Author: Boshkezenian Garik

AZERBAIJANI REPUBLIC DAY TO BE MARKED IN ISRAEL

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
April 27 2007

Israeli-Azerbaijan International Association (IAIA) is planning to hold
solemn event on May 28 – Republic day of Azerbaijan, the vice-president
of organization Alex Shapiro told the APA Israeli bureau.

He stated that holiday event will be held in Israeli Knesset dedicated
to the 89th anniversary the first democratic Islamic republic in the
East on May 24. Israeli-Azerbaijan International Association promised
to do all organizational works as there is not Azerbaijani Embassy
in Israel. Israeli President, Prime Minister, parliamentarians and
foreign diplomats are expected to attend the event.

Shapiro commenting on Armenians’ marking the anniversary of so-called
genocide in Israel, said he expresses his solidarity with the official
position of the country regarding this issue. He said that Jews were
subject to genocide by fascists in the 20th century and Holocaust
can not be compared with any genocide in the history of mankind.

"It is unacceptable to identify Armenians and Jews in genocide issue,"
he stressed.

AREA ARMENIANS PAUSE TO REMEMBER VICTIMS

The Republican, MA
April 25 2007

Marineh Kirakosian and her husband, the Rev. Bedros Shetilian, both
have ancestors who were directly affected by the tragedy of their
people, which often has been called the first genocide of the 20th
century – the Armenian genocide of 1915.

An estimated 1.5 million Armenians were massacred and expelled from
the crumbling Ottoman Empire during World War I. Turkey has never
acknowledged the events as genocide, saying instead that the deaths
were caused by a civil war and ethnic strife.

Yesterday, the day which marked the start of the full-scale massacres
in 1915, was commemorated by Armenians worldwide as Genocide Memorial
Day.

"My ancestors fled from Turkey to Syria. Marineh’s ancestors went
to Armenia," said Shetilian, 43, who was born in Aleppo, Syria,
and speaks English, Arabic, Armenian, Russian and Turkish.

He lives in Ludlow and serves as the pastor of two Armenian Apostolic
churches: St. Gregory in Indian Orchard and Holy Cross in Troy, N.Y.

The parishes have some 180 members between them, mostly descendants
of those who came to America after the events of 1915.

St. Gregory the Illuminator is recognized by Armenian Apostolic
Church as its apostle, whose efforts made Armenia the first country
to adopt Christianity as its official religion in the beginning of
the 4th century.

"Many of our parishioners are second- or third-generation Americans,
although we have a few people who recently came from Armenia," said
Shetilian, who speaks old Armenian during services and delivers his
sermon in English.

A symphony orchestra conductor by training, Shetilian had worked with
the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the oldest symphonic ensemble in the
former Soviet Union, and the Bardi Symphony Orchestra of Leicester,
United Kingdom, before becoming a priest.

"At first, I think, he wasn’t planning on this to happen until sometime
later in his life," his wife said.

They met in 1983 in a music school in Yerevan, the capital of Soviet
Armenia, where Shetilian came from Syria to study music.

"Then we got married and moved to Russia," she said.

While studying at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, Shetilian discovered
for himself the Russian philosophers of the Silver Age.

"I can say that the writings of Nikolay Berdyaev, Vladimir Solovyov,
Sergey Bulgakov, as well as those by (Russian Orthodox theologian,
Biblical scholar and writer) Father Aleksandr Men, were the greatest
influence on my decision" to become a priest, Shetilian said. "And
the books of Dostoyevsky, of course."

There was not an Armenian seminary in St. Petersburg, he said, so he
enrolled in St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary, a Catholic school.

"I would go to the classes in the evenings after my day job as a
conductor," he said. "I studied there for two years and then went to an
Armenian Apostolic Church seminary in Lebanon for another two years."

He was ordained in 2001. Two years later he was sent to serve in
America.

"We lived in Boston and New York City first and then moved to Ludlow,"
said Kirakosian, 36, who attends English language classes at the
Ludlow Area Adult Learning Center.

They still go to New York once a week.

"Our daughter, Arpi, is studying violin at the conservatory there,
so we drive to see her every Saturday," Kirakosian said. Alex Peshkov,
a staff writer for The Republican, immigrated to Western Massachusetts
from Arkhangelsk in 2002. His column focuses on the Russian-American
community. He can be reached at apeshkov@ repub.com

TURKEY CHALLENGES CLAIMS IN US NEWSPAPER ADS

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
April 25 2007

Turkey’s Foreign Ministry is using the tools of public diplomacy to
find a way out of the Armenian "genocide" issue, which has become a
stumbling block in parts of its foreign affairs, putting full-page
advertisements in leading US dailies.

The ads reiterated an earlier call by Ankara to Yerevan for the
establishing of a joint commission of Turkish and Armenian historians
and experts to study on Armenian allegations of genocide.

The advertisements were published in The New York Times, The Washington
Times, the Los Angeles Times, the International Herald Tribune
and Roll Call newspaper — which is widely regarded as the leading
publication for US Congressional news and information — on Monday,
only a day before April 24, when Armenians mark the anniversary of
what they claim was the beginning of a systematic genocide campaign
at the hands of the Ottoman Empire.

Under an assertive title saying, "Let’s unearth the truth about
what happened in 1915 together," the advertisements released by the
Turkish Embassy in Washington recalled Turkish Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdoðan in 2005 sending a letter to Armenian President Robert
Kocharian in which he invited him to establish a joint commission
of historians and experts from both Turkey and Armenia to study the
events of 1915 in the archives of Turkey, Armenia and other relevant
countries around the world.

"Turkey will ensure full access to all its archives," the advertisement
said.

–Boundary_(ID_9yKKkOMgisZEvX VigllM6A)–

SEN. BIDEN ISSUES STATEMENT ON DAY OF REMEMBRANCE FOR ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

US Fed News
April 24, 2007 Tuesday 1:44 AM EST
Washington

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph R. Biden Jr.,
D-Del., issued the following statement:

Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Joseph R. Biden,
Jr. (D-DE) issued the following statement today on the Day of
Remembrance for the Armenian Genocide, April 24, 2007:

"The Armenian Genocide stands among history’s most terrible examples
of man’s inhumanity towards man. As we memorialize its victims
and mourn their loss today and all days, I hope we will also learn
its lessons. Let us rededicate ourselves to ensuring that future
generations never endure similar horrors. And let us take courage in
the example of millions of Armenians and Armenian Americans who have
refused to be defined by tragedy, but have rather defined themselves
through their resilience, their accomplishments and their determination
to build a better future."

PRESS RELEASE
The Heritage Party
31 Moscovian Street
Yerevan, Armenia
Tel.: (+374 – 10) 53.69.13
Fax: (+374 – 10) 53.26.97
Email: [email protected]; [email protected]
Website:

April 23, 2007

Heritage Campaign Flourishes in the Face of Pressures and Attacks

Yerevan — As Heritage continues to carve its place as the majority
party in the new Armenian parliament, political attacks are on the
rise, from regional offices being soaked in paint to fear-mongering
confrontations on the part of neighborhood thugs and, occasionally,
local mayors, police, and security agents.

Two young female volunteers who were distributing Heritage flyers in
Yerevan’s Avan district on Friday, April 20, were not immune from
these attacks. At 5:15pm, midway through their campaigning, four
unknown males, having exited a BMW 520 vehicle (license plate 02OU909),
approached the college students, pushed them around, and confiscated
nearly 300 Heritage brochures. A police report was immediately filed,
and an official investigation is currently underway.

These incidents–as well as the blanket refusal of access for
Heritage to any billboards or overhangs, both public and private,
in Yerevan and across the country–betray an increasingly unfair and
intimidation-driven preelection cycle. The party will continue to
document these obstacles and present them to the Armenian public and
election monitoring groups. The OSCE observation mission has already
been informed.

Even so, Raffi K. Hovannisian and his fellow citizens continue their
campaign on a dynamic and triumphant ascent. On Sunday, April 22,
Hovannisian and Heritage’s candidates embarked on a tour through
the Gegharkunik marz, with enthusiastic public meetings in Sevan,
Gavar, Martuni, Tsovinar, and Vardenis. At Vardenik, where the
Hovannisian family has been honored with a school that bears the name
of world-renowned historian Richard Hovannisian, the Heritage team
enjoyed a particularly warm reception.

Today, the campaign bus "Toward Victory" is making its rounds in
Yerevan.

Tomorrow, in solemn commemoration of the victims of the Armenian
Genocide, three generations of Hovannisians, Heritage, and the entire
Armenian people will walk together to Tsitsernakaberd.

On April 25, Raffi Hovannisian will hold a press briefing at Heritage
Headquarters at noon, after which he and his fellow candidates will
visit Arax and other border villages between Etchmiadzin and Masis.

On April 26, the campaign caravan will travel toward triumph through
Talin, Artik, Maralik, Akhurian, Amasia, Giumri, and other towns in
the marzes of Aragatsotn and Shirak.

Founded in 2002, Heritage has regional divisions throughout the
land. Its central office is located at 31 Moscovian Street, Yerevan
0002, Armenia, with telephone contact at (374-10) 536.913, fax at
(374-10) 532.697, email at [email protected] or [email protected],
and website at

A CHALLENGE FACING PRO-PALESTINIAN POLITICS IN THE USA
By Bill Fletcher

ZNet, MA
April 20 2007

A national march and rally sponsored by the US Campaign to End the
Israeli Occupation is scheduled to be held in Washington, DC June
10th. Commemorating the 40th anniversary of the "6 Day War" between
Israel and several Arab states, and the resulting Israeli occupation
of the Palestinian territories, the march seeks to bring attention
to the on-going plight of the Palestinian people and US complicity
in their prolonged suffering.

Pro-Palestinian politics in the USA has faced a series of difficult
challenges. Virtually every criticism of Israeli intransigence and
US collusion is met with charges of alleged anti-Semitism. Consider,
for example, the outcry that accompanied the publication of former
President Jimmy Carter’s provocatively-though correctly-entitled
book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. Leaving aside that scholars
and human rights activists around the globe-including from within
Israel-have drawn appropriate comparisons between the Israeli
occupation and South African apartheid, the more important fact was
that anti-Palestinian forces wished to frustrate any broad dialogue
on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. One means of undermining such
discussions, to which I would like to call attention, was a shrewd
tactical ploy: accusing President Carter of supposedly not giving
greater attention to the Holocaust in his book.

It is worth pausing here for a risky moment to consider this attack
because it has been used-and not just with President Carter-as
an ideological trump card in many discussions of the on-going
Israeli/Palestinian conflict. The Holocaust, though not unprecedented
in modern world history, was unique to pre-World War II Europe in one
critical sense. As the noted writer Aime Cesaire put it so brilliantly,
speaking of the European: "…what he [the European-my note] cannot
forgive Hitler for is not the crime in itself, the crime against man,
it is not the humiliation of man as such, it is the crime against
the white man, the humiliation of the white man, and the fact that
he applied to Europe colonialist procedures which until then had
been reserved exclusively for the Arabs of Algeria, the ‘coolies’
of India, and the ‘niggers’ of Africa." [Discourse on Colonialism
(New York: Monthly Review Press, 2000, p.36. Emphasis in original.]

Cesaire’s statement helps one grasp why it was that there was silence
in Europe and North America at the annihilation of 10 million Congolese
under the whip of Belgium’s King Leopold; the genocide against the
First Nations/Native Americans in the Western Hemisphere; and the
Turkish genocide against the Armenians. Simply put, these groups
did not count; they and their experiences were irrelevant precisely
because these groups were either not European or allegedly not
‘civilized’ Europeans (depending on how one understands the ethnicity
of Armenians).

The terror of the Holocaust has been used since World War II to
justify the colonial creation of the Israeli settler state. Did the
Jews deserve a state as compensation for the crimes committed against
them by the Nazis, compounded by the global silence? Absolutely! But
the choice of Palestine and the construction of a state on top of a
pre-existing social formation reflected the sort of settler mentality
found in other settler states, e.g., the USA, Canada, Australia,
New Zealand, apartheid South Africa, Rhodesia/Zimbabwe. From the
settler framework, history begins and ends with the experiences of the
settlers. Even the Irish, oppressed by Britain for hundreds of years in
what the Irish aptly describe as "racial oppression" (the proto-type,
according to the late US Marxist scholar and activist Theodore Allen,
for the system of white supremacist rule imposed on colonial North
America), allowed too many of themselves to become foot-soldiers for
settler states when they fled the horrors of their own persecution,
ignoring the similarity between the oppression that they had suffered
and that which they helped to perpetuate.

President Carter’s book on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict did not
address the Holocaust for a very good reason: the Holocaust cannot
and never will justify the destruction of the Palestinian people
being carried out by the Israeli state. Yet this fact remains highly
controversial in the USA in large part because the settler mentality
that would ignore the pre-existing social formation of the Palestinians
and, therefore, proceed to divide up their land without a modicum of
consultation with their people, is the same settler mentality that
justified bacteriological warfare (under the auspices of 18th century
British general Lord Amherst); the Trail of Tears; Wounded Knee;
the seizing of Oklahoma after it had originally been granted as a
homeland, against the First Nations/Native Americans here in the USA.

Thus, elaborating pro-Palestinian politics in the USA runs smack
against the construction and reality of the racial-settler state
mentality that both the USA and Israel share in common. This, in
addition to the lack of a firm, pro-Palestinian constituency in the
USA, helps to account for the monumental challenge for pro-Palestinian
forces here at home. The expansion of a pro-Palestinian movement,
particularly in a post-9/11 environment, therefore necessitates a
strategy analogous to the anti-apartheid solidarity movement, but
with very important qualifiers. For the purposes of this commentary,
I will reserve my suggestions to this one area, i.e., the active
deconstruction of the settler myth.

In the case of supporting the struggle against apartheid in South
Africa, there was no constituency in the USA that had significant
ethnic linkages with the Afrikaaners in South Africa. Even though the
Afrikaaners, as part of their settler myth, liked to present themselves
as victims of history, this simply did not pass the straight face test
in any portion of the world. People came to understand the realities
of the apartheid settler state without truly understanding the system
of settler states. Thus, the blatant oppression of the Black majority
by the white minority became more and more difficult to explain,
even when attempts were offered to introduce Cold War politics.

In the case of the Palestinians, the situation is markedly different.

The Nazi genocide against the Jews will never be forgotten. The
combination of the existence of a Jewish population in the USA with
ties to both the victims and survivors of the Holocaust, along
with the reality that Europe and North America largely ignored
the pleas for help against the Nazis, thus joins with a settler
framework that is completely blind to the Palestinians because
their-the Palestinians’-reality is considered irrelevant, or at best,
secondary, to the reality of those who suffered under Nazism. The work
of progressive and Left forces in the USA who are pro-Palestinian must
emphasize that the past (and in some cases, present) persecution of
one group does not justify displacing an uninvolved third party from
their land. The settler’s reality is not the reality, but is only a
portion of a total equation. Restricting one’s vantage point to the
problems of the settler condemns one to supporting the ‘right’ of
the settler to preserve their existence irrespective of the methods
and consequences. Not only is this morally bankrupt but it is also
politically insane since the final result will be interminable war,
and quite possibly, mutual destruction.

———————————— —————-

Bill Fletcher, Jr. is a long-time labor and international activist
and writer. He is the immediate past president of TransAfrica Forum.

He can be reached at [email protected].

rs/content/2007-04/19fletcher.cfm

HMML SIGNS AGREEMENT IN YEREVAN TO UNDERTAKE LARGEST MANUSCRIPT DIGITIZATION PROJECT IN HISTORY
Michael Hemmesch

CSB/SJU, MN
Saint John’s University
April 18 2007

The Rev. Columba Stewart, OSB, executive director of the Hill Museum
& Manuscript Library (HMML), signed a formal agreement with the
Matenadaran Mashtots Institute of Ancient Manuscripts in Yerevan,
Armenia, April 13 that will allow HMML to undertake the largest
manuscript digitization project in history.

The collection in Yerevan, totaling almost 17,000 manuscripts, is by
far the most extensive and richest repository for Armenian manuscripts
in the world. These manuscripts are known for their outstanding
illuminations, considered to be among the most beautiful ever created.

"The collection in Yerevan is the most important Armenian manuscript
collection in the entire world," Stewart said. "Our collaboration with
the Matenadaran is the culmination of our Library’s current emphasis
on eastern Christian manuscripts."

HMML was founded 40 years ago in response to the devastating loss of
manuscripts and books during two World Wars. It is the only institution
in the world exclusively dedicated to the photographic preservation
and study of manuscripts, particularly in locations where war, theft
or physical conditions pose a threat. Since its inception, HMML
has built the largest collection of manuscript images in the world,
having photographed almost 100,000 manuscripts totaling more than 30
million pages.

To preserve the manuscripts in Yerevan, HMML will use the latest
technology to capture high-quality digital images. HMML will provide
the equipment, training and salary to local photographic technicians,
as well as ongoing technical support to the Matenadaran.

HMML will give the Matenadaran copies all of the digital images and
will also provide for the safe storage of another copy of the digital
images in a highly secure location here in Minnesota. Scholars wishing
to consult complete manuscripts may apply to HMML for copies after
agreeing to conditions that reserve all copyright and commercial
interests to the owning libraries.

Sample images from the Armenian manuscripts will then be added to
"Vivarium," HMML’s Web-based program that provides scholars, students
and the general public with free access to sample manuscript images
and other digital materials. Reproduction rights to the Yerevan images
will remain the exclusive property of the Matenadaran.

Armenian manuscripts form the largest single corpus in the latest
phase of HMML’s work. This new initiative with the Matenadaran will
build significantly on this foundation with work beginning as early
as September 2007.

"No other nation on Earth has a library like the Matenadaran," Stewart
said. "And, no other people have a collection of manuscripts as its
greatest national monument. We Benedictines are famous for our care
of sacred and secular manuscripts, but next to the Armenian people,
we’re amateurs. It’s a tremendous honor to be trusted as their partner
in preserving this unparalleled wonder of the world."

Sen Arevshatyan, director of the Matenadaran Mashtots Institute of
Ancient Manuscripts, co-signed the agreement with Stewart. Levon
Lazarian, Armenia’s Minister of Education, hosted the signing
at the Ministry of Education to show his support for this historic
partnership. His Holiness Karekin II, the Catholicos of All Armenians,
based in the See of Etchmiadzin near Yerevan, has given his full
support and blessing to the project, as it will ensure the preservation
and propagation of centuries of Armenian religious culture.

For more information about this momentous digitization project, please
e-mail Phil Steger, deputy director of manuscript preservation at
the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library, or call him at 320-363-2130 .

Michael Hemmesch Director of Media Relations College of Saint
Benedict/Saint John’s University Phone 320-363-2595 Fax 320-363-2016
[email protected]

REPUBLICAN PARTY MEMBER SAYS NEXT PARLIAMENT WILL REFLECT ARMENIA’S COMPLEMENTARITY POLICY

ARMENPRESS
Apr 19 2007

YEREVAN, APRIL 19, ARMENPRESS: A member of the Armenian outgoing
parliament from the Republican Party, Armen Ashotian, said today
the country’s next parliament will be the ‘mirror reflection’ of
Armenia’s complementarity policy and all political parties-pro-Russian,
pro-European and pro-American- stand good chances to overcome the 5
percent barrier and win seats in the National Assembly.

Ashotian, the youngest member of the outgoing parliament, said his
Republican Party wants clean and just elections more than any other
party, "because we bear the major responsibility for ongoing national
processes."

He also claimed that his party enjoys the biggest popularity and has
more supporters than its rivals and ‘this is why we see no need to
deviate from our natural course."

Ashotian added that fraudulent May 12 parliamentary elections would
cast a shadow on the process of efforts for peaceful settlement of
the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

MURDER OF ARMENIAN DISCLOSED IN MOSCOW

PanARMENIAN.Net
18.04.2007 13:24 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Moscow law enforcers have disclosed the slaying
of 46-year-old Karen Abrahamyan, committed Monday in the southwest of
Moscow. The police said the assassination was committed in Kedrov
street at about 10 p.m. "Three unknown skinheads in high boots
assaulted Abrahamyan and stabbed him with a knife several times. As
the victim told when being conveyed to hospital, he was assaulted
because of his nationality, since the young men were crying out
nationalistic slogans.

Abrahamyan died in the operating-room.

The Moscow law enforces identified and detained the assassins, who
have already pleaded guilty, Interfax reports.

ARMENIAN CHURCH WANTS CHRISTIAN SYMBOLS RESTORED IN TURKEY

Ecumenical News International, Switzerland
April 17 2007

Warsaw (ENI). Leaders of the Armenian Apostolic Church in Turkey have
asked to be allowed to install a cross and conduct services at a newly
restored church, which was abandoned during the 1915 mass killing of
ethnic Armenians.