Author: Baghdasarian Karlen

L’Alsace.fr, France
22 janvier 2012

La communauté arménienne d’Alsace à fond pour la loi

le 22/01/2012 à 05:00 par Michel Arnould

Demain, le Sénat examine à son tour le projet de loi pénalisant la
négation du génocide arménien de 1915. Un débat suivi avec ferveur par
la très discrète communauté arménienne d’Alsace.
Ils seraient 8 000 dans la région, à en croire le père Vatché
Ayrapétyan, prêtre de la paroisse de l’église apostolique arménienne
de France. Une paroisse toute jeune, la seule d’Alsace, qu’il organise
peu à peu depuis un an grce à l’accueil fraternel de la paroisse
catholique Sainte-Madeleine, du quartier de la Krutenau à Strasbourg,
qui lui prête une vaste chapelle.

« Chaque dimanche, une centaine de personnes participent à l’office
et, bien sûr, beaucoup plus lors des grandes fêtes », explique le père
Vatché. La religion joue un rôle de boussole pour le peuple arménien
qui se flatte d’avoir été le premier État chrétien du monde, avant
même l’Empire romain, avec la conversion du royaume d’Arménie dès le
début du IV e siècle. Aujourd’hui encore, le christianisme dispose
d’une écrasante majorité, proche de 100 % de la population, dominée
par l’église apostolique, une église orthodoxe orientale.

Pour le père Vatché, le débat franco-français et franco-turc sur la
reconnaissance du génocide arménien est une surprise… quasi divine : «
Merci la France, merci le peuple français ! Nous prions pour que cette
loi soit acceptée. Non pas comme une vengeance, mais comme un appel à
réfléchir et à condamner tous les génocides… Chaque homme a le droit
de vivre sur cette terre. »

Le groupe de jeunes, réuni autour du prêtre acquiesce, mais est plus
vif dans son expression.

« En mars 2011, on a été une quarantaine de jeunes Arméniens d’Alsace
à monter à Paris pour manifester devant l’Assemblée nationale avec
Charles Aznavour et Patrick Devedjian, pour la reconnais- sance du
génocide de 1915 », raconte Hamlet Housepian, 22 ans, ouvrier à
Strasbourg, arrivé en Alsace à l’ge de 8 ans, en novembre 2004 (lire
aussi l’encadré).

Pourquoi la France et l’Alsace ? Parce qu’un oncle y était déjà
établi. C’est d’ailleurs le cas de la très grande majorité des
Arméniens d’Alsace qui constituent une immigration très récente. La
communauté alsacienne s’est constituée seulement au cours des 20
dernières années. « Il y avait peut-être quelques familles anciennes,
avant », estime le prêtre. Il faut traduire « familles anciennes » par
descendants de familles rescapées du génocide de 1915 et arrivées en
France au début des années 1920.

Les nouveaux immigrants ne fuient pas un génocide mais le marasme
économique arménien. Pays semi-désertique, sans accès à la mer et sans
grande richesse naturelle, l’Arménie végète économiquement depuis la
fin de l’Union soviétique dont elle faisait partie. Elle entretient de
plus de très mauvaises relations avec deux de ses quatre voisins, la
Turquie et l’Azerbaïdjan. Avec ce dernier pays couve même un conflit
armé, gelé depuis 1994.

À ces difficultés s’ajoute une très violente sismicité. Le dernier
très gros tremblement de terre, le 7 décembre 1988, a fait plus de 30
000 morts, soit 1 % de la population. « On a tout connu : des séismes,
le génocide azéri…, mais on est toujours là », note Souren Azarpyan,
24 ans.

* * *

« Mon arrière-grand-père a été sauvé par un Kurde »
Tout nouveau champion d’Alsace de lutte dans la catégorie des 60
kilos, Hamlet Housepian est, ce dimanche 22 janvier, à Sarrebourg, où
se déroulent les championnats de France. Avec, peut-être l’espoir,
d’offrir ce soir un champion de France de plus à sa terre d’adoption…

À 22 ans, le génocide de 1915 est pour lui une histoire, certes
ancienne, mais qui résonne encore. « Nous n’avons pas connu ce
malheur, admet-il. Mais mon arrière-grand-père a dû fuir l’empire
ottoman. Il est venu se réfugier en Arménie soviétique de l’époque. Il
a été aidé et protégé pour cela par un Kurde, alors même que les
autorités ottomanes manipulaient la minorité kurde pour qu’elle s’en
prenne aux Arméniens. Mon arrière-grand-père a écrit sa vie et je
garde ses écrits. »

Le débat sur le projet de loi, le captive. « On espère que la loi
passe pour que les États-Unis suivent… » La réaction du gouvernement
turc, qui menace la France de représailles économiques et politiques,
le conforte dans son opinion : « Menacer un pays, c’est montrer qu’on
a peur de lui et que la France a raison. »

Enfin, les accusations de man`uvre électorale à quelques semaines
d’élections présidentielles et législatives le laissent sceptique : «
Les Franco-Turcs sont beaucoup plus nombreux que les Franco-Arméniens.
Ils seraient donc plus rentables électoralement, non ? »

le 22/01/2012 à 05:00 par Michel Arnould

From: Baghdasarian

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Jan 22 2012

Murder as a collective crime

Ä°HSAN DAÄ?I

It was five years ago: In my second column in Today’s Zaman, only
three days after the murder of Hrant Dink, I wrote that he was `the
victim of the nation-state and nationalism.’

Since then he continues to be victimized by the same mindset that
prevails in Turkish security institutions, in the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs and in the judiciary.

The Dink case is a reminder of how deep-rooted and widespread Turkish
nationalism, which has defined itself silently vis-Ã-vis the Armenian
question since 1915, is. I think the Turkish subconscious is marked by
the events of 1915 so that it cannot recover from it and treat the
remaining Armenians, including Dink, as fellow citizens and
compatriots.

A year after Dink was murdered then Minister of Defense of the Justice
and Development Party (AK Party) government Vecdi Gönül declared
openly for the first time, `If the Armenians had remained where they
had lived in Anatolia, we could not have established such a
nation-state.’ When Minister Gönül uttered these words he rightly
faced criticism that he was a `Unionist,’ referring to the Committee
of Union and Progress (CUP) in power during the 1915 massacre of the
Armenians. But the fact of the matter is that this is the unspoken and
yet common belief among Turks, nationalists, conservatives, leftists,
you name it.

By linking the establishment of a Turkish nation-state and the
Armenian massacre, they implicitly endorse what was done to the
Armenians in 1915. This is what I refer to as the subconscious of the
Turks being marked by the Armenian question; their `presence’ was only
possible at the expense of the `absence’ of the Armenians. This I
think gives way to a guilt complex that cannot be admitted and
expressed and a deep sense of insecurity. When Armenians exist, they
panic that this happens at the expense of the Turks’ absence. So the
presence of Dink as an Armenian in the public sphere deeply disturbed
the `Turkish psyche.’

As a result we have all kinds of barriers to the investigation of
Dink’s murder. It started right after the murder. The person who
killed Dink was photographed in front of a Turkish flag flanked by two
soldiers when he was arrested. These photographs were distributed to
the media to trigger nationalist sentiments against the Armenians.
Again, right after the murder, the Ä°stanbul chief of police declared
that the murderer was motivated and led by nationalist sentiments.
Hürriyet Editor-in-Chief ErtuÄ?rul Ã-zkök wrote that we should try to
understand (i.e., sympathize with) the murderer.

All these have turned the Dink murder into an act justifiable simply
because it was committed against an Armenian.

So there was complacency all over. It is now a fact that security
forces in Trabzon and Ä°stanbul knew well that a plan to assassinate
Dink was being prepared. They knew and did not do anything to stop it.
How can this be explained? If the `victim’ is an Armenian, then
`collaboration’ or `silence’ is the attitude. We also know for sure
that he was warned and threatened by an intelligence officer in the
office of the deputy governor of Ä°stanbul before his murder.

Even the AK Party government that was receptive to the demands of
minorities and in return supported by them did not stand by Dink. I do
not remember any member of the AK Party government who attended the
Dink’s burial (except an adviser to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
ErdoÄ?an).

Later on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs under the leadership of Ahmet
DavutoÄ?lu submitted a defense to the European Court of Human Rights
(ECtHR) for the Dink case in which Dink was compared to a Nazi leader,
and it was argued that restrictions on his writings could not be
regarded as a breach of freedom of expression, since they contained
`hate speech.’ As if this embarrassing comparison was not enough, the
defense by the Turkish government also implied that Dink’s murderers
were justified: It was Dink who was to blame for his own murder
because he was found guilty of insulting Turkishness by the Turkish
judiciary.

Apart from this shameful `defense’ there are many cases that show
authorities did not collaborate to investigate the murder case. At the
end the court placed all responsibility on a `lone wolf’ without going
deeper into his connections. Everyone knows this is a cover-up, not
only of the network that murdered Dink but also of our relationship
with Armenians. The decision of the court turns Dink’s murder into a
`collective crime.’

From: Baghdasarian

Cape Argus (South Africa)
January 21, 2012 Saturday
E1 Edition

Denialism laws hide poisonous strains infesting body politic

In 1915, Turkish authorities killed half a million Armenians in what
most scholars – but unsurprisingly, not the Turks – agree was
genocide. Next week the French senate is poised to pass a law that
makes it a criminal offence to deny this was a genocide, punishable
with a maximum fine of e45 000.

Cynics will attribute the proposed French law less to concern over the
death of half a million Armenians a century ago and a continent away,
than to concern about the votes of half a million Armenians living in
France today and voting in this year’s presidential election.

Those more generous might attribute the legislation to guilt, given
that so many French – contrary to the mythology of every citizen being
a doughty Resistance fighter – collaborated enthusiastically with the
Germans in sending Jews, Gypsies and assorted other “undesirables” to
be exterminated.

There is irony, too, in the French government wanting to criminalise
the denial of a genocide in which it has absolutely no historical
involvement, while vociferously denying the involvement of its own
politicians and officials in the Rwandan genocide, in which more than
800 000 were murdered.

For there is ample evidence that not only were the French guilty of
not acting on their fore-knowledge of the impending killings, but of
actually providing materiel and other active military support to the
Hutu extremists during the massacres.

Certainly the legislation cannot be attributed to the example of
successful existing laws criminalising odious beliefs.

The French bill is similar in intent to laws already existing in
several European countries, including Germany and France, that make it
a criminal offence to deny the 1940s Holocaust, in which six million
Jews were murdered.

The ineffectiveness of such laws can be gauged by the fewer than two
dozen successful criminal convictions attained over more than 60
years. This despite Holocaust denial remaining perniciously persistent
in much of Europe.

All that has happened is that the denialists have gone underground.
They circulate anonymously their twisted “truth”, accusing their
governments of fearing the open debates that democracies claim to
guarantee.

If genocide could simply be legislated against, its bloody stain would
long since have been eradicated from humanity’s tunic.

In any case, because of their after-the-act nature, denialism laws are
not actually meant to forestall|genocide, defined by UN Convention of
1948 as the intentional destruction in whole or in part, of a
national, ethnic, racial or religious group.

One cannot usefully legislate against an attitude or a belief, but one
can legislate against actions that might result from an action or a
belief.

Strong human rights protections in constitutions and laws against hate
speech are far more credible mechanisms to contain extremist
tendencies than martyring someone for his or her political delusions.

It is the duty of governments to protect their citizens from harm. It
is not the government’s task to protect its citizens’ sensitivities,
however justifiable and acute, from|peacefully expressed views,
however bizarre.

This is not only a matter of the right to freedom of expression. To
censor thought or opinion is to limit our understanding of the world.
If one cannot look critically at certain historical events, the past
remains frozen at an officially sanctioned moment in time.

Laws against denialism are cynical attempts to hide from public view
the poisonous strains infesting the body politic.

It is seductive to use a law to try to attempt to draw a veil over
rank- smelling matters, rather than engage honestly with the lunatic
fringe and expose them to the withering effect of reason and ridicule.

Also appears in

From: Baghdasarian

ANC and ARF-D won’t boycott majoritarian order elections

03:25 pm | January 21, 2012 | Politics

The Armenian National Congress won’t boycott the elections for the
National Assembly through the majoritarian order.

“I am certain that the Congress is the force that can fight through
the majoritarian order as well,” said ANC coordinator Levon Zurabyan.

Zurabyan says he is amazed when he hears people say the authorities
need the majoritarian order for falsifications.

“They don’t need only the majoritarian order for that,” says Zurabyan.

Zurabyan says the ANC had suggested that the authorities reject the
majoritarian order during the ANC-authorities dialogue, “but the
authorities didn’t even allude that they were ready for concession”.

The ARF-Dashnaktsutyun is fighting against the majoritarian order, but
is also getting ready to run in the elections.

“We will obviously try wherever we can,” said ARF Bureau
representative Hrant Margaryan.

Representative of the “Country of Law” (OEK) Party Hovhannes Margaryan
will personally run in the elections through the majoritarian order in
Gyumri and isn’t even thinking of falsifications. “Our party has
always received the people’s vote of confidence without spending any
money.”

According to Margaryan, in 2007, the OEK did everything possible to
eliminate the majoritarian order, but residents of the provinces love
the OEK representatives.

“Well, in some provinces more, in some provinces less,” said
Margaryan, adding that more and more people are joining their party.

From: Baghdasarian

Kolkata Armenians visit Chinsurah for John the Baptist feast
Published: Sunday January 22, 2012

Pilgrims in Chinsurah.

Kolkata, India – On January 15, the Armenian community of Kolkata,
India, teachers and senior students of Armenian College and
Philanthropic Academy went on a pilgrimage to Saint John the Baptist
Armenian Church of Chinsurah which was built in 1695.

The relics of St. John the Baptist, which is kept in the Armenian Holy
Church of Nazareth, Kolkata is carried to Chinsurah on the occasion of
the Feast of Saint John the Baptist.

Very Rev. Father Khoren Hovhannisyan, Pastor of Armenians in India and
Manager of Armenian College and Philanthropic Academy conducted the
Divine Liturgy. During the Holy Mass, Father Khoren blessed the
faithful with the golden hand of St. John the Baptist.

In his sermon, Father Khoren emphasized the importance of St. John the
Baptist and his significant role in the Christian Church. The
congregation showed reverence and bowed down to the relics of St. John
the Baptist and pleaded for his intercession.

One of the last Meliks of Artsakh (present-day Nagorno Karabakh),
Fridon Beglar (May 01, 1795 – September 22, 1884) is buried beneath
the belfry of the Church.

Once there were many Armenians living in Chinsurah. Although today
there are no Armenians living in the town but the Church is in good
condition and is being taken care of by the Church Committee of Holy
Nazareth.

From: Baghdasarian

Kremlin: Russia seeks to promote trust in Karabakh settlement

January 22, 2012 – 17:45 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Russian, Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents will
meet to discuss the Nagorno Karabakh issue in Russia’s Black Sea
resort of Sochi January 23, the Kremlin said.

>From 2008 on, Russia mediated 10 meetings on Karabakh issue, with the
last one held June 24, 2011 in Kazan, where the conflicting parties
managed to approximate positions on main principles of conflict
settlement.

However, the Kremlin expressed concern over increased instances of
ceasefire violation, deaths among the servicemen and peaceful
population as well as military rhetoric.

According to Kremlin’s press service, Russia takes consistent efforts
to promote trust between conflicting parties, urging for peaceful
resolution of disputes and investigation of incidents at contact line
within OSCE Minsk Group framework.

Establishment of a dialogue between representatives of intellectual
elite, scientific circles and public figures was noted among means to
boost trust between the conflicting parties.

On Monday, January 23, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will hold
bilateral meetings with Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and his
Azeri counterpart Ilham Aliyev.

The meeting between Russian and Armenian leaders will focus on
important aspects of strategic partnership.

From: Baghdasarian

ARMENIA “GENOCIDE” BILL MEETS RESISTANCE IN FRENCH SENATE

Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Jan 18 2012
Germany

Jan. 18–PARIS — A group of French senators on Wednesday rejected
a bill that would make it a crime to deny that Armenians suffered
“genocide” at the hand of Ottoman Turks.

The Commission of Laws of the Senate, which reviews texts before
they are debated, said the bill that will be put to vote on Monday
was unconstitutional. The head of the commission, Jean-Pierre Sueur,
said it was not parliament’s role to impose a reading of history.

However the bill is still expected to pass, having broad support in
the 343-member Senate, beyond the 49-member commission.

The lower house of parliament has already adopted the bill, which
punishes denial of genocides recognized by France by up to a year in
prison and 45,000 euros (57,000 dollars) in fines.

France officially recognizes two genocides: the Nazi Holocaust of
Jews during World War II and the killing of between 300,000 and 1.5
million Armenians in eastern Turkey between 1915 and 1917.

Turkey denies that the killings, which took place during World War I,
constituted genocide, saying there was no systematic policy to destroy
the Armenian community.

The adoption by the National Assembly in December provoked an angry
response from Turkey, which suspended all contact with France and
recalled its ambassador from Paris for consultations.

Further punitive measures are expected if the bill passes the Senate.

The approval of the Senate is now necessary for it to become law.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused French
President Nicolas Sarkozy of using the bill to try win the support
of France’s small but influential Armenian community ahead of this
year’s presidential and parliamentary elections.

From: Baghdasarian

JUDGE TOSSES KEVORKIAN ESTATE’S MICH. ART SUIT

The Associated Press State & Local Wire
January 18, 2012 Wednesday 5:49 PM GMT

A judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed in suburban Detroit by the
estate of Dr. Jack Kevorkian against a Massachusetts museum that
refused to return 17 of his paintings.

The Detroit News and The Oakland Press of Pontiac report the dispute
likely will be heard in federal court in Massachusetts following
Oakland County Circuit Judge Martha Anderson’s decision Wednesday.

Anderson said the issue should be decided in Massachusetts because
the museum first sued there last year.

That suit was filed ahead of a New York auction.

The Armenian Library and Museum of America in Watertown, Mass.,
claims Kevorkian donated the art in 1999. But the estate of the
assisted-suicide advocate says he loaned it to the museum for an
exhibit and subsequent storage.

Kevorkian died in June at age 83.

From: Baghdasarian

A WALK TO UNRAVEL THE CONFLUENCE OF CULTURES IN KOLKATA
by Jaideep Mazumdar

The Times of India (TOI)
January 17, 2012 Tuesday

A patch of Kolkata, not more than five square kilometers in size,
is a true microcosm of the world. No less than 16 communities from
across the globe made this area, which was referred to as the ‘grey
town’ during the Raj days, their home. Buffeted by the ‘white town’
(for Europeans) to its south and the ‘black town’ (for Indians) to
its north, ‘grey town’ flourished as a commercial centre where the
east met the west and transacted business.

The captivating character of ‘grey town’ remains hidden in the
labyrinth of narrow lanes, alleys and walkways lined by old structures,
most dating back to the British days, and in various stages of
decay. But, to use a cliche, this piece of Kolkata that most of
the city’s residents who do not live or trade here know little of,
is steeped in history. And one of the best ways to discover it is to
go on an exploratory walk through it with ‘Calcuttawalks’.

This walk, titled ‘confluence of cultures’, starts from Buddhist
Temple Street off Chittaranjan Avenue. A Buddhist temple here built
by one Kripasharan Mahasthavir who tried to revive Buddhism in Bengal
lends its name to the street, which was earlier known as Mangala Lane.

Kripasharan bought a dilapidated house (where the present structure
stands) to establish a ‘Mahanagar Vihara’ to propagate Buddhism,
provide free schooling to children and conduct charitable activities.

This temple also has a guest house where Buddhists from all over the
world stay enroute to Bodh Gaya. A stone’s throw away is a few rows
of red brick tenements which served as barracks for British soldiers
during World War I. They’re now better known as Bow Barracks, home
to many Anglo-Indian families.

A short walk through overcrowded lanes is a Parsi fire temple where
the 600-odd Parsis who remain in Kolkata congregate on occasions. And
bang opposite on this street, named after Charles Metcalfe, Governor
General of Bengal from 1835 to 1836, is the Agha Khan Jamaat Khana, a
meeting place for members of the Ismaili sect of the Shia faith. This
lane leads out to the busy Bipin Behari Ganguly Street (formerly
Bowbazar Street), off which is the old Chinatown and the famous
Tiretta Bazar where an array of mouth-watering dumplings and Chinese
cuisine can be had from Chinese vendors. A must-stop here is the more
than 150-year-old shop run by Stella Chen selling Chinese noodles,
incense sticks, assorted sauces, dried mushrooms and a wide variety
of other goods, some imported from China.

Stella is happy to talk about the glorious days of Chinatown and its
residents, who used to congregate at the shop that her grandfather
founded. There are at least eight Chinese temples in and around
this area. Tiretta Bazar, for the many who don’t know, derives its
name from Sir Edward Tiretta, an Italian, who was an assistant to
the infamous Giacomo Casanova. Tiretta migrated to this city after
Casanova was sent on exile, and married a French lady here.

Another short walk away from Tiretta Bazar is the Parsee Church
Street that leads to Ezra Street, named after Elias David Joseph
Ezra, a wealthy Jew who built many of Kolkata’s grand structures. At
the intersection of the Parsee Church Street and Ezra Street stands
another fire temple which once had beautiful gardens around it. The
green expanse has been taken over by an unsightly assortment of shops
selling lighting fixtures and cheap chandeliers, while the temple
itself is in its last throes and no longer in use.

Ezra Street was earlier known as Domtalla Street and a grey marble
plaque on this street tells the story of a Russian adventurer,
translator, musician and writer, Gerasim Stepanov Lebedev (1749-1817),
who lived in this city for two decades from 1787, and opened the
‘Hindu Theatre’ at 25, Domtalla Street in 1795. Bengali actors and
actresses, for the first time, performed in Bengali adaptations of
two English plays on November 27, 1795.

Ezra Street leads to Pollock Street, off which stands a grand Bohra
mosque, and leads to Canning Street which hosts a Jain temple. A
stone’s throw away, on the arterial Brabourne Road, is the Portuguese
Catholic Church with its distinctive architecture.

Rising majestically above nondescript concrete structures on the
western side of Brabourne Road is what looks like a Church spire. But
it is actually a synagogue, an architectural marvel, built by Elias
Ezra. The Maghen David synagogue is a rich repository of grand antique
furniture, chandeliers and other objects which have obviously seen
better days. This city was once home to 10,000 Jews; today, just
about 30 remain. But just a hop, skip and jump away is the Armenian
Church that is a study in contrast. This Church, founded in 1707,
is the oldest functioning religious institution in this city and is
in perfect condition, down to the spotlessly clean pews and gleaming
silver lecterns.

Add to all these temples and churches the gurudwara on MG Road, the
famous Nakhoda mosque and a Myanmarese temple near Phears Lane, and
you have eleven houses of worship of different religions and sects,
patronized by as many as 16 communities who made this city their home.

All within a five square kilometer area that would easily qualify
to the tag of a unique heritage zone that perhaps has no parallel in
the world.

From: Baghdasarian

DEF(E)INING CHOICE: BRUCE FEIN, THE TURKISH LOBBY, AND THE RON PAUL CAMPAIGN
by Nanore Barsoumian

January 20, 2012

Bruce Fein is a familiar name in the Armenian American press, having
time and again represented Turkish-American interests inside U.S.

courtrooms in cases such as Schmidt vs. Krikorian; the Turkish
Coalition of America (TCA) vs. the University of Minnesota; and
Guenter Lewy vs. the Southern Poverty Law Center. He is a resident
scholar at the TCA, and one of two leading attorneys at the Turkish
American Legal Defense Fund (TALDF), established by the TCA in 2008.

He had previously served as “adjunct scholar” and general counsel
at the Assembly of Turkish American Associations (ATAA). His latest
gig, however, is a position as senior legal advisor to Republican
presidential contender Ron Paul. The appointment has surprised some
who are aware of Ron Paul’s expressed distaste of “special interest”
and lobby groups. However, Fein’s close ties to Ron Paul date back
at least to the candidate’s 2008 campaign when Fein spoke at Paul’s
“Rally for the Republic.”

Bruce Fein An odd match

On Aug. 25, 2011, Fein was appointed senior legal advisor of the Ron
Paul 2012 Presidential Campaign.

“Bruce Fein’s participation adds to our campaign’s already intellectual
heft, enabling us to more broadly engage the conversation about
constitutionality, civil liberties, and the dangers to national
security of an increasingly interventionist foreign policy,” said
campaign chairman Jesse Benton.

Ron Paul has been a prominent voice against interventionist foreign
policy in all its manifestations, including the interference of
“special interests” in U.S. foreign policy. As a Congressman,
Paul criticized the existence of hyphenated Americans (i.e.,
Armenian-Americans and Turkish-Americans) as groups that sometimes
pursue “special interests.” Back in 2008, Ron Paul laid out his
reasoning for refusing to support the Armenian Genocide Resolution
bill in a speech before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, finding
“disadvantages” in “stirring the pot,” and advocating for neutrality.

“One of my long-term goals has always been to strive for eliminating
hyphenated Americans. I don’t like the idea that we have so many
groups that are hyphenated. So they have lobbyist groups that serve
the interests of this group of Americans against another group
of Americans. Then you have foreign lobbyists come in, and foreign
governments, and representatives-one government over another. Truly, if
we had a republic, we wouldn’t be dealing with this kind of a problem
being brought up constantly over many, many years…” he said, arguing
that the bill did not serve U.S. interests or the cause of peace.

Five years before that, in 2003, prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq,
Paul had blasted Turkey for “demanding billions for its cooperation
with our war efforts,” which he described as “blackmail” and a
“blatant shakedown [that] gives new meaning to the term ‘ally.'” (See
)

Hence the surprise when Fein was welcomed into the Ron Paul camp. On
top of his involvement with Turkish-American groups, Fein is one of
two principals at the Lichfield Group, which is a public advocacy
organization. His wife, Mathilde, is the other principal. Fein spends
a significant portion of his professional life as an advocate for
special interests.

FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds refers to Fein as a “foreign
agent-lobbyist” and “the greatest threat to the Ron Paul camp to
date,” in one of many articles she has written on the matter. After
providing a list of Fein’s client states, banks, and corporations,
she noted, “The Turkish clients paid Bruce Fein $500,000 in less than
two years for him to represent their interests. How much is the Ron
Paul campaign willing to pay Bruce Fein in order to surpass Turkey’s
client value to Fein?”

Ron Paul Edmonds, who is also the founder of the National Security
Whistleblowers Coalition, retrieved deleted information from
the Lichfield Group website, where Fein et al. advertise their
“connections” with the Justice Department, State Department, and
Central Intelligence Agency.

“Whether a client is a giant corporation handcuffed by ill-conceived
United States government policies or a foreign government anxious
to influence the decisions of Congress, the president, agencies, the
judiciary, or state governments, the Lichfield Group is armed with the
skills and contacts indispensable for success,” read the group’s site.

The Lichfield Group also offers “writing services” for newspaper
op-eds and letters to the editor, and boasts “connections” with
leading newspapers such as the New York Times, the Washington Times,
and the Wall Street Journal.

As the TCA’s resident scholar, Fein has penned a number of articles
attacking the veracity of the Armenian Genocide in publications such
as the Huffington Post (“Recommendations for the Armenian Diaspora,”
May 8, 2009; and “Lies, Damn Lies, and Armenian Deaths,” June 4,
2009), the Washington Times (“Tawdry Genocide Tale,” Sept. 2, 2007;
and “Armenian Crime Amnesia?” Oct. 16, 2007), and the San Francisco
Chronicle (“Armenian Genocide Measure is Misguided,” Oct. 21, 2007).

Ironically, Fein has also worked on behalf of a group that asserts
that the Sri Lankan Tamil people were victims of genocide during the
long and bloody civil war on the island nation of Sri Lanka.

The money trail

In discussing the TCA and Fein’s work with the coalition, it is
necessary to introduce Turkish American entrepreneur Yalcin Ayasli,
who invested a large sum of money in founding the TCA, the parent
organization of the TALDF. Ayasli was the biggest individual political
donor in the 2008 election cycle in the U.S., donating a whopping
$424,050 to politicians in both the Democratic and Republican parties,
reported the Nashua Telegraph in January 2011.

In 2010, Ayasli, who currently resides in Nashua, N.H., was the 12th
most generous political donor in the country. The Telegraph noted that
“while the Ayaslis’ donations have tipped toward Republicans recently,
a closer look suggests their giving has nothing to do with partisan
politics, but rather is aimed toward advancing Turkish-American
relations and the interests and image of Turkey in the United States.”

According to the newspaper, “Yalcin Ayasli and groups he supports
helped lead the countercharge against bringing the Armenian Genocide
Resolution to a vote during the closing days of the 111th Congress.”

In 2007, Ayasli founded the TCA, and donated around $30 million to
the organization from his Hittite Microwave Corporation stock. The
company, which he founded in 1985 in Chelmsford, Mass., was reported
to be worth more than 1.2 billion in 2008, with millions in revenue
deriving from government defense contracts. Ayasli is also a founding
trustee of the Turkish Cultural Foundation (TCF).

The Telegraph further reported that the TCA became “the third-largest
sponsor of Congressional travel, spending $545,710 to send five
members of Congress and 80 staffers to Turkey since May 2009.”

Up until recent months, the TCA, TALDF, and TCF shared an office suite
at 1025 Connecticut Ave., which the TALDF still lists as its office
headquarters in Washington, D.C. The TCA and TCF continue to share an
office in Concord, Mass., at 48 Jonas Brown Circle, and an office in
Washington, D.C., at 1510 H St. NW, Suite 900. Interestingly, all three
organizations share the same Washington, D.C. phone and fax numbers.

According to a U.S. Embassy cable released by WikiLeaks, the TCA also
“works closely” with the U.S. Azeris Network. The latter “calls on
its members to email their government representatives to change U.S.

policies regarding the Nagorno-Karabagh conflict,” wrote U.S. Embassy
Charge d’Affaires Donald Lu from Baku, adding, “The organization also
campaigns against any recognition on a state or federal level of the
Armenian ‘genocide.'”

The Ayaslis have also supported Ohio’s Republican Congresswoman Jean
Shmidt, who was challenged by Armenian American David Krikorian in
Ohio’s second district congressional race in 2008. Schmidt later
sued Krikorian for accusing her of accepting “blood money” from
the “Turkish lobby.” Bruce Fein, along with his TALDF co-counsel
David Saltzman, represented Schmidt in the suit. The House Ethics
Committee determined that Fein and Salzman’s legal services, for which
Schmidt was not billed and which ran to some $500,000, “constituted
an impermissible gift.” The committee found that the TCA had been
paying Fein and Saltzman’s legal fees. Schmidt was ordered to pay
back the full amount. Schmidt was not reprimanded because of her
“apparent lack of knowledge of this arrangement.”

***

Here’s a man at the center of a web of sticky special interests, now
sitting by the side of a presidential candidate who expressly despises
much of what Fein advocates. Ron Paul’s strict non-interventionist
stance most likely suits the TCA: inaction only reinforces the
status quo of denial and the suppression of justice for the Armenian
Genocide. Ron Paul’s followers praise his record of consistent
principled votes in Congress. But his association with Bruce Fein
raises some serious questions.

From: Baghdasarian