Author: Badalian Vardan

I AM ARMENIAN: RAVISHED ARMENIA

US Official News
March 23, 2015 Monday

The University of California has issued the following news release:

I Am Armenian: Ravished Armenia

Wednesday, March 25, 2015 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm, UCLA Hammer Museum –
Billy Wilder Theater

Hammer Screenings

Admission: Free and open to the public.

Contact: Hammer Museum (310) 443-7000 [email protected] Website

Additional Information

The story of Aurora Mardiganian, an Armenian girl caught up in the
1915 Armenian Genocide, was the basis of a hugely popular book and
the 1919 silent film Ravished Armenia. After witnessing the murder of
her family, Aurora was kidnapped, forced to march over 1,400 miles,
and sold into slavery before finally escaping. All known copies of the
film, which starred Aurora herself, have been lost. For this program,
filmmaker Carla Garapedian of the Armenian Film Foundation and film
historian Anthony Slide, author of Ravished Armenia and the Story of
Aurora Mardiganian, bring Aurora’s compelling story to life through
rare film clips and photos.

I Am Armenian: A Year of Armenian Culture and History on Film In
commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide,
we dedicate 2015 to an exploration of multiple facets of Armenian
culture, history, and landscape through film.

ISTANBUL-BASED ARMENIAN CHURCH DAUBED WITH HATE MESSAGES

21:49, 25 Mar 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

The Surp Astuanzazh Armenian Church in Istanbul’s Bakırköy
neighborhood was daubed with hate speech on Tuesday as “1915, blessed
year” was written on the side of the building in reference to the
massacre of more than 1 million Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire
during World War I,Today’s Zaman reports.

In addition to “1915, blessed year,” further graffiti on the church
stated, “What does it matter if you are all Armenian when there is
already one Ogun Samast.”

The message echoes a demonstration slogan that commemorated the murder
of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink who was assassinated in
2007 by then-17-year-old ultranationalist Samast. In the aftermath
of the murder, thousands of demonstrators took to the streets to show
empathy for the slain journalist with signs reading “We are all Hrant,
we are all Armenian.”

Today’s Zaman visited the site on Wednesday morning and found that
the graffiti had been painted over. But an administrator at the
church said, “This type of thing happens all the time.” The Armenian
Patriarchate of Istanbul refused to comment on the matter. No criminal
complaint has been filed.

The incident comes hot on the heels of another racist slur against
Armenians in Turkey. It was reported on Tuesday that Ankara Mayor
Melih Gökcek had filed a criminal complaint against Turkish-Armenian
journalist Hayko Bagdat on defamation charges after Bagdat posted
lighthearted tweets on his Twitter account referring to the mayor as
an Armenian after the March 2014 local elections.

Gökcek appears to believe it an insult to be called an Armenian
as his lawyer petitioned the Ankara Prosecutor’s Office, saying,
“The statements [by Bagdat] are false and include insult and libel.”

ARMENIAN SOLDIER REVEALS REASONS FOR SURRENDERING TO AZERBAIJANI SIDE

Cihan News Agency (CNA), Turkey
March 23, 2015 Monday

BAKU (CÄ°HAN)- The identity of the Armenian serviceman, who voluntarily
surrendered to the Azerbaijani side on Mar.22, has been established,
Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said on March 23.

He is Andranik Grigoryan, born in 1991, according to the ministry.

During the interrogation, Grigoryan said he surrendered to the
Azerbaijani side because he feared a senseless death. The Armenian
soldier also said that several servicemen were also planning to
surrender to the Azerbaijani side, but he did it before them.

“I don’t know anything about the fate of the others,” he said.

Grigoryan also talked about the terrible situation prevailing in the
units of the Armenian armed forces, the lack of weapons and food,
and conflicts among the servicemen.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in
1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a
result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied
20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and
seven surrounding districts.

The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs
of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US are currently
holding peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented the UN Security Council’s four
resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the
surrounding regions.

Press Release
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Tel: (+961- 4) 410001, 410003
Fax: (+961- 4) 419724
E- mail: [email protected]
Web:
PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon

On the Feast of St. Gregory the Illuminator Armenians renew their faith
with the relics of the Saint

Antelias – Sunday 22 March 2015. The Feast of St. Gregory the
Illuminator, patron saint of the Armenian Church, is also the day of
pilgrimage to the St. Gregory the Illuminator Cathedral in Antelias. His
Holiness Aram I entered the Church holding the relic of the right hand
of Saint Gregory, accompanied by the clergy who carried different relics
of other saints.

Archbishop Sebouh Sarkissian, the Prelate of Tehran, celebrated the Holy
Liturgy and preached the sermon, in which he assured the faithful that
the Armenian Church continues the mission of the Great Saint as
confessor and witness of Jesus. At the end of the liturgy, the
Catholicos and the clergy circled the Catholicosate, holding the relics
and blessing the people, then returned to the church where His Holiness
blessed the water with the relic of Saint Gregory, to whom the faithful
presented their intercessory prayers.

His Holiness Aram I in Cairo

Antelias – 19 March 2015. His Holiness Aram I left for Cairo yesterday
to meet with His Holiness Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria, Patriarch of
the Coptic Orthodox Church and His Holiness Mar Ignatius Aphrem II,
Patriarch of Antioch of the Syriac Orthodox Church.

The three Oriental Orthodox Hierarchs of the Middle East, who meet
annually to deepen theological understandings and encourage exchange
programmes between the seminaries, will discuss issues in the region
affecting their communities and explore possible ways of cooperation.

A Standing Committee appointed by the Churches prepared the agenda of
the meetings. Archbishop Sebouh Sarkissian, Prelate of Tehran and Very
Rev. Housig Mardirossian, the Ecumenical officer, represented the
Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia on the Committee.

His Holiness Aram I’s representative attends ecumenical events

Antelias – During the week of 16 March 2015, V. Rev. Housig
Mardirossian attended a special event organized by the Bible Society of
Lebanon. The Society invited Ambassadors of countries accredited to
Lebanon and representatives of religious communities to speak of their
activities.

On behalf of the Catholicos, V. Rev. Housig Mardirossian also attended
the official reception organized by The Near East School of Theology on
the occasion of a conference on `The Protestant Reformation and the
Middle East’. The reception was an opportunity for the participants
to meet the local church representatives.

###

Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia

Communication and Information Department
PO Box : 70 317 Antelias – LEBANON
Tel: (+961-4) 410 001 / 3
Fax: (+961-4) 419724
E-mail: [email protected]

Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
PO Box : 70 317 Antelias – LEBANON
Tel: (+961-4) 410 001 / 3
Fax: (+961-4) 419724
E-mail: [email protected]

AZERBAIJAN HAS ADOPTED NEW WARFARE TACTICS

Siranuysh Papyan, Interviewer
Interview – 25 March 2015, 15:06

Interview with Gagik Karapetyan, military expert

Mr. Karapetyan, is the video of the 24-year-old serviceman Andranik
allegedly deserting to the Azerbaijani side real or staged?

I don’t know any details at the moment, only the information provided
by the media.

What is the cause of the border skirmish of the past week?

Tension has been something regular, and we always try to link
skirmishes to something, which is not right, I believe, because
Azerbaijan has a clear tactics, nothing happens without a purpose,
especially such skirmishes that result in a high toll. In other words,
this is one way, tactics of waging a war, one of the modern ways which
Azerbaijan uses trying to resolve certain problems for its benefit but,
in fact, it fails so far. It can be reconnaissance, check of alertness
of front units, test of our fast response but it would not be right
to link it to something happening inside or outside the region.

What do the recent operations killing 3 and injuring 4 indicate?

If you know, a rather big detachment of the enemy penetrated. It
is impossible to eliminate possibilities of penetration by mining
the fields and using state-of-the-art equipment because these can
be bypassed. Everything is created by man and it is always possible
to find ways of counteracting or avoiding what is man-made. Second,
since our border guards were startled, this explains the number of
casualties. However, the counteraction was such that they even chased
the escaping special troops up to their base and destroyed them. In
other words, the preparedness of our fast action groups proved that
our special units are well-prepared and are always ready to perform
their tasks.

The situation has been tense since January and has not mitigated so
far. What is the reason?

It should be noted that their tactics of causing escalation changed
last August, not this January. If earlier they used the tactics
of snipers and firing, the reconnaissance-in-action was adopted in
August. Then they will adopt another tactics. In brief, this is a
matter of tactics.

There is an opinion that border tension will relatively go down in late
April, after the centenary of the Genocide. Do you share this opinion?

There is no need to link it to this solely. Yes, it is possible that
this is a tactics of appearing to the political arena, to raise their
voice but it is impossible to claim that tension will go away in late
April and the situation will change because, as I said, this is a
way of waging a war adopted by Azerbaijan today.

On these days there are deliberations that 18-19-year-olds should
not be at the front line to avoid so many victims.

They always have victims during a war. As soon as we have a
professional army, those 18-19-year-olds will not be there. Perhaps
it was Alexander the Great’s policy not to recruit those who did not
have heirs. Perhaps, it is correct, on the one hand. On the other hand,
our 18-19-year-old soldiers have proved for a number of times that they
are ready to cope with specially trained troops and defeat them even
in wrestling. Hence, I see no problem here. There is another problem,
alternative to not conscripting 18-19-year-olds. The border must be
equipped with state-of-the-art reconnaissance equipment which will
help detect advancements of the enemy and meet them without victims
or minimize victims.

And what do we have at the border, is our equipment new, we can see
Azerbaijan continuously arming its army?

I don’t have precise information of what new equipment the border
installations are equipped with but I can state that there are projects
of equipping the border in the future. As to the equipment, it should
not be stated now because the enemy always tries to get the antipode.

In fact, we are at war now, aren’t we?

Whatever definition we give it, we cannot escape the fact, yes,
in fact, we are at war. These belligerent actions have not grown
to active actions, aggressive or defensive fights but in fact this
is trench warfare with all the rules of warfare. And in fact, our
borders are invincible, we are performing our job.

Shouldn’t the generals who are periodically talking about the border
be present at the front line?

Nzhdeh said the Armenian soldiers want their commander to go ahead
of them, other nations, such as Muslim Temur army thought that their
leaders should be in the rear. The Armenians want the generals to be
at the front line, the task of the general is bigger, more far-fetched,
larger in scale than just physical present in the trench.

Simply we must realize that a general must not be in the trench, if
yes, only in case of large-scale actions but the second or third line,
not on the front line, to be able to organize the fight and plan the
actions. This is the task of the general, and the soldier’s task is
to stand in the trench and protect it.

Are we going to respond to the latest operations?

We always have it in our arsenal. Time will show how we will respond.

POITIERS : LA FAMILLE ARMENIENNE MENACEE D’EXPULSION OBTIENT UN TITRE DE SEJOUR PROVISOIRE

FRANCE
Bonne nouvelle pour la famille armenienne menacee d’expulsion. Ce
matin, alors qu’un rassemblement de soutien etait organise, la
prefecture leur a delivre un titre de sejour valable quatre mois.

ls vivent en France depuis 2008. Leurs trois enfants sont scolarises et
sont investis dans des clubs sportifs locaux. La prefecture refusait
d’accorder aux membres de cette famille armenienne leurs titres
de sejour.

Et la ce matin, la prefecture de la Vienne a delivre ce matin un
recepisse de titre de sejour, valable quatre mois, aux deux parents.

Un titre de sejour pour un an devrait suivre ce recepisse dans les
semaines qui viennent.

Pour le collectif poitevin ” D’ailleurs nous sommes d’ici” qui
appelait au rassemblement c’est une victoire. ” Une fois de plus,
la mobilisation citoyenne a paye”, a conclu Yvon Placais de DNSI. Les
parents d’elèves et les representants des associations sportives dans
lesquelles les enfants sont inscrits etaient venus soutenir cette
famille qui de l’avis de tous est un modèle d’integration.

mercredi 25 mars 2015, Stephane (c)armenews.com

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT HAS NO RIGHT TO PRESENT CONSTITUTIONAL REFORMS TO PEOPLE – RAFFI HOVANNISIAN

13:51 * 25.03.15

Chairman of the Heritage party Raffi Hovannisian told reported on
Wednesday about the latest developments within the party during
his absence.

Specifically, he commented on a meeting Heritage party Vice-Chairman
Armen Martirosyan and Head of the Heritage parliamentary faction
Ruben Hakobyan had with Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan as part of
discussions of constitutional reforms in Armenia.

“Vice-Chairman Armen Martirosyan was responsible for the party’s
actions during my absence, and the major problem is the decision made
by Armen Martirosyan and the board,” Mr Hovannisian said.

Although Mr Martiroyan and Mr Hakobyan acted within their competence,
Mr Hovannisian himself would have never participated in that meeting.

His position remains unchanged: Serzh Sargsyan is an illegitimate
president in both political and civil terms to present constitutional
reforms to the Armenian people.

L’ARMENIE RECONNAIT LE GENOCIDE DES ASSYRO-CHALDEENS ET DES GRECS

Parlement

L’Armenie a officiellement les genocides des Assyriens et des Grecs
lors d’une resolution adoptee a l’unanimite par son Parlement hier.

“L’Assemblee nationale d’Armenie declare qu’elle condamne le genocide
des Grecs et des Assyriens commis par l’Empire ottoman en 1915-1923”,
est ecrit dans la resolution coparrainee par les principales factions
parlementaires.

Le document dit que ces massacres, largement documentes, sont
conformes a la definition du genocide etablie par une convention des
Nations-Unies en 1948.

On estime a 300 000 le nombre d’Assyriens de l’Empire ottoman qui ont
ete tues ou sont morts de faim pendant et au lendemain de la Première
Guerre mondiale.

L’Association internationale des genocides a conclu en 2007 que

OFFICE TO BE ESTABLISHED IN ARMENIA’S PARLIAMENT FOR DEALING WITH BUDGETARY ISSUES

YEREVAN, March 25. /ARKA/. The National Assembly of Armenia passed
today at the second and final reading a bill implying establishment of
an office inside the parliament for dealing with budget-related issues.

The authors of the bill think that after the separation of the Control
Chamber from the National Assembly the parliament actually was left
without mechanisms of shriveling the government budget.

Deputy Finance Minister Vakhtang Mirumyan said in this connection
that the legal status of the office and its experts will be specified.

He said the office may be established this year and the establishment
will be paid from the money allocated for the parliament from the
government budget.

Gagik Jangiryan, an MP from the opposition Armenian National Congress,
called this decision anti-constitutional, since such an office is
fit to countries with parliamentary governance.

Naira Zohrabyan, head of Prosperous Armenia party’s faction in the
National Assembly, said her party is opposed to the bill aimed at
serving the interests of ‘a certain group’.

The bill was passed by 88 MPs, 20 voted against it and four abstained.

The bill was designed by Parliament Speaker Galust Sahakyan, who is a
member of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia, his fellow partisans
Gagik Minasyan, Khosrov Harutyunyan, Samvel Nikoyan, Sukias Avetisyan,
one member of Armenian Revolutionary Federation/Dashnaktsutyun Artsvik
Minasyan, Orinats Yerkir party’s Mher Shahgeldyan and former prime
minister Hrant Bagratyan. —0—–

DENIAL OF VIOLENCE, BY FATMA MUGE GOCEK

March 24, 2015

Fatma Muge Gocek

While much of the international community regards the forced
deportation of Armenian subjects of the Ottoman Empire in 1915, where
approximately 800,000 to 1.5 million Armenians perished, as genocide,
the Turkish state still officially denies it.

In Denial of Violence, Fatma Muge Gocek seeks to decipher the roots
of this disavowal. To capture the negotiation of meaning that leads to
denial, Gocek undertook a qualitative analysis of 315 memoirs published
in Turkey from 1789 to 2009 in addition to numerous secondary sources,
journals, and newspapers. She argues that denial is a multi-layered,
historical process with four distinct yet overlapping components:
the structural elements of collective violence and situated modernity
on one side, and the emotional elements of collective emotions and
legitimating events on the other. In the Turkish case, denial emerged
through four stages: (i) the initial imperial denial of the origins
of the collective violence committed against the Armenians commenced
in 1789 and continued until 1907; (ii) the Young Turk denial of the
act of violence lasted for a decade from 1908 to 1918; (iii) early
republican denial of the actors of violence took place from 1919 to
1973; and (iv) the late republican denial of the responsibility for
the collective violence started in 1974 and continues today.

Denial of Violence develops a novel theoretical, historical and
methodological framework to understanding what happened and why the
denial of collective violence against Armenians still persists within
Turkish state and society.

Fatma Muge Gocek

Fatma Muge Gocek is a Professor of Sociology and Women’s Studies. Her
research focuses on the comparative analysis of history, politics
and gender in the first and third worlds. She critically analyzes
the impact of processes such as development, nationalism, religious
movements and collective violence on minorities. Her published works
includesEast Encounters West: France and the Ottoman Empire in the
18th Century (Oxford University Press, 1987), Reconstructing Gender
in the Middle East: Tradition, Identity, Power (Columbia University
Press, 1994 co-edited with Shiva Balaghi), Rise of the Bourgeoisie,
Demise of Empire: Ottoman Westernization and Social Change (Oxford
University Press, 1996), Political Cartoons in the Middle East
(Markus Wiener Publishers, 1998), Social Constructions of Nationalism
in the Middle East (SUNY Press, 2002), The Transformation of Turkey:
Redefining State and Society from the Ottoman Empire to the Modern Era
(I.B. Tauris Publishers, 2011), and A Question of Genocide: Armenians
and Turks at the End of the Ottoman Empire (Oxford University Press,
2011 co-edited with Ronald Grigor Suny and Norman Naimark).