – Darrell Steinberg
8 – Leland Yee
10 – Ellen M. Corbett
12 – Anna Caballero
14 – Tom Berryhill
18 – Jean Fuller
20 – Alex Padilla
22 – Kevin De Leon
24 – Ed Hernandez
26 – Curren D. Price, Jr.
30 – Ronald S. Calderon
32 – Gloria Negrete McLeod
34 – Lou Correa
36 – Joel Anderson
38 – Mark Wyland

The Armenian National Committee of America-Western Region is the largest and
most influential Armenian American grassroots advocacy organization in the
Western United States. Working in coordination with a network of offices,
chapters, and supporters throughout the Western United States and affiliated
organizations around the country, the ANCA-WR advances the concerns of the
Armenian American community on a broad range of issues.

From: A. Papazian

“ORPHANS OF THE GENOCIDE” NOMINATED FOR EMMY AWARD

PanARMENIAN.Net
October 22, 2010 – 11:30 AMT 06:30 GMT

By the end of WWI over 150,000 Armenian children were left parentless
as a direct result of the Armenian Genocide perpetrated by the
Ottoman Authorities.

Near East Relief commissioned by the U.S. Congress catered to over
132,000 Armenian orphans alone. “Orphans of the Genocide” is a short
film produced by the Armenoid Team.

This short documentary includes a feature interview by Maurice Missak
Kelechian, whose findings unveiled the secrets of an orphanage in
Antoura near Beirut, Lebanon, where 1,000 Armenian Genocide Orphans
were being turkified. Mr. Kelechian’s research prompted an article by
award winning journalist Robert Fisk of The Independent magazine. This
short documentary also includes testimonials from children of Armenian
Genocide orphans. This 18 minute documentary debuted on April 24,
2010 at the commemoration of the 95th anniversary of the Armenian
Genocide in Hollywood Florida. The one hour version of “Orphans of the
Genocide” will include a feature interview by award winning journalist
Robert Fisk.

The Armenoid Team is currently working on expanding “Orphans of the
Genocide” to a one hour film.

From: A. Papazian

ARCHEOLOGICAL RESEARCH AGAIN PROVED KARABAKH TO BE HISTORICAL ARMENIAN LAND

PanARMENIAN.Net
October 22, 2010 – 14:55 AMT 09:55 GMT

The archeological research carried out in Artsakh once again proved
this land to be historically Armenian.

The excavations in Kashatagh region of NKR revealed resemblance of
the local culture with the culture of the Armenian Plateau.

“The tombs found in the north of Kashatagh region give reason to
assert that the local culture developed under the Urartian influence
in 5-7 centuries BC,” Artak Gnuni told journalists in Yerevan.

“It means that Karabakh was a part of the ancient Armenian state,”
he said.

From: A. Papazian