Author: Babajanian Karo

Syrian Free Army denied any warnings towards Armenian Community

Syrian Free Army denied the information about the warnings towards
Armenian Community and considers that Syrian Government is guilty for
the announcement.

General Mustafa al Sheikh, head of the military council of the Syrian
opposition Free Army announced that there is no warnings against
Armenian Community in Syria.

Armenian tert.am writes referring to the local media that the General
accused Syrian Government in using the name of the Syrian Free Army
and spreading false information.

The opposite General announced that the governmental agents try to
cause strained situation between the Syrian communities and the
opposition. And this process is especially strained in Aleppo.

Remind that tert.am informed before referring to the Sham Times that
Syrian Supreme Council of the Revolution has spread a message. The
latter officially warns Armenian Community in Syria.

According to the source Syrian opposition frightens Armenian Community
with ”ruins and tragedy”. The source underlines that the warnings
are real as Turkey gave a green light to the Syrian opposition to
attack Armenians. As it is known Turkey supports Syrian opposition.

The opposition accuses Armenian Community in ”assisting Assad’s
regime” and ”in participation in some murders”.

The leader of the opposition Army noted that Armenians have lived
normally in Syria for ten years and there have been no problems with
them.

24.08.12, 18:56

AYF Raises Money to Fund Freedom Fighter’s Medical Needs

asbarez
Thursday, August 23rd, 2012

A scene from the AYF event benefitting Freedom Fighters

PASADENA – Armenians gathered in solidarity at a Revolutionary Song
Night dinner on Saturday, August 18th at the Pasadena Armenian Center
to fundraise for AYF’s `With Our Soldiers’ Campaign. With the Central
Executive declaring this year as the `Year of the Azadamardig,’ the
event was one of many to assist veterans of the Artsakh War with
necessary medical treatments. Twenty Azadamardigs have been treated so
far, with their ailments ranging from the need for eye prosthetics and
hearing aids to surgeries to remove shrapnel still within their bodies
decades after the war.

More than 150 people were in attendance, and donations were being
gathered throughout the night as Viken Yacoubian performed
revolutionary songs. The AYF reached out to the community and received
overwhelming support from local ARF, ARS, and AYF chapters. Individual
supporters and their families also donated, enabling more aid to reach
the war veterans in need of medical care. Over thirty thousand dollars
was raised. `This event showed that our community stands with the AYF
in supporting our freedom fighters. We thank them for that support and
we are confident that together, we can make the lives of at least a
few dozen of our Azadamardigs better,’ said AYF Central Executive
Chairman David Arakelyan.

The `With Our Soldiers’ committee of the AYF premiered a video it had
prepared documenting the atrocious conditions the veterans live in,
and the personal connections made between AYF members who traveled to
Armenia this summer, and the Azadamardigs in the Homeland. Caspar
Jivalagian, one of this year’s Youth Corps group leaders who visited
the Azadamardigs said, `The conditions they live in are unacceptable,
and will break your heart. It is embarrassing, very embarrassing that
the veterans, who gave their blood for our country, are not being
taken care of by the government of Armenia.’

It is the bureaucracy in Armenia which prevents veterans from
receiving any sort of aid from the institutions meant to provide such
support to the freedom fighters. Veterans need volumes of supporting
paperwork, which is difficult to obtain since many of them never filed
the proper claims to receive an official status of a `freedom fighter’
back in early 90’s. Even for those veterans who have their documents
in order, the government assistance is so insignificant compared to
their needs and so difficult to obtain that many simply choose not to
pursue it. This leaves the wounded and suffering Azadamardigs to fend
for themselves and attempt to provide for their families.

An important factor in dedicating this year to the freedom fighters is
the need to raise awareness about their problems and to make this
issue a focal point for the Armenian society, both in the Diaspora and
in the Homeland. `Hopefully, the With Our Soldiers initiative will
bring greater attention to the issues faced by our freedom fighters
and force the Armenian government to do more in resolving these
problems,’ stated Arakelyan.

The With Our Soldiers committee worked tirelessly to ensure the
success of the event, especially in securing donations. Tro Krikorian,
a member of With Our Soldiers taskforce and emcee for the evening
concluded, `It was an amazing event all around, especially in terms of
fundraising. The video presentations really shed light on the
campaign, which helped garner new support around this important issue.
The campaign committee was able to raise enough funds to help over 50
veterans with their medical needs.’ Jivalagian added, `I promised we’d
go back with more help. We really are changing lives.’

For more information about the WOS campaign and further efforts to aid
veterans of the Artsakh war, visit

Hired attackers involved in Stavropol market shooting that wounded
four Armenians

news.am
August 24, 2012 | 08:48

Russia’s law enforcement believes Wednesday’s shootout at a Stavropol
city market could have been a result of clarifying relations between
rival businessmen. A rival group could have hired attackers to scare
its competitors, the eyewitnesses say.

It is assumed that the argument had begun among the vendors, and it is
possible that they were unable to peacefully divide up the place.
Subsequently, one of the sides asked for the help of a group
comprising strong young men who, in return for money, render their
`services’ by threatening people.

LifeNews ascertained that this hired group includes former military
servicemen and athletes. They usually make use of traumatic weapons,
and sometimes even real weapons. But in this case they fire solely on
the peoples’ feet.

As Armenian News-NEWS.am informed earlier, five people, including four
Armenians, were wounded in a shootout at a Stavropol market, in the
south of Russia.

Four members of one Armenian family – namely, 30-year-old Sergey
Razgoyan, 29-year-old Anatoly Razgoyan, 5-year-old Amir Razgoyan, and
35-year-old Hamlet Razgoyan – sustained wounds after unidentified men
opened fire at the market.

A witness told RIA Novosti that 5-6 men rushed into the market,
claiming they would `put things right,’ and opened fire at the
vendors.

The witness also said these young men called themselves `white bears.’

Vanes Martirosyan promises to come to Armenia as a world champion

09:50, 24 August, 2012

YEREVAN, AUGUST 23, ARMENPRESS: Armenian boxing school is really laid
on a grounded basis. Yet nowadays the great number of Armenian boxers
who have registered success habit abroad. Armenpress reporter had a
briefing with middle-weight professional boxer , our compatriot US
Armenian Vanes Martirosyan .

Vanes we know you have left the Homeland when you were four-year- old.
In your mind does the fact of living in a foreign country has in
impart in becoming professional in ones field? Does the love, yearning
toward the Motherland make one care no effort for it’s fame?

I started boxing when I was seven years old. My trainer was Davit
Torosyan.I had several Armenian trainers Yengibaryan helped me with my
foot work, Albert keshishyan, Sarkis Ghazaryan and Roman Kalantaryan.
As you can see my boxing foundation came from great Armenian trainers.
So I was in foreign country but learning Armenian style boxing. You
add to that what I learn and still learning from my American trainers
and you get me. Anywhere I fight I go in with Armenian music and flag.

You have never lost any game, what is your secret of victory?

I believe you can accomplish anything as long as you believe in
yourself .Once you start something you go all the way.

Do you have sport idol, whose style do you most prefer?

One off my favourite boxers is Alexis Aguero. Outside off boxing my
favorite athlete is Messi.

If there is an offer to perform for Armenia, will you accept?

I would love to perform in Armenia. I promised myself not to come to
Armenia until I am a world champion which is very close. I always
represent Abovyan, Armenia. And I’m proud of it.

Your father was also boxer. Does it had influence on your choice of profession?

My father is the main reason for my success. Keep pushing me and
always on my side.

Does your mother follow up your matches?

My mom never watches my fights live. Only one time she tried and left
when the fight just started. It iss very hard on her.

Vik Darchinyan known for ”wild ox”, Arthur Abraham ” King Arthur”
What for Vanes is called by ”nightmare” and who is the author of
your nick name?

I am very good friends with Vick and Arthur. We are not the author of
my nick name, people are. It started when I was an amateur and every
fight before starting people started yelling here comes nightmare!
Because I was knocking everybody out.

Dou you have future plans to open sport ground in Armenia?

That is in my and my father’s plans. In the city of Abovyan.

What would you say about your coming opponent Erislandy Lara?

Lara was five times Cuban champion, world champion in amateurs. Many
believe he is the best 154 lb fighter in the world and many believe
it’s me. We have four world champions in our weight class and all of
them afraid to fight us. So almost every boxing writer in USA believes
that our fight will determine the best in our weight class. We have
singed the contracts and it looks like it will be in December, MGM
Grand, Las Vegas.

Interview by Varvara Hayrapetyan

Eurasianet: Can Azerbaijani video game have a tangible effect on the
Karabakh peace process?

By Nino Gojiashvili, Eurasianet.org

Eurasianet.org web-site has published an article about the Azerbaijani
video games which spread enmity towards Armenians and are a motivator
to kill Armenians. Here is the article which Times.am presents below.

Just over 20 years ago, during the spring of 1992, Armenian forces
took the city of Shushi in Nagorno-Karabakh, marking the turning point
in the armed conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan for control of
the territory.

Today, youngsters in Azerbaijan have the opportunity to alter history
via a video game called `Under Occupation.’ The objective is to
recapture Shushi from Armenian forces. Gamers assume the role of an
Azerbaijani soldier who engages in virtual firefights with Armenian
soldiers in house-to-house combat. The game is the brainchild of Farid
Hagverdiev, a 19-year-old student at Baku’s State Oil Academy.

Hagverdiev based Under Occupation on popular first-person,
shoot-`em-up games, such as Call of Duty and Counter-Strike. Working
with a team of developers recruited from among his classmates at the
oil academy, he said the game took two years to go from rough concept
to finished product. Hagverdiev added that the development team relied
on self-financing (with generous parental subsidies), used home
computers, and relied on a trial-and-error creative process. It is
reportedly the first video game developed solely by Azerbaijani
citizens.

Hagverdiev acknowledged that the motivation for developing the game
went beyond a simple desire to entertain. There was also a political
element to the project. `By creating the game we wanted to support the
patriotic spirit in our youth, which I hope we accomplished
successfully,’ he told EurasiaNet.org. The game, which can be
downloaded for free, has gotten a successful reception from
Azerbaijani gamers.

While the video game may have been an independent initiative,
government officials have latched onto it, viewing it as a means of
raising awareness about the Nagorno-Karabakh issue among Azerbaijani
young people, and of mobilizing support for ongoing governmental
efforts to recover the territory.

In a sign that the game enjoys the full approval of President Ilham
Aliyev’s administration, the Ministry of Youth and Sports organized a
formal presentation of Under Occupation. The event, which occurred
earlier this summer, was held at the Hyatt Regency, one of Baku’s
swankiest hotels.

Talks on a political settlement for Nagorno-Karabakh have long been
stalemated. In recent years, Azerbaijani rhetoric concerning the
territory has grown increasingly bellicose. The video game dovetails
with the government’s effort to keep the patriotic mood at a slow
boil.

Under Occupation is not for the faint of heart: there’s lots of
killing and computer-generated gore. To a great extent, it’s a
celebration of violence: to advance, players must handle a variety of
tasks, including shooting lots of Armenian enemies, rescuing a wounded
Azerbaijani soldier, retrieving a document and blowing up a building
in the town of Shushi.

Whether or not the video game can have a tangible effect on the
Karabakh peace process is the subject of debate. Some experts doubt
that a video game can cause a substantive spike in aggressive
sentiment in Azerbaijan. `Not enough research is available to suggest
that shooter games promote any more active hostility than the current
events themselves,’ said Tom Parker, a former policy director at
Amnesty International.

Hagverdiev and his fellow developers, meanwhile, are now contemplating
a new game-related venture, one that would aim to make them some
money. `We’re graduating college soon, and we do not wish to mooch off
our parents forever,’ he said.

24.08.12, 12:03

ARMENIENS DE SYRIE
L’opposition syrienne menace ouvertement les Arméniens de Syrie

Le journal syrien « Sham Times » annonce que le Conseil suprême de la
Révolution syrienne (l’opposition au régime de Bachar al Assad) menace
officiellement la communauté arménienne de Syrie de représailles en
cas de chute du régime. L’opposition syrienne menace les Arméniens de
« drames et destructions »…si elle parvenait au pouvoir. La source
précise que ces menaces sont réelles puisque la Turquie, principal
ennemi des Arméniens est l’allié de l’opposition syrienne. La Turquie
qui aurait donné à cette dernière « le feu vert » pour attaquer les
Arméniens de Syrie. Le Conseil suprême de la Révolution syrienne
accuse « certains Arméniens » de « travailler avec les forces d’Assad
» et être « impliqués dans un certain nombre d’opérations au profit du
régime syrien (…) à Alep, Lattaquié et Kessab ». Le Conseil suprême
de la Révolution affirme qu’elle punira « ces éléments ».

Précisons que les Arméniens de Syrie -comme d’ailleurs jadis en Iran,
en Irak ou au Liban- ont toujours observé une neutralité, tout en
étant fièles aux forces loyalistes. Par ailleurs, si la Turquie qui
arme l’opposition syrienne désire détruire la communauté arménienne de
Syrie, de cette agitation, Ankara aura des retombées très négatives
avec probablement un Kurdistan libre au nord de la Syrie. Un véritable
cauchemar pour Ankara qui est déjà très préoccupée par l’existence
d’un Kurdistan au nord de l’Irak. Du chaos syrien, la Turquie
recueillera les effets pervers…

Krikor Amirzayan

vendredi 24 août 2012,
Krikor Amirzayan ©armenews.com

Le Nouvel Observateur , France
23 août 2012

26 oct.- 30 nov. 2012: Le livre arménien s’expose (75006)

L’imprimerie arménienne a 500 ans. La Bibliothèque Mazarine fête ça

La Bibliothèque Mazarine expose un ensemble méconnu de livres
arméniens rares et précieux. Comme l’indique son titre, «Le livre
arménien de la Renaissance aux Lumières: une culture en diaspora»,
l’exposition promet de rendre compte de la géographie à la fois large
et éclatée de l’imprimerie arménienne des premiers siècles, et des
conditions souvent difficiles dans lesquelles ont travaillé les hommes
du livre de la diaspora arménienne.

Une attention particulière est portée aux répertoires privilégiés de
l’édition ancienne, à ses particularités ornementales, aux reliures.
Au c`ur des rivalités entre l’Eglise arménienne et Rome, le livre
arménien apporte un éclairage fascinant sur les échanges intellectuels
et techniques, politiques et commerciaux, entre l’Europe et l’Orient
de la Renaissance aux Lumières.

Bibliothèque Mazarine, 23 quai de Conti, 75006, Paris.

Du lundi au vendredi de 10h à 18h, entrée libre.

Trend, Azerbaijan
Aug 23 2012

Armenian Consulate General to be established in Tabriz

Azerbaijan, Baku, Aug. 23 / Trend T. Jafarov /

Iran has made a proposal to open an Armenian Consulate General in
Tabriz, Armenian Ambassador to Tehran Grigor Arakelyan told media
during a trip to Tabriz, MEHR agency reported.

Armenia is currently considering this issue, Arakelyan said. After
solving some issues, the Armenian Consulate General will open in
Tabriz.

Arakelyan also said that Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan will attend
the NAM summit to be held in Tehran.

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Aug 23 2012

Was Atatürk an Armenian?

ORHAN KEMAL CENGÄ°Z

The Radikal daily has started quite an interesting discussion about
the family origins of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the
Turkish Republic. Radikal reported, according to the forthcoming book
`From Mustafa to Kemal: Atatürk’s Big Secret’ by Fatih Bayhan, that
the family origins of Atatürk do not lie in Thessaloniki, as is
commonly believed, but instead in the eastern province of Malatya.
Bayhan claims that Atatürk’s family immigrated to Thessaloniki from
Malatya.

According to this new version of his life, Atatürk’s true father and
mother were people who lived in Malatya and Atatürk’s acknowledged
mother, Zübeyde Hanım, was actually his aunt. The writer claims that
Atatürk was sent to Thessaloniki when his actual father died and was
adopted by Zübeyde Hanım when his mother died. The book is said to be
based on official governmental records and documents that are set to
be made public for the first time.

I do not want to bother you with all these details any more. This
allegation of course needs to be proven. However, I would not be
surprised if it turns out to be true. Much of history in Turkey is
based on so many lies and legends, all of which were created to deny
some fundamental facts in our past. Turkish official history `writers’
never hesitated to bend history according to the needs of our official
ideology and the state’s so-called `higher interests.’

Malatya was one of the provinces which were heavily populated by
Armenians in the past. If this new version of Atatürk’s origins is
true, the first question to come to mind is why the history writers
fabricated the well-known version of his life. Did they write the
official version to disassociate Atatürk from Anatolian Armenians? If
the new story is true, there must be a reason.

The facts of Turkish history are still surrounded by many taboos, some
of which have caused loss of life. You know how the tragic events
leading to the assassination of Hrant Dink began. He simply dared to
say that Atatürk’s adopted daughter Sabiha Gökçen was indeed an
Armenian orphan. And this revelation was followed a lynching campaign
and he was killed after that.

Nowadays the walls around the taboos which surround our history seem
to be weakening. Ayhan Aktar keeps writing about some taboos in our
history. One of the stories he tells is about the Dardanelles wars.
According to Aktar, one of the heroes of this war was Cpt. Sarkis
Torosyan, a citizen of Armenian descent in the Ottoman Empire.
Torosyan’s story is a heartbreaking one. Torosyan was a much-decorated
gunner wounded while defending the Dardanelles. He was later
transferred to the area where his family had been deported, modern-day
Palestine. There he discovered his sister in rags and heard his
fiancée was dying of tuberculosis. He learned that his parents had
been killed along the way. While he was defending his country to the
death, his family and loved ones had been forcefully evicted from
their homes.

This story is of course not written in any schoolbooks, nor is it
known by many people in Turkey. Some may think this story is just a
tiny detail in Turkish history, but I think it’s a very significant
and important one. The real story of an Armenian captain who fought a
heroic war in the Dardanelles is a huge burden on the Turkish
conscience. This is because this one single event has the capacity to
bring up all of our painful memories about our long-lost neighbors and
about our past.

As I repeatedly said in this column before, people confront their past
by opening their hearts to the stories of others, by feeling the pain
and anguish they suffered — a process which has already started in
Turkey and in which we have a very long way to go.

Mediamax, Armenia
Aug 23 2012

Israel will recognize Armenian Genocide one day, head of the Jewish
community says

Yerevan/Mediamax/. Head of the Jewish community of Armenia Rima
Varzhapetyan expressed her confidence today that one day Israel will
officially recognize Armenian Genocide.

Rima Varzhapetyan said at a press conference today that those Israeli
citizens who are aware of the Armenian Genocide don’t deny the fact,
Mediamax reports.

“I am convinced one day the state of Israel will recognize the
Armenian Genocide. Perhaps, something may happen on the 100th
anniversary of the Armenian Genocide”, said the head of the community.

Rima Varzhapetyan also added that the Armenian people should boost its
efforts toward recognition and condemnation of the Armenian Genocide.

In this context, the head of the Jewish community noted that every
wealth Jew makes its contribution to the special foundation
established for the recognition and condemnation of Holocaust.

Earlier, the Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said in his
interview to Mediamax:

“It is no secret that the mass murder of the Armenian people during
the First World War is a most sensitive matter and as a people that
also suffered from persecution and murder we are especially sensitive
to that. However, since the subject, most regrettably, has become
political, it needs to be handled with great care. Israel has never
denied the Armenian tragedy, but we do not wish to become party to the
confrontation between Turkey and Armenian on this important issue”.