ARMENIAN CHESS PLAYERS ON THE U.S. CHAMPIONSHIP
Aysor
July 15 2010
Armenia
Tatev Abrahamyan, FIDE master received 4 points from the possible
5 in the U.S. women’s championship taking place in St. Luis. She is
behind the leader grandmaster Anna Zatonskikh with half points only.
Grandmaster Katerina Rohonyan has received 1.5 points the Armenian
chess federation informs.
From: A. Papazian
WITNESS TO GENOCIDE
Pasadena Weekly
July 15 2010
CA
How one survivor of the Armenian Genocide made peace with the past,
and why the United States has yet to do likewise
For 400 miles Flora Munushian Mouradian and her family marched, the
dead and dying underfoot as nearly an entire nation inched closer
to oblivion.
This forced exodus from Turkey was filled with horrors, and by its
end the 14-year-old Mouradian would see her share of them — Turkish
soldiers trying to abduct her and her sister, the disappearance
of her brother at the hands of the same soldiers, the death of her
grandmother during the march to Syria, and camps filled with tens of
thousands of Armenians on the brink of starvation.
So slim was the chance of survival that Mouradian’s parents chose to
abandon her and her sister along the way in an unfamiliar Syrian city,
where she would be sold into a harem before stealing away to the
United States, while her mother and father were forced to continue
on for at least 100 more miles, never knowing what would become of
their teenage daughters.
Mouradian lived to tell her story, and it is now one of many
being entered into the Congressional Record to propel US leaders
over increasingly complicated political obstacles keeping the United
States from officially recognizing the Armenian Genocide, in which 1.5
million people perished at the hands of the Ottoman Empire between
1915 and 1923. That recognition could carry enough weight to force
reparations from the government in modern-day Turkey — a strategically
positioned US ally in a volatile region — and bring some solace to a
culture that has long been denied peace, say descendents of Armenian
Genocide survivors.
“What other country will be the most powerful country to stand
up and say this happened and it should be corrected, it should be
recognized?” asked Katia Kusherian, a Glendale resident who submitted
three stories of her family’s struggle to Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena,
who is heading up the project. “Otherwise, the souls of the dead
cannot be in peace, and our souls are not in peace.”
‘Pain that never sleeps’ Memories of the death march, which began in
1915 after the reformist and nationalistic Young Turks came to power
in the Ottoman Empire, haunted Mouradian from the time she set foot in
Boston, a member of the growing Armenian diaspora fleeing persecution
that would continue through 1923 under the Young Turks’ equally
ethnically exclusive predecessors, the Turkish Nationalists. Bottled
for decades, the torment would escape in bursts when Mouradian tried
to relate her ordeal to her young daughter, Kay Mouradian.
“Hunger is a pain that never sleeps,” Kay Mouradian, now a South
Pasadena resident, recalled her mother saying.
But it wasn’t until 1984, at the onset of series of cathartic brushes
with death, that Flora Mouradian would finally overcome profound
feelings of self-pity and grief over losing what could have been
some of the most enjoyable years in life. It was then, too, that her
daughter saw the value in recording her mother’s horrific experience.
At 83 and diagnosed with a terminal heart condition following a heart
attack, Flora came to South Pasadena to stay with her daughter to
live out what a doctor expected would be her last days. Kay figured
those days would be very few; dementia had already made strangers of
friends and family in Flora’s mind, and tremors kept her from feeding
herself as her health declined in the years prior.
But, gradually and inexplicably, Flora became more alert, more active
and, as her daughter tells it, the “dark shadow” so much death and
suffering created suddenly lifted. The tremors stopped, she rekindled
friendships with people she was unable to recognize months earlier
and the hardness tragedy had forged in her heart began to soften. “I
just can’t explain it. It was as if all the trauma that had fallen
upon her was completely released,” Kay said.
But health problems landed Flora in the hospital again soon after. One
night as she seemed to be leaving the living world, she returned
again, this time with a sibylline prophecy. “Do you know why I’m still
here?” she asked her daughter. “Because if I died, nobody would know.”
Then she told her daughter she would write a book about her life,
and Kay set out soon after to trace the desert path her ancestors
walked during their forced deportation.
One of the stories Flora relayed to her daughter began in Aleppo,
Syria, where her mother and father left her and her sister before
walking to their likely demise. That’s where the then-14-year-old
Flora was sold to a wealthy Turkish man who made her the newest member
of his harem. But as she was being carted off, Flora pleaded with a
young Armenian boy in the street to tell her sister what had happened
to her. The same night, her sister donned Muslim garb and snuck her
away from the harem, her daughter said, and a Syrian family then gave
her refuge until she left for the United States.
‘The bastards!’ Researching for a book about her mother’s struggle,
Flora in 1988 was in Aleppo searching for relatives of the family
that took in her mother after she escaped the rich man’s harem. Then
she learned her mother was back in the hospital for the fourth time.
When Kay arrived at the hospital, her mother was on her side in
bed in the cardiac care unit. “I don’t know why I didn’t die,” her
mother whispered.
Days later Kay was bewildered to find her mother sitting straight up
in the hospital bed bellowing in Turkish, a language she hadn’t used
in 50 years, before reverting back to English.
“They took my education! They took my family! Do you know what it
was like? I went crazy!” Flora shouted. “The bastards!”
With that, the Turks seemed to gain atonement and Flora a peace that
lasted until her death in South Pasadena in 1989, her daughter said.
Doomed to repeat Glendale and Pasadena are home to one of the largest
Armenian populations in the country, and for years Congressman Schiff,
who represents the area, has tried to convince Congress of the need to
formally characterize the 1.5 million Armenian deaths as a genocide,
as France, Belgium, Russia, Italy, Canada and more than 20 other
countries have already done. But legislation that would accomplish
that goal has fallen prey to the political process each time it’s
been introduced, due in large part to this country’s strong political
relationship with Turkey, a key ally in the Middle East that to this
day denies the massacres and death marches ever happened.
But Schiff is hoping the Turkish government’s recent actions in support
of Iran, which he said complicated US diplomatic efforts to curtail
Tehran’s nuclear capability, its complicity in the recent fatal Gaza
aid flotilla raid and its changing sentiment toward Israel may finally
break the hold diplomacy has had on recognizing what most historians
consider a crime against humanity.
“If we are to assert our moral leadership in the fight for human
rights, we cannot pick and choose which genocides to recognize,”
Schiff said. “Every year, the Turkish lobby fights recognition with a
multimillion-dollar lobbying effort. But Turkey’s recent decision to
embrace Iran, its attempt to block sanctions against Iran’s nuclear
program and its defense of the clerical regime’s crackdown on its own
people should cause members of Congress to question their willingness
to back its campaign of genocide denial.”
Now, in what he calls an effort to educate his colleagues on the
importance of recognizing the genocide, Schiff is making the stories
of Flora Mouradian and other survivors part of the national record.
But while Ankara’s actions may not be winning any new friends
in Congress, Turkey’s position as a US trading partner, ally and
NATO member give it a strong enough position to continue denying
the genocide despite the recent developments, according to Levon
Marashlian, a Glendale Community College history professor who’s
written opinion pieces about Armenian-Turkish relations for newspapers
here and abroad.
“I’m not sure that the real tension that exists now is enough to
overcome those other factors,” Marashlian said. “Turkey is still
viewed in Washington as a valuable ally, so its image has declined
a bit, but it’s nowhere near being an out-and-out break.”
Call for revival Glendale’s Katia Kusherian, who submitted stories
on her family’s ouster from the ancient Armenian capital Tigranakert,
said the near-perennial defeat of legislation recognizing the genocide
has been a constant disappointment to Armenians here who want their
adopted country to recognize the atrocities that brought many of them
here. “My expectation is justice with a capital J,” Kusherian said.
“Armenian people all hope that this time is the time. We have been
disappointed year after year. For political reasons we can’t just
ignore the justice, ignore the truth. This is a moral thing, and
without morals any country will go down.”
What exactly would happen if the United States were to recognize the
genocide is uncertain, but some hope it would bring about the return
of property and territory taken by the Turks. “The dream for a lot of
Armenians is that we gain all that territory back and once again call
it Armenia, but I doubt that will ever happen,” Kay Mouradian said.
But, as a retired educator, Mouradian said she would rather see Turkey
sponsor a college fund for Armenian students. “We lost our best and
brightest, and it’s taken 96 years for the Armenian intelligentsia
to revive,” she said.
Mouradian said it could also heal the rift that exists between Turks
and Armenians in the Middle East and clear up misconceptions that
hinder greater cultural unity. “The ordinary citizen in Turkey has
no knowledge of what happened at that time. They have an opinion of
Armenians as bad people,” she said.
From: A. Papazian
HRANT MELQUMYAN RECEIVED 6 POINTS FROM THE POSSIBLE 7
Aysor
July 15 2010
Armenia
Grandmaster Hrant Melkumyan in the open that is held in the Spanish
Benask city has received 6 points from the possible 7 and is behind the
leaders with half points only. The leaders are Grandmasters Georgev,
Safarli and Fier. Grandmasters Karen Movsisyan, Zaven Andriasyan and
international master Grigori-Sevak Mkhitaryan have received 5.5 points
each, Remi Artinyan 3.5, informs the Armenian Chess Federation.
From: A. Papazian
EU SEEKS CLOSER TIES WITH GEORGIA, AZERBAIJAN AND ARMENIA
Earthtime
July 15 2010
Brussels – The European Union moved Thursday to strengthen ties with
countries in the South Caucasus by announcing the start of talks on
association agreements with Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia.
The three countries are part of the EU’s so-called Eastern Partnership,
a policy aimed to boost economic and political cooperation with former
Soviet countries which also includes Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus.
Within that policy, association agreements are meant to reinforce
cooperation on issues such as trade, visa-free travel and environmental
protection.
The EU’s foreign policy director Catherine Ashton, who flew to
Georgia to launch of negotiations with the country, said the deals
would “impact positively not just on political relations but also on
people’s lives, in terms of economic opportunities, easier contacts
with people from the EU, the environment.”
EU-Azerbaijan talks are due to start on Friday in Baku, while
negotiations between the EU and Armenia are expected to set off on
July 19 in Yerevan.
The bloc is already negotiating similar deals with Ukraine and Moldova,
while contacts with Belarus are restricted due to President Alexander
Lukashenko’s authoritarian regime.
From: A. Papazian
ARMENIAN-AZERI TENSIONS MOUNT DESPITE NEW INTERNATIONAL PUSH FOR KARABAKH PEACE
Emil Danielyan
Georgian Daily
July 15 2010
Georgia
Tension between Armenia and Azerbaijan has risen significantly over
the past month despite a renewed international push for a resolution
to the Karabakh conflict.
The US, Russia and France are again pressing the conflicting parties
to finalize a framework peace accord drafted by the three mediating
powers. They hope that the Armenian and Azeri foreign ministers will
make decisive progress at their upcoming meeting in Kazakhstan. Yet,
with both sides ratcheting up mutually hostile rhetoric and continuing
to make markedly different interpretations of the mediators’ peace
proposals, the prospects for a peace accord appear slim.
The latest upsurge in their bitter recriminations was sparked by a
deadly firefight that took place in the northernmost section of the
main Armenian-Azeri “line of contact” around Karabakh on the night
of June 18. One Azeri and four Armenian soldiers were killed in what
Yerevan says was an Azeri attack on a Karabakh Armenian army outpost
(Armenian Public Television, June 19). The fact that they all lost
their lives in Armenian-controlled territory was cited by the Armenian
side as proof that the most serious ceasefire violation in the conflict
zone reported in over two years was instigated by Azerbaijan.
Authorities in Baku blamed the Armenians for the fighting. An Azeri
foreign ministry spokesman said it resulted from the “continuing
occupation of Azeri lands” (Trend, June 19). Baku claimed to have
held one of its largest military exercises, monitored by President,
Ilham Aliyev, in the following days. Speaking after the reported war
games, Aliyev again threatened to win back, by force, Karabakh and
Azeri districts surrounding it, if the long-running peace process
yields no agreement acceptable to Baku (APA, June 25).
Meanwhile, Armenian President, Serzh Sargsyan, and Defense Minister,
Seyran Ohanian, paid apparently urgent visits to Karabakh,
highlighting what some observers see as the increased risk of
another Armenian-Azerbaijani war. Sargsyan met with Karabakh’s ethnic
Armenian leaders, inaugurated a new Karabakh Armenian military base and
visited hospitalized soldiers who were wounded in the June 18 incident
(Statement by the Armenian presidential press office, June 24).
The firefight occurred the day after Sargsyan and Aliyev met in St.
Petersburg for fresh talks hosted by Russian President, Dmitry
Medvedev. In an ensuing statement, the Kremlin said the two leaders
narrowed their differences on “several contentious provisions of the
text of the basic principles of the settlement.” It did not elaborate
any details.
Armenian officials said later that Medvedev presented Aliyev and
Sargsyan with a newly revised version of the “basic principles” that
were first put forward by mediators in Madrid in November 2007. They
claimed that unlike Sargsyan, Aliyev did not like those proposals and
ordered the truce violation to demonstrate his frustration with the
new twist in the negotiating process. The Azeri leader reportedly cut
short his trip to St. Petersburg and cancelled his participation in
a Kremlin-sponsored international economic forum that began on June 18.
“Clearly, Aliyev was unhappy,” Deputy Foreign Minister, Shavarsh
Kocharian, told the Yerevan newspaper, Iravunk, in an interview on
July 9.
Azeri officials insisted, however, that Medvedev did not propose a
new peace plan on behalf of the US, Russian and French co-chairs of
the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk
Group. Foreign Ministry Spokesman, Elkhan Polukhov, told journalists
that the co-chairs stand by what they call an “updated version” of
the Madrid principles that was submitted to the parties in December
2009 and January 2010 (APA, 5 July). Baku has maintained that it
accepts the principles “with several exceptions,” whereas Yerevan is
dragging its feet. Armenian leaders have commented rather ambiguously
on that document, saying only that its original version remains a
“basis for negotiations.”
The mediators themselves have avoided publicly clarifying the
situation, just as they stepped up their efforts to broker a
peaceful settlement. In a rare joint statement issued on June 27
during the G8 summit in Canada, Medvedev, US President, Barack Obama,
and French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, urged their Armenian and Azeri
counterparts to “complete the work on the basic principles to enable
the drafting of a peace agreement to begin.” They stressed that the
peace framework must also be based on the OSCE’s “Helsinki Principles,”
which include the territorial integrity of states, peoples’ right to
self-determination and non-use of force (Trend, June 27).
Both Baku and Yerevan reacted positively to the statement, with
each side saying that Washington, Moscow and Paris upheld its own
vision of Karabakh peace. In particular, Armenian Foreign Minister,
Edward Nalbandian, singled out the mediators’ support for the
principle of self-determination championed by the Armenian side
(, June 28). The Armenian authorities say
that under the Madrid principles, Karabakh’s predominantly Armenian
population would be able to vote for independence, reunification with
Armenia, or return to Azeri rule in a future referendum.
Nalbandian’s Azeri counterpart, Elmar Mammadyarov, insisted on July
9 that the existing peace plan contains no such provisions. He said
it only envisages the creation of a “committee” of representatives
of Armenia, Azerbaijan and the mediating nations that would decide,
by consensus, “how to solve the issue of status” (Trend, July 9).
The ambiguous wording of the joint Obama, Medvedev and Sarkozy
statement only facilitated such diametrically opposed interpretations.
The statement’s English-language original says vaguely that the main
issue of contention would be settled through “a legally-binding
expression of will.” However, its official Russian translation
released by Medvedev’s office (and cited by Armenia) stipulates
“the determination of the future final status of Karabakh by a
legally-binding expression of the will of its population.”
The three leaders also said they are instructing their foreign
ministers to “work intensively to assist the two sides to overcome
their differences” before and during Mammadyarov and Nalbandian’s next
meeting due on the sidelines of the OSCE’s July 16-17 ministerial
conference in Almaty. US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, did
that during her July 5 talks with Aliyev and Sargsyan in Baku and
Yerevan respectively. However, Clinton afterwards gave no indication,
at least in public that an Armenian-Azeri peace deal is likely in
the weeks or even months to come.
From: A. Papazian
IRAN-ARMENIA TO LAY PIPELINE IN FALL
Press TV
July 15 2010
Iran
Armenian Minister of Oil and Natural Resources Armen Movsisyan says
the project to lay the Iran-Armenia oil pipeline will be undertaken
by fall 2010.
The pipeline will carry petrol and diesel fuel from Tabriz refineries
in northwestern Iran to the Armenian city of Ersakh, Movsisyan said.
“It is estimated that the oil pipeline will cost $160-180 million,
and Armenia and Iran will split financing for the project fifty-fifty.
There is an agreement with the Iranian side that Iran will invest in
the project and Armenia will pay its part as it receives dividends,”
the Public Radio of Armenia quoted Movsisyan as telling a press
conference on Thursday.
Movsisyan added that Yerevan and Tehran would be the only investors in
the project for the time being but a tender would be held for private
companies to participate in the plan after the pipeline is complete.
The news comes despite the US-sponsored sanctions against Iran over its
peaceful nuclear activities. The sanctions are, among other things,
aimed at restricting Iran’s energy ties with the international
community.
From: A. Papazian
KARAPETYAN: CONCEDING THE TURKS WILL BRING TO NEW DEMANDS
Aysor
July 15 2010
Armenia
Turkey can’t be presented to the international community as a state
supporting peace and regional stability until it solves the Cyprus and
Kurdish issues, said Tigran Karapetyan today on the press conference.
The speaker said that in the frameworks of the reconciliation process
of the Armenian – Turkish relations the attempts of Ankara to appear
as a country having constructive disposition are not reasonable.
“Having problems concerning Cyprus and being at war against the Kurds
how can Turkey be considered peacekeeper and an initiator of stability
platform,” the speaker said.
In this concern Mr. Karapetyan said that the Turkish – Azerbaijani
tandem will try to get concessions in all possible ways in the
Karabakh issue settlement process. The speaker thinks that conceding
any liberated region to Turks will bring to new demands.
“I am sure that the Turk will not be satisfied with it. The Turks
have just one goal to destroy Armenia,” said the speaker, stressing
that every Armenian has a patriotic spirit and he can confront any
challenge.
From: A. Papazian
TURKEY TO OPEN BORDER WITH ARMENIA IN SEPTEMBER
Armen Hareyan
HULIQ.com
July 15 2010
SC
For the first time Turkey will participate in a NATO exercise in
Armenia this September and because of this reason it may reopen its
border with Armenia, but only for special purposes.
NATO will hold a military drill in Armenia between September 11 and
17. In a story published originally by Turkish language Radical and d
by Hurryiet the author quotes anonymous diplomatic sources concluding
that the border between Turkey and Armenia will be opened on this
occasion to bring in machines for the drill.
However, the newspaper continues, this will not be an official
opening. It does not say the border will close again after the drill,
but says the border will serve humanitarian purposes and will operate
under special arrangement.
Earlier this month the the governor of Kars was asked by the higher
central authorities about how long it would have taken should the
border open. The answer was one month. This request of information
created “public excitement in Kars,” Radical writes, pointing that
the border opening is equally needed for the regions of the eastern
Turkey to boost their economy and trade with Armenia and improve
living conditions in Eastern provinces of Turkey.
“Although the Turkish-Armenian border is not open yet due to
serious political problems, Turkey will allow preparations for such
a humanitarian assistance drill when requested,” Radical writes and
concludes that this joint drill will help to mend ties between Armenia
and Turkey.
Turkey has unilaterally closed its border with Armenia, blockading
the country, because of its support to Azerbaijan. The irony is that
Turkey requests Israel to lift the blockade of Gaza while blockading
Armenia itself.
In 2009 Armenia and Turkey signed two protocols aimed at normalizing
relations and opening the border. However, there was not enough
political will in Turkey to realize the project by ratifying those
protocols in parliaments. Turkey conditioned normalization with
Armenia to latter’s relations with Azerbaijan. Armenia says the
protocols have no relations to a third party.
Now the process is in a deadlock. Observers hope the September events
and the opening of the border for a humanitarian purpose may help to
move the process forward and mend ties between Turkey and Armenia.
From: A. Papazian
TURKISH FM WILL MEET WITH AZERBAIJANI, ARMENIAN COUNTERPARTS
Trend
July 15 2010
Azerbaijan
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu will hold talks with
Azerbaijani and Armenian Counterparts Elmar Mammadyarov and Edward
Nalbandian in Almaty, the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reported.
The meetings will be held in the framework of the OSCE summit to
be held in Kazakhstan July 16-17. The Turkish minister will hold
bilateral meetings with Mammadyarov and Nalbandian, the paper reported.
Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers Elmar Mammadyarov and
Edward Nalbandian may meet with their French, Russian and U.S.
counterparts Bernard Kouchner, Sergei Lavrov and Hillary Clinton at
the upcoming OSCE summit in Almaty, OSCE reported earlier.
France, Russia and the United States co-chair the OSCE Minsk Group –
the primary mechanism for peace talks on resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict. Negotiations within the Minsk Group have been held since
1994.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988
when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian
armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan since 1992,
including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and 7 surrounding districts.
From: A. Papazian
SEMINAR FOR THE NATIONAL MINORITIES LIVING IN ARMENIA
Aysor
July 15 2010
Armenia
Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) is organizing a workshop
on Citizen Journalism for Representatives of National Minorities in
23-25 July, 2010.
The seminar is organized for the representatives of national minorities
who are under 30 and are living in Armenia.
During the workshop the representatives of national minorities will
get acquainted with information dissemination tools in Internet,
as well as basic principles and ethics that guide journalism. The
seminar will include theoretical and practical studies. At the end of
the seminar, the chosen participants are obliged to represent a work
on their community problems which could be posted on the Internet,
blogs and social networks.
As a result of the seminar, the participants will obtain skills which
will give them the opportunity to give voice to their community and
its concerns through the Internet.
On the first day of the workshop, the participants will get acquainted
with a number of Internet tools and programmes; they will gain skills
on Internet writing and posting their own stories there without the
use of many resources and will do practical assignments.
The second day of the seminar will be dedicated to opening blogs,
norms of blogging and effective information dissemination through
social networks.
As a result of the workshop, the participants will be able to open
blogs, learn how to use them efficiently and will apply the skills
gained right in the course of the seminar by preparing their own
photo and video stories. At the end of the seminar, each of the
participants will have their own blog which then could be used as a
means of representing their community or organization, their problems
and news through the Internet.
The workshop will be conducted by Gegham Vardanyan of Internews Media
Support NGO and Arthur Papyan, an expert at Media Diversity Institute.
The seminar is organized by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting
supported by funding from the Foreign Ministry of Norway.
From: A. Papazian