Author: Emil Lazarian

VICTIMS OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE COMMEMORATED IN CIS COUNTRIES AND EUROPE

Regnum, Russia
April 26 2006

On April 24, event in memory of the 91st anniversary of the Armenian
Genocide took place in the yard of the Protection of the Virgin
Church in Kiev near memorial stone, which is evidence of Armenian
Church’s existence here in 15th century. Priest of Ukrainian Eparchy
of Armenian Apostolic Church (AAC) Ter-Hovhannes recited the memorial
liturgy. Events took place in Odessa too.

A mourning ceremony took place in Minsk, at which Patriarch of
Byelorussia Philaret, Armenian ambassador, representatives of Armenian
community at Saint Alexander Nevsky Church were present. The gathered
persons honored the memory of innocently died victims, keeping minute
of silence. Head of AAC Russian and New Nakhichevan Eparchy Bishop
Ezras Nersisyan recited the liturgy in memory of 1.5 millions of
innocently murdered Armenians. Protest action was held near Turkish
Embassy in Moscow, as well as various events in different places,
including film demonstrations, concert, etc.

About 150 representatives of Armenian non-governmental organizations
held peaceful meeting near building of Turkish embassy in Tbilisi;
a REGNUM correspondent was informed at Armenian Foreign Ministry.

Mourning actions also took place in Akhaltsikhe, Akhalkalaki,
Ninotsminde, and Batumi. Adjarian Republican TV-Channel broadcasted
Ararat film of Atom Egoyan. Similar actions were also conducted in
Romania, Strasbourg, London, Poland, and Iran.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

THE OUTSIDER: HAKOB AND ARMENIAN ILLUMINATION
Sam Fogg

Indepth Arts News
Absolutearts.com
April 26 2006

London, UK United Kingdom

Following the success of the first selling exhibition of Armenian art
staged by the gallery in 2004, Sam Fogg is delighted to present an
exhibition of a major Armenian manuscript which will be accompanied by
a groundbreaking publication. Entitled The Outsider: Hakob and Armenian
Illumination, the exhibition will display the Gospels illuminated
by Hakob Jughayets’i, the most celebrated Armenian illuminator of
the 16th century, at Sam Fogg, 15d Clifford Street, London W1, from
Tuesday 25 April to Tuesday 16 May 2006. The manuscript once belonged
to the celebrated collector and diplomat Jean Pozzi (1884-1967).

The Pozzi Gospels, completed by Hakob Jughayets’i in the winter
of 1586, includes an extraordinary series of portraits, narrative
miniatures and marginal figures. The manuscript contains narrative
cycles drawn from the Old Testament and the Gospels, the evangelists
and paired images of Christ and the Virgin. In the colophon, Hakob
explains that he copied and illuminated the manuscript under the
protection of a church in the city of Keghi (modern Kigi, fifty
miles south-west of Erzerum). At the time he was itinerant and,
when passing through Erzerum on his way to Istanbul, Hakob records
that he had met a priest, Astuatsatur, who invited him to travel back
to Keghi. With a humility born of convention as much as conviction,
Hakob describes himself as ‘the most useless of the servants of God’
and the ‘false-living deacon of Jugha’. He remarks that the book
was completed at ‘a bitter time’, again a familiar expression found
in many colophons. In this instance, however, he could be referring
to the war that raged between the Safavid and Ottoman empires across
Armenia during the 1580s, or to his precarious personal circumstances
and the harshness of winter. Hakob’s sparkling, vibrant palette,
expressive wide-eyed figures, and iconographic inventiveness are at
their most distinctive in this early phase of his career.

>From antiquity, Armenian history can be seen in terms of periods of
independence interleaved with longer spells under the dominion of
neighbouring powers. Throughout these centuries, Armenian cultural
traditions proved both resilient and distinctive. If Armenia is
one of the least understood regions of the Christian Orient, late
medieval and early modern Armenia remains one of the least studied
periods. Hakob’s illuminated manuscripts reveal that Armenian art
cannot be explained simply as a fusion of artistic influences from
its powerful neighbours and conquerors but needs to be recognised as
a separate tradition and assessed on its own terms.

The study of this manuscript for this exhibition has resulted in a
groundbreaking publication on Hakob’s life and career. Researched and
written by Dr Timothy Greenwood and Dr Edda Vardanyan, and published
by Paul Holberton, Hakob’s Gospels: The Life and Work of an Armenian
Artist of the Sixteenth Century is the first monograph to trace
Hakob’s development in Armenia in the 1580s to his later works in
Safavid Persia, at Isfahan, in 1607 and 1610. In the Pozzi Gospels,
completed in 1586, Hakob is experimenting with subjects and styles.

Through comparison with Gospels dated 1585 and 1587, this Gospel
book seems to mark an important moment of transition, when he moved
away from the influence of his teacher, bishop Zak’aria Gnuneants’,
and began to develop his own repertoire, drawing on images of the
divine from the Far East and on western European traditions.

Using the nine manuscripts written and illuminated by Hakob,
all of which include informative colophons, Dr Tim Greenwood
and Dr Edda Vardanyan construct Hakob’s biography, explore his
artistic development, and evaluate his career within the context of
late 16th-century Armenian politics, culture and devotion. Richly
illustrated with reproductions of miniatures produced at every stage
of his career, this study reveals the singular artistic vision of
Hakob himself and the dynamism of contemporary Armenian illumination.

In addition to this splendid manuscript, the exhibition will also
present a selection of Armenian manuscripts and bookbindings,
woodcarvings and icons, dating from the 12th to the 18th centuries,
all of which will be for sale.

4/26/33868.html

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE REMEMBERED THROUGH ART
Gabriela Gonzalez

Daily Sundial, CA
California State University at Northridge
April 26 2006

Photo: Levon Parian, CSUN art instructor and student, is part of
a project to record the remembrances of survivors of the Armenian
Genocide.

A documentary exhibition of the film “i witness” which shows portraits
and oral stories of survivors from the Armenian Genocide from 1915
to 1923, is a photographic project directed to provide programs that
will show educators and teachers how to teach facts about the Armenian
Genocide in schools.

The exhibit is part of the Armenian Genocide Project, which was
designed to give the public an idea of what the genocide was like
and an idea about the lifestyles of many Armenians back then, said
CSUN art Professor Levon Parian, who worked in collaboration with
Ara Oshagan, a freelance photographer.

Oshagan started the project in 1995 after being inspired by a
commemoration of the Armenian Genocide, organized by 80 genocide
survivors who brought it to their community.

“I was very moved to see (the event),” Oshagan said. “There were the
last set of survivors. This is the time to take photos, I have to do
the project right now.”

Oshagan started the project first, and in 1996 he met Parian who also
had similar ideas. This was the beginning of the project when they
started to combine their ideas, Parian said.

There were other reasons to do this project, Parian said. He said
they wanted to record the survivors’ information for history because
the Turkish government keeps the Armenian genocide was genocide,
and said it was a war.

“We lost family members, we carried the memory of the genocide but
it still very much really (affects) our lives,” Oshagan said.

He felt needed to tell their story with art.

“Armenians never had their story told,” Oshagan said. “We realized
that there were witnesses (still able) to tell their history.”

They witnessed the genocide with their own eyes, Parian said.

Parian said he always wanted to use his photographic experience to
show that the Armenian Genocide did happen.

Organizing the project was Oshagan’s responsibility. Parian’s
responsibility was visual interpretation.

Oshagan said about 100 survivors have participated in the project
since 1995.

Parian said the witnesses had mixed reviews after seeing portraits
of themselves. The witnesses had hoped to look good but the photos
focused on the their faces and hands to show their aging and stress
they had gone through.

“The hands say as much about a person as a face,” Parian said. “The
identity of a person is revealed by their eyes and their hands. You
can tell a lot about a person by their hands, especially the gestures
of their hands.”

The Armenian Genocide was part of him, Parian said. He grew up
listening to family stories about how they had survived the genocide.

“My father lived in Urfa, a community in Armenia and he helped 4,000
Armenians to cross the desert to get away from the genocide,” Parian
said. “Then he went back and found orphans and brought hundreds to
orphanages to (what) at that time was Syria,”

Parian’s wife’s grandmother, Kristine Hagopian, was the only family
member who participated in the project.

Hagopian was 9 years old when she witnessed many atrocities: her
friend was raped by Turks after being raped in the bushes and later
shot in front of her. Maro Parian said her father was raped by Turk
soldiers in front of her and her family.

“For many years she would tell her story, (but) every time she would
come to a point where she would (have to) stop and not go any further,”
Maro Parian said.

Hagopian was happy with the genocide project, although it was hard
to tell her story. She was happy that the stories were not going to
be lost and their stories were going to be told, Maro Parian said. It
was a sense of satisfaction for Hagopian.

“She would see pictures and turned her face away” Maro said. “(She)
experienced her pain (all over again).”

“The stories are shocking,” Parian said, as he told of how Sam Kadorian
survived the genocide.

Kadorian survived by pretending he was dead when he was thrown on the
floor in a pile of death bodies of boys between the ages of five to 10.

As they began with the first exhibition in 1996, more witnesses kept
coming to the exhibitions, more survivors wanted to tell their stories,
Parian said.

The exhibition has been showed at UCLA, and a few parts have been
showed at CSUN.

But there is a possibility to exhibit the whole project at CSUN,
Parian said.

Some survivors had blocked out their memories about the genocide
while others spoke freely, he said.

“i witness” was first displayed to the public Los Angeles city hall in
1997 at the Del Rio Bridge Gallery. Since then, it has been exhibited
in major state capital buildings and museums and the Capitol building
in Washington, D.C.

The exhibition is on display for the second time in Los Angeles City
Hall. It is on display through the month of April in Los Angeles City
Hall as part of the Armenian Genocide Project.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

LE MEMORIAL LYONNAIS DU GENOCIDE ARMENIEN A ETE INAUGURE DANS LE RECUEILLEMENT ET DANS L’EMOTION, HIER APRèS-MIDI A LYON, EN PRESENCE DE 3.000 A 4.000 PERSONNES

La Nouvelle Republique du Centre Ouest
25 avril 2006

L’inauguration du memorial, objet de polemiques et d’une profanation
durant sa construction – avec des slogans negationnistes pro-turques –
s’est deroulee dans le calme.

Gerard Collomb, senateur-maire (PS) de Lyon, accompagne de
l’ambassadeur d’Armenie en France, Edward Nalbandian, et de Jules
Mardirossian, president de l’association pour le memorial du genocide
des Armeniens, ont depose une première gerbe de fleurs. Ils ont ete
suivis par Dominique Perben, ministre des Transports – et candidat
declare UMP aux prochaines municipales a Lyon.

” Le souvenir toujours present ”

Le cortège, compose de personnes de tous âges et arborant des
drapeaux francais et armeniens, a ensuite pris la direction de la
place Antonin-Poncet, où a ete erige le memorial, sous les clameurs :
” Ni haine, ni vengeance : justice pour le peuple armenien “, ”
Nous voulons la reconnaissance, 91 ans de silence “.

La ceremonie a ensuite donne lieu a un discours enflamme du maire
de Lyon. ” Le temps du silence, de l’indifference, de l’effacement
et de la negation est definitivement resolu “, s’est exclame Gerard
Collomb. Il a rappele qu’une proposition de loi serait deposee par
le groupe socialiste a l’Assemblee nationale le 18 mai pour punir
les propos negationnistes, completant ainsi la loi de janvier 2001
sur la reconnaissance du genocide armenien par la France.

Lundi matin, l’inauguration d’un autre memorial avait eu lieu a
Marseille, en presence de quelque 2.000 personnes.

Marseille et la region Rhône-Alpes comptent chacune 80.000 personnes
d’origine armenienne, sur les 500.000 de France.

De 1915 a 1917, les massacres et les deportations d’Armeniens sous
l’empire ottoman ont fait 1,5 million de morts selon les Armeniens,
entre 300.000 et 500.000 selon Ankara, qui rejette categoriquement
la qualification de genocide.

GRAPHIQUE: Image: A Lyon, des personnes de tous âges ont tenu a
partager l’emotion des Armeniens face au genocide.

–Boundary_(ID_MP94S+dzmxIOQRUIYYR0/Q)- –

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

DEBUT DE L’INAUGURATION DU MEMORIAL DU GENOCIDE ARMENIEN A LYON

Agence France Presse
24 avril 2006 lundi 3:22 PM GMT

LYON 24 avr 2006

L’inauguration du memorial lyonnais du genocide armenien a debute dans
le calme et le recueillement, lundi après-midi dans le centre-ville
de Lyon, par le depôt de gerbes de fleurs, en presence de 3.000
personnes selon la police, 4.000 selon les associations, a constate
un journaliste de l’AFP.

Gerard Collomb, senateur-maire (PS) de Lyon, accompagne de
l’ambassadeur d’Armenie en France, Edouard Nalbandian, et de Jules
Mardirossian, president de l’Association pour le memorial du genocide
armenien ont depose une première gerbe, suivis par Dominique Perben,
ministre des Transports et candidat declare UMP aux prochaines
municipales a Lyon, qui en a depose une deuxième au nom du president
de la Republique.

Un dispositif de securite important, qualifie de “classique” par
la police pour une manifestation de ce type, avait ete deploye aux
alentours des Places Bellecour et Antonin Poncet, où se deroule
l’inauguration.

La construction du monument lyonnais a donne lieu a de vives polemiques
du fait de manifestations negationnistes pro-turques.

–Boundary_(ID_YnCymgouDY0BoHWxUcdeU Q)–

JACQUES CHIRAC “SOLIDAIRE” DU MEMORIAL ARMENIEN INAUGURE A LYON

liberation
24 Avril 2006

lundi 24 avril 2006 (Reuters – 23:28)

LYON – Le president Jacques Chirac a exprime lundi a la communaute
armenienne de France “sa solidarite” lors de l’inauguration d’un
memorial a Lyon, où quelque 2 000 personnes ont commemore le 91e
anniversaire du genocide armenien de 1915.

La ceremonie s’est deroulee dans le calme mais en presence d’un
important dispositif policier, les autorites craignant un regain de
tensions entre les communautes turque et armenienne, entretenues depuis
plusieurs mois par une polemique autour de la construction du monument.

Le ministre des Transports Dominique Perben, qui assistait a la
ceremonie, a fait part de “la profonde emotion et la solidarite”
du president Chirac.

“Il est juste que la France reconnaisse le genocide armenien”, a-t-il
dit, se declarant “attriste, outre, que certains se permettent encore
de le remettre en cause”.

“Je veux dire avec force tout le degoût et toute la tristesse que
suscite en moi la profanation de ce monument, il y a quelques jours”,
a-t-il ajoute.

Le 17 avril, l’edifice avait ete souille par des inscriptions
negationnistes. “Ces graffitis, apposes a la sauvette, temoignent du
peu d’estime d’eux-memes, de l’inconscience et de l’irresponsabilite
de leurs auteurs”, a deplore le ministre.

Le senateur-maire socialiste de Lyon, Gerard Collomb, qui a toujours
soutenu le projet, a lui aussi denonce cet acte.

“Un siècle après cette immense tragedie, il se trouve encore
aujourd’hui des hommes et des femmes pour affirmer qu’il n’y a jamais
eu de genocide du peuple armenien, que la realisation du memorial que
nous inaugurons aujourd’hui pour commemorer ce genocide armenien est
une pure provocation”, a-t-il dit.

Il a annonce son intention de “demander qu’une loi puisse sanctionner
tout negationnisme”.

Le memorial est compose de 36 “feuilles” de pierre blanche de 3,46
mètres de hauteur qui se dressent vers le ciel “pour evoquer la
multitude”, a explique son architecte Leonardo Basmadyan.

Le monument sera protege par un dispositif de videosurveillance.

Le 18 mars, une manifestation rassemblant 3.000 membres de la
communaute turque avait defile dans les rues de Lyon en brandissant
des pancartes qui niaient le genocide armenien.

La communaute armenienne compte 45.000 membres dans le Grand Lyon et
90.000 a l’echelle de la region Rhône-Alpes.

–Boundary_(ID_v5TMZ+iE5TdHNyilupOkD Q)–

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

A NUMBER OF EVENTS HELD IN GEORGIA IN CONNECTION WITH 91ST ANNIVERSARY OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
April 26 2006

YEREVAN, April 26. /ARKA/. On April 24, in Georgia a number of
events were held dedicated to 91st anniversary of Armenian Genocide,
according to the Press and Information Department of the RA Ministry
of Foreign Affairs.

About 150 representatives of Armenian NGOs of Georgia organized a
peaceful meeting in front of the Turkish Embassy in Georgia as well
as ceremony of candle lighting.

“Participants of the meeting read letter directed to the Turkish
Government, in which they demanded recognition of the crime committed
against Armenians”, the press release states.

Later liturgy and requiem were chanted for victims in St. Gevorg
Church in Tbilisi.

Besides that in the state Armenian theatre of the Georgian capital
a mourning evening was held, during which Ambassador of Armenia to
Georgia Hrach Silvanyan made a speech.

In the evening ecumenical evening of spiritual song took place in St.

Gevorg Church with the assistance of choruses of Christian churches
of Georgia.

Mourning events in Tbilisi were completed with lighting candles around
St. Echmiadzin church.

Similar events were held in other regions of Georgia as well.

Particularly in Armenian churches of Akhltskha, Akhalkalak, Ninotsminda
and Batumi liturgies and requiems were chanted and mourning meetings
were organized.

“In Akhalkalak meeting was concluded with laying wreaths on memorial
of victims of the Armenian Genocide, erected two years ago”, the
message says.

Besides that Republican TV of Ajaria broadcasted “Ararat” film of
producer Atom Egoyan on that day.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

EVENING OF ARMENIAN CULTURE IN MEMORY OF VICTIMS OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE TAKES PLACE IN POLAND

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
April 26 2006

YEREVAN, April 26. /ARKA/. An evening of Armenian culture dedicated
to the memory of victims of the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Turkey
in 1915 took place in Gdansk (Poland). According to the Press and
Information Department of the RA Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the
evening was held in Gdansk under the patronage of RA Ambassador in
Poland Ashot Galoyan.

During the evening “Legend of Last Thoughts” book of Edgar Hilsentrat
was presented to the attention of the audience and a lecture read by
lecturer of Gdansk University Norayr Ter-Grigoryan was listened to
during the evening.

Show of pictures of a Polish artist of Armenian origin Gagik Parsamyan
took place in the context of the evening.

Compositions of Armenian great composer Aram Khachaturyan were
performed by Polish musicians during the evening as well.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PRESSURE ON TURKEY CONCERNING ARMENIAN ISSUE INTENSIFIED: EXPERT

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
April 26 2006

YEREVAN, April 26. /ARKA/. Pressure on Turkey concerning the Armenian
issue intensified, mainly by Europe, Head of the Department on Turkey,
the Institute of History of the Armenian National Academy, doctor of
historic sciences Ruben Safrastyan stated today during a round table
on the genocide issues and the Armenian-Turkish relations.

“The Europarliament’s resolution of 1987 ‘On Political Resolution to
Armenian Issue’ means that Europe admits existence of the Armenian
issue and proposes its solutions. The integrated Europe considers
recognition of the Armenian genocide by Turkey to be the most important
precondition to it,” Safrastyan said.

On the other hand, according to him, the genocide issues and
Armenian-Turkish relations are not included in the list of the 150
issues, which will be discussed in connection with Turkey’s admission
to the EU.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIAN-LITHUANIAN TRADE AND ECONOMIC COOPERATION STILL ON LOW LEVEL

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
April 26 2006

YEREVAN, April 26. /ARKA/. The Armenian-Lithuanian trade and economic
cooperation is still on a low level and does not open up the two
parties’ potentials, despite the fact that some goods turnover growth
was recorded in 2005 compared to 2004.

The Public Relations Department and Press Service of the RA Government
reported that Armenian Premier Andranik Margaryan expressed such an
opinion during his meeting with Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus
In this context, Margaryan expressed confidence that organization
of a business-forum in the frameworks of the Lithuanian President’s
visit to Armenia will serve as an additional incentive for a further
extension of trade and economic relations between the two countries The
parties also pointed out the importance of signing of the agreement
“On Encouragement and Mutual Protection of Investments”, and also
amendments to the agreement “On Trade and Economic Cooperation
between Governments of Armenian and Lithuania” Margaryan and Adamkus
emphasized the importance of business conferences, frequent mutual
visits, periodic exchange of business information and organization
of exhibitions for encouragement of trade and economic relations.

“Extension is necessary in the cooperation between chambers of commerce
and industry, manufacturers and enterprise unions, strengthening of
interaction in the field of small- and medium-scale enterprises’
development, and also fields of science, technologies, innovation
policy, agriculture, transport and tourism,” they said.

In their turn, the two countries’ vice-ministers of agriculture and
transport presented possibilities of cooperation in these fields.

Adamkus stressed the necessity in improving transport networks,
including putting the Abkhazian railway into operation. Margaryan
responded that Armenian repeatedly expressed readiness to participate
in practical works in this field.

They also touched upon cooperation in the sphere of energy,
particularly the energy security issues.

Margaryan also told the Lithuanian president about the current
situation with Armenia’s relations with the region’s countries in
the frameworks of the regional cooperation.

The delegation led by Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus is currently
in Armenia by invitation of Armenian President Robert Kocharyan until
25-26 April.