Author: Chakrian Hovsep

NKR Prime Minister met with students

Azat Artsakh Daily,
Republic of Nagorno Karabakh [NKR]

29-02-2008

On February 27th in governmnet the NKR Prime Minister Ara Harutyunian
met with a group of students of economic faculty of Artsakh State
University.

The meeting took place under the request of the future economists,
who expressed desire "from first hand" to hear about the policy,
which that day NKR governmnet carried out in economic sphere. The
Prime Minister welcomed their initiative, noting that in such way
the students had an opportunity to receive exact data on the state
projects from direct authors.

A.Harutyunian in reply to questions of the visitors, represented the
basic programs which had been approved and were realized in economic
sphere of the republic. In 2008 great investments would be done by the
state, particularly in the spheres of flat construction, agriculture,
small and average commercial activities.

Welcoming once again the initiative of the students, A.Harutyunian
assured, that such meetings would be periodical.

Minister of economic development Benik Babaian assisted at the meeting.

EMPOWERED PERSON OF LEVON TER-PETROSIAN DECLINES HIS APPLICATION

Noyan Tapan
Feb 29 2008

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 29, NOYAN TAPAN. Martin Gharibian, an empowered
person of Levon Ter-Petrosian, a president running for the post of
the RA President, in the Polling Station 33/78 of Gyumri handed in an
application on February 19 about giving out electoral bribe from cars
without a state registration number in the vicinity of the polling
station. He gave an explanation in the investigation department of
the region of Shirak that he has written the application taking a
conversation heard from outside as basis, he himself has not seen
anything and cannot introduce any fact.

According to the message of the RA Prosecutor General’s Office,
"M. Gharibian stated that the elections have passed normally in
the above-mentioned polling station, without violations and that he
would no doubt make notes in the register in case of noticing such
things. M. Gharibian also stated that after the elections he asked his
relatives and friends, however, they all stated that nobody has offered
them electoral bribe and that they have voted by their own will.

With the prepared materials a decision was made in the investigation
department of the region of Shirak of the RA Police on February 24
on declining the filing of the criminal case.

According to the same source, Seyran Haroyan, an inhabitant of the
Haghtanak village, was brought a charge against on the indications
of Part 4 Articla 258 of the RA Criminal Code. The criminal case was
sent to the Criminal Court of the city of Yerevan on February 28.

It was grounded by the preliminary investigation that at about 21
o’clock on January 30 Seyran Haroyan, being in a drunken state,
entered the pre-electoral headquarters of RA presidential candidate
Serge Sargsian situated in the same village with a sporting-gun, where
he shot at the TV and in the direction of the wall, demanded to call
the heads of the headquarters, used bad language without address and
damaged the work of the headquarters.

BURGAS CITY COUNCIL RECOGNIZED ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

PanARMENIAN.Net
29.02.2008 17:24 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ On February 28, the city council of Burgas,
Bulgaria, with a vote 43 to 2, recognized the Armenia Genocide,
the RA MFA press office said.

The resolution supposes to mark April 24 as Commemoration Day of
Armenian Genocide Victims.

Burgas city council also intends to urge the Bulgarian parliament to
recognize the Genocide.

MORE TIME TO DISCUSS, TRANSFORM JERUSALEM

Institute for Middle East Understanding
html
Feb 28 2008
CA

Hasan Afif El-Hasan, The Palestine Chronicle, Feb 28, 2008 This
article was originally published by The Palestine Chronicle and is
republished with permission.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert stated recently that the status
of Jerusalem will not be negotiated with the Palestinians at this time.

Right wing Israelis are against conceding any part of the Old City
or any suburb of Jerusalem municipality to the Palestinians. The
ultra-orthodox right wing party in Olmert’s government threatens
to leave the governing coalition if the question of Jerusalem comes
up for discussion with the Palestinians and that is why Olmert will
not discuss it now. This has been the same rationale that successive
Israeli governments have always cited whenever they were pressed to
stop settlement expansion. And if Israel says no negotiations on the
future of Jerusalem, the Palestinians cannot do anything about it.

The Palestinians’ concession to keep Jerusalem out of the Oslo
interim agreement in 1993 gave Israel the time to alter its status
quo prior to any possible permanent status talks. Israel since Oslo
has expanded the boundaries of the City, confiscated more Arab lands
and constructed new settlements. Schemes have been devised to take
over private Arab and Church properties inside and outside the Old
City, and large settlements have been built on its outskirts. Some of
these are Har Homa (Jabal Ghaneim), Gilo, Piscat Ze’ev, Atarot, Ramot
settlement. Jewish settlers evicted Palestinian residents from their
quarters in the Old City and took over St. John’s Hospice and other
church and Islamic endowment (wakf) properties. The Israeli government
dug Hasmonean Tunnel under al-Aqsa Mosque compound endangering the
structure of the Islamic shrine.

The area of East Jerusalem has been isolated by Jewish only settlements
from Ramallah in the north by Givat Ze’ev, from Bethlehem in the
south by Gush Etzion and from the east to the Dead Sea by Ma’ale
Adumim. Jewish settlements have been established in the Old City
and in the surrounding Arab neighborhoods of Silwan, Ras el-Amoud,
Wadi el-Joz and Sheikh Jarrah. Palestinian enclaves are divided so
that people traveling from one to the other have to go through areas
controlled by Israel.

When the subject of Jerusalem came up during the 2000 Camp David
summit, Mayor Ehud Olmert led a mass march of some 350,000 protesters
against the plan to divide the city. Today, a group of Kadima
members, headed by Otniel Schneller, is demanding adhering to the
party’s agenda, which calls for Jerusalem’s unity under Israel. US
neoconservatives and the Israeli right are partners in the Greater
Israel project which calls among other things for the absorption of
East Jerusalem and the rest of occupied territories, excluding the
Arab population centers, into a Jewish state.

Zalman Shoval, head of the foreign affairs department of Likud party,
said before the Annapolis conference was convened, that the issue of
Jerusalem should "not be on the table in any way". Sixty-one members
of the Israeli parliament signed a petition against a proposal to
give the Palestinians sovereignty over Shoufat refugee camp out
side the Old City. The Prime Minister floated the idea of giving
back the overcrowded Shoufat refugee camp to be the capital of
the future Palestinian state. Two months after the conclusion of
Annapolis conference, Ehud Olmert backed away from this position
and told his coalition partners that the issue of Jerusalem would
not even be discussed in the foreseeable future. According to the
news media, Olmert told the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud
Abbas that Israel would continue to expand the settlements throughout
the expanded East Jerusalem municipality. Palestinians’ aspirations
to have Jerusalem as their future capital are being undermined by
Israel’s deliberate attempts to alter the status quo in the occupied
land including the Old City.

The Old City constitutes only a small geographic area of the expanded
municipality of East Jerusalem, but its holiness distinguishes it
from the rest of Jerusalem. The 420-acre of walled real estate that
is the City has been playing a distinctive role in the beliefs of the
world-wide adherents to the three monolithic religions. It is where
three world religions meet and compete over the interpretation of
the divine. The City is home of the Dome of the Rock, al-Aqsa Mosque,
Mosque of the Ascension, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the Convent
of Deir al-Sultan, Church of St. Anne, Church of St. James, Church
of St. Mark and the Western (or Wailing) Wall. The Palestinians want
Jerusalem to be their capital, and since Israel occupied East Jerusalem
40 years ago, all Israeli governments maintained that Jerusalem
must be "the eternal indivisible" capital of Israel. To this effect,
Israel exercised its power as an occupying force in control of the
city to create facts on the ground by expanding the Jewish quarter
and planting settlers in the other sectors of the Old City.

Since 1967, changes taking place in the Old City spearheaded by
organizations acting as settlers’ front with authority from the Israeli
governments. In the face of the Israeli colonization and absorption
since then, the City has been transformed from a Palestinian city to
Palestinian enclaves within a Jewish city. The Palestinian enclaves
are continuously shrinking and they are increasingly cut off from
other Palestinian areas outside the wall.

Michael Dumper, a specialist on the Palestinian issue identified three
major categories of settler groups operating in Jerusalem, that have
been supported by the government financially and logistically.

The first category is "active in attempts to settle Jews in Muslim
quarters". The second category includes groups that locate, acquire
and renovate Palestinians’ real estate. The third category known as
"the Temple Mount group, is active in supporting the messianic vision
of reconstructing the Jewish temple on al-Aqsa site". The groups
receive money from the ministry of housing, expressly given to buy
properties in the Palestinian Muslim and Christian quarters and the
surrounding parts of East Jerusalem. They also receive large funds
from American millionaires such as Irving Moscowitz.

The settler groups are the proxies of the State of Israel in a policy
to acquire property and extend the Jewish character in the Old City.

The Jewish quarter has been enlarged by administration fiat to include
Harat el-Magharbi and Armenian properties. Existing structures were
erased gradually and the area has been overtaken by settlers. Settler
movements such as Gush Emunim and Tehiya, that have been given free
hand to encircle Hebron, Nablus and Jerusalem with settlements,
have been active in asserting Israel’s control over the Old City by
building a strong Jewish presence in the Palestinian quarters. In 1968,
the Ministry of Finance ordered the expropriation of the whole area
that extends between the walls in the southeast to the Tareeq Bab
al-Silsileh in the west, and from the Western Wall in the north to
the Armenian Quarter in the south. The confiscated property included
more than 600 Palestinian buildings, according to Dumper.

Settler supporters have been appointed in key state ministries and
agencies, and settler groups sat on inter-ministerial committees
that set policies and plan strategies for implementing them. They
carried out overt and covert operations that made serious inroads
which impacted the lives of the Palestinians living in the Muslim
and Christian quarters including some dramatic events such as the
massacre in Haram ash-Sharif in 1990 and the opening of the Hasmonean
Tunnel in 1996. The Israeli-Lands Administration and the Custodian’s
Office helped many settler organizations, home grown and foreign,
to locate and acquire non-Jewish properties, evict the Palestinian
tenants, renovate the properties and settle only Jewish families in
the reconstructed units.

Acquiring and leasing Islamic endowment and church-owned land in
the Old City and in its suburbs has been a major part of the Israeli
agenda to Judaize the holy City and its surroundings. As the mayor
of Jerusalem from 1993 to 2003, Ehud Olmert was very aggressive in
implementing plans to strengthen Jewish domination over the whole
city. He appointed the leader from the Ateret militant settler group,
Shmuel Evyatar, as his advisor on issues related to the Christian
communities in Jerusalem. The appointment was perceived as part of
a campaign to acquire Church properties because Evayatar had been
active in taking over such Church owned properties. Two years before
this appointment and on the eve of 1990 Good Friday, Evyatar and 150
members of his militant group occupied a Jerusalem property known as
St. John’s Hospice that belonged to the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate
which is located in the Christian Quarter, very close to the Holy
Sepulcher Church. The take over was condemned by the Christian Churches
but it was defended and encouraged by the Israeli government.

The present fundamentalist Jewish mayor of Jerusalem Uri Lupliansky
declared recently that he was going to Judaize East Jerusalem even
more by confiscating land and expanding the Jewish only settlements.

Lupliansky was referring to the expanded Jerusalem municipality that
includes 5% of the West Bank as well as the Old City. According
to Haaretz, Lupliansky vowed that he would turn Jerusalem into an
"illegal outpost". Israel has succeeded in creating the concept of
legal and illegal settlements just to circumvent the international
law that considers all settlements illegal. Israel uses what it calls
the illegal outposts for bargaining purposes. Even President Bush
bought into this scheme and called for dismantling the so called
"illegal settlements". According to the Israeli news media, Housing
Minister Zeev Boim declared in February that, "bids will go out soon
to build 1,100 apartments for Jews in East Jerusalem.", 350 settler
units would be built in the Har Homa settlement and 750 in Pisgat Zeev,
north of Jerusalem.

For the Palestinians, Jerusalem especially the Old City is the center
of the Arab-Israeli conflict. The fate of the peace negotiations for
them and the destiny of Jerusalem is the same. While Israel calls for
postponing the subject of East Jerusalem, actions to Judaize it never
stopped. The Israeli operatives have been working hard to colonize
the City as well as the rest of the occupied lands. If Israel is not
ready to discuss Jerusalem after forty years of occupation, it will
never be ready in the future. More time before discussing Jerusalem
is more time to transform the City’s character and with that, the
hope for withdrawal to the 1967 borders becomes increasingly unlikely.

-Born in Nablus, Palestine, Hasan Afif El-Hasan,Ph.D, is a political
analyst. He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com.

IMPRUDENT JOURNALISM, OR WHAT ANKARA, APPO, ASHOT AND OTHER HAVE IN COMMON

Noyan Tapan
Feb 28, 2008

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, NOYAN TAPAN. In response to the editorial
of February 21, 2008 of the USA Armenian Life Magazine periodical,
Armen K. Hovhannisian has come up with the "Imprudent journalism or
what Ankara,Appo, Ashot and others have in common" article, which we
present completely:

In his editorial of February 21, 2008, Appo Jabarian of USA
Armenian Life Magazine criticized Raffi Hovannisian, Armenia’s
first Foreign Minister and current member of the National Assembly
(Parliament). Jabarian also considered it both ethical and professional
to ridicule Raffi’s father Richard, son Garin, and the "Hovannisian
household."

We know that Jabarian strongly inferred that Hrant Dink was an agent
of the Turkish government. But what charge does he bring against
Hovannisian?

Jabarian is not quite bold enough to utter the words himself. So
he quotes.

He quotes Hayots Ashkharh, the Armenian tabloid assigned to conduct
the government’s official propaganda. He quotes an unidentified,
but immediately identifiable, "Armenian activist." He quotes one
Ashot Grigoryan from Slovakia.

They claim, in one way or another, that Raffi Hovannisian has committed
"treason!" That, supposedly, was Hrant Dink’s crime, too.

The crime here?

In an August 2007 letter to Turkey’s president Abdullah Gul,
Hovannisian’s use of the term "Great Armenian Dispossession"
instead of the term "Armenian Genocide" is condemned as "highly
insulting." Jabarian views Great Armenian Dispossession as "more
acceptable to the Turks." In other words, Hovannisian was "pandering"
to the "enemy."

Here is Hovannisian’s "pandering": In an article published in European
print media on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the Armenian
Genocide, Hovannisian wrote:

"The Armenian Genocide and its final act turned ninety last week. The
lessons, risks, and dangers flowing from the Genocide and its
contemporary continuation are all the more poignant because the
Armenian case was not only the physical murder of most individuals
making up the nation, but also the violent interruption and forcible
expropriation of its millennial homeland and way of life. Can the heirs
to Turkish perpetration translate self-interest into seeking atonement,
and can the descendants of the great Armenian dispossession agree
to move on? Will we, or our children, ever see the light, let alone
reflect back from the heights, of the post-Genocide world?"

Hovannisian used that same phrase (the Great Armenian Dispossession)
in his writings in the Wall Street Journal:

"The Young Turk leaders of the Ottoman Empire, for example, were
responsible for the great Armenian dispossession of 1915, which
included all the components of the crime of genocide, the destruction
of the historic Armenian homelands, and the murderous finality for
millions of human lives."

There’s more. In The Middle East Times and in United Press
International in 2006, Hovannisian wrote:

"The catastrophic dispossession of the Armenian homeland by the
rulers of the Ottoman Empire; the subsequent Bolshevik-Turkish
pact partitioning Armenia and effectively tendering Karabagh,
Nakhichevan and other integral parts of the Armenian patrimony to
Soviet Azerbaijan."

Do these sound like treason?

The Young Turks did not merely claim the lives of several million
people.

Though its consequences continue, the massive killing of Armenians is
finished. But it was not only the wholesale massacre of a people. The
usurpation of the homeland was no less egregious and persists to
this very day, making modern Turkey complicit in the crimes of the
Young Turks.

Jabarian relieves himself of some high and mighty rhetoric, accusing
Hovannisian of "ruining the work we have done for years and decades."

We?

There may be occasional interest in Jabarian’s opinions, despite his
complicity in the silencing of Hovannisian’s own activities. Surely,
if Jabarian was so eager to "expose" Hovannisian’s letter to Gul,
which has been publicly available and accessible since it was written
six months ago, he would have also come across other newsworthy events
and reports, including "Armenian Cultural Resolutions in the Council
of Europe" and "Raffi Hovannisian at the Council of Europe."

On January 25, 2008, in Strasbourg, Hovannisian authored and introduced
a motion, cosponsored by 25 members of the Parliamentary Assembly of
the Council of Europe. The motion begins with the following words:

"The genocide of the Armenian people, resulted not only in the death
and dispossession of more than two million human beings but also in
the decimation of the Armenian patrimony, its ways of life, and its
foundational contributions to western culture and world civilization."

This, not in a letter to Gul, but on the highest international platform
on his own initiative, suppressed by the Armenian media, including
the Hayots Ashkharh of which Jabarian seems to be so fond. Ignored,
too, by Jabarian’s own newspaper.

There is much work "we" have done. Some of us advocate for
the recognition of history in the most influential chambers of
international politics.

Others seem to bask in yellow journalism and personalized campaigns
of character assassination.

Raffi Hovannisian didn’t leave the United States for Armenia because
Armenia had a better political system. He moved to the homeland to
participate in transforming the system from what it is not to what
it should be. The greatest contribution an Armenian can make to his
homeland is to love it while acknowledging its flaws and helping to
change it for the better.

In spite of the fear and envy of some in official circles in Armenia
and the scorn of the likes of Appo Jabarian, Raffi Hovannisian will
be back in Strasbourg next month to keep pushing for the recognition
and reversal of the Great Armenian Dispossession.

Reference of Noyan Tapan: Armen K. Hovhannisian is the brother of
RaffiHovhannisian and a specialist of international law.

Appo Jabarian is the years-old editor of the famous "USA Armenian Life
Magazine" periodical published inArmenianand English in Los Angeles.

Ashot Grigorian is the Chairman of the forum of the Armenian community
of Slovakia and the Armenian Unions of Europe, due to the lobbyist
efforts of whom the parliament of Slovakia recognized the Armenian
Genocide in 2004.

PRIME MINISTRY INSPECTORS TO INVESTIGATE DINK MURDER

Today’s Zaman
Feb 27 2008
Turkey

A delegation from the Prime Ministry arrived yesterday in the northern
city of Trabzon to carry out an investigation into the murder of
Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink.

Dink was gunned down outside his Istanbul office on Jan. 19, 2007 by
an ultra-nationalist teenager from Trabzon. In addition to the young
man, 18 other suspects are facing trial for having plotted to have
Dink murdered.

However, serious allegations of police negligence ahead of the murder
as well as of a cover-up during the investigation have been brought
against officials by individuals involved as co-plaintiffs in the case.

Prime Ministry Chief Inspector Mehmet Akýn and inspectors Ayþegul
Genc and Tuðce Tumer have already started working on the case.

Allegations include that the police were in the know about the plot
but did not take the necessary precautions to save Dink’s life. One of
the 19 suspects is a former police informant who gathered intelligence
for the Trabzon police.

Co-plaintiffs, rights groups and Dink’s family say that the murder
has not been properly investigated. The co-plaintiff lawyers say some
of the evidence has been hidden or destroyed.

–Boundary_(ID_34q3JAt/c5xv6bXlgc2jOQ) —

CEC SECRETARY REFUTED THE STATEMENTS OF TER-PETROSIAN’S REPRESENTATIVES, ACCORDING TO WHICH THEY PRESENTED ABOUT 300 COMPLAINTS, BUT THE COMMISSION CONSIDERED ONLY 2 OF THEM

Mediamax
February 27, 2008

Yerevan /Mediamax/. Secretary of the Central Electoral Commission (CEC)
Abram Bakhchugalian stated in Yerevan today that the vote recount,
held in 135 polling stations, did not influence on the final results
of the elections.

Mediamax reports that Abram Bakhchugalian said today that when on
February 24 CEC publicized the final results of the presidential
elections, it acted within the framework of law.

According to him, by 14:00 of February 24, the data of all the
protocols from 1923 polling stations were included in the central
server of CEC, and "there was no point in delaying the given process".

CEC Secretary refuted the statements of the proxies of presidential
candidate Levon Ter-Petrosian, according to which they presented 300
complaints, however the Commission considered only 2 of them.

Abram Bakhchugalian informed that after the elections, the Commission
received 170 complaints, 135 of which were considered, and 24 are in
the process of consideration.

The CEC Secretary informed that on the eve the Commission received a
letter from the representatives of Levon Ter-Petrosian with the request
to nullify the results of the elections, which will be considered in
the course of the nearest 5 days.

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION POLLING STATIONS SET UP FOR RUSSIAN CITIZENS IN ARMENIA

ARKA
Feb 26, 2008

YEREVAN, February 26. /ARKA/. Several polling stations have been set
up on the territory of Armenia to give a voting opportunity in the
Russian presidential election to the Russian citizens who live in
Armenia or stay in Armenia temporarily. Russian citizens in Lori and
Shirak regions will have a chance to vote at N5020 polling station
in the General Consulate of the Russian federation in Giumry at
Marmarashen Highway 1, the Press Service of the Russian Federation
to Armenia reported.

Citizens of the Russian Federation who live or stay in other Armenian
regions and in the city of Yerevan will be able to vote at N5015
polling station in the Russian Embassy to Armenia (Grigor Lusavorich
st. 13a).

The polling stations are to be open on March the 2nd, from 08:00am
to 08:00pm local time.

Aravot, Armenia
Feb. 21, 2008

Taking reality into account

by Editor-in-Chief Aram Abrahamyan

The figures made public by [Armenia’s] Central Electoral Commission
yesterday [20 February] hardly reflect thereal choice of our people.
But even those official figures should make all the participants in
the election think again,especially four main candidates and their
teams. The authorities had built their propaganda on the thesis
that[opposition presidential candidate and former President Levon]
Ter-Petrosyan was not the key candidate of the oppositionand that he
would be the fourth or the fifth in the election.

[Passage omitted: Domestic and foreign organizations were asked to
carry out opinion polls to back this thesis]

This propaganda and the sociological mistake was based on the wrong
calculation in terms of political science thatTer-Petrosyan’s
electorate is a "furious" and marginal crowd, which cannot be too
large. That is why the state propagators would call him "the leader
of the Armenian Pan-National Movement [APNM]". They should stopusing
that label if they are smart enough, otherwise they should admit that
there are more than 350,000 APNM members in Armenia, which, I think,
is unpleasant for them. In terms of science and journalism, it is
more correct to call him"the leader of the opposition; 350,000 is a
significant figure in Armenia (I think this number was even
greater)and I think that so many people have voted [for Levon
Ter-Petrosyan] not because they love Levon or the APNM very muchbut
because they hoped to get rid of these authorities. Being a serious
person, [president-elect] Serzh Sargsyan should take this fact into
account and not listen to palace lackeys and criminal oligarchs who
say "boss, everyone iscrazy about you".

[Passage omitted: Similarly, Ter-Petrosyan should not listen to those
of his people who say that everybody is readyto stand for him because
at least half of the 850,000 votes that Sargsyan has received are
real.]

[Levon Ter-Petrosyan was the founder of the Armenian Pan-National
Movement which once was the governing party. It is now led by Ararat
Zurabyan. Armenia has a population of 3,200,000.]

The Armenian Communities of the Northeastern Mediterranean
(Musa Dagh-Kessab-Dort-Yol)

University of California, Los Angeles
February 29-March 1, 2008
Sponsored by the
Armenian Educational Foundation Chair in Modern Armenian History
University of California, Los Angeles

Co-Sponsored by the UCLA
G.E. von Grunebaum Center for Near Eastern Studies,
Center for European and Eurasian Studies,
Department of History,
International Institute,
and the
Mousa Ler Association of California,
Kessab Educational Association of Los Angeles,
Compatriotic Union of Chork-Marzban/Dort-Yol

————————– ———————————————-
Fri day, February 29, 2008, 7:30-9:30 p.m.

Friday Evening Session Only in Armenian: Western
Diocese of the Armenian Church, 3325 N. Glenoaks
Boulevard, Burbank, California 91504
(From Golden State 5 Freeway, BuenaVista Exit,
east to Glenoaks, left-north two blocks)

Opening
Richard G. Hovannisian, University of California, Los Angeles

The Armenian Communities of the Antioch Region: From Beylan to Latakia
Hagop Tcholakian, Karen Jeppe Jemaran, Aleppo

The Management of Catastrophes by the People of Kessab, 1909-1947
Seda Isabelle Mavian, L’Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris

The Armenians of Musa Dagh/Musaler and Their Oral Tradition:
Synchronic and Diachronic Transformations
Verjiné Svazlian, Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Yerevan

Saturday, March 1, 2008, 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.

Sessions in English: UCLA Broad Art Center 2160E (Formerly Dickson Auditorium)

Morning Sessions: 10:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.

Introduction: Armenians in the Northeastern Mediterranean
Richard G. Hovannisian, University of California, Los Angeles

Musa Dagh, Kessab, Dort-Yol
Views from Project SAVE Armenian Photograph Archives
Ruth Thomasian, Project SAVE Archives, Watertown, Massachusetts

The Self-Defense of Chork-Marzban/Dort-Yol, 1896-1921
Minas Kojayan, AGBU Manoogian-Demirjian High School, Canoga Park

Dort-Yol and the Armenian Genocide
Aram Arkun, Editor, Ararat

Musa Dagh in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century
Vahram Shemmassian, California State University, Northridge

INTERMISSION

Even Paradise Isn’t Perfect: Memories of Kessab
Susan Pattie, University College London

Kessab as a Diasporan Community
Hagop Tcholakian, Karen Jeppe Jemaran, Aleppo

The Armenian Dialects of Musa Dagh and Kessab
Hagop Panossian, Mousaler Association of California
Hrair Atikian, Kessab Educational Association of Los Angeles

LUNCH RECESS: 1:15-2:15 p.m.

Afternoon Sessions: 2:15-5:00 p.m.

The Oral Tradition of Musa Dagh/Musaler
Sona Zeitlian, Independent Researcher, Los Angeles

Hollywood, Ankara, Washington: The Unmaking of "The Forty Days of Musa Dagh"
Ara Soghomonian, University of California, Los Angeles

Armenians and Alawites during the Alexandretta Crisis
Keith David Watenpaugh, University of California, Davis

INTERMISSION

Culture and Personality: The Case of Anjar
Herant Katchadourian, Stanford University

The Sole Armenian Village Left in Turkey:
Vakef of Musa Dagh (Samandagh) since 1939
Vahram Shemmassian, California State University, Northridge
Discussion and Concluding Remarks

Photographic Exhibit by
Richard and Anne Elizabeth Elbrecht, Davis, California

Open to the Public * No Admission Charge *
Parking Structure 3, Entrance from Hilgard Avenue
near Sunset Boulevard ($8.00 daily fee).
Further information: Prof. Richard Hovannisian [email protected]