Author: Andres-Papazian

NorthJersey.com
April 25 2014

Hackensack service remembers victims of Armenian Genocide

April 24, 2014, 5:39 PM Last updated: Thursday, April 24, 2014, 6:43 PM
By Monsy Alvarado

Armenian Genocide remembrance

NorthJersey.com

A requiem service to remember 1.5 million killed

HACKENSACK — More than 100 people stood outside the Bergen County
Courthouse to pray, sing hymns, and lay red carnations during a
requiem service Thursday for the victims of the Armenian Genocide.

VIOREL FLORESCU /STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Members of the Armenian clergy perform a service at the Armenian
Genocide Remembrance plaque during a memorial event in Hackensack.

The county’s annual Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day was held near a
stone and plaque dedicated to the estimated 1.5 million Armenians who
were killed by the Ottoman Turks from 1915 to 1923. Speakers at the
event, with strong winds swirling around them, stressed that although
99 years had passed since the massacres began they should never be
forgotten.

“Make sure your children know the story of your family, what happened
to them, and why they are here,” said John Lawrence Shahdanian, past
commander of the Knights of Vartan, who organized the event and whose
paternal grandfather was among those killed. “It’s very important that
we keep the story alive.”

The mass killings started April 24, 1915 when nearly 300 Armenian
intellectuals and community leaders were rounded up and massacred by
the Turks. The 1.5 million count include those killed or who died of
exhaustion, starvation and sickness along the journey out of Turkey
and in desert camps.

Some historians believe that the deportations and killings of
Armenians by the Turks provided a roadmap for other atrocities that
followed, including the Holocaust.

“The Jews always tell their people to ‘never forget,’ and they are
right. When Hitler started the Holocaust, he said that no one
remembered the Armenians. The Armenian Genocide had happened just 20
years before and no one remembered,” Shahdanian said.

This week, the Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogen offered
condolences for the first time for the mass killings saying they had
“inhumane consequences,” but the Turkish government continues to deny
that a genocide took place.

Turkey maintains that many of those who perished were killed in
battles during World War I, and that ethnic Turks were also lost in
those conflicts.

The guest speaker at the county event, Khatchig Mouradian, editor of
The Armenian Weekly, told the audience that what strikes him every
year when he attends commemorations is the absence of survivors.

“Perhaps my generation is the last generation that saw survivors,
lived with grandmothers who were survivors and saw survivors at
genocide commemorations,” he said.

He also talked about how many people living in Turkey are discovering
that their grandmothers, and great grandmothers were Armenian.

“This is a very powerful moment in our history, it’s a powerful moment
because the Armenian Genocide is not only commemorated by Armenians
around the world and many non-Armenians around the world, but
increasingly in Turkey as well,” he said.

Rosezenian Cravotta, of Englewood Cliffs, said her grandparents and
parents, when they were children, fled Turkey to Syria during the
genocide after family members had been murdered. She couldn’t help but
think of the Armenians living in Syria who find themselves in another
conflict.

“Syria opened up its doors, and it’s amazing to me that nobody today
mentioned anything about all the Armenians who are suffering in
Syria,” she said.

The stone in front of the courthouse was dedicated in July 1990 after
the Knights of Vartan petitioned the county and raised funds for the
memorial. Since then, every year on April 24, or around that date the
Knights of Vartan organize a ceremony. This year, clergy from the
Armenian Diocese, Armenian Prelacy, and the Armenian Presbyterian
Church participated in the outdoor service.

The stone is among those in the “Ring of Honor,” which is made up of a
total of five memorials that commemorate victims of not only the
Armenian Genocide, but also the Holocaust, those who perished during
the Irish Famine, African-American victims of slavery and racial
segregation, and women sexually enslaved by the Japanese Imperial Army
prior and during the World War II.

“We now have five stones behind me to commemorate five terrible things
that should never have happened, and with our hope and God’s help
never happen again,” said Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan.
“We will never forget; we will continue to uphold this tradition of
honoring those who cannot speak for themselves, so that we speak for
them.”

From: A. Papazian

EuroNews, France
April 25 2014

Too little, too late say many Armenians after Erdogan’s statement on
1915 mass deaths

24/04 18:31 CET

Many Armenian have expressed disappointment following the Turkish
prime minister’s statement on Wednesday that he “shared their pain”,
and that the mass deaths of 1915 were “inhumane”.

His statement came the day before the 99th anniversary, remembered in
a ceremony in the Armenian capital Yerevan on Thursday and in Armenian
communities around the world.

Armenia has always claimed the events in the midst of WWI were a
“genocide” of their people living in the former Ottoman empire.

It is claimed 1.5 million people died in fighting, repression and
forced displacements. For many Turks, however, Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s
words were an unprecedented expression of condolence.

“I think the Turkish government realised that an announcement had to
be made in this way, with a humanitarian approach. This is an
important step but falls short as it is very delayed and bigger steps
need to be taken. If you wait 99 years to say something, you need to
say different things,” remarked Turkish-Armenian journalist Aris
Nalci.

Armenia wants an apology, and acceptance that a genocide took place.
For some this was a significant step forward; for others it was just
another lie designed to head off international criticism a year before
the centenary of the slaughter.

From: A. Papazian

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
April 25 2014

Property and views of new Armenian Prime Minister

25 April 2014 – 9:11am

Interview by David Stepanyan, Yerevan. Exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza

The former speaker of the Armenian parliament Ovik Abramyan was
appointed the new Prime Minister of Armenia on April 13th. He has
always been an inside man for the authorities. Traditionally in
Armenia the economic course of the government and its political views
depend on the property held by a new prime minister.

According to the official declaration of Abramyan’s family, the
personal finances (accumulated capital) of the new prime minister were
$1950 thousand and 270 million drams in 2013. Abramyan’s revenues were
43 million drams last year. The officially unemployed wife of
Abramyan, Juliette, had $2850 thousand and 300 million drams last
year.

However, the real picture differs from the official one. The prime
minister has been living a luxurious life since the 1990s, when
privatized property was beneficially sold. Abramyan indirectly and
unofficially owns the Artashat Wine Factory, machine plants, the
Sirius Plant, a movable column convoy, a taxi park, the Artashat
Hypermarket, a restaurant, a hotel and a casino in Artashat. He also
owns a wine factory, an automobile company, a concrete plant in
Mkhchyan Village, all gas-filling stations in the region; sandpits on
the Araks River, vast agricultural territories, and mines in several
residential areas of the Ararat Region, as well as a luxurious house
in Mkhchyan, where Abramyan has been living for recent years.

A person who has a medium-sized business property will think about the
sphere. No surprise that at his first session with businessmen, the
prime minister promised to reduce sales tax for small and medium-sized
businesses. Of course, a reduction in interest rates will contribute
to the development of the sphere, but it is not enough for development
of Armenian business in general. The main problem of business and the
economy of Armenia is the unbalanced distribution of the tax burden
between privileged monopolist businessmen and ordinary businessmen who
are not inside men for the government. Thus, the government’s steps
will stop at populist measures which cannot improve the Armenian
economy.

As for the political views of the new premier, they are similar to the
views of the former president of Armenia, Robert Kocharyan. “When I
was the president, Ovik Abramyan was a good minister of territorial
management and vice-premier. Whether he will be a good premier, time
will tell. I wish him good luck sincerely, as he gets a poor heritage
from his predecessor,” Kocharyan said about the appointment.

From: A. Papazian

my SanAntonio
April 25 2014

Walk against genocide

April 25, 2014 : Updated: April 25, 2014 4:03pm

SAN ANTONIO — In 2011, the Texas Legislature proclaimed April as
Genocide Awareness and Prevention Month. On Sunday, the San Antonio
Coalition Against Genocide will sponsor the 3rd annual Walk Against
Genocide from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Campus of the San Antonio Jewish
Community, 12500 NW Military Highway.

San Antonians are invited to come hear a witness to the 1994 genocide
in Rwanda, learn about conflict resolution and peace building, listen
to the music of Dana Clark and Mar Gutierrez, and, of course, walk in
solidarity with genocide victims and demonstrate that San Antonio
cares.

But does San Antonio care and why? The History Place website estimates
that in the last hundred years, genocide — the intentional destruction
of a whole class of people — claimed the lives of more than 17 million
people in seven events, from Armenia in 1915, through the Holocaust
during World War II, to Rwanda in 1994.

Most recently, genocide, claiming as many as 400,000 lives has
occurred in the Darfur region of Sudan. Violence against specific
religious or ethnic groups continues to this very day in places as far
flung as Myanmar, Syria and the Central African Republic.

Do we care? San Antonio is justly proud of its multicultural past and
present. But there are people in our community whose lives have been
scarred by the memory of friends and loved ones who suffered horrific
deaths, or who themselves witnessed, but survived, unspeakable
atrocities before coming to our city as refugees. They are our
neighbors.

A common thread running through many genocide events is that good
people and their governments turned a blind eye or stood by, taking
only the mildest of actions — or acting too late — against the
perpetrators.

Josef Stalin’s forced starvation of 7 million people in Ukraine, Adolf
Hitler’s murder of 6 million Jews, Pol Pot’s 2 million victims of the
Cambodian killing fields, and Slobodan Milosevic and his henchmen’s
slaughter of 200,000 Muslims in the former Yugoslavia are some of the
most well known.

Even today, despite being indicted as a war criminal by the
International Criminal Court, Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir remains
unrestrained in his campaigns of violence against native peoples,
including fellow Muslims, in Darfur and Sudan borderlands.

The San Antonio Coalition Against Genocide includes representatives
from the Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of San
Antonio, Interreligious Council of San Antonio, University
Presbyterian Church, Holocaust Memorial Museum of San Antonio and
other residents of our community.

We are dedicated to promoting public awareness of ongoing genocide and
mass atrocities in the world and advocating for more effective efforts
by our own government to prevent this violence from continuing.

Please come walk with us and show that San Antonio truly cares.

From: A. Papazian

Nazarian: Ninety-Nine Years Ago Today

By Eric Nazarian on April 26, 2014

Impressions from the Armenian Genocide commemoration in Istanbul

Ninety-nine years ago in the wee spring hours, Ottoman-era policemen
marched through the streets of old Constantinople. Over the course of
that fateful night, and the weeks that followed, they arrested and
deported the most prominent Armenian writers, poets, journalists,
intellectuals and men who lived by the pen from the Golden age of the
Armenian intelligentsia in old Constantinople. These men were taken to
the Haydarpasha train station and shipped deep into the interior of
Ottoman Turkey where they were jailed and murdered.

A scene from the commemoration in Istanbul (Photo by Eric Nazarian)

Only a few survived, among them the iconic Komitas Vartabed, the
priest, composer and musicologist who became mute and descended into
madness as a result of the horrors he witnessed during the Armenian
Genocide.

Komitas’s ancient musical soul went silent and today, 99 years later,
I sat on the wet asphalt in the heart of Istanbul listening to his
otherworldly voice recorded once upon a time in the early 20th
century. It was crackling and booming on multiple loudspeakers among
Armenians, Turks and Kurds gathered and jam-packed like sardines to
honor the Armenian martyrs and to call what happened here in this
country by its rightful name’Genocide. Young, old, middle-aged,
natives and diasporans¦we all sat side-by-side humming with Komitas,
Dle Yaman and Der Voghormya.

Youth and elders held up laminated color and black-and-white
photocopies of Krikor Zohrab, Siamanto, Diran Kelekian, Daniel
Varoujan and several Ottoman-era Armenians who lived by the pen and
were cut down by the swords. Their eyes gazed out from the photocopies
at this new, small and fearless generation of Turks and Armenians
committed to keeping the flame and voice of memory alive through the
act of solemnity and presence together as a unified voice.

This is a brave and vocal minority that has chosen to not be silent.
Middle-aged women wept openly. Members of the New Zartonk stood
steadfast with printed banners. All gathered had managed through
solidarity and sheer will to silence the filet mignon of Bolis real
estate where millions pass through on a daily basis.

The press swarmed all over the street, perched on the roofs of
businesses and establishments that demonstrated great respect to the
commemorators by allowing the photojournalists to lean out of their
windows and second-story patios immortalizing this brief hour on this
very busy Spring day where the spirits of our one and a half-million
dead were prayed for. Next year, this generation will return again and
again and again.

While the speechwriters and politicos continue to conjure new ways to
manipulate verbs and adjectives to avoid the truth of the Genocide,
this new generation will be burning the midnight oil printing out the
laminated images of the martyrs.

This small victory is a symbolic one that would have been unimaginable
before. However small, its echoes are being heard now very loud and
clearly across the world thanks to the point, shoot, save and upload
settings in our garden variety of smart phones. And today’s presence
and solidarity, like Komitas’s voice, will not be silenced. Today, I
began to grasp the meaning of the word `vicdan’ which means
`conscience’ in Turkish.

These young university students and Istanbul natives were here out of
duty and a calling sitting on the damp asphalt holding vigil. They
were here because they cared. Who would have thought that in 2014 we
would hear the ear-shattering boom of Der Voghormya in the ground-zero
of Istanbul? That is not to say things here are where they should be.
Far from it but each small symbolic step here is a step forward.

After the end of the commemoration, I was handed a red carnation. With
Komitas’s voice lingering in my ears, I felt a certain temporary peace
gnawed by the begrudging reminder that we would never be able to grasp
the complete magnitude of what happened during the Genocide. Yet, we
will continue to hold candles to collective and personal memory and
through voice, song, image, solidarity and creative outpouring honor
and demand justice for what will continue to dwarf our imaginations
for generations to come.

From: A. Papazian

Azerbaijan presses on Arif Yunusov because of his cooperation with
Armenians: He is hospitalized in pre-infarction condition

23:59 26/04/2014 » SOCIETY

Azerbaijani authorities “revealing the spy network” will put an end to
the Armenian-Azerbaijani joint projects with the participation of
independent NGOs. The Azerbaijani news agency “Turan” reports
referring to the joint statement of the Azerbaijani human rights
activist Leyla Yunus and Armenian journalist Laura Baghdasaryan on the
prosecution of Azerbaijani journalist Rauf Mirkadirov in espionage.

“We are two women ` a human rights activist and a journalist ` two
mothers, one from Azerbaijan and the other from Armenia, cooperating
for almost ten years. We stand shoulder to shoulder in the difficult
task of creating and reinforcing the social dialogue between the two
nations which are in a war for over 20 years. We go hand in hand for
almost 10 years, releasing joint articles, books and finally creating
the first and only unique joint website – publicdialogues.info. This
is a platform for establishing a dialogue between Armenians and
Azerbaijanis,” the statement reads.

The authors note that on the site created by them the citizens of
Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Russia, Moldova, Ukraine, United States
and European Union countries were talking, arguing, discussing
important social problems.

“We are against future wars! We are against the death and hatred
between our children and grandchildren, we are against the policy
sowing hatred, we are against the hatred atmosphere towards our
neighbors,” write Leyla Yunus and Laura Baghdasaryan.

The statement notes that on April 19, 2014 the Azerbaijani authorities
arrested Azerbaijani journalist Rauf Mirkadirov on charges of
espionage for Armenia. He has been an active participant in numerous
online and international conferences held on their websites. On April
22 by the order of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan a joint
team of investigators and the Prosecutor General of Ministry of
National Security was created aimed at “disclosing a large network of
Armenia spies in Azerbaijan.”

“It is easy to predict that this network is expected to include the
members of our Dialogue. They have started to press on Laila already,
the spouse of Arif Yunusov. Arif Yunusov, the author of eight books
and over 230 articles on the modern history of the Caucasus, of the
Karabakh conflict in particular, has been an active participant of
international conferences in Armenian territory since 2001. Currently
Arif Yunusov is hospitalized,” the statement reads.

Azerbaijani news portal “Hakqqin.az” also reports that political
scientist Arif Yunus, the director of the Institute for Peace and
Democracy, is in a pre-infarction condition and is urgently
hospitalized.

“Earlier media repeatedly disseminated information that Leyla and Arif
Yunus may face the fate of detained journalist Rauf Mirkadirov because
they also often visited Armenia and participate in projects of
“people’s diplomacy,” writes the portal.

Rauf Mirkadirov, columnist of Azerbaijani newspaper “Zerkalo”, was
arrested on April 18 in Ankara on charges of expiration of documents.
On April 19 Mirkadirov was deported to Azerbaijan, where he
immediately was arrested and put in custody by the MNS on suspicion of
treason. On April 21 the court in Baku sanctioned his arrest for three
months. Mirkadirov is accused of the cooperation with special services
of Armenia, specifically, he is accused of making the transfers of the
state secret information, including those about the dislocation of
Azerbaijani Armed forces to Armenia during 2008-2009.

Source: Panorama.am

From: A. Papazian

German media begins to use `Armenian Genocide’ term more frequently

21:15, 26 April, 2014

YEREVAN, APRIL 26, ARMENPRESS: The international media continues to keep
under the focus the 99th anniversary of the
Armenian Genocide and the events devoted to it. Meanwhile, the Armenian
Mets Yeghern is commemorated by more and more media in the term `genocide’.
Armenpress reports that the German will-known focus.de electronic
periodical reacted on the famous statement of the Prime Minister of Turkey
Recep Tayyip Erdogan upon the Armenian Genocide and the contradictory
reactions upon that. In its article entitled `The condolences of Erdogan is
abuse for all the Armenians’ focus.de reacts on Erdogan’s statement and
passes the assessments according to which it is a `hypocritical’ behavior
on his part. The periodical first reacts on the observations of the
Turkologist Udo Steinbach on that Erdogan is the first Prime Minister who
expressed his condolences to the generations of the crime victims.
Moreover, the author also uses `Genocide’ term
while transferring the observations of the Turkologist.

From: A. Papazian

Armenian first cross-stone opens in Prague center

18:22, 26 April, 2014

YEREVAN, APRIL 26, ARMENPRESS: The first Armenian cross-stone was
opened in the center of Prague on April 25 which His Holiness Karekin
II devoted to the Armenian community in the Czech Republic on the
occasion the Armenian Apostolic Church received an official
registration in the Czech Republic and as a sign of the Armenian-Czech
friendship.

Armenpress reports that the President of the Republic of Armenia Serzh
Sargsyan and the leader of the Catholic Church in the Czech Republic,
Cardinal Archbishop of Prague Dominik Duka attended the solemn
ceremony. The representative of the Catholicos of All Armenians, the
leader of the Romanian Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church Bishop
Tatev Hakobyan, the Cardinal Dominik Duka, the pastor of the Czech
Republic, Hungary and Slovakia Barsegh Pilavchyan carried out the
blessing.

Hundreds of Armenians gathered in the park near St. Yindrikh and St.
Kunhut Church in the center of Prague where by the permission of the
Catholic Church and Prague City Hall the Armenian cross-stone was
opened.

From: A. Papazian

Head of Ichtiology Institute: Fish farms in Sevan should work under
tough control

by Karina Manukyan

ARMINFO
Saturday, April 26, 02:18

The fish farms in Sevan should work under tough control, Evelina
Ghukasyan, Director of the Ichthyology and Hydroecology Institute,
Armenian National Academy of Sciences, has told ArmInfo.

The program on replenishment of ishkhan (Armenian trout) reserves in
Lake Sevan and fish breeding development envisages creation of an
incubator, a juvenile fish farm and a fish processing factory. The
products (frozen fish, tinned fish, smoked fillet) will mostly be
exported. According to the project, the stock of ishkhan fed on
artificial food will be increased to 50,000 tons by 2023. Meanwhile, 4
fish cages will be set up in the Lake in 2015, and the number of the
cages will be increased to 74 in 2019.

“I cannot say that I am totally against this project. But all the
measures should be taken under tough control”, she stresses. She
thinks that it is wrong to set up so many cages within such a short
period of time. “The process should be gradual and the Lake should be
monitored. In case of a negative impact, the further process should be
stopped”, she says

The expert also comments on the environmentalists’ concern over the
fact that up to 50 thsd tons of artificial food will be released into
Lake Sevan. She thinks that the quantity of the food should be
calculated precisely and eco-friendly food should be used.

“These provisions exist in the program, however, it is hard to say how
the program will be implemented. If the provisions related to the
financing of settlement of environmental problems or creation of a
juvenile fish farm aimed at preserving the ishkhan gene pool are
carried out, I will totally support the project. But let me reiterate:
one should make no experiments over the Sevan”, she said.

To note, in order to stop the projects endangering the ecosystem of
the Lake (i.e. the program on creation of fish farms, as well as the
increase of water release from Lake Sevan to 240 mln cu m for 5
years), several NGOs have launched the Save Sevan campaign.

From: A. Papazian

Armenia to celebrate great poet Hovhannes Shiraz’s 100th birthday

13:17 ¢ 26.04.14

The government commission responsible for arranging the celebrations
dedicated to the 100th birth anniversary of Hovhannes Shiraz
(1914-1984) on Saturday met in Yerevan to consider the program of
events.

The session was chaired by Armen Gevorgyan, the acting vice premier
and minister of territorial administration, reports the Government’s
press service.

The committee approved the program submitted by Minister of Culture
Hasmik Poghosyan.

The events will start on April 27 in Gyrumri, the poet’s birthplace. A
memorial meeting and a visit to the Shiraz Home-Museum will be
organized in the second largest city to commemorate the writer. The
events will continue through next year.

It is planned particularly to organize memorial meetings in Gyumri and
Yerevan and a presentation of the poet’s literary heritage. The
organizers are also planning to publish a full collection of Shiraz’s
works and shoot a documentary. The program also includes exhibitions,
literary events, school composition contests etc.

From: A. Papazian